Welcome to the May 21, 2009 edition of the Social Media Blog Carnival. Thanks very much to the carnival “owner,” New Media Labs, for asking us to host.

Next week’s host is Social Media Wiz, so send ‘em in.

For this carnival, the host reviews all the submissions and then picks the post that he/she thinks is the best combination of original, useful social media-related information AND presentation.

This week’s winner is….Tim’s post The SEO and Social Media Mix at Search Engine Optimisation.

Runner-up is Steven Leung’s post Defining Integrated Marketing at Integrated Marketing Experts, saying, “At the intersection between Web 2.0, social media and traditional marketing is integrated marketing. Business owners need to know how this impacts the way they publicize their business online.”

Some carnivals don’t show you the other submissions (we all have a different style) but I thought you’d like to see what else came in, so it’s listed below.

Angel presents Fallen Sword Web Based RPG Guide posted at Burn a Brain.

Patricia Turner presents 100 Online Brainstorming Tools to Help You Think Outside the Box posted at Forensic Science Technician.

Anthony McCune presents Tweets From Capitol Hill – Members of the United States Congress On Twitter posted at The Lives and Times… of Anthony McCune.

ivan presents How To Increase Your Feeds Subscribers posted at PC Hacks, saying, “If you ask any blogger what metric they would like to increase on their blog, it’s likely that their first answer will be feed subscribers.”

Jeremy Smith presents Best in Social Media – May 11, 2009 posted at Social Marketing by Michelle MacPhearson.

That concludes this edition, and thanks for participating.

Please submit your (one, non-spammy) blog post to the next edition of the social media blog carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

I discussed writing good content and posting consistently for a decent amount of time in the first Every Dot Connects Blogging Basics post – How to start a blog, and whether you’ll ever make money from it.

The next obvious question is, “How do I get anyone to read my blog?”

It may surprise you to learn that marketing and publicizing a blog’s content (thereby increasing traffic if the content is good) doesn’t happen on the blog.

Sure, outbound links to other sites from your blog posts are seen by those sites as inbound links/backlinks, and their authors may click back through to see what you’re saying and what you’re all about. That’s why it is important to pay attention to who links to you, and respond.

In that sense, you are publicizing your writing directly from your own blog, but that is only part of the battle.

Blog publicity happens via a whole ecosystem of online and face-to-face interaction.

• It happens via Facebook, because a blog post link that you put on your Wall or in your status is seen on the Home pages of everyone in your network.
• It happens via LinkedIn the same way, through your network’s Home pages.
• It happens via your comments on other people’s blogs or in an online forum, because usually your name on a comment is a hyperlink back to your blog (so think before you comment. Ever wonder why more readers don’t comment?)
• It happens via Twitter, both because your blog URL should be listed in your bio, and from the occasional post URL of your own that you tweet. You don’t just auto-post everything onto your Twitter stream, do you?  Good; didn’t think so.
• It happens via StumbleUpon, which is especially nice when someone Stumbles one of your posts. Give back;  Stumble other people’s good content.
• It happens when you bookmark on Delicious.
• It happens when you do any of the above and it shows up in your FriendFeed.
• It happens via Flickr photo – I try to remember to put applicable links in the description of photos that I put online. Here’s one of my Chicago photos with links, as an example.
• It happens via YouTube videos; put links in the description of those, too.
• It happens via email – when people see your blog’s hyperlinked URL in your email signature line.
• It happens when people see your blog’s URL on your business card.
• And finally, it happens when you go “Old School” and meet people in person at conferences and networking events, and you mention your blog if it is appropriate.

Be everywhere, representing your writing.

Be ubiquitous, along with your content.

Marketing happens OFF of the blog.

Thinking of starting a blog? Already started one and wondering when you’ll rake in the Big Bucks?

I’m going to lay it out for you….

Here’s some advice I gave to a journalist who wanted to start a parenting blog, but since people ask me the same questions all the time, I thought I’d back up from relative esoterica  –  like how business communicators should respond to negative blog reviews –  and give you my standard answer to two common questions:

1. How do I decide what to write about, and then get started?
2. Can you actually make money blogging?

My basic advice for beginning bloggers is this  –  go to Aussie Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger site, and read everything. That’s not meant to be a cop-out, but seriously, you can’t do any better than Darren for great starter advice. At the bottom of the front page of his site is a box, Best of Problogger, so click the tab For Beginners and just start reading. That’s exactly what I did when I started.

After that, read Liz Strauss’ Successful Blog and Chris Brogan’s blog for how to nurture your blog’s community and grow visibility and readership.

In between reading the three sites above….

• Write good content
• Post reasonably frequently (2-4 times a week)
• Keep at it for at least 4-6 months, which is about how much time a blog usually needs to gain traffic and attention traction.

That’s it, really. But do you see the problem? Anyone toting a keyboard can start a blog – it’s keeping one going month after month, year after year that’s the hard part.

Key for my journalist questioner: there are thousands of parenting blogs out there, and that’s probably underestimating. What’s her special angle?

What’s your special angle? What will make yours particularly unique? What is your blog’s “elevator speech?” Hone in on that and work the bejeebus out of it to bring value to your readers.  I assure you, there’s no simpler answer.

Now, on to the money round….

I know very few people who make much money directly from blogging (myself included.) Most people’s blogs are simply part of their writing portfolio, or a storefront to/demonstration of their expertise. You have to have a really specific, lucrative niche (or a big presence) to have enough traffic to live off of blog-generated ad revenue.

Two examples of success -

1. Heather Armstrong’s dooce (longevity, quality and HUGE traffic) and
2. Darren Rowse’s other site, his Digital Photography School (longevity, quality and camera equipment-related affiliate sales plus ads.)

Right now, I do get paid a combined US$100-$200 a month for my work on the BootsnAll Family Travel Logue and for the Perceptive Travel Blog. They are largely ad-supported.

I used to be paid for my Fast Machines drag racing posts, but the editor can’t afford it anymore, so I’m wrestling with whether I can continue that, although I certainly want to. As a benchmark, I’ve been paid US $20-$50 per post when I’m paid by the post on that site and others.

I’m not paid directly for my Every Dot Connects posts, but Connie Reece, Jennifer Navarrete and I make money doing consulting, corporate training and workshops about social media, so the EDC blog is simply another entry into that work for our prospective customers.

If I didn’t have a military pension and wasn’t married to someone with a steady income (my husband is a high school math teacher) I’d never make it, frankly. I still do print work that pays much better (Texas Highways is one of my favorite clients, and so is National Geographic Traveler) but I haven’t pitched article ideas to them lately because I’m busy with online work. I’d kill to blog for them at per-word print rates, but their business models won’t support that yet.

Bottom line  –  the vast majority of us won’t make much money any time soon from blogging. Where we CAN make money is having the critical skill set of being able to create good online content and understand how the online ecosystem works (including eventually mobile content, which will be huge, in my opinion.)

WHEN will that make you money? As soon as more value shifts from dying print work to burgeoning online/mobile work.

And when will that be? Well, if I knew that, I’d be rich myself by now!

We simply don’t know yet, but sitting around waiting for magic answers is not a good idea.  Content is shifting to the Web and to mobile; just because a good pay structure isn’t there yet doesn’t mean you can ignore it.

You’ll have competition – there are a ton of writers and journalists finally figuring out that they’d better know this stuff.  I thought I was late to the game when I started my family travel blog in Feb 2006, on the advice of this smart journalist. Now, I have a three-year head start, and don’t you think I’m not very grateful for that.

For writers and journalists, in the end, the winners will be the ones who can deliver quality content anywhere, including online.

Congratulations to those of you who are starting a blog, and it’s OK if your purpose is simply to teach yourself how the social Web works, not necessarily to make income.

It’s still a smart move.

Related Posts:

• Blogging Basics: Getting traffic, readers and attention for your blog

As a member of UpTake‘s Marketing Board, I wrote an UpTake Travel Industry blog post on the advantages of getting information about your product or service (not necessarily just tourism-related ones, either) into the hands of travelers who use social media tools….

Smart marketing with giveaways 2.0

In it, I describe and link to some of the online reactions (particularly on Twitter) of people who got a travel-related gift/giveaway swag bag during my South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) travel blogging panel with fellow writer Pam Mandel.

Every link in the post is one more effort to land a roundhouse punch against “there’s not enough ROI (Return on Investment) in social media marketing.”

For example:

• “Many liked the sample pralines from local Austin company Lammes Candies – traveler CouchSurfingOri talked about the Lammes habanero praline, and so did hedge fund talent recruiter Kim Haynes and Download Squad tech writer CJClark.
• Krista Parry (Park City, Utah resorts PR and marketing) cheered the stickers provided by the Alltop.com Travel topic channel.
• Canadian travel internet marketing guru Todd Lucier was ready to cash in his bag’s Blue Bell Ice Cream free pint certificate, and he told his friends about it.”

I’d love to hear your comments on the post; thanks!