Ok, as you know we did a more thorough switch to the new column layout I wanted to test: content-sidebar-sidebar.

Well, first off it’s clear that design and layout are very much correlated. Our old design did not support the clear use of the new column design. So, with a stripped design, what are our results?

Well, preliminary results show a 5% increase in CTR for Blogaholics. This happened almost overnight. And has remained relatively stable.

That’s enough of a push for us to begin redesigning the rest of our blogs. With all designs in place, I will fiddle here and there with ad placement and colour, since the new design is amenable to my tinkering skills.

I think the main areas we are seeing improvement from are:

- the removal of images or lines between sidebar content items

- the use of a solid white background

- the upper sidebar column cap ad block

- matching font sizes better from category names, etc to ads

- replacing lines between posts with extra whitespace

Overall, the improvement is in the flow of the eye. With no extra graphics to stop the eye, the content and the ads read as one, and that is an improvement for us.

I will continue to let you know how things go with this test, and with our other blogs. But it is clear that this column layout is working, and that our design is much better for our advertising returns.

Ok, so we’ve redesigned Blogaholics again. If you recall, we swapped the columns around not too long ago from sidebar-content-sidebar to content-sidebar-sidebar. We thought it would look nicer, be easier on navigation, and be better for our advertising.

Well… we liked the shift in the column, but it just did not work with our design. First, making changes to our template was more than difficult given the graphic heaviness. There were browser issues and sizing issues. It was very difficult. The lines on the “page” that was pinned to the cork background also made reading difficult. It was so complex that I couldn’t make many changes - I had to leave it to Ianiv - which was not the best for maintenance.

So, we dropped the design. We kept the header - the post-it, the picture and the pins. They are our brand, after all. But the rest was scrapped.

So, we added more sidebar items and rearranged things. It’s not 100% done, and we’ll likely shift things around some more to get optimal placement on stuff, but if you notice any bugs, let us know!

What do you think?

Once this is done, we’ll flush out Vancouver Coffee and Baking Low Fat since we can do a lot of cut/paste due to the similarity of the designs. We’re also going to do a facelift on Blogging Help - I have the redesign done already - but that will need to wait until after we return from Disneyland.

We’ll see if the new design turns into more clicks soon enough!

Gotta love it - a new PageRank has just come out. We’re up across the board - Blogging Help is now a 6, and some of my newest blogs jumped from nothing to 4, which is not a bad start.

That said, the biggest jump was again Cooking Gadgets - up to 6 from 0!

Aside from using images from affiliate programs, I use a ton more images every day. I’m finding the flow a little annoying to get the picture uploaded and resized.

Anyone know a good image plugin for WordPress? I am looking at this one: FAlbum. Works w/ Flickr.

I would prefer a plugin that does a direct upload rather than Flickr. Something I can add as an extension to Firefox on my toolbar would be ideal.

Suggestions?

Well, this is something I’ve been pondering. I was doing a lot of new blogs with the style of content - sidebar - sidebar. Always 3 columns with a content area and two sidebars. Anyway, these newer blogs were performing really well. Yeah, part of that is the topics I was choosing - they were performing well - but I was really getting used to the format.

So, when Ianiv & I were approved for BlogAds, and decided to do some eMiniMall testing, we had to shake things up a bit to fit the size requirements for both of these. Our two first blogs, Blogaholics and here at Blogging Help, are our largest traffic blogs still. So, it made sense to roll out some testing on one of them. We decided to start with Blogaholics. Shifted from sidebar - content - sidebar to the faithful content - sidebar - sidebar.

Sound confusing? ;)

Well, it was not an easy change. Blogaholics is graphics heavy. We like it, but from this experience some of it needs to be stripped down. Anyway, we managed to get it all in order. Mostly. Still need to align things up a bit better and make the columns flow together more seamlessly.

Well, we made the change. But what has the outcome been? Well, for a while our CTR was about the same. Now, it’s dropped. I would blame it on content, since I was not writing much, but I know that’s not true. Traffic is increasing and so are subscribers. So, the new design is not working well yet. It may be that our “design” does not fit the new alignment style. But it’s something to consider… how well does design play out with column placement. And how far can you change it without major alterations.

Well, we’re going to keep tweaking. If CTR does not go back to normal, and higher, for the monthly average, we have a saved version of the old design to revert to. That, or strip the design to basics and start over.

How have design transitions been for you? Have you experienced the same hiccups?

If you find yourself in a traffic spike - work it. Keep those readers intrigued, and keep them coming back for more.

First, you need to be aware that it’s happened. If you sit at your computer all day, then your notifications will keep you in the loop. But it doesn’t hurt to do a mid-day stats check.

If you see a big spike in your traffic, you want to make your blog sticky. Make it interesting enough to attract subscribers - and clicks.

So, as Darren suggested after I had the My Yahoo spike on Cooking Gadgets, I put up a welcome post for all my new readers. We put up a similar post here on Blogging Help after we were featured in a local paper. This welcome post did a few things:

- caught their attention

- gave me an opportunity to introduce the purpose of the blog

- let me link back to my best articles

- gave me a chance to introduce myself

Now, that was a large traffic spike. Something like 10,000. I wouldn’t expect anyone to do this every time a few hundred new visitors came in. However, you can do some things.

1. The most basic - WRITE MORE! Such an easy thing to do! Increase your output for a couple of days, then make sure not to slack for a week or two.

2. Get involved in your comments

3. Know your strengths - link back to your best pieces in a subtle way by perhaps taking a new angle on one so the link is a natural extension

4. Promote your other blogs, where appropriate (if you, like me, write on more than one)

5. Visit the blogs of people who have commented on your blog and get involved

6. Update any about pages that could better promote you

7. Ask for comments in new posts. Get people interacting.

Overall, be a generous linker, be a great comment attractor and have fun. :)

I’ve just come to the realization that affiliate programs are not just about making money, they are actually about improving my workflow.

Let me explain. I have a few product-based sites and have been recently using affiliate programs - Amazon and LinkShare - to look for products, review them, and insert information.

Rather than me going to Amazon, I’ll use a blog plugin to search the affiliate links directly. The pictures are enough to get me interested in a product or not. I can search quickly. Then, with minimal clicks, my blog post is ready with image and link, and in one step I have the product information to modify and review.

What does this save me? Well, it saves me time searching blogs for information. Saves me going directly to Amazon in another tab of my browser. Gives me that “new” information that is so valuable to traffic generation. And saves me worrying about looking for pictures - they’re given right to me!

What are the intangible benefits of affiliate programs:

- copy & paste product links
- copy & paste images
- no legal disputes on pictures
- quick search features for new products or promotions
- save me from uploading images to my server or to Flickr
- images are a very blog-friendly size

So, if your blog is about anything product related, I suggest seeking out the affiliate programs easiest to use to help you with your own workflow.

And, as an image tip, you can often find images for blogs on any topic through these affiliate programs - they may not be what the affiliate program was intended for, but they serve a good purpose.

Technorati Tags: traffic, pictures, licensing, money, affiliate, amazon

Jakob Nielsen has listed the top 10 design mistakes for blogs:

1. No Author Biographies - it’s all about trust & credentials

2. No Author Photo - good for press, credibility, recall factor

3. Nondescript Posting Titles - you likely have less than a second in scan time to grab attention

4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go - tell people where they are going, what to expect, and don’t use nicknames.

5. Classic Hits are Buried - make best articles direct navigation links, and link in other articles (good one!)

6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation - categories are key!

7. Irregular Publishing Frequency

8. Mixing Topics

“The more focused your content, the more focused your readers. That, again, makes you more influential within your niche. Specialized sites rule the Web, so aim tightly.”

9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss

10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service

Having a weblog address ending in blogspot.com, typepad.com, etc. will soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the mark of a naïve beginner who shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

Letting somebody else own your name means that they own your destiny on the Internet. They can degrade the service quality as much as they want. They can increase the price as much as they want. They can add atop your content as many pop-ups, blinking banners, or other user-repelling advertising techniques as they want. They can promote your competitor’s offers on your pages. Yes, you can walk, but at the cost of your loyal readers, links you’ve attracted from other sites, and your search engine ranking.

A very well rounded tip base. I think #5 is far too often overlooked - and makes me want to add more navigation tips to my own blogs. #8 hits home - simply start more blogs! and

#10 - ah, a pet peeve of mine. Just imaging what you would put on your business card and how much better it would look if you could match your email to your domain - oh, but if you don’t own that domain, you’re outta luck. There’s just too many restrictions associated with that route - and, for a simple $15 a year for a URL, free services like WordPress, and easy hosting solutions, why would you even consider a site whose domain you don’t own?

BTW - for those of you pro writers out there who follow this domain route, let it be know that people like myself often think twice before subscribing after wondering why you don’t own your URL, why you would bother with some annoying platform, and how seriously you take your future blogging efforts. :)

Via Boing Boing

I was just writing up another post, and came across this paragraph that I just had to share about the nature of the blogosphere:

weblogs are part of an ecosystem (sometimes annoyingly referred to as the Blogosphere). This means that whatever good postings exist are promoted through links from other sites. More reader/writers see this good stuff, and the very best then get linked to even more. As a result, link frequency follows a Zipf distribution, with disproportionally more links to the best postings. - Jakob Nielsen

I think this is a really good way to explain the social nature of the blogosphere to a business person. I studied business for many years and I know from experience in classes and in reading case studies that explaining something statistically adds power, and sometimes understanding, to a statement.

What I see here is something with descriptive power. If you are trying to explain why trackbacks and permalinks have value, and how they relate to SEO and creating dialogues between bloggers, this is the most simplistic and powerful statement I’ve ever come across. To say that, simply, “good stuff” gets “promoted through links” and then follows a distribution where some things get relatively more interest than others… this has intuitive power.

Great observation Jakob!

Not too long ago, I had a spike in traffic on b5. And the other b5 bloggers wanted to know how to get the same spikes, and also to maintain a steady growth incline. So, I shared some tips, and I thought I should share them here too:

-Write 25-40% original content. For some blogs this will mean reading news feeds, as well as other blogs, to catch news first. You can also consider non-RSS content research to find items or to connect the dots between topics.

-Use pictures. They draw the eye. Look on Flickr or Google Images. Take what is Creative Commons, but be liberal with your link of thanks. Ask when unsure.

-Know your area bloggers and link to them. Make sure to comment too.

-Send emails to big blogs in your area. Pitch a story, write something interesting about your blog, and make that link prominent.

-Break up paragraphs and use text effects - bolding, underline, etc.

-Use comments to start new threads.

Have fun!

I’ve been making observations for a couple of months about blog growth and the correlation with certain factors. For example, it’s quite obvious that more traffic means more feed subscribers - and this is a main measurement for me on blog growth.

Other factors in blog feed growth include being linked to by someone influential in the field, by certain large blogs, or even by more directories. Getting included in more search engines will definitely peak traffic, as will an increased PageRank with Google.

So, what accounts for those anomalies we see every now and again. This is what I want to know.

For a few days now, three of my blogs have been adding subscribers in the dozens… and I don’t know why. Traffic is on its same steady incline - no unusual peaks. No single article seams to be outweighing any others. No large links have spiked traffic. No new PageRank has come out. And yet I am picking up lots of new readers - which is great. I would just like to know why.

Any ideas? What else do you think could account for large growth figures in RSS subscribers?

So, this is partially why I’ve had my head under water for the last few weeks. I’ve been working to make this release possible…

We’re calling it Qumana 2.0 - and it’s big news. At least we think so. Qumana was previously a pretty cool blogging editor - it’s easy, it’s clean, cross-posting is seamless, tags are integrated, and it’s got that DropPad going on. Well, now it’s got a new toy. And we’ve called it AdGenta.

AdGenta is Qumana’s new ad network. We’ve paired with a great ad company, and are working to insert the best ads, at the best rates, easily. AdGenta lets you define a keyword, preview an ad, customize what it looks like, then insert it. You can choose when & where. And our stats let you see which ads are performing best. It’s that simple.

We have big plans to insert more ad providers later, but for now we’re really pleased. It’s simple to use. You’ve seen me testing them out here.

So, we went big on this release. Brand new website. Two of them, actually. A new Qumana site, plus an AdGenta site. New Qumana build. Lots of new features, and some fixes too. Here’s all the new stuff:

• post-centric keyword-based ad insertion
• ability to insert HTML
• better functionality with WordPress and Blogger platforms
• improved old post editing
• a new-and-improved website
• a new DropPad design
• better drag & drop from Firefox
• post to email (ads & images too!) with our integrated SMTP server

Our plans for the future are big. More ads. Greater simplicity. Better integration. Mac support. Language support. Just wait and see. But, in the meantime, go see what I’ve been up to!

Technorati Tags: qumana, blogging, advertising, adgenta

It’s a week for blog traffic to escalate, it would seem. Early on in the week, one of my b5 blogs, Cooking Gadgets, received a link from Gizmodo (thanks to an quick email note to them) and was a featured blog of the day on Yahoo for Computers & Technology, and Food & Drink. I didn’t ask for the latter one - they supplied the directory information themselves, no less.

Well, the week of positive traffic has increased. Not long after that 4000 influx of visitors, Cooking Gadgets popped out of the Google Sandbox. She Knows Best is still stuck in, probably for at least another month, but that’s not the best of it. My other blogs, which have been quietly developing, all received the approval of Google too.

I have experienced the Sandbox up close & personal so many times now - it was the longest with Blogaholics, but all subsequent blogs have been in for shorter and shorter periods of time. It’s incredibly satisfying to wake up one day to more traffic, and more clicks. Even a PageRank of 0 is far better than one of N/A because it means you actually come up on some search terms.

I have one niche blog, from the bunch that are now out of the sandbox, that I knew was going to make a splash. And I was right. The CPM I already considered above-average has gone way up, with a CTR that I can only hope continues to be that high!

This has been a good week, and I love Google.

Technorati Tags: google, sandbox, b5, traffic, blogs, blogging