We were snowed and iced in today. One of those “big” storms that could have potentially blessed us with a foot or two of sledding snow to make my three sons happy. However, the couple inches of white stuff we got in the middle of the night were quickly coated by about 1/4 inch or more of rock solid ice. Needless to say, I haven’t had the unction to take them outside and test my skating ability (or lack thereof), especially since my boys are all under the age of 5.
Instead, isolated from my office & stuck to labor at home, I completed work on a website I’ve been working on the past week or so for a Christian boarding school. While I wait for the domain to finish resolving, I figured I’d put on my writing cap and plunk out a few words. I do like to write, but posting on the company blog is a “different” kind of writing. But toss out the formality and welcome the casual for a change. Let’s talk about experimental blogging – for internet promotional purposes, of course.
My staff & I run a number of blogs. None of them are the best designed, sadly – that takes time, you know! Though perhaps someday I’ll make the time and work through each one. When we purchased the domain names (like Apple Crisp or Shake Milk), my original intention was to set up an experimental blog network with tight theme based blogs – and stick to the themes, of course. Never satisfied with just a couple blogs, several others quickly came along: Spilt Soda, Brain Frez and more.
A wide variety of platforms, under some somewhat amusing domain names, has given us the opportunity to experiment with blog articles and how they can be used to promote a business, product or even a new website. Blog articles (assuming the blog is “streamlined” or optimized for search engines) have the ability to appear live in Google within 15 minutes or so from posting. They may rank well for the first several hours and then drop out only to gradually rank better in time (especially if other sites link in to that article). When you operate a large blog network, you can toy around with different theories in order to get a better grasp on what exactly search bots do and how websites are ranked (even if the site holds little pagerank or linkjuice).
We then decided to “crank out” several more, but marketing themed, blog sites: Adverticia and Strategicia quickly became common talk among our staff. (But, hey, what can I say – I like to coin new words!) Following the same “word formation,” Marketinia and Promotivia also joined the ranks, as did Sozo Fire, our flagship blog marketing site (though you wouldn’t recognize it – just an idea for down the road someday …). If you’ve popped over to glimpse these sites, I’ll readily concede the design & layout are terrible – same design as is currently (01/2009) on the official Sozo Firm blog. Someday I’ll put on my design cap and work away. Or maybe someday, after the economy rebounds, I’ll be able to hire that full time web designer I’ve been wanting for so long.
I could go on and on with experimental blog names of sites we “toy with,” but less I completely bore you, I’ll close with this statement: If you’re “into” web marketing, start experimenting today. And, what kind of site is easier to experiment on than a blog? In fact, you could just go all the way with a couple free hosted blogs (granted, they’re on subdomains and you don’t really “own” them), and type away and link away and observe what happens. Experimental blogging will help you better understand the nuts and bolts about how SEO really works and, hey, it just might give you an edge over that SEO “guru” who works at the marketing firm down the street who’s still lost in the neverland of meta keywords and hidden text.
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