Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog

Google Running Geo-Targeted Contextual RSS Ads. Who Knew?

According to ClickZ, Google's been running geo-targeted contextual RSS ads for months, unbeknownst to just about everyone.

Google has quietly been running geo-targeted contextual ads in RSS feeds for several months, but many advertisers, agencies, and analysts contacted by ClickZ were surprised to learn about the placements....

"AdSense for feeds is part of the Google content network, so if an advertiser's campaign is opted into the content network, their ads are eligible to show in feeds," Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager at Google, told ClickZ News. Ghosemajumder notes that the geo-targeting has been part of the AdSense for feeds distribution since its launch.

There's a lot to talk about here. The geo-targeting aspect is huge, naturally, as it applies not only RSS feeds viewed on the PC, but also those on mobile devices. (The old pipe dream of receiving a timely offer from the Starbucks around the corner is soon to be a reality, I guess.)

But I'm more entranced with the whole advertising in feeds aspect in general. I think it's a cool concept...and even the most devout, old school blogger has to recognize that the feeding frenzy could not stay free forever. For years, since marketers first picked up on blogs, there's been talk about "monitizing" them. This is certainly a lot more exciting to a geeky marketer like me than AdWords or affiliate links.

But adoption of RSS ads by consumers is relatively low right now. Not surprising. The average consumer is just waking up to blogs, and they have no idea what an RSS feed is. Yet.

In fact, I'll bet the vast majority of advertisers aren't aware of the value of blogs and RSS as marketing tools yet. Debbie Weil ran a survey back in January that confirmed this...perhaps she'll do another and compare the two? Debbie???

According to (Jennifer) Slegg, ROI will determine whether they approve or disapprove of their ads being shown on RSS feeds. "From a publisher perspective, CTR is extremely low with RSS ads, so I would be surprised if any advertiser is receiving a significant amount of traffic from RSS, except for cases of high traffic blogs that have been site targeted by an advertiser," she said. "From an advertiser perspective, there hasn't been much buzz about RSS ads at all, either geo-targeted or otherwise. RSS ads are easily trackable in logs, so advertisers can track any clicks coming through RSS ads to determine ROI."

But kudos to Google for running the ads. I'd love to see how they're doing. I'd love to see more of them. You'll be hearing more on the topic from me and the rest of the DigitalGrit team, for sure.

Google Running Geo-Targeted Contextual RSS Ads. Who Knew?

According to ClickZ, Google's been running geo-targeted contextual RSS ads for months, unbeknownst to just about everyone.

Google has quietly been running geo-targeted contextual ads in RSS feeds for several months, but many advertisers, agencies, and analysts contacted by ClickZ were surprised to learn about the placements....

"AdSense for feeds is part of the Google content network, so if an advertiser's campaign is opted into the content network, their ads are eligible to show in feeds," Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager at Google, told ClickZ News. Ghosemajumder notes that the geo-targeting has been part of the AdSense for feeds distribution since its launch.

There's a lot to talk about here. The geo-targeting aspect is huge, naturally, as it applies not only RSS feeds viewed on the PC, but also those on mobile devices. (The old pipe dream of receiving a timely offer from the Starbucks around the corner is soon to be a reality, I guess.)

But I'm more entranced with the whole advertising in feeds aspect in general. I think it's a cool concept...and even the most devout, old school blogger has to recognize that the feeding frenzy could not stay free forever. For years, since marketers first picked up on blogs, there's been talk about "monitizing" them. This is certainly a lot more exciting to a geeky marketer like me than AdWords or affiliate links.

But adoption of RSS ads by consumers is relatively low right now. Not surprising. The average consumer is just waking up to blogs, and they have no idea what an RSS feed is. Yet.

In fact, I'll bet the vast majority of advertisers aren't aware of the value of blogs and RSS as marketing tools yet. Debbie Weil ran a survey back in January that confirmed this...perhaps she'll do another and compare the two? Debbie???

According to (Jennifer) Slegg, ROI will determine whether they approve or disapprove of their ads being shown on RSS feeds. "From a publisher perspective, CTR is extremely low with RSS ads, so I would be surprised if any advertiser is receiving a significant amount of traffic from RSS, except for cases of high traffic blogs that have been site targeted by an advertiser," she said. "From an advertiser perspective, there hasn't been much buzz about RSS ads at all, either geo-targeted or otherwise. RSS ads are easily trackable in logs, so advertisers can track any clicks coming through RSS ads to determine ROI."

But kudos to Google for running the ads. I'd love to see how they're doing. I'd love to see more of them. You'll be hearing more on the topic from me and the rest of the DigitalGrit team, for sure.

Jakob Nielsen on Blog Usability

Usabilty Guru Jakob Nielsen has made our creative team very happy today by posting his "Top Ten Design Mistakes" for weblogs.

Here are Nielsen's main beefs wit da blog (excerpts only - click here to read the full article):

1. No Author Biographies: Unless you're a business blog, you probably don't need a full-fledged "about  us" section the way a corporate site does. That said, the basic rationale for "about us" translates directly into the need for an "about me" page on a weblog: users want to know who they're dealing with. 

2. No Author Photo: Even weblogs that provide author bios often omit the author photo. A photo is important for two reasons:

• It offers a more personable impression of the author. You enhance your credibility by the simple fact that you're not trying to hide. Also, users relate more easily to somebody they've seen.
• It connects the virtual and physical worlds. People who've met you before will recognize your photo, and people who've read your site will recognize you when you meet in person (say, at a conference).

3. Nondescript Posting Titles: Sadly, even though weblogs are native to the Web, authors rarely follow the guidelines for writing for the Web in terms of making content scannable. This applies to a posting's body text, but it's even more important with headlines. Users must be able to grasp the gist of an article by reading its headline. Avoid cute or humorous headlines that make no sense out of context.

4. Links Don't Say Where they Go: Many weblog authors seem to think it's cool to write link anchors like: "some people think" or "there's more here and here." Remember one of the basics of the Web: Life is too short to click on an unknown. Tell people where they're going and what they'll find at the other end of the link.

5. Classic Hits are Buried: Hopefully, you'll write some pieces with lasting value for readers outside your fan base. Don't relegate such classics to the archives, where people can only find something if they know you posted it, say, in May 2003.

6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation: A timeline is rarely the best information architecture, yet it's the default way to navigate weblogs. Most weblog software provides a way to categorize postings so users can easily get a list of all postings on a certain topic. Do use categorization, but avoid the common mistake of tagging a posting with almost all of your categories. Be selective. Decide on a few places where a posting most belongs.

7. Irregular Publishing Frequency: Establishing and meeting user expectations is one of the fundamental principles of Web usability. For a weblog, users must be able to anticipate when and how often updates will occur.

For most weblogs, daily updates are probably best, but weekly or even monthly updates might work as well, depending on your topic. In either case, pick a publication schedule and stick to it. If you usually post daily but sometimes let months go by without new content, you'll lose many of your loyal -- and thus most valuable -- readers.

8. Mixing Topics: If you publish on many different topics, you're less likely to attract a loyal audience of high-value users. Busy people might visit a blog to read an entry about a topic that interests them. They're unlikely to return, however, if their target topic appears only sporadically among a massive range of postings on other topics. The only people who read everything are those with too much time on their hands (a low-value demographic).

9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss: ...Think twice before posting. If you don't want your future boss to read it, don't post.

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.

(As for #10, what can I say except "mea culpa"! We'll be domain mapping soon enough.)

This is a great article, and I have to recommend that all bloggers and skin designers go over to UseIt.com and read the whole thing. Nielsen is widely accepted as the king of usability -- even though his own site is no great miracle of design!

...and secretly, I'm glad a few of Nielsen's points also appear on our own blogging best practices list!

Jakob Nielsen on Blog Usability

Usabilty Guru Jakob Nielsen has made our creative team very happy today by posting his "Top Ten Design Mistakes" for weblogs.

Here are Nielsen's main beefs wit da blog (excerpts only - click here to read the full article):

1. No Author Biographies: Unless you're a business blog, you probably don't need a full-fledged "about  us" section the way a corporate site does. That said, the basic rationale for "about us" translates directly into the need for an "about me" page on a weblog: users want to know who they're dealing with. 

2. No Author Photo: Even weblogs that provide author bios often omit the author photo. A photo is important for two reasons:

• It offers a more personable impression of the author. You enhance your credibility by the simple fact that you're not trying to hide. Also, users relate more easily to somebody they've seen.
• It connects the virtual and physical worlds. People who've met you before will recognize your photo, and people who've read your site will recognize you when you meet in person (say, at a conference).

3. Nondescript Posting Titles: Sadly, even though weblogs are native to the Web, authors rarely follow the guidelines for writing for the Web in terms of making content scannable. This applies to a posting's body text, but it's even more important with headlines. Users must be able to grasp the gist of an article by reading its headline. Avoid cute or humorous headlines that make no sense out of context.

4. Links Don't Say Where they Go: Many weblog authors seem to think it's cool to write link anchors like: "some people think" or "there's more here and here." Remember one of the basics of the Web: Life is too short to click on an unknown. Tell people where they're going and what they'll find at the other end of the link.

5. Classic Hits are Buried: Hopefully, you'll write some pieces with lasting value for readers outside your fan base. Don't relegate such classics to the archives, where people can only find something if they know you posted it, say, in May 2003.

6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation: A timeline is rarely the best information architecture, yet it's the default way to navigate weblogs. Most weblog software provides a way to categorize postings so users can easily get a list of all postings on a certain topic. Do use categorization, but avoid the common mistake of tagging a posting with almost all of your categories. Be selective. Decide on a few places where a posting most belongs.

7. Irregular Publishing Frequency: Establishing and meeting user expectations is one of the fundamental principles of Web usability. For a weblog, users must be able to anticipate when and how often updates will occur.

For most weblogs, daily updates are probably best, but weekly or even monthly updates might work as well, depending on your topic. In either case, pick a publication schedule and stick to it. If you usually post daily but sometimes let months go by without new content, you'll lose many of your loyal -- and thus most valuable -- readers.

8. Mixing Topics: If you publish on many different topics, you're less likely to attract a loyal audience of high-value users. Busy people might visit a blog to read an entry about a topic that interests them. They're unlikely to return, however, if their target topic appears only sporadically among a massive range of postings on other topics. The only people who read everything are those with too much time on their hands (a low-value demographic).

9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss: ...Think twice before posting. If you don't want your future boss to read it, don't post.

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.

(As for #10, what can I say except "mea culpa"! We'll be domain mapping soon enough.)

This is a great article, and I have to recommend that all bloggers and skin designers go over to UseIt.com and read the whole thing. Nielsen is widely accepted as the king of usability -- even though his own site is no great miracle of design!

...and secretly, I'm glad a few of Nielsen's points also appear on our own blogging best practices list!

Splog Reporter - Superhero of the Blogosphere?

Heard it from the RSS Blog:

Spam blogs (or Splogs) are a growing problem in the blogosphere -- and well-intentioned bloggers, AdSense participants, SEO experts and Web marketers are paying the price.

Enter the "Splog Reporter" - a new reporting system for spam and fake blogs. The main page is a form by which the good guys can report the bad guys. From their launch press release:

The call to clean up the blogosphere was answered today. Splog Reporter is a new Web site that encourages good-willed bloggers to take the front line in the flight against spam blogs, or splogs.

Splog Reporter allows users to submit splogs they encounter to its database. The data is complied, confirmed and made available for purchase to search engines that wish to optimize search results for their users. Ultimately, the users who submit splog to Splog Reporter benefit from the accumulation of this data through search engine improvements.

“The idea behind Splog Reporter is simple, but there is a great need for a monitoring process in the blogosphere,” said Frank Gruber, creator of Splog Reporter. “Splog Reporter functions like the a blog-community’s trash can, where good-willed bloggers can come together to combat the existence of splog. The response has been encouraging.”

Within its first 24 hours of existence, Splog Reporter received an estimated 1000 hits.

According to the RSS Blog, Doc Searles believes the site is an Ice Rocket project. Could also be Technorati, if you look at Sifry's recent call to clean up the blogosphere. But hey, Doc Searles is a lot smarter than I am.

So, The Splog Reporter. While it's interesting that they're creating a database of splogs that they'll sell to the likes of Google and Yahoo, who's to say they'll buy it? And who's policing it? Couldn't I very easily put one of our competitor's blogs into that database? (If I wasn't so petrified of the bad marketing karma, I just might!) Do they do enough fact-checking to know that I've done that? And - hey! - couldn't our competitors do that to us??

Remains to be seen. The site's about two weeks old, so...proof is in the pudding and we've barely boiled the milk at this point. (Is that a good metaphor?)

Splog Reporter - Superhero of the Blogosphere?

Heard it from the RSS Blog:

Spam blogs (or Splogs) are a growing problem in the blogosphere -- and well-intentioned bloggers, AdSense participants, SEO experts and Web marketers are paying the price.

Enter the "Splog Reporter" - a new reporting system for spam and fake blogs. The main page is a form by which the good guys can report the bad guys. From their launch press release:

The call to clean up the blogosphere was answered today. Splog Reporter is a new Web site that encourages good-willed bloggers to take the front line in the flight against spam blogs, or splogs.

Splog Reporter allows users to submit splogs they encounter to its database. The data is complied, confirmed and made available for purchase to search engines that wish to optimize search results for their users. Ultimately, the users who submit splog to Splog Reporter benefit from the accumulation of this data through search engine improvements.

“The idea behind Splog Reporter is simple, but there is a great need for a monitoring process in the blogosphere,” said Frank Gruber, creator of Splog Reporter. “Splog Reporter functions like the a blog-community’s trash can, where good-willed bloggers can come together to combat the existence of splog. The response has been encouraging.”

Within its first 24 hours of existence, Splog Reporter received an estimated 1000 hits.

According to the RSS Blog, Doc Searles believes the site is an Ice Rocket project. Could also be Technorati, if you look at Sifry's recent call to clean up the blogosphere. But hey, Doc Searles is a lot smarter than I am.

So, The Splog Reporter. While it's interesting that they're creating a database of splogs that they'll sell to the likes of Google and Yahoo, who's to say they'll buy it? And who's policing it? Couldn't I very easily put one of our competitor's blogs into that database? (If I wasn't so petrified of the bad marketing karma, I just might!) Do they do enough fact-checking to know that I've done that? And - hey! - couldn't our competitors do that to us??

Remains to be seen. The site's about two weeks old, so...proof is in the pudding and we've barely boiled the milk at this point. (Is that a good metaphor?)

How *NOT* to Improve SEO with a Blog: The Bigger, Badder List

How *NOT* to Improve SEO with a Blog: Five Golden Rules

1. Do not stray from your blog's theme. Keep your content focused on the strategy and topic. Don’t stray off-topic just to increase keywords or external links.



2. Do not keyword-stuff your content. Never, ever create Blogs or Blog posts that contain more keywords than valuable content. When your keywords outnumber your verbs, or your content begins to feel stilted or nonsensical, you’re probably beginning to stray from best practices.



3. Do not link your Blog off of irrelevant Blogs, sites or link farms. There are plenty of “spam Blogs” out there, Blogs that have been created solely for SEO or Google AdSense revenue. Steer clear – don’t link to these sites just because they may have a higher page rank or use similar keywords. Similarly, don’t link to highly-trafficked Blogs or sites if they don’t specifically relate to your topic.



4. Do not create multiple Blogs for the sake of link building. This is becoming a more common practice, and it’s not a good one. Blogs should be informative, contain good, useful content, and serve as a compliment to your site. While they may assist your company in achieving higher rankings, restrain yourself from creating half a dozen keyword-crammed Blogs to increase your search traffic. Unless you legitimately have enough unique content to create several quality Blogs, restrict yourself to as many (or as few) Blogs as you can maintain well. Really, one is sufficient. Creating multiple, keyword-stuffed Blogs may increase rankings in the short-term, but it’s potentially damaging to your brand, and it may eventually get you blacklisted from one or more major search engines.



5. Do not Comment Spam. Comment and trackback spam are the latest tricks in the blackhat book. By posting an irrelevant comment on a Blog that contains a link to their own Blog, the comment spammer increases his or her own incoming links. This practice includes “compliment spam” (i.e. “Great post!” or a similar, noncommittal compliment followed by a link to your unrelated Blog.) Trackback spam is a reverse action, where the spammer includes links to popular - but again, irrelevant – posts on other Blogs within his or her own Blog to increase their link universe and rankings.
   
   When you own your own Blog, you’ll see how great problem comment and trackback spam can be. SixApart recently introduced their TypeKey product which forces commenters to register and/or authenticate before posting. Other applications exist to limit the problem. But unless the spammers get really out of hand, try to avoid turning off the comment and trackback features on your blog. Used properly, they are great link-building tools.

I know I posted this list a while back, but I thought the elaboration would make it more useful to a) novices and b) anyone who didn't attend the webinar in July. Plus, it's kinda fun this way, isn't it?

How *NOT* to Improve SEO with a Blog: The Bigger, Badder List

How *NOT* to Improve SEO with a Blog: Five Golden Rules

1. Do not stray from your blog's theme. Keep your content focused on the strategy and topic. Don’t stray off-topic just to increase keywords or external links.



2. Do not keyword-stuff your content. Never, ever create Blogs or Blog posts that contain more keywords than valuable content. When your keywords outnumber your verbs, or your content begins to feel stilted or nonsensical, you’re probably beginning to stray from best practices.



3. Do not link your Blog off of irrelevant Blogs, sites or link farms. There are plenty of “spam Blogs” out there, Blogs that have been created solely for SEO or Google AdSense revenue. Steer clear – don’t link to these sites just because they may have a higher page rank or use similar keywords. Similarly, don’t link to highly-trafficked Blogs or sites if they don’t specifically relate to your topic.



4. Do not create multiple Blogs for the sake of link building. This is becoming a more common practice, and it’s not a good one. Blogs should be informative, contain good, useful content, and serve as a compliment to your site. While they may assist your company in achieving higher rankings, restrain yourself from creating half a dozen keyword-crammed Blogs to increase your search traffic. Unless you legitimately have enough unique content to create several quality Blogs, restrict yourself to as many (or as few) Blogs as you can maintain well. Really, one is sufficient. Creating multiple, keyword-stuffed Blogs may increase rankings in the short-term, but it’s potentially damaging to your brand, and it may eventually get you blacklisted from one or more major search engines.



5. Do not Comment Spam. Comment and trackback spam are the latest tricks in the blackhat book. By posting an irrelevant comment on a Blog that contains a link to their own Blog, the comment spammer increases his or her own incoming links. This practice includes “compliment spam” (i.e. “Great post!” or a similar, noncommittal compliment followed by a link to your unrelated Blog.) Trackback spam is a reverse action, where the spammer includes links to popular - but again, irrelevant – posts on other Blogs within his or her own Blog to increase their link universe and rankings.
   
   When you own your own Blog, you’ll see how great problem comment and trackback spam can be. SixApart recently introduced their TypeKey product which forces commenters to register and/or authenticate before posting. Other applications exist to limit the problem. But unless the spammers get really out of hand, try to avoid turning off the comment and trackback features on your blog. Used properly, they are great link-building tools.

I know I posted this list a while back, but I thought the elaboration would make it more useful to a) novices and b) anyone who didn't attend the webinar in July. Plus, it's kinda fun this way, isn't it?

Business Blog Awards

How annoying that these didn't make it onto my radar until *after* the nomination period.

So, instead of campaigning for our blog, I need to encourage everyone to vote for the Focused Performance blog under "Project Management Blogs."

It's authored by Frank Patrick, who works at DigitalGrit as (you guessed it) a Project Manager.

• The 2005 Business Blogging Awards

Business Blog Awards

How annoying that these didn't make it onto my radar until *after* the nomination period.

So, instead of campaigning for our blog, I need to encourage everyone to vote for the Focused Performance blog under "Project Management Blogs."

It's authored by Frank Patrick, who works at DigitalGrit as (you guessed it) a Project Manager.

• The 2005 Business Blogging Awards