Should You Follow Copyblogger and Elminate Blog Comments?

Let people connect where they want!
Let people connect where they want, on your blog!

Copyblogger, a very high profile and active blogsite, recently decided to stop allowing comments on its blog. Although the owner of Copyblogger tried to turn back the tide of negative pushback citing it was a simple business decision, several online pundits have challenged the purpose of this action.

Here’s what I think about allowing or not allowing blog comments.

1. Yes, it is each business owner’s decision to allow or not allow blog comments on their own blog. But…

2. Some of the best exchanges on high profile blogs are actually found in the comment section as other pros in the industry weigh in. In many cases I have followed links, researched additional products mentioned in a comment, and in some cases even expounded on a post and comments on my own blog.

3. If you only want to have a conversation about the blog on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter, where your real tactic is to drive links to boost up your blog, it seems weird to me to then have valuable content and just point to it, driving traffic away from your blog. Keep the conversation where the content is. Don’t say “read our blog, but if you want to comment on it go to our Facebook or Google+ page.”

4. Blogging is about commenting and soliciting comments. Although I will not chose to not visit a site that does not have blog comments enabled, many times I do read a post and scroll to see what others say to weigh the validity of the information I just read in a blog post.

5. I allow comments on my own blog and recommend that client do so as well, but encourage pre-approval of comments and a periodic review of what to publish. Not all comments on my blog are published as I will net out spam and self-promoting comment posts.

Click our comment link and let me know what you think, do you allow comments on your own blog?

How Not to Use Blogging

What About Blogging?
Say What About Blogging?

So often a prospective clients approaches us for blog writing services as they have heard blogging is great for their website visitors; to provide value to readers and to build links for search engines. But, sometimes a prospective client may need a quick review on how not to use blogging. Here’s my short list to help demystify what blogging is and is not.

How Not to Use Blogging

1. Do not use blog posts as brochure content. Posts that are repetitive about your services or loaded with keywords about your services as seen by search engines as having no value and defeat the purpose of blogging which is to create slow natural link growth. Who will want to link to posts all about YOU when they may want to be selling their OWN services?

2. Blogging does not typically drive lead traffic. Read number one again. If a post is all about you and simply repeats content from your website, it is doubtful that a prospective client would have landed on your blog first or would find you in the search engine results and then convert from your blog. That client will typically first find your website and convert from there. If you are really looking for leads, blogging is really not the best fit for your investment rather Google AdWords would be a far better investment.

3. I do not recommend using blogging with the focus of picking up content from other sources and pasting that content into your blog post field. You unfortunately are not fooling search engines into thinking that your content is unique, of value, linkable, and for that matter index worthy. If you use Copyscape Premium and find your same content that you selected online for your blog post already at 20 or 30 sites you may actually damage your own organic placement. Blog post should be unique content created to provide value to your readers.

What Blogging Really Is

Blogging is great for building value for your readers, growing your website link numbers slowly and naturally, improving user time on your website, can lower your overall bounce rate, and to create authority as a subject matter expert for search engines. It is not really  a great lead generator and when used inappropriately may even hurt you with search engine placement.

 

Is Guest Blogging Dead? Part Two

Today we’ll talk about when you can and should guest blog for others to improve your own organic placement.

First, I have to say that I do guest blogging on a regular basis for two sites in my own industry: the Bing Ads Community and SiteProNews. I personally find guest blogging in certain parameters authority and visibility building.

Here’s when I feel that guest blogging can be a workable strategy for you:

1. If you have an industry or trade publication that shows articles to the public (not locked behind a gateway) online I would consider the opportunity to write an article that would include links back to your website writing as an authority a great opportunity. I would highly encourage you to see out and write in these types of situations. Make sure that before you write you have your personal Google+ profile set up and that you link to this profile in the article bio block using the rel=”author” syntax. This discreet action will tie the article to your Google+ profile which you in turn link to your website. This type of guest blogging article may help with your own business exposure.

2. If you have been approached by someone in your industry outside of your geographic area and they are willing to allow you to guest blog on their quality blog and you have vetted them as a respectable business, I would consider a once a month guest blog post a wonderful opportunity for you. However, I would properly vet them to make sure that the link from their site to yours is not tainted by other types of activities they may be participating in that would be a high negative for Google which would bleed into your own site’s Google profile.

When would I steer clear of guest blogging:

1. If your SEO firm says “we’ll charge you $XXX a month to send out guest blog posts and they’ll be placed on hundreds of sites so you’ll get a high number of links”, I would be very cautious. In a recent analysis I did for a client we queried exactly where the content was placed and were shocked when the blog post for a medical call center was found on a hemorrhoid medication website and numerous off-topic/no name blogs. There is NO VALUE to your content appearing on sites like this! In fact, links from sites like this you may actually need to disavow with Google.

2. If your SEO firm says “we will write one article but then slightly reword it so it is different for every site we place it on.” Steer clear! This is called article spinning and one clear practice that Google has very clearly disavowed and has stated it considers content spam.

Quality content and the right type of guest blogging opportunities can actually be very good for your own organic placement. Find out how my firm may be able to help you with special quality pieces to use as guest blog posts for your own business.

You’ll want to check out Matt Cutts full video on the topic of guest blogging in this webmaster video from the Google Web Spam department for more information.

Business Blogging Tips from a Writing Pro

My firm has been providing blog writing services since 2005. That’s seven years of professional blogging experience. I have recently read and article called “21 Business Blogging Tips from the Pros” and I think the article is a good one and encourage you to read it for more information.

Here’s a quick synopsis of the articles important points as well as many of my own recommendations.

  1. Treat your blog posts as products.
  2. Differentiate your blog from others with new approaches to your content.
  3. Take your own images and create your own videos.
  4. Give all the information, don’t offer part of the picture and sell the rest.
  5. Target your content to your audience.
  6. Focus on your reader first, not search engines.
  7. Be yourself. Let your personality show through your writing.
  8. Answer consumer questions.
  9. Show your full blog post on your blog home page. People will typically not click to read the rest of the post.
  10. Consider limiting what is on your feed to prevent scraper sites from stealing your content.
  11. Explain topics in an easy to understand manner.
  12. Use bullet points and sub headers versus large blocks of content.
  13. Keep your blog posts around 250 to 350 words long.

Do you have other suggestions? Just add them in the comments section below. By the way, if you are looking for a professional blog writing service, I invite you to find out more about the services we offer to help keep the content on your blog unique and up to date.

 

Why Venting on Your Blog Doesn’t Work Positively For You

I read an interesting blog this past week and winced when I read it. I would imagine that a junior staffer wrote it and if the president of the company saw it, it would be taken down immediately.

The blog post was a rant about why an unnamed competitor was stealing this firm’s thunder and online juice. The blog post details seven points that the writer was upset about from bidding on their firms name in AdWords, copying service offerings, imitating content, and blog post commenting with links back to their own website.

The title caught my eye, but when I read the blog post I thought “ouch, this rant should have been filtered”. When you rant on your own blog about a competitor or situation especially when you don’t name names (and you should not), you come off sounding like a whiner and a bad sport.

Yes, pretty sucky things can really happen in the world of business, but you don’t have to blog about them and take a black eye in the process. I recommend that sensitive and negative issues unless done as a case study in a thought provoking objective way be off topic for blogs. You may end up doing more damage to your own online reputation than you would think making your competitor howl for glee.

Helping Your Blog Writer Do A Better Job

Blogging is a core business for my firm, McCord Web Services. I have found that website owners that take a little bit of time to help our writer get their footing, help us to do a better job delivering what they need for organic search placement and development of web authority.

Here are a few tips to help your blog writer when you start blogging.

  • Make sure to let your writer know your audience – age, gender, typical demographics.
  • Supply a short list of about ten keyword phrases that you think people will use to find you.
  • Offer a short selection of links of blog sites that you like for style and content.
  • Let them know which two or three blogs you read in your own industry.
  • Be patient, it will typically take four to eight blog posts for the writer to hit a stride in writing for you.
  • Make sure to read your own blog and help the writer to understand what you like so that they can do more of that particular topic or style of blog post.
  • As you browse the web send them links of content that you think would make a great background for a blog post. This actually helps them to know what you like.

The more initial interaction you have with your blog writer the better and more effective the blog posts will be for your personal business needs. That doesn’t mean that you need to do these steps beyond the initial break in period, but for the first week to two weeks your input will be hugely helpful and will shape the future of your blog post content.

If you are looking for quality blog writers for your own blog, I invite you to review our services.