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Originally Posted by Useless Warrior
Howdy 
I'm preparing to launch the affiliate blog that was the subject of another thread. (I've got the affiliate id part working perfectly, as well as the RSS feed.) Now, I need the input of experienced bloggers on what seems to work well at getting blog readers to click through to the paysite tour. It looks like most of you give a gallery or two per post and use that as the primary linkage to the tour(s). What's better in your opinion - linking to the gals via thumb or text link? |
Both, back in the day I actually did picture blogs, I developed a preference for a large thumb with a text link below it.
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Originally Posted by Useless Warrior
Outside of galleries within posts and direct links in the sidebar, are there other clever ways to transition readers from the blog to the tour?
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Creatively done text links within the post. If I were to set a standard for blogging, I probably would require a link to a gallery + a minimum of two text links to the tour. Also, don't make post after post of sales text. Blog about the featured model. I think a more personal approach works better on a blog than sales text.
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Originally Posted by Useless Warrior
I'm seeing a lot of blind linked thumbs on newer blogs. I can't see that as being a great way to move the surfer to the tour. Has this become the rule fo the day for blogs, or are those blind thumbs just poor blogging by newbies and rebels?
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Newbies and lazy bloggers. Unfortunately, since there are no really big traffic pumps for blogs except SE's, there are no real quality standards set for bloggers to abide by.
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Originally Posted by Useless Warrior
Also, do you folks tend to simply link to affiliate blogs or do you also pull the RSS/Atom feed? I assume most feed lovers use RSS 2.0 - are there other types of feeds that are popular? (I've got 2.0, .92 and Atom running.)
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For me, I'll add the link to the blog to my directory, add a link from the sidebar of the Blog Maniac and add the feed to XXX Blog Feeds and any other compolation blogs I develop in the future. Also, with a quality feed that was updated regularly (regularly being the catch here) I'd add a page with shorcut chicklets so that people could subscribe to the hosted feed directly.
I think most people who would use the hosted feed would do so in a compolation type blog.
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Originally Posted by Useless Warrior
Do you have certain quality/content demands of affiliate blogs that I should know before I make an ass of myself and launch something no one wants?  This will be a real text blog - not a list of galleries or a page of thumbs accompanied by 10 words. (I promise) |
Like I said above, there are really no quality standards set for blogs. My personal criteria is that it actually have text that is somewhat interesting in nature and that it actually update more than once a week.
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Originally Posted by Useless Warrior
Stupid question: What is the best name for blogs created by sponsors? Hosted Blog...Affiliate Blog...etc?
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I vote Hosted Blog