I saw an increase in links in when one of my posts was stumbled. I was surprised to see how many folks visited!

Thanks re above the fold, that’s what I thought and that’s my dilemma. I wonder how others deal with this? I am posing these questions not to promote my site amongst you all, but because I’m really struggling with cpu, ad and marketing issues.

I don’t want ads above the fold. I designed my site to promote my punk photos, and because I have soooo many photos, stories, events, I need the top as an expanded “sitemap.” ALL the links on top need to help guide peeps around my site, quickly.

Downside to scrolling is cpu capacity. If I add recent comments, most popular posts, mybloglog, etc, plus more photos, I will bring down my site very quickly, with a small audience.

I will have more photo oriented posts, like I did for an upcoming photo show at La Luz gallery. I am recoding and posting my photos/stories from my old html site. To see all the photos/read the stories means scrolling. Example: my Clash page (under the Bands link: http://jennylens.com/bands/clash). I wonder if it’s too long and should be several pages. Probably).

Problem: build up the site/blog, reach out/gain more traffic, get ads/affiliates, but balancing that is tough. My ISP says I should pay more, I say others have interactive plug-ins and bigger audiences. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Any tips are greatly appreciated! I have content, but money is minimal. It all goes into my work, which is why I need ads, but am taking that slowly, not to dilute my brand, my archive and the serious photo researchers/customers who come to my site.

I need ads to keep it going, but not turn them off. I’m sure there’s a few out there who go through this or have some thoughts.

Thanks and appreciate ALL you are doing! Learning a lot, but gotta get back to my first solo book. My editor is mad at me for being online and not looking at the first color proofs! Ah, the life of a rock photographer.

Above the “fold” is the part of the page a visitor sees without having to scroll down to read. We have always been told to put ads above the fold (even by Google) for income. In fact, Adsense ads that come first on a page are usually the higher bid ones.
John Chow’s blog is nearly all ads above the fold. Not too many can get away with that, but his readers know he has good content so he can.
Below the fold is the point that a reader would have to scroll to read.
SU visitors will typically stumble off your site if you do not get them to read below the fold.
The term comes from the fold of a newspaper and the reading it gets above the fold or below.

“We will need to change getting the social network visitor to read below the fold and avoid too many ads above the fold.”

The fold?? Explain in layman’s terms please. thanks!

I use “Similar Posts.” Works fine in 2.3.1.!!

It could be something with the the new way tags are handled. I’ll be switching plugins in the next week or so, I wonder if I will need to back and re tag everything.

I would love to use the related posts plugin but unfortunately it doesn’t work for my themes in 2.3. Not sure if it’s the themes (2 different ones) or 2.3.

Thanks windyridge,
Blogging Zoom is still just getting started. You have some good points but I think the traffic will increase quickly. Also, there is some SEO advantages with BZ that will eventually also send you traffic.
Using social networking traffic will take some new learning to those of us used to trying to make money from Adsense and SE’s. We will need to change getting the social network visitor to read below the fold and avoid too many ads above the fold. Next, using plugins like related posts or favoite posts to get them to read further.
It’s a new world, it’s more than just web 2.0.

SU drive loads of traffic to me but I don’t think many of them stay or return. It makes sense since it’s totally untargeted. For that reason I wonder about the usefulness of it. But I am still learning about SU. Oh… and I stumbled your site. Blogging Zoom – 6 hot posts, very little traffic. Not the most popular subject matter some of them tho’, too narrow a niche. That may be why. I find that most of the people that Zoom my posts don’t go further and continue to the blog! !

Thanks for the help. I also heard from Courtney Tuttle. Sometimes the BZ button doesn’t show up in my WP code, so I manually input it. I like being able to communicate with the peeps whom I admire, like Courtney and Lorelle. They left comments after I thanked them and raised a question (about the Google vs text link ads controversy) on a blog.

I also like knowing people are actually reading and responding to both questions and compliments from everyone. So many are really reaching out.

I love bloggingzoom and am learning a lot. It’s the most interactive community I’ve ever found. Lots of smart, thoughtful people and good blogs.

I don’t have time yet to build a bigger online community, to attract the readers who get off on my topics, the focus of my blog. That has to wait til after Thanksgiving and into the next year.

I can see two main topics: my classic, rare punk photo archive, who are my loyal friends and fans, and a whole new wonderful community: those who write about blogging and help each other reach out. Bless you and thank you all on bloggingzoom and elsewhere!!!