Discussions
Shameless Blog Promotion Poll
Posted by MadameX • 9/21/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: links, Marketing, shameless blog promotion, traffic
There's been a good bit of discussion, today and at other points, about the appropriate parameters for Shameless Blog Promotion...but does it work?
I've been on BC for about 2.5 years now, and although I have gotten traffic from the occasional Shameless Blog Promotion, most of my BC traffic comes from people clicking through to my profile, not to a particular post that I've referenced.
Anybody find SBPs to be a big traffic generator? How does it compare to other traffic you get from BC?
User Comments
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I just always do SBP even if I don't link to my post. I just view it as the 'safe' way to travel so I don't catch any slack from other members.-
as if anyone here would give you a hard time. Srsly. -
Doll, you are the bane of my existence.
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I rarely throw up a link because of the cops. It's easier just to describe something you may know or may have written about, and if the others are interested, they can find it. And if they are not smart enough to find it, they can ask.
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From checking stats: BC makes up 7.52% of my traffic.
Hits from BC in order of popularity
1. BC profile - Profile page and Blog page
2. BC Broadcasts
3. BC shameless Blog promotion - Hits from this have been mainly from google searches that found discussions, not when discussions were actually active.-
Thanks, Claire. #s 1 and 3 are consistent with my experience; I don't think I've ever broadcast anything.
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I usually use broadcasts to do a blog round up of the week or month, so include a few links to latest posts, I presume that with broadcasts only the people that want to read, read it.
Also I think broadcasts would work well for those that don't want to actually discuss the post on here maybe?
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I gave up posting Shameless Blog Promotions because they did not prove to be an effective means of promoting my posts here at BC, and increasing the readers and comments made on my posts. In fact, I saw a reverse pattern developing. Members posted many comments to the thread but did not click into read the actual post, and did not post their lengthy and meaningful comments made in the thread into the comment boxes below the post I was promoting.
I witnessed new Shameless Blog Promotion posts being threadjacked by thread sitters having private off-topic discussions. I also witnessed many old SBP being resurrected for link dropping purposes.
Finally, I decided that Shameless Blog Promotions were not effective, so I switched to using Broadcasts instead.
P.S. My data is very much like Claire's. -
I don't think I've done more than one or two SBP's most of my traffic comes from links from other blogs, followers, and people clicking on my profile leading to my blog, most my traffic comes outside BC as I am not on here much anymore -
I like the SBP's because it's a quick way to alert my forum friends that I have a new post. Also, I enjoy the sensation of temporarily being in the spotlight. I don't really care how much traffic it promotes.-
I'm curioys. Does most of your BC traffic come from people clicking your username to your profile page? Does it come from BC searches? Or does it come from particular posts referenced in Shameless Blog Promotions threads?
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I'm curious. Does most of your BC traffic come from people clicking your username to your profile page and then clicking through to your blog? Does it come from BC searches? Does it come as a result of the shouts you leave in members shoutboxes? Or does it come from particular posts referenced in Shameless Blog Promotions threads?
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TT-I'm not sure. Probably the least from BC searches; the most from shoutbox messages, broadcasts, SBP's, new friends I'm making, old friends I've made-who seem to be interested in my writing. I don't know if they're clicking through my username because I never keep track of that.
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Depending on the topic, and how active the discussion ends up being, I do get a number of visits from Shameless Blog Promotions.
Usually there are the ones immediately associated with the topic being active. And then there are ones that come in dribs and drabs over the next few months as people searching for that topic on BC find it and click through.
As I'm a pretty low key individual on the boards, not making a ton of noise, I have a lot better shot at people seeing what my posts are about because of it.-
I will say, as a reader, I always enjoy your SBP posts to this board, TSR. I think yours are a great example of the way they should be used. -
Oh, I'm glad.
Often when I've been thinking about a topic I've blogged about, I'm really happy to have folks here chime in about it. Sometimes just even to share a collective "what on earth IS THAT about?" moment. -
On the other hand, Jenn, you're one of a handful of people here whose blog I've clicked through to based solely on your discussion contributions. Low key doesn't mean you're not attracting attention--quality, not volume, counts.
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Well, that's interesting info to know... Thank you.
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I do think that is mainly because of the effort that you make on here to make the post interesting and engaging. I wish everybody followed your example.
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I find this very interesting because I am new here and have been wondering quite a bit about Shameless Blog Promotions. My blog is not informative or particularly current or thought provoking. My traffic such as it is comes mainly from accident key word searches. -
Usually, I get more traffic when I don't post a discussion. I just write in the forum. That's for a normal topic. If I say I have pictures of my house then I get a lot of traffic. -
Fascinating conversation. I am not a fan of Shameless Blog Promotion because shameless is subjective.
I am interested in learning about new members, interesting blogs and posts.
Perhaps something along the lines of
"Me and My Blog Intro." may lead to more interesting posts.-
Maybe folks could help brainstorm a new title for it that would work better than the Shameless one.
There's gotta be something short and catchy that would say what it needs to. -
Show and Tell?
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That's certainly in the spirit of it.
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TonyB said: I am interested in learning about new members, interesting blogs and posts.
So do I and perhaps renaming the category will produce better results but I'm no convinced it will.
MadameX suggested: Show and Tell.
Yes, maybe "show and tell" that would be a better choice.
Observations
I sometimes get the idea some members think the BC community consists of only forum regulars and wonder why that is.
I know how to use the Search utility to locate members, their blogs and interesting posts.
There are over 200,000 members and most do not post to the forum at all. It's a good thing they don't because most active bloggers publish frequently, and if each BC member posted a "show and tell - SBP" for every new post they publish there would be no space for anything else on the front page of the forum.
Currently some forum regulars are using General Discussion threads as a way of promoting every new blog post they publish minus a link. Doesn't this practice actually duplicate what SBPs were originally for? If so then perhaps that suggests there really isn't a need for a separate category for SBP (show and tell). -
Much depends on what you're looking for. For me, the search utility is virtually useless, because I am not particularly interested in finding blogs by subject or keyword. The only common thread among the blogs I read is engaging writing. For instance, I would never in a million years have looked for a humor blog or a crafting/home decor blog, but I greatly enjoy both of Jenn's blogs because she's an excellent writer with an interesting perspective. I learned that by reading her comments in these forums...not SBPs in particular, just the glimpse of her writing/perspective that came through here. The same is true for Mark Stoneman's history blog--another topic I would not have been likely to go looking for.
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Re: not looking for blog blogs by subject or keyword
Good point. It was also Jenn's and Marks' posts to the forum (threads and comments), and not particularly in Shameless Blog Promotion threads that interested me enough to click their usernames and locate their blogs. -
Well, I'm happy you both did, either way.
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I've found that regular BC discussions do a better job attracting traffic to my blogs then SBP, although if I want particular people to look at a particular blogpost, usually just because I want them to hear in full detail what I have to say about that particular subject, it can work well for that.-
It's interesting that you find your contributions made in threads that were not in the SBP category attract more traffic.
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my biggest amount of bc hits come from SBP, at least according to wp stats. My bc stats are messed up because they link to an old blog-
Thanks for sharing that information.
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Flip. Wish polybore had read this before posting a relatively rare polybore shameless blog promotion topic.
Polybore only really uses the shamless option when the topic is inextricably linked to a polybore blog post. That is usually when polybore thinks that BC members will find the information genuinely usefull but the only source for the information is the polybore blog.
Essentially the rule of thumb polybore uses is if the topic contains a link to the polybore blog then it becomes shameless. SBP don't really generate a huge amount of traffic (except one polybore did on how to make an animated gif for your blog) but that is not really why polybore does them. Just sharing and complying with the TOS.
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