Most of us by now have heard how blogs are search engine friendly and can supposedly pick up lots of traffic quite easily. Last month, I conducted a ‘top secret’ experiment to test this theory. Now it’s now time for me to unveil the results for you.
On April 1, 2006 I launched my Internet marketing blog, which goes by the name Sweetmantra. “Launch” is perhaps overstating the case since all I did was remove the password protection that was blocking access to the site. Only a handful of people knew I was launching the blog, and they were sworn to secrecy and told NOT to visit it.
Since I’ve spent over a decade helping people drive traffic to their Websites, it was very ironic (and at times frustrating) for me to sit on my hands for an entire month and NOT market my new baby.
The only “marketing” of Sweetmantra that I did was the following:
# Registered Sweetmantra with FeedBurner, PubSub, Feedster, and Technorati
# Added links to my new blog from a couple of Websites I have editorial control over
# Published a new post once a week
That was it!
Here’s what happened next:
Category: Online Advertising
I attended, and was a speaker at, iSummit 2006, March 29-31, 2006 in Toronto, Canada. This entry is the first of two featuring my notes from the sessions I attended.
iSummit is described as "an international entertainment and media event dedicated to the business of digital content on interactive platforms." This was a lively and intimate conference focused more on interactive content rather the underlying technology. It was also a really diverse and international crowd made up of folks from the television, interactive, technology, and marketing worlds (or unusual combinations of each). Kudos to the New Media Business Alliance and the sponsors for putting on such a stimulating event.
The 3G Experience: Signals From Around the World
- This session was devoted to the high-speed 3G mobile phone networks, coming soon (as early as this fall) to Canada but already quite popular in other parts of the world.
- In Japan, teenagers account for 70% of the 3G network revenue, most of which is pay-per-use and pay-per-view service and data offerings.
- One panelist suggested that Asia was ahead of the Australian market by 2 years, and that Australia was ahead of the US (and Canadian) market by 2 years.
- In England there are already 3-5 million 3G subscribers, depending on who you ask.
- In Italy, the most popular 3G content is ringtones (30%), ‘adult’ (25%), games (20%), TV clips (15%), music/songs (7%), sports info (3%), and ‘gossip’ content (2%).
- Speaking of TV, short video ‘digests’ are the way to go versus long-form video.
- Another interesting statistic: the typical mobile phone user changes their phone every 18 months.
- One obstacle to success with 3G phones was said to be the user interface; the easier they are made to use, the more easily the revenue will flow.
- We were shown a demonstration of Kemeleon, a very cool ‘animated messaging’ service that converts SMS messages into animated character video messages. Weird, yes, but also hugely popular with teenagers in Asia. (Apparently some of the most popular, and profitable, 3G services are completely ‘pointless’ from a rational or traditional point-of-view. Go figure.)
_Hugh Thompson is the publisher and owner of “Digital Home Canada”:http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/. He is a consultant with over 10 years of online experience working for advertising agencies, vendors and consulting directly with clients on maximizing ROI from web marketing and e-commerce initiatives. As a voice for the Canadian electronic consumer, Hugh is a frequent guest on radio and television programs across the country discussing the latest in consumer electronics and the business of convergence in the digital home._
*One Degree: Why did you start Digital Home Canada?*
Some guys like cars but my passion has always been computers and consumer electronics so I decided to create a website about the convergence of technology in the home.
*One Degree: Did you intend it to be money making venture and did you ever expect that it would become your full-time job?*
When I first created Digital Home, it was for my own enjoyment. Once Digital Home was up and running, I considered trying to turn it into a moneymaker however since it was just after 9/11 and the dot com bust, I decided against it!
For several years, Digital Home simply became a neglected hobby while I went about the business of earning a living and raising a young family.
During that time I actually shut the site down for a short period of time, however so many people emailed asking me to reconsider that finally in the Fall of 2004, I hooked up with “24/7 Canada”:http://www.247canada.com/ who agreed to provide advertising representation for Digital Home.
With advertising representation secure, I “re-launched” the site with new technology, new servers and a new approach.
In November 2004, Digital Home became a full-time endeavour for me.
*One Degree: How do people find out about your site – is most of your traffic from searchers or from regular community members?*