Successful Blog

Google Zeitgeist–Will Make ME Millions

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Think everyone’s in a foul mood?
Check Google Zeitgeist it could be true.

googleblog_blogspot.com Zeitgeist

The word Zeitgeist refers to the intellectual, cultural and moral climate of an era. It’s the taste, the outlook, the spirit of the times, so to speak. I think you can have a personal Zeitgeist as well. My own has been suffering from karma-skew all through 2005. I hope to master it in 2006, and I’m looking for every tool to do so. I think Google Zeitgeist might do the trick.

Every month Google interprets the latest search data it has collected for trends, bits of information, and patterns in user searches to make a statistical snapshot in the form of a report called Zeitgeist Watch. You can find it on the Google Blog. The information gathered by Google Zeitgeist isn’t particularly new, but where they take it is. The way they’ve thought-through Zeitgeist makes it a pleasure to behold and a joy to use. Despite my wariness of big conglomerates getting bigger, I just can’t turn up my nose at this one. It’s too much fun for a strategy fanatic like me.

Basically Google Zeitgeist lets you into the minds of Google searchers–our readers. Others attempt to do that, but Google performs it in a visually-friendly, intuitive fashion. They didn’t get to be Google, after all, by making things harder, now did they? Rather than just stopping with an alphabetical list of tags, they’ve analyzed the list into patterns of like-minded choices. This makes the bigger picture stand out.

As shown above, the Zeitgeist categories for October 2005 include

  1. Look It Up
  2. Popular Brick and Mortar Companies
  3. Popular Solo Singers
  4. What Else to Do On Line

The popular search term categories for October 2005 include

  1. Top Worries
  2. Popular Sports
  3. Popular Newsmakers
  4. Tabloid Fodder

The popular Image search categoriess for October 2005 include

  1. Popular Cars
  2. Popular Wizards and Superheroes
  3. Popular Bands
  4. Tabloid Concepts

Just by checking those three lists, we have a sense of what our readers might be thinking, and what topics might be hot. Look a little further, and find that Zeitgeist covers no less than 23 other countries beyond the US. As a person who is curious and fascinated by human behavior, this is like a major Christmas toy. It’s been out for a while now. So if you’ve not played with it yet, it’s time you give Zeitgeist a try. I can see posts in the lists for almost any blog.

But first I’m going to use Google Zeitgeist to invent a Television Game Show. It will have a 20-second song for the final round question like the one that Merv Griffin did for Jeopardy. That’s how I’m going to make millions.

Heck I bet after that the famousblog read by royalty, tycoons, and the rich and famous–Blogebrity–will move me from the C List up to the prestigious A List. Then it will be Veuvre Champagne for everyone in the Signature Room at the top of the John Hancock in Chicago. I’ll be buying and flying you all in. Which might be too nice and thereby force Blogebrity to push me back to the C List again. Oh well, I was only getting 15 minutes of fame to start with.

It’s the money I need desperately. I’ve got a kid in college you know. So the millions will come in handy. My son will use them to graduate from Georgetown. One day he will be a famous CEO of a mega corporation and maybe take of his mom in her doting old age and deterioration.

Thanks for these things will be due to Google and their Zeitgeist Watch lists–the little analysis program that made all of my dreams come true. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Checklist for Starting a Directory Listing

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Have you ever thought about starting a small topical directory of blogs in your niche?

Done with consideration, a small directory of resources that you’ve hand-picked with your readers in mind can be a real service. The service, often called “pre-selection,” saves readers time when they’re looking for something they need. Here’s how to do it well.

    1. Study your niche to determine the resources your readers might find useful to have in one place.

    2. Determine the strategy for defining your listing–Will it have one or more category of resources? How many blogs do you wish to include? What choices you will make for readers? How many options will you offer them of each kind of thing? Know where and how you will set up your directory listing. Know how you will tell readers that the directory is available to them.

    3. Use the Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs here at Successful Blog or develop your own set of criteria for deciding whether a blog should be included. You want your directory to be small and to have a reputation for quality and relevance.

    4. Invite publishers of appropriate blogs to join your directory. Be prepared to explain tactfully why others in your niche might not fit in the mix. It’s important that you hold the line here, not allowing links or friendship to tempt you to include blogs outside your strategy. You always have the option to reconsider by expanding slightly once the directory is known and its reputation is established.

    5. Wait for at least three months, but begin planning how you might expand your directory list in logical ways outward from the resources you currently offer.

Keep in mind that quality needs to be top-notch as always, and you need to choose your links carefully. Your challenge is to prove that you’re not making a directory only for the links they bring.

Done right and well, however, a professional listing can offer readers a resource they come to depend on. Your own credibility will be enhanced by the value of the listing you’ve given them.

You’ve built a community center at the very same time. That can’t hurt, now can it?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

FUN Finds: How to Be a Blogging Idol

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FUN Find: How To Be A Blogging Idol Instead of An Idle Blogger by Cube Management
URL: How To Be A Blogging Idol Instead of An Idle Blogger
Type of Article: How-To, First-Person Narrative
Target Audience: Anyone interested in blogging and reader behavior; Fans of Bo Bice and the TV show American Idol

cubemanagement_com

Content: To be successful at Search Engine Optimization, it’s important that you continually test out new theories and ideas. begins this how-to article. It goes on to describe how the “first person” behind this first-person narrative started a blog for each contestant on American Idol to test SEO Theory. The goal of the project was to have 1-2 sustainable blogs in place with massive traffic by the final show.

The writer divides information into Beginner Lessons:

  • Have a narrow focus.
  • Build a content base.
  • Post several times a week.
  • Use ads if appropriate.

and Advanced Techniques:

  • Blog and Ping.
  • Use conventional link building.
  • Use press release.
  • Actively solicit posts.

Two techniques this test used–building blogs that would die and using link trading markets–are not strategies that I’d sign my name to. However, this article presents an interesting story to support the writer’s claim that One doesn’t need to be a SEO ace to be able to create a blog that can generate a large number of visitors. It’s an interesting test to follow.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Fun Find: DONTCLICK.IT

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Great Find: DONTCLICK.IT by Institute for Interactive Research
URL: www.dontclick.it
Target Audience: Anyone interested in web interfaces and interactivity

Content: The Institute has packed more information than first meets the eye when you enter this award-winning, flash-driven website. Everywhere you mouse over you will find options to learn and invesigate without ever needing to click.

Dont click it

You can play a game called Housecamp. It’s a bit addictive and not easy. You can cast your vote for clickless interactivity and try out several types of clickless button interfaces. You can explore the history of computers, leave a message in the crowd of visitors, and much, much more. Look for something behind every word you see. In the experiment lab, you can replay how others moved through the site. This website is like a giant puzzle. Enjoy and explore at the same time.

Be sure to mouse over the gold seal on the opening screen before you go in.

Who knows? There may come a day when the words click here will be history.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Why Didn’t WE Comment?

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. . . Successful Blog is a community blog where every voice is welcomed and every contribution is valued.–MES

Except last night most of the Succesful Blog community wasn’t heard.

Remember when I said this on December 4th?

I can talk about building community by answering comments relentlessly, but it’s so much more powerful when I do it, and my readers actually experience how it feels. . . .

I was talking about Successful Blog as a place where we try out practices and test how they work–where you can see my shining successes and flaming-out failures. See blogging-in-action and analyze the consequences–Successful Blog as Community Test Blog, so to speak.

What better use for a community blog than to use it
to try out what works and to see how to fix what doesn’t work?

Some folks might think that last night’s discussion was a screaming success.
But when I think of my readers, I’m not so sure.

We have been talking about why people don’t comment. Now I think many of us have experienced a reason or two for ourselves. It’s as if a bunch of new readers rented the community hall for a party last night. A few of us came, but the rest of us kept our distance. The new visitors were welcome and wonderful, and I hope they all come back. Their intent wasn’t to quiet us, but that’s what happened. Isn’t it?

So many who discussed Brian’s article chose not to hang out this time–so many of the same voices went without a word.

What a great case study–right here in real life. Are you as curious about this as I am? It’s an experience worth exploring. There’s something here worth learning about.

What do you think happened last night?

What could I have done differently to bring your voices in?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Five Design Basics to Never Forget

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Blog design is a lot like a book cover. It’s our first impression. A promise of what’s still to come. Before they read a word or take in the title, readers have formed an opinion of our blogs based on the design.

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” might be what they tell you. Reality is that covers sell books, and designs draw in readers. Great content and useful design keeps readers coming back for more, but first-glance design is what gets them to try us.

What are the five design basics never to forget?

  • Put the title where I can see it and a subtitle explaining what the blog is about. Sounds obvious, but we’ve all been to blogs where we couldn’t find the title. More often we’ve been to blogs where the title just wasn’t enough. Does Mary muse about music or about mathematics? It makes a difference to whether I want to read her. It won’t make me a reader not to tell me. I’m going to find out.
  • Please tell me about yourself. Tell me who you are, writer. Blogs are special in their person-to-person connectedness. I read blogs because I like that about them. I can ignore it, if I don’t care about it, but I can’t make it up, if it’s not there. Don’t take that choice away from me.
  • Choose a color palette that goes together. Don’t let fighting colors distract me from what I should be paying attention to. If you’re artfully challenged, there are tools that can help.

    Image-Based Color Palette Generator

    Monochromatic Color Palette Generator

    Colour Lovers–Great Color Palettes Already Developed

    • Colors that are meant to go together make the environment comfortable and inviting–one worth spending time in.

  • Less is more, and simple is elegant. Put what you think I need. Then take half away. White space is good. It gives me room to think. Lack of it crowds me. It confuses my eyes and makes me want to leave. I like my space, like most people do.
  • Form follows function. You might have heard this one. It means that everything should be there for a reason–in this case for me, the reader. If it’s not, let it go. Things without function get in my way–they get between me and what you’re trying to tell me. I don’t want to fight to hear what you have to say.

The key to design is that it adds value to readers’ experience without calling unnecessary attention to itself. Like a great music score, you sense it and feel it. It carries you along as if it knows right where you want to go.

–Me “Liz” Strauss