Kent Newsome on technology, music and life

5/10/2007


The Top 5 Reasons Darren Rowse is a Marketing Genius

I need to do a Top 5 post so I can get a little link love, and maybe some cash, from Darren Rowse over at Problogger, which for some reason I always read as prob logger.  What better list than the five biggest reasons Darren is the blogosphere's marketing genius.

So here they are, Letterman style:

5) He founded an emerging church, according to Wikipedia.  I don't really know what an emerging church is, but it sounds brainy and sorta cool.  As long as he doesn't start writing science fiction novels and hanging out with Tom Cruise.

4) He also founded a blog network.  I'm not really sure what a blog network is either, but I've never belonged to one, so they must have taste and standards.

3) He might be making $1.2M a year from blogging.  That is a pro blogger, by golly.  And even if he doesn't, he makes at least $120,000.  That's $108,000 more than Jeff Jarvis (according to the post linked above).  I'm not sure why I find this so funny, but I do.

2) He is the father of multi-level linking via his crafty Group Writing Projects.  He has a lot of juice in the blogosphere, so people crave links from him.  He gives out 2 links each to project participants and gets a zillion links in return, thereby multiplying his juice.  Someone could write a dissertation on the brilliance of this.  And the thing is- it's a win-win deal.  Anyone can participate.  It's sort of like the un-blogosphere.

1) I just spent over an hour writing this post, just for a couple of links and a 1 in a zillion chance to win a grand.

While I am poking a little good-natured fun here, let me say for the record that I have been a reader of Problogger for a long time, and Darren strikes me as a good guy.

And a marketing genius.

Bonus question for Darren and everyone else:  If you were a struggling blogger and you had $1,000 to use to increase traffic to your blog, how would you spend it?  Even if I don't win the contest, I am thinking about budgeting some money to market Newsome.Org.  I'm not going to buy books, or tapes or go to some seminar.  But other than that, anything legal and moral is fair game.

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6 Comment(s):

I've got one tip for increasing traffic. It's free and directed specifically toward you and your blog. Don't disappear for 3 months. :)

By Anonymous Mike, at 5/10/2007 11:20 PM  
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The Writing Contest is real genius. Everyone's a winner

By Anonymous Richard, at 5/11/2007 11:33 AM  
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Well, I don't know anything about what to do Blogging-wise with the $1,000, but I did just want to second your praise for this blog contest.

I've wondered about some negatives to this contest but I haven't really come up with any.

Darren's high-traffic blog is offering anybody links for free w/ a shot at $1000 in exchange for nothing but a polite request to link back to him.

That is a genius idea. He wins with some link love and new subscribers (but so do we). And we win by checking out what all of the other Problogger readers are doing and getting lots of free exposure.

By Blogger Joe, at 5/11/2007 4:20 PM  
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this was a very good post. If i won the $1000, i would use the money to market my business which is tied to my blog.

darren is amazing and generous.

By Blogger Darlene, at 5/11/2007 8:53 PM  
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Hi Kent,

Darren is great, I love his blog and his project is awesome. I have found so many new blogs this week, my head is spinning (and I'm still reading!) :)

To answer your question: if I were to put the $ into my site, I would put it towards a pro design that not only looks awesome and unique, but validates perfectly.

Thanks!

JoLynn

By Anonymous JoLynn Braley, at 5/11/2007 10:29 PM  
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No doubt about it, Darren is number one in the blogging community - his give to receive ratio is flawless.

$1000 for my blog? I am convinced you don't need money to blog well and get good traffic. All you need is a good imagination, great observation skills and persistence. But if you were giving it away I would go with Jolyn on this one. I would put into the look and image of the site and/or some advertising - probably on Darrens site!

By Anonymous melissa, at 5/19/2007 2:35 PM  
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