Blog Promotion With Alan Johnson
One of the fastest growing blogs on the internet is TheRatingBlog. Created by Alan Johnson, it has become a benchmark for fast, steady growth and has been an inspiration not only for me, but many others. Known as a tireless commenter, Alan’s success can be traced to a no-nonsense approach to building traffic, a willingness to share his thoughts and ideas, and a relentless drive to promote. These qualities attribute to a 950% increase in traffic over the last 3 months according to Alexa. More than willing to do an interview, I asked Alan a few questions that if taken to heart, can help you take your blog to the next level -
Nate : Do you consider yourself more of a teacher, or a motivator?
Allan : As a blogger, you have to be a little bit of both and that’s exactly
what I am doing with TheRatingBlog.com. One the one hand, the results
I am experiencing are definitely motivating and help me prove that it can be done… while, on the other hand, with my articles and podcasts,
I am constantly answering the “how can it be done?” question.Nate : What goals did you set for your blog on day one?
Alan : Building a community around my blog has been the most important one and I have to say that it’s great to see that things are on the right track. Aside from that, here are a few other important goals for 2008:
- crossing the 100k unique monthly visits mark, crossing the 10k RSS
subscribers mark, and having my ebook read by at least 50k people.Nate : How have your goals changed at this point?
Alan : Since my blog is only about 3 months old, they haven’t changed yet. But since it seems that I will be able to reach my goals for 2008 way
before December, setting higher ones will be in order.Nate: You get a fair amount of criticism. How do you deal with it?
Alan : Receiving criticism is perfectly natural, it comes with the territory
as a blogger. I always appreciate constructive criticism while, on the
other hand, when a person says something just for the sake of it and
has no intention of contributing with something constructive, taking
him or her seriously would simply be foolish.Nate : What is your biggest weakness as a blogger, and how do you overcome it?
Alan : I have to admit that I used to be a notorious perfectionist, but since
such an attitude can keep you from maximizing results as far as
productivity is concerned, it had to go.Nate : In ONE sentence, tell my readers how to make more money from their blogs.
Alan : There’s no need for an entire sentence, one word will suffice: “value”
He hit the nail on the head…..provide value for your readers and you will become an asset to them. I would love to hear your feedback on what he had to say…
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March 21st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Great interview! I like that final word — value. That is the bottom line on how to make money.
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March 21st, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Yes, it’s another way of saying what I have said in the past….that you need to be an asset for your readers.
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Luke reply on April 1, 2008:
Speaking of value, when’s your next post?
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Nate reply on April 4, 2008:
HA!!!…..sorry, I’m back.
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March 22nd, 2008 at 4:06 am
Nice work buddy, and good advice, Alan. It’s very hard work to become an asset and diferentiate yourself from thousands of other blogs on the same subject. But it’s worth trying
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March 22nd, 2008 at 7:03 am
Feel free to ask alan a few quetions here….I’ll see if I can get him to wander over and answer them for you.
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March 22nd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
So many questions… here’s some. What plugins would you say are a must for a blog, how to make people subscribe to your feed, how to really get traffic from Technorati, Stumble Upon, Digg and others, how to make a niche blog attractive for anybody not just those in the niche, how to advertise for your blog with little money… Just a few that came to mind right now. Believe me, I have waaay more
Thank you Nate and Alan
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March 22nd, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Hi there, glad you’ve found the interview useful and Anca, regarding your questions:
#1 - as far as plugins are concerned, I would recommend a title tag one, one for avoiding duplicate content and, why not, even one for meta tags at the very least for SEO purposes (while WP is a great platform, a little tweaking never hurts). I’d also recommend implementing a threaded comments plugin and the “top commentators” one (since it enables you to reward the most active members of your community) and, of course, plugins for avoiding spam. Aside from that, it depends on what you and most importantly your visitors find useful
#2- I’ve posted an article today as well as two others where I’ve explained how I’ve gained over 1k subscribers in 4 weeks/2k subscribers in 7 weeks which I’m convinced you’ll find useful
#3 - it all boils down to providing value and to creating content worth promoting in the first place because, no matter what angle you choose to view the situation from, promoting a poor product will always be a lot harder than promoting a good one. And, of course, you will have to be an active member of the community in question and provide value through your presence there as well. Remember the answer to my last question?
#4 - you have to “sell” the niche in question. Let’s assume that a person who is not necessarily familiar with your niche visits your blog. In that case, it’s all a matter of having content which makes the visitor in question want to learn more and, of course, stick around.
#5 - from Social Media Optimization and Search Engine Optimization to blog commenting and guest posting, the possibilities are virtually endless and that brings us right back to my answer to Nate’s last question
Best wishes,
Alan Johnson
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March 23rd, 2008 at 4:02 am
Alan, I couldn’t have asked for more. Thank you so much, I’m off to explore your blog!
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March 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 am
[…] and Nate have interviewed me over at their […]
March 26th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Wow alan, very insightful. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Nate, I find much value in your blog and anca’s as well. Value is the key word here.
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Anca reply on March 26, 2008:
Chandler, thanks. I really appreciate your kind words and I feel you like a friend. Good luick to you too
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Nate reply on April 4, 2008:
Thank you, Chandler….i’m back and can hopefully help some more.
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