Pageflake: Another Promotional Backlink Idea

Here we go again! I have another page link tool for you to check out. Remember backlinks are what gets your blog ranked higher in the search engine. The higher your rank the more hits you will get. The more hits you get...Well, you get the picture.

The tool, well it's not really a tool per se, is actually a like a homepage. It's called Pageflakes. You set this page up with a series of modules, called flakes. The Pageflake you create can then be published as a pagecast for the world to see. You tag your Pageflake just as you would anything else and publish it.

Pageflake is free. You go to the site, set up favorite modules, edit those modules to suit your taste, and when you've got what you want you can register to keep it. Once you create an account (which requires email verification, a user name, and a password) your page is saved.

After you have saved your page you can add flakes (modules), feeds, and personalize it with a theme. Then you publish it: make a profile, decide the level of privacy (for link building you really want to go full board with it), and then you get your URL.

If you want, you can make your Pageflake your home page. This is optional. Just don't forget to bookmark or favorite your Pageflake so you know where it's at.

I put my AC, blog, and myspace feeds on mine. You can look at it HERE. I'm going to keep adding stuff to it over the next few weeks. You can bet I'll link it on my sidebar--just like everything else.

To put your Blogger blog on it, you can do an anything flake or choose another Blogger module in the entertainment section and edit it to read your atom feed. The same goes for myspace.

The process is simple really once you get to playing around with it. Total time for my set-up took about 30 minutes.

I have to give credit where credit is due. Thank you Christopher Reed for letting me know about Pageflakes.

Promotion Play...

Promotion is a daunting task. I've been working through a few different things, trying new stuff, and throwing out bits and pieces of what I'm learning. I have joined yet another site: BlogFlux.

Blog Flux is a blog directory. I learned about it when this blog was just an idea floating around in my head. I wanted to get a few posts under my belt before I joined. I had forgotten all about it until I was doing some spring cleaning and organizing on my favorites tab. When my memory came back to me, I decided to log my blog with them.

They offer different tools that you may find useful for your blog. Note my new Page Rank button down on the right side. Okay so I'm only a 2, but two is better than zero. They also have blog templates, mapping tools, and button makers. Everything is conveniently stationed on one site for you to use to enhance your blog.

Once you register your blog, you join the ranks of other blogs and hopefully gain more readers. Blogs are categorized by genre. You can sift through like-minded bloggers to find new blogs, different blogs, and maybe generate topic ideas.

Since promotion is what makes the Internet go 'round, I guess joining all these sites is what you have to do.

I signed on for something else, but I'm going to work on it for a bit before I post about it. So far it has given me some new inspiration. The Workshop Wednesday post this week will give you a little clue as to what I did.

I'll be playing with it some more this week. I'll write a detailed post about it on Friday or Monday.

Backlinks: The Chains Part Three

In Backlinks: The Chains Part Two, we talked about stats and I discussed the tracker Who Links to Me? At the end I mentioned another site I was looking into. The site is StatCounter.

StatCounter logs visitors to your site, blog, or pages. Most of us are familiar with blogrush, which shows you the clickthroughs you are getting on particular articles through blogrush. Who links to me? Tells you who's linking to you. Feedburner is good for some statistic action also.

All of that's great, but I want to know a few other things. How am I being found? What keywords are working and which aren't? Like most of the tools I mention here, StatCounter is free for the basic service; if you want to log more, you have to pay.

Along with a page view counter you get keyword analysis, which tells you what people are searching for to get to your site. Popular pages tells you which pages people are hitting on the most. Entry sites tells you which pages they come in at, whether its the home or another page. There's a lot of other more complicated stuff you can use, but I'm more interested in the keyword statistics.

Unlike Who Links to Me? You have to register this tool and set up an account. I think it's more geared toward those selling through their site. But some of the SEO information is useful for the web writing aspect.

Backlinks: The Chains Part Two

This is going to be a quickie, I say that but you know how I am. After going over the linking thing in my last post, I did a little more digging. I just have to know. It's in my nature. I found a nifty tool called Who Links to Me? If you look on my sidebar you can see it just below my favorite blogs modular.

The tool gives you your page rank, the number of links to your site, your blogroll stats, Google, Yahoo, and MSN links. All in all, I'm doing much better than I thought. You can see my stats by clicking the link. If you want, you can also retrieve code from that page to put on your blog to get your stats. You can also just visit Who Links to Me?

Sometimes I can be too visual I guess, but seeing those numbers gave me a new perspective.

I actually found two tools. The Who Links to Me? was the first and fastest I tried. The other I have to register and research. Don't worry, I'll share it with you in a later post once I get to know it...

Backlinks: The Chains that Bind

My last post covered a little bit of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Diving into the subject, I began to question certian aspects of it and how one would actually increase their number in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Why I got started on this is beyond me, but the chain that seems to tie it all together is the backlinks.

I woke up in the middle of the night, actually the wee hours of the morning, and began doing some reading on the subject. Backlinks are links back to your site, blog, page, or information on the net. Simple enough for me.

Backlinks make search engine algorithms hum. A site with a number of links back to it that is rich in keywords and phrases, offers quality content, and is frequently updated will rank higher.

In Filthy Linking Rich, by Mike Grehan, the Web is looked at as a small world that is intertwined from network to network by paths. It said you could randomly pick two sites and get from one to the other within 4 clicks. I haven't tried it, but it sounds plausible.

The next relation comes from page links. The magic number of links for pages is 19. This comes from a network theory. The entire article is really quite interesting, long but interesting. I suggest giving it a read when you have the time.

Grehan made a comparison using Kevin Bacon and the "erdos number." I remember discussing this topic in some course work myself, so I won't go on about it. Basically, it rings true to the small world theory and we are all connected either personally or are a friend of a friend.

So, the backlinks to our sites drive traffic to our content which increases page views. Increased page views combined with a number of backlinks will increase page rank. Once you rank higher in the search engines you will get more hits.

For some reason I have an image in my head of a water wheel. Like the one from Little House in the Prairie. I see the wheel turning round and round--the wheel is the net. I see the water spilling onto it--the water is our content. I see the sawmill powering up--the mill is our computer. I may be reaching with that, but I thought it, I was inspired, and so I wrote it.

Breaking Barriers: Promotion

If you've been reading my blog, then you know I've been in a quandary about promotion and how to really make it work. This week I chose to try something new and join one of the reader groups exchanging page views with other Associated Content producers.

I embarked on a 10 for 10. What a challenge! I had to read 10 articles, and comment on them, of each of the posters signing in for the task.

This was not as easy as it seems. As it turned out only 6 others were up for the task. I put my nose to the grind stone and read each one of those 60 articles, commented as promised, and received my returned favor page views--which boosted my totals up to where I needed to be for the next bonus.

All in all I enjoyed it. I actually learned a lot from the other producers. I also came up with an idea for an article from my reading--a bonus!

I have heard that reciprocal reading groups don't work and are not worth a drop in the bucket for what you get out of them. That may very well be, but what about the topic generation you can achieve from it? What about the promotion aspects? What about the fact that you are adding another reader to your list?

Sure it's just a matter of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." But, isn't that what makes the world go round?

Taking Advantage of Promotion Information

Since I started my quest to becoming a work at home mom, I have come across a lot of great information. I've posted some blogs on web writing, promotion, seo optimization, and keyword tools. I want to mention a blog I came across recently: Chris Garrett's blog

Now, the blog is not necessarily geared toward writing per se; it guides you in promotion, writing content to draw in and help readers, and lots of how-to information. I subscribed because I liked the first blog entry I read about promotion. Now I am updated whenever a new post is published.

Just to lure you in too, check out this article: 35 Guaranteed Ways To Increase Your RSS Subscribers. The article offers real tips and information not just fluff. I like that even though I tend to generate a lot of fluff in my stuff.

That being said this is my personal inspiration blog. I may get fluffy every once in a while so don't mind me if I go "off topic" because that is how I am inspired.

Page Views

Those writers submitting articles for Associated Content and other paid to write websites are faced with the task of generating page views. How do you go about promoting your stuff to keep your page views up to snuff?

Personally, I email my articles to friends, friends of friends, and family; I get a fair amount of page views from that. Another tactic I have been utilizing is bookmarking sites. I think in the beginning that helped a lot but it seems to have fallen off a bit. I have hit a clout of 4 and have seemed to stalemate there.

I've also been reading other writer's submissions. This is actually what I want to talk about most here. I have subscribed to several great authors and have been reading everything they submit.

I try to comment where and when I can but if I comment on every article I'll be using up my writing commenting and possibly develop carpel tunnel syndrome. I see others that show they were there by putting a !, *, ., :), or some sort of symbol. I don't particularly like that. I prefer to read up and make a comment on the last article I read. Sometimes I mention the other articles if I think about it before I hit the post button.

What do other's think about this? We are essentially trading page views. Is it offensive to just leave some sort of punctuation mark and move on?

Another author I read wrote in her profile that she does not always comment but does read everything. Perhaps that's the way to go. Then again, how do we know she read?

I think my subscribers have caught on to my methods--that I read and only comment on the top article--at least I hope they have. Those that I subscribe to should know that I get those publishing messages and usually three times a week I read their articles. I am only human. I comment as I feel urged to do so. If I have nothing to add or say I say something like "nice article!" Know that I am reading because you guys have some great stuff and it helps me to generate ideas for future articles.

Today I find myself inspired by writers wearing their hearts on their sleeves. This is something that you will have to interpret for yourself.