Since Blogger / Blogspot are Google domain properties, the work for a blogger is fairly easy when it comes to getting indexed by Google's search bot. One would think that these sites are already optimized for this purpose. The real task is funneling the appropriate audience for the content that is being hosted or written about.
For this example I am using a recipe that I cross-posted to the LiveJournal Foodporn community site and to my own blog where I host the pictures of various cooking experiments. In my initial research into the recipe, I found that while most of the ingredient ratios were the same across Mexican and Latin American cultures, it was known by different names. Hence, the label tags that I used for identifying this recipe were: desserts:fruit, guava, pasteles de guayaba, pastelitos de guayaba y queso, pastry. In the body of the recipe, I have additional keywords: pastelitos de guayaba y queso, guava and cheese strudel.
The top 10 keyword sets (July 24-Aug 25, 2008) users typed into their search engine of choice (Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, or Dogpile) to get to this recipe page:
(click for larger image)
Now, I'd always thought of creating a recipes to match what people were looking for since there would be at least one user out there who might be looking for that recipe again. But, I'm really not sure how chipotlé and guava flavors really mingle together. They might work out quite well.
The marketing take-away: Know your audience. That's really the best way to market products, services, and informational content to prospective consumers and businesses.
In terms of SEO, all these keywords were the result of organic searches. Can the keyword phrases be purchased or used for AdSense? Certainly. TheFoodening site is as optimized as it's going to get with respect to Google site indexing. So what's next to boost traffic? More recipes based on keyword phrases that resulted in null content? More cross-posting of recipes to food and recipe sites to piggyback on search traffic? I suppose the real next step would be to select another recipe off my recipe experiment queue, do something creative with it, and post the results.
Related words:
guayaba = guava
queso = cheese
pastelitos = tarts, "pastries"
con = with
de = of/from
y = and
Strategy Analytics estimates that revenues from online games will reach $11.5 billion by 2011, a 25.2 percent compound annual growth rate (source: arstechnica news). In 2006, the North American subscription market hit $576 million, and Europe rose to $299 million. Europe has seen the fastest growth over the last few years, rising from $74 million in 2004, and is expected to see the most growth over the next few, as well (source: IGN).
There are two main methods that game developing software companies use to create revenue. These two methods aren't exclusive to graphic-based online games, the second option is also used by text-based online games such as MUDs.
Method 1. Retail the game client program for $30-60 per user account, and
1a. Either elect to have server game play for free: Guild Wars, NWN, etc.
1b. Or, have users also pay for a monthly subscription: WoW, City of Heroes/Villans
Method 2. Allow users to download the game client for free, and
1a. Have an in-game "store" that users use real world money to buy items for their in-game characters
1b. Exclusive use of special items and character equippables that greatly enhance playability for a fee
1c. Examples
MMOs aren't immune from the 4 (or 5, depending on who you consult) P's of marketing, otherwise known as the marketing mix: Product, Price, Place (distribution), Promotion, and entrepreneurship. Customer acquisitions and retention are key issues for MMOs, just as with any for-profit business. The MMO facet of the gaming industry is beginning to see the emergence of a high barrier to entry: Price, and I'm not talking about standard purchase fees, but rather how much it will cost a game developer and its VC investors to bring an MMO to market.
Who would have thought that when games made it to the online realm that bringing a game to market would cost $25+ million?
Read more?
Wikipedia definition of MMORPGMMO ProfitabilityGames with strong online components outsell the competition
Why the MMORPG subscription based business model is broken
Free-To-Play MMO Creators Should 'Show Us The Money'
I manage a few sites with varying degrees of slackerdom (what one does when not at work). Of the ones where I have embedded with Google Analytics code, I can see that the general audience would rather goof off than read content that's applicable to B2B/B2C marketing.
The Foodening, a food blog about cooking for one, making mistakes in the kitchen, and blathering about food. This site is advertised through my profiles on: LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Facebook, ResearchInfo.com, and Experts-Exchange.com.
Jul-Aug 2008 stats
visits: 150
absolute unique visits: 147
pageviews: 232
pages per visit: 1.55
avg time on site: 53 sec
bounce rate: 78%
Bounce rate is normal, after all, the posts are just recipes with kitchen notes. If you hit this site from an organic web search and don't find what you're looking for, would you stick around? Nearly all users come from the US, other countries that show up on the site usage report are Canada, Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, S. Korea, Bahamas, Romania, and Taiwan.
Ramblings of a Marketing Gurl (this site), a personal blogging site about marketing. It is advertised on my profiles at: LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Facebook, Experts-Exchange.com, my portfolio website, and just about every potential employer that I've applied to. Goal conversions are setup for this site and I am primarily seeing if visitors hit my marketing portfolio; of course this doesn't always track that well since I give the direct url to my work samples and visitors aren't funneled in from the top index level. Majority of visitors are from the US, but there are people from the UK, India, Germany, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sweden and Venezuela who also visit. This site isn't indexed with Google's Blogger.com.
Jul-Aug 2008 stats
visits: 27
absolute unique visits: 27
pageviews: 44
pages per visit: 1.63
avg time on site: 1 min, 22 sec
bounce rate: 62.96%
And, last of all, my personal/portfolio website on Googlepages. This site is not advertised at all, contains anti-spider code, isn't indexed on Google, and basically, the only visitors are those that I know personally whether by social group, networking, or job hunting. Why? I like my privacy even though I am on at least a half dozen personal and business social networking sites.
Jul-Aug 2008 stats
visits: 26
absolute unique visits: 17
pageviews: 90
pages per visit: 1.63
avg time on site: 4 min, 53 sec
bounce rate: 38.46%
Similar stats to my marketing blog? The two are usually packaged together. The biggest difference is average time on site where visitors are definitely spending a lot of time reading on my portfolio site. I've only recently discovered that my name isn't visible in large bold type on my personal/portfolio website nor on my marketing blog. Hmm, I shall have to fix that.
