Soon after one starts blogging, the fact that just posting the entries and waiting for an indefinite “them” to come is not really working well hits you. Posts need exposure, especially for new blogs that don’t have an established readership. Even when we’re talking about a well known blog, the audience has its preferences when it comes to where they like to receive the latest updates. And Facebook is one of those places where you can reach a lot of new or returning visitors.

As it happens with any other social media channel, the blog author’s connections are limited. But their readers come with their own friends that might be interested in what the blogger has to say. So making it easy for them to share your fresh stories on Facebook is important. You’re faced with two options – going for the Facebook Share button or choosing the Facebook Like or Recommend button that’s so popular right now.

Most times, Share buttons are placed at the beginning of the post. They’re easy to spot and a visitor shares the story with a few clicks. Recommend or Like buttons are usually smaller and harder to spot, especially when there are no prior recommendations. Yet when a few people have already clicked the like button, you’ll see how many of them have done so and if they are people in your network, their photos will also appear.

The names of those who have already recommended the story add credibility. If your friends, the people whose updates you follow, think this story is worth reading and sharing, it probably is. The one seeing the recommendations will more likely read and share it.

It’s also important to note that a single click on the Facebook Like button is a lot easier than a Share. People find it fast and painless and don’t think of it as a big effort. They just push the button and continue to read the story or its comments.

If you’re inclined to choose the Like button, you now need to consider Facebook visibility! A simple like comes with a quick update on the Facebook feeds saying X likes the Z story. A share comes with a link to the story, an excerpt and eventually a photo. If the person sharing it adds their comments, they will also show up on their wall and in their friends news streams.

The trick is the Facebook Like button also allows visitors to add their comments and share the story. But people sometimes overlook this feature. The option to add your comments and post them to your Facebook page shows up after liking the story. So a second action is required, which some would choose to say no to.

Best solution to decide which to use? Trial and error! Add each button to your website and see how people react. Add them both for further testing and see what the outcome is. Then decide which button suits you better!

Have you added Facebook Like and/or Facebook Share buttons to your blog? Which worked better in your case?

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

It’s a known fact that the number and quality of backlinks a page/site gets will affect its search rankings. SEO copywriters have always struggled to write not only search engine friendly content, but also creative content that would make people want to link back. Others chose the easier, but more expensive, way of the “link marketplaces”, such as TLA.

In what follows I’m going to explain one easy enough method to boost your number of backlinks and also improve your blog’s Technorati rank. All with the help of Mixx.

Initial considerations

Those of you familiar with social media, social networking and bookmarking services have surely heard of Mixx and are most probably registered users. For those that are not familiar with this service, I strongly suggest you try it.

Not necessarily because of the traffic that it could provide – which is currently way below services like Digg, Reddit or Stumble Upon – but mainly because is one of the few services that are still not “infected” with trolls, down-voters and spammers. On Mixx you can still find content worth reading and bookmarking and also, Mixx is of great help when it comes to what I’m about to share with you.

How can Mixx boost your backlinks and Technorati rank?

The answer is simple. All bookmarks added to Mixx are “do follow” links. Sure, they are marked with rel=”bookmark”, but that does not negatively affect the link.

So, what could you do to get and make better use of those links?

1. Create a profile

And not just a profile, but rather start building a solid profile. Submit quality content, content that will attract votes. Considering that Mixx has been recently launched, compared to other such services, you can still build a power user profile.

2. You profile page

This page contains links to all stories you’ve submitted. On Mixx you are allowed to submit your own stories, but encouraged to use moderation and common sense. Again, all links are followed by search engines, the profile page is indexed and gets Page Rank. My profile page for example is currently a PR 3.

3. Power users/ Super Mixxers

It’s easier to get in touch and collaborate with power users on Mixx and just as your profile is indexed so is theirs, but only with more relevance and even higher Page Rank. After friendly helping them out, I’m sure that most of them wouldn’t mind submitting some stories for you.

4. Popular stories

And since Mixx is so “new”, you have quite a good chance of making the “popular stories” list. Success is guaranteed with a few supermixxers on your side. The “Popular” page is also indexed, links are followed and it currently has a PR 6. Get your story on the Mixx home page and you’ll get yourself a PR 7 link.

Popular and home page stories will instantly affect your Technorati rank too.

Final considerations

This article is only meant to help you better optimize your online presence and it’s not meant as an encouragement to spam Mixx. I can assure you that the Mixx masters are watching.

So, the best you can do to get in this win-win situation is:

• Join Mixx
• Submit quality and relevant content
• Make Friends
• Help out
• Get help back
• Boost your rankings
• DO NOT spam!

And while you’re on Mixx, you can also follow me.

For more information you can also read my other post on SEO link building.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

The social bookmarking frenzy goes on. For quite a while I’ve been waiting for a redesign of del.icio.us, something that would really make me want to use it at its full potential. But that did not happen and I’ve continued to gather bookmarks the classic way, in my browser and through StumbleUpon or FriendFeed. Still it requires a lot of time to sort everything out while searching for something you’ve discovered 3 months ago. That until the day I got my SecondBrain!

I know, it sounds crazy, but that’s what SecondBrain is for. A place where you can collect your links, organize them through tags and collections and share them with other users. The good part is that you can import all your bookmarks from most of your favorite social bookmarking and social networking services available at this moment and track them all from one place.

If we take a look at how the folks at SecondBrain describe their services we won’t see anything revolutionary

• Import content from all your favorite services in one place
• Browse and search all your content
• Organize content into collections
• Keep track of your content in a single library
• Share your lifestream
• Find people through content, and content through people

but the difference is made when you start using the site.

This is how the website’s home page looks:

Signing up takes only a few seconds and after that you’ll step in a good looking, friendly environment, one that somehow reminds me of MySpace’s layout, from a structural point of view.

There are a few things that I don’t quite like, especially the fact that on the dashboard I see additions from friends of friends, and I have no visible option to turn that off. Perhaps I need ta take a closer look at the preferences, but still, that kind of option should be pretty much obvious. At least you have the option to display only your own updates.

Considering the website’s design, I find that a few icons are too big for this kind of service. I need to focus more on the content than having a page filled by only four or five icons.

Where there’s potential, there are also premises for evolution

SecondBrain is getting ready for a BETA 2 stage, and that’s why I’m sure that most problems will be solved and I’m also guessing that if you sign up with them, your feedback will be greatly appreciated. Further more, there’s also a contest for those who sign up in this period and a chance to win a MacBook Air.

One policy that SecondBrain has is that the added content will be manually reviewed by their team (in the background of course, as you don’t need to panic about not getting approved) and the most valuable additions will also be rewarded.

So, there you go, more reasons to try it out. I did, and I’m happy with it, at least for the fact that it’s still a BETA, and where there’s potential, there are also premises for evolution.

The day I got my SecondBrain was the day my browsing history became more accessible.

This is how my profile looks:

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive