Question for the Blog Gurus

[Jace]

Originally Posted by Mediaguy

From my experience making a blog a subdomain (blog.mainsite.com) is the least effective, it seems that playing with the www isn't appreciated by SEs.

weird, I start about 20 new blogs a day and experienced the exact opposite

in my experiences se's HATE folders off the main domain and treat them the same as the domain itself

perfect example..I had a banned domain in google and set up some new blogs on folders off the main domain, the folders NEVER got picked up, yet the subdomain did within 24 hours

to this day the folders are not recognized in google, but the subdomains are pr3 and higher

[Mediaguy]

Originally Posted by Jace

to this day the folders are not recognized in google, but the subdomains are pr3 and higher

No way.

Really? That is really really weird! I mean, incredibly... how much direct traffic did you get to the subfolder domains in relation to the subdomain indexes?

I had the exact opposite: my /blog started getting crazy traffic, so I started ignoring the mainsite.com to update the blog fairly often and keeping the bookmarkers happy etc... and it went to PR3 before it was sandboxed... the domain was virtually ignored...

We transferred our LCN Girls blog from an off-site sub folder (internetsexnetwork.com/blog or /news/bnews.html something like that) where it was PR3 to a blog.livecamnetwork.com location and it hasn't recovered since.

And where I used to give a lot of credence or importance to click-to's it seems irrelevant in this instance because we get a lot of clicks to the posts, especially when they update regularly... and poof, no wanna no bwana...

[RawAlex]

IMHO, carolcoxblog.com would be a good idea as well. Google is funny sometimes with third level domain stuff, but done right, you could run the blog and get a second bite at the google apple.

[Mediaguy]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

IMHO, carolcoxblog.com would be a good idea as well. Google is funny sometimes with third level domain stuff, but done right, you could run the blog and get a second bite at the google apple.

There's plenty of sites run on blog/soft on independant URL's and they do fine... a few of them pound me on page 1 results...

I think in time I'll be wishing I'd started the blogs as the main domain, it's just a Google/Blogger thing - Google doesn't consider its blogspot domains as highly as it does someone who starts a blog on a wordpress or thumblogger indy URL, so...

Yet I don't really think the /blog blogs will suffer, just that in time whether or not a site is a blog or a hand-coded html or anything else that's readable (and blogs are amongst the most readable of all online apps-created sites) it won't matter...

[RawAlex]

yeah, I was thinking more from the standpoint of "stacking" results, where you end up only getting one page into the immediate google results for "carol cox" and then everything else is "see more from this domain". If you are using a seperate domain, there is potential that you could end up holding down multiple spots in the top 10, which would be a good way to improve the percentage of google traffic overall for a given term.

[Mediaguy]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

yeah, I was thinking more from the standpoint of "stacking" results, where you end up only getting one page into the immediate google results for "carol cox" and then everything else is "see more from this domain". If you are using a seperate domain, there is potential that you could end up holding down multiple spots in the top 10, which would be a good way to improve the percentage of google traffic overall for a given term.

On keyword searches I get multiple listings because of labels and internal search-engine report pages.

I agree with you, though - having your blog on an independant URL will have benefits, long term - I just don't see those yet in my results.

[gonzo]

Organic SE results are only part of the equation.

[Jace]

Originally Posted by Mediaguy

hand-coded html

do people still do that?

[DannyCox]

Would anyone see a problem with actually doing mirrored blogs? Like having both blog.carolcox.com and carolcoxblog.com to catch both the affiliates and the SE traffic? Or would that create problems down the road with places like Google? One can be used for affiliates to use, and the other for the surfers that walk in the front door of the site (most of Carol's traffic is still type-in/bookmark)

Jace, I'll contact you via e-mail early next week. I would like someone who knows what they're doing assist in the initial set-up as I know I will miss things. We can discuss cost then. But would you rather have the WordPress program installed with basic set-up, or do you prefer doing the install? I've learned people like to work in different ways, so before I start a thing, I like to check on how they like to work.

Thanks all

[Jace]

duplicate content, you would in the long term be fucking yourself

se's dont like multiple sites with the same content

[Jace]

Originally Posted by DannyCox

But would you rather have the WordPress program installed with basic set-up, or do you prefer doing the install? I've learned people like to work in different ways, so before I start a thing, I like to check on how they like to work.

Thanks all

sorry, missed this

it would be in your better interest to have me do it...I have a programmer that has created a much better wordpress for me. He takes the latest version of wordpress and "fixes" it for me and I use that for my clients.

[Mediaguy]

Originally Posted by DannyCox

Would anyone see a problem with actually doing mirrored blogs? Like having both blog.carolcox.com and carolcoxblog.com to catch both the affiliates and the SE traffic? Or would that create problems down the road with places like Google? One can be used for affiliates to use, and the other for the surfers that walk in the front door of the site (most of Carol's traffic is still type-in/bookmark)

If your content is similar but formatted or laid out differently it shouldn't matter.

There's a lot of sites now, like even mainstream news sites, stocks & bonds, etc., who all subscribe to the same xml feeds.

Google differentiates on presentation, linkage, lay out, etc...

You can pretty much duplicate, especially if you're running the affiliate dupe site on php for code-carrying purposes, as long as it's on a different url with a different css/html lay out.

Also you may want to tweak the dupe site with more hardcore/explicit sutff since you won't be running it or its feeds to the aggregators and such.

[Jace]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

IMHO, carolcoxblog.com would be a good idea as well. Google is funny sometimes with third level domain stuff, but done right, you could run the blog and get a second bite at the google apple.

i agree kind sir

[Jace]

Originally Posted by Mediaguy

No way.

Really? That is really really weird! I mean, incredibly... how much direct traffic did you get to the subfolder domains in relation to the subdomain indexes?

I had the exact opposite: my /blog started getting crazy traffic, so I started ignoring the mainsite.com to update the blog fairly often and keeping the bookmarkers happy etc... and it went to PR3 before it was sandboxed... the domain was virtually ignored...

We transferred our LCN Girls blog from an off-site sub folder (internetsexnetwork.com/blog or /news/bnews.html something like that) where it was PR3 to a blog.livecamnetwork.com location and it hasn't recovered since.

And where I used to give a lot of credence or importance to click-to's it seems irrelevant in this instance because we get a lot of clicks to the posts, especially when they update regularly... and poof, no wanna no bwana...

traffic never really mattered, these were all fresh subdomains and fresh folders with blogs, i never transferred any sites

I work completely organic these days, I don't try and push traffic with scripts or manipulate rankings at all, it has served in my better interest too, i haven't had a domain sandboxed or banned in at least a year

I start from scratch and build from organic linkbacks and listings