Official blog of imjusthere4thebeer - the biggest name in the Blogger Poker Tour. Online Poker Circuit's own full-time poker blogger.
Totally not poker related, but I figured I’d put the word out… Be careful with free blog templates. The previous template had a bunch… and by bunch I mean a whole lot of spam links hidden within the confines of the template.
So, word of warning, go through each file with a fine tooth comb before uploading any template to your site…
A few days ago, I was reading through the affiliate forums at Poker Affiliate Listings. Randy Ray had put up a thread asking what other poker affiliates had set in the lines of goals for the month of May. It occurred to me at that moment, I had several ideas as to what I wanted to accomplish, but I really did not have anything written in stone.
Additionally, I didn’t have anything listed with any urgency. Nothing was really time sensitive. My thoughts were unorganized. I lacked a not only a game plan, without my goals written down, I lacked a scorecard. The May goals thread is helping me get on track. I can’t even say “back on track,” as I’ve been unfocused and quite honestly, I’ve been a mess since returning to the online poker world.
Even when I write, I find myself writing for the search engines. I struggle with my wording, trying to maximize and optimize each post so that it will rank. Realistically, I should just write. Part of the reason for this, I think, is because my site – for lack of a better term – has been poor in content. I’m trying to make up for it by writing a certain way to boost the search results for… nothing.
The exact depth of my writing style’s problems became blatantly obvious to me when I began work on a strategy article. One of my May goals is to provide content to other poker websites. I know I can write, however, what I’ve been doing here has been anything but writing. Without much effort, I hammered out the article. When I reviewed it, the article flowed, much like my writing does when I’m not shooting for search results. And surprisingly, I remained on topic and would surely receive better results with better content by simply writing, and not trying to over-use catch phrases.
One of my goals for May, with respect to the Online Poker Circuit is to improve upon my website’s content. I’ll very likely rewrite my strategy articles, in addition to writing some new ones – to keep it fresh. I’ve already given the site a much needed face lift, and am continuing to refocus the purposes and focus of the poker site.
Additionally, I’ve decided that as a one-man-show, I cannot both “wear all the hats” and make this website everything I wish it to be to the extent I want it to be without some outside help. What I mean by that is I want the Online Poker Circuit to be a source for poker tournaments. I’d love to create my own unique script to push out every poker tournament to every room to my site’s visitors. Additionally, I want to house a useful relevant poker tournament strategy library, for my poker website’s guests to reference when trying to learn an important tournament poker concept, to improve their poker play, and to just become better tournament poker players.
I also wish to serve as a main resource for online poker legislation, as well as provide commentary that is poker related, poker news, and everything else. I’m only one person… I realize now that I cannot do everything I’d love to do with the Online Poker Circuit’s website. I can only do so much myself before everything turns to rubbish.
Unfortunately, when I first entered the business, the person who showed me the ropes was more of an isolationist affiliate than a social poker affiliate. He was not keen on a free or somewhat free exchange of ideas. The one thing I have to say though, for what he was doing at the time, he did it pretty well. I bought in to his network and he showed me the ropes – doing things his way.
As with most partnerships, there was a philosophical difference in the way things were done. He had just broke ground on a poker forum, where in theory ideas, thoughts, poker strategy, and general social chatter could be freely exchanged between members. I’d say I made around 1000 posts, which at the time was about 20% of his forum’s posting volume.
If memory serves me correctly, In a strategy thread he was offering poker advice, to which I had questioned – more accurately, I had suggested the playing style he was endorsing was a posture and not a strategy. That part is irrelevant to my thought at the moment though. What is relevant is that he went nuts both in the thread and via email/messenger at my comment. Add to the mix that any post that was not pro-him was immediately deleted, members were banned for speaking out of turn… Which, in all fairness, it was his shop, he can do with it whatever he wants. I was there by choice. That being said, I chose to leave.
The philosophical gap was just too much to fill, from my standpoint. I like hearing opposing, different views. I encourage discussion, rebuttals; things of that sort. I am open minded enough to share and receive ideas from other people – even from my competition. Unfortunately, when I returned to the online poker scene, I did not return with an open mind. No, I didn’t delete off posts like they were the plague or anything in the forum. However, I was closed to the idea that I could help – and be helped by other people in the business.
Even when I joined PAL and PAP – I was open to helping others, I took help when I felt I needed it, but I wasn’t willing to open the doors to anyone else. The flawed logic of it all is that without others assisting me, the vision I have for the Online Poker Circuit will never be achieved. I finally broke down last night and today and installed a script on my home page, designed by someone else to broadcast a list of guaranteed poker tournaments from many of the online poker rooms I tout.
This week, I am finally open to the idea of either having someone else write for me here at the Online Poker Circuit, or for providing writing and content services to other poker websites. I am committing to no longer reside in isolation. If I want to achieve my goals for this poker site of mine, it is imperative that I get on track, remain on track, and lose the isolationist attitude. I’m a one man show, but it is going to take more than one to build my community.
The first order of business in my quest to clean up the Poker Pub is to do a better job categorizing my posts. Its funny, when I was on the blogger version of the Poker Pub, I would read Bill’s Poker Blog daily. I was relatively new to the blogging world, and an affiliate newbie. I couldn’t help but notice that he had a few things I was apparently after.
First, he had readers – many people visited his blog daily. Second, he had page rank. Again, I was new to this whole online thing – I had no idea what the hell page rank was, how to get it or anything of the sort. However, it seemed to me that he was quite a figure in the Blogosphere.
In any event, I noticed he had these “tag things” at the end of his blog posts. I assumed that one of the reasons he was successful was due to these tags. And of course, sometimes one should take on the behavior of those who are successful in an attempt to also achieve success. As a result, I figured out how to make blogger accept tags. I had to backdate a post and modify the template. It was on the backdated posts that the tags were housed. In a nutshell, I’d make a tag, it would point back to that page and I’d have some sort of organization.
More accurately, I should have had more organization. Around the same time, I was trying to figure out how to gain PageRank. I walked away with the idea that I should stuff keywords into these tags, regardless of whether or not they applied – as they may somehow apply, right? I came up with some other quite crazy notions as well… Anyway, the end result was the mess I have now.
That being said, I’m going to start cleaning up the Poker Pub by reworking the tags, links and category system… And perhaps run a spell check while I’m at it.
I’m going to spend the next few days cleaning up the Poker Pub. When making the move to the Online Poker Circuit, I mentioned I was planning to be a bit more selective in my importation of posts. My plan is to clean up some of the old posts, be it deleting and redirecting, moving them to perhaps a more relivant location, or straight up editing the content.
My belief is that it will allow the readers of the Poker Pub a better experience. Anyone wishing to share past experiences with doing such a thing are welcome to chime in. Additionally, I’m considering a new look for the Poker Pub. I don’t mind the current look, but I’m not really “sold” on it either…
I intended originally to continue my Keys to Winning Poker Tournament series today. However, my internet connection has taken a dive, so I can’t access my notes to construct a smart poker article to contribute to the Keys to Winning Poker Tournaments series of poker strategy discussions. Instead, the drunken rambling topic of the day is Texas Hold em Blogging – more specifically, Texas Hold em Poker Blog Content.
In case it was not painfully obvious, I am a poker blogger. The Poker Pub is my Poker Blog. My Poker Pub Poker Blog is the central Poker Blog of the Online Poker Circuit. I blog poker for the Online Poker Circuit at the Poker Pub Poker Blog.
Wow, that was painful. Not too much pizazz in that introductory paragraph on Poker Blogging, was there? If I read that, I’d surely have clicked the X in the top right corner of my browser by now, had I not fallen asleep………
The problem with that intro paragraph is, well… Its obvious. I did do one thing properly, however. I had a point and I stressed it. I just did not go about it the right way. Its important to stress a point when blogging poker content, but don’t overdo it like I just did. There are many ways to emphasize a point without repeating it.
During a lecture in college, I had a professor who would repeat everything he deemed “test worthy” right after he said it. It would go something like this:
“I am discussing the topic of poker blog content. I repeat, I am blogging on the topic of poker blog content.”
We would know he wanted us to be aware that we would see the topic of poker blog content on our upcoming exam. He got the point across, but made for a boring lecture. Reputation is good when it comes to writing poker content, but should not be overdone, less a snooze fest.
Another college professor of mine had similar ideas. He wanted to tip us off that certain points in the lecture were testable, but he didn’t bother repeating himself verbatim. Instead, this professor would creatively emphasize the main points for testing purposes. He’d tap on the board while saying “This is a poker blog.” Sometimes, he would hit the podium while saying Poker content writing here.
Yet other times, he’d go so far as to stand on his desk while shouting:
He commanded our attention, keeping the lecture interesting while doing a great job of stressing his points without being too redundant.
Many of us poker content writers repeat for the sake of search engine recognition. We want the search engines to know that when they come to the Poker Pub, they will find content relating to poker. We over repeat ourselves so that the spiders can figure it out. Trust me – even though my biggest incoming link is anchored JustHere4theBeer, the spiders all know I am blogging on poker (and sometimes beer).
Leave the search engine content tweaking to the Meta tags. When you write your articles, write to the live audience, stress your point – repeat as often as necessary without overdoing it – let the Meta tags address the spiders and search engine readers. I might add, however, there is nothing wrong with occasionally throwing in a twist or angle to persuade search engines to notice you for something extra. As I said, I am writing Poker Content in the confines of this Poker Article.
My audience at this moment is mostly poker content writers and poker webmasters. This is not my targeted audience, but currently, my main audience is said crowd. With that in mind, I am discussing poker content writing to cater to my audience.
My poker strategy articles target my intended audience, which is the online and live poker players looking to better their game by reading and discussing poker strategy. Eventually they will find me, and I too will find them. Until then, I mix it up with poker blog content targeting my ideal audience – poker players‘ interest, while reaching out to touch base with my current poker content provider audience. Doing so may help me keep the attention of the poker writer community as well as help me to reach online poker players and live poker players alike.
If you have kept your eyes open throughout the course of this article, you’ve hopefully taken away the following:
Choose a topic, communicate, expand on the idea, and leave a final added “gold poker chip” of information. Unrelated, multi-topic posts on poker are far more effective and will reach more poker blog readers as two separate posts than they are as an uber-poker-blog-post (iggy is exempt from this gold chip of advice). If you enjoyed or benefited from this article, please bookmark it, link to it, give me feedback, comment, phone a friend – get the word out for the Poker Pub Poker Blog.
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