The Marketing Technology Blog

Last week I was fed up. I love using my Technorati Rank as a guide for how successful my blog has been and whether or not it continues to be. For several weeks I bobbed incredibly close to the 2,000 ranking. Once I even dipped down to just over 2,000… and then I popped back up to 2,038. Ugh. It was beginning to drive me nuts. I was seeing the number 2,000 everywhere.

2007 is pretty popular nowadays.

In the middle of it all, my blog even made the home page of Slashdot (in the top 100 on Technorati). I was discouraged… if Slashdot mentions me and I still can’t break 2,000 there has to be something I can do. And there was!

My Strategy to break through the Technorati 2,000 Mark:

What about taking the information I have learned on tweaking my blog and help others apply it to their blog? Sometimes it’s easy to read the advice, but implementing it can be tough! So, I decided to go Blog-Tipping. I thought it was a cute play on words - but as it winds up, the term has been used quite a bit. Hopefully I put a spin on it though. I simply offered folks help with supplying tips for improving their blog if they mentioned mine.

No money, no giveaways, no contests… just free help. Boy, has it worked! Thanks to you folks, I’ve crashed through the 2,000 ranking and have momentum to take it much further. It’s a tough strategy… I need to read, inspect and research each blog and come up with some good tips. I try not to regurgitate the tips - I really do try to find unique issues with each blog I’ve tipped.

It’s a challenge! I’m learning so much in the meantime, though. One inadvertent benefit: Readers are referencing my post to get the blog tips, and then they are referencing my blog after they implement the changes! That was something I didn’t even expect but it’s really had a huge impact.

Perhaps the greatest challenge I had to date was to tip Lendo.org, a blog that’s not even in English! Though I used translators to view some of the content - it was only to digest what the topics were on the blog (reading). As soon as I finished the post André and his writer Daisy, quickly implemented some amazing changes - including a beautiful header graphic that makes you feel at home and ready to read! I can’t wait to hear back from André and Daisy on how the blog is doing a few weeks from now.

The Results (to Date):

Today I hit two goals - 700 readers on FeedBurner and the 2,000 rank on Technorati. Thanks so much to my readers, new and old, for helping drive me to these marks!

My new goals:

By the end of the year, I’d like to break the 1,000 reader barrier on my feed and I’d really like to drive to the 1,000 Technorati Rank. Let me know if you’re thinking of leaving. I need you to stick around!