Photo courtesy cnmark on Flickr.com.

Why does the timing of a blog post depend on various or different factors? The best results of your blog post will depend on your definition of success. What is your goal for the blog post? Why are you writing this article, this content, and posting it on your web site’s blog? If you haven’t already, you first need to determine why you’re posting this blog post. I realize that there really is a chance that you are blogging just because you want to blog, but nowadays I would say that about only 3 percent of blogs actually contain blog posts just because someone “wanted to blog”. That leaves about 97 percent of us who have another goal: to gain more traffic and visitors to our web sites (or our blogs), and ultimately convert those visitors somehow. You want to convert your blog’s visitors into:

– buyers of your product or service
– regular readers of your blog

After all, that’s logical. You want to reach out to as many people as you can ultimately interact with them somehow. You want to reach out to people who have not heard of you or your company before. But when is the best time to post a blog post so that you get the maximum benefit of posting that blog post? Again, it really depends on your ultimate goal and the actual content of the blog post.

Breaking News – You do not have to be a “news agency” to post “breaking news” on your blog. If there is a news item in your industry that is important and people will talk about it, then immediately post it on your blog. Make a blog post about it and then, if necessary, go back and edit it again (and even more than once) if necessary. I cannot tell you how many times I have benefited (right here with this blog) from posting something that was newsworthy that people in my industry care about. By posting quickly and getting the word out (by using social media sites), others will notice and they will link to your blog post. Your blog post will rank well in the search engines (hopefully), and people will Tweet about it, Share it on Facebook, and even write blog posts about the topic and link to your blog post. The best time to post about breaking news is immediately. Do not wait until you have written a “perfect article” about the subject, it will be too late. For breaking news in your industry, there is no “best time” except for “5 minutes ago”.

One additional benefit for posting breaking news quickly is that your blog post could show up in areas like Google Trends, which will bring traffic to your web site both directly from Google Trends but also from the search engine itself: you could rank well for a highly searched-for keyword phrase.

Company Announcements – When you make official company announcements, you first need to coordinate them with your PR (public relations) agency. Usually the best time to make an official blog post is right before your press release goes out. I would say that you would want to post it a few minutes or even a few hours (or up to an hour) before your press release is distributed. Why? Most likely you will want to make sure that your blog posts coincides with the press release, and then when people see the press release and then look for the announcement in a search engine you’ll want your blog post indexed. Make sure that you post the blog post before you make the press announcement so that other web sites, when looking for information to link out to, they will find your blog post. Bloggers and media outlets don’t tend to like to link out to press releases unless that’s the only reference out there: and most likely, if they’re writing about the company announcement, someone else will: so make sure that your own blog has information about the topic. That way there is a good chance that others will link to your blog post.

As for a “best day of the week” and “best time” for company announcements, I would tend to follow your PR firm’s lead: usually they are done first thing Monday morning or even Tuesday or Wednesday morning. Friday is generally [b]not[/b] a good day for press. However, if you are looking for another advantage, and you’re rather small, holidays or weekends or even Fridays might be better because they are typically “slow news days”. So, you may want to take that into consideration.

How To Type and Informational Blog posts – If you have a general “informational” or “how to” type of blog post, then most likely you will want to post it around 10:00am or “first thing” in the morning, generally on a Tuesday or Wednesday. In the case of a “how to” type of blog post, it is better to post it in the middle of the week (people are still going through emails first thing Monday morning and not “sharing” stuff on the social networking sites yet). So, for a “how to” type or general “informational” type of blog post, posting it when people are most likely to read it or come across it is the best time. When you make a blog post, I recommend immediately sharing it with others on as many social bookmarking and social networking web sites as you can. If you are able to do that (or have someone do it for you), then you are at an advantage: the search engines generally will pick up your blog post fairly quickly and rank it well: and when it ranks well there is a good chance that others looking for similar content will link to it or share it with others when they see it.

Also, if your blog posts mentions a company (or your company) by name in the title or prominently in the blost post, the blog post may end up ranking well for that company name: and it will show up in the “recent blog posts” area on Google Finance. You may receive additional traffic to your blog post (and maybe some more links) if you show up in Google Finance.

So, the best time to post “how to” and informational blog posts is going to be mid-week, during the day.

When not to post a blog post?
There are several times, if you will, when you should not post a blog post. I generally recommend promoting your blog post (in some way), like tweeting on Twitter about it. Tell your Twitter followers that you just posted a blog post. Hopefully by now you’ve linked your social media accounts together, like linking your Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook, blog feed, and other accounts together. If you are not in a position to immediately help promote your blog post once it’s posted (start promoting it with 4 hours), then I wouldn’t make a blog post and then go home for the weekend.

If you have an important company announcement, then I would not post it over the weekend or on a Friday or even at the close of the business day. Unless, of course, you have some sort of need to wait until the stock market closes or some other company financial reason.

There are good times to make a blog post and then there are bad times to make a blog post. I have literally posted thousands of blog posts over the past several years and, by trial and error, I’ve learned that you should not write a great blog post and then post it on a Friday afternoon. No one will be around to read it and start helping you spread the word about it. And, nowadays, writing the blog post is only half the battle. To be successful, you have to promote it.

“February has been an exciting month for OSM and the Joomla! Project. First, the organization strengthened its board by electing several new members, and second, Jooomla! reached 15 million downloads,” said Elin Waring, President of Open Source Maters, part of the Joomla! Project. “Back in June 2009, Joomla! reached 10 million downloads, so to hit the 15 million mark is quite an achievement and shows an accelerated download pace over the past 8 months. The application has been averaging 20,000 downloads a day for the past 250 days.”

Joomla! is a free, award-winning PHP-based content management system that enables users to build Web sites and powerful online applications. The platform’s ease-of-use and extensibility has made it the most popular and downloaded open source Web site software in the industry today. Joomla! is used for everything from small personal Web sites to the backend management for some of the largest enterprises and highest traffic sites on the Web. Other notable JoomlaCode downloads surrounding the Joomla! Project include JEvents (1.8 million downloads), Joomla! Spanish (1.6 million downloads), DOCman (1.5 million downloads), and Joom!Fish (1 million downloads).

“Being elected to the OSM board and helping to shape the future of an open source application that I cherish so much is a great honor,” said Steve Burge, new OSM Board Member and CEO/Founder of Open Source Training. “The new members come from every corner of the globe including Spain, Serbia, South Africa, Germany and Thailand, and our unique skill sets should help ensure a bright future for OSM and the Joomla! Project. In 2010 we look forward to helping the community tackle some major agenda items, such as a new release of Joomla! and a thriving third-party developer community.”

Newly Elected Board Summary:
– Steve Burge – Burge is the CEO and founder of Open Source Training. In 2005, he founded Alledia.com, which grew into a leading provider of services for Joomla. Burge is an active member of the CMS community, an editor at the Joomla Extensions Directory, helped found the Drupal Atlanta User Group, and now runs the Atlanta Joomla User Group.
– Javier Gomez – Gomez resides in Barcelona, Spain and works in the Golferichs Civic Center. He has been very involved in the Spanish speaking Joomla! community. In 2007, Gomez organized the first national Joomla! meeting in Barcelona and has participated in the organization of other events in different cities around the world.
– Marko Milenovic – Milenovic works as a security consultant for a US-based company in Belgrade, Serbia. He has been a core team member of the Free Software Foundation Europe and the Freedom Task Force for three years. Milenovic is also a BSD advocate and coordinator of the Serbia BSD user group.
– Jacques Rentzke – Rentzke resides in Cape Town, South Africa. He is the owner of New Web Consulting, which focuses on building and supporting Web sites on the Joomla! CMS. He recently became involved in a new section of the Joomla! forum called Trending Topics, where debate on current topics is encouraged.
– Robert Deutz – Deutz is a consultant in Aachen, Germany and founded his own company, Robert Deutz Business Solution, in 2002. In 2005, he published a book about CMS Mambo. Since then, Deutz has created many extension for Joomla!, and is one of the creators of the Beez template.
– Akarawuth Tamrareang – Tamrareang is President of Mavelic Engine Co., Ltd. and President of Open Source Education and Development Association. He is a member of the Joomla! Bug Squad, has served as a mentor for the Google Summer of Code™ and the Thai Translation Team, and has organized Joomla! Days and other Joomla! events.

About Open Source Matters, Inc. and the Joomla! Project
Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM) is a not-for-profit organization that helps to manage and support the Joomla! Project. Joomla! is the industry’s leading open source content management system (CMS). For more information visit www.OpenSourceMatters.org or www.joomla.org.

So, if you are unlike me and don’t think you have the ability to just sit down and write blog post after blog post and article after article all day long, then you’re probably going to need some inspiration. Some reason for sitting down and writing, some reason for sitting down and writing a blog post (you do have a blog on your website, right?).

There are a few places where you could get articles for website content:
- hire a writer (good writers are paid well)
- sit down and write it yourself (not good if you’re not a writer)
- search for a keyword at Google, find good website content, and copy/paste it onto your website (not recommended)
- search the news and write about current events and relate them to your industry or topic (good idea, but then again there’s a time issue or maybe you’re not really a writer)
- find something like articles for website content and read up on your subject; get ideas for articles or blog posts that you could write.

Researching your topic thoroughly on the web and then reading articles that have already been written for websites is a good idea; if you don’t have a lot of money to spend right now on website content, you could consider reading through Donna Mahony’s huge list of articles that’s she’s put together. Donna is doing us all a favor by making this content available to all of us on the “honor system” (if you use any of these articles for your own use or if they inspire you to write more content for your own website), then feel free to ‘give back’ to her.

I don’t recommend that you use the “copy paste” method and literally copy these articles and let them get indexed by the search engines. You would need to rewrite them somehow or use snippets of them in order to please the search engines (Google especially doesn’t like duplicate content). So, take a look at this massive collection of ideas for website content and let me know what you think.

The Bay Area Search Engine Academy will start the SEO training by teaching a six-step process that apparently will help their students get started rapidly without having to know a lot of technological code. “Anyone can learn our six-step process and get results,” Petty adds. The rest of the week is spent learning techniques that can get a business listed on the search engines many different ways.

Each student is encouraged to bring a wireless-enabled laptop and work on either their own Web site or their client’s web site during the search engine optimization training class. All SEO training students are given class time to show problems to the other students, get affirmative feedback, and help the other search engine marketing training students taking the course.

The Bay Area Search Engine Academy is part of the larger Search Engine Academy, started by John Alexander and Robin Nobles many years ago. They teach a standardised curriculum at all their academies around the world.

Once a student has finished the workshop and passed the exam, they receive a certificate showing they have have a thorough understanding in search engine optimization. In addition, pupils can request nationally-recognized continuing education units (CEUs) through the University of Southern Mississippi (an additional $60 fee covers the cost of the paperwork).

Here are the upcoming dates:

* San Ramon – February 22-26, 2010
* San Jose/Santa Clara – March 22-26, 2010
* San Francisco – Coming Spring 2010
* Sacramento – Coming Summer 2010

Interested students can register online at the Bay Area Search Engine Academy’s registration page or contact them directly toll-free at (888) 807-5658.

The Search Engine Academy – DC accepts limited enrollment per class and offers a mentoring program for graduates for six months following course completion. Students complete hands-on practical exercises during the classes so they can immediately practice optimizing web pages of their choice at the workshop.

There are three search engine optimization certification choices:

SEO 2-Day Essentials – $995.00

SEO 3-Day Advanced – $1395.00

SEO 5-Day Comprehensive Master – $1795.00

Search Engine Academy – DC conducts SEO trainings in the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia (Arlington, Falls Church, Vienna, Ashburn, Sterling, Chantilly, Leesburg, Woodbridge and Manassas), and Maryland (Anne Arundel County, Annapolis, Calvert County, St. Mary’s County, and Montgomery County, including Rockville and Frederick).

Two, three and five-day SEO certification classes are scheduled approximately every four to six weeks. Currently Search Engine Academy – DC has scheduled a two-day course for January 11 – 12, 2010; a three-day course for January 13 – 15, 2010; and a complete five-day SEO certification course January 11 -15, 2010. SEO certification workshops are also available on demand for companies who wish to train multiple in-house SEO specialists at their facilities.

Business owners, marketers, bloggers, entrepreneurs, webmasters, SEO specialists and consultants and people looking to start new careers can benefit from attending search engine academy classes. Students who complete Search Engine Academy certification coursework are eligible for continuing education units (CEU) from the University of Southern Mississippi.

In addition to the Search Engine Academy – Washington, DC there are Academies located in Raleigh, North Carolina; Detroit, Michigan; San Francisco Bay Area, California; Orange County, California; Tampa, Florida; New York City Metro Area; South Carolina; Oregon; Toronto, Canada; Montreal Canada; Singapore; Malaysia; and Indonesia. Each of the local Search Engine Academies are independently owned and operated by licensed associates of the Search Engine Academy.

Search Engine Academy is an organization of professional search engine optimizers committed to the education of individuals, businesses and web site owners in ethical ways to optimize the searchability of their web and blog sites. The Search Engine Academy – DC brings the basics of search engine optimization through hands-on experience with in-class guided instruction to students in the Washington, area. Search Engine Academy – DC also provides a mentoring program for Academy graduates for six months following completion of classes.

More than 50 million people visit Ask each month, where they are three times more likely to enter their queries in the form of a question than on other search engines. Of course, this is understandable since there use to be guidelines on how to ask a question in order to get an answer on Ask.com. In either case, from the list below, it seems that people are looking more towards doing something about their financial future, as well as, their health. I’m surprised questions about Swine Flu weren’t closer to the top of the list. I am also VERY curious to find out the age range of the people asking question number three – and where are their parents when they do.

Ask.com’s Top Questions of 2009:

1. How much should I weigh?

2. How do I get out of debt fast?

3. How do I get pregnant?

4. What is Twitter?

5. What is Miley Cyrus’ phone number?

6. What is the meaning of life?

7. When will the world end?

8. How long does marijuana stay in your system?

9. What are the symptoms of Swine Flu?

10. What time is it?

For all you fitness marketers, and entusiasts out there, Ask.com also has a special list that focuses on what questions were asked in regards to fitness – most of which seemed centered around calorie consumption and usage:

Top Fitness Questions:

1. How many calories should I eat a day?

2. How do I get a six-pack fast?

3. What is the best exercise to burn calories?

4. How much should I be able to bench press?

5. What is Pilates?

6. How many calories do you burn running a mile?

7. What are the benefits of jogging?

8. How long does it take to tone muscle?

9. Is yoga better for you than Pilates?

10. How do you boost your metabolism?

The topics for the top financial questions asked were all over the place. They ranged from debt, to bonds, to bankruptcy. Maybe these questions show the main places people are checking out instead of reflecting one specific trend:

Top Personal Finance Questions:

1. What is a good credit score?

2. How do I file for bankruptcy?

3. How do I start my own business?

4. What is a short sale in real estate?

5. Who owns the Federal Reserve Bank?

6. How much is minimum wage?

7. How do savings bonds work?

8. What can I deduct on my taxes?

9. What is a trust fund?

10. What is a hedge fund?

The top technology questions seemed to be more centered around the idea of making a website. Sites that cater to teaching people how to make their own webpage may want to pay attention to the results of this list:

1. How do I make a website?

2. What does URL stand for?

3. How do I find my IP address?

4. What is an RSS feed?

5. How many megabytes are in a gigabyte?

6. How do I delete my cookies?

7. What is JavaScript?

8. What does FTP stand for?

9. What is a 3G network?

10. What is a PDF file?

The top celebrity questions didn’t present much of a surprise. Basically, the celebrities that did something that was news worthy made the top list. With that being said, I’m still greatly surprised about the number one question. As many times as you see Miley Cyrus jumping around on stage, and in her recent videos (not that I would know, mind you), I’m confused as to why people even bother asking this question. Just boggles the mind.

Top Celebrity Rumors of 2009:

1. Is Miley Cyrus pregnant?

2. Is Adam Lambert straight?

3. Is Lady Gaga a man?

4. Is Michelle Obama pregnant?

5. Is Robert Pattinson dating Kristen Stewart?

6. Did Chris Brown get Rihanna pregnant?

7. Are Jon and Kate getting a divorce?

8. Is Michael Phelps using marijuana?

9. Who is the father of Michael Jackson’s children?

10. Did David Letterman keep a secret bedroom is his studio?

The Biggest Search Geek brings people from all walks of life together in the name of search engine marketing. Anyone can enter online (except those who work for Marin Software, and it’s affiliates of course) by simply going to “The Biggest Search Geek” website and filling out the online application and following the instructions on the website. The contest begins on December 1, 2009 and ends on February 19, 2010. The official rules are also available online, but here is a brief summary:

Participants test their skills by answering 20 amazingly tough questions about search engine marketing (the ins and outs, and everything in between). Each entry will be judged and scored based on the number of questions correctly answered in a timely fashion (so if you think you can take a month to answer one question, think again). Each question has a possible total score of 5 points, and you can get a maximum of 100 points if you answer all the questions correctly. Partial credit for multi-part questions will be given so it does help to guess, but keep in mind this contest is designed to separate the men from the boys (or the geeksters from the posseurs). The final score will be represented as a percentage of the total questions answered correctly. Last year’s winner, Keri Morgret, went up against well over 1,600 search engine marketers to score a 76.8% and claim the title of Biggest Search Geek. This year, Keri is looking to reign supreme once again – and for good reason.

This year’s grand prize will be a free trip for two people to the Search Engine Marketing Expo (SMX) West to be held in beautiful Santa Clara, CA. The grand prize also includes round-trip airfare, and hotel accommodations. The winner will also receive an award on stage from SMX West chair Danny Sullivan, who also serves as Search Engine Land’s editor in chief. Even if you don’t win the grand prize, the SMX West expo is still an awesome happening to check out for those in the search engine marketing world.

The SMX West Expo is three days of intensive seminars, and exhibits that can help just about any search engine marketing enthusiast elevate their level of game play. A plethora of companies will be on hand to demonstrate the latest in search engine marketing tech, and grandly display highly guarded secrets to dominating your niche with SEM. Some of the topics covered will include search engine optimization (SEO), paid search advertising, analytics, social media marketing, and much more. It’s amazing how much information the event coordinators and demonstrators can cram into a few days time. Industry experts, and hopefuls come from all around to learn, network and share in the experience of the expo. If you are looking for a way to improve your skills in SEM, and be around like minded people looking to do the same, this expo is the place to be.

The SMX West expo is truly a gathering of the most elite minds and offers some of the brightest ideas in technology (some of which the outside world has never seen before). Participants get treated to some amazing information, lectures, and demonstrations (plus you get a kick butt party to boot!). If you’re in the area at the beginning of March, you are NOT going to want to miss this major event. And for those with mad skills in search engine marketing that still lack the fat pocketbook for all your hard work, you might want to check out The Biggest Search Geek contest. Who knows? You and a friend might soon find yourselves on your way to Santa Barbara, CA courtesy of a free trip to the SMX West expo – THE tradeshow to end all SEM tradeshows. Carpe Diem!

First off, I’m not going to go into great detail about the celebrity (or her husband), not only to protect them, but because who they are really isn’t my point here. All I am going to say is that they’re household names, and most likely you have seen something that they’ve been involved with. And yes, this celebrity is in Wikipedia, tv.com and in IMDB. If you know me well, you probably know who this person and her husband is by now, but really that’s not the point.

It all started with a knock at my door. I was busy working in the house, and a good friend of mine (who lives a few miles down the road), came by and visited for a few minutes. He knew that we have a few chickens (laying hens) for our own personal use (we generally don’t sell them, just eat the eggs), and we have bought a few chickens from him before. Ron said that he would gladly bring them over, and a few hours later he did. After a few days, my wife and I decided that they weren’t getting along very well with the laying hens we have (they’re a different breed of chicken). So, my wife said “get rid of those chickens.”

Not telling my wife, I placed a simple ad on Craigslist. I detailed them rather well, what breed of chicken they were, and a few other qualities. And I was lazy this time. I didn’t even take the time to take a photo of one of these chickens, which goes against everything I know about Craiglist. If you ever post something on Craiglist for sale, always add a photo of whatever you’re selling, because that increases the chances that you’ll sell it, by at least 1000 percent.

The phone rang. My wife answered, talked to the pleasant-sounding man on the end of the line, and made arrangements to take the chickens to him on a Saturday morning. Then she got off the phone, came to find me, and yelled, “you didn’t tell me you were putting them on Craiglist. Well, we sold them, and we have to go up to their house on Saturday.” She had written everything down, even the guy’s phone number, address, and his name. Being the internet techno geek that I am, I “googled” his name. Then we found out who this man was, who his wife was, and everything from there fell into place.

We loaded up and brought the chickens to one of their homes, where they already had a few roosters, a pair of swans, and a few ducks on their pond. We spent at least an hour there, and even ended up, a few weeks later, bring them some more chickens. And just this weekend, he came by our house this time; to pick up a few guineas that we had.

So, what’s my point?
Well, my point here is that celebrities are real people, just like you and me. They go to the grocery store. They go to Walmart. They browse the web. And yes, they even browse sites like Craigslist, looking for a good deal on something. So, whether it’s an ipod, a car, or even a horse or goat, and you’re looking to sell or buy it, try Craigslist. And oh yeah, if you’re honest with whatever you’re buying or selling, you might even have a chance at meeting an honest-to-goodness, down to earth, real celebrity.

Thanks to the LeapFish multimedia searching platform, internet users worldwide will be able to enjoy the convenience of searching Google, Yahoo!, and Bing all on the same webpage. LeapFish is a new multimedia search engine that captures the variety of the web in a single search platform. This multi-faceted searching machine promises to change the rules of the game in regards to REAL-TIME multimedia searching.

Leapfish is comprised of a simple design that features a search bar at the top of the page where users can choose between searching on Google, Yahoo! or MSN. From there, users choose whether or not they are looking for sites on the web, or more specific items such as images, news, videos, and blogs. There is even an answers links for those looking for questions on specific topics. This is highly useful to bloggers who may be looking to tailor their blog posts to answer questions commonly found on the web.

As an added bonus, anyone looking for some great deals while shopping online, will find the shopping search link very useful. This specially created link helps users find the latest offerings from Amazon.com and eBay. Visitors also have a choice between using the latest version of LeapFish, or going back to the Classic version. Switching between the two versions is as easy as clicking on a link located at the top of the page.

The Classic page tends to have a much more simplistic look and feel, while the latest version of LeapFish is feature rich, and has several different sections where you can look at the latest Twitter trends, as well as, check out the latest in “Today’s Tips”. You can also hover your cursor over an image, and a larger version of that image will pop up making it easier to see what is featured on a site. You can easily switch from different media types displayed, and can even install the LeapFish toolbar to make your searching even easier.

On October 28th, LeapFish released a private demo for a select few to check out the features of this social media searching platform. It definitely met with positive reviews, and although there are a few kinks here and there that need to be worked out, LeapFish looks to be gunning for a position in the world of search engine platforms.

Overall LeapFish is easy to use, and highly intuitive, and makes searching the top three searching platforms much easier than doing the same thing in three different windows or tabs. LeapFish is definitely going to change the way people look at browsing for social media.

What’s more important here, though, this is the first time that FTC rules have covered bloggers. This is significant because the US Government is actually acknowledging bloggers as being a source of information that apparently needs guidelines. It’s another step in the “acceptance” of blogging and blogs–which is a good thing.

Here is some information from their press release:

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

While this is certainly news to bloggers and an interesting turn of events, it is important to note that the Federal Trade Commission did NOT say “how” bloggers must disclose the fact that they have received a freebie or a payment. So, if you are a blogger, then you might want to read my post about the different ways that you can disclose that it it is a paid post (without actually saying that it’s a paid blog post).

The Federal Trade Commission says that their commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines. What is important to note is that these are guidelines:

The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.

Penalties are actually rather steep in nature, the fines for not disclosing paid posts are now up to $11,000 in fines per violation.

The rules take effect December 1st, 2009.

What is not immediately apparent to me is whether or not older blog posts are included in these requirements.