Huh?  What?

Don’t you love those little non-sequitur titles that just sneak up behind you and slap you upside the head with their message?  Sure you do!  But the point is clear–it’s time you stopped linking to Wired, or at least so often.

Plain and simple, when people read your blog, and they follow your links, and they start wondering if you just link to the same dozen sites over and over and over again, they start questioning if you’re worth reading.

See, links aren’t just about Google rank.  Links are also a measure of how well-read you are.  A measure of how much you get around online, so to speak, and if you’ve got lots of different places–even places no one’s ever heard of–you’ll get a bump in your credibility gauge if you can show people that you traffic in some unusual information.

There’s something to be said for being the guy who knows where the weirdest stuff on the internet is…as opposed to being the guy who can’t stop rewriting what Wired spits out.

So next time you want to find something to write about, don’t just stay on Google’s front page–go check out the back of the stacks.  You never know what you’ll find lurking around out there.

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I probably got someone to spit their drink all over their monitor with that one.  Apologies if you personally happened to be the person who did the spit take.

Anyway, the title’s a little misleading, but it’s pretty close to what I’m suggesting.  If you’ve been having a hard time getting attention for your blog, try introducing yourself around.  Take just a couple minutes a day and send a few emails out to the writers of big blogs in your industry or niche.  Tell them who you are and offer up a link to your blog.  Don’t specifically ask for a link, either–not this time, anyway.

It’s a long shot that may pay off pretty big dividends.   I emphasize the may, of course–chances are your letter will be ignored and at the very worst you may well alienate the writers of some big blogs, but even this worst case can be worked against if you mention how fond you are of the site they right.

I’ll tell you this much–blogging, nine times out of ten, feels like screaming at an empty room.  But getting an email from a regular is very encouraging.  You may be able to use that encouragement to your own advantage.

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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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Every blogger goes through this at one time or another–that horrible sinking feeling that, deep down, they’re really just screaming into an empty room.

Sure, traffic comes and traffic goes.  There’s even a good indication that people are reading your stuff and clicking your links.  But sometimes, it just feels insubstantial.  Incomplete.  So what do you do?  Take your act on the road, of course–down the information superhighway.

I know, a little outdated, but the metaphor fits.  Go to other people’s blogs.  Comment on them.  Talk to people there. Build a community.  It’ll help, and here’s how.

1. Commenting on other people’s blogs makes you more credible.  Again, back to credibility–if you’re seen as a person who knows what they’re talking about, no screaming, no ranting like a loon at every opportunity, then your opinion, your WORK (I really don’t consider the occasional caps screaming, more like emphasis without bothering with italics) more seriously.

2. Linking to other people’s blogs helps THOSE people find you.  When you put up a link, it’s like acknowledging someone else’s credibility.  That in turn helps that blog by letting a bit of your traffic go somewhere else.  Don’t worry, traffic isn’t a zero-sum game–traffic ebbs and flows.  But in turn, that makes other blogs more likely to link to you, and that keeps the flow moving.

3. Comments and links help establish your role in the community.  Remember that thing we did on blog carnivals?  About how they give you a place in a larger community?  Well, chances are your readers read other blogs too.  And if they go to those blogs, and talk about YOURS, you become part of a larger whole.  It’s about adding your own voice to the larger community and improving the whole as a result.

So if you want to make your blog bigger, go give some other people some blogging love.  It’ll help them, and it’ll help you.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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.

Popularity: 4% [?]

You maybe aware of the technique of visiting other blogs and leaving comments, both because you want to get your voice heard in general and of course because it gives you an opportunity to leave a link to your blog and therefore drive traffic.

The trouble is with millions of blogs created everyday how do you find the blogs that are relevant to your particular niche.  Well you could go the old fashioned route and just spend hours online searching for them hoping to be able to separate websites from blogs.  The alternative is a to use two of googles tools that are designed to make things easier.

The first is Google Blog Search like the regular google search it has an advanced search option and this is what I recommend you use. By using the keywords that are most associated with your blog you can find similar blogs.

Likewise with google alerts, the good thing about google alerts is that once they are setup they do the work for you. Enter you keywords, choose the “Type” Blog, decide when you want the information delivered and you are away.

Both of these will help you uncover blogs that are in the same area as you and that are good candidates for your comments, maybe even for some mutual linking.

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A few months back, you might remember the plugin Stripe Ad that was made by Pawan Agrawal of MaxBlogPress. At the time of the release, everyone seemed to be using it, trying the cool plugin that put a new twist to advertising by putting up a “striped” link at the top of a WordPress blog. With a few other plugins from MaxBlogPress, it seemed like it would stop there. But it doesn’t. I present to you the most recent project from MaxBlogPress called Ninja Affiliate.

What Is Ninja Affiliate?

In one sentence, Ninja Affiliate is this: it’s the ultimate and most complete tool that automatically converts keywords on your blog into affiliate links. Many bloggers out there make money online from their blogs through many different ways, and one of them is by affiliate marketing. If you’re trying to make money from your blog by selling affiliate products and/or services, Ninja Affiliate is what you need.

Why is Ninja Affiliate complete? Simple. Just take a look at its main features below (taken right from the site) with its corresponding functions shown in the image. These features are unbeatable and you will need at least 4-5 different plugins to do all of these things.

1. Easy Affiliate Link Management - You can easily give each affiliate link an easy-to-remember name..
2. Flexible Link Management - Accepts every affiliate link format out there, so you don’t have to waste time with various affiliate marketing tools..
3. Create Professional Redirect Links - Use professional looking redirect links that let your prospects know you’re a pro marketer..
4. Manage Links by Groups - Too many affiliate links? Ninja Affiliate allows you to easily create different groups to manage your links..
5. Prevent “Affiliate Theft” - Cloak your affiliate links to prevent link theft and affiliate sabotage. No one will ever steal your hard-earned commissions again..
6. Insert Affiliate Links Directly - Add your affiliate links directly for your Wordpress blog editor - you’ll never have to hunt for links again..
7. Transform Keywords to Links - Automatically turn keywords in your blog to affiliate links. You can set a limit too, so your posts don’t look like a spam blog!
8. Advanced Display Options - Ninja Affiliate allows you to display any text you want in your web browser’s status bar..
9. Use “No-Follow” Links - Control your link juice and escape punishment from Big Daddy Google with ninja precision. In fact, you can control your links any way you want to.

As you can see, Ninja Affiliate is powerful. It’s the OIOpublisher of affiliate link management. Oh, and speaking of OIOpublisher, remember when they gave a special discount to SlyVisions readers? Well, Pawan (the creator of Ninja Affiliate) has also given me a chance to give SlyVisions readers a special discount for this awesome plugin. For 4 days only, ending this Friday, October 17th at 11:59 PM ET, you can purchase Ninja Affiliate not for $97, but for the discount price of only $77. You will have to use this special link if you want the special discount, so make sure you act fast!

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In the past few days, I’ve discovered a few great new blogs that are worth mentioning. This issue of Quick Links features 5 articles from 5 blogs that I have subscribed to because of their great content. Two weeks ago, I never even heard of them (but that’s just me). Now they’re in my RSS feed. Great job guys and keep up the good work!

• Adam from Creadiv tells us The Truth About Cats And Blogs
• Enkay shows us how Timestamping Is Your Friend
• Learn How to Make Your Blog Attractive to Advertisers with Franklin Bishop
• Shannon from InfectedBugs composed The 5 T’s of Blogging
• Learn 7 Effective Ways To Increase Your Technorati Authority from LinkersBlog

I’d also like to give a shout out to the top commentators to this point. We’re only 11 days through the month of October and I’m already seeing comment numbers in the double-digits from a few people. Keep it up guys (and gals)! 

• Sherry (35)
• Freddie (16)
• Danny Cooper (15)
• QuickPWN (15)
• Acai Berry Side Effects(12)
• Paunchiness (12)
• BM (10)
• akira07 (8)
• kouji (8)
• Adam - Creadiv.com(8)

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