For the third installment of the Pimp My Links series we’ll be featuring How Do I Mac, a blog that helps people get the most out of their Mac experience.
The blog is mostly made up of video tutorials as the author has the philosophy that showing is better than telling.
Original Content
A lot of the content on the blog isn’t original; the videos are from other sources, which make it nearly impossible the content to get viral. I would suggest creating more original video tutorials. Create the tutorials on intermediate to advanced techniques, unfortunately topics like “How do I share my photos online using Flickr?” aren’t something that most tech-savvy (the ones who spread content) people will actually learn from. And if they aren’t learning from them they won’t be inspired to share them with other people.
A Beginners Guide to Using a Mac
I think you would be ok writing beginner tutorials for Mac users, especially considering the number of people switching to Macs these days. The problem with the article mentioned above is that it’s not Mac specific. It’s more about Flickr then Macs. I’ll bet if you did a complete beginners guide to using a Mac (possibly a series) that would be hot. Things that people switching over to a Mac might not know how to do. For example how about a tutorial about all the keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys on a Mac in relation to their PC counterparts? Obviously those two things alone probably aren’t enough but I think you get my idea. This is just one example of something that I feel would become viral. There are many others I can think of, such as… How To: Dual Boot Windows and OSX on a Mac. How To: Find, Add, and Remove dashboard widgets. Or even a tutorial on Using Spotlight. Consider doing the tutorials on a regular schedule, like a weekly vidcast or something, that way people are always anticipating them.
Participate
There are not a lot of people subscribed the RSS feed, only 17 according to the Feedburner chicklet count. That tells me that the blog has a pretty small audience, which makes it hard for the content to initially spread. Think of it as a numbers game; the more people you have subscribed to your blog the better chance you have that someone will submit one of your tutorials to Digg or Delicious. The best advice I can give you for increasing the number of readers besides producing good content is to become a contributing Mac member to the various Mac communities.
This will get your blog on other people’s radars. Start leaving thoughtful comments on other Mac blogs and make sure your name links back to your site. Start a Digg account and submit and comment on stories that would be appealing to other Mac users, make sure you put your blog URL on your profile page. Join some Mac forums and contribute wherever you can provide value, include a link to your blog in your signature. The important thing to remember here is that you need to benefit the community, don’t just do these things with the sole purpose of getting your URL in front of people.
Summary
Apple and Mac related sites have a very high potential of becoming viral and attracting links, this is because Mac users are tech-savvy, they’re traditionally evangelists, and the have a high participation rate with online communities. There is nothing wrong with featuring other people’s content, but you also need to make sure you have enough of your own original content that it has the potential to become viral. Creating good content is only half the battle, once that is in place you need to figure out how to spread your messages within the online communities.
How Do I Mac, you have been “Pimped”!
Now we’d love to hear your opinions. Did you like our ideas? Do you have more things to suggest? If so feel free to say it in the comments below. We are still accepting submissions for the “Pimp My Links” series, so if you haven’t sent us your URL you can do so through our contact form.
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Cameron Olthuis is a web marketing strategist who specializes in social media marketing and search engine optimization. He has been involved in online marketing since 2000 and has worked with companies ranging in size from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Cameron is currently the Director or Marketing at ACS and a blogger at Pronet Advertising.
