Angie Pedersen's The Blog of ME

TypePad Traffic Tip: Reach Your Followers' Followers with Reblog

Last November we released a new feature called Reblog, which makes it easy for your readers to share your content others in their network.  When someone reblogs your content part, or all, of your post appears on the reblogger’s blog with attribution link back to your original post so you get the credit you deserve.

via beta.typepad.com via Denise Wakeman

I saw a recent tweet from Denise Wakeman that gave a heads up about a blog feature that Typepad introduced last year - Reblog.  I have enabled it in the footer of each of my posts - thanks to the step-by-step directions in this post on the Typepad blog.

You may now reblog (and tweet!) any of my posts at will. I'm generous like that. ;)

Search Engine Phrases that Bring in the (Blog) Traffic

Love this post on BECAUSE I SAID SO: How Did You Get Here???.  Dawn lists out some keyword searches people Google'd that brought them to her blog.  For example, "playland pee pants" and "how to cram feet into shoes".  Sadly, the most common search-bringers to this blog aren't quite so entertaining.

Still, I think it's interesting that, overwhelmingly, the #1 search that brings people to my blog is some variation of "movie title quiz".  For which I am result #8, because I posted the answer key to a popular Excel-based movie quiz...back in 2005!  Nearly three years later, and it still brings people to my blog.  Wild.  Talk about search engine optimization!

The second most popular search phrase that brings people to this blog "blog name generator".  Which is unfortunate, because it looks like the link I posted in this post (also in 2005) is now dead.  Any leads on a valid blog name generator?  People are obviously looking for one!

Thankfully, other popular search phrases are "about me scrapbook pages" (for which I am the #1 result) and "scrapbooking blogs" (for which I am the #6 result).  Strangely enough, this blog ranks #10 for "scrapbook blogs" - interesting that the "-ing" makes a difference.  Still, first page results in both cases, so I'm pleased.

But no particularly amusing search phrases.  I'm curious - what searches bring people to *your* blog?

Scrapbooking Blogs on Google

I admit it - I'm not above doing a little "ego search" every now and then.  I just did a search on Google for "scrapbooking blogs".  And was rather pleased with the results.

Top billing (the #1 slot, right now, anyway), goes to my blogging friend Michelle at Scrapability.  Hat tip to you, Michelle!

But who was sharing that front page of Top 10 results?  Yours truly.  <deep bow>  Popping in at #6.

Google is probably the only place I'll get billing above Ali Edwards.  But I'll take it.  :)

Wendi's Back

Welcome back, WS.

Link: Returning Soon.

Blog World & New Media Expo

Posted recently to one of my mailing lists: Blog World Expo.

Come, be a part of the BlogWorld Conference to be held on the 8th & 9th of November in Las Vegas. Represent your blog and invite your blogger, vlogger, podcaster, and internet radio friends to do the same.

Our conference will feature a who's who list of renowned bloggers like Arianna Huffington, Hugh Hewitt, Mike Arrington, Om Malik, Matt Mullenweg (CEO of WordPress), Leo Laporte, Shel Israel, Michael Yon (via live video feed from Iraq), Will Leitch of Deadspin, and a hundred more.

In-between conference sessions, you can talk with companies like Technorati, Feedburner, WordPress, Yahoo, Pajamas Media, b5 media, Townhall.com, Sports Blogs Nation and dozens of others on the tradeshow floor.

Topics will include Blogging Basics, Monetizing Your Blog, Podcasting, Corporate Blogging, Building Readership, RSS, Search Engine Optimization, and lots of vertical content for political bloggers, sports bloggers, business bloggers, milbloggers, godbloggers, technology bloggers and much more.

Register before Oct. 19th to save on admission. http://www.blogworldexpo.com/

Man, what I wouldn't give to go to this show!

Scrapbook Blogger Links

Yesterday in my Blogging 201 class, someone asked for some "good" scrapbook blogs to read.  I told him that Ali Edwards, Donna Downey, Cathy Zielske, and Scrapability's blogs were all very popular, but for a more comprehensive list, I told him I'd just post a list to my blog!  :)

I keep a public blogroll of scrapbooking blogs at Bloglines, which I have posted here.

I also have a del.icio.us linkroll on Scrapbooking Industry "Thought Leaders".  Leave me a comment if you think anyone is missing from the Thought Leader list.

Hold My Calls, I'm Blogging

Via Lessons from the Scrapbook Page, a hilarious YouTube video on how bloggers WISH their work life was...

Rockin' Girl Bloggers

Ultra-coolness! Katie the Scrapbook Lady thinks I'm a Rockin' Girl Blogger.  Dude, I'm totally making that a tshirt or something!

So now I get to pick 5 bloggers that "rock" and pass on this award to them! Then they are supposed to blog about 5 blogger girls that they think are "rockin" and so forth and so on.

...Angie Pedersen "rocks" and always has her finger on the pulse of what is happening in the scrapbooking world.

I'm in super-mega-blogging company: Jen Caputo, Ashley Olson, Cathy Zielske, and Michelle Thompson are also on Katie's list.

Who's on my personal A-list?

I would say Katie, but I'm not a tag-back-er... ;)
I would probably also say Michelle, but Katie already tagged her...

In the categories of all things glittery and cupcake-y, I say Shimelle Laine is a Rockin' Girl Blogger.  How can you not love all the creative mojo she puts out into the blogosphere?

In the category of tellin' it like it is, I say Kim Guymon is a Rockin' Girl Blogger.  She keeps a close eye on the scrapbooking industry, and speaks up when she sees something that doesn't seem right.

In the category of workin' the multimedia angle, I say that Tasra Dawson is a Rockin' Girl Blogger.  She has a weekly vidcast that shows no signs of fading, which is a real accomplishment.  She also loads the videos to a social sharing site, for extra viral Web 2.0 juice.

In the category of preachin' the word of the digital gospel, I say that Susan White is a Rockin' Girl Blogger.  She provides consistent informative content, and she has BIG things in the works - all delivered on a blog, baby.

In the final category of "podcast princess", I say that Heidi Miller is definitely a Rockin' Girl Blogger.  She been doing a weekly podcast for about two years now, moving quickly from newbie to princess, with incredible polish and finesse.  I've learned a lot about shameless self-promotion, trade show marketing, and podcasting from her.

Other Notable Rockin' Girl Bloggers: Wendy Smedley, Melba, Gina Tripani, Kristie T, Joan Stewart, and The Blog Squad.
 

Hooray for TypePad Pages!

Rock completely on!  Announced this past Wednesday: Go beyond blogging with TypePad Pages.

With the new TypePad Pages, you can use all the power of TypePad's posting tools to create as many individual web pages as you want. And those pages have all the power of TypePad's widgets and rich media features, automatically inheriting the look and feel you've chosen for your blog.

The TypePad interface you use every day to update your blog now lets you create a web page as easily as you’d write a post. (That means you don't have to learn any complicated new tools.) And you can even set a Page to be the home page for your blog, so it’s the first thing readers see when they go to your URL.

...This feature is available at all account levels, to all TypePad members.

This is EXCELLENT news for those of you who want to update your website more frequently but have to go through a "web guy" (or girl) to do it.  The "Pages" feature essentially allows you to create a multi-page website with the same tools you already know how to use from blog posting (also known as a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get, or WYSIWYG, editor). 

You can create (and update) stand-alone pages for information that doesn't really change much -- your contact information (including business hours, where applicable), your bio, your portfolio/resume, an online press room, tutorial archive, and whatever else you can think of.  WordPress users have had this Page feature available to them for a while now (maybe always, I'm not sure), but now it's available to Typepad subscribers, which is so sweet.  Typepad is the hosting service I recommend to my blog marketing clients because it's so easy to use; it's a no-brainer.  (WordPress requires quite a bit more tech know-how and had a significant learning curve.  I should know - I've "broken" my own WP blog a couple of times!)

So if you're using a Typepad blog, be sure to check out the new Page feature.

technorati tags: Typepad, blog+pages, blog+marketing

Tagging: A Social Phenomenon

Here's a useful overview on "tagging": Write Technology: Tag, you're it!

According to Wikipedia, "A tag is a (relevant) keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (like picture, article, or video clip), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification of information it is applied to."

In her post, Michelle Lentz defines Folksonomy (wiki), and offers examples of "tagging in the real world", via Amazon, Technorati, Flickr, and del.icio.us.  She also mentions using del.icio.us as a promotional tool (see her del.icio.us/wrtgirl), which I am experimenting with as well (see del.icio.us/ScrapbookingIndustry and del.icio.us/ScrapbookMarketing)

technorati tags: folksonomy, tags, tagging, blogging, Amazon, Technorati, Flickr, del.icio.us