yesterday on the idea of using one blog as a tool to draw attention to another blog. A
picked up on the idea of using a blog as a device to get good search engine ranking. One technique that merits testing is the dumping of entire blog posts from one blog into another blog. To that end, I am dumping
along with the current comments into this blog entry. Here it is:
There was some interesting blog news yesterday. Google-owned Blogger announced that services which previously required extra payment would now be included in its single tier free service. The trend on the web lately has been that previously free services have been morphing into value-added, paid services. The Blogger announcement was the kind of "Man bites dog" thing that gets attention.
I decided to try it out. It's free, after all. What's there to lose?
Setting up was very easy. I was ready to publish my new blog in minutes, just like the hype had promised.
Free. Easy. Where's the catch?
There really isn't much of a catch. The free system requires that your blog carry a fairly innocuous Google Ads banner at the very top. You can make it go away for $15 USD per year or by hosting it on your own server or hosting account. Even though BlogsCanada has its own server, I went with the free, Blogspot-hosted account try it out.
The conomics are relatively simple. Google/Blogger makes money by selling ads through its AdWords program. Advertisers pay Google for clickthrough. The more often the ads are shown, the more often they are clicked and the more money Google makes. It's all on the up-and-up. What bloggers using the system are contributing is content. Nobody visits empty web pages with only Google ads on them.
Google/Blogger provides the blog tool and server space. The bloggers provide the content. The blog readers click on the ads. Google/Blogger makes money. Great. I'm pretty sure it will be profitable.
Blogger as Flogger
Since I already have a blog (this blog) and I already have an audience (that's you), I started asking myself why did I need to set up another blog at Blogger. Moreover, what content would I put in that new blog?
Learning more about the popular blog tool was my initial motivation. I could have done that before but the "Man bites dog" story gave me the incentive to do it now.
Then I got a brainstorm. I'll use my new Blogger blog to flog BlogsCanada. Blogger as flogger. I'm still basking in my brilliance at thinking of this. I haven't even started to look into whether it's been done before. Surely, it must have been.
I've spent the past few months working on BlogsCanada. It's been growing steadily in terms of traffic and submissions to the directory. Nominations are coming in for our Top Blogs list. The French language version is in progress thanks to Marie at Le phylum du flocon rose. The Government of Canada hasn't told us to cease and desist with the ripoff design, yet. My own blog has succeeded in stirring the pot from time to time. But, there's plenty of room for growth.
Flogger, er, Blogger is going to promote BlogsCanada. When I add new blogs to the directory, I'm going to log in to my Blogger blog and make a new entry. When there's other news here at BlogsCanada, I'm going to make a new Blogger entry. If I have what I think is a particularly good blog here, my alter ego can stroke my ego and tell the world about it from over there.
Indices like The Truth Laid Bear, Technorati, etc. are going to see that blogger referencing this blogger. Weblogs.com will notice when I update that blog, even if it's only to say that I've updated this blog. I stand to do myself a world of good here. At least, I think that's what might happen.
In my case, I have laid my cards on the table. The subtitle for my new Blogger blog is, "Shamelessly plugging BlogsCanada.ca." It is totally shameless and mainly experimental. Over the next few days and weeks, I'll be able to see what, if any, effect this shameless self-promotion is has.
Others, I suspect, might use this idea in a less shameless manner; maybe even in a shameful manner. If my experiment proves successful, the Blogger as Flogger model could easily be used to boost the ranking of any blog or, indeed, any website. Got 15 email addresses? Get 15 Blogger blogs all flogging another blog or your widget store.
Maybe I've opened a can of worms, a Pandora's box of ills to complicate the blogging ecosystem. Maybe. Like I said, an idea like this seems too obvious not to have been seized upon before. It's entirely possible that some of those high-ranking-in-the-ecosystem blogs have plants in the audience cheering them on.
They wouldn't do that. Would they?
Comments:
09/12/2003 3:05 AM
You are absolutely on the right track. but here is the dirty little secret of the Google Blogger connection. A blog on Blogger and hosted at Blogspot is spidered about every ten minutes...okay, a bit longer but not much.
I set up a blog for a company which makes intellectual freedom internet filters - no, really, these guys are as libertarian as I am. Within a week if you googled "library internet filter" or "ALA internet filter" there I was at the top of the list. (www.libraryfilter.blogspot.com if you want to take a look.)
So good luck with flogger - I'll link to it. Would you like an endorsement "Canada's top blog directory, eh?"
Cheers
Jay Currie | jay-currie (at) shaw (dot) ca
09/12/2003 8:00 AM
Yes, Jay, it will become a major SE positioning technique soon, if it's not already.
Linking to this post would be great. I think it raises a valid concern/issue. Outside the context of the Blogger as flogger idea, though, I doubt that many would link to http://blogscanada.blogspot.com since it acts mainly as a manual redirect to various BlogsCanada pages.
Jim Elve | jim (at) blogscanada (dot) ca
