Today I’d like to introduce you to the great blogger (or if to say better – the bloggeress), Ileane Smith, who is also known as Ms. Ileane Speaks.

She won the «Most Influential Commenter» competition in January, so it’s time to make a review of her outstanding blogging way and her ways of getting web traffic.

Before I begin, I’d like to add also, that what I’m going to speak about next, is written with all my respect and sincerity. It’s not just because of the prize for the competition, it’s not just because I promised to write a review for the winner. It’s about the reason to write about her. And I’m glad, that the winner is Ileane Smith. So, let’s look at the way Ms. Ileane is blogging and getting visitors to her blogs.

First of all, Ileane Smith is an extraordinary multi-tasker. I hope it doesn’t sound bad, because I think of it, as of a really positive factor.

Where you can find her?

I know 5 main blogs, that she has.

1. msileanesblog.blogspot.com – The one I like the most. The atmosphere of this blog makes you relax.. somehow.. and find the way.

   Oh.. and how she describes it:

   Need help choosing between wordpress.com and blogger for your free blog? I’m MS. Ileane the blog queen with the pros and cons of blogger and wordpress to help solve the mystery.

2. ileane.wordpress.com – This is probably her #1 blog. Ileane shares there everything she learns about blogging and social media, creating interesting podcasts.

   You can find out a little bit more about this blog on her about page.

3. bloggingwire.com/msileanespeaks – Speaking about this blog, I can say, that it was created as symbol of engaging with BlogEngage blogging community, where Ileane takes very important role.

4. bloggingwire.com/podcast – This one’s her latest blog. It’s about Ileane’s favorite topic – podcasts.

5. msileanespeaks.posterous.com – If you want to know about Ms. Ileane a little bit more, you should check this blog. It’s about her achievements and places, where she was mentioned.

Well, not bad, huh? I cannot imagine, where she finds the time for them all, but she definitely does, and all of these blogs bring her very nice amount of traffic!

Why Ms. Ileane differs from other bloggers?

She, actually, absorbs social media trends. What’s so special? Well, you can do that as well for some time. But it will take a huge peace of your energy. Not everyone can handle it. She’s the one, who can. And I really admire her from this point.

By this moment we know, that Ileane is the podcaster and the social media follower. Did I mention, that she comments a lot and engages with other bloggers.. very successfully? It must be like this because of her passion for blogging and for being a part of blogosphere, which is crucial for achieving success. Within the last month she deserved (yes!) several banner spots on various blogs. And it’s not about being lucky. I think people simply love her, because of her openness to everybody.

Did I explain her way of getting web traffic?

***

Video Dessert: «Funniest kid ever!»

This kid gets the worst case of stage fright ever. You gotta love him!

The results of MIC competition for January:

1. Ileane (23) – Points for starred comments: 10; Points for voting: 8 (3 times voted at BlogEngage + 1 retweet); Points for submission: 5 (1 digg submission);
2. ppo (20) – Points for starred comments: 20; Points for voting: 0;
3. Jordan Cooper (18) – Points for starred comments: 10; Points for voting: 8 (2 times voted at BlogEngage + 2 retweets);
4. Karl Foxley (14) – Points for starred comments: 10; Points for voting: 4 (2 times voted at BlogEngage);
5. Suresh Khanal (12) – Points for starred comments: 10; Points for voting: 2 (1 digg);
6. Henri Junttila (12) – Points for starred comments: 10; Points for voting: 2 (1 retweet);
7. chandan (10) – Points for starred comments: 10; Points for voting: 0;
8. binit (10) – Points for starred comments: 10; Points for voting: 0;
9. Abdul Akbar Banwa (10) – Points for starred comments: 10; Points for voting: 0;
10. Justin Fiores (10) – Points for starred comments: 10; Points for voting: 0;

Several words

Thanks to everyone for good comments. It’s my great pleasure to read your thoughts and opinions.

I also bet, that some of you didn’t expect te be listed here, but you are :) I hope you don’t mind and looking forward to your future comments, votes and submissions.

Tips to Get More Points

1. Just share you thoughts and opinions in comments – this is the most right way to get your comment starred.
2. If you wish to get points for submissions or voting – just leave you profile names in the end of comments, so I could know, that those were your votes or submissions. Sometimes it’s rather hard to identify you, because your nicknames differ. Demand points – they truly belong to you! :)
3. Submission is counted only if it has unique title, unique description and the right category.
4. Sites (that I count) for submitting posts are now: Digg, BlogEngage, Sphinn and plus 1 more – Mixx; You get 5 points for the submitted post;
5. If you submit one of my posts, just let me know (through the contact form, twitter, or a comment) about the link!
6. Learn more about the MIC competition.

Winners Get…

• Ileane – #1: Gets free 125-125 banner place for a month, review of her blog, highlighted comments during February and #1 position on the home page;
• ppo – #2: Gets #2 position on the home page;
• Jordan Cooper – #3: Gets #3 position on the home page;

More details – on the MIC competition page.

***

As for the prizes.. All of them will be active by tomorrow :)

When is the next MIC competition?

Actually, it has already started :). Remember, that only comments made for the latest post are counted (submissions and votes too). Good luck!

From this success story you can learn several very important things. It’s about blogging success and the way people (far not all of them) achieve it with a hard work.

Henri Junttila is a young man, a blogger. His passion is writing helpful stuff for people to inspire them.. well, at least, that’s what he’s doing in his last blog, called Wake Up Cloud.

His success story isn’t about a sudden success, it’s not about some kind of an overnight success neither. It’s about well-thought-out tactics. I love this kind of a success, because it’s about the real truth, that most of you, bloggers and website masters, are looking for.

You will never buy your website’s success. That’s another simple truth. Forget about SEO companies, which guarantee you high rankings for only 39,95$ :D Today most of these companies are more like jokers and comedians, rather than those, who can help you.

There is only one top ten results for a special keyword phrase in Google and other search engines. And if you wish to get there.. follow the example story of Henri Junttila. Learn something new for yourself or revive your memory of what matters.

Life of Henri Junttila

I’m not going to retell it word by word. He’s done it before on his “About page” at Wake Up Cloud. And I don’t have rights to do it, except quoting several key points.

1. My life really started when I got out of school at 18. I had worked a few lousy-paying jobs during the summers, which made me realize that I was not on the right track.

   - Very similar to my own story, and I bet that to some of yours.

2. I do not claim to have all the answers, because I am still learning and trying to figure things out, just like you.

   - And he’s doing it very well. But something still differs his view of how things should be done. Let’s find it out in a moment!

3. Something is not right with how things are done right now, so let’s change it!

   - I think, that each of you can feel, that something’s really wrong in this world. But it’s not just it, when you understand it and do nothing with it.

Have you felt Henri’s strength of will? That’s what helps him and moves him. And this is only one thing, that explains his success. Let’s find the others..

From Pagerank «0» to «4» in 21 days

This is how he’s managed to kick-start his blog “Wake Up Cloud”. It took him only ~4 weeks to jump from PR «0» to «4». His Alexa ranking is already ~113k and “Wake Up Cloud” has 2,500+ external links by Yahoo.

Actually, this is also the reason, why he recieved so much attention.

But let’s take a look at the tactics. This achievement isn’t sudden and unexpected at all. And there’s nothing impossible for you to make the same result on your blog or website.

The tactics Henri uses

Guest posts

I hope you guys know the meaning of guest posting. But do you know the strength of it, when it comes to writing guest posts more than your posts for your own blog? Especially, when you write guest posts for “big” blogs…

This way Henri has written 25 guest posts and 20 posts for his own blog in December.

This is one of the reasons of Henri’s fast success. But that’s not just it. There’s one more important thing. Will speak about it in a few moments. Now let’s take a look at his way of keeping beginning blog.

No annoying ads

Absolutely no ads. This guy perfectly understands, that ads would deter some of his first readers.

It’s very important to try to stay away from putting ads on your blog while your blog is still young and you have no strong and tight audience.

Single-style-design

“Wake Up Cloud” blog’s theme is Thesis, which is rather popular today and it has lots of myths about SEO features. But the only thing, that is true for sure, is that this theme’s code is very simple. And the theme itself looks simple and neutral.

Besides, Henri’s made his blog main color – blue, which is also neutral and calm. And it relates to his niche – self improvement.

Very strong «About Page»

By “very strong” I mean that Henri, probably, knows the importance of “about” blog pages. You can learn about this, I’d say, science from Skelliwag’s post about writing the perfect “about” page. Problogger has also a similar post, but Skelliwag wrote it with more details.

Almost absense of links in the text

This factor makes reading Wake Up Cloud a little bit more pleasant. I’m not sure, if it has some SEO strength, but I think it has the stregnth of keeping a sense of reading a book.

What was Henri’s the most crucial promotional step?

I have to warn you. This will not work unless you have something worthy to show, which is about to attract tons of website traffic.

Achieve what others want, and show how you did it

When Henri’s blog got PR 4 in 21 days, it was the perfect thing to speak about. And he did that, but as a guest post at Blogussion: «Leaping from PR 0 to 4 in 21 days without any connections».

Now think for a second of why he’s writing so many guest posts?

The answer is… If you’re sure, that your content is valuable and helpful, show it to people. Guest posting is the most efficient way, because at the early stage of your blog, search engines are not your friend.

As you’ll start to get unreal traffic from other blogs, where you’ve left guest posts, people naturally would like to know you… “How the hell he did that? Why he’s so special? What’s his secret?” This is what you want. This means, that your tactics did a good promotional job.

***

Sometimes, it’s very useful to analyze tactics of successful people and understand that the deal is not about the success. It’s about a real hard work, which sooner or later supposed to be rewarded.

Thanks to Henri for showing all of us the power of guest posting!

PS. I’ve forgotten to mention, that Henri also comments a lot. He’s got about 100 subscriptions in his Google reader. But.. I hope that this way of promotion isn’t new for you.

***

Video Dessert: «Jeremy Lynch on Britain’s Got Talent 2008»

Jeremy Lynch with his football freestyle audition on Britain’s Got Talent 2008, week 4.

I’d like to introduce this video about the importance of play in our blogger lifes. I’ve seen this video before I started this website and now I think it’s time to correlate it with what I’m doing – with blogging. And yeah.. this topic relates to website traffic, because the better way you blog, the greater is your website traffic.

What was Stuart Brown talking about?

I’ll highlight only those phrases, that I think are important ones, because I’ve understood them.. yeah. I’m not that expert to get the gist of every single word he said. I’ll highlight phrases and will express my opinion on how they could possibly be related to blogging.

«Social play: if you want to belong, you need social play»

Smart one. But what could be a social play in blogging? May be contests, competitions? Polls? May be.. But all of them are virtual. Isn’t there any other way?

Blogging is mostly a single player game. You are sitting alone at home.. Social play – is a multiplayer game, so you need at least 2 players to play it in reality. You and someone else.. Seems like it’s a deadlock seeking a way to play blogging in reality. So, back to virtual variant.

«Polar bear playing with husky»

I don’t know why, but it reminded me of the quarrel with ExtremeJohn. It was a 100% play. Guess now who was a polar bear :)

So, it wasn’t a fighting till death. As to me – it was a pure play, nothing serious.

Did it work? Oh yeah.. just look at the people reactions. Though most of them are negative ones, I believe that everyone enjoyed the whole situation. It was fun, no one would deny that. And it was about emotions.

«Play born by curiosity»

Just like when you reveal your blog stats or your online income to people, that are curious about it. I wonder.. what could be the “play” factor here? The “showing” itself?

«Imaginative play»

Well, this one’s easy! You can play with your readers making them imagine something. Money.. the easiest example. A clear dream of something.. etc.

«Chaotic play»

Not a single idea about this one. I can only guess..

Chaotic play in our real life is when kids are running at the yard or else – screaming and playing with each other. I think this could be an example of chaotic play. But what about blogging? Any ideas?

«Nothing lights up the brain like play»

Awesome words. So true..

The bad news is that I can name only one blogger, that I know, who lighted up my brain – his name is Jordan Cooper from NotaProBlog.com. Yeap.. he’s comedian, he plays with those things about blogging, that supposed to be unplayable.. serious. And he’s doing it good.

I bet that being a comedian is not the only option to light up the brain in blogging. You’re your own magician. So.. creating something playful on your posts could, actually, light up your readers brains. Have you tried anything like that?

«Life without play»

Now imagine your life without any signs of play. It’s dipression.. No fantasy, no colorful pictures, no laughing, no passion etc

Would it become as boring as I think? I bet it will.

What do you think of “PLAY” in blogging?

What about blogging? What signs of play do you do on your blog? Any?

For example, I’m using that birdy on the top. It speaks tips and various stuff about blogging, that is supposed to help you :) I could, actually, tweet those phrases, but I’ve decided to make some fun out of it. I hope I did.

I’m now running a contest – “Become a M.I.C.“, which, as I think, is much more interesting, than usual commenting with a boring purpose to get some external links.

As you also can see, I use a lot of funny images. I don’t put any, that I think are not fun.. :)

Have you tried something yet? Did it work for you?

You can participate in the competition described below. All you need is to leave a good comment. “Good” doesn’t mean a long, big, huge comment or else. It only means, that your comment should be relevant and natural. You might need to read the comment policy.

How to Win?

NB! I’ve made the competition easier.

• The better comment you leave, the better chances you have to be noticed by other commenters;
• Little tip: if you reply to other comments, your chances to be noticed increase;
• You should have some nice gravatar assigned to your specified email. It, definitely, plays a role! You can get one here;
• Be natural. Like or dislike other commenters pressing the appropriate buttons (thumb up’s/thumb down’s) under each comment. Everything comes back to you like a boomerang;
• You can comment on any post published within a current month. The easier way is to check the archives;
• By the end of the competition month I make a list of those, who have at least 1 positive vote. Those three commenters, who have the biggest number of votes – win. Here’s the roundup for Jan. 2010. NB! The January roundup has the old terms of MIC competition;

What winners get?

1. All 3 of you get a “do follow” link on iWoodpecker’s home page to your blog, or website, or twitter profile etc. It may include your keywords. And it will look like this :

2. The best commenter can get a free banner, that I will make for him for free. Of course, if you wish :) Look again at the pic above or check the home page of iWoodpecker.

3. The best commenter can use 125×125 ad spot until the end of the next competition. You can send me your own banner or use the one I’ll make for you. Choose it.

4. The best commenter gets a review of his or her blog. Of course, I’ll mention why he or she is worthy being the M.I.C. See the latest review of Ileane Smith, who became MIC #1 in January.

5. The competition begins at the beginning of a month and lasts until the end of the month.

Warning: This post was made just to make you laugh a little :)

I’ve been thinking a lot on this problem…Thousands of experts that create blogs, where they blog about blogging tips, SEO etc. Most of these experts are ready to help you.

Well.. you read them in order to learn. After awhile you’re making a blog and you also blog about blogging tips and SEO and you try to help other bloggers to make their own blogs. You know it, right? Well.. there’s nothing bad, except it makes some problems.

Will review them in a second… OK, ready.

Why it’s not a good idea?

1. #1 reason is that your audience is other bloggers. They are used to avoid your ads;
2. The niche about blogging is too busy by today. And I believe, that it’s getting more busy each day;
3. There is a critical lack of topics to talk about, because most of them are mainly discussed.

How to improve?

1. Be the one, who needs help, even if you don’t;
2. To attract beginners, camouflage the facts, that you are a beginner*;
3. Make your blog “do follow” and enable CommentLuv (blah-blah-blah);
4. Comment like a psycho;

* How to camouflage the signs, that you are a beginner?

1. Don’t show the number of your subscribers;
2. Grow the number of your Twitter followers with any kind of followers. Try to grow it each day for max;
3. Make your posts dates old. It should show, that you’re blogging for a long time**;
4. Make an image with a big number of your subscribers. I’ve seen the example somewhere… I don’t remember the blog. Anyways, it looks impressive, though if you’re an advanced blogger, you might close a site like this;

** The problem here is that you won’t be able to hide the number of your retweets, rediggs etc.

What traffic to attract?

1. Attract web traffic from young blogs (Commenting, right.);
2. Comment on blogs, that relate to niches like travelling, design, games, sports, personal, life;
3. Personal and life niches are the best ones to comment;

Any pluses of a blog about blogging?

• You’ll have a lot of comments from other bloggers blogging about blogging, because most of them believe, that they should comment on other blogs, that relate to their niche :);
• You’ll get a lot of “positive” comments, because your audience is other bloggers. They are used to read this kind of info and they are used to comment the same way on this kind of blogs:);
• Be ready to hear tons of THANK YOU’s, that are given to you only because you have a do follow blog with CommentLuv.

Ok, the story is following.

I’ve written a post, called Do Follow VS Nofollow – What Loses?. Nothing special. I’d call it a regular post. But.. this brought me some other result, which I didn’t expect.

All this story happened today, when I’ve seen ExtremeJohn’s post No Do Follow Blog vs Do Follow Blog. Whoah! What whould you do, if you were me, when you’ve seen a post with a title just like yours, coming out in a day after yours? I think, you’d have just commented it saying how cool is it and “check mine” :) I’ve seen that. But.. Something happened. I decided to blame John. First of all, I’ve commented on his article at BlogEngage. Then I’ve unfollowed him on Twitter and unsubscribed to his blog. This grew into a quarrel. Not that hot, but still.. Check it out:

Cool, huh? That’s what I call a “self-promotion”. Yes.. I didn’t expect, that it would work. But it’ve worked. And I’m glad, that John made a respond in his latest post, called – 10 Reasons I Wouldn’t Copy Your Article

Now, John, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve tried this kind of a promotion for good. All the “tools” were unusual. But that makes this situation unique. And I wanted that.. at least, because my niche is website traffic and promotion.

And yeah.. I do believe, that you’ve written your story without stealing my idea. There are, actually, dozens of them on the Internet. I’ve checked today. Moreover, your content is unique and there are almost none of the similarities with mine. But again.. I didn’t expect, that you would even publish a reply article for me. And thank you. This whole situation.. or “quarrel” is a very cool stuff for other people, as an example of another way of promotion.

Now, please, dear spectators of this quarrel and readers, say something :) What do you think of this kind of a promotion? Was it hot? Would you ever do that? Have you tried? Was is deliberately? Or that came out just like our story with ExtremeJohn?

Update:

ExtremeJohn continues. I’ve got simply nothing to say. This is his own way of blogging. I’ve touched the shit and it seems, that there’s no way to stop it. Somehow, I’m starting to doubt, that he hadn’t stolen my idea.

I hope, that you find this story fun, because I do. And now some masks of bloggers, that usually thank you for your posts, are taken off. Their faces are as ugly, as.. well, I don’t know. Anyways, let’s see what’s in the end of this. I’m so excited about what John would do next :)

Update (Dec. 29th, 2009):

That was funny. I’ve just googled the phrase “ExtremeJohn shit“. Now I feel satisfied after reading this review of ExtremeJohn.com, because it means, that I’m not the only one, who felt sick of this person.

How do you, actually, end your stories, explanations or tutorials? Is it like “that’s it..”, or “next time we’ll talk about the exact steps..”, or “I’ve got nothing else to say”?

The answers are given too early
Today I’ve realized the reason, why almost everyone writes so boringly and usually. Their stories and articles are as usual, as my PC mouse. Yeap.. I know exactly what’s in the end not because I read it, but because the real answer is given somewhere at the beginning. And it keeps repeating until the end of the story. So what’s the point of the full story?

I wonder what’s in the end?!
Yes.. This is the reason, why we love movies, soccer and fightings. I guess, that the same structure of your story(content) would make your readers wait until the end no matter what.

Using this method
You should know exactly what’s in the end of what you’re trying to say. Take a deep breath and delay giving your answers right now. Keep in mind, that the reason, that you have readers is that they want to know something. And they are here, because they guess, that you, probably, have the answers.

As attractive as MCdonald’s “Big Mac”
Let your audience know about your “secrets” or “answers”. Let them know, that you’re going to share it. Show some outlines like a movie trailer.

Desire to come back
Do not make another usual structure for you content/story/video/post/article. Try something new:
1) Give one half of your “answer” in the beginning. End up with the second part of the “answer”.
2) Make the current story as an introduction. Leave the full “outcome” for the next time.
3) Give answers asking several new and logical questions. As a result, your audience would feel, that only you know the answers.

Of course, it’s up to your imagination, how to act.