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Posted

I was thinking about creating an aggregated feed of everyone's Blog, publishing it on Huria, and making it available to others.  Maybe the feed could be segmented by category so that readers can customize what the read.  This could actually be monetized, converted into a mobile ap, and more.

It would take some work to create this and is not what I would call low hanging fruit, but someone with some technical skill could knock this out pretty quickly.  If we had enough blogger committed to sharing, using and promoting the feed it might be worth the effort.

Posted

This is another solid idea that I think would catch fire pretty quickly. The idea of an app that aggregates blogs is nice, but it would take some tech savvy to pull off.

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Posted

Mel, I'm afraid no one would distribute or consume the list, so I'm not sure it is worth the effort.  I'm not taking the idea off the table, but it is definitely way on the back burner.

You can add your blog to the list using this form: http://aalbc.org/blogs/addnewblogform.html these are the blogs whose feeds I would aggregate.  Don't stress over the categories I'm going to recategorize all the blogs and when I review the list later in the year.

Posted

I added one of my blogs.  I remember seeing many of those blogs displayed on the black weblog awards. Maybe a partnership or combined promotional efforts with the organization may be a win.

  • Like 1
Posted

I love how optimistic Mel is!!!! It takes a person of considerable character to interact and do as you have Mel. Most people tend to do what is easiest and what connects them to the most people at one time and that's social media. The perception of social drives the engine of connection for most. You have taken the time to join a community and the interesting thing is everything here is indexed and searchable through Google which means you are creating a bigger digital footprint than just using social media which tends to disappear within 24 hours unless it goes viral which is very rare. Keep attempting to link the sites though because it is definitely an admirable cause and it's needed.

  • Like 2
Posted

Mel when I first populated the blog directory I used those Black Blogs award sites as a source.  The fact that many of the award winning blogs listed on those sites are no longer up, only supported my belief that we had to do more to support each other--that is if we have any interest in long term survival.

I have already emailed all of the bloggers in my database.  I was unable to generate any interest in doing anything collectively.  I did connect with a group of bloggers (a group whose name I will not mention), but the members seem to be more interested in using the platform to promote their own sites rather than brainstorming ways to work together for mutual benefit.  Getting folks to sacrifice a bit of their time to work with others is a very hard thing to convince people to do--even if they will benefit in the long term.

I continue to try...  Once this website's upgrade is complete (still several months away), I will redirect energies to more collective efforts.

BTW if anyone notices any other problems on these forums please let me know. It appears all of the bugs have been worked out.

 

 

 

Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Troy said:

Getting folks to sacrifice a bit of their time to work with others is a very hard thing to convince people to do--even if they will benefit in the long term.

I continue to try...  Once this website's upgrade is complete (still several months away), I will redirect energies to more collective efforts.

If I remember correctly, there is a post on aalbc, telling bloggers how we can help each other... I think the post is in a conspicous place - but if WE (because this idea benefits the whole and the individual) do at least one thing on that list we post our own blog post - we become a symbiotic unit without much effort...

Edit: to add the two posts I am referring to

http://aalbc.com/blog/index.php/2015/08/18/bloggers/ 

 

 

 

Edited by Mel Hopkins
to add links
Posted
13 hours ago, CDBurns said:

I love how optimistic Mel is!!!! It takes a person of considerable character to interact and do as you have Mel. - You have taken the time to join a community and the interesting thing is everything here is indexed and searchable through Google which means you are creating a bigger digital footprint than just using social media which tends to disappear within 24 hours unless it goes viral which is very rare. Keep attempting to link the sites though because it is definitely an admirable cause and it's needed.

Thank you! As I mentioned to Troy, if you use the Google search engine to find me on the net - aalbc.com/melhopkins comes up as number 9 on the first page - my amazon page come up at 8. Guess where my own website comes in? It comes up on the 9th page!  - in Google terms my own website bearing my name doesn't even rank! Lol!  

However, I'm not just linking here for a high rank - I believe in the goal of AALBC.com - it was mentioned in the forum, we don't control any institutions - so if that's the case, only we can change that "truism"..

Do you agree putting an effort into our own product and into a product that serves as a commnunity to be step in the direction to change that reality held by some?  

  • Like 2
Posted

I definitely believe that what we are doing is both creating and supporting the community. It's not even much of an effort to come in and check and respond. If more people did this, then the writing community would be a bit better for us.

Now on to your name and your site... Here is an article that explains why your site isn't showing up as high as it should. Pay close attention to the info on Google Webmaster Tools. http://www.cbpublish.com/arch-marketing-sales-discussion-may-2014/

  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, CDBurns said:

 

Now on to your name and your site... Here is an article that explains why your site isn't showing up as high as it should. Pay close attention to the info on Google Webmaster Tools. http://www.cbpublish.com/arch-marketing-sales-discussion-may-2014/

Thank you for this nudge! As soon as I read your article ... it clicked immediately what was missing!  I didn't put my own name in the description - google SEO PDF reminds us to include key words that would pop up during a search.. I wrote about my novel!  The only place my name appears on the site is the domain name, Title and description on home page. duh! :) I will fix my copy straight  away! Thank You! great article! 

Posted

Most important, make sure you add the script from Google Webmaster Tools. It helps with indexing the entire site. That's what the board is for... we help each other. Troy has a lot of info about indexing as well, but the main one that I can discuss is making sure you site is indexed. I think I will do a video on that as well in the future. Keep pushing!

  • Like 1
Posted
8 hours ago, CDBurns said:

Most important, make sure you add the script from Google Webmaster Tools. It helps with indexing the entire site. 

Will do! I started to make some changes last night and my website locked up in google chrome.  I had to restore it - and start again.  It's not going to beat me!  Thank you so much! 

  • Like 1
Posted

I have to check out your video @CDBurns.  @Mel Hopkins, Google's search results OFTEN push "official sites lower in search results."  They will absolutely favor social media, wikipedia, scandalous news, etc over an official site, which is a serious problem for smaller sites, regardless of quality.  Consider an article I wrote about the search results on the author Zane, back in 2014

Now I will admit that Google has gotten better over time and the problems that I noticed a few years ago are not nearly as bad.  But this is mostly because it is much more difficult to game Google's search results.

Still small books sites don't really have a chance today.  Take a look at the screenshot from Google search result that I posted below (taken at 10:00 a.m. February 2, 2016 using privacy mode)

Notice how Google inserts their Zane information prominently on the upper right hand side of the search results page.  Actually it is not "their" Zane information, in that the text is usually copied from Wikipedia and the images are copied from other websites including this one.  As a result, people looking for something about Zane do have to leave the google page, 

Google is also a book seller, so people can learn more about books and buy them from Google without even leaving the search results page!

Wikipedia is #1 (no surprise there--Google oddly skews toward wikipedia on virtually every subject).  Simon and Schuster has the first and 2nd search results. Amazon's has two sites in the top 7.   AALBC.com is #7 in the results.  Your result will vary especially if you login to Google.  When I login, for example, AALBC.com comes in #3 for this Zane search.

Zane's Blog is on page 2. Admittedly Zane's Blog has not been updated since 2012, instead she is hyper-active on social media.  I think it is a mistake for Zane to publish so much content on Facebook, rather than her own website.  Indeed it was her website that launched her prominence.  But Zane is famous and has earned millions.  I'm obscure and broke, so what do I know?

As Google becomes more of a content aggregator they can hijack the traffic that would have normally gone to other websites, because they own search.  Facebook is positioning themselves quite well to do that same thing.  Facebook and Google are oligarchist gatekeepers.

zane-search.thumb.jpg.55ea9a57a14da7e358

 

 

Posted

Oh I forgot to mention this: After seeing how search results skewed away from independent website--especially black owned sites.  I decided to create search engine, Huria Search, that only returns search results from Black owned independent website.  That way so many of the websites that are undiscoverable in regular search can now be found in a Huria Search.

Check out the Huria Search results on Zane.  The query is actually on the term Zane Author.  You will see now that the top results come from Black Enterprise, Black America Web, Black News.com, and Jet Magazine.  But the top pages in the search results ALL talk about scandal associated with Zane tax issues.  In fact these are all the same articles--regurgitated clickbait designed to drive traffic.

It is not until we get to Hello Beautiful site, #6 in the results, that we see information about Zane's literary or film accomplishments.  AALBC.com is excluded from Huria Search results.

huria-zane-search.thumb.jpg.f495ba1a3ec4

One last note: A couple of years ago my social media started beating MY SIte on a query of my name!  I went into Facebook and Twitter and ripped out all of my personal information and lied about anything I had to provide, like my age (I'm over 100 on Facebook).  It took another year for my site to out rank my social media on Google Searches.  This was probably due to an adjustment of Google's side rather than my own effort.

How does AALBC.com rank when you run a search on Troy Johnson AALBC?  Let me know, I'm curious.

Posted

Re: Zane screenshot in your quote... This is pretty much what I get when I google my name... with AALBC.com coming in right after Amazon... Now what I did find, is when I type in "The LeadStory" my media communication business web site - it is #1 ... which is really confusing - after what @CDBurns mentioned about google webmaster tools ... because I didn't do it with that site... but I will keep pushing! 

"@Mel Hopkins, Google's search results OFTEN push "official sites lower in search results."

Google is also a book seller, so people can learn more about books and buy them from Google without even leaving the search results page!"

I'm giggling because a lot of what you respond to here, I mentioned in my last correspondence to you. I'm glad because it really allows me to know I'm on the right track.    Google allows you to search inside the book which I believe is why it often comes up when I search for typical academic references.  Also if you search for African Antiquity which I do quite often - those eBooks are free and Google allows you to save them to your digital library.  Of course you have to sign into google to read your "free" book...so maybe some of us authors might be willing to do the same here on AALBC.com. Of course you can only read the book when you sign in but at least you can read for free...even if it's for a limited time.  The method to my madness is I'm always looking for the pitch and placement angle - "AALBC... offering a digital library to readers/book club members " is pitch-worthy... 

 But Zane is famous and has earned millions.  I'm obscure and broke, so what do I know? 

I didn't know you wrote erotica too!  :)  But seriously, with the wealth of information you have here on the site - I already branded you, wrote  and published several books for you  (even if only in my head).   

I'll do you one better, when I do an incognito search for Troy Johnson ; your photo is included in the image - and aalbc is on the first page

 

  • Like 1
Posted

Well maybe I'm not that obscure. ;) 

Seriously, Troy Johnson is a very common name and there are a several people in the public eye with the name, so ranking high on a search for my name is not easy--especially if you do not want social media to win.  I put effort into making this happen.  Ranking high in search does not happen automatically. 

Let me look into the image upload settings-- I thought they were pretty liberal.

 

Posted
28 minutes ago, Troy said:

Well maybe I'm not that obscure. ;) 

Seriously, Troy Johnson is a very common name and there are a several people in the public eye with the name, so ranking high on a search for my name is not easy--especially if you do not want social media to win.  I put effort into making this happen.  Ranking high in search does not happen automatically.

 

You really aren't obscure at all...lol  And See what I mean - it doesn't happen automatically - I even have a browser that identifies that I'm in GA even when I go incognito.   Dr . Troy Johnson came up because he's in Covington, GA.  So unless you know something more about why my search would include you - I'm thinking you may hit first page results for others too... and how you did it is extremely valuable! So maybe you're "broke" but you are definitely a wealth of knowledge ;)

 

  • Like 2
Posted

I appreciate that of course, but we are already connected through AALBC and anything you want to rap about, you can e-mail or inbox me here. I consider the people on this board extended family and family helps each other.

  • Like 2

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