Tag Archives: Zemanta
When Bloggers Become Publishers
A year ago I discussed the differences between ‘bloggers’ and ‘journalists’. I wrote: “Choosing a catchy name for your blog doesn’t make you a blogger. Just because you’re writing doesn’t make you a blogger. The audience, your readers make you a blogger. If you’re a columnist or a journalist, it is the publication you write for that brings you your audience.”
In the last twelve months especially, however, we have observed monumental changes on the Internet that may not be as clear to some. Many bloggers have turned into publishers.
So, who are publishers?
Traditionally, a publisher refers to the owner of a media brand or publishing house; she manages the writing, production, and sale of books, newspapers, magazines, etc.
Has the Internet changed this traditional view of the publisher – a media capitalist, to put it bluntly? Do publishers still exist in the world of free information (Is there such a thing as FREE information?) and the technology that is being upgraded daily?
Of course they do! And I don’t mean only traditional publishers who have turned into digital ones.
This post is about true, Internet-born-and-raised publishers. You shouldn’t liken them to bloggers gone pro. Well, not really.
When we say bloggers, we still understand the word in accordance with the old and widely accepted definition of a web log/personal journal. That’s how it all started almost 20 years ago.
Since then, the best of those personal blogs or online diaries have grown into true media brands. Great examples are TechCrunch, Lifehacker, and Engadget.
How or when do bloggers become publishers? In the past year, I’ve observed three common scenarios:
1. When true costs arise
Eventually your readership grows so much that you have to pay someone for hosting the CMS. Indeed, WordPress.com will get you far, but then maybe you’ll want to pay them to be able to customize your site. However you turn it, when you get ‘serious’, your costs increase too.
2. When real revenues start rolling in
When you make a living out of blogging, you’re not just in it for the fun and self-expression alone. Business made you a publisher.
3. Your audience grows noticeably
For some, the point of change is when you realize you have an audience. This may happen before the previous two scenarios kick in.
I see this happening over and over again: a blog starts as a random collection of ramblings and musings, but with a special, appealing twist that attracts readership. Then slowly, but surely, the blogger starts listening to the crowd; you become aware of them in advance, while working on your next post. I believe this changes your activity from musing to writing.
On the other hand, let’s not forget the brands who set up their own blogs because they have a marketing budget to spend, or they covet ad revenues, or they want to influence the public opinion.
Let me end with a quote from my last year’s post: “In the end, what someone is called is the matter of the industry terminology. It’s more about the relationship between content and consumers. It’s about the quality of the content you are producing and sharing. Not so much about who did it. We’re all publishers. Journalism, social media and blogging mean publishing. It’s about content creation and content sharing. And that’s all it matters.”
What is Zemanta Related Posts & Why You Need It On Your Site
We have been in the business of delivering semantically matched related posts for over five years now, and with a network of over 300,000 publishers, there is no denying that many find our tools useful and beneficial to their site. But first, why would anyone want to add related posts to their site? And more importantly, why should you choose us?
There are several reasons why it is beneficial to have related posts on your site. There is a reason why nearly every major publisher is using them. With the advent of content marketing and how important it has become in any digital marketing strategy, I would actually be impressed to find a blog that isn’t using it. After all, why wouldn’t a publisher do anything that they can to keep you reading?
Increased Engagement
One of the most frequently stated benefits of having related posts is the increased engagement and readership that you earn from having them on your site. This is important whether you are a publisher or a brand engaged in content marketing. Even a small boost engagement can go a long way.
Think of how much more likely a reader is to click through to one of your posts that he sees if every time he is on your site he reads two or three articles rather than just reading one and then bouncing. That site recognition goes a long way, especially if you are a beginner blogger battling major news sources, big brands, and tenured publishers.
Less Bounce, More Views
That brings me to two other frequently stated benefits of having related posts: a lower bounce rate and more pageviews.
If more engagement didn’t get your attention, then a boost in traffic most certainly will. I think it’s pretty safe to say that most, if not all, bloggers would love to have more traffic – the search term “how to increase traffic” is searched on Google over 60,000 times a month alone!
According to Search Engine Journal, “Many studies have shown that after a web visitor has finished reading your post, they are in action mode – they want to do something.” This makes sense.
Personally, I know that if I reach the end of a post while I am a visitor of another site and a related post catches my eye, I am very likely to click through. I can actually think of several occasions when I catch myself realizing that I just spent the last 20 minutes reading through posts on a site all because I kept on seeing related, interesting content. And if this happens, not only am I likely to trust the site and recognize it at a later date, but if I really liked the content, then I am likely to subscribe to it – either through social media, email, or RSS.
The Available Options
So now that I have convinced you that you need some kind of related posts on your site, you have two options: either manually insert and format your own related posts, or use an existing, established plugin.
Let’s explore the first option. Sure, it sounds enticing at first, you have full control, you don’t have to rely on a third party service, you have the freedom to make it however you want. While all of these things may be true, there is also a lot of work there. You have to comb through your posts and posts around the web, you have to add them using the proper formatting and CSS, you will need to find, and possibly edit, the featured images that you will use as the thumbnails, and then you need to make sure that it displays correctly in all browsers. Of course, this is all on top of all the research, writing, image searching, and any other work you might do for the blog post itself!
Luckily, we have a solution to all of this, and that comes in a fancy new plugin called Zemanta Related Posts.
Why You Need Zemanta Related Posts
We would like to think that Zemanta Related Posts is the best related posts plugin you’ll find and of course, we have many reasons for that.
More Traffic
I’m going to start with the one that everyone wants to hear, more traffic. And we don’t just do that by keeping users on your site. Nope, we also bring in traffic from other sites that are also using our plugin. This is quality traffic too, because of our semantic technology, all posts to and from your site are going to be related to what you are writing about – increasing the likelihood of the visitor engaging with your post and finding other related articles on your site.
In fact, many users of our plugin experience an internal traffic increase of up to 10%. Not only does this increase your reach and readership of people who otherwise may have never seen your blog, but it places you in a network of similar bloggers that will appreciate the exchange of traffic just as much as you do. Oh, and if you want to check to see how many visitors Zemanta brought you, you can check that directly through the plugin dashboard.
Real-Time Analytics
One thing that many related posts plugins are lacking are analytics. Most people would like to see how many users who make it to the end of your post actually click through to a related post. For that reason, we decided to include real-time analytics directly in the plugin dashboard. Check out a screenshot of our statistics for the past 30 days.
Mobile Optimization
With the rapid adoption and use of mobile browsing, it is more important now than ever to optimize your site for both desktop and mobile use. Thankfully, Zemanta Related Posts are customizable and fully optimized for mobile use, and as you can see above, we even offer you mobile analytics.
Complete Customization
Another benefit of using Zemanta Related Posts is the complete customization that we offer you through the plugin dashboard. It is on your site so we believe that you should have full control of how it looks on your site. That is why we offer seven different designs and, if you really have something special in mind, an option to customize the plain design via CSS.
Check out all six of our awesome designs:
Complete Editorial Control
Last, and certainly not least, is the full editorial control that you get with Zemanta Related Posts. One of the biggest complaints about related posts plugins is that you do not have any control over which posts are actually displayed. We think that it is very important that you, the owner of the site, should have complete control over what is shown on your site. So we made it simple to add or remove any of the related posts that we suggested to you using our semantic engine.
Simply click “Edit Related Posts” in the right corner of the related posts and drag and drop whatever you want. And if you would also like to restrict the posts that we recommend to a certain date range (for example, only posts from the last 3 months), you can do that from the plugin dashboard.
So, what do you think?
By now, I hope I have convinced you that not only are related posts a necessity on your site, but Zemanta Related Posts are the best option. We offer you the ability to get more traffic from our network of over 300,000 bloggers with analytics to prove it, we offer you mobile optimization and full customization, and most importantly we offer you full control to truly make Zemanta yours.
Zemanta Hires Todd Sawicki as President
I am very happy to be joining Zemanta because it is at the intersection of three massively important trends for online publishers and advertisers: the increasing use of content marketing, the rise and importance of native advertising and the rise of mobile (and it’s monetization challenges). With the recent launch of Zemanta’s Content Discovery Network, I am incredibly excited about it’s ability to help publishers and advertisers better promote and monetize online content.
Some Background
Andraz and Bostjan, Founders
My relationship with Zemanta goes back to 2008 Seedcamp in London. Zemanta’s co-founders, Bostjan, Andraz and I were all mentors for the startups competing for that year’s competition and kept in touch ever since. It seemed whenever Bostjan had a question about the business of online advertising he would ask me. He must have been a fan of my take on the history of online advertising from an Ignite NYC presentation. Then when Bostjan heard that I had left Cheezburger last fall, he recruited me to help advise Zemanta on the development and launch of their Content Discovery Network.
The Link is an original Native Ad Format
Early on I had a key realization about Zemanta and the future of Content Discovery Networks. Zemanta’s VP of Engineering Dusan Omercevic and I were talking about how Related Posts by Zemanta (the product powered by the Content Discovery Network) performed on mobile. It turns out that Zemanta’s mobile content recommendations had CTR’s as high as 6%. Yes, that is a CTR for essentially an ad unit. My reaction:
A 6% CTR definitely made me stop and think. And then it came together – links are as native to the Internet as LOLcat photos. They are such an expected part of the content experience that content without links looks and feels odd to readers. And in mobile where navigation requires a long scroll and swipe to the top of the web page, links even begin to represent navigation. Related Content becomes something so much more than just something readers expect to find at the end of each article they read online.
Native Advertising and Mobile Made for Each Other
For anyone not familiar with the current state of mobile monetization for publishers – mobile banner ads are running at a huge – 1/3rd to 2/3rds lower CPM’s then their desktop counterparts. And given publishers can show only 10% as many ads per session as they can on the traditional web that means publishers are only making 5-10% the amount of money they used to. In my view, banners are DOA on mobile (except for maybe cross-promoting app installs).
As James Slavet of Greylock recently wrote – something will solve mobile monetization for publishers. Personally, I think native advertising will solve it. As I have said before, there’s just not enough screen real estate for banners to work they way did in traditional PCs. Native advertising – in the stream – should work and when you see and hear about 6% CTR’s that mean it can and does. So my bet is that Zemanta is one of the those companies that does figure mobile advertising out.
So Why Zemanta?
When looking at either starting a startup or joining one – you need to look at the product/vision, the team and the investors. I’ve just explained why I am big believer in the product and vision. Zemanta currently counts about 300,000 active publishers using its tools. Content Discovery Network launched with a reach of 1 billion page views. These guys have a lot of wind at their sails.
Add on top of that the fact that Zemanta has one of the top product engineering teams for any startup across Europe and founders who I have gotten to know very well and respect over the last 4.5 years and I think it’s easy to say they check that box. And finally, the track records of their primary investors – Fred Wilson of USV, Peter Jones of Eden Ventures and Robin Klein of TAG (the Ron Conway of early stage investing for Europe) – speak for themselves. Zemanta has all three – great product/vision, fantastic team and top notch investors. 3 for 3.
So Why Me?
It’s not everyday that a company gets to hire a Bravo TV reality star as President. (OK I’m as far as a star as anyone) More seriously though, I was the guy who was responsible for making millions of dollars from silly cat photos. As you can see on my CV, I was the CRO for Cheezburger where I was responsible for developing and promoting the rise of native advertising. I’ve worked and co-founded a number of startups in the digital media space from Lookery, a social advertising pioneer, to Loudeye, one of the first commercial platforms for distributing music online. I am active advisor and investor in startups with a focus on digital media.
Todd with a Cat (Of Course)
So What’s Next
I am joining Zemanta in the role of President. Bostjan and Andraz are at the core the product and technical leaders of the company. I’m here to help them develop a great company to work at across the globe, a company that provides a powerful native advertising solution to hundreds of thousands of publishers and advertisers and company that help solves the puzzle of mobile monetization.
5 Most Popular Zemanta Posts from February You Should Read
1. Strategy: Zemanta Launches Content Discovery Network
No surprise here. At the beginning of February, Zemanta launched a new content recommendation network. It was really well received by you. Here Bostjan gives an overview of the new product.
2. Creating Your First Business Model Prototype: 3 Major Tips
Marko Savic in his debut post for this blog gives 3 major tips for generating your first business model prototype. Moreover, the post includes a wonderful story of a blogger who… Well, just read it. You won’t regret it.
3. 3 Types of Online Business Models
It looks like we should publish more on business models. Sara Bozanic describes three most commonly used business models on the Web: made for the Web, brand extension, and the transmedia model.
4. Content Marketing Strategy: You’re Asking Wrong Questions
I think you’re asking yourself wrong questions when it comes to developing your content marketing strategy. What should you be asking instead?
5. Content Delivery: Introducing a Simple Way to Get More Subscribers
Julien Genestoux introduces a new project – SubToMe. It is specifically designed for publishers. Check it out.
Zemanta Hangout with Google: How The Editorial Assistant Helps Publishers
So, you’ve written a great piece of text. Congratulations! But to publish a great blog post you need to do much more.
You need to provide context:
- Find images to make it visually appealing
- Create links to relevant sites to provide further explanations
- Tag the post with appropriate keywords to make it easy to find
- Provide further reading to establish authority
These are the daunting tasks every publisher must do to get ahead. But you are not alone. Zemanta editorial assistant is with you.
Let Andraz and Kris tell you more about it.
Zemanta Related Posts Is a Top 50 WordPress Plugin
Yes, you made Zemanta the 42nd most downloaded plugin out of over 23,000. Millions of websites and blogs are powered by these plugins. And we’re proud to assist 100,000s of yours.
The Plugintable explained
The periodic table is organized on the basis of their atomic numbers, electron configurations, and recurring chemical properties. Elements are presented in order of increasing atomic number (number of protons).
The plugintable, on the other hand, is ranked by the number of downloads. Zemanta Related Posts has been downloaded over 630,000 times. Now that’s what we like to hear. And we’re fast approaching the coveted Top 40. Then, we’ll be a bona fide hit.
Be careful and thorough
Part of the reason for the success of WordPress is the power of its plugins. You can find multiple plugins for virtually anything you want. However, when you install a plugin, it’s a commitment and risk. You grant it full access to your website, so it makes sense to be careful and thorough when choosing them.
Hence, tomorrow at the WordPress NYC Meetup, I am going to introduce a new project that is designed to make this easier.
Let me thank you, Zemanta users and fans, for your support and feedback in the past 6 years. You help Zemanta assist you better!
Empowerment: How a Zemanta User Does it with a Blog
Who is Andrea Naomi?
I’m a digital marketer, blogger, mom, and wife. Prior to being a digital marketer I was a financial manager and served in the US Air Force. In 2007, my husband and I decided to start a business online and since then the internet is where we live our entrepreneurial lives. We’ve gone through a long journey influenced largely by different aspects of internet marketing including affiliate marketing, network marketing, and social media marketing. With this digital experience under our belt we hope to build a supportive network for other entrepreneurs who’ve shared similar experiences.
I like the name B2B Kingdom. How did you come up with it? What does it mean?
The premise of B2B Kingdom is building attractive online business with an emphasis on Christian entrepreneurship; B2B Kingdom is essentially a melding together of our blog’s dual purpose.
Your goal is “to empower Christian Entrepreneurs to embrace biblical principles in business”. Why is this so important today?
Yes, that’s exactly our goal. The reason why we believe it’s so important today is because unfortunately many “online takers” prey upon the hopes and dreams of aspiring entrepreneurs by focusing on selling them the idea of making money on the beach literally overnight. Most of us who have experience in the industry understand that push button success is not necessarily the reality of our industry. We truly believe that digital entrepreneurs can build a successful business online if they trust in god’s answers – it’s as God said in Jeremiah 33:3 ” Call onto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not ”
Was “to empower” the reason to set up a blog?
Yes, empowerment is a pivotal force in every business and life for that matter. Ultimately we want to make a positive difference for others even if it’s just a small impact, we’re genuinely grateful for the opportunity to serve.
What goals did you achieve with the blog? What’s in its future?
Our blog allows us to publish our mission and meet individuals who share a common purpose. In the future, God willing, we hope to scale our reach through other forms of media (e.g. podcasting and video) as well as offer more training courses.
Why blogging?
We choose blogging because it’s accessible, not only for us but for everyone. We want to set an example that’s achievable for every business owner or aspiring entrepreneur; if you want to get your message out there you can blog about it!
Can you tell us more about your Training Library?
The training library is a simple library that anyone who wants to set up a blog can use for free to kickstart their venture. We routinely add more information as the blogging world is always changing and growing.
When did you start using Zemanta?
We began using Zemanta about a month ago. It’s been an really great experience thus far.
How does Zemanta help you blog better/easier?
Zemanta is a godsend for us because it helps us provide messages that are well-recieved and contextually understandable to our audience. It also helps us create media rich content with increased engagement and keeps our audience entertained visually. It’s also a huge time saver because it basically makes the “old post preparation” process obsolete which saves me so much time not having to dig up media files and link research.
Please share a Zemanta tip!
A great Zemanta tip I found very useful is to think outside the box when you’re searching for images. For example, if you’re creating a post about the holiday season you can use the search feature inside the browser to look up similar search related queries like “christmas tree” or “ornaments”. Learning how to use Zemanta search features creatively can make an ever greater impact on your blog posts! Thanks 🙂
Content Marketing Strategy: You’re Asking Wrong Questions
Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute, argues that “more content is better” is a fallacy. He explains: “Everywhere I go, I find marketers who are challenged with creating more content. More blog posts, more eBooks, more videos, more podcasts … more, more, more. … I’m done with more.”
My first reaction was, “What?” According to HubSpot’s 2012 Marketing Benchmarks from 7,000+ Businesses research report:
- Companies that update their blog frequently generate 5 times the web traffic of companies that don’t blog. Small businesses tend to see the biggest gains when they increase the frequency of posts.
- Even a modest increase in blogging increases inbound leads. By increasing blog frequency from 3-5 posts/month to 6-8 posts/month, companies experience a 55% increase in lead generation. B2B companies that post only once or twice a month generate 70% more leads than companies that don’t blog at all.
- As companies increase their total blog posts from 11-20 to 21-50, web traffic typically grows by 45%. And companies with more than 200 articles generate five times the leads of companies with ten or fewer total blog posts.
But what about quality? Yes, the right question. Joe surprised me at first. I thought, “Why does he suddenly equate frequency with quality?” “More content is better” doesn’t necessarily mean “more content of whatever quality is better”. Moreover, more doesn’t necessarily equal bad quality.
Joe continues with a discussion of “epic” content. However, he doesn’t really explain what epic content means, save that is better than what others do. That’s not necessarily a good benchmark either, is it?
That’s why I really liked a post by Sharon Tanton (it was the most popular Zemanta post in January) What Is Valuable Content:
- helpful
- entertaining
- authentic
- relevant
- timely
The most important part of her post is: “The key to producing valuable content is a deep understanding of your client and customer base.”
Once I asked Michael Hoefflich, Forum Corporate Publishing, what custom magazine is a good magazine. He simply said, “The one that readers love to read.” That’s it.
So, when you are developing your content marketing strategy, instead of obsessing about frequency and the size, look for answers to the following questions first:
1. Who is going to produce content?
- How much can you leverage talents, skills and knowledge of your employees?
- Do you have any employees or is it just you?
- Is/are they working on other things?
- How much time can they allocate to producing “epic” content?
- What is each of them best at (writing, brainstorming, videotaping, talking, etc.)?
- Can you regularly produce valuable content alone or do you need external help?
2. How much money can you invest and what can you get for it?
3. How much content does your average prospect/buyer expect/need?
- How much great content can they absorb in a week/month?
- Is your average follower a web junkie?
4. And of course what kind of content do they want/need/expect?
The answers to the above questions are paramount, not how many times, how many channels or what is the best size for the post! Not that these don’t matter, they just depend on the answers to the questions above.
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7 Blogging Steps to Community and Confidence Building
In creating Venus Meets Isis program I saw blogging as a gateway to so much more. Blogging is something that can be fun and creative, allowing you to learn about yourself and connect with others. At the same time it has a technical and even business component to it.
Any successful blogger knows that blogging requires some basic level of technical skills, maybe even some coding (CSS and HTML), it requires planning, oftentimes research on topics, as well as some marketing in building your audience. This coupled with my interest in building The Corporate Goddess is why when presented with the opportunity to work with teens I immediately created an internship program centered around blogging.
It serves two purposes I have in working with women and young girls:
- Creating the space where we are connecting with our unique talents and learning to honor our intrinsic self-worth.
- Creating exposure and access to media-tech tools that can and will create change and opportunity.
I am excited about the opportunities and impact that tech savvy women and girls can create for themselves, our communities, and thus our world.
In conversations with teachers, parents, student advisors I am learning there are other benefits in having youth blog; it gets them to write, have a voice, and be in action with an outlet. As simple and even cliche as it may sound, blogging, with the right guidance and curriculum, provides a lot of benefits and opportunities outside of just ‘being a blogger’.
Create a blogging or digital media club in your community
If you are interested in leveraging the benefits of blogging with your students, children, or even for yourself, start a club. There is tons of information on the internet on blogging and web development.
Below are 7 steps to follow to begin community and confidence building with friends and those you love.
1. Choose a focus for your club (ie other business owners, your students, a group of friends).
It is easiest to attract club members if you find a common ground that they can relate to. If you are a business owner and want to begin blogging for your business, create a business blogging group. If you are a teacher and want to see your students write more or learn web development, start a student club.
2. Set a meeting time and location.
Once you are clear on the focus of your group, begin to attract members. Set a time and location and even if it’s just two of you in the beginning, start meeting regularly. The group will grow and you will definitely grow.
3. Choose a blog platform.
I suggest WordPress, though there are other platforms such as Blogger. As the group leader you may already have a lot of experience in this, though it’s not mandatory. Create some ‘best practices’ or recommendations for members that may be new to the world of blogging.
4. During every meeting dedicate time to write and create.
One of the most challenging parts of being a blogger can be creating the time to write. Let this be easy by setting aside time even if it’s just 15-20 minutes for members to write and plan blog posts.
A few weeks ago on Today’s Creative Blog (which I found through Zemanta), I found a link to this blog planning tool which I’ve integrated into my 2013 planning. Planning and scheduling posts will be the easiest way to stay on track.
5. Create an online forum.
You can do it via a Facebook Group or a Google Group where members can connect with each other in between groups. The group can be used for members to share ideas, get feedback on posts in progress, and to support each other’s growth. As the group leader, in the beginning, it will help to create the energy of the group. Post your stuff, share cool resources and articles, encourage engagement.
6. Bring in speakers.
As the group grows, it may be fun to bring in experts on different topics, related to blogging or the groups’ interests. It will make the meetings that much more fun and provide members the opportunity to learn new skills and network.
7. Encourage cross-promotion.
In the early days of blogging gaining an audience and traffic is something that many are concerned about. Inside of a group you have the advantage of each other. Support one another and cross-promote each other’s work. It will help you provide value to your audience providing new resources and it increases the success of the overall group.
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Zemanta's Lovely Test Blog 