Lucid Imagination has announced that the company has raised $10 million in a Series B round of VC funding from Shasta Ventures with Granite Ventures, and Walden International.

Lucid was launched in 2005 and offers a search technology based on open source platforms. Its product is used at Zappos, Nike and Netflix, among others. The latest round of funding brings the total amount to $18 million.

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So I was reading an article over on Daily Blog Tips and one of their newest is about how to build an email address list based on your subscribers.  They describe it as one of the most important things an online entrepreneur can do.

I prefer to describe it as a kick in the metaphorical crotch to your readership, and instead say that building an email address list of your subscriber base is the WORST thing you can do as an online entrepreneur.

Now, admittedly, there’s something to be said for occasional messages to your readership that hit them where they live, in their email inbox about something special you’re doing or offering.  But without a LOT of care and forbearance, all you’ll be doing is alienating your readership and hurting the ones you depend on most.  And don’t even get me started on selling email addresses to affiliate programs….

So I wouldn’t be quite so concerned about the email address list, but that’s a call each person has to make for themselves.

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Folks, there comes a time in every blogger’s life where he looks at his traffic and his flagging adsense revenue and has to ask, is it ME?  You go out, and promote, and promote some more, and you’re posting at a pretty good clip and at regular times of the day, and by all accounts, you’re doing the right things.  Your posts have plenty of keywords but they’re not link bait.  You’re drawing attention with your headlines but not ignoring the SEO possibilities.  You read Problogger and Slyvisions EVERY DAY to try and catch new ideas (okay, so maybe I’m getting a bit grandiose there, but still).

And your blog just still isn’t going anywhere.

So like I said…you have to ask the toughest question of all.  Am I any good at blogging?

This isn’t a question people want to ask.  No one wants to hear they have no talent.  That’s why most people would rather WATCH American Idol than go ON American Idol.  They want to hear how badly OTHER people suck, not how bad THEY suck!  But you can find out.  Talk to your friends, any of your blogging contemporaries.  Send out links to your blog.  Specifically request they not spare your feelings as you want to improve, and MEAN it.

Then, see what’s wrong, and try to fix it.

There’s only one way to be a better writer, folks, and that is TO WRITE.  It’s the very definition of “writer”.

Writer. Noun. One who writes.

But if you’re willing to practice, to turn in the work even if no one’s watching, keep up the promotion and everything else, chances are you can become a good writer…even if you aren’t right now.

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Bear with me, experienced folk in the audience.  This one’s specifically for the new guys (and gals, if you want to be precise in the language) today.

I know you veterans out there understand the idea of submitting your blog to search engines and giving yourselves that extra push in building traffic.  I know you’re well aware of how important it is to do that, and how it can not only give you traffic spikes but also improve your rankings, help you get links and trackbacks, and help you push your bottom line up as well as give you a source of steady reliable readership.  I know that.

That’s why I’m apologizing to you up front.  See, it’s not just the veterans that come here.  We’ve also got the next generation of bloggers looking for tips and advice, so this one is just for them today.  You know I give you plenty of good advice too…so today, let’s just spare a thought for the folks just getting started.

And in case you need it, here are some links to where to submit your blog to search engines.

Google

Yahoo

Technorati

MSN Live Search

The Open Directory

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Digg will be changing how it handles new stories by adding a NOFOLLOW to any external links that the website can’t “vouch for”. It was done to reduce incentive for any spammers to post irrelevant links for SEO junkies. Of course, quality articles will be allowed the SEO boost.

What this means is that anything that you submit that doesn’t meet the quality standards of front page material will simply by marked as spam, and it will be a waste of time to even have submitted it in the first place.

Although this may not sound like good news for anyone trying to get some quick “link love”, it’s better for everyone this way. This means that there will be less low-quality content flooding the site, and more meaningful articles. Not so say that a majority of articles submitted are simply blogspam (e.g. a blog containing an embedded video from YouTube).

Be more selective to what you submit to Digg and try to keep things clean. Remember, make it seem that you’re an actual human and not just a spam-submitting machine. Work on building your network as a “power-user” on Digg, and you’ll be well on your way to the front page.

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Let’s face it, folks. You can have the best blog ever known by mankind.  You’ve got traffic monitors and more hot links than a sausage factory.  If Cory Doctorow saw your blog he would drop to his very knees in awe and ecstasy, tears of joy trickling gently down his face.

But if no one sees it, then what good is it?

Like asking the question about trees falling in the woods and the sounds they make when no one’s around to hear them, so too does your blog run on readers.

I know, this is sort of a basic-level concept, but it’s the kind of thing that you may not be thinking of in a rush of ideas about the long tail and web 2.0 and the legion of other buzzwords that you hear about blogging on a daily basis.  But it’s the kind of thing you’d do well to bear in mind.  Remember, it’s all about the readers.  What do they want to see?  What do they want to know more about?  The more you can do to engage your readership, the more they’ll do to keep you alive and blogging.  And the more your readership does, the better your bottom line as a blogger looks.

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Peak hours of Internet activity mean everything. Everyone’s schedule is different, so you can’t base your blogging routine on a clock that doesn’t adhere to your needs. However, it is important to consider different factors for what time to post your articles.

Posting news that was posted weeks before or even yesterday doesn’t help with SEO. You need to get the post out before everyone else, and a good way to do this is to post as soon as you find the information. If you blog at late night, you’ll be getting all of the news after your competition. As they say, the early bird gets the worm.

It’s important not to post all of your articles simultaneously; even it out. Let’s say that you already have written five articles for the day and are ready to publish them. Instead of publishing them all at once, set scheduled  publishing in intervals of thirty minutes to an hour, depending on how much content you put out.

You don’t want to overwhelm your reader with loads of news that were just burst onto your homepage; give them time to enjoy what you have posted and work up to your new posts.

Again, it depends greatly on what kind of blog you have, so make sure you make the adjustments to fit your needs.

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Sometimes web crawlers miss certain sites due to bad meta information, bugs, and other complications. Fortunately, most search engines have a manual website submission page where they can add URLs for them to crawl. Here’s a list of a few of them, and try to submit your website to all of them:

• Google
• Yahoo! Search
• Yahoo! Small Business (paid)
• Bing
• DMOZ

That’s pretty much it. Every small website search engine relies on these results alone in order to give you your search results. It only takes a few seconds of your time to do this, so be sure to get on it.

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