"Search Engine Journal" - 4 new articles
Take A Few Blogging Hints From Keynote SpeakersWhat if your writing could have the captivating influence of a keynote speaker? Writing is little more than presenting with words, after all. It could be that writers aren't learning from the speakers who captivate so well.Earlier this month, I attended presentations by Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel, and Julien Smith when they came to town. If you aren't familiar with them, they frequently headline for blogging/media conferences so naturally I was just as interested in how they presented as in what they presented. All I can say is that these guys are like the Johnny Appleseeds of ideas. They're like Bob Ross painting "happy little trees" (replace 'trees' with 'epiphanies' and give Bob an energy drink). They make it look easy and people can't criticize them because they're too busy being motivated and inspired. Is that what you're doing with your writing? I want to examine how they presented. I'm not going to tell you how you should work with these details to change your writing style because you'll get exactly what you need with some thoughtful analysis and introspection. (And you're more likely to change if you believe you thought of it yourself) Let the brains start storming. PowerPointEach of the speakers used PowerPoint. They didn't try for any groundbreaking presentation format because they were comfortable with PowerPoint. It was, however, obvious that the PowerPoint deck was a tool and not a centerpiece for the presentations because (1) the slides were extremely light on text, (2) used no bullet points, and (3) didn't use any sort of branded template, even though that would have been easy.They rarely looked at their slides and never pointed to them. They kept the focus on themselves, as if to said, "I'm prepared. That PowerPoint is my slave. I am not slave to PowerPoint." Big difference. If you looked at their slides, you'd find no coherently predictable path from one slide to the next. They weren't teaching a cooking show – they were teaching the most important, powerful points they had to make in front of our audience. Another big difference in format. Images At least 80% of the slides in each deck was nothing but a full-sized picture; a representation – something like whispering sheep, a burning ship, or a lemonade stand. The images helped both represent and guide the narrative. Not all images were a perfect fit for the topic or talking point, but each image was captivating. It felt like the pictures were picked before the script was written. Personal StorytellingI'd formulize their storytelling frequency as a ratio:3:2:1 (3X Past Experience Stories : 2X Current Experience : 1X Future Plans) They purposely only told the best stories. Again, it felt like they picked their best stories up-front, then created the content around them, rather than making a point, then offering a supporting story. Business ExamplesThey used plenty of case studies, but used them in a unique way. Their business examples were great examples and I hadn't heard most of them. They all flowed more like stories than case studies, making them all the more compelling. It's hard to treat the story of a homeless man who does his own A/B testing when panhandling as just another case study. QuotesThese speakers, like all keynoters, are quoted all the time. Part of the reason they're so "quotable" is that they quote a lot of other people.To be more specific, they each quoted plenty of well-known media figures from memory (or at least we couldn't tell the difference). Their incessant name-dropping did well to lend to their credibility and more importantly, their connectedness. Occasionally, they turned a quote into a slide, but this was rare, and reserved for something monumental or too long to recount. StatsI was most impressed with the speakers' use of statistics. Numbers are critical for almost any presentation because there are usually "number people" in the audience who need something to drool over.When Chris, Joel, and Julien used stats, they hand-picked the very best stats – ones that started a buzz of instant chatter, regardless of the context. For example: 80 percent of first brand interactions occur in search results. They gave most stats their own big, bold slide for emphasis. They didn't pack multiple figures on the same slide. MemoryThey didn't need the slides because they've presented so often, but it was still refreshing to see their lack of reliance on notes or the PowerPoint. They relied on their passion in the moment and took advantage of their ability to change direction and incorporate new material on the fly.In addition to their general memorization of the pitch, they each had excellent short-term memory for people, places, conversations, and other things they had experienced during their brief time in our city. This made it easy for them to connect their messages to locals and their businesses. It earned trust and respect and probably some zealous advocates in those people they mentioned by name during their presentations. Chris Brogan demanded that we not be afraid to talk about other people just because we're trying to drive interest to our own projects. It could be the best thing we do for ourselves. If you're at the end of the post and still wondering how it all applies to your writing and blogging, take another look. The way writers connect with readers is the same way that speakers connect with audiences. If you want to improve your writing, look to the speakers for some answers. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal. Take A Few Blogging Hints From Keynote Speakers       Creative Uses For RSS Referrer Tracking By Bloggers?On Search Engine Land, Dixon Jones’ blog and other sites, there’s a bit of fancy code that instantly refreshes the URL you’re seeing to add in referrer tracking parameters. This is usually used for conversion tracking, but I think other uses are possible.Here are some ideas of my own – I’d love to hear yours in the comments here or on Sphinn. I’ll happily collect, edit and comment the best ideas into a follow up column with credit to the contributors as appropriate. :) 1) Show tailored messaging to your RSS subscribers. The origin for this column is in a recent visit of mine to Dixon Jones, to read about some funky (SEO-wise) videos on the BBC. The URL I ended up at had the following parameters tacked on: ?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DixonJones+%28Dixon+Jones%29&utm_content=Netvibes As you can tell, I was browsing Dixon’s feed in my feedreader, NetVibes (recommendation courtesy of this how-to by Dosh Dosh). In plain English, I’m a fan of Dixon’s writing. As an RSS subscriber, Dixon can show me custom messaging. For example, he might have removed the call-to-action to subscribe to his feed! This is just a slight deviation from Seth Godin’s comment about treating repeat visitors different from new visitors, which inspired this popular plugin. Note: That’s the plugin that most people use for such RSS feed calls-to-action. (The reason it ironically asked me to subscribe is because it’s based on cookies, and I was visiting from a computer that hadn’t been cookied before – e.g. a ‘new’ visit.) Don’t get me wrong – the plugin is great and I use it myself; there’s just a hole in it for people who remove cookies, access the site from different computers etc. Referrer tracking can fill the hole left by cookie-based tracking solutions. There are other custom messages referrer-tracking might be used for:
1. Calls-to-action and ads that your subscribers have seen a million times before. The plugin I mentioned invites me to subscribe, but virtually every blog today has a dedicated area to encourage RSS subscriptions. Frequently, that area is in commercially-valuable real estate: the header, sidebar etc. Why not replace it with some perk for subscribers or custom promotion? Ex.: 10% off domain registrations for RSS subscribers. For the esthetically inclined, you could also just remove that and leave it as agreeable white-space! (“White space?!” The ‘money making online’ crowd just died a little inside, I know. Sorry! ;) ) 2. Adsense. Numerous blog posts and studies have shown that search traffic is more likely than other sources to click on AdSense. The corrolary is that RSS subcribers are largely blind to AdSense. By removing AdSense for subscribers, you increase linkability amongst an audience that is more likely to link to you, in exchange for a minimal chunk of [lost] change. Yet another way to “‘buy” text links. After all, you can project that the number of links you get depend on your distribution. (You could also do the opposite and rely on referrer tracking to only show AdSense to search engine traffic.) A final caveat: While there are obviously lots of advantages to referrer tracking, I know that in some cases it can cause Internet Explorer to collapse (not sure if that’s 7 or 8). I’m writing this from my university’s library, where the following URL loads SEL’s favicon and nothing else: http://searchengineland.com/googles-usability-fixation-reveals-local-ranking-factors-40579?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+locals-only+%28Search+Engine+Land%3A+Locals+Only+Column%29&utm_content=Netvibes (For the record, Firefox doesn’t work either. My best guess is that this issue may affect large computer networks behind firewalls. Also, and this just occurred to me, the additions to the URLs may be based on a particular plugin and/or Netvibes.) p.s. If you found this interesting, I encourage you to check out and download a free sample chapter from my upcoming advanced SEO book, which also features a lot of original tactics. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal. Creative Uses For RSS Referrer Tracking By Bloggers?    
No Robots Allowed There will come a time when robots will be in your target market, but that day is (at least) a few years away. In the meantime, we all need to remind ourselves the purpose of putting together quality copy on the internet:
Let’s Get Back to BasicsEach day, I spend 20-30 minutes tracking new findings and strategies in the world of search engine optimization. This research time has taken me all over the internet reading blogs and articles from SEO-ers all around the globe, but over the past few months, I've found far too many articles that fail to comply with the three goals mentioned above. The three "rules" are by no means the end-all-be-all of copywriting, but they deserve a second thought before you or your marketing team push "Publish" on that next blog post.See Ya at EndSEO copywriting has undergone many transformations coinciding with Google's algorithmic updates. Rather than staying just one step ahead of search engine equations, I recommend meeting them at the finish line. Each update to the algorithms finds it closer to understanding content from a human perspective. Therefore, write with the human audience in mind, and you'll be light-years ahead of other SEO's that are content with performing at minimal capacity.5 Questions for Better ContentI have brainstormed five questions to ask yourself as you write that next piece of copy with SEO results in mind.
If you’re looking for additional reading, check out Robert J. Holland’s 7 writing tips for making Web Copy Sticky from Ragan.com. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal. No Robots Allowed     3 Wordpress Plugins to Tweak Your Wordpress Blog PaginationLast week I came across a great post outlining the impact of pagination on SEO, so today I am sharing some Wordpress plugins to help you tweak your Wordpress blog pagination:1. WordPress SEO PagerSummary:
1. Upload and activate the plugin; 2. Go to the plugin settings and customize the look and feel:   2. WP Page NumbersSummary:
1. Upload and activate the plugin; 2. Go to the plugin settings and customize the look and feel:  <?php if(function_exists('wp_page_numbers')) { wp_page_numbers(); } ?>4. You are done! 3. Summary: |
 | Best feature: | The plugin is based on the scrolling technique |
| Customization: | The number of visible pages |
1. Upload and activate the plugin;
2. Go to the plugin settings and set:
- Number of pages visible at once (before you scroll)
- The total number of pages:
<?php if(function_exists('wp_paginator')) { wp_paginator(); } ?>4. (Optionally) To change CSS style of Paginator, edit /wp-content/plugins/paginator/skin/paginator3000.css5. You are done!
3 Wordpress Plugins to Tweak Your Wordpress Blog Pagination
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