Keith Goodrum

Found out about a cool plugin for Wordpress today from The 30 Day Challenge. It’s really cool you can add video comments to your blog. It’s from Seesmic.com, and adds a great way to expand the interaction with readers.

I’ve been playing around with it today, and have already posted a comment on the 30 Day Challenge blog. It’s easy to post a comment with this plugin. I also found it easy to setup in the blog.

There is a nice feature to this option. Video blog comments get added to the Seesmic public time line. That means you could grab some traffic from people searching Seesmic. Cool beans.

One thing I like about this plugin is you don’t have to have an account with Seesmic. Anyone can post anonymously. Of course to prevent morons from posting insulting or spam videos you can have them held for moderation. I’m doing that for the time being.

You can grab the plugin at Seesmic’s Wiki page. On the wiki page they show you how to install it & how it works.

I’ve added a video comment to this post, so you can see how it works.

How about posting a video comment yourself?

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Popularity: 60% [?]

Wait… I know what you’re thinking? Doh! Nothing-new here… Everybody knows that Entrecard will increase web traffic. The big problem is it’s a bunch of junk traffic.

Folks just whiz by drop their card and leave. Barely stopping long enough to even notice the name of each blog. Maybe, maybe not…

What if I told you the traffic is not as junky as been reported? Would that surprise you? Or would you scoff and be on your way?

Here are 3 ways to improve quality of Entrecard traffic…

1. Drop on those who drop on you - Make a habit to drop on those that drop on you, and you’ll get repeat visitors. And repeat visitors are more likely to participate in your blog. I really noticed an upturn in my comments after doing this.
2. Buy ads in your category - Make sure to spend your credits in your category. I’ve seen some people advise to buy all the cheap ads to get your 125X125 out there.However my experience has shown that if you are advertising in your category traffic quality improves. Remember you want like-minded people coming to your blog.
3. Drop in your category - I know there are lists out there of fast loading blogs, you drop - I follow and others like these. These lists will allow you to rack up the credits fast ,and bring traffic to your blog.However unfocused dropping it why so many get “junk” traffic. It’s not really junk… it’s unfocused. You want people coming to your blog who already have an interest in the subject of your blog. Dropping in your category brings people like-minded visitors.

One thing I’ve noticed… most of the time our blogs could fit within multiple categories. I’ve found these tips work well with related categories. So, don’t limit yourself to the category your blog appears.

These 3 tips have helped increase the quality of the traffic. Plus, they have helped improve the popularity of this blog in the Entrecard categories.

Popularity: 100% [?]

This is something that has been long over due.

I submit to blog carnivals, and have had several people kind enough to publish my submission. Well it’s about time I start thanking them.

Did you know blog carnivals is a great way to help build back links? You also get traffic, but the back links are good to get. It’s easy just go to http://www.blogcarnival.com find a blog carnival that matches your blog and submit your best post from the last week.

If your post gets accepted it will be published with a back link from the blog that hosts the blog carnival.

Here are the last few places that published my submission… go check them out.

http://leadinspectors.blogspot.com/2008/05/carnival-of-leads-to-making-money.html

http://www.oibo.org/internet-business-blog-carnival-edition-11.html

http://vidacomesperanca.org/socialentrepreneurshiptoday/?p=13

http://womeninternetmarketers.com/2008/05/06/blog-carnival/

http://www.businesscreditcards.com/bootstrapper/carnival-of-business-and-entrepreneurship-18/

http://www.successpart2.com/a-make-money-blogging-carnival-april-25-2008/

Popularity: 87% [?]

Today I looked at the Alexa toolbar & saw that keithgoodrum.com broke the 200k mark. Woo-Hoo!

It’s one of the milestones I had set for this blog back in January. I thought it would take 4 or 5 months to hit this milestone, not 65 days. So, I’m thrilled to see it happen this fast.

Back in January Sam Carrara wrote a post titled Alexa Update, and mentioned he had seen a boost in his Alexa score. He then asked for people to take 3 easy steps, and post your results in the comments. As a bonus Sam generously offered to help the first 5 who commented with their Alexa ranking for 2 weeks.

The steps were easy, and almost took me 5 minutes to complete. I was the first to comment on Sam’s blog with my results. Of course it wasn’t hard to be 1st, because only one other person commented. Hard to believe that no one else took action.

Sam sent me a tip sheet, and emailed some suggestions. Nothing on the tip sheet, or any of the suggestions were difficult to complete. In fact a few of them I had already done, but I did pick up some valuable tips from Sam. He also featured this blog in one of his posts.

And how much did all of the cost me?

Nothing, it was free. Now, after the two weeks I continued to do the things I had learned. In addition I also sought out other resources to find ways to improve this blog’s Alexa score. But, most importantly I continued to take action.

Why did Sam do this? Have I ever met Sam before? Are we buddys? Neighbors? The answer is I’ve never met Sam, we’re not buddys, neighbors nor do we work together. We’ve emailed a couple times, and that’s it.

So, why did Sam do this? I can’t speak for Sam, but if I had to guess it… I’d say 3 reasons. First, Sam’s a great guy, and likes to help people. Second, he probably wanted to see if he could teach others how to improve their Alexa score. And third, I think he was having fun and enjoys what he does.

What were the rewards for Sam? Well, in the past 65 days I’ve linked back or written a post about Sam’s blog at least 4 times. I’ve added him to my blog roll. Plus I’m a regular reader of his blog, have stumbled his posts, and book marked them on social sites.

Why? Because Sam provides good content, which I enjoy reading. I’m also grateful to him for helping me learn how to improve my Alexa ranking.

Thanks, Sam.

Popularity: 56% [?]