Comments on: Balancing Your Blog: Your Reader And You

By: Steven Bradley

Steven Bradley — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:06:36 +0000

Thanks Forrest. I’m still debating how I would add affiliate links assuming I do add them. I’m also thinking of a general policy page that explains things. Marking individual links is one things, but I think it tends to make things a little messy on the page. There seems to be two votes though for having them that way so I’ll have to think about it.

Amazon does have an affiliate program. They might even have been the first. They don’t pay much per purchase, but some people are able to make money with them.

Let me know if you want me to do a review of your site. It probably won’t be anytime soon, but i think I might add reviews as a category here at some point.

By: Forrest

Forrest — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 04:15:02 +0000

It seems like labeling affiliate links as such is a good idea. I think most people will assume that’s what they are, but just to be 100% clear… Have a look at dpreview.com; they know people use their site to look up stats and decide which camera to buy, so they have some links saying “… if you’re going to buy one anyway, why not buy it from our affiliate and help us pay our hosting?” A lot of people do, out of a sense of loyalty.

I wonder if Amazon has a program like that that’d be worth your energy? It would seem if you start reviewing books – which is a good niche to spread into anyway, says uneducated me – you’ll have a captive audience. If you write about Malcolm in such glowing terms, explain how what a person learns about “word of mouth epidemics” can tip their site … that will drive some people to the book store.

Don’t put too much thought into my site … I’ve been doing a lot of work and am getting ready to republish it with an attractive web template and some cool Google Maps stuff. My blog has been a testbed for that, but the way wordpress rewrites your code really limits what you can do. But using static html will remove those constraints. Anyway, I need to hurry that up, but just for the record … my site will be getting a huge face-lift in the near future.

By: Steven Bradley

Steven Bradley — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:43:21 +0000

Thanks Adam. But it is important to you to see the indication that affiliate links are affiliate links? Glad I could trigger some thoughts.

When you mention covering other people’s posts do you mean when I add another link post mid week or are you referring to me writing follow ups to someone else’s post? And I will be giving a reply to the meme. I wanted to gather my thoughts a little and maybe some links for the post too.

By: SEFL

SEFL — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:47:07 +0000

If you put affiliate links in, it wouldn’t bother me as long as they were clearly indicated as affiliate links.

I want to thank you for writing this, by the way…it’s triggered some thoughts in my own head.

As far as topics you need to cover or not cover, there really isn’t anything that you don’t cover enough. The only issue I’ve ever really seen is that you tend to cover other people’s posts a bit too much. Outside of This Week in SEO, there really isn’t all THAT much that you need to rehash from other people’s sites (unless of course, you’re memed in which case you’re ethically bound to. )

By: Steven Bradley

Steven Bradley — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:25:27 +0000

You’re reminding me about the Tipping Point is what got me thinking about book reviews again. I’ve thought about them on and off. I’ve read a lot of technical and marketing books and I thought it might be interesting to review them and have people add their own reviews in the comments.

Something told me you’d like a site review and I was thinking of you while typing the idea in the post.

Are there any topics you feel like I don’t cover enough or that maybe I cover too much? Do you like that I switch gears or would you prefer more focus on fewer topics?

By: Forrest

Forrest — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:58:44 +0000

I wrote a book review for another blog in the search world. It covered three books, actually: The Tipping Point, The Ape That Spoke – recommended by John on WMT – and Into Thin Air, a documentary in print about a hiking disaster on Mt Everest. The first two deal with the psychology of communication, while the third is captivating, a page turner, a superb example of how to write effectively. The first two are must-reads, while the last is just a good example of compelling use of language. In other words, yeah, I think book reviews would be a great addition.

And suggestions on how to improve a site would probably go a long way toward building loyalty … nudge nudge wink wink.