Tag Tutorial Time

Over at ProBlogger, Aaron Brazell has written an outstanding tutorial on how to integrate tags into your blog and why this is important. I tag nearly every post and I have been seeing my traffic from Technorati's tag pages climb ever since.

Don't hesitate. Start today. Drag this Technorati tag bookmarklet to your bookmarks to get started. I picked this up over here. I bet we'll see "the tag" submitted as an Internet standard in the next few months, much like the trackback.

Technorati Tags: technorati, tags, tagging, blogs

Comments

[Aaron Brazell]

Surprise, surprise. Made Rubel's Blog. ;-)

Thanks for the hat tip. Tags add a completely different dimension to blogging and as you can see in the comments on that entry, some people still can't wrap their head around them. Thanks for the shout out, Steve.

[brian connolly]

Steve,

No. Your enthusiasms about RSS and Tags needs to be checked a bit.

With regard to Tags: As the specificity of tags increases, their usefulness decreases. Just saying Tags are a good thing is like saying that more TV channels increases audience. Maybe short term; but in the long run it just dilutes the “brand.”

Furthermore, more “channels” actually diminish communications. The more channels the less we have in common.

Bottom line: Unlimited choice with an unlimited audience is a bad thing.

With regard to RSS: Steve, RSS is just a micro extension of the broadcast model. As I said to Richard Edelman, “It sounds like you’re thinking the future is micro-broadcast. You are chasing a very very long tail. By the time you catch it, it will be “minutia broadcast.” The bad news is, there’s no money in minutia. The good news is that if you make that mistake, no one will notice.”

Regards,

Brian Connolly
President
Furthermore, Inc.
http://WePublishing.com

[Tom]

Something I've noticed is just as helpful as using these tags inline is actually just creating categories with similar tags. Technorati finds those posts just as easily, and there's no extra legwork in MT or TypePad except for selecting those cats.

[Brian Clark]

Nice one... the thing that's kept me from tagging is the code generation. Problem solved by the tag bookmarklet. Thanks!

[Aaron Brazell]

"Unlimited choice with an unlimited audience is a bad thing"

Spoken like true upper-level management. Granted, my article did not address USERS applying tags. It endorsed bloggers tagging their own content.

Perhaps, Brian, you should take a moment to find out what "the people" think before chalking up "trheir" opinions? Maybe "their" opinions strengthen your brand, not dilute it? Perhaps? Or has there been a focus group that has come back and said otherwise?

[Ash Buckles]

Since I posted at ProBlogger, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/27/tag-youre-it-leveraging-tagging-for-your-blog/, and haven't gotten any response from Aaron, I'll bring the same discussion here.

Multi-tagging allows the blogger, researcher (search user); and hopefully more so in the future, the community the ability to whittle down the large result set that high level tags (software, Internet, web) bring naturally.

High level tags are great for aggregating information -- finding out what is being talked about. However, searching for quality posts within that pool of tags is a daunting task to say the least.

Why can't we combine multiple tags and search algorithms to help?

Sig talks about this at http://thingamy.typepad.com/sigs_blog/2005/05/order_security_.html, and has a great multi-tagging tool to play with at http://thingamy.com/tagwork/. When I read about it last year, I really thought tagging would be overhauled to accommodate multi-tagging because it seems logical to prepare a document and tag it with several tags.

Brian is partially correct in that dilluting the tag-set is not always the answer. Multi-tagging helps bring higher level tags together for specificity. However, I agree with Aaron that Brian needs to pull his head out; at least a little. ;-)

And, finally, as for allowing USERS to apply tags, doesn't it always bring about good for the community? Isn't that what transparancy is all about. Doesn't that keep bloggers on the straight?

[Brian Connolly]

Aaron:

I got your point of “bloggers tagging their own content.” That was the crux of my comment actually. The point again was/is that as the “tail” extends out, it becomes a less meaningful tool. Tags are supposed to help manage information. However, the phrase "herding cats" comes more to mind. Simple math.

Lastly, again the "tags are a good thing" belief is based on the fallacy that "unlimited choice" is a good thing. It's not. Any economist can tell you that.

Regards,

Brian Connolly

PS The “Spoken like true upper-level management,” sounded a bit like an unnecessary cut from a junior. But I will take it as a compliment from a colleague. Thank you.

[Christine Brown]

I've been using tags for a while now and, although I find it useful, I haven't noticed that it has increased the traffic at all on my blog.
Christine