April 25th, 2006
Tips for MLBlogs Traffic
Now that you have started an MLBlog that is accessible to at least 2 billion+ unique visitors per year around MLB.com and 30 club sites, there are some guerilla ways that you can bring people to your baseball page here. This is a list of 10 examples to keep in mind:
1. After you blog, post a brief comment right here under the most recent MLBlogosphere post, summarizing the topic you’ve just covered so others will check it out. Include your URL under your name. Don’t be bashful about doing it constantly. That’s one of the reasons this blog is generally at the start of the Active Roster on the MLBlogs homepage, to serve as a guide among other things.
2. Comment frequently on other MLBlogs, especially to welcome rookies to The Show, and again include the URL so there’s always a link to your page.
3. Create a Typelist with your favorite MLBlogs, and they probably will do the same. See an example on Rob’s Ramblings or Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes.
4. Be profiled here as a Spheroid by emailing your responses to the nine questions (or any other questions you prefer) that you see in previous Spheroid features.
5. That big promotional space on MLBlogs.com is changed multiple times each day, and alert us (same email above) with anything special you might be blogging. It’s meant to showcase both MLB personality blogs as well as fan blogs, and we’re always looking for especially interesting topics. Advance notice always helps. Red Sox Chick and Rays from across the Pond told us they were going to do a live blog between their teams last week and that was promoted on that homepage mediawall during and after. And here’s an idea: That main image is 466 pixels wide and 200 pixels tall, and maybe you can create a dazzling graphic of your own choosing that you think we would want to display there, accompanying it with text showcasing your blog and others. If that interests you, the email address above is where to send it…no guarantees but it might be fun.
6. Create a Photo Album. As you can see from the post below, occasionally we’re showing Recently Updated Photo Albums. Gradually some features on the MLBlogs homepage will change, but for now in version 1.0 that’s another gateway for visitors. Remember that if you create a Photo Album like Tommy Lasorda and ‘Stros Bro did, you then have to activate it for public view by going to Weblogs–>Edit Design–>Content and then selecting the choice and saving.
7. Post frequently. The more you show up in Recently Updated Weblogs, the more you are seen on the MLBlogs homepage and in the side panel of most MLBlogs.
8. Be a phone-in guest on Friday night’s "Under the Lights" show on MLB Radio. Carl Shimkin of Inside Pitch was last week’s MLBlogger of the Week, and you can listen to his appearance by clicking on the link under MULTIMEDIA on the MLBlogs homepage. You may be approached by the show’s producer, but feel free to suggest yourself as a guest. That MLBlogger of the Week will be highlighted in advance and after the show here as well.
9. Be viral outside the MLBlogosphere. Email all of your friends and family with your URL. Look at Bleeding Pinstripes: Everyone’s part of the crowd.
10. Play third base for the Mets.
These are just some of the ways, and feel free to leave your own suggestions here for other traffic tips for your fellow MLBloggers (right after you post those comments highlighting your newest must-see posting). Ask some savvy house bloggers like Bob at Deep Fried Fish Blog and Jake at Bucco Blog, and sample their techniques. Use the Subscribe and Syndicate features on the side panels. Have fun and we will keep trying to point people your way by continually mixing up that MLBLOGS ACTIVE ROSTER list on the homepage and gradually enhancing the area. Welcome to the daily flow of newcomers and here’s to lots of baseballs and lots of eyeballs.
Currently listening to: Pete Rose’s 4,192nd hit
Twirling the Tuesday Sphere
Zack, Carl and Reid were asking about the subject of storage allotment on MLBlogs. We at Major League Baseball Advanced Media partnered with Six Apart, the leading blog software company, to create these MLBlogs and they host them and provide the software you use. Your friendly neighborhood MLBlogospherologist consulted with management at their Typepad group in San Francisco, and we’re happy to report that it’s a non-issue. To quote: "We do monitor storage now on MLBlogs, but we don’t enforce the limits. So I wouldn’t worry." There you go.
Another recurrent question, which sometimes comes to this desk via our MLB clubs, is: How can I leave a comment without it showing my email address? Many people obviously are familiar with our Fan Forum message boards, where they post under usernames. There is no such option here if you aren’t an MLBlogger. You have to be registered at MLB.com to be able to leave a comment on an MLBlog, but you need an MLBlog if you want it to just show your name instead of email address. We want you to be an MLBlogger, not just an MLBlog Commenter. No one has coined the term "Commentosphere" for a good reason.
(Naturally, I had to Google that fact and be proven otherwise.)
Speaking of questions, John at The King’s Game has a good one for you all on his latest post. Hopefully there will be a consensus opinion there . . . just another case of blog evolution.
Nice new post here by Steve Stewart, the Reds’ radio broadcaster alongside Hall of Famer Marty Brennaman. Cincinnati has to be one of the surprise stories of the first month, and glad to have this Bad Boy Blog ‘s inside perspective throughout the season. Great chance for you to get him your question/comment.
You are cordially invited to get everything out of your system over the next few days that has nothing to do with All-Star voting, because the drumbeat can be heard approaching closer and closer. It will be the perfect blog topic, a post for every 25 online votes over the next couple of months and raging arguments among voters causing us to stop just short of declaring marshal mlblogoslaw here. More to come shortly…
Some good blogging about the anniversary of Rick Monday’s flag rescue. Examples: Bruce Markusen | Rays from across the Pond. Speaking of the Rays, we had Ty Wigginton in the MLB.com Studios down the hallway here a few hours ago for fellow MLBlogger Casey Stern’s new MLB.com Midday show. If you haven’t watched it yet, please take a look at 12:30 pm each weekday on MLB.com — it’s good stuff, and each show ends with a fun dart-throwing competition. Wigginton just passed teammate Joey Gathright, who was in here yesterday.
Is there anything better than a brand-new MLBlog that starts with the two words: "Bull Durham"?
MLBNewman
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