New Version of Woopra Released

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Example of Woopra geographical map to track visitors liveThe web analytics program, , that generated massive enthusiasm when John Pozadzides presented it at WordCamp Dallas, will release a new beta version on Friday along with thousands of requests for access granted.

“We are excited to be able to extend the Woopra Real Time Analytics service to an additional 10,000 users beginning Friday April 25,” said Jad Younan, CTO of iFusion Labs. “The infrastructure has been holding up well for the roughly 4,000 users who have been on the system the last few weeks, and this is the next step in our phased approach as we scale the business.”

Elie Khoury, iFusion Labs’ CIO, added, “In addition to the mass approvals for Webmasters who have been waiting patiently, we will be releasing a new version of the Woopra client application with bug fixes and a number of new features.”

Layered Technologies and 3Tera are providing 100 grid-servers to Woopra to handle the sudden demand from the early release of the beta version at WordCamp Dallas, and by this weekend, the numerous requests for Woopra invitations will be granted on a first come, first serve basis along with the release of the latest version.
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Google frees Website Optimizer from Adwords – launches free independent service

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Yesterday, at ad:tech, Google announced that it has launched its Website Optimizer application as a separate independent service – no longer dependent on the use of AdWords in order to access the service:

Today at the ad:tech conference in San Francisco, Google Website Optimizer™ launched out of beta as an independent product. Formerly a feature within the Google AdWords™ advertising service only, this free website-testing tool is now accessible through its own website (http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer) as well. In addition, Google’s Website Optimizer has introduced its own blog (http://websiteoptimizer.blogspot.com).

Google Website Optimizer helps improve user experience on the Web by showing its users what their visitors want to see. Rather than debating or guessing how a webpage might look best, users can continually test different combinations of website content, such as images and text, to see which one yields the most sales, sign-ups, leads or other goals.

For professional bloggers seeking to improve conversion and gain other data about their users, the website optimizer is a great tool to use.

Google releases guide on how to move your site

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Many of us have moved our blogs to different domains or URLs in the past – in that process, we’ve taken some various steps in the hopes that Google will quickly pickup the blog at its new location and index it properly.

Rather than guessing on what the best practices are to move a blog – Google has released a guide at their webmaster blog outlining the best practices to follow when moving your site.

Your aim is to make the transition invisible and seamless to the user, and to make sure that Google knows that your new pages should get the same quality signals as the pages on your own site. When you’re moving your site, pesky 404 (File Not Found) errors can harm the user experience and negatively impact your site’s performance in Google search results.

If You Don’t Write With Keywords, Will It Hurt Your Blog?

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Recently, I got the following comment on :

I just set up my blog and I am still trying to get everything in line. When I write original content, does it have to be about the subject of my blog? Will it hurt to have content not related to the title and keywords of my blog? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

My first thought was “whose going to hurt whom?” Honestly, who are you hurting if you don’t blog right? You.

If you don’t care about monetization, getting found, establishing a reputation or expertise, and your blog is not your resume, then who cares? No one is hurt because your blog is all for you and no one else that influences your ability to pay your rent.

If your blog’s purpose is to make money and establish your professional online reputation, by not blogging with search term, keyword-rich content in a consistent form within your blog’s purpose and intent that puts the reader first, you are the only one hurting you.

There are two answers I can give to this person.
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Business School for Bloggers: How to Make Money With Your Blog

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I am frequently asked about how to make money on the web, especially how to make money with your blog. I find a wide variety of answers around the web, some of them get rich quick schemes, PageRank games, and SEO illusions, but there is only one answer that I want to shout to the roofs, but few people listen.

Blogging as a business is business. It takes business training and skills to make money with your blog.

That’s it. That’s the secret. John Chow, Guy Kawawasaki, Darren Rowse, Seth Godin, these princes of blogging didn’t get rich with their blogs by just having blogs. They used their business sense and know how to make their blogs work for them. They understood that a blog is just another tool in the business arsenal, a business card and resume all wrapped up in one, offering a business a powerful communications tool. In order to make your blog work for you, you have to understand how business works.

To have a “successful” blog and to make your blog work for you, you have to have skills and training in advertising, marketing, economics, finance, writing ability and language skills, public relations, networking, everything any business needs. These are the skills you bring it to your blog to make it a success, earning the money you deserve.
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Publishing Article Series Tips and Techniques

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Excerpt reprinted with permission from the book, “Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging”, by Lorelle VanFossen

Writing a series of articles is a great way to connect related content together. It is also a great attention-getter, encouraging readers to return for the next installment.

On a blog, an article series must be planned in order to maximize its effectiveness. There must be enough advance time to spread the word of the upcoming series.
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Survey: Content Sharing & Meme Transmission Online

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Dan Zarella, a friend of mine from Boston, is conducting an online survey in regards to how we share content and meme transmission online through tools like blogs, Facebook, social media tools, forums, and other methods.

Dan’s a great guy who has been into blogs and SEO for quite some time – it’ll be interesting to see what his survey data tells him. Hopefully, you’ll get to read about it here at The Blog Herald.

Take Dan’s Survey.

Update: Dan now has a post up with more information on the survey.

How to Help Immunize Your Site Against Scraping

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Scraping is one of the most annoying things that bloggers have to deal with. It can hurt their search engine ranking, cause confusion among readers and cause them to unwittingly help spammers line their pockets.

Nobody likes being scraped but it seems that some sites are able to survive it relatively unscathed while others are bumped clean out of the search engines, almost instantly replaced by the spammers that take their content.

So how do you ensure that the damage caused by scrapers are kept to an absolute minimum? There is no secret formula, but there are a few tricks that seem to work very well.

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Blogging is About Writing – and Not

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Blogging is about writing. That is a fact. You can video blog, podcast, and do all kinds of fun things with your blog, but it is the writing that makes or breaks a blog. What you say in the blog posts, descriptions of visual and audio elements, and what words you offer search engines for their indexing to help people find your blog.

However, blogging is not just about the writing, albeit it is a large part. Blogging today is about so much more. Are you ready? Do you know all the things you have to know about blogging before you start blogging? Or after?

Whether you are a new blogger or long time blogger, these are the things you are going to have to learn about in order to blog in today’s world.
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Bird Feeders and Blogs: How Are You Luring Birds to Your Blog?

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Cat looking out window - photograph copyright Lorelle VanFossenI have several bird feeders outside my window. My cats pass much of their day sprawled across my desk watching the birds feed. The window is covered with paw prints. I have a hummingbird feeder for the Anna’s hummers that pass through on their migration north and south, as well as the rare rufous hummingbirds which hang around year round. I have tiny seeds for the small birds, wrens, finches, chickadees, junkos, and sparrows, and larger black oil sunflower seeds and other goodies in another feeder for the spotted towhees, nuthatches, and northern flickers. On a fence, I have mounted a wooden box with a lid filled with dried corn, peanuts, and sunflower seeds for the squirrels and chipmunks to dig into with glee.

Each feeder is designed to service specific birds. A flat screen feeder that attaches to my office window allows ground feeders to land and feed. The hanging feeders have branch-like posts for the birds to land on and pull seeds from the holes in the side of the feeder. For small birds, I keep some feeders stuffed with thistle and niger, restrained with a smaller hole through which they can insert their beaks like breaking into a tree crevice or nut and extracting the seeds.
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