Today AdSense publishers (or at least some of them) received the following email outlining some recent ‘changes and improvements’ to the Google ad system.

These changes largely revolve around new features that they’ve added to AdWords to let advertisers target websites differently (more control).

One of the big changes is the introduction of ‘Ad Planner’ (currently in an invite only beta test) which allows advertisers to search for sites with certain demographics and interests. Advertisers can now also target sites with a combination of both contextual targeting (having their ads appear on pages with certain keywords) as well as placement targeting (targeting specific sites and ad positions on them).

Really there are no changes in terms of features for us as publishers - but it will be interesting to see how these changes impact the bottom line. It should advantage bloggers targeting specific niches and lucrative demographics (what those demographics are we’re yet to see). It’s also incentive to develop blog posts that target popular keywords to advertisers. It could hurt sites with more mixed topics and demographics.

Here’s the email from AdSense.



As one of our AdSense partners, we’d like to keep you updated on changes and improvements to the Google ads ecosystem. We’re writing to let you know about some recent developments in how advertisers can find and target your sites, which are intended to bring more advertisers to the AdSense content network. We hope that this will result in increased revenue for publishers like you while also benefiting your users with even more relevant ads.

The Google AdSense Team

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Image by Mandala

Today I want to try something a little different and want to invite you to share your social media profiles with us.

• Are you active on social media sites?
• Do you want to find more friends and followers?
• Do you want to find other bloggers to follow and network with?

If so - you’re not alone and I want to give you an opportunity to do just that.

Today I want to do something that could get messy (I reserve the right to close this down if it does) - but could also be a lot of fun.

In comments below - leave links to any of your social media profiles that you want to promote. Once you’ve done so - start adding others on the list! This will only work if people make connections rather than just promote themselves.

I don’t know what will happen when we do this but I do know that we all have one thing in common here - we want to build better blogs and we all read ProBlogger. So why not build on this and see if we can work together on social media?

The ‘Rules’:

• You must include the word - ’social media’ in your comment. This is simply so that we can find any of your comments that get caught in our spam filter.
• You can use html in the comment to make your links live (this will make people finding your profile pages easier)
• So that we keep some order to this - please limit your links to 10

My Links:

I’ll kick us off with some of my own.

• Twitter
• Plurk
• Digg
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon
• YouTube
• FriendFeed
• LinkedIn
• Delicious

Some are more active than others.

Now it’s over to you. I hope this works!

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Last week in my post exploring how to make blogs sticky I suggested (in point 14) that one technique to consider is to remove the dates from your blog posts.

My theory is that dates can either add to or take away from a post. Let me explore this a little further:

When you put a date on a post you signal to your reader when the post was written. This is useful to readers wanting to make a judgment on how relevant the post is for them at any point of time. It signals to them that a post is current or recent when the date signals that it was written within the last weeks and signals to them that a post could be dated when the date is years back.

The Problem of Dates on Posts

The problem is that when you have a post that is ‘timeless’ (ie it doesn’t really date because the tips you give or the principles that you talk about will always apply) a date can act as a distraction to your reader. They arrive at the post and see that it was written in 2006 and a little warning bell goes off in their mind that what they are reading is not ‘current’.

As I mentioned in last week’s post - I’ve had comments numerous time on ‘old’ posts saying things like “this is old” or “this is out of date” even when the post was anything but out of date.

When a reader has this reaction no matter what your post contains - it’ll seem ‘old’ to them and you lose reader engagement. This might only happen to a small percentage of your readers but over time this adds up.

On the flip side - when a reader arrives on a post that IS recent and sees the date showing this you can actually get a good reaction because they get a sense that what they are reading is the latest thinking that you’ve had.

So dates can be good and bad. They can make a post seem dated or cutting edge.

So What’s a Blogger to Do? Should You Have Dates on Posts?

The key question to ask when it comes to whether or not to include the date of authorship on a post is - ‘is it relevant to the post?’

The answer to this question has led me to take two different courses of action on my two blogs.

Here at ProBlogger I include a time stamp on each post.

I time stamp (date) posts here at ProBlogger for two reasons:

1. The industry is moving fast - when I started ProBlogger 3 years back blogging was very different to how it is today. The tools have changed, SEO principles have shifted, social media has become more important and bloggers are developing blogs in new ways. As a result some of the articles in my archives here at ProBlogger are less relevant and need to be put into the context of the time that they were written. While some principles have not changed more often than not I feel that dating posts can actually help readers determine what’s relevant for now.
2. I’m on a steep learning curve - when I started this blog I had been blogging full time for only a few months. While I’d accumulated some knowledge on the topic I look back and see that I was somewhat naive and very inexperienced. While I’m far from knowing everything on the topic I feel that I’ve come a long way and I hope that dates on posts help readers to make a call on where I was at when I wrote older posts.

At the Digital Photography School Blog I don’t time stamp posts (and never have)

My reason for removing time stamp dates from DPS posts is simple - in the vast majority of posts on the blog they have no relevance to the post itself.

DPS is not a news related blog and aims to provide camera owners tips on how to get out of Auto Mode. While cameras are changing the basic principles of photography are not (or are changing a lot more slowly). In short - the posts have more of a timeless and evergreen quality and dates would only serve to distract readers from the content itself.

If I write a post that needs to be anchored to a point of time I will usually add it to the title of the post.

Other Solutions for Dates on Your Blog

There are more than just the two options open to bloggers when it comes to adding or removing dates from posts. Here are a few that I’ve seen:

• Dates on Recent Posts But Not on Older Ones - I saw one blogger do this last year (I’m afraid I don’t remember who it was). They had hacked WordPress so that dates appeared on recent posts (within the last 3 months) but anything older than that did not have time stamps either on the post or comments. This meant that the blogger benefited from new posts looking new and took the potential distraction of old posts away from readers. I don’t know exactly how the blogger did it but presume they set up a rule that looked at the date of authorship and then determined whether the date would be displayed or not.
• Dates on Front Page but Not Single Posts - another solution that I’ve considered on DPS is to add dates only to front page posts and to have them removed from single pages. This shows visitors to your blog’s front page that you have recent content while hiding distracting dates from older posts.
• Subtle Dates - you can keep dates on posts without having them ’scream out at your readers’ that the post is old. For example dates at the bottom of posts, dates in more muted colors, dates in smaller font than headings etc all can give your readers the date without making a big point of it. In a sense this is what I’ve done to some degree on ProBlogger with a lighter color and smaller font with my dating of posts.

I’m sure there would also be a way to hack WP so that you could flick dates on and off in each post as you publish it. This is actually a mini feature that I’d love to see WP add.

What Do You Think?

• Do you have dates on your posts? Why or Why Not? (PS: I surveyed my twitter followers on this and found that 75% of them date their posts)
• Do you think blogs should always have dates on them?
• What other ways do you control how the dates on your bog appear?

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There’s been a few rumors floating around the past few days and over the weekend. We can confirm that Livingston Communications, a boutique social PR firm based in the DC-area and owned by Geoff Livingston (also my cohost on The District of Corruption), has been acquired by Toronto-based Social Media Group headed by rockstar CEO Maggie Fox. The financial terms have not been disclosed.

Notably, as part of this acquisition, SMG is also acquiring the property rights for Blog Potomac driving those of us who are looking for community events free of Public Relations batty, and not in a Christian Bale sort of way.

Geoff will become the Executive Vice President, Americas for SMG and continue to run operations out of Washington D.C.

As a past frequent traveller, I can make recommendations for hotels in the Toronto area. I’m presuming, Geoff, you’ll be making many trips.

I always love hearing stories of bloggers who are able to go full time with their blogging so earlier today when I read in the NYT about the author of one of my favorite blogs (Mac Rumors) has traded in a career in Medicine for blogging it got my attention.

“Dr. Kim’s Web site now attracts more than 4.4 million people and 40 million page views a month, according to Quantcast, making it one of the most popular technology Web sites.

It is enough to make Dr. Kim hang up his stethoscope. This month he stopped practicing medicine and started blogging full time….

A question Dr. Kim often fields from friends and associates is, “How does that make money?” He answered the question in an entry on his personal blog last month. It can all be “boiled down to one simple accomplishment: building traffic,” he wrote. “That’s it. If you have a site that attracts a lot of visitors, you will be able to make money. On the Internet, traffic equals power, which subsequently equals money.””

Nice work Dr Kim - welcome to the growing number of full time Pro Bloggers!

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Step I: All Advertising networks have an unbridled desire to be able to claim the biggest reach and most unique visitors of any network in the world.  20 million, 50 million, 100 million, ONE BILLION!

Step II:  They continue to pony for top spot and allow publisher after publisher to join their network, with very little emphasis on quality.

Step III: Too many publishers competing for selling their ad space dilutes the market within that ad network.

Step IV:  Advertisers have so many options to choose from they end up basing a lot of their decisions based on price and buy the lowest CPM’s.

Step V: Therefore… YOUR CPM’s totally SUCK!

• my free advice to ad networks: 

A) Limit the publishers and choose based on quality instead of just traffic.

B)  Sell out your existing inventory 100%

~Chad

As my regular readers know, despite my stunning beauty and exceptional charm, I can never seem to get a date. And when I do go on a date, they never turn into second dates (see the entry on my previous date).

My friend’s boyfriend Joe, (mentioned already here) decided to set me up with one of his friends. Most of my single friends hate being set up. I love it. I love finding out what my friends think is the perfect man for me and I love going on dates period (so I have ammo for my blog of course). I trust this guy, I think he’s pretty stand-up in the way he treats my friend and the pics he was showing me of his friend were pretty good so I figured why not.

It was going to be a double date, which I’ve never really been on for the first date, and was pretty nervous about a close friend seeing the way I am on a first date. But, I figured, at least I’d have a witness to the things men say to me on dates. So I met the other couple in front of the little Mexican place we were eating at. Us two girls went in and sat down while Joe waited outside for my date. When my date walked in, I was pleasantly surprised. He was pretty good looking- with a nice white smile and big teeth (I think I’ve mentioned before how much I like that). He sat down, introductions were made, etc.

Then he started talking. The dude was TANKED. Now, I’ve been nervous before dates before, and have downed a shot or two of vodka before meeting someone, but this guy was plastered. Apparently he’d been on a booze cruise during the day for his buddy’s birthday, a story which he told about 46 times. Literally. That is not an exaggeration. Of course, the story of the afternoon boozing came after he told us all about how a good friend of his wanted to get into the porn industry and was constantly seeking his advice (uhm- what exactly makes him so knowledgeable on the industry?).

Thank god there were others there. I don’t  know what I would have done if I were alone. He was drunk. DRUNK! He knew about the date 2 weeks in advance…Men, if you are going to meet a lady for the first time, please don’t get drunk first.

So the bill comes. Now, you all know my history with men paying on the first date. I was pretty sure this guy wouldn’t, just because they never do. Unfortunately, he didn’t surprise me by paying. Instead, he let Joe pay. Like he hadn’t embarrassed Joe enough. But I guess if he’s about to become unemployed, then what can we expect? (He told us he was about to lose his job. Great thing to say on a first date. All the ladies are impressed by an unemployed man).

I’m going to bed tonite telling myself that Joe thinks SO highly of me that when describing me to Drunk Man he scared him into drinking his face off to calm his nerves before meeting me.

Today I want to talk a little about bloggers working together - to talk about the importance of it and to reflect upon whether the blogosphere has become a less relational place.

“After years of being in an offline business I’ve recently decided to start an online business that will include a blog. However as I research the topic I notice something about bloggers and how they relate to one another that confuses me a little - they link to their ‘competitors’. I’ve always kept an eye on my competitors in the past so that I could gain an advantage over them but bloggers seem to be doing something that is counter-intuitive to me yet it seems to benefit them at the same time. I wonder if you could write something on this topic?” - question submitted by Gerald.

Thanks for the question Gerald - you’ve picked up on something about blogging that is actually very important and something that I’ve always enjoyed about the medium.

Rather that write a full post on the how and why of working with other bloggers today I’d like to simply point you to a series of posts that I wrote on the topic back in 2005. It all started with a post called - ‘Blogging in Formation - Lessons from a Goose‘. In it I share why Geese fly further in formation and how as bloggers we can achieve more with a similar approach. I then followed it up with a number of other posts on building blogging relationships.

I do think that being relational as a blogger is an important aspect of blogging successfully.

Have Things Changed? Are Bloggers Becoming More Selfish?

This is a question I’ve been asked a few times lately and one that I’ve been pondering quite a bit.

You see when I first started blogging (it’ll be six years ago later in the year) there was a real community spirit among bloggers and the idea of bloggers helping bloggers was something most people seemed to embrace.

The blogosphere is a different place now in many ways. For starters there are a lot more blogs. There is almost a bigger focus upon blogging as a business tool and the idea of making money online in general.

As a result I do think there’s probably been a shift (a smallish one) to some degree in the ways that bloggers look at and treat one another. For example I hear people talking about their ‘competition’ a lot more and see some bloggers link out to other blogs in their niches less. I also see bloggers developing relationships more out of strategy rather than just because they want to connect.

However if you scratch under the surface you do find many bloggers working together in mutually beneficial ways. Behind most successful blogs you find a network of relationships and stories of blogs getting their breaks out of such relationships.

I don’t think that relational blogging is dead at all, but perhaps it’s just a little harder to find? I suspect this is more the case in some niches than others as I do see some fantastic communities of bloggers in around some topics.

I’d be interested in your thoughts on this

Is connecting with other bloggers important to you? Do you think blogging has become more or less relational?

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Fun show tonight.

Jared Goralnick, the CEO of AwayFind joins guest co-host Jimmy Gardner, joined us to talk about email management and productivity much like I’ve been talking about in my Email Ninjahood series.

Later in the show, we enjoyed an open line surrounding a segment I’ve heard over at Ron Smith’s WBAL show occasionally. The segment was “Someone Had to Say It” and gave everyone a chance to gripe about things like friends wanting free consulting services, etc.

Listen to the Episode 2. Also, you can subscribe in iTunes.

If you like what you hear, consider reviewing the show on iTunes as well.

Also, congratulations to Shaun Farrell for winning the one year subscription to Shuttlebus from our friends over at Freshbooks. Congratulations and thanks for listening, Shaun.

I know quite a few ProBlogger readers are enjoying the iPhone App store - so I thought I’d ask the question:

What iPhone Applications are most useful for bloggers?

In addition to that - what iPhone apps would you like to see developed for bloggers?

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