SEO Blogging Archives by Mark Murnahan

7 Blogless Days Inspired the Question: “Why Do I Blog?”

My optional title was “Why Do We Blog? (or Not): A Question Every Business Should Ask”. I just thought I’d share that upfront.

I believe my considerations about blogging can be applied to many industries, and I’ll even have a little humorous fun along the way. If your eyes are tired, just push the play button for the audio version.

As I recently took a seven day break from blogging, a question that has been rattling through my head is “Why do I blog?” The question is not on my mind because I don’t want to do it, although that happens, too. The question is more a matter of focus and purpose. If I know why I am doing it, the purpose is enhanced, and the message becomes clearer. Just like any other business effort, there should be a good reason for it. Periodically asking the question of why I blog keeps things making sense. Similarly, I think every business should ask this question of why they do, or do not blog.

I decided there would be no better place to put my thoughts about this in writing than right here … in a blog.

Why Would Anybody Do This?

I wouldn’t continue writing this blog if I didn’t have good reasons. I also would not recommend it to any person or company without a good strategic purpose for it. I can cite a lot of good reasons to blog, but wasting hundreds of hours and gallons of coffee are not among them.

It can be really punishing to write a blog. It takes a lot of time … many hours. In the audio version of this article, I share some of what I put into each article, but let’s just say that it requires a lot of effort.

Once any new blog article is sent out into the wild, the real punishment comes calling. It comes in the form of doubts. Even with a good track record, it is still easy to let the common doubts creep in. “Will they like it?” … “Will they comment about it, and let me know what they think?” … “Will they share it with others?” … “Did I just waste all that time?!”

To say the least, if you are not committed to the task of blogging, it is probably a bad idea. Taking up compulsive body piercing or volunteering as a crash test dummy may be a lot easier.

Here Are Some Answers to Why I Blog

As I have expressed, blogging is not simple. In the case of a business blog, if it is ever to become a success for the business, it will not be an easy task. If you don’t believe anything else I say, please trust me that producing a blog is a lot different than producing a successful blog. It takes a lot of creativity, and a lot of work. In nearly every instance, somebody will lose sleep over it!

So, here are some reasons I blog, and they are in no specific order. I hope you will be able to apply these to how and why you have a blog, or otherwise consider how and why you should.

Blogging Keeps Me Sharp

There is never an instance when I write a blog article that does not provide reminders of other articles I have written. When I am reminded of lessons I have learned and shared, the lessons become fresh again. I have found it very convenient to have hundreds of articles in my blog archive, and not just for others. It often becomes very useful reference material. Yes, it is true … we can actually even teach ourselves!

Blogging Improves My Industry

When I write something that becomes useful to others in my industry, it opens communications with my peers, and helps us each to learn. When we each perform better work, it adds just a little more credibility to the value of marketing. As it applies to search engine optimization and social media marketing, there is a lot of confusion. There is a tremendous value in collaboration and information sharing that should not be overlooked.

Giving a boost of thought to my fellow marketing professionals, whether creatively, technologically, mathematically, or otherwise, is good for them, and good for me.

This can be applied to many other industries, if you give it adequate effort.

Blogging Makes Search Rankings Nuclear!

Search engines do not list websites in search results just because they are pretty. It happens because the words on the website logically match what somebody is searching for. The ones at the top of a search result (just below the ads) are there because they are highly relevant to the search, and because there are a lot of links from other websites that vouch for their relevance. There is really no better way to achieve that mix of text content and links from other websites than a blog.

Blogging Shines a Light on Crooks

You may not have crooks in your industry, but I’ll bet there are still good reasons to help people understand what sets you apart from the rest.

Like any industry where there is a lot of confusion and a potential to earn “easy money”, the online marketing industry is filled with crooks. Attorneys and car salespeople should love the Internet marketing industry, because it takes the heat off them. These days, the cruel jokes about sleazy attorneys are about sleazy Internet marketers.

What do you get when somebody throws a grenade into a room full of “SEO gurus”? Viral applause!

All attorneys are not evil. Every company needs an attorney at some point. There are also good car salesmen. Most people would not have a car to drive without one. The same holds true about marketing, but it can be challenging for industry outsiders to find which are good or evil. This is another reason I blog.

I can’t kill all the sleazy ones, (largely because they run like roaches when the lights come on) so I try to help educate people with good information. I write things that shed light on industry issues and teach best practices.

I will not save everybody, but I can help starve a few of the cockroaches, and that makes it a lot more comfortable for me to keep working hard.

Seizing opportunities to help others become more aware of industry issues, and doing so with integrity and usefulness can be an asset to nearly any industry, don’t you think?

Here are some examples of my efforts to help educate people. There are hundreds more like them in my archive, and I put my stamp of approval on every one of them.

Blogging Boosts Credibility

Blogging is an excellent tool for establishing credibility in a given area of business. It shows where you stand on a topic, and it allows others the opportunity for due diligence. I have often expressed that if somebody wants to know if I am credible in my field, they should spend some time on my blog.

When I think of my blog for business development, I look at it a lot differently than some. It will vary in every industry, or at least it should. Because I seek a very unique client, the kind who will implement a marketing strategy (as opposed to just tactics), establishing industry credibility comes long before chasing a sale.

Having a lot of useful information on my blog is a good point of reference for that ideal client to determine whether I know my work. It is also where I establish two very important things. Those are ability and integrity, and I look at these as “I can do it”, and “I will do it”. They each scream credibility.

Whatever the case with your industry, I am confident that blogging can emphasize topical credibility. If not for you, for your competitors.

Blogging and Narcissism: We All Want to Be Awesome!

Blogging is fun. I love how it lets me express my personal brand. Some days it is with my tongue-in-cheek ornery tone, and other days I can be quite inspirational and thought provoking. It just wouldn’t feel the same without having some fun. If you don’t have a sense of humor, stop here! If you take it too seriously, you will probably hate me, and the last thing I need is another stalker.

I have heard people talk about social media being popular because it suits people’s egotistical needs, so I’ll play on that! I suppose it makes some sense, though. After all, who wouldn’t want to be popular, and how could it get any better than having your own blog? So, here is the secret answer about blogging that you really wanted to hear. It’s for the egotism!

Sure, I probably made it sound all great and useful to write a blog, but there is more to it. The real truth is that it provides a gushing river of self-worth. I always really wanted to be cool. Blogging makes me cool, because I get all those people to think about it, talk about it, tweet about it, facebook about it, and share it with their friends from around the world. In spite of all the hard work and torment it can involve, I can’t get enough of it. It’s like crack cocaine.

Maybe it sounds totally nuts, and maybe my mother didn’t hold me enough as a child, but I get a huge rush by being listed at the top of search engines for hundreds of thousands of searches. It’s not just for the money, either. Call me narcissistic if that makes you feel better, but I really love it that squillions of people per month are clicking on my literary works. That should be worth a free shot of tequila at any bar … anywhere!

There are a lot of services out there to tell me how awesome my blog is, and measure me up against others. Oh, I know you want a display, so here is a graph of my blog’s estimated worldwide traffic ranking compared to the top television station in my region. It is our local CBS affiliate, and I spank them like an ugly baby.

They have a whole staff of news, weather, and sports people blogging, and hundreds of thousands of television viewers. They even have a General Manager to tell people about his dog pooping (see image). No kidding! The thing is, they don’t have awesomeness … they don’t have my Murnahanism.

WIBW Channel 13 Jim Ogle Facebook Dog Poop-Talk — WIBW Channel 13 Jim Ogle's Facebook Dog Poop-Talk

Now isn’t that fun?! I’m thinking I should get some free shots out of that, for sure! Who cares whether it is accurate or useful? It strokes my ego, and that’s what I’m after!

Website Grader ripped me off when they graded me at 99. I’m sure there was a mistake! Twitter Grader scores me at 100 … yeah, One Hundred, but I think I can persuade them to create a “101” score just for me!

Another service says I’ve got “Klout”. Check this out … they even call me a “Celebrity”! Sure, I downplay the importance of Klout, but deep down, I’m really shallow. I know I’m awesome, and I think you and all of your buddies should know it, too! So, I blog … a lot!

Yeah, thats right ... a CELEBRITY! Are you that cool? — Yeah, that's right ... a CELEBRITY! Are you that cool?

Better than all that fluffy pseudo-awesomeness … I love to feel that rush of popularity when I see all the reader comments, and people sharing my work on a massive scale. It is proof that I exist!

I joke about it, but the real truth beyond the ornery joking is this: As long as I know my work helps others, I am happy to keep doing it. The fact that people keep sharing my work and help me feel a little pat on the back is great. The good fortune that the numbers add up and it produces a profit justifies the hard work. All of these things together hold a lot of meaning for me.

It means I’m doing it right!

In summary: Even though blogging is only a relatively small part of my work, I consider it highly valuable. How valuable? To answer that, I offer a recent article I wrote titled “Can You Value Each Blog Post at $10,000?“.

I limit how much I blog about blogging, because it is just one piece of an online marketing plan. However, since it is such a valuable asset to a social media campaign, and to search engine rankings, it deserves a reasonable share of the attention. That’s why I have written about good reasons to blog, explained benefits of blogging, shared a lot of information about blogging tools, and even how to integrate Facebook blog comments.

Photo Credits:
Why, Arizona by Ken Lund via Flickr
Why? by Joseph Vasquez via Flickr
Hand grenade training by The U.S. Army via Flickr

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Why I’m Unsubscribing and Reading Fewer Blogs

I’m trimming back my blog reading, and I thought I’d share my reasons, along with some benefits I discovered. I’ve been working on this for a while, and I’ve trimmed it down to a small fraction of what my reading list once was.

As I scroll through my blog subscriptions to hand pick the ones I find most valuable, there is a nagging thought I just can’t seem to shake. It forced me to question how much of the information in blogs is simply re-worded hyperbole and borrowed thoughts picked up at another blog, versus truly unique and useful insight.

This is not a blanket insult of bloggers at all, but rather an observation, and a compliment to the ones who are doing exceptional work. We are each influenced, to some degree, by the blogs we read. That can be a very good thing, but it can also have some downsides if we are not selective. I wrote about the influences around us in a recent article titled “Social Media Self-Analysis: How Are You Being Influenced?” I think it is worth some serious consideration of how this influence can affect the topics and tone of a blog.

I used to read a lot more blogs from within my industry, but in the online marketing field, it seems that many blogs will fall into one of the four categories as follows:

A.) Preaching to the Choir
B.) Blind Leading the Blind
C.) Beating a Dead Horse
D.) Boundless Awesomeness

I have been honored to know a good share of boundlessly awesome thinkers, but “A”, “B”, and “C” groups certainly account for a majority of blogs. “A”, “B”, and “C” also seem to be the ones copying and rewording the same topics as their peers.

I still read a lot, but a lot less than I once did, and I am being more selective than ever before. It has improved the quality of my work, too. I find myself addressing more topics that others are not. It has made me more creative, and even more than ever before, the inspiration comes from my own real-world useful experiences rather than something I just read about. Here is a recent example, and it was inspired by a conversation with a friend. See “Everybody” is Not Your Target Market!.

This is the same reason I did not read any of the other books about Twitter before I wrote one myself back in 2009. I wanted my book to be uniquely mine, and not hold any reflection of somebody else’s work. The same goes for blogging, books, or other creative works.

Same Blog, Different Author

Blogs can be a great source of ideas and inspiration, but if not chosen carefully, and when relied on in place of our own unique talents, the reverse is true.

Let’s face it, there is a whole lot of the same message regurgitated a squillion different ways. Some bloggers will have a more unique and interesting slant on the same topic, but overall, I find a lot of it to be the same old thing. It made me realize that of the many blogs I read, there is a much smaller number of truly unique thinkers. Those are the blogs I will continue to read.

There you have it, the story of why I don’t read as many blogs as I used to. I have found that I am still just as in touch with my industry without reading all of that repetitive static. It lifted a burden, and it allowed me to focus on the work I am actually paid to do … and it is not reading blogs.

I enjoy thought provoking blogs that can shift my perspective or inspire new ideas. When I find one with value, I immediately subscribe and keep coming back for more. That keeps me on track with good thinking and it helps me to avoid the proliferation of repackaged hyperbole.

Can you relate to this? Do you ever trim back your reading in order to focus on quality? Do you notice those four categories I mentioned? Do you ever wonder if your blog will make it on your readers’ shortened list?

Please share your thoughts, and don’t worry, we can still be friends if you unsubscribe.

Related Topics:

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The Biggest Blog Failure Ever

You may be thinking I am going to write about some huge blog scandal that embarrassed a CEO, relieved somebody of their U.S. Senate seat, or made somebody in Hollywood look like a complete loser in some way. Those stories are abundant, and even quite popular, but they bore me. I’ll save that for the day when I crash my head into a speeding train and decide that there is value in luring brainless zombies to read my blog.

For the time being, I still plan to write for you business brainiacs who care more about building a business than the latest juicy gossip or fad-of-the-day.

Today, I want to discuss an even far more punishing type of blog failure that comes with either having a blog without a strategy, or not having a blog at all. First, for anybody muttering some nonsense like “Pffftt … Blogs, schmogs … who needs ’em?” you may be wise to read “10 Really Good Reasons to Blog“. In any case, just hold your seat and pay attention for some eye-opening considerations.

Maybe you think a blog is just for making an online diary or to directly promote something, but take a breath and give me your attention. I want to start by pointing out some different types of blogs and their respective social media strategy.

Types of Blogs and Blog Strategies

There are obviously many different types of blogs, and each has its own strategy. I cannot list them all here, but I want to give you examples. Some of them are just for the purpose of bringing squillions of people to click on something brain-numbingly stupid to waste their time. Other blogs are designed to help brain-numbed people to believe that the Internet will give them “easy money”. We all love these blogs. I say “we all”, but the ridiculous numbers don’t lie. In fact, check this out … I brought some numbers!

Brain-Numbing (but Hilarious) Blogs

These are some very successful blogs, but many people do not even comprehend where the success is. They are ad-supported, and some sell shirts, hats, and other stuff, which is fine, but it takes a lot of visitors to make money this way. I mean a lot! If I had to guess their revenues, I would bet most of these earn their company a lot more money than your company blog. They are spending a lot more on personnel, too, because that is often what it takes when a strategy requires huge traffic numbers.

icanhascheezburger.com: As the home of “lolcats”, the “I Can Has Cheezburger” blog appeals to people’s love of cats, and it brings people back frequently to look for the latest funny stuff cats are doing. It is working like a charm, too. The website is ranked in the top 1,000 websites visited by Internet users in USA and in the top 3,000 in the world, according to alexa.com. The Internet collectively says “we love this stuff!”

failblog.org: “Fail Blog” fascinates readers around the world with the astonishing stupidity of people. General “run-of-the-mill” stupid people doing stupid things is a sure bet to help otherwise productive people to melt brain cells and burn hours. Fail Blog is ranked very similar to icanhascheezburger.com, and is a part of the same extensive network that reports more than 20 million website visitors per month. Cheezburger Network takes about 65 people and a lot of money to manage it well. If you don’t have that kind of manpower, creativity, and dollars, this strategy probably won’t work for you.

peopleofwalmart.com: How could this one possibly fail? “People of Wal Mart” lures people in by the nose and helps them stick it high in the air. Even a brief look at the People of Wal Mart website will show you how much better you are than those horrid looking creatures cruising the aisles of Wal Mart stores. This website is roughly in the top 2,000 most visited websites in USA and in the top 10,000 in the world. Yes, we really love to make fun of people … especially when we can see how clearly “better” we are than them.

It May Be Funny to You ... But Just Keep Laughing, Sucker. I Can Has Money!

Socially Numbing Blogs

People love to read about social media. Although there is no obvious correlation between wasting time reading everything you can about the latest iPhone apps or social media corporate buyouts, these blogs are taking it all the way to the bank! Don’t take this all wrong, they have some reasonably good information sometimes, but between the overt brand bias and repetitive drivel, I feel compelled to announce these with a bit of a snide slant. In any case, they are about as popular as bacon.

mashable.com: This social media giant is astonishing! Mashable is a time-sucking cult favorite of glassy-eyed people hoping to be on top of a social media wave. It commonly ranks in the top 200 most popular websites in the world. Why? Perhaps it is because the whole world wants to become a social media expert by reciting what they read at Mashable. As long as this is the case, it will be wildly popular. If you want to know which technology company is doing what, or which iPhone app is better, it is fine. Click on an advertisement while you are there … they love that!

techcrunch.com: Tech Crunch is kind of like Mashable with a bad toupee. They have a couple reasonably decent writers with good intentions of reporting on technology issues, but let’s be serious … will that make you an expert? I guess it is great if you want to know which online game company was just purchased for a billion dollars, or the new fads in cell phones. Will you really do more business if you read everything Tech Crunch reports? The answer is “probably not”, but if you want to sound impressive to a non-paying audience, you may want to retweet everything you see there, and expand upon it in your own blog. Just don’t plan on getting rich that way.

Socially Engaging Blogs

It is a very popular myth that “engagement” in a community is a key to online success. It has its high points, but it also has some pretty big downsides. Note that I did call it a myth.

Being engaging and engaged can provide amazing benefits, but without an appropriate strategy, engagement still fails miserably from a business standpoint. If you are just engaging an audience because you think it will bring success, think again. You can have a squillion buddies, but if it has no relevance to your business strategy, you can spend a lot of time being unproductive with those buddies. You may not like it, but that is the harsh truth. I can be your friend, and I may even help you to spread the word about those awesome knitting needles you are trying so hard to sell, but I only have so many friends interested in knitting.

I wrote about some engaging bloggers recently, and they provide great examples of reader engagement. These bloggers are hard-workers with a lot of talent, and they can show you some fine points. Here is the list of “9 Bloggers Who Teach the Value of a Strong Blog Community“. These blogs generally don’t need huge numbers of readers, and are often very targeted toward specific topics that attract specific readers. This is commonly a much more readily achievable type of blog strategy for individual bloggers or small companies.

Building relationships and engaging with others is very important in building an online success, but it is still not a magic success potion. Sorry pals … but somebody had to say it.

Commonalities of Failed Blogs

Back to the story line, I want to submit that there is not just one single thing that will make a blog successful. The biggest missing piece I see among unsuccessful blogs is a strategy. Popularity is great, but it takes a lot of work, and usually a lot of money to make a blog popular enough to succeed on traffic volume alone. Carefully curated content geared toward a popular topic is a way to become popular, but that can still fail if there is not a targeted and well-defined expected outcome.

I see it all the time that the first reaction of companies who don’t see great results from their blog is to give up. Instead of making the needed strategic adjustments, they assume it was a bad idea that just doesn’t work.

A truth that most people are slow to accept is that if the blog isn’t paying the bills, it is not the Internet public’s fault … it is their own. In the case of most blogs, and statistically, probably even yours, the results are a bit less than hoped for. So, do you give up, or do you shift gears?

It is easy to see common factors of successful blogs. Some of the blogs I mentioned have a sizable staff that work hard every day, others have a small staff of one. They are diverse, but each of them have some things in common. They each have a strategy, and they each understand that nothing comes from nothing. Doing “nothing” is popular, too, but that is probably not a good strategy for you.

A Competitive Strategy

A strategy that is extremely popular and competitive is to rub a genie’s lamp, keep your fingers crossed, knock on wood, pray like a nun in a whorehouse, and hope that your blog will somehow become a huge success without hard work. That is just dandy, but it is a pretty weak attempt that usually yields even weaker results.

So, in case you may wonder, what is my strategy? After all, it would be silly to write about it if I didn’t have one. I cannot tell you the whole thing, but I can at least give you enough to help get some thoughts flowing. Maybe you can pick up some ideas about your own strategy if I share some key points of my own.

Blogging is Competitive and Requires Strategy

Is it the ads? No, they barely pay for my coffee and cigarette bill. Is it the cozy notion of having a squillion friends who will send flowers when I die of starvation from blogging instead of working for a living? Well, not exactly, but you are certainly welcome to send donations to The Murnahan Memorial Fund, c/o Widow Murnahan, PO Box 4426, Topeka, KS, 66604. Widow Peggy thanks you in advance.

I take a mix of each of the above approaches, plus some other special considerations. I discovered, long ago, that when I write things that people find useful mixed with amusing (or at least not dreadfully boring), and I make good connections with people, they share it with others in their social circles. That helps me to achieve my objectives of tens of thousands of incoming website links to my work, high website traffic, and ability to rank extremely well in search engines for darn near anything I choose to target. This also helps me to establish credibility as an authority in my industry and provide irrefutable proof that I am very good at my job. This is a pretty sound strategy, overall, and it can apply to many other types of industries.

Each of these things help more people know to my work. Some of them will realize that this Murnahan character has uncommon talent and is quite good at creative marketing. A tiny few of my readers will realize they could do even better with additional professional help, and they contact me to develop their marketing strategy, and to execute the plan. That is how I get paid. That is my success. You didn’t actually think I do all of this because I’m bored, did you? Most bloggers don’t work so hard just because they have nothing to do.

The Worst Blog Failure in Summary

In concert with a previous article about reasons to blog, I also explained reasons blogs fail. I may be the only person that this amuses, but if you search Google for either of the terms I just linked to (reasons to blog and reasons blogs fail), you will find my work quite readily. That would never have happened if I didn’t write something about it, implement my strategy, and execute it better than others.

Doing nothing, or doing something without conviction is an easy path to giving up. The same holds true for anything from talking your first love out of their pants to talking your next customer out of their money.

How is your strategy coming along?

Photo Credits:
Cat in a big box by CelloPics via Flickr
Shaved Cat by Jamie (ajmexico) via Flickr
Cat on bird house by Josh (joshme17) via Flickr
Roslyn_cat by Joshin Yamada (ocean yamaha) via Flickr
Fail Cat by Tara Hunt (miss_rogue) via Flickr
Doomed by Robin Corps (robad0b) via Flickr

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How to Add Facebook Comments to a Blog and Improve Search Ranking

Facebook for Blog Comments

Perhaps by now you have seen a few blogs using Facebook comments. If you have not seen it yet, you can witness it in action here on “SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog”. Go ahead and look, if you must … but we will get to that part anyway.

When I recently added Facebook comments I was so excited about the increased commenting and Facebook sharing that I knew others would want to know more about it, too.

I want to tell you about some really useful features of this free service, including SEO (search engine optimization) benefits, enhanced user-experience, increased social interaction, and more. Then, I will give you step-by-step instructions on how to add Facebook comments to your blog (or any website).

So, let’s get started. Before I give you the step-by-step “How To”, I want to explain some huge benefits. After all, it really doesn’t make sense to do this if you don’t know why, or how it can benefit your website.

Maybe I should have split this into two articles, but if you are just here for the installation, jump to the installation now. It could get a little geeky around here for some people, but haven’t you ever really wanted to know what makes geeks tick? Read on my “non-geek” friends. I have some love here for you, too!

Facebook Comments Search Engine Ranking Benefit

It is not a secret that Google and Bing use information from social media for ranking websites. Since December of last year, it has been speculated that one of the strongest individual signals Google uses is the number of Facebook shares. That is, the number of times somebody actually shares your website on Facebook. It is really hard to qualify this, and there is a lot of contention in the matter.

Regardless of any potential direct SEO value, when you use Facebook comments, it greatly increases the probability of people sharing your blog on Facebook. Of course, they don’t have to share it on their Facebook wall when they comment, but the option is selected by default. The way I see it is that unless I am ashamed of something I am reading, I will usually share my comments on Facebook, along with the originating article. Other people seem to react the same way, and since the option is so simple and right there in front of them, is it easy to see why it will increase the probability of a blog article receiving more Facebook shares. Facebook shares can lead to blog posts, Twitter conversations, and a whole list of other possibilities. So, in the end, the SEO benefits can come in many forms.

Although Google cannot see much of the information shared on Facebook, there is still a lot of reason to suspect that the crawler can find at least some of it. In case you are doubtful of the value of Facebook sharing to SEO, here are some influential third party references on the matter:

“Facebook + Twitter’s Influence on Google’s Search Rankings” SEOmoz
“What Social Signals Do Google & Bing Really Count?” Search Engine Land
“Correlation Data for SEO and Social Media Analysis” SEOmoz

Below is a video from the third article in the list. If you don’t have time for it, just know that Facebook sharing can potentially benefit your search engine rankings, and that Facebook comments are a huge step toward a more interactive user experience … another big step toward good SEO.

Let’s not forget that in addition to the benefit of Google and Bing using Facebook sharing in their rankings, it also opens the floodgates to more people seeing your website. That means more people to potentially share it along to their friends. Oh, it all gets so exponential and mathematical … I think I may need another cigarette!

Facebook Comments Enhance User Experience

User experience sounds so cliché and empty to me, but you understand the notion. Making your website easy and familiar is imperative to its success. The end-user is why we all work so hard to make our websites feel easy and familiar, like sweatpants and a pair of flip flops. It has to be comfortable, or people will stop coming back … or coming at all.

On the other hand, if you focus the website on benefiting the end-user, before you know it, that hard work all starts to make a lot of sense. People start blasting it out to all their friends about how they almost peed their shoes when they found the one website on earth that actually smelled like bacon, and rubbed them like a teenager in the back seat of a Camaro.

Add More Nasty Camaro with Facebook!

If you want to call it “User Experience”, go ahead … I am thinking about the party in the yellow Camaro with steamy windows! Then, before I fall asleep, I will paw through the fridge in search of that bacon I smelled. That is how I see “user experience”, and you can flop on my virtual couch any time. It’s comfy, isn’t it?

Here is how Facebook comments improve the user experience: Let’s face it, everybody who ever wrote a blog wants to see comments … even if only to point out a typosnaphical error. They want to know that they didn’t do all that work for nothing. If you are reading this, you probably have a blog, so you know what I mean. The challenge is in making comments an easy and natural response for the people who read your work.

Of course, you could look at it this way: Maybe everybody except you is a lazy, no-good, deadbeat blog lurker who soaks up your hard work, and laughs in your face when they click away to their next victim.

-or-

You could consider that there are a lot of busy people, and even a lot of them who really don’t know much about blogs, or the benefits of participating. They don’t all know the value of getting to know all of those other readers with the same interests. This makes it your job, the blogger, to fix the challenges. You need to make it easy, and natural to leave a comment, and Facebook comments do just that!

Shoe-peeing, Camaro-sweating, bacon-scented, unicorn-kissing, all-you-can-haul-out-the-door-for-a-dollar brilliant content is not always enough. You have to make it so easy that getting up to deal with a bad case of diarrhea can wait just a few more seconds while they shower you with their lovin’ words.

Facebook Comments Increase Social Interaction

With well over half a billion people using Facebook, it is a lot more recognized than your blog. People know how to use it. Facebook is a comfy, cozy, snugly, familiar place for many people. Those Facebookey people are not so shy to communicate on Facebook. They do it all the time. That is what Facebook is there for, and that is also why it is on my blog (and probably on your blog soon).

Facebook comments meet the challenges of familiarity and ease of use like a hungry blogger meets a greasy bacon sandwich. If people aren’t talking to you, and each other, with Facebook comments on your blog, you can believe it … they really just don’t like you, or other people … At All.

Some interesting things to note is that when somebody comments and elects to share it (along with the article) on Facebook, it will appear simultaneously on the blog, and on Facebook. Replies to that person will then be visible to them on their Facebook Wall, as well as a link back to the article.

For those who have their employer set up properly and visible publicly on Facebook, another neat feature is that their title and company Facebook Page link will appear. That can create additional possibilities for business networking. Of course, the user’s Facebook security settings still apply.

How to Add Facebook Comments to a Blog

The list of nice features goes on, but we can chat about that in the comments. That way you can see how neat it really is from a user perspective. Let’s get to the part about how you can add these nifty Facebook comments to your blog. I am going to explain it based on WordPress, but it is similar for other websites.

I looked for a a plugin for this, but I didn’t find one, so I may write a Facebook Comments WordPress Plugin (actually just a relatively simple installation script) if I get the time. The closest plugins I found were to import comments from Facebook notes, but that is not the same thing at all. This is how to actually include and synchronize Facebook comments, likes, and shares on a website.

This is really not very hard, but Facebook’s documentation is so lengthy that it could get confusing if you don’t know what you are looking for. So, I am going to include the links you will need to visit on Facebook, and what to do when you get there.

If you need help, that just makes a good case for why blogs have comments in the first place.

Step One: Create a Facebook Application – This does not mean going to school for web programming, and creating an app is much easier than it sounds. All you have to do is click here, then click on “Set Up New App”, enter an App Name (like the name of your blog), agree to Facebook’s terms, and then fill in a few more easy blanks.

Once you have the app set up, hold onto that info for a bit. You will need the application ID number in the next step.

Relax, you can do this … really. If you get confused, just add your questions in the comments below, and somebody will help you … probably me. If you start feeling a bout of rage coming on, just put down the weapon and ring me up. I will do it for you for a song. Well, actually a song along with some of your money, but not all of it.

Step Two: Load the JavaScript SDK – If that “creating an application” thing sounded hard, this one sounds like having to share a sleeping bag with your mother-in-law. It is actually quite simple. I don’t know why they make it all sound so difficult.

In this step, all you are doing is adding the basic information the application will need for your website, in the format Facebook needs it. It looks daunting to some people, but if you just look at the example, and find where it says “YOUR APP ID” replace it (the letters only) with the ID number you received when you created your app.

You can either go and copy the code on the Facebook Developers JavaScript SDK page, or just use the snippet below. I suggest using the version where it says “Loading the SDK Asynchronously”. You only need the one snippet of code, and this is the one I use here on my blog. Just be sure to put your new app ID where it says “YOUR APP ID” in this code.

Here is the code you will need:

<div id=”fb-root”></div> <script> window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: ‘YOUR APP ID, status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true}); }; (function() { var e = document.createElement(‘script’); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + ‘//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js’; document.getElementById(‘fb-root’).appendChild(e); }()); </script>

Step Three: Copy and Paste the JavaScript SDK – If my mother is reading this, she is probably going to the kitchen junk drawer for glue. That copy and paste thing drives her guano-crazy. I will handle it for my mom when she gets hot on her blogging career, but for you, this will be a snap! Take that snippet of code from above (edited with your new app id) and open your WordPress Theme Editor. It is right there in that place where you add new blog posts. More specifically at http://YOUR-DOMAIN/wp-admin/theme-editor.php (unless you have some freaky-deaky version of WordPress). This is where you can see a list of your theme files sitting there ready to beat up like a row of red headed boys in pink high-water pants.

Pay Attention and Stop Beating Up the WordPress Redheads

The precise placement of this code is not a huge issue. You see … this really is easy! I added mine into the “Header (header.php)” file in my theme. It could have a slightly different name, but you have something like that, where it has all of that header-ish kind of stuff. Within that file, you’ll see words like “head”, “body”, “meta”, and a lot of others. I added my “JavaScript SDK” snippet immediately below the “body” tag. You can see where it is in my source code if you like, but just don’t go giving me any “Grandma Guilt” if you don’t like the html comments in my source code. Just search the code for the word “body”. It’s there … you can find it … I have faith in you.

Paste it your code somewhere right around there (or exactly there), but keep that same page open. You still need to shove some more stuff in there.

Step Four: Add Facebook’s “xmlns:fb” Namespace Attribute to Your HTML Tag – That sounds worse than it is, but we want this to be easy. So, while you have that header file opened, look for this: xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” and add xmlns:fb=”http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml” right behind it … well, with a space, of course.

So it should turn out to look like the example below. Just copy it and replace the old one.

Step Five: Add the Open Graph Protocol – I swear these Facebook guys smoke some crazy stuff to make this sound so darn complex. This is just a series of meta tags … little bits of information about your website and the specific pages, so Facebook knows what it needs to know.

Here is the code you need, with very minimal editing if you are using WordPress. All you need to do is edit the parts in CAPITAL LETTERS. You can pretty it up with line breaks and stuff if you like. It really makes no difference in function.

Step Six: Add the Comments Code – Ahh, this is the easy stuff. You are almost done. You need to paste the code below on your website where you want the comments to appear. In your WordPress theme editor, just click to edit “Single Post (single.php)” or the equivalent in your theme. It may be named differently, but don’t let that eat you up. I added it immediately above my existing comments. Just search the file for the word “comments” and you will probably find it really quick.

The only editing you will need to do here is to adjust the width (520 in my example) to the width you want it to appear on your blog, and also the “num_posts” for how many comments you want showing before the “show more comments” link appears to users.

That should do it. Save everything and start enjoying more comments and Facebook shares.

What About WordPress or Disqus Comments?

To me, WordPress’ built-in comments, Disqus comments, Intense Debate, and etcetera are not replaced by Facebook comments, but rather enhanced.

Disqus is Here to Stay

You cannot import your existing blog comments into Facebook (at least for now), and I still enjoy all of the features of Disqus. So I think it makes good sense to keep an existing comments system in place.

I am keeping Disqus right here where people can embed videos, upload photos, and all the other great networking benefits, but I am also pretty excited about the new addition.

Which one will you choose to use to add your take on the matter? If you don’t leave me a comment, I may just think you are a snob, so please redeem yourself! Oh, and give that share button a whirl, unless you are ashamed of me. 😉

More Useful Facebook Articles:
(You didn’t expect me to stop here, did you?)

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Google PageRank Changes and Fools Still Listen

Remembering Farrah Fawcett and Google PageRank

Google PageRank? Seriously, just get out your checkbook right now and write me a blank check. Don’t worry, I will go ahead and fill in the dollar amount. You just be sure to sign it.

I was thrown back into yesteryear by a blog article I read at Search Engine Journal that discussed Google PageRank. No, it was not something from deep in the bowels of their 2003 archives, but rather a real life demonstration of sad linkbait published only yesterday. I don’t need a pissing match with these guys, but it was sad to see a long-dead topic like PageRank being exhumed for public consumption.

It reminded me about who I write for, and why. I write for you, and I try to make useful facts and good ideas spring to life with a touch of entertainment value. Once in a while I will throw in my Murnahan Cheez Whiz style to keep you on your toes and make you say “what?!”

My objectives include reducing the abundance of blatant SEO lies and myths that search engine optimizers promote. Sure, I may not be able to fix the whole world, but I can do my part to blow the “bullshit whistle” on bad SEO information.

Since I want you to subscribe to my blog and come back, I try to overlook topics that will be genuinely useless and guide you wrong. You know, topics to scare you into putting crap in your brain like Google PageRank changes.

The article I am talking about brought acid to the top of my throat and reminded me just how easy it could be to scam people out of a blank check. It touched on just how “unknown” this SEO business I am in really is, and it made me feel like one hell of a nice guy for telling things straight.

I will go ahead and link to the article, so I guess their “linkbait” idea worked. The article is titled “New PageRank Formula May Change Your SEO Priorities.” Below is my comment, in which I replied to my friend and fellow long-time SEO who also criticized the article, Jim Rudnick of Canuck SEO:

OMG, are people seriously still writing about PageRank? Maybe we can throw some meta tags into the conversation. While we are at it, I want to break out my old Farrah Fawcett poster and leave my mom a “surprise” under the bed, too.

Agreed, very old news. It is funny to me that somebody recently mentioned the PageRank of my blog and my first thought was as nostalgic as my Atari 2600.

I have not even looked at the “Green Fairy” of PageRank in half a decade. If you are doing the things you should be doing, people will love your stuff enough to link to it. If it is relevant content for a given search, on a reasonably decent website, and other people crave it, the site will rank well. Isn’t that a whole lot easier than waiting for Google to give you a number?

The remembrance of Google PageRank brought to mind the different qualities of search engine optimizers that I enjoy just enough to squash them to pieces and bury them in a shallow grave.

It is easy to understand how people could get confused about SEO. It is an industry that begs for naivety, ignorance, greed, and dishonesty. Sadly, these things are in great abundance among website owners and want-to-be SEO providers, alike.

Lay Down Your Google PageRank Gun and Listen!

Don’t shoot the messenger, but if you are looking at measurements like Google PageRank as an indicator of progress, your efforts are a hot mess. Save yourself some grief. A far better answer is to create something useful, creative, interesting, and relevant to people. These are the things which compel people like crack cocaine. These are the things which cause people to reference you and link to your website content. These are the things which make a difference, and not some misunderstood 1-10 measure that Google itself tells you to ignore.

I do not even understand why there is still a Google PageRank measurement, because Google has made it damn clear for many years that the most important thing is to give people what they want. If you concern yourself a fraction as much about what you are delivering to people as you concern yourself with Google, you will very likely rank a whole lot better. Plus, your PageRank will go up, too!

Note: I am not one of those people who only preach the gospel of “Content is King” and that writing a bunch of stuff on a blog will make something rank well. There are a lot of things which go into good SEO. Google PageRank is not in my list of SEO lessons, and I don’t think it was anywhere in my SEO blog archive, either … until now.

OK, doubters, now that you have heard me out, go ahead and fire your PageRank guns and tell me how wrong I am in the comments section below.

Image via Wikipedia

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