Why Should I Shorten My URLs?

URL shorteners have been around for years and most do the same thing: they take a long URL (http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/2010/04/helpful-blogging-links-get-shared-on-facebook/) and making it into a short URL (http://bit.ly/ckNJhr). There are several advantages to shortening your URL:

• If you’re sharing a link on Twitter, you’re limited to 140 characters. Any URL you share can quickly eat up those characters and limit your actual message. (Tip: You don’t want to just post a link; you wan to tell people what they can expect when they click over.)
• Any time your link is visible, the longer it is, the harder it is to remember (and it’s not very pretty, either). Shortening it (especially if you use a service that allows you choose a keyword for the link; see below for some options) can solve this problem in some cases.
• Some URL shortening tools allow you to track how your audience uses and shares your URL.

URL Shorteners with Keywords

These services not only allow you to shorten your URL:

• Doiop
• TinyURL.com
• Snipurl.com

Not only do they shorten your URL, they give you the option of choosing a specific keyword to include in the URL. The result is something like http://doiop.com/blogging. These services don’t allow you to track your stats, but you can use Google Analytics to track specific user behavior or referral information for the page you’re linking to. For basic shortening with no bells and whistles, you can use one of these services:

URL Shorteners with Analytics

For those of you who want to know who’s clicking on or sharing your links, you’ll want to consider using a more powerful tool like the ones listed below.

Bit.ly allows you track the short URLs you create with an analytics page for each URL. You can determine your top referrers, reader location, actual clicks. Bit.ly is free. Some people have been confused when their Bit.ly statistics and their Google Analytics statistics don’t match up. It appears that there a few reasons for this.

1. No two analytics programs are going to ever show the same data; they all have different interpretations of data.
2. When you use Bit.ly (and possibly any URL shortening tool) to shorten a URL on, say, Twitter, Twitter will then look up the link via bots/spiders. Your Bit.ly stats include those false hits in their stats. I say “false hits” because those aren’t really pairs of eyes seeing your content, it’s just Twitter’s bots finding the link. Google Analytics won’t count those bots in its statistics.

Clicky.me requires you to run their analytics program on your web site (similar to Google Analytics) and will then track many of the same metrics Google Analytics tracks: “top referring domains, top countries, average time on site, bounce rate, etc)” as well as individual visitors. Because the clicky.me shortened URLs are linked to the clicky.me analytics you run on your site, the stats they provide are specifically for your web site; if you choose to share a link to another site that’s not running the clicky.me analytics (for instance, if you’re part of a campaign that’s tweeting links for a client), you’ll only be able to track how many times the link is clicked, not what people do once they arrive at your site. Clicky.me offers both a free and premium accounts, but the free account only allows you to shorten five URLs each day.

HootSuite.com is a very popular tool because, in addition to shortening URLs, it provides a suite of tools to help you manage your social media presence. You can

• track stats (including the most influential re-tweeters of your link)
• set up a Twitter dashboard similar to what you may be used to with Tweetdeck (you can have columns dedicated to specific keywords, hashtags, or users)
• schedule tweets
• manage multiple Twitter accounts
• collaborate with your team

There are actually many more features offered by HootSuite, but I suggest you check out the HootSuite blog for more info. HootSuite is free.

photo credit: LunaDiRimmel

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Linky Tools (formerly Mcklinky) developed out of a need for a reliable link list generator. There was a time when there was only one game in town and, as that tool became more and more used, the owner couldn’t quite keep up with the demand and the service suffered. Linky Tools was quickly embraced and is used throughout the blogosphere.

inlinkz is a newer linky system that allows your participants to include a photo in their link. It makes the list more interesting and eye-catching. I can see how inlinkz would be a great tool for giveaway carnivals. Participants could include a picture of their giveaway and make it so much easier for others to find what they’re looking for without wading through irrelevant links.

Finding the Features Your Carnival Linky Needs

Linky Tools and inlinkz both have excellent features; some they share, some that set them apart from each other.

Shared features

You’ll find the following features in both inlinkz and Linky Tools:

• Optional images. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to have images in your carnival or maybe you just don’t like to have the images take up so much page real estate. That’s OK. You can choose to have a text list only. Just pick that option when you’re creating your new collection.
• Save your carnival. If you have a weekly carnival or meme that you share, you can save it so you don’t have to re-make it each week. You know how love efficiency.
• Title constraints. Any titles participants add to their entry are limited so you don’t get really long titles that mess up the display of the list. Everything will be in nice, neat rows. My OCD thanks you greatly.
• Cropping. When a participant chooses her image for the list, she has the option to crop it! This could be handy for showing specific detail of an item within the list.

inlinkz features

inlinkz offers some significant features that will help you administer your carnival and make it stand out from others.

• Users can delete links. Sometimes mistakes are made and when that happened with some other linkies, the administrator had to go in and delete the link for the participant. Not with inlinkz! Nope. You can delete your own links if you make a mistake or change your mind. One less thing for the carnival administrator to worry about? Yes, please.
• Real-time stats. Want to see how your carnival is progressing and how it’s being used? inlinkz has you covered. Figure out where you’re rockin’ and where you need to improve by tracking your collections with real-time stats.
• Voting. You can see the voting in action at the Clips-n-Cuts Around the World Challenge where you can vote on your favorite submission. That’s pretty cool. This feature is currently in beta, from what I can gather, but will be available soon.

One thing to note about inlinkz.com if you’re using the image list option: participants have to either have the image already in their post or know the URL of the image they want to use. Participants do not have the option of uploading an image from their computer. This isn’t a big deal, but it’s worth noting.

Linky Tools features

Linky Tools has a few features not offered with other tools:

• Different list options. You can create different lists depending on what your carnival is about including a basic text list (with text links only), thumbnail list (with images), and even a way to invite your readers to help create a story by leaving their contribution within the list (use the “create a story” list option when creating your new list).
• Blog hops. This is an easy way to allow many blogs to host the same carnival link-up list on their blogs. Everyone uses the same code, places it in their own blog post, and they all host the same list.
• Choose images from your computer or a post. Linky Tools doesn’t care where your image comes from as long as you hold the rights to it. You can choose a file from your computer or choose from the images in your post or on your site. You cannot provide a specific URL for your image.

Installing the Linky Code for Your Carnival

Both inlinkz and Linky Tools allow you to copy and paste the necessary code directly into your post (make sure you’re in the HTML view of your post) regardless of whether you’re using WordPress, TypePad, or Blogger. This makes it very easy to include a linky in your next carnival! I was impressed with the instructions on both inlinkz and Linky Tools; you’ll be able to be up and running in just a few minutes. The inlinkz instructions for setting up an inlinkz account and creating a new linky list have many screen shots and explanations to eliminate confusion. Linky Tools offers video tutorials on setting up your account creating new Linky Tools lists.

Being the Best Carnival Guest You Can Be

A great carnival will not only be useful to the host, but to the participants. The host is shining a light on other blogs to help showcase them. Remember that, although carnivals are generally open to the public, you’re still a guest at the host’s site. Good manners go a long way to helping the carnival’s overall success. If you follow the carnival’s posted guidelines and these few tips, you’ll find your experience may go more smoothly.

• Be brief. It’s tempting to promote yourself with your name, your blogs, name and your URL in your link title. Please don’t, though. The longer your title, the more it affects the columns of the list. In fact, this became such a problem, most linky generators now have character constraints the carnival owner can implement.
• Be useful. Consider what the carnival is about and whether there are guidelines about what to include in your title. Use keywords that tell others what they’ll find if they click over to your site. For instance, when I was doing the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival, I asked participants to include what they were giving away and where they’d ship. For exmple, Jane Eyre DVD (US/Canada). The title is short and it tells you what to expect. It’s not promoting my actual blog name, but once you click over, you’ll know where you are. And your blog is still getting the link love from the carnival via the permalink you use.
• Use permalinks. A peramlink is the link to a specific blog post, not the main page of your blog. Most carnivals require you to use a permalink instead of your blog’s main URL and your entry may be deleted if you don’t.
• Don’t double post. You only need one entry for each carnival (unless the guidelines state otherwise). If you make a mistake on your link, contact the carnival owner and ask her to delete your entry (unless she’s using inlinkz, which allows you to delete your own entries).

What do you think? Have you used either Linky Tools or inlinkz before? What was your experience? Do you have any tips or advice to add to the etiquette list?

photo credit: Jimby K

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What is a blog carnival? A blog carnival is when a blog owner hosts a party online and invites other bloggers to participate by writing on the same topic and linking back to the main host site. For example, when I was running BloggyGiveaways.com I held a Quarterly Giveaway Carnival. Every three months I invited other bloggers to host giveaways at their own sites, then come to BloggyGiveaways and list their giveaway with a link to their site (I’ll get to the mechanics of how you do that in a moment). So what we ended up with was a central blog (BloggyGiveaways.com) hosting a list of links to blogs with other giveaways. We were sharing link love (I was linking to them, they were linking to me) and people could find everything in a central place and didn’t get lost surfing from one blog to another. That carnival regularly generated over 1,000 links and my traffic increased by 300% during carnival weeks.

Which sounds like magic, doesn’t it? And I wish it were. Unfortunately, while a carnival can be a terrific traffic generator, it’s really hard to come up with an original idea that spreads like wildfire. It’s much easier to simply participate in carnivals and soak up the link love that way; you’ll still probably see a spike in traffic.

How to do you run a blog carnival?

What’s that? You’re not deterred? You’re set on hosting your own carnival? I say go for it! The carnival itself is fairly easy to run, it’s coming up with the idea that works that takes the most time. Once you’ve decided on the topic, here are some things to get you started on your way to hosting a successful carnival.

Establish rules and guidelines. You have to have guidelines or everyone and their dog is going to just come and link up at your site whether what their linking to is relevant or not. Then, when you delete them for not being relevant, they may be upset. It’s easier for you down the road if you know what you expect and convey those expectations to your participants.

Promote your carnival. You need to tell people you’re hosting a carnival, what the topic is, how they can participate, and what the rules are. So make yourself a pretty button and post it in your sidebar (include the name and dates of your carnival, your URL, etc.). Write up a post about what you’re doing and ask your readers to help spread the word via their social media outlets (and offer them the code for your button in case they’d like to use it in their own promotions). Give your readers about two weeks notice and remind them a week before and again two or three days before the carnival. Once your carnival is established, you might just need to remind them the day before or not at all once you really get going.

Use the right list-generating tool. Since a carnival is all about linking up together, you need a way to generate a list of blogs that are participating and have each one link to its respective post. There are several widgets you can use to achieve this:

• Mr. Linky used to be the only game in town. Unfortunately, the widget wasn’t always stable and it’s not much to look at so people started making new options. The Bloggy Giveaways Carnival used Mr. Linky.
• Linky Tools (formerly MckLinky) also creates a basic linked list of participating blogs. You can see an example at Works-for-Me Wednesday.
• Inlinkz is a really cool option because it posts a photo related to the person who leaves the link (h/t to Linda Sellers for alerting me to this tool). You can see it in action at Sweet Shot Tuesdays.

Monitor the links. This is the most time-consuming part of any carnival. In order for the carnival to be useful, you’ll need to keep an eye on who is participating. You’ll more than likely get a few spammers who are linking to irrelevant sites (delete them). You may also get a few people who aren’t using a permalink (the link to an actual article, not the main page of a blog). You’ll want to ask these participants to change the link because if readers click the link and don’t see what they expect to see (i.e., they see the main page of a blog that doesn’t have an article relevant to the carnival), they are confused and frustrated. The down side here is that you’ll need to delete the original link and ask the participant to re-submit her site with the permalink. She’s going to lose her spot in the list of links and be further down the list when she re-submits (which is another reason to ask your readers to use permalinks when you’re explaining the guidelines; if they do, they won’t lose their place on the list). If you find a link that doesn’t fit your carnival for some reason, you can delete it. If the blogger contacts you to ask why her link is down, you can point to your guidelines and explain why you deleted her link. I want to point out, though, that most people are happy to play by the rules if they know what they are. Once participants are used to how you run your carnival, you’ll see fewer and fewer issues.

photo credit: CatDancing

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What is Google Alerts?

In Get Started with Google Alerts, Rebecca Leaman explains what Google Alerts is: “You can think of Google Alerts as a customized Google Search — on-going — that delivers the search results to you automatically. You can set up any number of Alerts (up to 1000 per email address) to help you monitor online activity for the search terms of your choice.”

How can I use Google Alerts?

Using Google Alerts for Blogging Ideas suggests using Google Alerts as a sort of writing prompt: “By using Google Alerts for your keywords and key phrases, you can find a lot of ideas for future blog posts. You’ll be led to other websites and blogs with ideas you can continue on with. And you’ll receive news and press releases on brand new items coming out that you can alert your readers to.”

How do I set up Google Alerts?

Setting up Google Alerts is a simple process–you don’t even have to have a Gmail account to use Google Alerts.

1. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts/ where you’ll see this page:
   
2. Sign in if you have a Gmail account. If you don’t have a Gmail account, you can just start filling out the Google Alert form.
3. Enter the search terms you want to track, separated by commas. You can edit this later if you find you have too many or too few terms. If you’re not sure what to track, start with your name and your blog’s name. You may also want to include keywords related to your brand and your niche.
4. Choose the Type of search you want Google Alerts to create. Rebecca Leaman’s article on setting up Google Alerts explains each type of search and what you can expect:
   • News (includes the latest news articles that mention your terms and “appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.”)
   • Blogs (includes blog articles that mention your terms and “appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.”)
   • Web (includes web pages that mention your terms and “appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.”)
   • Comprehensive (includes results from News, Blogs, and Web, etc. that mention your terms. It’s, um, comprehensive.)
   • Video (includes videos that mention your terms and “appear in the top ten results of your Google Video search.”)
   • Groups (includes posts that mention your search terms and “appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.”)
5. Choose how often you’d like to receive your Google Alerts. I like to receive mine once a day simply because I’m trying to cut down on the time I spend checking e-mail. However, if you’re tracking a timely project or news story, you may want to choose as-it-happens. Likewise, if you’re just keeping tabs on something that mildly interests you, but isn’t critical, you can choose once a week.
6. Choose where you’d like the Google Alerts delivered. If you have a Gmail account, you can receive them via gmail. If you’d rather, you can receive them via RSS or another e-mail account.
7. Click the Create Alert button and finish.

That’s it. Easy and free. Honestly, does it get better than that?

This article is cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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If you’re chosen as a source, you have the opportunity to ask the reporter to include information about you and your blog. As you can imagine, it’s a popular site both for reporters and would-be sources because everyone is winning in that formula. The one rule of HARO is that you must not waste people’s time; if you aren’t an expert in a field, you should never respond to a query (not that any of you would, but it’s an integral part of the site and worth mentioning to be clear).

When you respond to a request from HARO or any other news source, you have to convince them that you’re the best person to ask for answers to their questions. The way to do that is to knock their socks off when you query back with your bio.

You can subscribe to HARO via their web site and you’ll receive three e-mails every day with requests for sources in specific areas (e.g., travel, tech, general). If you see something you can speak to, you respond directly to the reporter making the query.

Here are some tips for writing a successful response to queries:

1. Keep it short, two paragraphs is sufficient. Introduce yourself, address the necessary information the reporter asked for (e.g., any questions from the query), and why you’d be a good source. This is where it gets tricky–you should be short and to the point, but not so much so that the reporter doesn’t really know why she should work with you. To help make your point, give a short overview of your expertise and links to back it up. Be sure to tell the reporter how you can help them.
2. Answer the questions, if any, in the original query. You’re more
   apt to be chosen if you’re responding to the reporter’s actual request rather than something close, but not quite the same. She’s under a deadline and is asking for what she needs–don’t give her something else. Speaking of which…
3. Pay attention to the deadline. Most of the HARO queries have a deadline for submitting yourself as a source. Be mindful of those.

More advice on writing responses to HARO (and other other) queries:

• How to Respond to ProfNet, PRLeads, and Helpareporter.com Queries, Part 1:
  Provides actual responses to queries and discusses why they don’t work or weren’t chosen as sources. Excellent information here.
• How to Respond to ProfNet, PRLeads, and Helpareporter.com Queries, Part 2:
  More info on responding to queries. This woman knows her stuff and
  she’s sharing it. Love that. Youcan learn a lot from these two articles.
• 6 Tips to Responding to HARO Queries: These are similar to the ones I mention above, but she builds on them and offers a few more.
• Ten Essential Tips For Getting The Most Out Of HARO & ProfNet : This article offers excellent advice on how to be chosen as a source (e.g., be quotable, help them help themselves).
• Help a Reporter (and Yourself) Out: A great explanation of why you’d even want to be involved with HARO.
• Interview with Peter Shankman at SmallBiz Marketing Tips:
  Love the quote from Peter Shankman (founder of HARO) from this story: “Word. Of. Mouth. End of story. Create something beneficial to people, and they’ll tell everyone about it for you.”

This article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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Blog Goals and Advice

• Find a niche. It’s true that there are blogs on every niche. However, if you look, you’ll see that there are holes to be filled. Find a need and fill that need. I started Blogging Basics 101 (at the urging of Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer) because there are many intermediate and advanced tech sites for bloggers, but there wasn’t a place for beginners.
• Don’t be afraid to self-promote. I think many bloggers (mommy bloggers in particular?) find self-promotion difficult at first. The key is to find a balance between promotion and humility. If you’re in blogging for the long haul and want to make some money, you have to put yourself out there. You’ll need to use Twitter, Facebook, and other social media to bring attention to yourself. You will have to comment at other blog posts and become part of relevant blogging communities. You will have to toot your own horn sometimes. Be careful not to spam your friends and readers with too much, but don’t be afraid to draw attention to yourself when it’s warranted. Why do you think businesses have commercials?
• Build on what works. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new weekly columns, placement of ads on your site, or guest posts. Use your statistics programs to gauge your readers reactions. If you can’t garner information from your stats program you should a) ditch the stats program and try something new and b) ask your readers for feedback on what they like and don’t like. Then implement any ideas you receive.
• Look for ways to extend your blog. Problogger suggests considering forums, job boards, newsletters, podcasts, and videos as ways of extending your blog’s reach.
• Content is King! Everyone says it and it’s true: without compelling and well-written content, your blog will go nowhere. Yes, blog design is important, but they’ll stay if you have great content they need (and that ‘need’ can encompass learning or entertainment).

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• 6 Tips to Help You Get the Most Out of Google Docs via Six Revisions

• 20 Types of Pages that Every Blogger Should Consider via ProBlogger

• Analytics Toolbox: 50+ More Ways to Track Website Traffic via Mashable

• Another Blog Is Already Hosted at This Address–How to Fix via Blogger Buster

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When I started blogging in 2004, it wasn’t uncommon for a blog to be part of several blogrings. A blogring is essentially a community of bloggers all linking to a central list of other bloggers in the same niche (the niches in some cases were extremely broad). The downside to these blogrings was that they tended to be so all-encompassing that they were useless. You couldn’t find a specific blog type unless you already knew what you were looking for. You could certainly find new blogs to read, but you could do that just by reading someone’s blog roll. And, because the blogrings usually listed blogs alphabetically, if your blog’s name started with anything after the letter D, you probably weren’t receiving any attention at all. Blogrings slowly died out, but they were the precursor to today’s blog networks.

In addition to blogrings, many bloggers listed their blog with Technorati, long considered The Site to determine your blog’s influence. Claiming your blog with Technorati lists your blog in the Technorati directory and allows you to start building authority. Recently, though, even Technorati’s influence is waning and bloggers are finding new ways to determine how to promote their blog and find their audience.

In Are Blogs Losing Their Authority To The Statusphere? Brian Solis writes:

So why do I believe that blog authority is losing its authority?

It goes back to the definition of authority. Links from blogs are no longer the only measurable game in town. Potentially valuable linkbacks are increasingly shared in micro communities and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed and they are detouring attention and time away from formal blog responses.

Micha Baldwin, in his article HOW TO: Measure Online Influence writes:

(S)ince Technorati’s Authority Rank stopped consistently updating (read: lost the trust of bloggers), there hasn’t been a single tool for measuring the potential online influence of an individual blogger. Until that happens, the best measure is getting recommendations from friends.

That’s exactly what I’m hearing from my blogging friends as well. In a conversation with other bloggers I was interested to find that few of my colleagues actually bother to register their blogs anywhere at all. Instead, they turn to social media to promote their blogs, using sites such as Facebook, Twitter, My Blog Log, etc. At the same time, I heard from the ladies that few of these sites (except Twitter) actually resulted in significant, long-lasting traffic.

When I discussed this topic with a fellow developer, Daisy Olsen of Blue House Blogs, she said she usually only submits a sitemap via Google Webmaster Tools.

Megan Smith and Amanda Padgett have both found some success with Blog Catalog. I had dismissed Blog Catalog as a flash in the pan when it first opened its doors and hadn’t considered it since. I was interested to find out other bloggers were using it to some success. My question is whether the traffic generated is long-term or drive-by? Is there any status associated with being part of it (as there is/was with being ranked by Technorati)? That, of course, leads to the question does status derived from being listed on a particular site really convey the value of a blog?

The trend seems to be that listing your blog with the traditional sites like Technorati aren’t cutting it any more (can you really be “traditional” in something so evolving as new media?) and bloggers are finding new ways to promote themselves. I’d be interested to know what, if anything, you do to promote your blog. How has the blogosphere changed since you’ve been a part of it in regards to promoting your blog?

This article is cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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Sarah Mae is a household engineer (a.k.a stay-at-home mommy of three and wife to one very cool motorcycling husband) who absolutely loves blogging!  She owns the blog Like A Warm Cup Of Coffee (home of Motivate Me Mondays) where she spends her time journeying along side other women who are seeking to find the eternal value in who they are and all they do.

I love to blog. What fuels my blogging fire? People who actually read and take part in what I write about. Oh, and coffee has a little something to do with it as well.

Do you find enjoyment in blogging? Do you want more people to pop on over to your site and get to know you better? In essence, do you want more traffic and subscribers? If you answered “yes” to the above questions, then you’ve got start guest posting (and having others guest post for you).

Why Guest Post?

Guest posting for someone else’s blog gives you the opportunity to reach a larger audience with what you are all about. If what you have to say is something of value, then people will want to hear it, and more of it. By posting on another’s blog, you have potentially reached a whole new audience that, if they like what you have to say, will follow you back to your own blog. You will add value to the blog you guest posted for and you will bring new friends to your own blog. This is also true if you allow others to guest post on your blog.

During my maternity leave I lined up several guest posters to fill in for me while I was “out.” When the guest poster linked to where they were writing that day (my blog), right away I had a new captive audience. Not only did my traffic jump, but my subscriber numbers did as well.

Where Should I Guest Post? Who Should I Let Guest Post For Me?

Start looking at the blogs in your niche for ideas of where to guest post. Find the blogs that have a pretty good following and email the blog owner. Ask them if they would be willing to let you guest post. Make sure to let them know that you have something of value to offer their readers. Make sure to send along some ideas for articles.

As far as having people guest post for you, be picky. Make sure that they truly add value to your site and your readers. Your reputation–your blog’s reputation–is at stake. You are in control, you make the decisions, choose wisely. Also, let the guest poster know that you have the prerogative to edit the post as you see fit (if you edit the article, make sure to send it to the guest poster for review).

What Are The Benefits Of Guest Posting?

The main benefit is that you get your writing to a larger audience. In turn, you will most likely receive more traffic and make many more friends, via subscribers. I highly recommend guest posting if you are looking to grow your blog.

Etiquette Of Guest Posting

If you are guest posting for someone, make sure that you link to the site where you are guest posting at. They are giving you a platform to showcase your writing, you should give them the same courtesy.

If you are having someone guest post for you, make sure to link to their blog to make sure they get the credit (I always do this at the top of the post). You want to send them traffic as well – you help them, they help you!

Make Sure To Send A Byline

When you guest post for someone, make sure you send along a byline (information about yourself and your blog) so that the readers get to know a little bit about who you are and where they can find you.

If you have someone guest post for you, make sure you remind them to send along a byline as well.

Well, what are you waiting for?! Get out there and guest post for someone!

If Blogging Basics 101 has been helpful for you, subscribe and keep learning! If you like this article, get to know Sarah Mae better by subscribing to her blog, Like A Warm Cup Of Coffee!

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[Monday' article explains how some of the other blog metric sites work (i.e., Technorati, Alexa, and Digg).]

What is Google Page Rank?
Google PageRank is a way that Google determines the value of a web site or blog. Google considers links to your blog as votes. However, not all links are equal–Google determines whether the links are coming from spam sites, blogs with some authority, or blogs with great authority. The number of “votes” you have determines your PageRank, or relevancy to the blogosphere.

In other words, it’s about the incoming links. However, if Aunt Laurie is linking to you it’s nice but it doesn’t count as much as it would if ProBlogger were linking to you.

Are you curious about your own Google PageRank? You can find your own PageRank without installing the toolbar. The higher the number, the more popular the site.

Is Google PageRank important? Do I need to worry about it?
If you’ve read any of my other articles, you know I don’t hold much stock in ranking. My opinion is that you build a community and support others. When you support others, they support you and everyone’s popularity grows. Engaging is key.

Here’s an example of why I don’t buy into Google Page Rank. I have three blogs: Blogging Basics 101, Bloggy Giveaways, and Don’t Try This at Home. Two of those blogs have a page rank of four, one of them has a page rank of two. I’ll save you the guess work and just tell you: Blogging Basics 101 and Don’t Try This at Home both have the four rank, while Bloggy Giveaways has the two rank. This makes no sense and let me show you why. These are my traffic statistics for each of those sites from February, 2009:

Bloggy Giveaways had 20,000 visits; 11,800 uniques; and 38,000 pageviews.
Don’t Try This at Home had 3,400 visits; 2,500 uniques; and 4,300 pageviews.

Which one of those would you consider a more successful site? According to Google PageRank, the personal blog I only update about seven times a month is out-ranking a blog I updated daily and which has steady traffic. If you were a marketer looking to advertise at one of those sites and only looked at Google PageRank, you’d make a mistake with your investment. The GPR is meaningless. What matters to you is my traffic and my audience. If you assume that GPR is handling that research for you, you’re missing the boat.

If Google Page Rank doesn’t matter, what does?
In a word: demographics. These days it’s all about who you reach. It’s no secret that the hot market right now is moms. If you’re writing a mommy blog or any blog that caters to women, marketers are probably interested in what you have to say and who you’re saying it to. Your job now is to find out who you’re talking to. I used Survey Monkey to build a questionnaire my readers could complete in under two minutes.

Running a demographic survey doesn’t only help you market yourself to advertisers, it also helps you improve your blog. I had a pretty good idea that Bloggy Giveaways has a predominantly female audience who are mostly moms. Until I ran a demographic survey, though, I didn’t know much more and couldn’t pinpoint my numbers. Now I know that I have a 100% female readership and 77% are moms. I was also able to see how many kids they have and what ages the kids are. I also discovered that my site’s readers are 95% white, 2% African American, 2% Asian, and 1% Hispanic/Mexican. That was a complete shock to me and I spent the better part of last month engaging in dialog with my friends to see how I can change that to be more diverse if Bloggy Giveaways comes back online.

Take the time to engage with your readers and learn who they are. Whether you’re looking to monetize your site or not, a demographic survey will really show you who your readers are and what they expect from your site. Knowing those two things will help you do what you do even better.

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