Dfter analyzing several memes and following the steps of a specific meme, following a chain from its origin to its last blows (a month later), I have decided to share with you some conclusions that I have drawn about memes.
1º) Memes are NOT to earn links.
SIf you think that starting or continuing a meme will help you gain a lot of inbound links, you are wrong. Andrea, the forerunner of the chain tracked in Meme Connection, invited 22 bloggers who formed a network involving more than 150 blogs. Andrea only received 10 inbound links despite the number of blogs involved. Andrea was lucky, she received 45% of links on the number of invitations, on many other occasions this percentage drops to zero.
2º) The fundamental purpose of a meme is and should be the socialization of a blog.
En these times of PageRank and industrial production of blogs, the only way to open a small gap for those who start is by socializing your blog. Memes are ideal means to this end and thinking about this is how you should participate in a meme.
¿CHow many blogs do you know with PageRank 4 and with 20 daily visits? And with PR 5 and 500 or 1000 visits? I don't know about you but I, who am a friend of statistics, have found many sites with these characteristics. They have that PR because they have socialized their blogs, not because their content is interesting for Google, hence the number of visits, but because it is interesting for humans. Think that on the Net, links between people tend to become clickable links. Participating in memes helps enormously to be attractive to people, who after all are the only ones who create links (Google is for something else).
NI have to say that if you offer good content you will end up being linked. But, ignoring the really "big" sites, the number of links will always be less than if you offer good content and are also "social".
PBut do not think that now it is about starting or continuing memes inviting left and right. There are some guidelines that it would be advisable to follow when transmitting a meme. We will see them in the following three points.
3º) If you start a meme invite at least 10 people.
Ehe response percentage to a meme is highly variable, from 0% to a little more than 100% (when answered by people who have not been directly invited). Keep in mind that as the meme is transmitted, the response rate will generally decrease. Therefore, if you start one, you must send a considerable number of invitations if you want it to have a minimum spread. If you invite less than ten people to continue it, you will have a good chance that the meme will die after a couple of generations.
4º) If you have been invited to a meme invite in moderation.
En the previous point indicated the importance of the number of invitations of a meme in relation to the success in its transmission. It is logical that if someone starts a meme they want it to spread minimally, but if you are not the creator or initiator of the chain you should not abuse the invitations. You must bear in mind that if you constantly receive memes and invite many people, you will end up saturating them (boring them) and they will stop answering. Think that you are not the only one who passes memes and if we all sent many memes to many people the effect would be the opposite of the desired one. The people who received the most memes would choose to ignore them or only those of the closest people would answer.
RRemember that you should invite in moderation. People get tired of answering memes. A reasonable number would be 2, 4, or 6 invites per meme.
5º) The fifty percent rule.
PTo socialize a blog, the ideal is to maintain a 50% balance in your invitations. Make sure that half of your invitations are for friendly blogs, with whom you normally interact, and the other half for blogs that you like and read but in which you have never participated (commented). In this way you will cultivate new relationships while maintaining the ones you have.
SI assume that everyone will have their own ideas on the subject and will have drawn their own conclusions (perhaps many contrary to what is stated here). I hope to meet and discuss them if you want in the comments. Vinegary greetings.
Vunpleasant Asession.
I prefer not to follow them for many reasons. Most of them do not seem too interesting to me and the intention of gaining links after the meme is quite obvious. Other reasons would be lack of time to do them, fear that the invitations will grow exponentially if I agree to do one. In the end the blog becomes tiresome for the reader and for oneself and at the end of the day you have to write what you want, without compromises.
Very good article, you point out brilliant things.
Well Ulyses the truth is that memes produce that, a rejection before the avalanche of the same and then nevertheless it ends up being answered, as you say to share.
Anyway, as I said in the article, the links are secondary and I would downplay it. All the best.
Public enemy we hardly stepped writing the comments.
You are right that many make memes to gain links, but as you can see in the article, this goal is only partially achieved. Hopefully people will start giving memes a more social use.
Regarding not answering, I think you do well if you don't feel like it, but when you feel like answering one, do it and don't be afraid of the avalanches of memes. Nobody in their right mind can be upset that you do not answer. And if he gets upset then you know 😉
Regarding the "tired blog" I have to give you absolutely right, it is a roll to visit a blog and see a meme every five posts. What I do is that when I see that an invitation arrives I write it down in a notebook and wait for a time between one reply and another. You can also do as I do when I answer one, I do not limit myself to answering it, but I write a huge roll in case someone has time and wants to waste it reading it, so you add something of value to the meme.
Thank you for commenting and for your words. All the best.
I like to make Memes, because I like people to know things about me and socialize my blog.
The bad thing is the weeks that three or four arrive ... I have chosen to accumulate them all and make at most one weekly meme post
rubisf the truth is that it is a very good idea to accumulate them in a single post. When I don't have much to say I'll use your technique.
In this of the memes, not even I agree. On the one hand, the truth is that they can be tedious, but on the other hand, they make you share the blogging experience more intensely than by refusing to do them.
On the other hand, I hate chains of memes that are not well organized, and where there is no centralization of lists. That way, whoever makes sure to be linked, they are the first people of the meme.
I think that lately memes are losing originality ...
Also, yes, it is quite tiring to receive 4 in a row. It happened to me once, and I chose to choose the most "interesting" and answer it. But I'm not very into memes, unless they are funny or original.
Don't worry, I'll pass you by memes ... ahaha ... for this Saturday I already have 2
Could you implement some cookies to save the data when filling in the form? It is a bit stressful to have to enter them every time ... but nothing ... it does not cost too much effort to insert the data ...
rubisf you're right I should have done it long ago. I get right now with it. All the best.
rubisf problem fixed. If you notice something strange, please notify us. All the best.
Fernando I suppose that receiving many in a row will tire a bit, especially when they are uninteresting or original. At the moment I don't get too many to get bored. I'll tell you. Greetings.