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FDIC is a Success for this Guy!

Today, I presented my class at FDIC “Social Media: The Fire Service’s Next Big Innovation”. All in all, I was very pleased with the class and I think that everyone was able to walk away with a little knowledge.

Don’t get me wrong, I had/have a lot to learn (in so many ways!). The 1 hour and 45 minute crash course on social media brought up numerous questions and I found it to be very telling of where the fire service is in breaking through to the power of social media.

I went into the class with the thought that if I can learn what the attendees want/need to know I will be better suited for teaching the class in the future. I found that while I spoke about the basics of the utilization of social media, some of the questions were for the more advanced. That is ok….however, in reviewing the evaluations on the class I found that some thought it was too basic and others thought it was not basic enough. Hopefully the majority found it useful!

Rhett Fleitz Teaching Social Media for the Fire Service at FDIC 2011

Thanks to Captain Willie Wines Jr. for stopping in to snap a photo for me!

I must say, those evaluations are very helpful, no matter what is said. I appreciate all of the attendees who filled one out. I even got gigged for looking at my phone. Apparently it came off as me checking messages. In all actuallity, I was merely checking the time since I don’t wear a watch. I learned a lesson though and perception is everything.

It would have been great to walk into the class knowing exactly what everyone wanted and needed to know, but we have to start somewhere. Social media is such a complex interactive and every changing technology. I thought it was important to offer the groundwork to build a foundation for social media. It appeared as though that is what people were looking for.

The lesson I learned is that 1 hour and 45 minutes simply is not enough time to properly teach social media. Not that it was a revelation, but we gave it a go!

Next month, I will be teaching a similar class in the 5-8 hour time frame. I think that will be plenty of time to delve into social media and even assist the attendees with starting out on their own and making it work for them.

Whether you were able to attend the class or not, I am always available for questions and assisting others in getting started! We have a long road before social media is widely accepted in the fire service. Until then, we can learn from those who make it work!

FDIC videotaped the class. I do not know if it will be available to anyone to see or if they will just be using the video for other purposes. I will let you know if it becomes available.

If you are interested in the .pdf file of my presentation please let me know. I will have it available in some form or fashion soon enough.

Thanks to all those who attended. It was my honor and I enjoyed it tremendously. As always, whenever I teach…I learned a lot!

Feel free to connect with me. I am always available to answer questions and help out if possible!

Rhett Fleitz
FireFleitz@gmail.com
FireCritic@FireCritic.com
Twitter: @FireCritic
Facebook Profile
Facebook Fan Page

Posted by The Fire Critic on March 25, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Blog Tips, Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, News • Tagged: Facebook, FDIC, Fire, Fire Critic, Fire Department, Fire Department Instructors Conference, FireCritic.com, Firefighter, Firefighting, Rhett Fleitz, Social Media, Social Media in the Fire Service, Twitter

Getting your Blog To Work For You, Making the Most of it, Creating a Network, and Gaining Readers

6 comments

It has been a while since I have posted a “Blog Tip” (previous ones on monetizing your blog) on Fire Critic. After speaking with other bloggers and hearing that some of them are reaching for readers and trying to comprehend the best ways of increasing readership I felt I would offer some tips.

These tips can be useful for any bloggers, although some of the tips might be catered to the crowd on the FireEMSBlogs.com network. I have been blogging in some form or another for the past 6 years. I have not learned it all, and I realize that best practices can be altered, discovered, or modified daily.

I will follow up with many more “blog tips” in the future. This is a beginner “blog tip” to get new bloggers rolling and some extra tips for others who are looking for that extra boost.

This article will focus on spreading the word to a larger audience and when, how, and why to write articles.

Writing articles

Be original!

Focus on your audience. Hopefully you have defined your audience. Obviously I have not!
Write at the frequency of your choice. Don’t make it a chore. The Happy Medic has said before that if he sits down and has to think real hard about what to write about he gets up and does something else. This is a good practice. Don’t force it.
Write about your readers…not yourself. Unless you blog in the format like IronFiremen.com, you should write about your readers. Most of them don’t want to hear about you. You can add your thoughts, but don’t make your blog all about you…nobody cares.
Create conversation. You want comments? Ask a question.
Write about controversial subjects. Not everyone is a STATter911.com or FireGeezer. However, you can still write about controversial subjects. Be sure to be clear if you are offering your opinion. Even if you merely write about a subject, whatever you write will be read as your opinion. I often write about stuff without offering my opinion until after the comments begin.
Follow up with your articles. If the commentary leads to more conversation you can write another post about the new information. Likewise, if you are writing about a news story be sure to follow up on any future news on that story.
Pictures and Videos - readers love watching videos and seeing pictures.
Limit your words – Many blog gurus have put a limit of words in a single post. I am not quite that strict on this. However, use as few words as you need to get your point across. Most readers scan the content, they go back and read verbatim if they see something that captures their attention.
Give Credit - if you use a photo or quote another blog be sure to give them credit and link to their content.
Share what you read after you write it….read on!

Sharing, Networking, and Social Media

There are numerous social mediums out there. Facebook and twitter are probably the most worthwhile.

Facebook – Fire Critic Facebook Fan Page

Facebook Fan Page - Create a facebook fan page for your blog! Utilize this fan page to connect with your fans. Facebook is the busiest site on the internet. People spend hours on facebook every day.
Networked Blogs – Networked blogs is an application on facebook that parses your rss feed from your blog to your facebook fan page. You can also post your articles directly from networked blogs to twitter. I don’t recommend this though, you are better off with twitterfeed…read on.
Follow the comments on Facebook. Be sure to follow your blog posts as they appear on facebook. The comments can take off before you know it and they don’t translate to comments on your blog (yet).
Make your Fan Page Known. Be sure everyone knows about your facebook fan page! Make the link easy to find and blog about your fan page!
Facebook Share and Facebook Like – install these plugins on your blog to make it easy for readers to share/like your articles on facebook.

Twitter - Follow @FireCritic

Twitter Username – Make your twitter username easy to remember for others and short! Twitter constrains you to 140 characters. You don’t want half of that to be your blog name if your blog has a long title. Chris Kaiser (Life Under the Lights) uses CKEMTP for everything. The branding of his username makes certain cohesion for people seeing his username on social media sites. He has created a brand others remember.
Syndicate on Twitter – Use TwitterFeed.com to syndicate your content from your blog to your twitter account. That way everyone gets your content as soon as you post it. Twitterfeed can also be used to send your content to facebook, but I recommend using networked blogs for that.
Tweetmeme – install the tweetmeme plugin on your blog. This plugin offers your readers the ability to share your article on twitter easily.
Start Conversation – use twitter to create conversation about topics. Engage other users.
Follow other Twitter users – Follow other twitter users you are interested in. Don’t autofollow. I don’t do it and I think it is cheap. I follow the people I want to follow.
Retweet - Retweet others tweets that interest you. If you do it, they might return the favor. It is a cycle that people create by sharing others thoughts, and links.
Use hashtags – If you are a Fire Service blogger, use hashtags like #Fire and #Firefighter and #Firefighting. If you are EMS, use #EMS, #EMT, #Medic, and #Paramedic. They help! Some people follow hashtags to see what the latest news is on that topic!

Tricking out your blog

Ah, the age old question of what plugins, widgets, and other stuff you should add to your blog.

Social Media links - Be sure to have icons with links to your facebook fan page, twitter account, email, rss feed, and maybe more like firefighter nation account and jems connect account.
Tweetmeme, facebook share, and facebook like - make it easy for others to spread the word about your articles.
Related posts – using a related posts plugin in the bottom of all of your articles can provide more clicks to stories you have written in the past.
Copy other blogs - Don’t copy the content. If you see something you like, ask the blogger what it is and where you can get it!
Statistics – I recommend the very easy and free statcounter along with google analytics for following your stats!
All in One SEO – Search for this on WordPress Plugins and maximize the Search Engine Optimization of your blog easily.

Increasing Traffic

Link to other blogs – If you see an article that someone else wrote link to it. Write a small paragraph about it and offer the link. They will appreciate it and might do the same for you if they see something they like on your blog.
Syndication - Syndicate your blog on twitter, rss through feedburner, facebook, Firefighter Nation, Jems Connect, and other sites that will provide trackbacks and clicks to your content.
Tags and Categories – Especially on FireEMSBlogs.com, but also very useful elsewhere. Take the extra minute to tag your articles appropriately (look at all the tags on this article). Likewise, utilize categories to properly place your articles in respective groupings. You would be amazed at how much traffic you can get from tags/categories being properly used.

Again, this is a list of things to do for the beginner blogger as well as some extras for those who are looking for an extra boost.

Check back in the future for more tips!

What do you have to add?

What works for you?

What doesn’t work?

Posted by The Fire Critic on October 29, 2010 • Filed under: Blog Tips, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, News, Technology & Communications, technology-communications-ems-topics, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: Blog, Blog Etiquette, Blog Syndication, Blog Tips, Blogging, CKEMTP, Clicks, Controversy, Conversation, Dave Statter, EMS, Etiquette, Facebook, Fire, Firefighter, FireGeezer, Google Analytics, Increasing Blog Traffic, Life Under the Lights Blog, Networking, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Sharing, Social Media, Statcounter, STATter911, Syndication, The Happy Medic, trackbacks, Tricking out your blog, Tweetmeme, Twitter, Writing Articles

Blog Tip – Monetizing your Fire/EMS Blog Part II

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Making Money on your Blog

Part II of Monetizing your Blog/web site will go over the numerous ways of making money on your blog. If you missed part I please review it here.

There are many ways of making money on your blog. I have detailed several below. You should note that there are plenty of other sources of making money on your blog other than listed here. These are the ones that I have found to be worth the time. Feel free to let me know in the comments of ways you make money and share with everyone! These are in no particular order.

Donations
Selling Ads
Selling Text links
Selling Merchandise
Ad Networks
Affiliate Marketing
Product Reviews
Sponsorship for events/podcasts/contests

1. Donations

This is not a very popular way of making money without actually offering a service, but it can work. I have never actually placed a donation link on any of my sites. In my experience, most of the donations that work are on sites which offer a service but don’t require payment or sites which offer a free product.

The hangup most people have with asking for donations is some people feel it is like begging.

The easiest way to set up for donations is to get a paypal account. Paypal offers buttons to put directly on your site for accepting donations.

Chronicles of EMS is a perfect example of making donations work!

I sell numerous advertising spots on VAFireNews.com. Some rotating spots and others which show up on every impression. Click on the image to see how I do it on VAFireNews.com

2. Selling Ads

You don’t have to be a marketing genius to sell ads on your site. You do need to be somewhat of an effective salesperson! I have sold ads on VAFireNews.com for several years.

Here are some lessons I have learned for selling ads:

Stick with the accepted size ads [468x60, 160x600 or 120x600, 728x90, 300x250, 125x125]
Stick with rotating ads. You can share the wealth of a decent spot to more than one advertiser.
Use decent real estate. Don’t put your ads at the bottom of the page. You WANT people see the ads and click on them!
Start out cheap to get them on board.
Offer a free month or half price advertising.
Offer a discount if they pay for longer terms. Give a % discount if they pay a year in advance.
I recommend pre-payment for advertising.
Find out what your competitors or comparable sites are charging for advertising.
Prepare a media packet on the pricing and placement of ads.
Offer a phone number they can call. I use my cell phone number.
You can also use impression based sales. I have not gone to this. I have always stuck with a monthly rate.

3. Selling Text Links

Have you ever gotten an email about exchanging links? If you run a blog or web site then the answer is probably yes. Here is the deal. The company who contacted you sees a value in having a link to their site from yours. For whatever reason they want that link. Make them pay for a long period up front, otherwise they will forget or you will forget and they will get that link for free.

Text link advertisers like Text Link Ads (click on banner below) offer easy to use code that turn your keywords into links.

Click on the image to view the Fire Critic's Cafepress store

4. Selling Merchandise

The Fire Critic offers merchandise for sale. I admit that this is more of a marketing ploy than a money making venture. Cafepress or Zazzle offer decently priced merchandise for sale. Especially for people only ordering one item. The cost IS a little higher per item than ordering 200 shirts from the local screen printer.

FireGeezer has done a great job with the FireGeezer Mugs. However, I am not sure this was a money making venture. More of a marketing ploy I believe. He kept it simple and his readers love it!

If you were to create a Cafepress or Zazzle “store” I recommend the following:

Take the time to make high quality images for use on the merchandise
Take the time to customize the store
Order some of the merchandise before you publicize it to ensure quality assurance!
Don’t set the prices too high.

Sites like Lulu offer the ability to make books, calendars, ebooks, etc. as well.

View the Fire Critic’s Cafepress store here

5. Ad Networks (Contextual Advertising)

The use of ad networks like Google Adsense can be seen on almost every blog/web site you stumble upon. Originally (years ago), I had reservations of using this code because of the look of the link units. Once I came around I found ways of incorporating the code in a way that I was ok with. At its height I have made hundreds of dollars a month with ad networks. Google Adsense is probably the widest known ad network. PSClicks specializes in Public Safety websites.

psclicks as seen on VAFireNews.com. I also run this on FireCritic.com

Networks I would try:

Here are some tips:

Make sure you are following the rules. I think google limits you to 3 ad units per page.
Try different ad placements.
Review the performance on various placements and stick with what works.
The better the real estate the better the return on clicks.
Don’t forget to put these on your rss feeds too.

CPC vs. CPM

CPC – cost per click is when you get paid per each click through. Google Adsense is an example of CPC.

CPM – cost per mille is when you get paid per thousand impressions. Burst Media is an example of CPM.

6. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts [source]. You might be rewarded by cash or other merchandise. Examples of this that work well in the Fire/EMS niche is Amazon affiliates or Chief Supply. Most affiliate programs pay out once you reach a certain amount of credit. Since I wrote a book, I use the amazon affiliate program to sell the book (I get paid royalties for the book plus a commission of selling it if they click through my amazon affiliate link). If The Fire Store ever decided to do affiliate marketing I would be the first to use it. I should make money just off that tip alone….hint hint.

7. Product Reviews

Bloggers can actually make money on product reviews. I am not referring to getting free products as that is a bonus to doing reviews. Actually, businesses will pay bloggers for reviews. Before you jump up and down, I don’t know of any right off that I have seen done in the fire/EMS field…but I am sure it happens. And no, the Fire Critic does not get paid for reviews at the time of this writing (view my terms here).

You can also use sites like SponsoredReviews.com or PayPerPost.com to get leads on reviews.

@Firemom at Stop, Drop, and Blog offers product reviews. You can view her terms here.

8. Sponsorship of Events/Podcasts/Contests

Fire/EMS related companies are beginning to understand the effectiveness of advertising and marketing through blogs like this one. Bloggers/webmasters of sites like EMS Garage, EMSEducast, and The Bravest Online are capitalizing on this by having companies sponsor their podcasts and other events. Get on the wagon!

There will be plenty more written about making money on your blog. Look for the next installment soon.

How do you make money on your blog?

What have you used? What works and what doesn’t?

If you see something you want more information on let me know. If you don’t see something that should be here please let me know. I will be happy to include it in future blog tips!

Posted by The Fire Critic on December 29, 2009 • Filed under: Blog Tips, Must Read, News • Tagged: Blog Tip, Fire Critic, FireCritic.com, Making Money on your Blog, Monetizing your Blog, Rhett Fleitz

Blog Tip – Monetizing your Fire/EMS Blog Part I

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Considerations on whether or not to monetize your blog and when

As with most blog tips by the Fire Critic, this one can be used for non fire/EMS blogs and is applicable to web sites as well as blogs. This will be a multi-part posting, so feel free to comment with questions so I can answer them in the following post.

Some people are very finicky about making money, posting ads, and asking for donations on their blogs. Some love it and others hate it. I am referring to the actual bloggers here, the readers are another thing. Whether you decide to monetize your blog is an important decision and one that should not be made without proper research on best practices. That is where I come in. I hope to help you along in making the best of your blog and doing it right if/when you decide to monetize it.

“Monetizing your Fire/EMS Blog will delivered in the following installments (subject to change)

Considerations on whether or not to monetize your blog and when
Various monetization schemes
Where to put your links and banners
Best Practices and lessons learned

There are numerous ways of making money on your blog/site. Whether you are selling advertisements, placing affiliate marketing ads, asking for donations, selling links, etc. Once you decide on monetization you will have to constantly monitor each advertising solution to make sure it is working.

Should you or Shouldn’t you - Some people have decided to not monetize their blog. They are striclty against it and that is the way it is. Others want to but don’t know how. Whether you do or don’t, you want to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with the readers experience on your site.

Case and Point – FirefighterHourly.com runs one set of ads on his site by Lion Apparel. I do not know the relationship, but I do know that Jay offers kind reviews on Lion apparel. It is my understanding that the site has a lot of readers and the alexa ranking puts it right behind the Fire Critic. Therefore, I know that if Jay were to add some ad banners or links in the mix he could make decent money on his blog without really doing much more work.

Traffic - Do you have readers? You might think this is a stupid question, however I see blogs started every day and more time spent on creating and placing ads than on actual content and gaining readership. Most blog themes offer a spot or two for google adsense or another application. It is fine to utilize this spot from day one, but you might be better off placing a static image of a link to another site for now.

Case and point – FireGeezer didn’t monetize his blog for a long time and he had plenty of readers. I imagine that since going to the new platform of FireEMSBlogs.com that FireGeezer will be making decent money in ads which run on the blog. The same can be said for STATter911.com. Both sites boast some great traffic stats!

Layout – Plan ahead for monetization. When you create the design, choose a theme, or develop the look of your blog/site go ahead and plan for expansion. Don’t place the banners, but plan for where you will want them and make the arrangements to place them there 0nce you are ready. This will make a seamless transition into the realm of monetization. However, do not design a blog around advertisements, instead design advertisements around your blog.

Case and point – http://be-a-firefighter.com/ might be a great website, however there is way too much advertising going on here. The overpowering of ads distracts from reading the actual posts and probably loses return visitors.

Timeline - Develop a timeline for when you will add advertisements. Plan for several months out and decide on when you will be ready for ads. This deadline will help you crunch your time in making your blog/site the best so that when you go live with ads you are ready.

Case and point – When I started VAFireNews.com I spent the first 3-4 months working on content and design. Once I started looking for advertisers I had a pretty decent product. Those advertisers who started out early have remained with me to this day. I was not in a hurry to get ads, I wanted to make sure I had something to sell first.

Don’t get ahead of yourself - I can tell from experience that you probably will not be retiring early because of your income on your blog. If it is possible I will let you know…I am not giving up anytime soon. Unless you have some new technology or angle at taking out Firehouse.com you probably will not be laying in a bed of money by simply monetizing your blog. The main thing is to network.

Case and Point – I am not retired yet!!!

Network – Read and utilize my “Top Ten Marketing Tools for Fire/EMS Blogs and Websites”. Be sure you are capitalizing on these networking tools! (I am doing one of them by posting this link here)

Case and Point – The best thing you can have is other sites link to you. On average, I nearly double my hits on a day when FireGeezer links to me. While I doubt that I do the same for him I certainly try.

Stay tuned for more on monetizing your blog/web site. Feel free to get your comments/questions in so that I can make sure I fit in an answer in the following posts.

I will be happy to incorporate your trials and tribulations on monetizing your blogs as well. Let me know what has worked and what hasn’t!

Posted by The Fire Critic on December 14, 2009 • Filed under: Blog Tips, News • Tagged: Blog Tip, Fire Critic, FireCritic.com, Making Money on your Blog, Monetizing your Blog, Rhett Fleitz

Blog Tip – Tagging Youtube Videos

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Actually, this is about tagging any videos. Having Youtube in the title is more of a SEO bonus!

Here is a pet peeve of mine…coming across a video accidentally that is named “video S-84394″. No information, no tags, 14 views but it is a great video that you would have loved to have seen when it was uploaded 3 years ago. That might be a little exaggerated but if you upload/search/watch videos online you will see my point.

I like searching for videos. I like finding what I am looking for if it exists.

If you are uploading videos here are some tips to help you get your video watched more:

Name the video – Make it something pertinent like “House Fire in Scranton” or “4 alarm fire in Jacksonville”.
Tag your video – If you are uploading videos so other people will watch you should be a tag whore! Tags are usually separated by commas. Examples would be: House Fire, Firefighter, Fire, Fireman, Firefighting, Scranton Fire Department, Fire Department, Jacksonville, etc.
Describe the video - This day in age of embedding videos on blogs and web sites is getting out of control! But I love it! If you want your video embedded, be sure to NAME IT, TAG IT, AND DESCRIBE IT. “House Fire” doesn’t say much in the description. Add details like Where (City,State), When (date), What time, Who responded, other pertinent data.

Use this simple ideas to increase the views on your videos!

Above all else, email people when it is online. Shoot an email to bloggers and web sites when you have uploaded a video you think they should see!

Here is a perfect example below. This is why you should tag your youtube videos.

Title: Fire at IVC Marikina
FC: I don’t know where IVC Marikina is. I might be able to figure it out but why not just give me the info!

Description: house burning near our house, I’ve cutted the video so soon coz the wires from the post were snapping!!!
FC: Spelling? Grammer? Where is “our house”.? If I knew then I would know where the fire is!

Tags: Fire
FC: At least they tagged “fire”. However on youtube, fire is not a decent tag. It should be “house fire” at least!

Posted by The Fire Critic on November 2, 2009 • Filed under: Blog Tips, News, Videos • Tagged: Blog Tip, Fire Critic, FireCritic.com, Rhett Fleitz, Video, youtube

Blog Tip – When the Honeymoon is Over

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You just started a brand new blog and you have been writing quality posts for a couple of weeks. Suddenly you realize that you cannot think of anything to write about. Don’t panic.

Blogging can take a lot of time to perfect. Finding stuff to write about can be difficult (look at me, I am writing about it being hard to find stuff to write about).

Why the FC has been dead…

I had a bad week last week and was away from the computer a good bit. I did not have the time to update as often as I like and I find myself playing catch-up. Now that I have caught up, I am having a difficult time adjusting to writing and finding worthy topics to discuss.

Don’t worry, this type of thing happens all the time. I get writers block several times a year. Sometimes I just kick back and take a small break. I might not publish anything for a week. I don’t like doing it, but I have found that it clears the mind. Once the break is over you begin posting like you never missed a beat.

When I write posts for this blog, I often just click on new post and begin typing. Sometimes I have a certain topic or story I would like to report on but not all the time.

Sometimes I will start a post and save it as a draft. Weeks later I will revisit the post and complete it or delete it.

When the honeymoon is over…

I wouldn’t say that the Fire Critic has had a honeymoon. I have run several blogs and have figured out ways of keeping it fresh.

A lot of bloggers hesitate to link to a new blog or even talk about them because some new blogs just don’t make it. In the past 5 years I have seen some great fire/EMS blogs start up and then stop being updated. Some realize how much time they take up. Others lose interest.

I know some great blogs that were abruptly stopped. One big one of note was FireWhirl. I would feed off of him and he would feed off of my stuff. There were several other blogs at the time, but FireWhirl covered a lot of ground. Sadly, the guy running it just couldn’t focus the time on the blog anymore. FireWhirl stopped being updated. It is still there, just nothing new.

Some people worry too much with all this social media. I am not saying don’t do it. I think everyone should utilize twitter, facebook, etc. to get the word out. What you don’ t have to do is spend so much time on each. Set it up so twitter and facebook run themselves off your blog. You will be amazed at how much traffic you get and you don’t have to do anything but post on your blog.

Blogging can be a lot of fun. Don’t get in over your head and if you do just take a minute to breathe. Your readers will return.

As for the Fire Critic….I have a hell of a lot more to say!!!

Posted by The Fire Critic on November 2, 2009 • Filed under: Blog Tips, News • Tagged: Blog Tips, Fire Critic, FireCritic.com, Rhett Fleitz

Blog Tip – A Measure of Success

7 comments

When it comes to blogs, it is kinda hard to measure success. I have been surprised by the perceived success of The Fire Critic Blog, but I am partial to the experience.

How exactly to you measure success of a blog? Here is a list of potential criteria:

Traffic - the obvious is how many people are reading the site. You should measure daily traffic and weigh it over time taking into consideration the growth weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. The Fire Critic has seen a consistent growth over the past several months.
Search Engine Traffic - Yes this traffic is included in the traffic from above. With proper search engine optimization (SEO) you can propel your blog to greatness in specific areas. Keep up with who is getting to your site with which search engines and which terms. Duplicate your success with other posts.
Comments - Whether readers love to read your site or love to hate you they will return. Comments are the number one thing that make bloggers happy. This is the heroin! We love it when a reader takes the time to leave a comment. Be sure to reciprocate and comment on the blogs you like to read. The Fire Critic actually has more comments then there are posts. I believe you would call that success! 303 posts and just over 350 comments! Not bad if I might say.
Trackbacks – How many people are linking to your posts. A trackback is a link to a specific url within your blog. This does not count links to your main url. The Fire Critic is getting there in this category. With the advent of new blogs whenever you turn around, many are encouraged by blogs they like to read and link back to them.
Links – Links to your blog on other peoples link page, blogroll, or in their posts. This would include trackbacks and more. The Fire Critic has found itself on the blogroll of some very decent blogs!! Thanks guys and gals!!!
RSS Feed Readers – This is the amount of readers who read your site through an RSS feed. They might read your posts without even visiting your site. Others read something and click through to your site. This is a great tool…you put your information in front of them without them having to go directly to your site. The Fire Critic is slowly building a following via RSS feed. Get our RSS feed here
Email Subscription - This is somewhat like the RSS Feed Reader. However, instead of having the feed served up in a reader it is emailed to them daily. Another great tool for putting your information in front of your readers! The Fire Critic is slowly building its email subscription readers. Subscribe to our RSS feed here
Twitter Followers – How many people read your tweets? This is compounded when you have your posts feeding directly into your twitter account. The Fire Critic has several hundred followers. Follow me here.
Twitter Retweets – Retweets are when people retweet what you have posted. When they retweet your tweets about posts on your blog their friends view that and might click on it too. This builds traffic and readership. The Fire Critic has enjoyed success with retweets of posts!
Facebook Fans – Facebook pages are becoming all the rave. Everyday thousands of people join Facebook. Build your army of fans through a Facebook page. Readers can follow the blog via the Facebook page, view the new posts, and click through to the posts that interest them. The Fire Critic Page has around 250 fans and we add a couple new everyday. You can view our Facebook page here.

These are just some of the criteria in which bloggers might measure their success. I have been very happy with my perception of the success of The Fire Critic! Thanks everyone and keep the comments coming!

The Fire Critic will be recreated in version 2.0 sometime today or early Thursday. Please bear with me during the rebuild! We hope to really boost the blog to the next level (whatever the hell the next level is). I have plenty more to say!!!

Posted by The Fire Critic on October 14, 2009 • Filed under: Blog Tips, News • Tagged: Fire Critic, FireCritic.com, Rhett Fleitz

Are any of You Guys Overwhelmed?

4 comments

First of all, I apologize for using the term “guys”. That is what I learned growing up in Ohio. “Guys”, or “You Guys” is the same with “Y’ALL” where I live currently. I think I was called out on a post actually. Read the post here, then check the comments. I explained myself in the comments and didn’t feel as though I did what I was accused of doing. Either way, the Fire Critic isn’t all that PC anyways….

Ok, back to the post….

Are any of you bloggers out there overwhelmed by the possibilities for social media, blog add-ons, widgets, plug-ins, twitter, RSS, Facebook, MySpace if you haven’t grown up yet, digg, flurl, flickr, fluffer, and phlem? Ok, I made the last two up…you get my point.

Juggling the various social mediums is a difficult task. Especially when you have to level up on Mafia Wars daily!

I don’t really have a point, nor do I have a solution…but my readers might.

What I have found is that it is key to utilize these social media tools to increase traffic, readership, and branding. However, do not dig yourself in a hole over trying to get them all going at once. Nor should you feel you need to update all of them constantly.

My new pal David Konig (@davidkonig) put me on a decent tool on Facebook called Networked Blogs. I have only been using it a couple of days, but I have found it gets the job done as far as updating your profile and/or facebook page with the RSS feed from your blog. What I don’t like about it is that it has an interface that I think eats some of your traffic by creating another step in the action. In the end, I didn’t have much to choose from and I am happy with it.

This is the same for twitter. All you have to do is “set it and forget it”. Set up an rss interface with twitter using something like twitterfeed and sit back and enjoy the results.

THEN, if you have the time you can get on FB or Twitter and go to town with discussions, retweeting, networking, and replying (which is a really effective way of networking in general).

There are other mediums. I talk about Twitter a lot and Facebook too. That is because I view them as the top social mediums currently for bloggers.

With all that being said, I am probably the one who is on the computer the most…and making the least amount of money with it (for those who are monetizing). That last comment is not so related to the Fire Critic, but more so the other websites I run for profit.

Keep staying tuned for the monetization post. I am working on it diligently. I am also working on the top ten lists for the following categories….fire blog, ems blog, fire site, ems site, etc. Wait for it…

Thanks for letting me ramble.

Posted by The Fire Critic on September 25, 2009 • Filed under: Blog Tips, News

Blog Tip – Why Fire/EMS Bloggers Should Sign up for Twitter

2 comments

In today’s blog tip, I would like to explain why Fire/EMS Bloggers should at least sign up for Twitter.

First of all, you can read other posts where I discuss twitter or tag twitter here.

So here it goes…

You should sign up for twitter so that someone else doesn’t sign up using your namesake.
You will be amazed at what traffic you receive by using twitter as an RSS syndication platform. That basically means using twitter to automatically post your post title and url (link to your post) on twitter for others to click on.
All you have to do to make this happen is use a client (free) like twitterfeed. Sign up and fill out the necessary information on your blog (including your twitter account and your RSS feed).
Then you can check out this list of 100+ awesome Fire/EMS Twitter users and add some of them to your twitter friends.
After that, you can sit back and watch traffic come from Twitter.
Your posts will be automatically be added to Twitter via Twitterfeed and you don’t have to do anything.
If others like your post, they might reply to it.
If they reply to it (@reply) your joint friends will see the tweet and may reply and/or click on it too. Replies explained here.
If they RT then their followers will see it and they might not be followers of yours. It is a pyramid!
One other useful tip is to join wefollow. This client (free) will enable your Twitter account to show up on lists related to your topics.
On wefollow, pick certain keywords like #Firefighter, #Firefighting, #Fire, #Paramedic, #EMS, #EMT or whatever your fancy.

If you have questions on this please let me know. I love helping out fellow fire/ems bloggers!

Posted by The Fire Critic on September 20, 2009 • Filed under: Blog Tips, Must Read, News • Tagged: EMS Blogs, Fire Blogs, Twitter, Twitter in the Fire Service

Blog Owners – Do you Monetize your Blog?

6 comments

Here is a question for bloggers everywhere (not just fire/EMS blog). Do you monetize your blog? If so, what do you use?

I am working on a post for the near future that will explain some of the best ways for Fire/EMS Service blogs to monetize their blogs.

I know of several ways we can do it, but I am not going to spoil now. If you absolutely cannot wait, email me or use the contact form and I can help you out.

Otherwise, please let me know the following:

Do you monetize your blog?
Would you like to make some money on your blog?
Is the only reason you started your blog was to make money?
Would you be interested in finding out more about the possibilities?

Let me know in comments or by contact us page (on menu bar) or via email firecritic@firecriticdotcom.

Posted by The Fire Critic on September 18, 2009 • Filed under: Blog Tips, Must Read, News • Tagged: Making Money on your Blog

PIO Marketing and Social Media

10 comments

I have been hitting on a lot of social media topics recently. I love finding PIO’s who are doing it right. Maybe the Godfather of PIO and Social Media is somebody like Brian Humphrey of LAFD, then again that title probably goes to the first Firefighter/EMT who decided that their department needed a website.

Websites are great…for normal information. The utilization of social media, a content management system and RSS Feeds (think blog) are another.

PIO’s who decide to take it to the next level are doing their jobs. PIO’s who neglect social networking, don’t understand it, or have said “to hell with that” are NOT doing their jobs. Chiefs and City Administrators who will not allow it, don’t understand it, or think it will not benefit the department should get out of the way!

I found another City who has welcomed social networking and has done a great job with it. Mark Basnight and Rob Brisley run the CFD News & Information Blog for the City of Charlotte Fire Department in North Carolina.

They utilize the following social media (all links are to their content) :

The also utilize a great tool with offering translation of their website to a handful of languages. In addition they run concurrent RSS feeds on their site offering news related to them and the City of Charlotte.

This is a great example of making Public Information easy, Worldwide, accessible, and fun.

You might ask why have tap into so many different social marketing variants. The answer is easy. As more and more social networking platforms arise, different people chose different ones to use. That doesn’t mean that you have to use everyone. However, it might be a good idea to at least obtain your namesake in each one so that someone else doesn’t come along and grab it up.

With social networking, the cream always rises to the top. For instance, I once utilized Myspace as a social networking tool. Once Facebook was unleashed to the masses (it was developed and solely used by colleges and universities in the beginning) I made the switch to Facebook. Why you might ask? Because I feel as though Facebook is more professional, more secure, and better suited for social networking. I no longer use MySpace.

In the near future I will be getting more into social networking for the Fire Service. I am not so sure I will be competition for these guys, but I will be in the realm. You will also find out who has been hiding behind the name “Fire Critic” if you don’t already know.

As for the Charlotte Fire Department’s marketing strategies, I commend them for making full use of what is available to them. You want to know what it would cost to put up a site like theirs….nothing. You heard me right. If you were to do it yourself, outside of the man hours will will take to put it all together, it would cost nothing. Blogger allows you a free blog, the social networking sites used are free, the whole thing is free!

FC note: I have not spoken with the CFD, but by all appearances I believe that if you were to make a site just like that one and had the no-how to do it it wouldn’t cost anything but time. CFD – please correct me if I am wrong.

Damn, now don’t you wish you had started one earlier?

If you would like assistance getting started, please let me know. Also, you might check out some of my other posts on the subject.

One other note… If this makes it to the Charlotte Fire Department Chief, you should know that your guys are doing one hell of a job! Step raises for all of them…ok maybe not, but they are doing great. Other departments should be looking up to yours in an effort to make theirs better!

…and for you other readers; just so you don’t think my department is better than yours. I have pitched several ideas for our department to utilize social networking. They didn’t do it, they don’t have a clue, and we are behind the times.

more to come on social networking….in the future

Posted by The Fire Critic on September 15, 2009 • Filed under: Blog Tips, Must Read, News • Tagged: Charlotte Blog, Charlotte Fire Department, Charlotte Fire Department Blog, PIO Social Networking, Public Information Officer, Social Networking

Blogging Tip – Name your Images for SEO

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I am starting a new column here at the Fire Critic! This one is titled “Blogging Tip” however the tips can be used for webmasters too. With the increasing use of Content Management Systems (CMS) and RSS Feeds (Really Simple Syndication) it seems as though the differentiation between blogs and websites has been blurred. This is not a problem and actually shows that more and more people are taking advantage of the interfaces that blogs were created with.

Today’s blogging tip – Naming your images to increase SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Let us say you have an image of a house fire with smoke showing in Albuquerque, New Mexico (for example). Lets say that the image in its raw form is named 0023.jpg. If you upload that image, the image will always be named 0023.jpg. People will see that image when looking at your blog, but not many will get to it if they are searching for images with the search term “house fire in Albuquerque, New Mexico”.

If you rename image 0023.jpg to “house fire in Albuquerque, New Mexico” then when people search for “house fire in Albuquerque, New Mexico” they will come to your image click on it and are brought to your site. This increases traffic!

To take this one step further you should actually name it “house-fire-in-albuquerque-new-mexico”. The dashes in between the words make it more friendly to web crawlers. The use of lower case apparently does too. Some interfaces, like the WordPress that I use does it for you automatically.

Let me know if you have any questions on making your website easier to use and increasing traffic!

The Fire Critic