Here at ANNACOLIBRI we’re all about bright and beautiful beginners and the tools you can use to leverage all that the internet has to offer.
This week I interviewed Dino Dogan, blogger and successful founder of Triberr, a “blog amplification platform.” Don’t worry, by the time you’re done with this post you’ll know exactly what that is.
With a Klout score of 71, Dino Dogan is something of an internet big man on campus.
As a Triberr blogger who has benefited from Dino’s innovations, I wanted to know more about what inspired him to develop the Triberr platform so that you, my readers, can benefit from the serious thought and extensive expertise the man has on offer.
Here’s the thing: Successful bloggers (and marketers) form online relationships.
The Triberr platform has helped me form the bulk of my most meaningful online relationships which has benefited me both personally and professionally.
For these reasons, although I am not an affiliate, I recommend Triberr to bloggers both beginning and established.
Plus, Dino has what I call digital charisma. He radiates through the wires and in chat boxes — an interesting new form of celebrity I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of over the coming years!
Just a few minutes into our Skype interview, I found out Dino is far more interesting than I had guessed — and I’ve known the man (via Skype, Triberr, various social media and his web presence) for over a year!
I mean, I guess you could expect a successful startuper to a be a bit of a kook. You could even expect him to be from New Jersey and own 15 guitars.
But could you expect him to be a political refugee from Bosnia who majored in theology?
I think not. But maybe you have more imagination than I do.
Read this post to find out more about:
- The American dream
- Online marketing and
- How to be the best blogger you can be — simple but not easy!
Dino and Triberr have a lot to give and give it they do in one crazy Bosnia-meets-New- Jersey-meets-dog-loving-network-engineering-SEO-sneering package.
You following me?
Alright, then: Let’s go!
Dino’s Roots
Dino was born and raised in Jajce, Bosnia, where he began tinkering with computers in the 7th grade. He lived there studying theology until 1995 when the war forced him, his mother and his brother to New Jersey. He entered the United States carrying only a back pack.
As Dino says, “Back in the 90s if you knew what a computer was you were an expert. So I did network engineering for 10+ years. That was my profession if you will. My last company was Accenture. I hated that, so I stopped doing it. I started doing independent consulting, online marketing consulting. Did a lot of social media nonsense and SEO and that sort of stuff.”
Dino, as someone who successfully navigated the corporate world and then turned to entrepreneurship to fulfill a larger destiny, is an example of the American dream gone right.
What Inspired Triberr
As Dino will tell you, he “was not thinking short term. I was thinking long term. How can I build something long term that is sustainable and not going to fall apart at the hands of Google.”
Why was that necessary?
“The name of the game in 2009,” Dino tells me, “was SEO. I learned everything there was to know about SEO. I was experimenting with stuff that became the norm — like social bookmarking. You would use scripts [a type of code] that would push your blog posts out to 3,000+ social bookmarking sites and then you’d have 3,000 links pointing back to your site. Of course it worked, and my pages ranked, but it was fundamentally flawed. There was no engagement and the search traffic was always temporary. Then, with Panda and Penguin, Google basically destroyed back linking.”
There had to be a better way, which brings us to Triberr.
What Is Triberr?
“It is,” Dino says, “a social network for bloggers. That’s really the simplified the version. We are trying to complete the last mile for the creative class. Bloggers include all the creators — writers, podcasters, YouTubers. I could call them content creators but that sounds too sterile.”
As we know, anyone can publish online.
“The last mile,” according to Dino, includes two critical missing pieces:
- Blog distribution and
- Paychecks
“Distribution is what Triberr has always been about,” Dino told me. “And I am not going to rest until everyone has the distribution capacity of the New York Times. But it’s also about getting paid. Making a reliable living. This is where my new product, Triberr campaigns, come in.”
So, in addition to embodying the American dream, Dino also has a social message born from his love of blogging, technical abilities and a desire to do things right.
What’s Wrong?
Google, according to Dino, is good for transactional relationships. “I want to buy a bidet in New Jersey. Google tells you where to buy a bidet in New Jersey.”
“Word of mouth, building real relationships is what I wanted to do and SEO wasn’t doing it. SEO is dead. SEO is nonsense,” Dino says.
Dino also opened my eyes about Facebook.
If you post a link to your own blog, for example, Facebook suppresses your content because they don’t want people to leave the Facebook site.
In fact, on average, only 17% of your friends will see your post!
Which explains why, when you post a picture of your cat, you get tons of likes and comments but, when you link to interesting content you get very little play.
And why, ultimately, Facebook is not by any means the best or only place to promote your work.
Dino puts it like this, “Anytime you put something on Facebook you are building other peoples’ empires with your bricks.”
Something for new bloggers and online marketers to consider, am I right?
How New Bloggers Can Get Things Right
On this topic Dino is nothing if not confident. Here’s what he has to say:
- Start a blog and add content regularly.Dino’s words of wisdom: “Your blog is your empire you control. So why wouldn’t anyone want a blog?”
- Use WordPress.Dino’s words of wisdom: “Tumblr is cool. Blogger is cool. WordPress.com is fine. But if you’re serious you need a self-hosted WordPress.org site.”
- Join Triberr.Dino’s words of wisdom: “[Triberr is] how to get eyeballs on your content,” he says, “The idea is to give the little guy, give the individual author, the distribution power. And that is the difference.”
Although this formula sounds simple, it holds an important message for beginning bloggers.
This is Dino’s message:
- Own your content
- Value your content (and yourself) appropriately and
- Understand the reality of how the internet and social networking sites operate to either help or hinder your success as a blogger
Here is some more news you can use, Dino style:
Parting Shots
About the internet, Dino has this to say, “It’s a gold rush. It’s the wild west. There’s a lot of opportunity for hucksters and all that kind of nonsense to take place.”
“Just like the rich get richer,” Dino tells me, “the more knowledge you have the easier it is to get more knowledge. So educate yourself.”
Dino clearly loves blogging and bloggers — in fact, he’s made us his life’s work. He’s rooting for us and, with Triberr, he is creating a safe place for bloggers everywhere to circle the wagons.
Your Turn
What do you think? Can platforms like Triberr really help bloggers distribute their work and make a living?
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