Content Marketing for Activists RSS monetization and SEO

Content Marketing For Activists: “Social Media, RSS Monetization, and Search Engine Optimization"

James Dellinger

Create Goals

Before you begin: Determine what success on internet means to you or your org. Set them (and start modest.) Be realistic, the internet is a part of an overall outreach strategy.

Why Content Marketing?

Many content creators, including activists are not fully equipped for the self-publishing era, where self-promotion is just as important... as the quality and timeliness of the content.

• Two Laws of CMS Purchase(Content Management Systems)

Don't ever build from scratch!Never pay a licensing fee. 

CMS's should consistently and easily be upgradable, by themselves, or with low volume consulting services covering serious internet advances. (Compare them.)

Blog Activism- Why do so many people use WordPress? Is blogging Dying?There are many quality blogging software and CMS systems for site creation, some fantastic, other terrible. CMS does not stand still--- new versions are out all the time. Remember if you are not moving forward you are falling behind!  A few examples: • For beginners Blogspot.com is a great place to start, but has

severe limitations for activism! • For advanced pros who know CMS systems, Drupal is a

wonderfully powerful, free system. (Think! Newsbusters.org and large government recovery.gov run on Drupal systems) 

• WordPress, and a few others are scalable solution for many,  individual bloggers or activist groups. 

How interconnected is your blog or website into the greater conversation? Great tools to measure your inter-connectivity... And this is how the web decides whether or not you are relevant to the conversation…

http://www.urlfan.com/ http://www.technorati.com/  Ever get traffic from this domain? Use Top Search... http://blogsearch.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wb Join the discussion don't fear linking to other talking about your issues.  

Why doesn't WordPress come with a how to guide?

• Well it does, but...• The Codex is huge!• A life time of reading... • Most groups or individuals

have blogs/ or sites set up by over-worked contract developers, who understand code, but rarely set up for traffic impact and maximization.  

Blog/Site Activism Cheat Sheet: • What do your URLs look like

when they are created by your CMS?o For Wordpress: (Default

option "two" is best, not default "one" or others.)

•  Do you have the latest RPC address loaded in the settings "ping" box?o (Remote procedure call)

“The internet is a series of tubes...”

Former Sen. Ted Stevens June 28th, 2006describing the Internet in the context of network neutrality

Not quite, much more like pipes.... but that is a later slide.

Remember:

GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT!  Breaking out of the Conservative Internet Ghetto:   Maximize your blog or website RSS

Feeds' range and grow readership 

Finding your target readership.Do they actually read your site or blog? If you don't know- then find out!

More Google... Do you use...Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools? (Others are fine, just not free...)

Why Analytics? 1. It's free! (And easy...)2. It allows you to figure out

what content your audience really enjoys.

3. Metrics, Metrics metrics, it give you a relatively accurate assessment of who, where, and when people visit your site.

Why Webmaster Tools?

1. Also free... but its a bit more advanced.

2. Allows a webmaster to see how the robots (search engines etc) see your site and properly and promptly fix flaws.

3. Advanced management of your sitemap.

Other Free and Useful Analytic Tools

http://www.quantcast.com/http://compete.com/

http://www.sitemeter.com/

About those Pipes....

Getting the most from your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to grow

your traffic

Your RSS Feeds could mint new money for your cause in the recession.

Does your site have a feed or feeds? If so....I hope you are using Feedburner.com to promote your feeds and your content.       Why?  The integrated distribution tools aid even a website to promote itself to new audiences. Remember, the settings matter.....  (you must say yes to search engines and yahoo pipes... But, having a feed or feeds is not enough... you must integrate them into the wider internet communities. • Have you used a service like Godady.com "Traffic Blazer"• Have you submitted yourself to the internet's small towns? • They are the hundreds of smaller 500- 5k member sites or

directories and communities that accept new RSS feed content. 

Do you... "Ping"?

Many blogs and CMS systems have automated pinging, many olders systems do not. Find out where you stand. Ping it out.... For more very technical information and explanation:    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPCDo's:Make sure your ping box has all the latest rpc links installed.If your system is older use http:www.pingomatic.com as you update content.

Don'ts:Assume your blog or site is just fine already without checking it out- if misaligned you are likely missing 12%-20% of your sites traffic potential.

Why Google News, Yahoo News, and news and blog aggregator websites matter, allot.• Google News and Yahoo News are the primary "news

source," for many internet readers today. • Not having your content here puts you at a huge traffic

disadvantage and it allows the lefties to dominate them.• Other content aggregation sites are valuable in growing your

web presence. Many are populated via feed content, (to be discussed later) others are run by humans and email is still a useful tool to reach them.

• Oh yea… It's Free...

Getting Your Content listed in Google News, Yahoo News, and other important third-party websites

• Do you Qualify as a "Publisher?"• Likely, you may and don't know it.• Even if you are an advocacy group your press release may be

accepted. Yes, in fact they are… three a month.• Carefully read Publisher requirements found by searching..• In google search- "Google news publisher submit"• In Yahoo! search- "Yahoo news publisher submit"• Follow the directions closely, and respond to the emails

sent by the humans in Mountain View and Sunnyvale.

AdSense- Google's network for your site or blog to be advertised on... easily.

Do's If, your primary or secondary feeds are through feedburner.com... You can easily put Google's AdWords in your feeds and earn new money for your organization.

Market your feeds to your readership once ads are placed in them, because they are portable, ie good for mobile and people interested in specific topics.

Don'ts Think big money is around the corner...it is really not.  Assume this is a question to be  ignored!    These things start really small.... but can grow and help offset other web costs!

Assume AdWords a closed system. As you can advertise your cause in enemy territory (keywords and feeds), so too can they!  

Do you use AdWords?  If yes, is it in a cost effective and targeted, achieving your goals? A few questions to ask yourself before you go any further...Take one point from commercial marketing... attend seminars....

For Activists Groups:

• What is your goal?• What is your budget?• Is this a passive presence

or a time sensitive campaign?

• You are the David get creative when hunting giants... 

• Trust me... I have hunted GoldmanSachs

For Bloggers: • Will it get you noticed?• Can you afford it?• Who is advertising on the

keywords you want to reach?

•  Is this for specific content or just to get your name out and direct possible readers.

Get Creative!Rigidity and orthodoxy is not a a positive for this medium. Political conservatism ≠ organization conservatism!Think and act Reagan..... (This does not mean you must compromise principle, but remain flexible in approaching dynamic communities.) Two Examples:Why not build your own Facebook? With ning.com you can!      http://social.bureaucrash.com      http://www.teamsarah.org These sites have effectively captured the spirit of purpose and had successful principled appeal.

 Mastering Social Media Facebook, Email and Beyond

  Do's Don'ts

• Create Facebook "group" and "fan" page for the public

• Feed your content into your own Facebook page

• Become a full participant in any community you wish to submit content to.

• Assume ‘twitter’ is so special or different.

• Don't create more work than you can handle

• Assume... "We have a blog, we do enough..."

• Don't just hand it over to an intern

• Don't expect huge traffic returns, in the short run

•  Don’t be too rigid, this is a social space.

Email is still King Especially if your audience is and target market skews older

  Do's Don'ts

• Compare and shop around for email vendors. The offers change all the time.

• ConstantContact.com is not the only vendor (and not my favorite)

• Think about your needs and how it is priced

• Use it…

• Send too many emails

• Assume... "We have a blog, we do enough..."

• Don't just hand it over to an intern

•  Just say no to spam…

• Unless they are on Capitol Hill or a state House or Senate

Other things to Consider when jumping into the social media pool....Add Value, don't waste time.

Twitter is not the only answer creating a rounded social media presence, but is important. Twitterfeeding is a useful tool to integrate 2.0 RSS blog or website content into your twitter account, without addition effort.(twitterfeed.com or feedburner.com social)

Is a totalfark.com right for you?If you produce a large volume of content and you want access to its "heavy users" then yes it is.

Exploiting natural tendencies.

Don't forget that like minded people are out there.... the big three

Reddit.com-Paulite Libertarians have a sizable presence on...

FreeRepublic.com- conservative users are very well integrated in the internet to share  content.

Technorati.com- get listed... get ranked....

Some Examples: http://twitter.com/dcexaminer

 http://technorati.com/people/technorati/

DCExaminer

http://www.reddit.com/user/dcexaminer

http://www.facebook.com/washingtonexaminer

http://washingtonexaminer.tumblr.com/

When fishing for traffic....  Bring some bait....Don't be afraid to bait your ideological foes... Ying needs a yang, bait is as useful to create, presence as red meat. Don't be afraid to troll, but be careful.... don't get caught doing something stupid. (Bad: Hill staffers on wikipedia editing their members page. Good: Conservative control of Dan Rather's page during Rathergate.)  You could control your foes third party site, depending on the effort you put forward and team you build. Anonymous editing is frowned upon in 99% of wiki sites but they can be both useful to co-opt or create for your cause.

If you must be anonymous.... a few pointers.• An excellent site.... http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html• Setup troll and shell email accounts and usernames locking your IP

address to a public WiFI source, like Starbucks, or AbP.  

 Search Engine Optimization

 Do search engines know you exist?Maybe yes... but likely not as well as your think.

• Google is not just a search engine, but... o Must think of all ways people could  find out more about

your campaign or activity. But remember, Google and Yahoo are the two most

visited domains on the entire internet, be there.• PageRank and Keyword Association

Managemento What does Google think of your site? Are other groups

framing you or your issues, on your keywords? Think SourceWatch, and Media Transparency

• Understand how SEO effects how the public see you and your content.

A quick SEO Shortcut Guide

Do's

1. Most important things about the content item in the url. 

2. Remember most people will find your content via topic search, not looking for you!

3. Dates are very helpful, especially if you want to be included as a "publisher." (it is required)

4.  Domain redirects... How many do you have?

Don'ts

1. Assuming your site is a known quantity....

2. Can control search returns...

3. Forget to submit yourself to smaller search engines, many free mass submit sites exist.

4. Think it can be changed over-night.

URLs- Rights and Wrongs...

A few Examples:  The right way: (My former employer) http://www.capitalresearch.org/blog/2009/03/02/citigroups-capitulation/  Notice the dates....  and important words in the URL... The wrong way: Ted Leonsis giving my current employer a link. 

http://www.tedstake.com/?p=3558

Notice NO dates.... and NO word for content association....

PageRank and Keyword Association Management

Good advise, "Its very hard to push negative items down, its much easier to push positive items up." You must manage this if you want to protect you or your organization's online reputation. Your content primarily appears based on "topic searches." How? Creating "username" accounts on high ranking third-party websites with similar search words to yours. Example: dcexaminer.com - Web address for Washington Examiner

I created a twitter account named dcexaminer and it always shows up on the first search returns page.

I created a reddit.com account user named dcexaminer and it always shows up on the second search returns page.

Some Additional homework:The Advanced Reading:  "Google Hacking" Johnny Long "Unleashing Web 2.0" Gottfried Vossen and Stephan Hagemann

"Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything" Don Tapscott

"Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World"  Don Tapscott

The Wordpress Codex (is great inspirational material) Yahoo! Pipeshttp://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ (Can have fun with this....)

Don't Forget to have fun...

Rome was not built in a day, and many other like you are out in there

building their presence...

  James Dellinger

[email protected]

don't be a stranger...