You’ve set up a Facebook fan page, uploaded a profile image and filled in all the relevant informational fields. You’ve sent out requests to your friends and customers asking them to like your page. The next step is to add the NetworkedBlogs app so your new blog posts automatically publish to your wall, right?
Not necessarily.
While the NetworkedBlogs app adds a lot in the way of saving you time, it may be stealing from you in a different way – by keeping your page views for itself.
Networked Blogs
NetworkedBlogs turns the sharing of your latest blog post into an automated process. Â Within minutes of a new post publishing on your website, NetworkedBlogs publishes the post title and link to your Facebook fan page wall along with sending out a tweet to Twitter. Â NetworkedBlogs tweets are easily identified. Â Notice how the URL looks as it is spells out N Blogs?
Anyone who clicks through a NetworkedBlogs link (either from a tweet or from a Facebook fan page) is in fact taken to your latest blog post, but upon closer look, you’ll notice a few key differences.
1. A Networked Blogs URL
By clicking on the nblo.gs/hrcXC link shown above, you are taken to Eli | Rose Social Media. Â But if you take a closer look at the URL shown you’ll see that it doesn’t read as elirose.com, but instead as networkedblogs.com.
2. An Alexa rating that reflects Networked Blogs and not your website
You would need to have the Alexa toolbar installed on your browser to see this traffic rating difference, but NetworkedBlogs has a rating of 824 Â (at the time of writing) to Eli | Rose Social Media’s rating of 265,289. When viewing this Eli | Rose post through the NetworkedBlogs link, the Alexa rating displayed was 824.
3. A light grey toolbar appears
A light grey toolbar appears at the top of the post. Â It displays a shortened URL that begins with “feedproxy” and has an “X” button at the far right. Â If you click the “X,” the toolbar will disappear. Â Also by clicking the “X,” you’ll be able to see the Alexa rating change.
4. NetworkedBlogs favicon next to your post title
It does, in fact, list the correct post title of our Eli | Rose post; however the branded orange and blue NetworkedBlogs favicon is a can’t miss.
How does NetworkedBlogs Affect my EdgeRank Score?
EdgeRank is the algorithm Facebook uses to determine which of your updates are shown to which fans. Using a third party app such as NetworkedBlogs to do your posting yields a much lower EdgeRank score. So, in essence, using NetworkedBlogs could negatively affect your EdgeRank and overall fan engagement.
Should Everyone Ditch NetworkedBlogs?
Again, not necessarily.
For most bloggers, pageviews reign supreme. Plus, you can set up Feedburner to send out a tweet when a new post publishes. However, etsy shop owners and small businesses who blog as an add-on to their primary business function may be willing to sacrifice the lower impressions count their auto-posted updates receive in order to have one less item on their daily To Do lists.
There is still a level of convenience and functionality with this Facebook app. But for those who crave the pageviews or want to maintain their EdgeRank level, manually linking your latest blog post may be the way to go.
Do you use the NetworkedBlogs app? Will your usage change after reading the above?
I’m having a Networked Blogs dilemma… I have been using it for a long time, I don’t have it set to do automated tweets but just the auto facebook posts. Since I found out about the pageview issue and have my own fb page I wanted to discontinue using it but am afraid to stop if that is the only way some people access my blog… any thoughts??
I recently turned off the networked blogs setting to automatically send my new posts to my FB page.
I read somewhere that if someone is subscribed to multiple blogs that all publish via NB then instead of seeing each new post on their wall feed, they may see only one and the rest are listed in a line something like “click here to see more posts from networked blogs”. That could mean that they weren’t seeing my new post at all.
I figured I’m better off taking the time to link to my post on my wall each time. Your post has only confirmed my decision- thanks.
You are absolutely right! And I should make that point 5. I have seen that, too. Only 1 of the several NB links is visible, and underneath there is a line to click to see all of them. It’s very, very possible that NB posts weren’t seen.
I actually was turned off by NB when I found it difficult to leave comments for others when I clicked through. With that – plus the needing to give FB permissions to everything – I never bothered to find out more about it.
Thanks for the info – and for confirming that I probably won’t be using it in the future!
I’ve long used NB to automatically publish my posts to FB, though lately I find myself deleting the initial syndication post and re-publishing so that I can add my own teaser to it. Now that I’ve read this post, I think I may stop auto-publishing altogether. Especially since it’s so easy to share posts via Shareaholic. I’ll still remain on NB; just change my syndication settings.
But this leads me to another question – how do I manually share to my FB fan page? Facebook only lets me share to my personal page. I know there has to be a way to share to my blog page as well, but I haven’t figured it out yet. Enlighten me?
If you go to your fan page, all you need to do is click the Link button (it sits in line with Photo, Video, etc). Then you can add your post link and include something in the “Write something here” box, too.
I recently went to manual posts on my Facebook page wall. I guess it’s time for me to stop promoting my Networked blogs too. I didn’t know this but it makes sense!!
these are some good thoughts!
I usually announce my new blog post with link about an hour or two later on my page so that it does get double exposure and doesn’t get lost in news feeds with all the other networked posts.
I am not sure what to think b/c one of my top referrers each week is networked blogs, and it tells me how many came from them. So I am sure I am still going to use it.
You may have readers who click the X and therefore “hit” your page. If that is the case, they’d be “referred” by NB. If your readers are doing that, that’s so great for you!
Everyone has pretty much said it all.
One thing I don’t like about NB, is that people can also “ignore all by NB” and no one sees the posts.
NB doesn’t seem worth it, in fact, it seems like a big waste, imo. I used it for a little in the beginning, now, I don’t at all.
That’s another very valid point, Melissa! Thanks for adding to the conversation!
I ditched the NB auto posting too. As several other people said, I didn’t like that they were all clumped together on the news feed. I also didn’t like that I couldn’t comment on my own post. I prefer to post it myself.
Thanks for the great info!! I am a new GFC follower and email subscriber now ;.)
Karen
~Mommy’s Moments~
I have known this for awhile and wondered why anyone would want to put their site inside of a frame from another site.
But on another note since a lot of bloggers are seeing this post:
If you sell advertising on your site and you have a lot of feed readers I probably won’t buy an ad from you because my ads don’t show up in your feeds! Please consider adding your sponsor buttons at the bottom of posts so that your paying advertisers can be seen! I spend thousands of dollars a month advertising my site so if you want some of my money then offer me the maximum exposure you can!
I, like every other blogger, uses Networked Blogs. Although I may not anymore… I don’t have it set to do automated tweets but I use it for Facebook posts. I try to also do manual posts on Facebook. I may continue to do both for awhile…
You are definitely cutting down on a big part of the issue by not having Networked Blogs tweet your post. Because with Twitter, it’s all about amplification. You may garner some retweets from some supportive tweeps, and the retweet may be with the nbl.gs URL. At least you know that any retweets are going to be with a URL that leads directly to your blog.
Hmmm… certainly something to think about. I get quite a bit of traffic from NB but maybe I’ll try manually posting for a few days and see what it does.
I have nothing new to add except that this is the very reason I don’t use NB.
Ha – I started setting NB up one day as was distracted. I never finished it and still manually add my posts to FB. Here is one time my procrastination has paid off!!
I use Twitterfeed to post new posts to twitter and Facebook. I hope I’m doing the right thing.
I do mean this in the kindest way possible… but did it honestly take people this long to figure that out? NB gets to drink up your SEO juice, and all the prospective writer gets is…
Well, I couldn’t figure out what it was. Glad that people are listening, Eli!
Using url shortening in my opinion is setting your links up for disaster..some dont work and others fail to resolve DNS. Better to use internet marketing software that DOES NOT shorten your urls. If it does? DON’T USE IT…simple..Or do it manually for quality links..Just some friendly advice..Great article BTW TTFN 🙂
I just told myself this week to figure out how to turn NB off because I noticed that my blog posts were not showing up, but always appearing as a link under the post of a more popular blog with NB.
So, a cheat sheet to turning NB off?
Maybe when my blog is bigger I will use it again, but right now, the PVs are important to me.
If you go to the Networked Blogs app page on Facebook, follow the Syndication link (top, middle of page). From there you can see what services you currently have active. Then all you need to do is “remove” the twitter and facebook wall sharing. Hope that helps!
Thanks. It took a little figuring out but I removed my main 2 blogs. Helpful post.
I don’t really care for networked blogs. I disabled the automatic posting to my FB wall a few months ago…it is so impersonal.
I did too.
This is good information. I have Nb set up like this. How do I undo this and be able to publish manually again?
If you go to the Networked Blogs app page on Facebook, click on the Syndication link (at the top, middle of the page). From there you can see what services you currently have active for your blog. Then all you need to do is “remove†the twitter and facebook wall sharing. Hope that helps!
Thank you so much! That helped alot! I’ve killed the auto feed for now but still have NB. I’ll decide how necessary they are as time goes on.
I didn’t know all of that. I think I still mainly look for pageviews but am starting to work on my Alexa rating too. I DO manually add my posts to almost everything using the Alexa bar (love that bar!) just because it’s easy and I know what’s going out.
Tina
The thing I HATE about NB’s is that I maxed out on following others almost immediately – so I can’t follow people back on that. I feel it’s kind of unfair to them.
I just recently stopped using the NB for facebook because of the pageview thing, the issue the first commenter added & i am wanting the ability to choose a specific photo for the post & NB is not alway allowing me to do so.
I had never even thought of these issues. I’ve been debating discontinuing the use of automatic FB posts because I’ve wanted to update myself…and on most days end up duplicating FB posts. This post helped me confirm my decision. Thanks!!
A quick note for those that might be interested. I’ve never used Networked Blogs myself, but I tested this out today by visiting a friend’s blog post via Networked Blogs. If you leave a comment, you get transferred to the actual page, so that could be how some people show Networked Blogs as a top referrer. If you post a lot of giveaways, etc, where other people are going to be leaving comments, then the people would end up on the correct page quite regularly. Even so, I’ve saved the link to this post so I can share it with my friend. Not every post is a giveaway post, after all!
And I’m guessing even in this case you are still losing that first initial page load, if not the unique…
This is so interesting. I’ve been deleting my posts and reposting my own. The funny thing is that I’ve actually lost some people after joining NB on Facebook if they saw a post twice, but a lot of my people joined to only vote for a dog contest, and they just eventually grow tired, I guess. 🙂
It’s become a running household joke. I try to have thick thin. 🙂
I meant skin. Sorry. Very useful information. I am going to sit on this one for awhile.
I am not 100% positive, but I am 99% that Networked Blogs just frames your posts, and you still get the page view counts. I haven’t checked it recently, but I did check that out before I started using it several months ago.
Hey. Waleed from NetworkedBlogs here. Just wanted to mention that the toolbar is optional and you can remove it from the syndication page by checking a box. See here:
http://help.networkedblogs.com/entries/20068201-are-views-from-networkedblogs-counted-as-views-to-the-blog-itself
and
http://help.networkedblogs.com/entries/20068201-are-views-from-networkedblogs-counted-as-views-to-the-blog-itself
I use NB for my personal FB account, but use Twitterfeed for my blog’s FB account and fan page (as well as sending to Twitter). Does this pose the same problems? I was going to switch my personal account from NB to Twitterfeed, just to have everything on the same account, but now I’m wondering if manual really is the way to go!
Peace and great post – I’ve been finding myself interested in ditching NB. While the issues noted here were a minimal contributor to that, however, my biggest grievance has been that I didn’t want or need it to send updates to my twitter page – my website, in fact, already does that – but just update my fan page. Lately it hasn’t even been doing that properly (as mentioned somewhere above, it’s been witholding some links with that ‘click here for more’-ness). So not only am I getting double links on twitter, but No links where they were originally needed. This only started happening recently, too. Annoying.
While I’m not getting so very many views for me to be largely concerned about who gets credit, I Do like to be aware of these things, who’s looking at what, etc., and naturally, this issue makes me all but oblivious to any clicks NB produces.
I’ve never thought of this as it regards to page views. But I will say one thing, Networkedblogs is to me – a blog catalog. I have gained many readers from having my blog set up through this app. That may be one reason to stay with them.
Thank you for this! I’ve been on the fence about network blogs and this decides it for me.
I’ve had a reader ask if I could set up NB so I decided to look into it. After reading this I guess it isn’t really worth the hassle for me. Thanks for the details!
Thanks so much for this post, this was eye opening. I had no idea and was wondering recently why my pageviews seemed to just hover instead of going up. Now I know!
My page views doubled after I added Networkedblogs. I won’t ditch them.
Very interesting and I certainly never knew that. I am about to sign up for networked blogs but I think i’ll forgo the FB option. I’m hoping that’s even a possibility?
What do you think about Twitterfeed service?
With regard to feeding Facebook, we’d always recommend doing so manually vs publishing via a 3rd party app. Facebook has a history of decreasing the EdgeRank of updates posted via a 3rd party tool.
Along time ago things weren’t so easy and I used Networked Blogs to auto post my postings to my Facebook. Facebook has released a new WordPress plugin so now I just can’t justify using this anymore even though it seems to work. I don’t get as many comments as I would like. I use DISQUS for comments. I think I’m going to move on from Networked Blogs tonight and give the new WordPress Facebook plugin a try.
What about email addresses?
Some marketing strategists out there swear by email addresses to generate sales.
Surely by getting readers to follow NB you don’t gain access to their emails?
Whereas if they sign up on your blog you do?
Please respond if possible?
Acquiring email addresses is definitely important! You do not attain email addresses with NetworkedBlogs. It’s best if you set up a newsletter subscription form on your site. MailChimp is a great free option.
I’ve encountered endless issues using NetworkedBlogs. The latest is that when I click on the link generated on Twitter my blog page won’t open (on Chrome) until I close the NetworkedBlog frame. Also, I can’t log into Networkblogs via Facebook on Chrome or Safari, only (sometimes) using Firefox. Getting NB issues solved is always a pain.
How about HootSuite handling your auto fb messages and auto tweets (including shortening of links)?
Blessings,
Shan
The How to Guru
Supposedly, Facebook has gotten better about HootSuite. However, we still encourage people to schedule updates using Facebook’s native scheduler vs a 3rd party tool.
Thanks for reminding me why I stopped using networked blogs. The minimal extra traffic I received wasn’t worth the risk of killing my Facebook page.
I just deleted mine after seeing this article. I’m glad I found it. I didn’t know it would affect my pageviews count and FB Edge Rank. GRRRR! Thanks for posting!
I am going to get rid of them right now.
so I posted my first blog from my website to facebook which worked out fine….when i click on the link from facebook it sends me to my site but there is a error message…it looks like the url is coming up 2x…help
I’m sorry, Andrew, but I’m not sure how to fix Networked Blogs. Perhaps delete and reinstall it and see if that does the trick?
How do you turn the automatic post to fb off? Is it through NB or FB or WP??
It’s going to be through your NetworkedBlogs settings in Facebook. When I disconnected, I ended up deleting the NB app altogether. It wasn’t easy to navigate through. Good luck!