SiteSell Blog

About Blog Directories

Ken's Blog

The topic of "blog directories" is something making the Webmaster forum rounds lately.

We predicted years ago that directories would become less and less important, that even the mighty Yahoo! (way back when, their directory was more important than any Search Engine) would not be able to keep up with algorithm-based Search Engines that will only get faster, more complete and smarter with time (directories, by contrast, are human-reviewed).

Sure enough, even Yahoo!'s directory delivers near-zero traffic nowadays. That, believe it or not, was the original goal of submission, just like listing in the engines. But that is history forever. There may be the exceptional niche directory, but nowadays you list in good directories only to get a quality inbound link or three (i.e., as part of your site's Inbound Link Program).

However, if you can easily afford the $299, it's still probably worth listing at Yahoo!'s directory as part of your link program (even though Google no longer specifically mentions Yahoo! by name). If you can't afford the fee, don't bother. There are tons of ways to build inbound links and you only need enough to get the traffic "snowball" started.

Now let's talk about directories and blog directories for a second...

In Defense of Blogging AND In Self-Defense vs. Flashy Hares

Ken's Blog

I just read the following article in WIRED, titled...

"Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004"

The title pretty much says it all, but the article is worth a read (not for the content, but for the lessons we'll talk about). As I read it, it reminded me of when I was a medical student.

There were certain classmates of mine who really rubbed me the wrong way. Super-self-absorbed, always (subtly) bragging about the latest and greatest procedure they had done, about some big-name professor who "loved" them, always self-portraying as very, very cool and authoritative. Meanwhile...

How Do You Find an Up-and-Coming Niche?

Ken's Blog

How do you find an up-and-coming niche? By thinking of it as real estate. Would you buy "up-and-coming" real estate in an area you don't know?

Of course not, it may be "going nowhere" real estate. But my best investments have been real estate in places that I know and love. When you know a place, opportunities arise. They are about as high-return and low-risk as is possible in the investment arena.

Before I had much money, as a medical student I paid my way through school by playing cards in Las Vegas (I'm not a gambler, just good at math). Janice and I used to drive down to Miami Beach for vacations. We knew both locations well (30 years ago now, phew!). I can remember telling her, "Geez, I wish we had money. These would be the best investments we'd ever make." And indeed, they have gone up in value by a multiple of 100 at least (even with the latest downturn)!

New Yorkers make money by picking the next part of Manhattan (and now the next borough!) that they believe will become discovered and go up in value. Those who are the most tuned-in do very well.

Now... think of your niche as a piece of e-real-estate. In a sense, that's exactly what it is. It's a concept. It's in people's minds. It's what they are searching for. So...

Does Anyone Have a Great Twitter Example?

Ken's Blog

I've been having a fun exchange with twitterers over at Twitter.You can see my posts there at...

http://twitter.com/KEvoy

Before I was "tweeting," I didn't see it as a useful adjunct for building business. I just didn't. But I kept hearing it, so the only way to really understand is to do it. Now that I've set up my own Twitter spot and am twitting (does that make me a twit?), I still don't see it.

I certainly don't see anything I can do there to help grow SiteSell. It's just not time-efficient, not compared to what I could otherwise be doing.

I can see the "fun" in it. But I'd rather socialize and help grow businesses here. Otherwise, I'd rather socialize offline, where I'm not typing!

But a mini-industry has grown up on the "secrets of using Twitter to grow your business." They include such great ideas as subscribing to 40,000 other twitterers so that they subscribe to you. Twitter spam. Everyone not reading someone else's tweets. Wow. That's going to work.

The response at Twitter has been...

How Discovery Is Different Than Search

Ken's Blog

Matt Cutts, while discussing the new Google Blogsearch...

http://blogsearch.google.com/

... brought up a really interesting point.

Discovery is different than search.

With Stumbleupon and other Social Media, including BlogSearch (which folks will RSS-subscribe to, to get political feeds or whatever), it's more about discovery. You "stumble" onto interesting new sites.

But when folks search, the vast majority won't use BlogSearch (only the small percentage of super-savvy and techs, but we have to remember the mass market). They'll use Google. If they are searching for news-type articles - or I should say if that's what Google thinks they are searching for - they'll include a couple of news sources in the Top 10 of their "Universal Search" results, just as they would include some images or videos if they thought those were relevant.

But when surfers use Stumbleupon or Delicious or subscribe to Yahoo! Buzz...