Archive for the 'Placement Opportunities' Category

Give Me More… Placement, That Is.

Published by Daysha on February 1, 2008 in Placement Opportunities. 20 Comments

One of the most common requests I get from BlogBurst network members is the need for tips and tricks on how they can increase placement opportunities on publisher sites. I applaud any writer for taking an active interest in the success of their blog, but since publishers choose which posts appear on their sites, there are no set rules to guarantee instant pick-up.

It is my honest opinion that a blog that is well-written, stays on topic, uses alluring post titles, and publishes content that presents a unique perspective will always achieve success in the end. That being said, if publisher pick-up is your main objective, here are some ideas that may help you swing the odds for placement in your favor:

Meet the Publishers
Some of BlogBurst’s more well-known publishers include Reuters, USA Today, and FOX News, but can you name them all? Visit the Blogger Overview section of BlogBurst.com to view a full list. One tip to increase placement is to know the publisher. Spend some time browsing through their content. Read some of the blogs placed by your fellow BlogBurst members. Get a sense of the type of content they strive to deliver to their readers. Take note of the headlines that grabbed your attention and the stories that were so good that you had to read through until the end. What would you contribute to their editorial coverage for the day? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments section below.

Be Timely
Hands down, a timely post will always attract more readers than a post that is written out of the context of current affairs. Defining current may be more of a philosophical debate between you and your subscribers, but if you are stumped for post topics, read the news. Give your readers your personal take on the situations that are making the headlines. What did you think about last night’s presidential campaign debate? Who’s your pick for the Super Bowl? What are you cooking for Super Bowl Sunday? Brittney did what? Microsoft buying Yahoo!… really? Mars Rover transmitted images of an intelligent life force on Mars that is more than meets the eye? OMG!

Keep it Clean
If publisher placement is your top priority, understand that they may not want to introduce dirty language, graphic images, or hateful speech to their visitors. There are many times that beautiful posts are passed on because the image is not suitable for all readers. I cringe when I have just read a genius post, only to find the F-bomb in the last sentence of the last paragraph. If using explicit content, take a moment to ask yourself: “Is this really necessary?” If not, get rid of it. Your subscribers that are reading your blog from work or family room computers will thank you for it.

Have an Opinion
I believe that the blogosphere presents a unique opportunity for writers of every level to have their voices heard. Anyone with access to the Internet can start a blog and contribute to the world wide web of information. Reposting full articles from mainstream news sites and {gasp} your fellow bloggers is not only wrong, but serves as a great injustice to your readers. If you found a great article during your adventures on the Web, link to the story and tell your readers why they should click on it. Explain why the article is important or contribute your opinions to the subject. If including a quote from the original story is important to your commentary, only quote the essential text and provide a link to the rest of the article. No matter what you do, always give credit to your source.

Full Posts, Please
Publishers will only place posts that display the full article, so make sure that your feed is set to display full posts. For Wordpress users: download and install the CompleteRSS plug-in if you want to use the “Read more…” link while still maintaining a complete feed.

How Can I get more pick-up from BlogBurst? (part 2)

Published by Beth on November 9, 2006 in Placement Opportunities. 2 Comments

Hi there! Eric again!

I touched on 3 things we at BlogBurst are doing to help improve your success in our network earlier today, and I wanted to touch on 3 things you can do to get your blog more momentum in our network.

First let me start off with saying that you are all great bloggers, you all have good communities and conversations and a wealth of knowledge and insight. You have all done well in attracting readers from the ether. This service can just help you extend that reach, and to really capitalize on it you need to (slightly) expand upon your notion of audience. You are trying to attract readers that are more mainstream than your previously tech-savvy audience.

3 things you can do to get your blog more momentum

1. Topical clarity and focus. Most of our current implementations live at a sectional level within our partner sites, so a blog that is clearly about gardening is much more likely to be picked up than a blog with a few gardening posts mixed in with posts about other diverse subjects. This need for clarity becomes even more pronounced as we move on with more article page inclusions.
2. Posting Frequency. We want to make sure that new topics of interest are being covered, so higher posting frequency generally indicates that you’re more likely to engage in the conversation on new topics sooner.
3. Headlines. In all cases BlogBurst widgets start off with your most recent headline, and in most cases a short abstract of your post – the more engaging your headlines are, the more likely you are to attract readers to your point of view.

How Can I get more pick-up from BlogBurst? (part 1)

Published by Beth on November 9, 2006 in Placement Opportunities. 2 Comments

Hello All,

Eric Roach, your friendly blog recruiter here. For today’s post(s) I was hoping to pull off a trifecta of three important things:

3 things we at BlogBurst are doing to help improve your success in our network
3 things you can do to get your blog more momentum
3 great bands that I play in (Come to Austin — see me play!)

Unfortunately, the big boss only wants me to do the first two, so here goes with Part 1:

3 things we at BlogBurst are doing to help improve your success in our network

1. Categorization. Being at the juncture of citizen media and mainstream media we face a lot of challenges with categorization - the way a blogger describes their blog, and the way we may naturally categorize their blog does not necessarily line up with what a publisher’s site might have available in terms of placing blogs. We are constantly revising the way we categorize the blogs in our system so that we can better reflect the nature of our blogs and adapt them for our publisher’s sites.
2. Blog Audits. Every quarter we at Pluck review every single blog in our system multiple times to make certain that it is properly categorized, and also with the goal of creating better offerings for our publishers.
3. Working With Publishers. We have many meetings every week with our publishing partners. It is our goal in these meetings to help educate them about the great blogs in our system and work with them on ways to better fit within their sectional, article driven, and innovative needs.