Archive for the Category »Reviews «

Jun

Book And Product Reviews Generate Traffic

Reviews of any kind (paid or unpaid) are great ways for bloggers to generate traffic.

Today’s Lesson

Product and/or book reviews can help to increase traffic (to our blogs), and may even make us a few coins in the process.

Although I don’t do many product reviews on this blog, I have done a fair share on my Observation Mountain (OM) blog.

What I’ve found works best with product/book reviews, is to have the name of the product/book somewhere in the title.

We all know using keywords and/or keyword phrases is important to get your blog post indexed by the search engines, and for reviews to get found, it’s essential.

Here’s a product review I did on my OM blog that continues to get traffic.

The title is: Product Review: Ecos Laundry Detergent

Buying a “natural” laundry detergent like Ecos , is great for the environment. It’s biodegradable, safe for septic systems, great for sensitive skin, and is phosphate and petrochemical free.

Ecos laundry detergent is a plant based detergent.

I’ve used this product for approximately a year now, and find it works great at getting clothes clean. For stains, you can rub a small amount of the detergent on the stain, and wash as per washing instructions. It’s great for colors, and safe for all water temperatures.

Price per load is slightly higher than regular detergents, however, with it’s built in fabric softener (soy based), you save money on buying an additional fabric softener.

Ecos suggests using 2 ounces of detergent for a full load of clothes, and less for smaller loads. If you’re using a high efficiency (HE) washer, you only need 2 tablespoons.

I recently purchased a 210 fluid ounce bottle of the Ecos laundry detergent (Ultra Original Formula) at Costco. It’s scented with magnolia and lily, which leaves your clothes smelling fresh.

The best part of this product…I can pronounce all of the ingredients. Now, that’s natural.

And, making it even better…………….it’s made in the USA. Considering that, I give it, two thumbs up.

Want to read more about Ecos. go to Earth Friendly Products, at www.ecos.com.

I do not write product reviews to bash products. If I do find something negative about a product I use, I try to find a positive to balance the negative. Note: in the above product review I wrote,

Price per load is slightly higher than regular detergents, however, with it’s built in fabric softener (soy based), you save money on buying an additional fabric softener.

I’m telling my readers they will initially pay more, but in the end, will save by not buying fabric softener.

You may ask, “why would you write a product/book review if you don’t get paid for it?”

1) I like to share my finds with others
2) It’s a way to get traffic to my blog
3) Since I have Google AdSense on my OM blog, after reading the review, a visitor might click on one of my ads and I’ll make a coin or two.

It’s a win-win. Others find great products, and I feel good about sharing. The money aspect is an added benefit.

When reviewing or writing about books, I use Amazon’s affiliate program (they sell more than just books). If someone clicks on your ad and completes a sale through Amazon’s shopping cart, you make a small percentage of the sale. You can see evidence of how I used Amazon at the top of this post.

Catherine recently wrote a post regarding the impact product reviews have on companies, and how many companies dismiss negative comments on their forums/blogs. To read more about this, check out her post titled: Don’t Preach To The Wrong Audience

Today’s Assignment

Do you, or have you done product/book reviews? Paid or Unpaid?

If so, did it help your traffic numbers? Sales?

Do you read and believe the reviews you read online?

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Reviews Tags: adsense, Blogging, Blogs, google 25 Comments

Nov

HitTail Results In More Traffic

Barbara Swafford

Several weeks ago, I wrote about how to use keywords and keyword phrases , and how I had signed up for HitTail.

It took awhile to accumulated enough HitTail “keywords”, and for the long tail to grow.

Today’s Lesson

I carefully studied the keywords that HitTail produced, as well as the long tail.

In the beginning, I found, that based on search results (keyword, keyword phrases, and the long tail), I would have to write, what I would consider to be a duplicate post.

I waited awhile longer, and then used one of my “keyword phrases” (which are not extremely popular), and wrote a “review”. This enabled me to write a post, word it in a manner that wouldn’t be construed as duplicate content, and wait for the results.

Amazingly, my post soon started getting hits. When I checked, it has ended up on the first page for most search engine results.

So…..HitTail works!

What I also like about HitTail is, if you go to the “search hits”, it tells you which search engine your reader used. So, even if your post was not on the first page for Google, it may have been, for one of the other search engines.

Today’s Assignment

If you haven’t yet tried HitTail, give it a try.

If you have HitTail installed, write a post using either a “keyword”, “keyword phrase”, or a keyword or phrase from your “long tail”

Watch your stats for the next week or two, then come back and share your experience with using HitTail.

Good Luck!

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Increase Traffic, Keywords, Reviews Tags: Blogging, google 4 Comments

Aug

Review – Sitemeter Statistical Data

Barbara Swafford

Sitemeter is one of many statistical data reporting services for bloggers and webmasters.

When one of my “Blogging Buddies”, mentioned they were using Sitemeter, I decided to give it a try. I was pleasently surprised at the detailed information Sitemeter provides.

Sitemeter contains:

1) Updated stats which shows “who’s on”

2) A map of where your visitors are coming from

3) A traffic prediction based on your current traffic trends

4) Recent visitors, by details, referrals, location, out clicks, entry and exit pages

5) Visits for the current day, previous 7 and 30 days, and previous 12 months

6) Visits and page views for the current day, previous 7 and 30 days, and previous 12 months

7) Page ranking of entry and exit pages

8.) Navigation trends, location tracking, visitor tracking and web browsers

Sitemeter has great maps and graphs, and is a superb tracking tool to help, in watching the growth of your site.

To download Sitemeter to your site, inserting HTMl code is necessary. Once inserted, you’ll see the Sitemeter logo. (You can see mine at the bottom of this post). By clicking on the logo, you will be directed to Sitemeter.

Once you have installed Sitemeter, you can change the privacy level. If set to high, and a reader clicks on the Sitemeter logo, they will be directed to Sitemeter’s home page. If the privacy level is set lower, your readers will be able to see your stats when they click on the logo.

For a free download of Sitemeter, go to www.sitemeter.com. or click on the Sitemeter logo. Sitemeter also offers a “premium service” which offers additonal data reporting information, for a small monthly fee.

Category: Archives, Reviews, Stats Tags: Blogging, Page Rank 2 Comments

Apr

Product Review: WordPress

Barbara Swafford

When I first decided to set up a blog, I did quite a bit of research on the internet about “blog” sites. In a lot of the blogs I read, the authors said they use WordPress. I didn’t know one blog “software” from another, so I, too, decided to go with WordPress. Has it been easy? Not for me, as I am truly a novice. But, now it’s almost three weeks later, my head has stopped spinning, and I love how easy it is to write posts, add categories, change themes, etc.

I still have tons to learn, but find that if I do a search on WordPress, I can usually find the answer. It takes me longer as I am still learning more of the computer language, but I’m trying to be easy on myself and realize I can’t learn it all overnight.

If you’re thinking of starting a blog, check out WordPress. I know there are other programs out there, so check those out too. Be informed of your choices. I didn’t sign up for “an instant blog”, so I probably make it harder on myself. I’m taking blogging seriously, so I wanted to start from the ground floor. Since I love to learn, I figure this will help me to expand my knowledge base, and in the process of posting to my blog, maybe help others as they enter the world of blogging.

If you’re looking for technical information about blogging, check out those I have listed in my Blogroll. I admire all of them for sharing so much information, and it’s all free. They’ll all go far.

And if all else fails and your head won’t stop spinning from all you’re learning, take a break and get yourself a new pair of shoes.