Mass Media Design Blog

So you want to be a StumbleUpon god?

You want to bask in the lovely traffic that it sends your way?  None of this Digg-server-crashing thousands-per-minute traffic but nice solid, medium term, nice, warm, lovely, targetted traffic.

Well, yes, we can do that.  But then what do you want to do with that traffic?  Do you want to just have bragging rights to your mates about the traffic that it sent or do you want your visitors to actually read the piece of work you spent your time crafting?

I assume you do.  Because then they might come back and read some more of your stuff.   Right? Right.

So, today we're going to look at how you attract traffic from StumbleUpon and how you manage to keep those visitors on your site for more than 2 seconds.  Whether they come back or not is up to you but if your content is good enough then that won't be a problem.

Tip number 1 - Build a great network. 

Identify what type of people you're trying to attract and then join the relevant groups on SU.

This should be easy enough because you'll already have an idea of who your target audience is. Join the groups on SU and look at some of the people that are in those groups. Try to befriend the major players - especially the ones with the larger networks. 

Success on SU comes down to your network.  If you have a large network of people with large networks of their own then the distribution channel is far greater than if you have one person in your network that has no friends.  Befriend lots of them and then cross your fingers and hope that some of them will befriend you. 

You can encourage them to join your network by making sure your profile is attractive - people will check it before they befriend you.  Ensure that you've stumbled some great articles from other website so that people can see what great content you're likely to pass on to them.  Make them WANT to be your friend.

2. Learn from what is popular

If you want to get traffic then you have to write content that people find interesting.

Look at what is popular and topical in your groups at the moment and see what is getting Stumbled and reviewed by those people in your network.  Write something that covers what people are finding interesting at that moment in time.  If people are stumbling articles about Twitter then write about Twitter.

3. Don't make your article too long

Stumblers have a notoriously low attention span.

It's like watching TV - you'll watch something but there's that nagging feeling that there's something better on the other channel.  So don't take up too much of their time otherwise they'll just go elsewhere anywhere.  Be succinct and too the point.  Get your point across and then let them go with a pat on the back and a fatherly/motherly pride in your soul. 

This article is too long - I have to move on.  Please bear with me - there is nothing on any other channel worth watching so you're better off here.

4. Grab their attention quickly

Just like any blog, you have to grab people's attention, but with Stumblers you have to do it much more quickly (because there's always something on the other channel).

You need a great headline.  I could have called this article - 'A 5 step guide to improving your blog traffic' but that doesn't get your heart racing does it?  But the chance to be a god at SU?  Omnipotence and eternal life and everything?  Lemmeatit!!

You also need a great image.  I'm not sure I like the image in this article.  It's got nothing to do with SU, but it's quite pretty and I could look at it for a second or so while waiting for the page to load or something so I think it's OK.  Perhaps it'll keep people on the site for a second or two longer until my fantastic content draws them in.

5. Get reviewed

I find reviews make me decide whether to look at an article or not.  If a link has loads of reviews then I'll probably go and check it out (probably even if the reviews are bad, just so that I can join in the kicking). 

Remember that you get traffic from two sources on SU - from clicking a button in the toolbar and being taken to a random page, and from people who check out what pages their friends have stumbled. 

Aim for the second group and get your submission reviewed by as many people as possible.  Ask your friends, groups, networks, whoever to write about what a life-changing piece of literature it was.

6. Try to get the initial stumble by someone with a large network

If an article has been posted initially by someone with a recognisable name (or a recognisable avatar) in your group then people will be more likely to check it out.  If they're willing to Stumble it first then that's better for you.

6.25 Don't abuse it

Theories abound about how many times you can stumble a site before your stumbles are ignored.  So don't go nuts.  Stumble other sites as well - contribute to your group both by providing interesting resources from other sites and by commenting on their websites.  Like most things, you get out what you put in so enter into the spirit of it.

Good luck on becoming an SU god.  Don't strike me down or anything

An interesting blog post here from Kelvin Newman about people registering with social websites using recognised brands.

http://www.sitevisibility.co.uk/blog/?p=141

Have you considered what might happen if your brand was hijacked?  I've already talked about the new trademark rules from Google regarding Pay Per Click but what about people registering using your name on Facebook, or Twitter, or creating a blog using Blogger and your company name?

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Not a huge deal on its own, but if they start advertising your competitor's products or badmouthing your company then that's more of an issue.

If you're concerned about protecting your online brand then please do get in touch

You'll see that I've added a Blogroll to my website (on the left) which lists some of the blogs that I like to read and where I learn loads of things from inspirational people.

If you're serious about using blogs to drive traffic to your website then you need to be reading blogs as well.  You can learn all sorts of tips and tricks about how to create great headlines, fantastic comments, use great imagery, build a following and make money from your blog.

My advice is to build up a list of your favourite blogs and take an hour or so each day to read them, comment on them and generally learn as much as you can from them.  Not only will commenting on them raise your profile in the blogging community but it'll also help drive a little bit of traffic to your own blog.

An easy way to keep track of all of those great blogs is to use a blog reader.  I use www.bloglines.com and check it religiously. If you add your favourite blogs to it then it'll alert you when a new post has been made and it'll save you having to visit every site all of the time.

How to drive traffic to your website

OK, so you've written your blog.  The content is great: fresh, witty, relevant and people who read it are hooked.  Great job.  Well done.



You've also got a great design - not so showy that it distracts from your great content, but nice enough to make it look like you know what you're doing.

Pictures?  Sure - you've got great imagery that complements the text and makes your readers fall to their knees giving thanks for having eyes.

Viewers?  Yeah, that's not so good.  Nobody is reading your work. But you just know that if you could get them there to read it then they'd love it and they'd come back every day and they'd love you for ever and ever.

It's one of the most difficult things for new bloggers: how do you get people to come and read your blog?

Well, fear not, for I bring good news.  I've spoken in the past about Twitter and StumbleUpon but I'm going to give an overview of five tools that can help drive traffic to your blog. 

I've looked at the traffic that has come to my blog over a 2 day period and calculated what percentage of traffic came from each tool.

The table below shows my findings.  (Please note that Twitter also generated traffic from other websites (such as surmize.com which takes a feed from Twitter) so I've provided a percentage for traffic directly from Twitter and traffic generated via Twitter)


Figure 1: Traffic generated by various social bookmarking and networking websites

The results looks pretty clear to me.  StumbleUpon and Twitter are the clear leaders and therefore should be the first choice when looking to publicise your content.  Digg didn't send much traffic at all and has had its day.  Delicious is a waste of time.

Not quite.

Firstly, the posts I made during this time period were about SEO, and Digg is somewhet picky about articles that cover SEO (as mentioned here: http://seo2.0.onreact.com/how-to-get-any-story-buried-on-digg).  Therefore I don't think that we can automatically discount Digg.  It has a huge user base and your blog topic might be just what the Diggerati are looking for - if so then prepare for a huge surge in traffic (and wait for your website to crash under the pressure).

Secondly, you can't discount Delicious either just because it sent only 1% of the overall traffic.  Delicious is a bookmarking website and people tend to bookmark things so that they can refer to them later.  In terms of continually sending a stream of traffic, Delicious is a great tool and should be part of your longer term view.

Thirdly, I have different people in each of my networks (in fact, I wasn't even a member of Mixx when these stats were gathered) and each of my networks is of a different size. I may have a fan in SU that has a network of influential people (in fact, I do) so we can't automatically assume that SU should be your first choice.  However, a website that can send almost 35% of social networking traffic to your website cannot be overlooked.

The conclusion or this confusing analysis and that all five tools have their place and should all form part of your publicity strategy.

• Twitter is great for sending huge volumes of traffic in a very short space of time. 
  
• SU sends a large volume of traffic over a short period of time as well (but a longer period of time than Twitter).
  
• Delicious sends a continual stream of traffic over a long period of time.
  
• Digg has a huge user base and depending on the content that you're trying to promote, could be your first port of call.
  
• Mixx I can't comment on, having only just joined yesterday. But it has sent more traffic than Digg without me doing  anything and so definitely has potential.

Also, as mentioned in one of my other posts, your network on each of these tools is critical.  You can post all you want to SU and Twitter but if nobody is there to listen then you're wasting your time.  The bigger your network, the bigger your potential audience so make an effort to get to know the useful people on these tools and start to impress them and get them in your network.

Gregor Spowart is a partner in Mass Media Design, a website design and Internet Marketing company based in Reading (Berkshire), Swindon (Wiltshire) and Cardiff.

In the UK, Google has recently changed its trademark rules for Pay Per Click advertising.

What this means is that, whereas in the past you couldn't bid for keywords that were trademarks (such as Tesco, Amazon, Ebay) unless you were the trademark owner, now you can, as long as you don't include the trademark wording in your advert.

So theoretically, you (as a website users) can do a search for 'Tesco' and find an advert for Sainsbury's at the top of the sponsored listings.

This is all well and good, and not great news for Tesco but how does this affect you if you're a small local business?

Well, if you run a well respected local company called, let's say, "Alpha Lighting" in Woking then your clever competitor, "Beta Lighting" in Woking, could bid to appear at the top of the sponsored links for everyone who searches for 'Alpha Lighting Woking'.  In the main, this probably won't affect you, because the user is clearly looking for the company called Alpha Lighting.  But if Beta Lighting includes the text 'Cheapest lighting company in Woking' as part of their advert then it might just drive traffic away from your site and affect the sales from your website.

You have two options to overcome this:

1 - You can bid for the term as well.  This will cost you money because you'll need to outbid Beta Lighting for every term they've chosen that you feel is relevant, but it will ensure that you'll appear ahead of your competitors in the sponsored listings.
2 - You can ignore it and focus on your on-site SEO.

Both options are viable - I'd encourage you to always focus on your on-site SEO but make a point of playing with Google, trying out different search terms and checking out what comes back.  If your competitors website is coming back in the sponsored listings for a search term with your business name in it then you'll need to consider how to address it.

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from applying this policy for yourself.  I personally don't like it but it's just a personal view.  If you think it's something you want to do then nobody is stopping you.

The real winner from this policy change is, of course, Google.  It'll ramp us the costs of keywords, create much more competition and generally increase their revenue.  Whether you choose to get involved in a bidding war with your closest competitor is a decision that only you can make.

All I would say is to always ensure that your on-site SEO is up to date for your chosen keywords, your website description is compelling enough to encourage people to click on your link in the search engine results and make sure that your website is clear enough to encourage your visitors to become customers.

Simple steps that you should always be doing!

Gregor Spowart is a partner in Mass Media Design, a website design and Internet Marketing company based in Reading (Berkshire), Swindon (Wiltshire) and Cardiff.

All of a Twitter

This month has seen yet another technology take off in a big way. 

The graph below details the amount of time that the word Twitter has been used in Facebook in the last few months.  The lines are going up.  That must be good!



Twitter is a really simple tool that lets you post simple status updates (of 160 characters) throughout the day, much as you do in Facebook, and share them with people on Twitter.  But where Facebook only allows you to share updates with your chosen friends, anyone can see your Twitter updates.  Treat it as a micro-blog and you're pretty much on the right lines.

The same issues with blogging apply to Twitter,  You want to have a big following and to do that you have to write great content.  If you're already an established authority on a subject then it's far easier to get a big following, but the great thing about Twitter is that it has a much smaller membership than the blogging world, so the possibility of becoming an authority figure is much easier.

So where do you start?

I started by looking up some of bloggers that I like and started to 'Follow' them.  They often 'Tweet' or post an update where they mention a particular blog that they're reading or mention a particular development and it's quite interesting to read what they're saying and what they're reading.  You can also listen in on what they're saying to the people in their network so you can see who they consider to be people worth listening to and you can follow them too. 

It's pretty much like evesdropping (and not far off stalking!) when you approach it this way. But if you're lucky, some of the people that you're following might follow you and then, all of a sudden, you effectively have the ear of an authority in your chosen area. 

That's great, but what's even better is that they have the ears of a huge network of other authorities and if you tweet something or post something insightful or useful enough then it'll very quickly get distributed to this huge network of authorities.

So the questions are:

1. How do you get people to follow you?
2. How do you use this tool effectively?

How do you build a network?

Well, this is pretty hard, but there are plenty of blog posts offering ideas that you might want to try.  What I would do is to have a really cool profile picture - one that's really eye catching, distinct and memorable, a link to your blog (that will, of course, have loads of interesting stuff in it) and a very catchy profile - it has to be short (160 chars I think), so take time to make it punchy and attractive. 

It's not easy, but if you start to follow someone, you can guarantee that they'll be checking out your profile so make it brilliant - nothing less.  If they like what they see then they'll follow you.  Most importantly, make sure that all of your tweets are really worthwhile, cutting edge, thought provoking stuff on the subject matter of the network you're trying to get into.  You can tweet about your favourite colour and your broken toenail once you have good sized network.  At the moment you're marketing yourself so make sure you're got something good to say,  If you've got something interesting to say then people will want to follow you.  Once you start to get a few followers then a natural momentum should begin.

How do you make the most out of Twitter?

Who knows?  The main thing to remember is that good content always works.  If you post good stuff then people will love you for it.  If you read a good article then post a link.  If you post lots of good articles then you could maybe post your latest blog entry.  Perhaps you just read something and it struck a chord with you - why not mention it and share the love with your friends.

Imaging the power of having the ear of loads of authority figures and then when you post your latest blog entry then all pile in to read it! And it's not just that they all pile in to read it - it's that they read it and if they like it then they stumble it and digg it and add it to delicious.  Imagine the size of that extended network?  Imagine the sheer traffic that would drive to your blog?

But like everything else, use it sensibly.  Don't spam - you'll lose all of your friends, be an outcast and probably die a loner in the gutter somewhere.  Instead, use it as you would with your real life friends.  Recommend stuff, share stuff, ask for favours, offer favours.  Treat the people on there as you would treat your real life friends.

Good luck!

Not many people know this, but when Moses came down Mount Sinai with the tablets of stone, he also had some rather more lucrative documents that he was given on a USB stick.  After some painstaking research I have managed to get the USB stick working with Windows Vista and have uncovered the 10 commandments of good on-site SEO.

1. Thou shalt not create Flash websites.  For Flash is the work of the devil

Google struggles to read Flash.  If your website is coded entirely in flash or even if you use it for navigation then you're making it difficult for Google to read and index your content.  Don't use it.  Or a crash of lightning will strike thee down.

2. Thou shalt have relevant content, updated frequently by thee and thine

Content, content, content.  If you have good content and you update it frequently then Google will love you and your visitors will love you.  Write frequently and write stuff that's interesting.  Keep it fairly close to the topic of your website (but you're allowed the odd diversion) and try to include your major keywords in the text if you can.  But write for your audience, not for Google (see commandment 8).

3. Thou shalt use thine title tag appropriately

The title tag is one of the main things that Google uses to decide what your content is all about and is treated as an authority for your webpage.  So use - put your major keywords in it.  Don't worry too much about your company name.  Change the title for each of your webpages so that it's relevant for the page.  But don't go nuts and cram all of your keywords in there.  It'll dilute your efforts and bear in mind that it'll be displayed in Google so it should give the reader some idea of what the page is all about!

4. Thou shalt make use of the <h1> tags.  For they are good

As in the title tags, the <h1> tag is also treated well by Google and so should reflect the content of the page.  You could probably include a few of your more minor keywords in this header but again, write for your reader, not for Google.

5. Thou shalt use thine keywords throughout the text, but not in an evil manner

"Don't be evil", as someone once said.  The best thing to do is to bear in mind that you're always writing for humans, not for Google.  So don't have paragraphs full of your keywords crammed into the document.  It might get people to your site but it'll chase them away just as quickly.  Write nicely for your reader and include keywords where relevant and appropriate.

6. Thou shalt use thine alt tags and title tags for thine images and links

Not just for accessibility's sake (although you should be doing that) - include alt tags in your images and title tags for your links.  It helps you squeeze a couple of keywords in and makes you links much more relevant to Google and to your audience.

7. Thou shall use thine Meta Description tag appropriately

Your description tag could well be shown in Google next to your listing so you want to make the most of it.  Don't just cram a load of keywords in there because all you'll end up doing is showing all your potential Google visitors what a spammy website you're running.  Spend a bit of time in making it readable, succinct and to the point.  Keep it to about 20 to 30 words, include relevant keywords that you're trying to optimise but make it readable and compelling to your audience.

8. Thou shalt not forget thine visitors to thine website.  For they are good

It's all good getting traffic to your website but if it's unreadable or does't have anything useful on it then it's just a complete waste of time and effort.  Yes, optimise it for search engines to get the traffic there but once you have the traffic you have to keep it there.  So the difficult bit is having text that is compelling to your reader but optimised for Google. 

Remember, you're writing for your audience, not for Google.  If you've chosen your keywords properly then your text should build upon your keywords without you having to put much effort into it.  If you find you're having to force your keywords into the text then you either have the wrong keywords or you have the wrong content.

Take a step back and look at your content.  Is it something that you'd want to read having searched for your chosen keywords?  If not, then start again.

9. Thou shalt link sensibly to other pages in and out of thine website

If you have other pages in your website which are relevant or which build upon a topic then link to them.  If you have other websites that are useful then link to them too.  Don't worry about so-called link juice.  You're catering for your readers and providing lots of relevance in your website. 

And that is the key - be relevant.  Don't link to a pile of link exchanges or other shoddy websites, but do link to authoritative and relevant websites that enhance your topic and build upon it.

10. Thou shalt not link out to dodgy websites.  For they are dodgy

As above, don't link to websites which aren't relevant.  If they're spammy then Google will frown upon it.  If they're not relevant then they're not going to do anything for your users.  If it's part of a link exchange then consider what good it does you.  Does it make your website/brand look tacky?  Does it distract from your message?  I guess I'm not saying that you should NEVER link to other websites, but I am saying that you should be choosy about who you do link to.

11. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife

That's a blog post for another day...

Gregor Spowart is a partner in Mass Media Design, a website design and Internet Marketing company based in Reading (Berkshire), Swindon (Wiltshire) and Cardiff. 

There's a great sentence in this blog post about your website being a salesperson for you.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/lets-talk-landing-pages

That's obviously a difficult thing to do because it's a one way interaction and the people you're trying to sell to can walk away whenever they want without worrying about being rude.

Rebecca also makes a great point about getting out of the mindset about what you want to get from your website and try to get into the mindset of your users and what they want to get from your website.  If they find what they want then they'll do something (hopefully buy something, or give you a call) so you have to understand what they want and then make it really easy for them to do it.

Are there any barriers on your website that makes it difficult for them to achieve their goal.  Do they have to click somewhere else to get your phone number?  Do they have to fill in a huge form before they can email you?  Do they have to press loads of buttons to buy a product?  Any of these things are barriers to your users and if they can't or won't get over them then you've lost a customer.

That's why it's important to always re-evaluate your website.  What do you want your users to do?  If you were a user, what would you want to get from this website?  What would be a successful visit for both of you.  Ask yourself these questions and then look at your website and see if it actually works for those scenarios.  If it doesn't, then fix it!

Gregor Spowart is a partner in Mass Media Design, a website design and Internet Marketing company based in Reading (Berkshire), Swindon (Wiltshire) and Cardiff.  Gregor is an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) specialist.

The other day, I mentioned that you could offer some free advice to your clients in your blog.

For some people, that's just crazy talk.  Surely you should be charging for advice?  What on earth would people pay you for if they can get the same advice from your blog?

Good point - let me elaborate.

I'm not saying that you outline your entire business knowledge in a few blog posts but if you can show some knowledge by giving some advice and that advice works for something then you're building some trust, and a potential customer is much more likely to buy from you if they trust you.  The aim is to get a customer thinking - "well, they have a blog full of knowledegable insights and they're giving away free advice that's proven to work  - this guy (or girl) knows what they're talking about.  I wonder what they can do for me with the stuff that they're not giving away for free".  Far fetched?  Maybe, but maybe not and business is all about opening potential avenues for your sales.

Let me give you a small example (this is the anecdote bit that I mentioned in the same post).  I got an email from someone looking for some SEO on their website.  I did a quote and gave them a call.  It turned out that the quote was too expensive for their budget but I spent ten minutes chatting with the guy - he knew nothing about SEO and was unsure about why it all seemed so unclear and nobody could promise anything.  The next day he emailed me to ask another question (which I answered) so already the trust is built up - he trusts my advice and sees me as an expert.  I have no idea if he went with another SEO company or just gave up on SEO for his site altogether - but when he does have a decent budget to spend on it, I have no doubt that he'll come back to me because he trusts me.

Free advice doesn't really cost you anything - it's not going to lose you a client but it may well win you clients somewhere down the line.  Take the long term view!

Gregor Spowart is a partner in Mass Media Design, a website design and Internet Marketing company based in Reading (Berkshire), Swindon (Wiltshire) and Cardiff.  Gregor is an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) specialist.

I've just finished writing the very first Mass Media Design newsletter and I'm going to send it out to our clients and people that have had dealings with the business in the past year (you know, the taxman, bailiffs, that sort of thing!).

I think it's an important way to keep your name in the mind of your customers.  There's always lots of competition out there and don't think that you're tied into a deal with your current customers just because they bought something from you once.  They're probably the easiest people to sell to because you have a relationship with them and they can trust you but if you don't stay in contact with them and someone else comes along with a great offer then you may well lose them. 

Ouch, that'd be tough to take - the easiest people to sell to and someone else pinched them because you didn't give them enough love!

I try to make a point of making regular contact with our customers - asking them how they're doing and whether there's anything we can do for them. Often you might know someone interested in their products and they'll love you if you can make a referral on their behalf. Get to know their business and what they're up to.  You need to keep your name in their mind so that if something comes along that you might be able to do then they'll be thinking about you rather than ignoring it or giving it to someone else.

It's difficult for our customers to make the time for us and I don't like to come across as too pushy so we've decided that a newsletter is an easy way for us to stay in touch with them.  It lets us tell our customers about what we're doing, and in our first newsletter we're letting them know about our rebrand and our new services and we've put a few special offers and some free website advice in there too. 

It also means that when we speak with them, we can use up the whole conversation talking about them because anything we need to say about ourselves we can say in our newsletter - all of a sudden we become great listeners as well as great designers and marketers!  Everybody likes a great listener.

If you want to subscribe to our newsletter (and I think you should, because it's great!) then take a wander over to our lovely new home page (http://www.massmediadesign.co.uk) and enter your email address into the text box at the bottom right hand side of the page.

If you want some advice about setting up your own newsletter (and those of you in the UK will need to be careful of spamming laws) then send me an email or leave a comment and we can help you out.

Gregor Spowart is a partner in Mass Media Design, a website design and Internet Marketing company based in Reading (Berkshire), Swindon (Wiltshire) and Cardiff.  Gregor is an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) specialist.