More than a year ago, I applied to have this blog included on AllTop, which is an online magazine rack. About two weeks ago, I heard back that I had been accepted and added to the printing AllTop.com page (scroll all the way down the page and you’ll find me over in the right hand column). While this inclusion probably won’t bring hundreds of additional readers here each day, it’s nonetheless a pretty cool accomplishment.
Why being part of AllTop might matter to you blog
If you know what RSS feeds are, then you already have a basic understanding of AllTop. On their about page they explain that they are “aggregation without aggravation.” This is the truth because you can quickly and easily create your own customized magazine rack that includes any of the RSS feeds they have vetted and selected to be part of the AllTop family.
The vetting process is what makes being part of the AllTop family valuable. Any blog (this one included) can push out an RSS feed. Then with RSS readers like Google or others, anyone can subscribe to that feed. In fact, that’s what AllTop does. The thing is they don’t subscribe to all feeds available; just those they have vetted by actually reviewing the site. Think of it as peer review and I passed.
Go where your audience is or could be
I have no idea how many people who read this blog also have an AllTop page, but now I know they can read me there if it’s more convenient for them. Who knows? I might even pick up a few or even a few hundred additional readers over the course of a year. Either way, it’s about you deciding how to consume the content I create here, not me.
While I don’t write as specifically about the printing industry as I used to, those are still the folks I want to reach most. Being part of the printing sub-category on AllTop certainly can’t hurt my goal of finding new customers and evangelists for ColorMetrix.
I’ve said before “Keep Putting Yourself Out There” and being included in aggregation sites like AllTop is just one more way of doing that.
Congrats on the inclusion. Now the effort begins to determine whether or not it was worth the effort. That’s the beauty of how the the web works. Virtually everything is trackable, and savvy businesspeople know how to use that to get a handle on ROI. While the visibility and street cred is a great boost, a good traffic-reporting package for your website will be able to track click-thrus and conversions that come from that (and any source where you’re investing money or time resources).
Keep us posted on the results. There are a ton of folks in our industry spending countless hours trying to elevate themselves to leadership positions in our Social Media coolkids’ club. But beyond the ego stroke when someone “makes it” many of us are curious to know whether or not that translates to real, measurable, profitable and sustainable revenue. That is, after all, what business is all about.
Tom,
The actual effort to complete a submission to AllTop is negligible. Far less than an hour even if you included the time to search around on AllTop and find a category you wanted to put yourself in. That being said any traffic I get back be it in the 1s, 10s, 100s, or God willing the 1000s will have been worth the effort. So far the traffic is in the 1s per day.
I’m also not always searching for the ROI. I really do take the approach that if you keep putting your self out there folks will find you. I try and get outside the social media circles as much as I can. After all, that’s not my business. For me it’s about growing an audience that spreads the word about me and what I do.
The ROI I look at on a quarterly or annual basis is this, am I making more money than I was a quarter ago or a year ago? If the answer is no, I re-evaluate everything including social media strategy. If the answer is yes, I do try and figure out what’s working best and concentrate more efforts there.
After re-reading your comment and reading mine I’d say we agree more than we disagree 🙂
Jim