Getting more out of iStadia - Help & Tips
How do I get lots of hits for my blog post?
If you look at the right hand side of iStadia's blogs page, you see our most read blogs. It's worth observing these, because they give some clear clues for anyone that wants their blog posts to be noticed. Of course, quantity isn't the only game in town, and quality of views (in relation to target market) are also important. (Still, more views is likely to create more links, thus feeding more relevant views anyway!).Here's the list:
What do you notice? Ok, the first thing is that only the titles are shown. That's one clue!
Yes, some of the blog posts are pretty old now, and that's one of the things to remember. Older content on the web doesn't disappear, and a well-written blog post that links to you can be an assett for a long time.
However, the first and possibly most important clue is in the title. All have keywords or combinations of keywords that people search for. "Tiger Woods Sport Psychology" for example. "Cheerleader Uniforms" (a great example of hooking people in with a potentially more provocative title!), "Olympic Sponsorship" or "Golf Ball Design" for example. These are all searched for and we see the evidence on a daily basis (through our stats).
Let's look at one of these - Tiger Woods and Sport Psychology. Why does this work? Well, there are loads of hits out there to be gained for the term "Tiger Woods" (in particular) or the term "Sport Psychology" but you are never that likely to get to the top of search engine rankings for either term alone using a blog post (as good as they are for getting noticed). However, the intersection of these terms provides an opportunity to get to the top of the rankings for a less competitive but still well-searched term. Let's look at the figures (from Google's keyword tool):
Search term Competition Global Monthly Search Volume
Sport Psychology Very High 49, 500
Tiger Woods Very High 2, 240, 000
Tiger Woods Psychology Low 140
Tiger Woods Sport Psychology Very low Not enough data
(This ignores the additional term "mental toughnes" that's in the title, but it doesn't change much).
Interesting. Search volumes are low, but importantly so too is competition. At the time of writing, the blog was approaching 3800 views. So we know that "low" volumes can add up, if you're top of the rankings. On the other hand, unless you are a massive player and your site is highly relevant to Tiger Woods (for example his own site) you are not even going to get a minute share of the 2 million monthly searches that Tiger gets.
Important lesson: Distribution of search hits is unequal and skewed almost totally to page 1 rankings (whatever the search engines, but obviously Google is the biggest at present). So getting to the top of page 1 for a relatively obscure term which is relevant to your target market is an effective strategy.
How do you exploit this phenomenon (which is the 'long tail' that Chris Anderson wrote about)?
Well, here's one view of the Top Ten Positive Search Engine Factors (from SEOmoz.org):
1. Keyword Use in Title Tag
2. Anchor Text of Inbound Link
3. Global Link Popularity of Site
4. Age of Site
5. Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure
6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links
7. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
8. Keyword Use in Body Text
9. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
10. Rate of New Inbound Links to Site
Note number 1 - keyword use in title tag. That's one you can control. What else can you control?
Well, you can certainly control #8 - Keyword use in body text (but don't "stuff" it with keywords - it should be readable! and don't forget to add 'tags') and you can influence #3 by sharing your posts or RSS feed on boomarking sites or feed aggregators. Much of the rest is our job and iStadia is proving to be an effective platform (while we're always strivign to improve it).
Other important considerations are:
- One blog post isn't going to change your business, but a strategy that incorporates regular blogging can
- You should not be penalised for posting on your own site and on iStadia. if you are concerned about this, a few changes to the wording of title and text will help (but the WHOLE page including menus is considered 'content' when a page is assessed as duplicate or not). This advice can be subject to change (and debate).
- Photos with ALT and TITLE tages that contain your keywords are very effective at driving traffic through image searches. Indeed, the Michael Jordan and Rugby posts in our list derived most of their hits from image searches.
- Likewise, content that includes both text and video can attract more traffic
- Oh, and questions (as titles) can help, especially if they are questions that you might expect a potential customer or client to ask.
Happy blogging!
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Sport & Exercise Professionals: Do you know that 'News' means YOUR news?!
We're starting to see some really positive signs that sport and exercise professionals are warming to using iStadia to develop their networks, caeers and business. Membership is accelerating, we see more people posting (though we'd like some of the early adopters to come back!) but one thing isn't happening: NEWS.
Does this mean that our members have no news? Is there nothing interesting happening in their professional lives? Are there no new contracts being won? No changes to their professional discipline? No interesting developments in their market? No new courses being offered, products launched or services delivered?
Of course not.
So, do they know that 'news' means their news? Perhaps sport and exercise professionals don't like to blow their own trumpets. I bet there's some truth in that (as you are such an ethical bunch), but sharing news doesn't mean overstating the truth or making other unethical claims.
But I'm sure that there is some of the former. I know that we have members who share their news with a mailing list. I'm on some of them. So, that must be part of the problem.
Of course there's at least one other explanation: They don't think it will make a difference. Well, you'll never know unless you go (as one advert used to say). But what we can say is that:
Some other members of iStadia - other sport & exercise professionals will see it AND
Other people that are searching for content like yours - potential customers - will see it.
So let this be a rallying call. Tell us what you're up to. Share your news. You are interesting. We do want to know. The world WILL be a better place for it, and if you do it regularly, it probably will make a difference.
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Happy New Year to Members Old & New
As I look back on 2008, and forward to 2009, I am excited at how iStadia has developed as a community and how it could, if we all put a little into it. These are some personal thoughts about iStadia.A Year of Progress
We've grown considerably this year - almost hitting the 900 members mark. Unfortunately I can't remember how many we had at the start of the year but I'm confident that next year we will multiply the membership in 2009 rather than just grow it.
We are now bringing in over 7000 unique visitors a month, with over 25, 000 page views. Compared to last year, we are bringing in more than triple the number of visitors, and more than double the page views.
Of course, the economic environment is hard for everyone in business just now, and I can speak for both Keith and myself when I say that we are grateful for the support of our premium members. I know that they can gain a great deal of benefit from their membership, but as we are a niche site and not a Facebook or a Linked In, subscriptions are important to our survival and growth. Funding is hard to come by, as it is for everyone, and this means that we can't always develop things and make improvements, or market the site to grow the membership, as quickly as we might like.
The Year Ahead
Looking forward, however, I do think that we've found the 'magic formula' that will take us to another level entirely, by bringing more people to the site and providing more specific focal points for people with common interests to interact - both of which are good news for our professional and business members. These 'communities' should be ready in Q1 of this year, but in the meantime we have set up some pages to start bridging the gap - 'centers'. These pull together related content and should start to bring in more visitors, but are a 'quick and dirty' solution and don't have the sophistication or interaction that we are planning to build.
Why do I think that this will work for everyone? Well, iStadia is currently very much a 'long tail' site. The long tail refers to the markket that is created by the sum total of lots of, say, web pages, that are individually get quite small numbers of visitors but in total get a lot. Visitors are attracted by the content that our members create. The more you create, the more will come, and that's working well.
On the other hand, our homepage is also 'niche'. Although the online networking phenomenon is growing, there are not yet many thousands of people each day searching for 'networking for sport and exercise professionals'!
So we have to fill in the middle. That's where the communities come in. We are confident that we can get high google placements for search terms such as 'sports science' (technically incorrect but more popular than 'sport science', sports business, sports coaching - or even Soccer Performance, Tennis Performance and so on.
Why is that important? Well, we believe that it will bring more people who are interested in these things - potential customers and business contacts - to you, the sport and exercise professionals.
So I'm excited about that.
A Request for 2009
But looking at the site we have, and the community we have, there is one wish that I have for 2009, and that is to unite those who were with us and were active at the start, with those that are currently active.
Looking back to 2007, we got some people interested in iStadia and they came on and started interacting. But we didn't have the numbers and there wasn't much of a response. Some of them have been dormant since. So, if you get to read this, the one thing I ask is that everyone invest a little time to explore iStadia now and again, and to engage with those that are posting good stuff, as well as perhaps posting something yourself.
If everyone takes just a few moments from time to time, then they really will be rewarded with new contacts, new ideas, and possibly new business or even friendship.
Happy New Year!
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
What's harder to find? A Sport Psychologist or a consumer of Sport Psychology?
I'm not sure how much the question in the title makes sense, but let me enlighten you. By no means for the first time this year I had a call from someone in another part of the country that was looking for a sport psychologist and was having trouble finding one. That's a customer (a professional sports person, by the way) that can't find someone to buy from.How crazy is that?
I immediately thought of two people in this guy's area that are members of iStadia. He wanted to get started with some face-to-face work very quickly, so needed phone numbers. One, it turns out, the guy had done some work with before and he was looking for something different. Fair enough. The other didn't have a phone number on their profile. A consultant that doesn't want to be called by a prospective customer...?
From where I'm sitting, it seems like this:
Sport psychologists often believe that the market for their work is limited or hard to access, that it is difficult to make a living in sport psychology.
Sportspeople that don't have access to sport psychologists through a programme of support often find it difficult to find the help that they need.
Think about that. If you aren't a sport psychologist, maybe you could just substitute the words and the issue would be just the same...
Are you making yourself easy or difficult to find?
Maybe you've got lucrative work coming out of your ears and don't need to put yourself out there....
Maybe you do, but don't know how.
If it's the latter, I'm not a marketing guru, but I'm more than happy to share what I've learned through my own experiences. Give me a shout. That's what networking is about.....
One small thing you can do if you are a member of iStadia: tick the box near the bottom of this page. It will certainly help us to promote you.
Something else - check out Keith's blog on forming an entrepreneurship and business development club.
If you aren't a member, maybe it's time to sign up?
Rob Robson
Sport and Business Psychologist, WarwickshireWhat will happen if you aren't listed in the iStadia business directory?
Will you die a horrible death? No.
Will your business or professional practice go down the tubes? No.
But...
....you might miss out on potential leads, and therefore new business. Just because you didn't put a tick in the box......
Members, get listed on the business directory here (scroll down to the bottom of the page).
Non-members, sign up.
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia
Making a better networking and internet marketing platform for YOU
We have already announced that in a few weeks time we will be introducing paid memberships. But of course, we don't expect people simply to pay for what they already have. Rather, we are working on a number of enhancements that will be made available to those taking a premium memberships.iStadia is already proving to be an effective platform for creating a "buzz" for products or services, or enhancing online reputation. This is done both on and off the site. Active members are seeing not only excellent search engine placements for articles, blogs and their profiles but also improved placements for their own websites (when they use their content effectively by linking to their own site).
I can speak from my own experience: Since I've actively linked my activity on iStadia to my own site I have started creating a regular stream of enquiries for my sport psychology services. Not only has this benefited me but, as others will testify (and a look at the forums will tell you) I am passing on referrals to other members too. iStadia has taught me some valuable lessons which we are now applying to make premium membership a highly effective, low-cost platform for marketing your sports business or consultancy - or simply enhancing your personal brand.
The improvements that are coming are designed to give premium members greater control over the presentation of their profile and other content, particularly with a view to search engine optimisation and creation of business leads.
These include:
1) Turning your profile into a more personalised 'mini site', with additional elements to elevate your own brand and optimise it for search engines.
This should help to attract more visitors to your profile, so the first improvement is
- The ability for potential customers to contact you directly from your profile, to your email inbox,
without them having to log in.
Improvements designed to create additional visitors include
- Personalised title. The title is known to be particularly important to search engines, so we will allow
you to create your own, which can include your most important key words.
- A short 'elevator pitch' or summary, which gives human visitors an instant understanding of what
you can offer, and search engines more focused, keyword-rich text to pick up and display.
- A list of your own articles and blogs, rather than simply a link to 'your blog' and 'your articles'. Again,
this will create a more focused, rich page to attract visitors.
- The ability to add a feed. So, if you have a blog elsewhere, you can show it on your profile page.
- More control over the layout of your profile - a choice of tabs or a single page.
2) A business or consultant finder - which will be more prominent, potentially benefitting all, but in which premium members will be given prioritised listings.
3) Personalised blogs, articles and news. So, if you want to make your brand/business name more prominent, or make your keywords more prominent to help your business you can.
4) Adding a summary to your articles, to give people and search engines the opportunity to quickly see what your article is about.
5) Giving paid members their own 'space' (based on a club) to which visitors can subscribe, giving you the opportunity to communicate directly with them - rather like an interactive newsletter.
Those of you who are serious about using the web to increase business will see that these enhancements, on their own, are worth paying (what will be a modest annual subscription) for. However, to sweeten the deal further we will be adding a package of discounts (e.g. on the marketplace, for future events).
As we have already said, we will continue to welcome non-paying members and most of the benefits that can currently be gained from membership will be available, at least to some degree, to you all.
Please drop me or Keith a line with any queries. I'm on 07739 411383. Keith can normally be found in the office, on +441491574938.
Regards,
Rob
Rob Robson
Sport and Business Psychologist, WarwickshireWe're truly global - 24 countries and counting....
The red countries are those coloured red. Although we are still less than a month old we are now represented in 24 countries (latest is kenya, list below) and all continents. I'll update this regularly.
The list: Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Finland, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Nepal, Pakistan, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sudan, Taiwan, UK, USA.
Create your own visited countries map.
iStadia and the Long Tail
I'm currently reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson (Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine) and it has stimulated quite a few thoughts about the internet, and iStadia specifically.
The fundamental point of The Long Tail is that the internet has created a totally different kind of economic force. As suppliers are able to supply more and more via the internet, it is actually creating demand. For example, a book or record store can only put so many goods on the shelf, so the pressure is there to only stock the goods that create the most sales: the "hits". So you either have a hit, or you don’t sell at all. Amazon (for example) doesn’t have that limitation. Their ‘shelf space’ is virtual and unlimited, so they can ‘stock’ the most obscure, niche titles and they do.
The point about this is that by making these niche products available they are actually fueling demand. Rather than not selling, these titles do have an audience and although sales are small for each, the total sales created by all of these products in huge. So, while there are still “hits”, what used to be the “misses” now make up the “long tail” of the distribution curve and collectively are incredible valuable. Increased choice leads to increased demand.
OK, so what’s the relationship to iStadia?
Well, the point is that even “services” in sport and exercise like sport psychology, are now sold in a global market. If you are a sport psychologist in the UK (I’m only picking on sport psych because it is familiar territory) say, like Vicki Aitken, your competition could include consultants in other countries, like Kate Kirby in Ireland or Pete Bendig in the US because they have the potential to offer services or self-help products through the internet.
You might disagree, but then you might not have seen that John F. Murray is coming to the UK to do a one-day seminar that he is packaging up with a year’s online and phone support for £275.
So why should you lose out when you could gain?
The point is that if you give consumers across the globe the opportunity to buy from you, then they might. What’s more, the long tail says that the more people do that, the more demand will be created for sport psychology services or products that are offered in this way.
In the UK, the market for things like sport psychology has been quite slow to develop (that’s the fault of the industry) and there are a lot of people now out there offering services, so it makes sense to try and win business in markets that are less well serviced. And here’s the real point for me: the money is at the elite end of the market, and if you build your business around local delivery not only are you limiting the consumers that you can reach, but you are actually limiting consumer choice and therefore (probably) total demand for sport psychology. Now there’s a thought.
Ok, so not many clients will choose the added cost of flying a consultant out to see them, but it does happen. It happens in business (I’m out in Romania this week doing client delivery because the demand is there but the expertise isn’t) so why wouldn’t it happen in professional sport, particularly if the customer (like golfers or tennis players, for example – two of the most potentially lucrative markets for consultants) travels all the time themselves.
And if they aren’t going to pay for you to fly out to see them, you still have the opportunity to work with international clients, by phone or using the web. You can also sell products. I’m amazed that more interactive self-help products aren’t on the market because the number of people in the world that want to get better at sport is huge!
So, bringing it back to iStadia, you have to be prepared to sell globally to exploit the full potential of being on the web, and iStadia is a great platform to start doing that. Our membership is still small (but growing every day) and there isn’t a lot of content on the site yet but already iStadia is being visited (and joined) by people all over the world.
So why not write that article you’ve been thinking about writing? Why not share your thoughts by by blogging? You never know who will read it, like it, and want to follow up with you. When I started putting articles up on mentalskills.co.uk, I received emails from people, quite literally, from all over the world. Often they came from countries that lack a sport psychology infrastructure stating their gratitude for the article, and more often than not they weren’t even potential customers, but some were (including a multinational oil company).
So, James Parrack, do you want more people to come to training camps? Do you, Lawrence Klein, want to sell more biofeedback equipment? Does Andreas Fronk really want that job in South Korea? Does Rhona Shepherd want to acccess more potential clients?
Of course you do, so get creating and who knows where it will lead?
What are tags and what do they do?
You'll notice that when you add a blog post, an article, or edit your profile there is a 'tags' box at the bottom.
Tags are basically keywords. These are important because as the site gets busier and there are more members and content on the site, tags will be a very important way to find information. if, for example, you write an article on anxiety in football, you may wish to add tags such as "anxiety, soccer, football, emotions, arousal, relaxation, performance, nerves, sport psychology, coaching" and so on.
When you write your tags consider things like different spellings of the same term (e.g. US versus UK English), alternative terminology, higher level terms (e.g. psychology) and lower level terms (e.g. anxiety).
Think about your intended audience and what they are likely to search for - don't use academic terminology if you want athletes to read your material.
Blogs and Categories - some help
OK, so right now we don't have the most graceful solution for putting your blogs in to categories, but we'll sort that out soon.
In the meantime, what you need to do is.
1. Create your category.
2. Edit an existing blog.
Once you edit, you will have the option of adding it to a category.
We will try and sort this so that you can add it to a category when creating a blog, or just do it from your list of blogs.
Welcome to iStadia
In this blog I'll be doing my best to make new members feel at home and help them to get started.
On the whole there isn't a load of text on each screen to explain what everything is. We feel that too much would detract from the functionality but of course we might not get the balance right so the first tip is:
ASK! Use the forum, or contact another member for advice (initially myself and Keith Irving). That's the point of a community after all.
The most important part of iStadia, for anyone that want to use it to get noticed or develop new business, is the profile.
The profile itself is pretty simple. What we've done is create a number of areas for you to create your own text. The editor works much like any word processing package, and will allow you to format the text, add images and create links, for example. So, ultimately it is your chance to build your own website, albeit within another. If you have your own website, your profile can be used to create links to it.
It is important to get started on your profile. You can always edit it later. Just like blogs - which is just as well as I'm sure this one needs work!
More to follow on blogging etc.
