We’ve been discussing blogs and web sites for a couple of weeks now, and I’d like to get caught up on comments that have come in the last couple of days. Next week, we’ll pick up again and continue discussing how you define your web site and/or blog requirements.
Bonne said (regarding the Simpleology YouTube video contest):
I don’t have the right camera ~ just the little one built on top of my Mac.
Randy sez: That’s all I have–an iSight camera on my iMac plus the iMovie software. That’s all I need for the video I’m going to make. I wrote my script and timed it and I need to shave 34 seconds off it before I make the video. I hope to get it made over the weekend. And yes, I’ll put up a link to it when I put it on YouTube. I plan on having some fun with this video.
Beth Goddard wrote:
Can I ask a blog and website related question here because I’m still mulling over all the information from last week? I happen to share my name with a British actress and I get tons of hits from people from the UK searching on Beth Goddard. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. My thinking is hey, if even one of those people buys a book . . .
I suppose my only option, if this isn’t a good thing, is to rework my website and blog under a different form of my name. Any thoughts?
Randy sez: Traffic is traffic is usually good. In this case, it probably won’t help you but definitely won’t harm you unless you were getting millions of hits, which would tend to jam up your site. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. These folks probably aren’t interested in you–they’re interested in the actress, and you aren’t her.
Gerhard posted some excellent comments on the web site I analyzed on Wednesday that seemed to be almost invisible to Google (www.ThePathOfFaith.com). He made some good points, so check those out in yesterday’s comments. By the way, if you Google that URL now, there are three results in the search, two of them from this blog. So we’ve added some link power to that site.
Several of you posted comments discussing whether I should have more graphics and/or links to my products on my blog. I appreciate your interest in my well-being! Thanks to all of you.
I have always liked to keep the ads to a very low profile on both my web site and my e-zine. The e-zine in particular has never accepted paid ads from anyone. Once in awhile, I’ve taken a guest article, and quite often I’ll mention one of my products or a product of somebody else that I myself use. I don’t remember whether I’ve ever recommended a product unless I own it or unless it is essentially the same as a product that I use. (For example, I use 1shoppingcart.com to handle my emails and I recommend it, but I also recommend prosender.com and aweber.com, which are very similar in quality. I only need one email system, but the two that I don’t use are less expensive, so it seems very reasonable to recommend them.)
In general, I prefer to keep the “ad static” as low as possible. Whenever I release a new product, I send out a short notice to my e-zine readers. That’s about the extent of it. I know this is “not the way things are done.” I subscribe to most of the other writing-related e-zines, and it appears that my ad ratio is very much lower than everyone else. I like it that way.
As for this web site and blog, I want to strike a balance between the two extremes: “too many ads” and “how do I order this product I want?” As yet, I’ve resisted the urge to put Google AdSense ads on every page. It’s possible that I could make my products a little more visible, but I also feel that “less is more.” Again, that runs counter to the prevailing wisdom, but it’s my site and I’ll run it my way. Let me assure you all that it does just fine.
Next week we’ll pick up the topic of web sites again. There is still a lot to say!