Build My Blog

This post is a response to a comment I recently recieved from Alban..

Currently, Blogrush is the only tool I know of that is specifically designed with blog trafficking in mind. I know they are currently dealing with explosive growth and trying to wipe out all the abuse of the system that thay have recieved. There has been numerous scripts designed to game the system and rack up credits.

I am also in the dark with everyone else in checking out reporting. Currently this blog has a small readership so I know that I haven’t been racking up impressions, but from my stats I know that I have had 14 visitors from Blogrush in about a week and a half. Not too bad, could be better.

Here is a little trick that so far is not misuse or abuse of the Blogrush system. Keep in mind that the policy could always change. I am not responsible for any consequences.

Create another rss feed with just the post you want to show up in the widget. Use one with a good headline. For instance, I am using my post “A Blog Post is Like Trying to Get Laid“. It has an attention grabbing headline and may be more likely to be checked out. Here is how my Blogrush RSS feed is set up. Copy and paste this to a text editor and change the relevent titles and links. The first is the info about your blog, the second is the actual link that will show up in the widget.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”ISO-8859-1″ ?> <rss version=”2.0″>
<channel>
<title>Build My Blog, The Dollars Experiment</title>
<link>http://www.buildmyblog.com</link>
<description>An experiment in making your blog profitable.</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<item>
<category>BlogRush</category>
<title>A Blog Post is Like Trying to Get Laid</title> <link>http://www.buildmyblog.com/2007/09/19/a-blog-post-is-like-trying-to-get-laid/</link>
<description>
This description is not used by BlogRush.
</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

Save that as BlogRush.rss and upload it to the root directory of your site. Then log into Blogrush and go to the settings tab. Set up a new blog with the rss feed being the one you just saved. You will get a new widget id code.. paste that back into your blog over the old one and you are all set.

You could also add a few other posts as well in the rss feed if you wish. So this is how you control which of your posts will show up in the Blogrush widget.

Here is a technique when you want to build a post for digg or any other social media site. Pick a topic of relavence and use a list. There are quite a few benefits of using lists in your post:

• Reader Freindly: Lists make your post reader friendly by highlighting the important topics. You main points are outlined and the reader has less work to do to get the jist of your article.
• Surfer Friendly: Lets face it, when browsing the internet we skim articles. This is especially true for the social media site users.. No digger reads an entire article, they are notoriously fickle and impatient. Setting up a list lets the reader look at the page and absorb the important information before moving on. If you have something interesting to say that grabs their attention then they will hopefully look around for more aticles on your site and you may snag another reader.
• Highly Linkable: Lists are nice to link to because everyone likes easily digestable information and are more likely to share some wisdom with others if there is less of an investment in time.
• Clean Presentation: Readers will appreciate the clean format of an easy digetsable list.

Now we know some benefits of a list so here are a few different ideas for lists.

• Tell Them What to Do: Instructions are a perfect fit for a list.
• Link Lists: People love when good information is easily accessable, why not compile a list of your best CSS resources and present them as a post.

So if you are looking to make a diggable post to attract readers, why not try a list.. you’re new readers will appreciate it.