Search-Powered Web Apps

Last night, our CEO, Todd Vernon, and COO, Walter Knapp, were interviewed by Bloggers School on Blog Talk Radio. They discussed the history of Lijit, the business model behind our company and how our search adds value to both the publisher and the blog reader. The majority of the interview centered around questions about Lijit’s premium Ad Network and how we’re making it even easier for bloggers to make money on their blogs. Give it a listen if you want to hear more from the top dogs themselves.

We love hearing what our users have to say. (Especially when it’s good stuff.) One of our favorite blog wranglers, Anne-Marie, was easily convinced at Blog World to tell us why she likes Lijit. Take a look…

If you like what Anne-Marie had to say, be sure to check out her delicious blog, This Mama Cooks, her review blog This Mama Cooks Reviews or the advice she dispenses at The Write Spot or Mom Central Blogger University.

These are just a few of the places she’s blogging. (It makes me tired just to think of all that!) Additionally, you can follow her on Twitter–she’s adding value over there as well.

Many thanks to Anne-Marie for her continued support. With users like this, how can we not be excited about what we’re doing?

Think about all those times you visit an unknown place. And I mean this in the analog world…e.g. a ‘real life’ place such as when as you walk into a new building and don’t know if you’re even in the right place, what floor you need to be on, etc etc. You have enough stress in your life, right?

Got the mental image? OK, hold on to it for a sec…

Now repeat that real life process I speak of above. You have your Google map printed and in hand, you generally have building location nailed. You walk in and…behold!…a concierge waiting to welcome you to the property and fundamentally telling you you’re in the right place and where to go and hopefully lots of other insightful information. Makes you feel are warm and fuzzy, right?

Ladies and gents: Welcome to the software equivalent of this example above, now available for your site:

The Lijit Welcome Wijit!

Let me give you a bit of a background on the Welcome Wijit. Frankly, it doesn’t deviate too far from the ‘real life’ example above!

Your content is extremely valuable to you and even more so to your loyal readers. Yet how many times have you done a search on a horizontal search platform like Bing, Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc and clicked on a link in the result set only to land on the page, not dive deeper into the content other than a 2 second eye scan and bail on it via back button to return to the search results and keep on searching. Admit it! What we’re attempting to do with Welcome Wijit is prevent this from easily happening to YOUR content. Fundamentally Welcome Wijit is about….

• Welcoming new readers to your site when they’ve linked in from somewhere else…e.g. a search engine, blogroll that includes your site, etc. They land on your property and they get a true ‘greeting’ to say thanks for stopping by!
• Better content discovery: Readers landing on your site for the first time will have an initial experience right off the bat of mining your content. What is old to you is all new to your new readers! Welcome Wijit will help them find it easily.
• Tools tools tools for your readers: The Welcome Wijit by design is about improved loyalty and return visits. The Wijit offers features to quickly add your feed to RSS readers, My Yahoo and iGoogle home pages to ensure they have you earmarked for return visits.
• Pre-selected search results: When a reader is searching the web for something and they stumble upon your site, Welcome Wijit knows that search term and will provide a pre-selected list of the top 3 relevant items fitting that search on your blog, within your content and throughout your network…given them a true ‘feel’ of the Lijit search experience.
• Advertising opportunities: We’re committed to doing what we can to make you more money! Similar to your Search Engine Results Page advertising, Welcome Wijit provides Google Ads to ensure more relevant ads are seen and clicked through by your readers.

So how does the Welcome Wijit Work? Let’s show ya!

Turning the Welcome Wijit On:

If you have the Lijit Search Wijit installed, Welcome Wijit is ready for use! You’ve got to turn ‘er on though first. You do this by visiting your Wijit management console and you’ll see a new tab for Welcome Wijit. By default Welcome Wijit is turned off. Simply check the ‘Show my readers the welcome wijit’ and you’re done. In addition, the Welcome Wijit management console provides you certain customization features and a preview of the wijit as you see here:

By default, the Welcome Wijit is set to appear above the post your reader is clicking in from via search engine, etc. The position of the Welcome Wijit can be set to be seen below the post, however:

How your readers interact with Welcome Wijit

You’re probably asking: “So how do my readers interact with Welcome Wijit?”. Easy! Assume that the reader has found your site through prototypical means…e.g. a search engine search, a link from someone’s blog roll, a link in an email, etc. The Welcome Wijit determines things like where your reader came from, what search terms if any were used to find your content, etc, before unveiling itself and providing the pre-selected content for your reader.

From a mechanical perspective, Welcome Wijit will invoke and appear within the content post region of your site. In cases where we can not automatically detect this, our team can work with you to ensure this fits to the place you need it to. Welcome Wijit automatically determines characteristics of your blog and assumes styling traits of your Lijit Wijit to inject itself into your site elegantly.

What are the main features of Welcome Wijit?

Let’s walk you through the UI. Note that the screen shot below is what is referred to as ‘expanded mode’, controlled by the reader to unveil more tools (and more of your content!)

1 Welcome Wijit will ensure we say hello to your reader from the place they came from. A Google search in the example above.

2 RSS Subscription feeds have been added to put them front and center. By design we want new readers to come back to your site time and again to enjoy the content your publish.

3 Your Network is key! Providing a link to traverse over to your Lijit user page so readers can see your network, popular search terms, etc is designed to help readers see your larger presence on the web.

4 Like RSS, we’ve added one-click tools to insert your site’s feed into iGoogle or My Yahoo gadgets so your readers can scope out your new prose first thing in the AM with their coffee.

5 The Lijit Search Field is front and center and designed to incentivize readers to search more of your content. It will be pre-loaded with the search term the reader was hunting for on their initial search when they found your site.

6 Pre-selected content based on the search term will be unveiled to ensure the reader will see the historical depth and richness of your content. What’s old to you is new to them! Let ‘em find it easy!

7 Thumbnail previews of the content items will help attract readers to see your content and visually parse its relevance. Plus it’s pretty cool.

8 Advertising like that on your Search engine Result Page are included on the Welcome Wijit in a slim and non-intrusive implementation. We’re about making you more money and advertising opportunities like this will help ensure this with better and more creative visibility to your readers.

So there you have it folks! The first release of the Lijit Welcome Wijit! The team is pushing to produce more tools for  you and your readers, dear publisher! Better discovery of your content, improved time on site as they see really what you have published all yield improved loyalty and more opportunities for you to make money and gain more exposure.

So go ahead and enable your Welcome Wijit! Start giving your readers that big ‘ol warm electronic hug when they enter your domain for the first time. Not unlike when your Grandma used to hug you when you visited. C’mon, you know you have a soft side….

Check out our FAQ if you want more info !

Next month is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and around the country, many chapters of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure will be raising funds through the Race for the Cure. Since we love a good cause (and we all love the ladies), it only seemed right that we feature a blog that is out to educate folks about breast cancer and is working hard towards finding a cure.

The Denver branch of Susan G. Komen for the Cure is one of only two branches in the nation that even have a blog and since Colorado has one of the highest rates of breast cancer cases, the Denver Komen blog is an amazing resource. In addition to providing information about the upcoming Race for the Cure, the blog also seeks to share educational materials with young women and provide information about how Colorado is doing in treating breast cancer cases.

We’re fortunate that Michele Ostrander, the Executive Director of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Denver Affiliate, was able to take time out of her schedule to answer a few questions we had about the Komen blog. Read on to see how blogging has helped her non-profit…

How long have you been blogging and what made you start?

We’re actually fairly new to blogging, as we just started about two months ago. But we’re only one of a handful of Affiliates to start blogging, and we are even blogging before National. We see this as an opportunity to reach a wider-range of women and keep in close touch with our breast cancer community. Comments give us instant feedback, and we’re excited to have this tool as another way to engage with our survivors, fundraisers, grantees and volunteers.

What has been the greatest benefit you’re received from blogging about the Komen cause?

We recently heard from one of our survivors who is in Stage IV, and the blog served as a great way for her to get in touch with us and give us needed feedback on the community. Now we’re going to feature her story and her feedback on the blog.

Can you tell us more about the Survivor Stories?

The women who have had breast cancer have incredible stories. Every time they gather at events, they have so many stories to tell and are so inspiring to each other. We hope that by hearing about each other’s triumphs and struggles, we’ll help everyone understand that they’re a little less alone than they thought they were previously. We’ve been able to feature a woman who creates jewelry in honor of her sister who passed away from breast cancer, a marathon runner, a mother of two and a mother of seven. Breast cancer affects one in seven women in Colorado, so it affects a lot of different women, each with a story to tell. Despite just blogging for a short time, we’ve already had people reaching out to get involved and tell their story.

As a non-profit, how does blogging fit in with your marketing and fundraising strategy?

The blog serves as a way to keep those already involved in the fight for cures for breast cancer, but also a way to get more people aware. Plus, with Komen Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure Denver, 75 percent of the money we raise each year stays local. The blog serves as an important way to feature and put a face to those that we’re helping. Plus, we love being able to spotlight the great grantees that are able to benefit from the money we raise each year.

We also hope to raise awareness for the Komen Denver Race for the Cure on October 4, 2009, and the Pink Tie Affair on November 7, 2009, which are our top two fundraisers for the year. We’re lucky to have an energetic and creative group of people helping us so we also have fundraisers to feature like Bat for the Cure, Cupcakes for the Cure, and Massage for the Cure throughout the year.

How has Lijit helped you to become a better blogger?

As we’re trying out new ways to keep in touch with our community, Lijit helps our members find what they’re looking for amongst all our new communication channels. Plus, it’s fun to see the top terms that people are searching for on our blog and knowing that Lijit helps our visitors find the information they need.

For more information about Komen Denver, check out their website for more information or follow them on Twitter. And by all means, use the Lijit search on their blog to find out how you can help raise money to find a cure for breast cancer.

Last month, we launched a contest to find a great Lijit story. We did so to hear what our publishers had to say about us. And it turns out…they have lots to say and many different ways of saying it. (Also? Some only entered to get a free shirt–which tells you a lot about our shirts!) From the humorous to the ethereal to the very concise, the contest entries really spanned the spectrum. After wading through all the posts and getting most of the company to weigh in, we are proud to announce that we have chosen a winner.

Before I announce that winner, some comments about the entry that was deemed most Lijit…

“Everyone loves a video…”

“How can you beat screencast explanations?”

“She rocked that shit.”

“With a name like Keller, how can it not be good?” (contributed by a certain someone named Keller in our office)

With much excitement and an imaginary drumroll, I present the winner of our Lijit storytelling contest…

Keller has put together a fantastic summary of our service, covering everything from the value she gets from using Lijit on her blog (and how we help her blog readers) to how you go about installing Lijit on your blog. She even went so far as to add video screencasts to her post.

You can read her Kindle-worthy post here and be sure to leave a congratulatory comment.

So, to Keller, we say thank you. You are the winner and your Kindle will be in the mail to you on Monday. Enjoy, thanks for using Lijit and know that you have our undying love. (As promised in the fine print of the contest specifics…)

Many thanks, also, to everyone that took the time to enter our contest. It’s publishers like y’all that make it fun to come to work. Your Lijit t-shirts will look great on you.

We’ve decided it’s time for a mid-summer contest. Nothing complicated–we just want to hear your Lijit story. To reward your efforts, the best storyteller will win a Kindle and ALL submissions will get a super-comfy Lijit t-shirt.

What should you write about? Absolutely anything having to do with Lijit.

Your contest entry could be about how you found out about Lijit…

“I landed in Nashville for the BlissDom09 conference. It had been a REALLY long flight day for me. The last leg of my trip was out of Denver, and I picked up my luggage and searched for the hotel’s shuttle van…

We talked a bit and I learned that she was representing Lijit, one of the sponsors for the event! (Sorry, I didn’t have the sponsors memorized.) Her name was Tara and I was feeling lucky to have met her like that, one on one, ridin’ in the van…”

–From Carissa at GoodNCrazy

Or simply what you like best about our service…

“This isn’t even the coolest part of Lijit, though, IMHO.  Instead, in my mind, the most interesting feature is the “Research” feature.  After you’ve searched for a specific term or after you reach TOCWOC through a search engine, the Lijit widget shows a Research area which gives you other possible posts or pages from TOCWOC and from the entire Civil War blogosphere!”

–From Brett at TOCWOC

Of course, you could be like Louis Gray and write a post that explains our service better than we do…

“Google’s goal in life is to find the one right answer that is true for everyone. Search for iPhone, and you should get the same answer I do at the top of the results, blanketed by potentially relevant ads from the company’s partners. Lijit’s goal in life is to find the one answer that is most accurate, depending on where you are searching. Search for iPhone on my blog, and you will find the most relevant responses that come from my blog and my content from around the Web, including Flickr, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube and other social sites. Search for iPhone on Steven Hodson’s blog (also using Lijit), and you should get a different set of responses based on his activity.”

–From the blog of Louis Gray

Then, like Louis, you can turn your babies into little Lijit evangelists as well…

(But that’s not necessary to win the contest.)

To enter the contest:

• Simply post your Lijit story on your blog.
• Link back to us here.
• Leave a comment on this post with a link to your entry to insure we don’t miss your post.

You have thirty days and we will pick the winner with the help of everyone around our office. To answer potential questions, Lijit employees and their families are not eligible to win. (Lenora and Walter, I’m talking to you two!) Also, if you have posted something about Lijit in the past, feel free to republish your older post and we’ll consider it a valid entry.

In addition to the Kindle, you’ll also be featured on our blog, our homepage and receive our undying love & devotion.

Seems easy enough, right?  Have fun and we look forward to seeing what you come up with!

There used to be only two ways to display your search results–an overlay that popped up on top of your blog when a reader did a search or with the results hosted on our site. For those that haven’t seen it, this is what the overlay looks like…

With a recent release, however, all that has changed. We’ve had many users asking for the ability to embed search results within a specified page on their blog and now, you can do just that.

To see an example of how the embedded search results look, take a stroll over to Celebridiot. While getting your updates on celeb gossip, do a search using Lijit in the upper left of their site*. This is how you’ll see the search results…

Pretty cool, huh? The only thing with this display option is that it’s not meant for the weak of heart or the less tech-savvy. By this, I don’t mean to offend but do want to convey that in order to embed search results on your site, you need to be able to create your own page within your blog where the results will live. This is not always an easy task and there are some blog platforms that may not allow you to do this. But, if you know what you’re doing, here are the steps for embedding Lijit search results on your blog.

Start by creating a page within your blog for the search results. If you’re using WordPress, you can do this by creating a new page and calling it www.yoururl.com/search. Publish the page and once you have this set up, log in to your Lijit account.

Go to your Wijit configuration page within Lijit. When you’re logged in, choose the ‘Wijits’ tab at the top of the page. If you scroll down towards the bottom, you’ll see an area with a drop-down box to choose where you want to display your search results. Choose the ‘on my blog (embedded)’ option and you’ll see this appear.

You can enter the URL of the page you created for your search results in the empty box and then copy the code below to put on that page.

Save your widget settings at the bottom when you’re done. You’re going to paste the code we provided you on that special search results page that you set up and then, you should be good to go.

We’re excited about this functionality because it allows our users to have even more control over how their search looks and feels. And? This is something you wanted. So if you have any questions about how to embed search results on your blog, feel free to send them our way.

*This site is also a great example of our WordPress plugin overridng the default search of a site and making it way more Lijit.

We are super excited to announce a new update to our Wordpress Plugin. The same plugin that brought sweet search functionality and stats information to your wordpress blog is now even better.  You might not notice much, as the core of this update revolves around backend functionality. So what does that mean to you???

• Our search form override functionality is now compatible with just about any wordpress theme out there.  (if you find one that doesn’t work, let us know, and we’ll try to add it)
• The plugin enables new widget functionality which results in faster widget loading for your readers.

If you are using Wordpress 2.7 or higher, you should see auto upgrade notices for version 1.1 showing up in your admin console within the next 24 hours. You can just auto upgrade from your plugins screen. Or, you can always manually install/upgrade the plugin from the Lijit Wordpress Plugin page. For handy install tips and instructions, you can always reference our Lijit Help pages for guidance.

As always, if you have any suggestions or feedback, don’t hesitate to drop us a line at support@lijit.com.

I first came into contact with Ronald Lewis when I sent an email to thank him for signing up for and installing a Lijit widget on his blog. This was back in early 2007, and means (if you do your math correctly) that Ronald was an early adopter back when we only had a handful. We appreciate his local support and the fact that Ronald always has wonderful things to say about our service. This post is long overdue and I’m happy to finally be able to sing his praises in proper blogging fashion.

From his professional bio, Ronald Lewis is a Denver-based author, technologist, speaker, blogger, activist, and entrepreneur. On his blog, he writes about how he landed a book deal, his suggestions for improving personal development, and how he’s managed to get so much press coverage. Recently featured by CNN and BusinessWeek for his future outlook on television and opinion of dating, he has advised individuals and businesses on everything from cloud computing to open source software.

From my own personal dealings with Ronald, he’s a super nice guy and just to prove it, brought his mom to the Front Range Blogger Meetup a few months ago. (How cute is that!)

How long have you been blogging and what made you start?

I’ve been blogging for more than thirteen years now (1995), well before the “automated blog” came along with WordPress and other blogging platforms. I was given a Unix shell account at Wayne State University, where I was forced to learn HTML to create my first homepage on the web.

After learning the basics of HTML, I posted random thoughts in chronological order, and so, my blog was officially born!

What has been the greatest thing you’ve gotten from blogging?

The greatest thing I’ve gotten from blogging is the ability to establish my voice and presence around the world. I am always in awe when I view my website’s stats to notice visitors from every corner of the globe. It’s inspiring to know that your thoughts, opinions, desires, and more can be instantly published and read by anyone. That’s powerful!

Of all the posts you’ve written, what has been your favorite and why?

Of all the posts I’ve written, my favorite at the moment is a story about XOShareholders.com, a website I co-launched in 2001 to launch a shareholder revolt against XO Communications. It was a successful grassroots campaign that netted the site some 2,300 shareholders owning 24 million shares in the company. It also landed me my first book deal.

Speaking of your first book deal, your book comes out this June. What is it about and how will you be using your blog to promote the book?

I do have a book coming out in June! It’s my first and I’m quite excited about it! Stick It To The Man is an unconventional how-to guide to leveling the playing field between consumers and the elite that often take everyday people for granted in business, government, and society.

I’m using my blog, Lijit, and other tools to cross-pollinate social networks, Amazon, etc. with timely information about the book, such as its release, events, tour, and more. The Lijit Wijit is especially helpful for visitors searching for information related to the book, because it easily mines disparate information into a single display. This is perfect for a new author like myself, because it prevents “flighty” Internet users from leaving the page to find what they’re looking for.

How has Lijit helped you to become a better blog publisher?

Lijit has helped me become a better blogger by exposing my content to a larger audience. This doesn’t mean you’ll receive a million hits in one day, but knowing there’s one more prominent property for readers to find your content is a compelling reason to use the network.

I appreciate Ronald taking the time to answer my questions and share his blogging experiences with us. Be sure to keep an eye on Ronald’s blog for more information about the arrival of his book. I’m so excited to say that I knew Ronald back when…

With last night’s release, we’re making it easier than ever to manage more than one Lijit account. (Because doesn’t everyone have more than one blog these days?)  Having just one sign-in for many Lijit widgets is a feature that our users have been asking about for a long time and NOW…we’ve made the dream come alive.

When you log in to your Lijit account, you’ll now see an arrow next to your name along the top of your profile page. When you click on that arrow, you’ll see a drop-down that asks if you want to create another widget. Clicking on that will take you to the account creation sign-up flow, which looks like this…

With this enhanced functionality, you can now sign-in with only one username and have access to the stats across all your blogs. BUT (and it’s a big one) this new feature does not change how our search widget works. What that means is that you still need a different account for each of your blogs, but now, you only have to sign in once in order to maintain all of them.

If you already have a couple of different accounts within Lijit, there is no automatic import process to bring all of your accounts together. But if you choose to set up different profiles under the same account, let us know and we’ll be happy to help delete old accounts or walk you through the process. Send us your feedback. As usual, we’re here working for you.