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Two Ways to Market Yourself on MyBlogLog

MyBlogLog is an essential social networking tool for bloggers to get in touch with their readers as well as other bloggers. The site "enables you to take advantage of your existing presence on the Web and ties it into communities of like-minded readers and authors to add context to the conversations in which you take part." The potential for you to market yourself through the site, though, reaches beyond that.

Look at the average blog community member's avatar and more often than not you will just see the person in the photograph. If you are going to use your photograph as your avatar, keep one thing in mind, sex sells. While it may not be the most targeted way to attract people from other communities, having an attractive photograph in place of your avatar is more likely to get people to click on your profile and therefore be linked to your blog or site. Look at the following pictures for example:

While using your photograph as your avatar does add a personal touch to your profile, you don't necessarily have to use it. You can leverage your visibility in blog communities on MyBlogLog to further market yourself and your blog by using an avatar that displays your corporate logo or simply the url of your site.

Take it one step further and you can use a corporate avatar as your image for your instant messaging client as well. This way, every time you are talking to anyone, they are clearly made aware of your corporate or blog-related affiliations and might even pay you a visit. Keep in mind that while changing your avatar to reflect your affiliations to others in the communities that you are a genuinely interested member of is one thing, but doing this for the sole purpose of spamming other communities is completely unacceptable.

Michael Jensen explains how this flaw in MyBlogLog can be exploited to spam communities and websites that use the MyBlogLog widget.

Joe Whyte, February 7, 2007

I have been testing the "hot girl" method. Sadly I think its working LOL.

See the page here: http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/rockyfied/

I have also tried offering something for free to attract new visitors. This method has not worked as well as the "hot girl" method.

See page here: http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/webhostinglunartics/

Lastly I have tried the quality content method. This method is pretty simple, I write quality content and add a mybloglog widget to my site. Once the link bait has been developed and deployed, visitors will see the post and see my mybloglog community and I have seen more people join through this method than all of the previous.

Placing your logo in the avatar is not my favorite method because this tends to only work if you have a high volume of brand awareness.

I think standard methods of marketing a site can apply to your mybloglog page. There are a ton of methods like viral marketing, ppc, pay per post, stumble ads and then a slew of your social media sites could potential help you as well. Just depends on how you market it. There would have to be an interesting catch or your social media traffic is going to hate you ;-)

Good post muhammad and I think you have given me some inspiration on a post.

Wendy Piersall :: eMom, February 7, 2007

Sadly, the girls just don't do it for me. Can't quite figure out why... maybe there's something wrong with my eyes?

;)

Jason Murphy, February 7, 2007

Ah Ha! I thought you looked different than I recalled from ASW, Joe. We didn't meet, but I was at the Super Affiliates session where you asked the questions about an overly competitive affiliate marketspace. When I saw your MBL avatar I thought it was just my beer goggles at the time. 8)

I wonder how well it works because you didn't even try to spell your name as "Jo".

Joe Whyte, February 7, 2007

LOL beer goggles!! The photo is an eye opener right? Thats classic jason!! I'm sorry we did not get a chance to meet at ASW. I had a blast in vegas how about you? Did you like asw?

I'm sorry wendy I totally forgot about the female demographic when considering a mybloglog avatar. Maybe a post of some muscle bound hunks could help draw traffic as well its just not my style ;-p.

Brajeshwar, February 8, 2007

lol, this is ticklishly true and would be tantalizingly tempting for any new blogger and old-but-dusty to try out.

Gregg Scott, February 8, 2007

Would you go to a business networking social event dressed up as a Woman? I thought not. Starting off a relationship with dishonesty is an awful beginning. It will not yield long term results. You will get hits but it's not just about hits anymore. It's about conversion and sustainability. If I have happened upon a blog with a fake avitiar I will not return. Ever. I do not allow members who practice this tactic to be part of my network. No self-respecting blogger I know would either. Misrepresentation in business in some cases is illegal. On MyBlogLog it is at best immature and I believe a case could be made that they be removed from the system. This advice in your post is ill-founded and ridiculous.

Gregg Scott www.GWEGGY.com

franticindustries, February 8, 2007

I use my corporate logo everywhere, including MyBlogLog. I like the idea of people instantly recognizing me on various services. I can understand the usage of "hot girl" avatar, but I would never do it myself. My recommendation to users would be to choose something clear, recognizable, and simple and stick with it.

Matt Coddington, February 8, 2007

Everyone has been replacing their avatars with pictures of girls. It's pathetic. I was under the impression that blogging was the one type of website where the webmaster was truly transparent (in most cases) and actually tried NOT to actively deceive his members. Are we trying to make MyBlogLog just another MySpace marketer's playground?

Wendy Piersall :: eMom, February 8, 2007

Gregg, of course I would go to a networking event dressed like woman, what kind of weirdo do you think I am?!

Sorry, although there are some great points being made here, I can't help but find the funny side to all of this :)

DeeJay, February 8, 2007

I read useful tips here. Thanks to everyone.

Mark, February 8, 2007

LOL, thanks for the laugh Wendy! Hilarious! Its funny how fast people can forget that their are women in this industry.

Chuck Lai, February 8, 2007

Damn, I thought blogging was becoming a passion of really hot women! In all seriousness, sex definitely sells and an attractive image will increase your CTR. This is an old tactic and we see it in all forms of advertising from online media, print and TV.

Avatars are a form of self expression and should some how represent you. So I'm in the present oneself honestly camp.

Joe Whyte, February 8, 2007

I have seen ethical companies using sex to sell. I understand where some of you guys are coming from with not wanting to get into the sex sells method but lets face it. It really does. People can say hey, I am above that and miss out on a lot of traffic, sales and exposure. I am not saying doing this on mybloglog will give you those sales, traffic or exposure but if we look at the "sex sells" marketing phenomenon then we can look at things like phone commercials like vonage, beer commercials, Godaddy, anything on mtv, the miss America pagent, most super bowl commercials, car commercials etc. The list goes on and on. Something I think is really astonishing is that the "sex sells" mentality is present in almost every field/product. I literally dare someone to watch TV or browse the internet for 20 minutes and I would be willing to bet you would see at least 3-10 ads or instances of a company using sex to sell.

This is not an issue of ethic's in my opinion its an exercise in seeing what works and what does not work. Its how marketers become professionals, through testing and testing and testing.

Let me just say that if you are representing a serious product, service or topic like "Breast Cancer" or "resting homes" you probably do NOT want to use sex to sell. There is a type of marketing that should be done for a certain product and I am in know way saying that the sex sells method should be used for every product or service. I am just saying its ethical to use it and it has its time and place so to be either on the do it or don't do it side seems to be a very weird stance for someone to take when we are looking at marketing tactics.

Rex Hammock, February 8, 2007

One of the first features the MyBlogLog folks added was a means to ban people from your site -- you can see the little "x" on any photo. I think gaming your avatar would cause you to get banned from many sites. Also, they have an abuse reporting mechanism.

Zach Katkin, February 9, 2007

As much as I appreciate some quality cleavage in spreading the word about my latest aerodynamics physics post, I've (rather appropriately) opted for a gore laden avatar of a man getting his arm ripped off (animated gif). Really helps drive home bernoulli's principal.

aaron, February 9, 2007

I feel a little dumber for having read this post. Thanks for making me think though.

Thilak, February 12, 2007

LoL! That's certainly true. I've experienced it myself. Where ever some with those avatars come to my blog. I tent to check out their profiles