Blogging Zoom
I am always on the lookout for programs that beginners can use to get their blogs off to a good start. To this end these programs have to be easy to understand, easy to use and easy on the pocket - preferably free. They also have to produce the results that they claim to produce. This last requisite tends to be the hardest to find. While it is too soon to claim an outright winner yet I can say that I have found a contender in the form of Blogging Zoom.
The program is only a few days old but it has all the earmarks of a successful program that will bring quality traffic to your site and you'll love this - it is simple to use, easy to understand, costs absolutely nothing and guess what... it actually works!
I mentioned Blogging Zoom in my last post but had yet to put it through it's paces, something that I have done this morning and I want to share some results with you.
A little background on Blogging Zoom
This is essentially a social networking site set up by Courtney Tuttle, a well regarded up and coming internet marketer and Vic Franqui a programmer and SEO specialist. The two have joined forces to create a social networking site exclusively for bloggers with one goal in mind - increasing your traffic.
The system is not unlike other sites like digg, stumbleupon and the like except that Blogging Zoom encourages you to submit your own pages. This will get you banned with the other social networks. This program also has the benefit of keeping out all the news sites and popular websites that dominate and crowd out the little guys elsewhere. Another bonus is that it is designed to get you traffic in two ways - from people browsing the site directly (the Zoomers) and secondly by creating properly optimized snippets that should rank well on the search engines.
My Tests.
Actually that's wrong I only tried one test on it this morning - could I manipulate the results? One of the things that I have found using most of the social networks is that you can artificially inflate your own stats with the help of some proxy servers and an IP cloaker. (I don't do it myself but I always test them). I'm not here to explain how this is done - don't do it - but I am happy to say that I wasn't able to do it on Blogging Zoom. This is great news as it means that those in the know can't dominate this system as they do with so many other networks.
How Blogging Zoom Works.
The concept is simple enough. Write your post and publish it on your blog. Then submit it to Blogging Zoom by writing a short description of it. Once you submit it you can then vote for it to get the ball rolling. Your Title and description are important as you want to make these appealing to readers and this can take some work to perfect. Like most things practice makes perfect and you will learn what works and what doesn't. If your post catches on you will find others voting for it and hopefully find yourself on the front page where even more people will see it and vote. You will also want to put a button on your post to encourage your readers to "zoom" you. They have a wordpress plugin that you can get on the site and I had Vic send me a javascript code to create a button for blogger.
Blogging Zoom Button for Blogger
Click image to enlarge.
Does Blogging Zoom Work? Traffic Stats
After posting my blurb on Blogging Zoom yesterday I completely forgot to Zoom it... duh!
Fortunately for me my friend Monika read the post and was kind enough to Zoom it for me. This is why you want lots of friends online. I'm glad she did and if she didn't live all the way down under in the land of OZ I would give her a big kiss.
Look what happened...
Click images to enlarge
It works - traffic is coming (12 visitors so far). Sure it's only a small amount but the site is only a few days old and there aren't a lot of Zoomers yet. Imagine how many visitors I would have if this was more widely known. This is of course why I am telling you about it - join up and get the word out. Traffic is the single most important piece of the pie when it comes to making money online and you don't want to pass up an opportunity to get it - especially when it's free!
Oh... one more thing, if you write a post about Blogging Zoom on your site Courtney will give you a link from his site - he has a PR3 and an Alexa ranking of 23,000 +/- which means that he gets a lot of traffic and some may come your way. Vic will also give you a link on his PR4 site.
To sweeten the pot if you post about this and mention my blog let me know and I will give you a backlink as well - a PR4 to help your own rankings. I think this has promise and I want to help get the word out. Hope you'll join me.
Grizzly
Blogs that have taken me up on this offer;
Steven at Steven Wilson Marketing
Jeremy at The Consumer Corner
Terry at The Honest Way
Pablo at The Tao of Blog
Brett at Monetize Your Blog
Cheap Printer Ink
Thanks Everyone!
A new Social Network Site - Blogging Zoom
Courtney Tuttle and Vic Franqui have developed a new and hopefully successful social networking site called Blogging Zoom.
Styled along the lines of Digg et al, it has one unique difference. Blogging Zoom does not penalize bloggers who post their own content. The site in fact encourages bloggers to post all your articles on it. What it does and how it works is described in great detail at Court's blog and I would encourage you to give it a read. I just signed up this morning (it's free) and I have received traffic already so it definitely has potential.
The site is very easy to use - a no brainer for beginners and it even looks good.
Thanks to my friend Monika at The Writer's Manifesto for bringing this to my attention.
Are your Feedburner Stats down today?
On a completely different note, some of you may have noticed a slight to major drop in your feedburner stats this morning. It seems that the Google feedreader feeds have been dropped and some sights are reporting a 50% loss of subscribers. A few sites like John Cow are citing a Google conspiracy on the heals of the recent PR downgrades but a quick check with Matt on the feedburner forum indicates that it is just a system glitch and things should be fixed soon.
This has occurred frequently in the past and there have been days I was shocked to see only 2 subscribers down from 150 the day previous. Usually within a day or two the numbers are restored. If your subscriber numbers are down today I suggest you not panic and check again tomorrow.
A short post today... lucky for you as my kids are waiting to work on some snowmen. Ah, the joys of living in Canada.
Cheers,
Grizzly
What is a Meme and can you make money with Memes?
Have you come across the term "meme" while surfing the web recently? If you have you might be wondering what it is and where it came from. In an ironic twist meme's have become a meme of their own.
An explanation...
In 1976 biologist Richard Dawkins wrote a book entitled "The Selfish Gene" and in it he coined the term "meme". He created the word by taking a greek term "mimeme" (something imitated) and shortened it to rhyme with gene. The purpose was to describe a cultural phenomenon that was similar to the biological world of genes. Without going all PhD on you genes are able to replicate themselves and propagate from one organism to another in the form of genetic information which makes up the broader spectrum of evolutionary biology. Dawkins noted that the cultural world behaved in much the same way - cultural information propagates from one mind to another and mutates and spreads among the populace and becomes a building block for the cultural preferences as a whole.
Think of tunes, catch phrases, fashion trends, fads, beliefs, architecture or what we consider esthetically pleasing as examples of memes. Why does society like what it likes as a whole since so much of it is subjective? - we like square houses not round, why is tall and thin seen a beautiful and not short and thick?
Our acceptance of cultural traits and our willingness to pass these bits of info along to others is a meme.
It's ironic that Dawkins term never caught on at the time he coined it - 30 years later it is suddenly in vogue thanks to bloggers and memes have become a meme of their own - bloggers have been starting memes as a way to connect to each other and transmit messages to a much wider audience. Like a chain letter a meme can grow and mutate rapidly over the web.
To this end I want to post a meme that I was invited to join by Heather from Home with Heather. This will give you a good idea of how memes work on the blogosphere.
From Heather,
I want to start a brand new meme today.
I’ve been blabbing about me for an entire year now. But it’s time for me to learn more about YOU, and so I’m starting this new meme. I sure hope it spreads.
5 Questions about the ONLINE YOU…
1. How long have you been blogging?
2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?
3. Are You trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?
4. Tell me 3 things you LOVE about being online.
5. Tell me 3 things you STRUGGLE with in the online world.
Heather then Tagged several bloggers - including me and asked that we join in and spread this meme on our own sites. When finished we simply post a comment on Heather's site and she can then read our responses to her questions. The idea is for me to tag several other bloggers and invite them to join in. If a meme catches on you can see how this could end up all over the blogosphere. It also has the advantage of sending link love to the people I tag - each will get a link from me just as I have recieved a link from Heather.
Simple to play - I want to learn about my blogging buddies, so simply tell me more about you and your blog. In the post that you create, reference this post and then tag 5 of your blogging friends. If you don’t know who to tag, why not tag a blog that interests you as a way of getting some link love and finding more about that blog.
If you would like to join in and I haven't tagged you just leave me a comment with your blog URL and I will add a tag to you as well. If you need some quality backlinks this is a great opportunity to get a PR5 link from me.
Ok... here goes.
1. How long have you been blogging?
I have been operating niche sites for many years but only began using blogs in the past two years.
2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?
I was inspired to start blogging when I discovered that blogs rank better in search engines and could be used to gain PR for my sites. Eventually I realized that I could make money with blogs directly and didn't need my websites. Niche blogs are so much easier to create and maintain and they don't have to cost a thing. Mentors... hmmm, I'm not much of an idol worshiper and I'm self taught so the closest thing to a mentor would be Jerry Seinfeld - he made a lot of money doing a show about nothing. Brilliant!
3. Are You trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?
Fun? You mean this can be fun? Ha. There is little social interaction in niche marketing so it is done for the money. Since starting this blog I have become involved in the social aspects of the web and have to admit that I am enjoying myself immensely - I've met lots of new people and have found personal satisfaction in lending a helping hand when I can.
4. Tell me 3 things you LOVE about being online.
I love the money I've made.
I love meeting all the people I have met and having them help me make money online.
I love spending hours upon hours online while neglecting my health, family and former passions all in the pursuit of um... money! No wait! That's not what I/we do is it?
5. Tell me 3 things you STRUGGLE with in the online world.
Trying not to spend money.
Making money.
um... making even more money.
oh and it's a struggle keeping my darn personal life from interfering with how much time I can waste sitting in front of this screen - damn kids!! We sure have shown all those worry warts that complained that television would rot our minds - what the heck is TV anyway?
and now I am going to Tag some people I know "of" but don't know and others that I do know and see if I can entice them to play along. Heather suggested 5 taggees as a target so here goes...
Trent Brownrigg at Free Home Business Tips A respected and knowledgeable marketer I have read for some time now but have yet to meet.
Lisa Mills at Work at Home Mom Revolution A terrific writer who has a great blog full of resources for work at home moms.
Dena Gottlieb at Beginners Make Money on the Internet A wonderful woman who helps beginners learn the ropes regarding Internet Marketing. Hmmm... sounds like another blog I know of.
Karen Zara at Karen Zara Dwells Here An eclectic assortment of topics covered by a very fine writer.
A. E. at Chessnoid Words can't describe this site - a bit of everything that pops into his mind.
And by Popular Request;
Lissie at Continuing Adventures Glad to have you with us Lissie - have at it!
Ok. That's it. If they fail to play along - in the words of Stephen Colbert - I will be forced to put them on NOTICE!
Let me know when you have completed your post so I can read your answers.
As I said if anyone else wants to join in and get a link from me just leave me a comment with your URL.
BTW this is my first meme so if I have screwed anything up... um put me on NOTICE!
Cheers,
Grizzly