Lijit

With spring right around the corner, who isn’t itching to get outside and enjoy some nice weather? (Okay, maybe not allergy-sufferers.) But if you are the type to take to the golf course as soon as it’s green out, then you should be excited for this Lijit publisher. Golf Tip Reviews is designed for the OG…meaning the Occasional Golfer…and if you can’t get a lower score from reading this site, you might want to start saving for some private lessons.

Fortunately, Golf Tip Reviews isn’t charging by the hour for the vast amount of golfing knowledge they provide–in fact, they’re just giving it away over on the blog! Also lucky for us, the Editor at GTR agreed to answer a few questions about how he got started creating one of the best golf blogs around. Tee up!

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?

I have been blogging for about one year. I started because I wanted to help the Occasional Golfer elevate their game. I love golf, but play only about ten times per year, as the opportunity arises. So I am an Occasional Golfer. Despite this, I have a 12 handicap and break 80 once in a while. I have a solid game, built on fundamentals, that I trust on the course.

Sadly, most of my playing partners cannot say the same. We would all have more fun on the course if they could. They need simple, straightforward, and sticky tips that actually work under pressure. But such things are hard to find.

Most golf tips that people see are published in popular magazines, often with a professional golfer or teaching pro demonstrating the fine points. These tips are certainly valid, and useful to some people, but they tend to be a bit too technical and esoteric for Occasional Golfers. Plus, they are written in a slightly pedantic or academic way, without much edge or passion. Finally, the tips are often offered in isolation, rather than in an interconnected or holistic way. These things prevent the relevant tips from “sticking” with you on the course, which is where you need them.

Golf Tip Reviews attempts to close those gaps and elevate the game of the Occasional Golfers everywhere.

What is something interesting that you’ve discovered through blogging?

That the technology and tools for blogging evolve very quickly. That a site with a lot of bells and whistles is no good if it can’t be read in all browsers, or loads too slowly. And that most other bloggers are very generous people, willing to help out a newcomer.

I know it’s a hard question, but what is your favorite golf course to play and why?

My favorite course is Willinger’s in Northfield, MN, about 30 miles south of downtown Minneapolis. The setting is pristine, the course layout is challenging, the greens are immaculate, and the price is right - under $50 for 18 holes with a cart. I have played there a couple of times on business and always look forward to getting back.

What are some of your golfing tips for those of us just getting started with the game?

Most Occasional Golfers have a tendency to slice on full shots. Here’s how to cure it: If you warm up properly, aim your club correctly, take an athletic stance, start your backswing correctly, begin your downswing smoothly, keep your lag on the downswing, hit the ball with a descending blow, and have a balanced finish, you will hit powerful, accurate shots and avoid the dreaded slice. Sound simple? It is, actually. But you still need to practice!

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

I have found Lijit to be a stable and reliable addition to Golf Tip Reviews, and it definitely has boosted my pageviews per visit. The Lijit widget combines a lot of very handy things into a stylish and small package. With Lijit, my visitors can do a complete site search, look at what others have searched for, see the most popular search terms in tag cloud format, search my network of linked sites, and follow me across my various social networks. I recommend Lijit to all site owners.

We appreciate the continued support of GTR and encourage all those Master’s champions in the making to follow GTR on Twitter for 140-character doses of golfing goodness. Now that you have no reason for those high scores, we’ll see you on the links! Fore!

(And if we missed out on any golf lingo, feel free to add your own in the comments…)

It’s something that I do for my job and something that I enjoy talking about with others. And apparently, after three years of doing it, it seems I am now in a position to share a little of what I’ve learned.

A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed on this topic by Vanessa, the community manager at Partnerpedia. You can find the podcast here, if you’re interested in hearing me spout off about blogging and what everyone should consider before jumping into the blogosphere waters.

Then, if that wasn’t enough, I wrote a guest post for the BlogWorld blog about…you guessed it…the importance of small businesses blogging. I respond to the most frequently asked questions and objections that I hear when it comes to the topic of getting a business blog started.

(Also? If you’re on the fence about attending the BlogWorld conference, our company has been there the past three years and consider it one of the most important things we do.)

So, if you’re still wondering why your business needs a blog, between these two pieces, I have plenty of reasons. And only one of them rhymes with ‘boogle’.

When we saw an interesting blog called Crumple It Up create a Lijit account, we weren’t surprised. That kind of thing happens many times every single day around here. But when we looked closer and realized this interesting blog just happened to be representing a very large health insurance company, well, that was a surprise.

Crumple It Up has been creating amazing content designed to help motivate and encourage a healthy lifestyle. From their posts about corporate wellness to their suggestions of apps that can assist you in reaching your fitness goals, it’s obvious that Crumple It Up is on to something. We just wonder how a health insurance company went so long without having a blog.

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?

Crumple It Up was established in November of 2008 as a way to showcase the projects and people of Humana’s Innovation Center. We’re a small part of a large organization focused on finding ways to make fun things healthy, and we wanted to establish a presence on the social web to make it easier for like-minded folks to connect with us.

What is the mission of Crumple It Up?

Humana’s vision is to become the most trusted name in health. Crumple It Up’s mission is to help the larger organization achieve that vision, sooner rather than later. We think that there are a lot of exciting things going on in the world of health.

Innovation, technology, and well-being (both personal and community) are all converging, and we want to be the resource people turn to for those things.

Blogging for a large health insurance company sounds intriguing. What are some of the challenges and benefits that you’ve found?

This sounds trite, but one of the benefits of being there - out where conversations are happening - is being there. It’s impossible to engage in a conversation if you’re not in the places conversations happen. And while we do blog at Crumple It Up, the site is really a hub that spokes out to where our content really lives - all over the social web. Incidentally, that’s one of the reasons that we are so pleased with Lijit’s ability to pull all of that together for our readers.

In terms of challenges, I think that ours are probably the same as everyone else’s…being interesting every day, for one thing! But having a blog has helped the rest of our company to realize what’s possible. Since we joined the “social web” in 2008, nine other Humana departments have now started using social media to make their work more effective. That makes it all worthwhile.

What are your recommendations for “health creation” in 2010?

Health isn’t just the absence of illness. Your psychological and emotional health is just as important as your physical health. That’s what’s so exciting about where we’re going. We’re all about finding ways to make fun healthy, and that can be either an individual or a group solution. Whether it’s riding a bike, or challenging your friends and family in a game that gets you moving, or connecting with people around something that interests you, the bottom line is that activity creates health - and health enables broader well-being.

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

We’re just beginning to tap into the power of Lijit with all of our social outposts, and the early results have been great. The search and analytics capabilities of Lijit have been extremely valuable in the content creation process, and it’s been really helpful to our readers to be able to tie our growing number of social properties, from around the company, together into a single, searchable place.

We love knowing that our search is helping people to become more active, if only in a very small way. And if health care is on your radar this year (and when isn’t it?), you should dig into all of the resources available at Crumple It Up. You can find and follow them on Twitter. Here’s to the success of Crumple It Up and to health creation all around!

Lijit Ad Tags are an easy to install option for displaying targeted ads on your website or blog. In this video I’ll show you how to do it.

One of our Lijit users, Gretchen Rubin, recently published a book, The Happiness Project. She’s been test-driving different happiness tips for the past year and has been sharing her insights on her blog of the same name.

We’re excited to congratulate her on not only the culmination of all of her hard (but happy) work but also? She’s number one on the New York Times bestseller list for Hardcover Advice books. Nice job Gretchen!

(And if that doesn’t help with her happiness, I don’t know what would!)

I’d like to think I helped Gretchen with her spot on the bestseller list because, as you can see above, I purchased my copy of the book this past weekend and can’t wait to dig in. And, although she may not mention us by name in the book, I’m confident that Lijit has only brought her, and her blog, much happiness.

If you’re looking for a little more happiness in your life (and who isn’t really?), I suggest you invest in Gretchen’s book as well.

Finally, if you’re looking for a quick fix, you can follow Gretchen on Twitter for bite-size morsels of happiness or check out her blog and use her Lijit search to find out even more of what you’re seeking. We love celebrating with our publishers and thank Gretchen for her Lijit support!

We love supporting our local community.

BlogFrog is a Boulder startup doing something different for bloggers - allowing them to create instant community on their blogs by letting readers connect, interact and share content. BlogFrog is like attaching a social network to your blog.

If you’re wondering where you’ve seen BlogFrog before, the answer be found in the sidebar of your favorite mommyblogger. BlogFrog widgets are all over the place - by initially serving women and mom bloggers, BlogFrog has become the largest network of mom blogs on the Internet. (You do know about these mom blogs, yes?)

With BlogFrog, it’s easy to create a forum where readers can ask questions, post links and extend the conversation beyond a specific blog post. And that’s not all. BlogFrog communities can help drive traffic, generate more revenue and increase loyalty among visitors.

Signing up is super quick and painless. Over on the right there, you can see that we’re rocking our widget in the sidebar and we’d love for you to check out our BlogFrog community. We’re just starting out, so if you have any questions or discussions you’d like to start, we encourage you to help get the party started.

For more about BlogFrog, you can read their blog, check out their community, follow them on Twitter or shoot Holly an email. See what BlogFrog can do for you and your blog readers.

And stay tuned…we’re excited to share one more Boulder company with you before the year is out.

With so much content being created everyday online, it can be difficult to find quality writing amongst all the noise. Enter Scribnia, a new startup that features a community built around online authors. After just a little digging around on their site, I’m of the opinion that this is one service that is long overdue.

From their homepage…

“Scribnia is all about the writers. We aim to be the definitive source for people’s opinions about bloggers, columnists, reporters and other writers whose work is available online. Scribnia allows you to rate your favorite (and least favorite) writers and discover new authors that match your unique tastes.“

The beauty of Scribnia is that they’re essentially offering a two-fold benefit. When on their site, you can search for authors, see who has been highly rated and read other users’ reviews. Scribnia’s ‘context ratings’ allow for deep filtering of authors based on criteria you deem important and after you’ve rated a few authors, Scribnia’s recommendation engine will do the work for you. If you’re in the market for a discovery engine, you’ve got the makings of a great one within the Scribnia community.

But wait…Scribnia does more. By creating an author profile on the site, you can also get a widget to put on your blog, asking for feedback about your writing. This means that readers can write public reviews and rate your writing. Other Scribnia members will be able to access these reviews and contribute their own ratings. Sounds like a fantastic way to drive new traffic to your blog…and get a better idea of what people like about your writing.

Scribnia is a free service and their employees will go out of their way to help (I’m looking at you David and Saad!). Since they’re still in beta, Scribnia is asking for any and all feedback about what they’re doing. To learn more, check out the Scribnia blog and follow them on Twitter.

If you’re a writer, I strongly suggest you give Scribnia a look. And if you decide to sign up, I’m tarable over there too.

As a small business in Boulder, we enjoy supporting others in the same space. Trek Light Gear is just one such company. It’s a wonderful hammock operation started by outdoor enthusiast Seth Haber. Now, just a few short years after he launched Trek Light Gear, Seth can boast of global sales and a very popular kiosk on the Pearl Street Mall.

As a small business in Boulder, we also appreciate the work-life balance that Trek Light Gear espouses. Trek Light Gear sells not just hammocks, but also loudly evangelizes the hammock lifestyle and the frequent use of said hammocks. (I’ll give you a minute to envision yourself laying in a hammock somewhere beautiful and relaxing.)

Now that you’re feeling groovy, read on to see what Seth has to say about Trek Light Gear’s company blog, Trek Life, and where he likes to hang his hammock.

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?

I started the Trek Life blog back in 2006. Even though blogging had been on my radar and I recognized it as a good idea for the business, I really just needed the inspiration to get it off the ground. Right around that time, I had a good friend named Bret who pitched the idea of taking a ‘Trek Light Road Trip’ around the US. The idea was to put the Trek Light name and logo on a big, blue van and drive it around to various campsites and National Parks, spreading the word about Trek Light while also doing some festivals and expos along the way to make some sales and fund the trip. Bret even managed to build a hammock stand that came directly off the top of the van so he could literally stop anywhere and have a hammock booth with inventory to sell! So right then and there I knew it was time to get a blog going so I could share the story and the pictures with our fans. Unfortunately, the van didn’t hold up as well as we had hoped so the trip wasn’t as long or as vast as we intended, but we got some great blog material and that got the ball rolling. On a side note, if anyone has the makings of a Trek Light mobile and ever wants to recreate the Trek Light Road Trip and pick up where Bret left off, let me know!

How does blogging fit in with your business plan and marketing strategy?

Without sound too cliched, I’ve always believed that Trek Light Gear is as much about lifestyle as it is about the products. When I hand you a hammock, I know that it’s going to have a positive impact on your life. Maybe it makes you spend more time outside, it may reduce your stress and help you to relax, or maybe it gives you the chance to spend more quality time with your friends or family.

Our Eco Totes also have a strong lifestyle attached to them. When you buy a reusable bag you’re saying, “I choose to do something that I know is better for the planet.” I never try to attract just one type of person to Trek Light Gear, because while our products may be great for an ultralight backpacker, a rock climber or even a hunter, they also appeal just as much to someone living in Manhattan who wants to live a greener lifestyle or just hang a hammock on their balcony.

The two biggest media exposures we’ve had so far have been Martha Stewart’s Body + Soul magazine and Penthouse, so that just goes to show how broad of an audience we’re appealing to with just a few products. Blogging is such a great extension of all of that because it gives me a chance to talk about anything and everything that might appeal to that broad audience and bring them all together. I certainly wish I blogged more and I wish people got engaged and commented more, but the community is growing and I know the Trek Life blog will continue to be an important part of my connection with everyone out there who lives the Trek Light lifestyle.

Where is your favorite place to hang a hammock? And why?

That’s a tough question so I’m going to have to give two answers. First, there’s an amazing feeling that comes when you setup a hammock in places that you’d never have expected to before owning a hammock that you can take anywhere with you. Whether it’s hanging between two cars and tailgating at a sporting event or music festival or sitting next to a waterfall on the side of a mountain, you get this feeling of bliss that’s hard to beat. You just know that you’re doing a good job at life when you’re chilling in a hammock somewhere you never would have expected. I’ve had plenty of people tell me that once they owned the hammock it was like seeing the world through a different set of eyes, everywhere they looked they’d find two points and know where they could hang a hammock!

All that being said, my other favorite place to hang a hammock is right at home. I’ve got a hammock setup on my balcony right now and it’s truly hard to beat that spot. I work from home so I can literally just walk out there anytime and grab five minutes in the hammock and I’ll come back in feeling like a million bucks. I waited until now to tell you, but I’m answering every one of these questions while laying in my hammock. WiFi and hammocks are a match made in heaven.

How has Lijit helped you to become a better blogger?

When I describe Lijit to people, I usually begin by saying that Lijit is awesome because it’s something that’s equally beneficial to me and to my readers at the same time. It’s a search tool that gives my audience access to the information they’re looking for but it’s also an analytics powerhouse that helps me be a better blogger. On my end, I’m able to quickly see what’s bringing people to my blog and then on top of that, what they’re searching for when they get there.

I wrote a post about cat hammocks over the summer and all of a sudden, I discovered that lots of people were coming to my blog because of the cat hammocks post. I never expected that and while I don’t plan on ever doing a blog series on cat hammocks, it was a clear indicator that writing very specific content can be a big traffic draw. While many of those visitors read just that one post and left, I had several people that explored my entire site and were clearly intrigued by what they saw.

But as I said, Lijit isn’t just about me, and that’s where the search feature comes in. The ability for my readers to search within my network’s content is huge. Well beyond my blog or my website, people are able to discover our content on Flickr, YouTube, etc. and getting people to discover your content is clearly why we blog and post content online. Lijit rocks and I know that the more I blog and the more I expand my online network, the more valuable of a tool it’s going to become.

Seth, we think you rock too and encourage everyone to give Trek Light Gear a look. The holidays are right around the corner, and if even just for yourself, hammocks are guaranteed to make killer gifts. You can read more about the hammock lifestyle on the Trek Life blog (if interested, you can see a guest post written by a certain someone, ahem), follow them on Twitter and be sure to make time in your busy end-of-year schedule for some crucial hammock time.

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.