Alex Cristache › Likes

I can't believe you just wrote that. I'm on Jesse Stay's post http://friendfeed.com/jessest... commenting. He agrees with you and so do I. But let's face it. That's why you, he and many others are on friendfeed more than twitter. I hate followfridays esp when I see that list of names that usually includes the person himself or herself RTing someone who included them the first time. - Myrna

I don't understand the RT'ing at all. I've been guilty of just posting a few names and letting that be it, but we need to change how this thing works because it's becoming absolutely useless. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Totally agree. The idea behind Follow Friday is good, but without some theme or reason given, I'm not going to pay attention. Don't make me do the work of parsing your list - that's YOUR job. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

I agree. We have to rehabilitate #followfriday 's efficiency by making it useful again. - Thierry R. Andriamirado

At this point, it's cool to see that you've been recommended, but I don't think anyone is getting any actual follows because of the sheer volume of people getting recommended. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Who wants to follow anyone on a list of 6-10 people when you know most times the person doesn't have a clue about most of the names, not always but most and especially when you see a few tweets with a bunch of names from that person. But I know I'm preaching to the choir here. - Myrna

#followfriday is currently more of an ego-boost for the person you recommend than anything else. - Martin Bryant

Rahsheen, you are attracting such insightful people. Why are we talking about Twitter anyway when we have FF? Robert Scoble would love to know I'm pitching(but I'm talking from heart not selling) - Myrna

I dont endorse #followfriday. I rather follow someone whose tweets were RT'd by those I follow or those having interesting conversations with my friends. - surya

I still have an interest in the Twitter community because there are still some really cool peope who are just not ready to join us yet. Also, Twitter's simplicity in working via SMS can't be matched my FF for obvious reasons. Not everyone has an iPhone or whatever :) - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I agree. The current way #followfriday works is a joke and a travesty, at least from what I see most of the time. A list of names - generally promoting a company or group - doesn't tell me anything about why I should follow. I'm also seeing that people spew basically the same list each week. - Mark Bockenstedt

Has anyone noticed any change in your subscriptions after a Follow Friday mention? I haven't. I also haven't started following anyone mentioned in those lists on Follow Friday. I agree with Mark, a lot of people list the same people every week. - Trish R

I've been on a #followfriday from one my online running friends but no bump in running followers. Just more of the random ones. - CAJ, somewhere else

I haven't seen a bump in my followers and I have been named and RT'd on multiple follow fridays by many people. That's all it amouts to, though. Nobody is actually following anyone. It's too much work, I think. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Martin's probably right. But last week I has someone tell me they'd had a really crappy week and seeing me call them out as an "awesome person I know in real life" for followfriday really brightened their day. That made it worth it to me, even if that wasn't the original intended purpose. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

Oh, it's definitely ok for it to be an ego boost, but I think we need to make it an ego boost for less people at a time. Focus more on individuals. Give us details on why we should check them out. Even if it's just "Such and such is new to Twitter and looking for cool peeps. Check them out" - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

It's a tie between two right sidebars or one left and right. - Summer

I prefer the right sidebar for the same reason as Gregory. English speakers read from left to right. Now, if it's a site in Hebrew.... - Jason Goldberg

For some reason I don't like a left sidebar. I tried 2 rights, but it's hard to pull off. I think the number of stuff you want to have in your sidebars warrants having both a really well-optimized header and a 3 column layout. - Joseph Z.

I've been using the right side. - orionstarr

Either one or two sidebars, but mostly both on right. - Alex Cristache

right side, good font, simple layout :) - Blake N. Cooper

It's more of search traffic from google, the comments are present, but not overwhelmingly more than other posts (my blog is less than two months old) but people are searching this topic more than the others I posted. Thanks for the comment. - Keith Bloemendaal

If people are searching about this topic using a variety of different search key phrases then it's worth adding more content in the form of additional posts. If it's all on one specific search phrase then that's good too, because you may be able to spin off a whole new blog just about that phrase. - Andy Roberts

Thanks Andy, they are using a variety of search terms. - Keith Bloemendaal

like others - for me it depends on the source of traffic. If it's Search traffic, I do a couple of things: 1. optimize the page so it ranks even better. This involves some on page optimization as well as linking to it from other relevant pagses on the blog. 2. write related posts (usually not on exactly the same topic but on related ones that either extend the post, find a similar topic etc. - Darren Rowse

any posts about how to optimize a poplar post or page? - Miguel Wickert- Pineiro

will write something on that Miguel - keep tuned into ProBlogger - Darren Rowse

A related technical question: how to approximate/relate bandwidth to #visitors. Limits of virtual compared to dedicated. Host reliability, etc. - phil baumann

That's an easy one. YES! Expand on the topic any way you can. Ask for user experiences, turn it into a detailed series, do polls, how-tos, tweaking, etc. And don't blow the whole was at once. Space it out. Do other stories in between to keep the site from becoming just about that topic, which (like anything else) could become a past fad at any point and no longer relevant. - Ernie Oporto

I've been wondering about this very issue myself. How far do you go to capitalize on a great post. - Todd

it's important to do at least some analysis as to why it was so popular and performed so well. Sometimes the content had little to do with it. - Allen Stern

Thanks for all the responses, my blog is a niche that I have not found many other blogs to look to for topic help, and I am having a new wordpress site built by iBusinessLogic.com (Scott Pooler) and am working on some ideas for two more sites. This post in question has now quadrupled the traffic on any other post I have written, so I will be working on expanding the topic in the near future. - Keith Bloemendaal

I have a couple of posts getting traffic because they were linked from another site. I also just noticed I'm getting a small amount of google traffic. I would definitely like to see a strategy to capitalize on this situation. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I ended up creating two separate series on the blog based on the post's success. It allowed me to expand and use other networks to grow the audience even more. - Andre Natta

awesome, thanks Darren! I'm looking forward to it. :) - Miguel Wickert- Pineiro

Yep. In fact I did so earlier today after looking at analytics and saw organic traffic coming in from a certain post. - Brian Weaver

@Keith I think that if the first doubling does not push you to expand on the post, the continous grow is a clear sign that it has to do with the content, and not just "lucked out on digg". - Roland Hesz

It would make sense, but I'm guilty of not capitalising on it and just letting that one post bring in the traffic - Adam Christie

I write my blog for me, there are subjects that get more attention but I am not going to sell out what I enjoy doing! - Joe Dawson

@ Joe Dawson I write my blog for consumers, and if they are searching heavily on a subject, why not give them what they are looking for at my blog, especially if it has to do with my niche (which happens to be very small), so if trying to give them what they are looking for, while at the same time attracting more readers, then OK, I will sell out as you put it. My blog is not monetized though, so I get no money for it, I write on it for free, I would think selling out would have some monetary benefit to me. - Keith Bloemendaal

it all depends. tempting to cash in on popularity but if you're not passionate about it, others can tell &blogging becomes a dreadful chore. - Jane Chin, Ph.D.

Traffic could come and go. You can get some crazy StumbleUpon or Digg effects. You can even buy traffic. A community is what you cannot buy. Sure, for a few bucks you could buy some comments if you really want to. But they don't make it a community. If you get more comments it's a sign of increased loyalty and appreciation, and on that note, congratulations! - Alex Cristache

How about the best of both worlds? - Miguel Wickert- Pineiro

Miguel, I was asking in the event that you don't, 'cos that's my problem. Alex, thank you! :) - Sarah Parker

Depends on the post meta and the target audiences. It is up to the Blogger to direct the orchestra. - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Good article btw, I agree with pretty much everything. - Bwana ☠

put some APML on it - Bwana ☠

What? Who? When? Have I heard APML? :) - directeur

Good post on Plurk vs Twitter. SPOILER ALERT: They both win. - Clay Newton

both good for different reasons - but the conversations on plurk are a killer feature. - Dave Gray from twhirl

I haven't seen that. What do you mean? Switching from full posts to excerpts? - Heidi Cool

Yeah, it sucks, especially when their posts are quite long. It is uncomfortable to people who doesn't have high speed internet. - Didik Wicaksono from twhirl

I don't even read feeds anymore. :) - l0ckergn0me

I don't find it annoying. Some blogs make a living out of their on site traffic. RSS advertising did not prove itself until now and services like FeedBurner only recently started to implement AdSense. Personally, I don't care if you use your excerpt or full feed. Write a smart, intriguing excerpt and I'll visit the site for sure. I prefer to read blog posts on site and not in my reader. My reader is only meant to aggregate and keep me updated. One click won't hurt me. Is just like clicking on ads.----> - Alex Cristache

At times, when I read a good post, I'll click on one of the ads. By doing this I know that I repay the writer, even if in a small way, for his effort and time took to write a good resource. - Alex Cristache

@heidi that's it, I completely agree blogs make a living out of the page views, but their ad spots aren't that badly priced either, I mean be kind to the readers, there more than enough people who will land on your pages - Dobromir Hadzhiev

@Dobrimir: Some feed subscribers won't visit the website or visit rarely, and this has been confirmed by many people. I do respect my readers' options and I now publish full feeds, but, as a reader, I'm not asking that as A MUST from bloggers. After all, they respect their readers enough to publish free content / advice. It's a "help me to help you" situation. A balance between offerings and demands would be good in this case. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. It's a matter of personal choice. - Alex Cristache

@alex no doubt about the stats, I tend not to leave gReader myself ,but I also tend to unsubscribe to partial feeds and so do others from what I know. there are ways to monetize feeds out there and without feeling happy about ads in there I like the idea better, that's my take on the matter of course - Dobromir Hadzhiev

Do you make enough money from blogging to consider it a part time job, or is it more a hobby for you? - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

I'm just getting started. I've only put up a few posts and will be working on a template soon. It will be a hobby as a start but I wondered if there were others that blog professionally while balancing a full time job and family as I will be doing. - Vaughn

I have a full time job that somehow relates to blogs (web design), but blogging is more of a hobby, relaxation method, along with music. - Alex Cristache

My full time job is creating and selling music on Hella Sound--the blog aspect of the site is to provide ancillary information and stay connected w/ the community. I did tinker a bit with blogging for blogging sake for a few months previous to the HS launch, but didn't really keep up with it. It takes a lot of time and dedication (in my opinion) to put out consistent, quality stuff--time I didn't have for the "hobby" blog. - John Frenette

Very poorly - Sarah Perez

I am the marketing/social media/blogger guy for iterasi. I am divorced and the kids live with their Mom. I have a lot of time to do my work but less so these days now that I am engaged. I work late at night. I average 5 to 7 hours sleep. - Alex Williams

Alex do not forget to invite us to your wedding! - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Thanks for the responses. I thought there would be more. Looks like it's not easy. - Vaughn

I wouldn't consider myself a problogger, I'm just trying to keep up on all my feed reading,participate in conversations and try to fit in a few blog posts a week. It's not easy with a full time job and family. I tend to a little anti-social and stay up late at night to try and catch up. Chris Brogan says his secret is that he never sleeps. I think he's onto something, even though it's not healthy. I just started a second blog so we'll see how it goes. - Larry Kless

Sidebar on the right is supposed to be better for SEO, but heck if it looks good, keep it. - Tris Hussey

@Tris why right-side sidebar is better in terms of SEO? thanks! - Jansen Lu

Thanks for your responses, friends. Tris, why is a right sidebar better in terms of SEO? I was thinking more in terms of placement for users to take action, such as subscribing, signing up for e-letter, etc. Does left sidebar make that harder? Does it matter if users are right or left handed? BTW, my company "pages" will be in a top band beneath colorful, pretty banners at top of blogsites. Obviously, I want users to click on "pages," so they stand out on top. Robert, thanks for checking this convo.:-) - Cathryn Hrudicka

Here is what I've been told. Because HTML is read top down, often the left side bar info comes before the content on the page. So engine have all that crud to go through first, then your content. People look to the right first ... then left ... then right. So I'd put a newsletter sign up right side, towards the top. - Tris Hussey

A right sidebar would only have SEO benefits because usually it means your actual content is appearing first (to the search engine spider), meaning there is less chance of it getting lost, there may put slightly higher importance placed on it etc. unless you've got a really complex sidebar with a lot of javascript etc. it's probably not a huge issue. - Martin Jamieson

Thanks, this is great info. I'll copy this discussion & send to the two people working on my sites. I do have good SEO as far as titles, meta, key words in blog content, etc., so hopefully this would overcome the sidebar being to the left of the blog, but maybe we can change it. I could test it both ways, as I've been changing my blogs openly for months, and ask readers' opinions about how it looks and works. Thanks again. - Cathryn Hrudicka

Another thought: If blog categories or tags are in far left sidebar, that should help SEO if I incorporate key search words & phrases in my tags/categories. Also, page titles on top banner should help SEO, no matter where side bar is, right? Top would be read by Google first, before any columns, so I need to choose page titles carefully. If users tend to look right-left-right, that would still work well for getting them to read my blog. Wonder where studies are on this, how eyes move on sites. I'll search. - Cathryn Hrudicka

check out - http://www.problogger.net/archive... - Darren Rowse

Engage the commentator. It is a two way Street! - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק