Written on July 18th, 2005 at 10:07 pm by Darren Rowse
The Long and the Short of Blog Posts
Dave Taylor answers the eternal blogging question of “Are long blog entries better than short ones?” and writes :
‘I’m reminded of a common piece of advice from good development editors in the publishing business about how long a chapter or book should ultimately be: write just enough to cover the material at the appropriate level of detail, then stop….
Personally, I don’t subscribe to weblogs where the typical entry is less than about 250 words, because I’m not interested in discoverability, that is, what other pages on the Web I should be checking out, but in why the blogger thinks the page, article, site, entry, whatever, is worth my attention.’
I’m with Dave in arguing that each blogger needs to work out what length post suits their writing style and blog topic.
Whilst I’d always advise that your posts should be to the point - I find that here at enternetusers my posts tend to be much longer on average than some of my other blogs - (and you as readers don’t seem to mind) - however on other blogs readers seem to want quick and simple information and the short post works very well.
I also find that on those blogs you choose to post lengthy posts on it’s helpful to use the extended entry field and to mix up the length of your posts. In the middle of your long ones put a few short and simple ones - after all, variety is the spice of life.
What’s the average length of your blog posts?
Written on July 18th, 2005 at 12:07 pm by Darren Rowse
The Morning After the Slashdot Party
I woke up this morning wondering if the Slashdot frenzy last night had all just been a big dream - but no it was not.
The morning after a Slashdotting (it always happens to me late at night or in the early hours of the morning) is like waking up after a massive party at your house. You come out of your bedroom and there are empty bottles, broken pictures hanging crookedly on the wall, stains on the carpet and sleeping bodies on the couch. The memories of the previous night are mixed - the exhilaration of seeing all your mates having a great time, meeting new friends, the worry of gatecrashers….
Being Slashdotted is similar. I spent an hour or so this morning wading through an inbox full of emails and comments (ranging from the incredibly encouraging and affirming through to the downright offensive, slanderous and threatening). The clean up after the party has taken a while. The memories are mixed - the gatecrashers came (but didn’t get too out of hand) and some great new friendships have started with over 100 new subscribers to the newsletter and new subscribers to the RSS feed.
It was also a financially rewarding evening. I woke up this morning with 8 hours still to go in the ‘Adsense day’ to find I’d already broken my previous earning record for a day on Adsense. There were also a few affiliate program sales that resulted from the influx of visitors.
All in all it was a strange night - definitely an experience. I’ve been slashdotted on other blogs numerous times but it never got quite as personal as last night, I guess the topic of money does that to people.
I’m actually going to be laying low over the next couple of days - not because I’ve got a Slashdot hangover but because I’m speaking at a camp. I’ll check in (via dial up - arrgh) daily and might even do a few posts. Otherwise have a good few days - happy blogging!
Written on July 17th, 2005 at 10:07 pm by Darren Rowse
Give your Feedback for Google about Adsense - They’re Listening
Late last week I found a surprising email in my inbox - from Google.
One of the product managers at Google’s Adsense said she’d found enternetusers and wanted to know if she could ring me to talk about my experience with the program. At first I was excited - then I was a little cautious - I asked for proof that she was really from Adsense as I didn’t want to give any information away to anyone who shouldn’t get it - she provided me with details of my earnings that no one else could know. We then set up a time for her to call me - yesterday morning Aussie time.
The conversation was pretty interesting - I wasn’t sure what to expect or how to prepare for it. Without giving away all the details of our chat - Google was largely interested in hearing about how I’d started blogging, how I’d found Adsense, what impact it had had on my business and my tips for optimizing Adsense ads.
All up we must have chatted for 30 to 45 minutes in which time we covered a fair bit of ground.
At the end of the conversation the product manager invited me to email them with any further thoughts on the Adsense program as they were interested in any more thoughts that I had.
This got me thinking that perhaps I should open up the question to readers to answer.
- What feedback would you like Google to hear about Adsense as a publisher?
- What have you found that works well with Adsense?
- What do you wish they’d add to it?
- How would you improve any aspect of the system that they currently have?
Have you say in comments below and I’ll email a link to your comments to my new Adsense contact for her perusal. You never know - you might just say something that gets implemented in the future?
Written on July 17th, 2005 at 10:07 pm by Darren Rowse
Google PageRank Update Analysis
Search Engine Journal has a useful post analyzing the latest Google PageRank Update in which they speculate as to why many sites have decreased in their visible PR whilst increasing their backlinks:
‘The most current PageRank update will undoubtedly cause a larger stir than usual in that many sites have shown drops in their visible PageRank while at the same time showing significant increases in their backlinks. This fact reveals that one of three things has occurred in this latest update:
1. Google has raised the bar on PageRank, making it more difficult to attain a high level, or
2. The way they are displaying their backlinks has changed, or
3. The way they calculate the value of an incoming link has changed.’
Written on July 17th, 2005 at 09:07 pm by Darren Rowse
Blogs as Blogs or Websites?
Duncan points to a study by Nielsen Netratings that finds that 13% of blog visitors don’t know what a blog is and that 66% didn’t realize that the blog they were on was in fact a blog.
This does not surprise me in the least and connects with my experience of blogging for the last couple of years. It’s amazing how many people ask me what a blog is and then are amazed that they regularly visit a number of them when I point out some of the more popular ones.
Duncan asks - ‘is it really a bad thing that the majority of blog readers don’t actually realize they are reading blogs?’
I have two answers:
1. In terms of growing the profile of blogging it could be a bad thing. Those of us who love blogs and want to see their influence grow might be a bit disappointed by the statistic.
2. In terms of growing your blog’s profile and traffic levels I’m not convinced that focussing loads of energy on highlighting the fact that you’re a blog is a wise move. I know of some people who do this - they are proud of being a blog and make sure all of their readers know about it even though it is irrelevant to the content of their site.
Similarly I know people who want to be the number one blog in their niche topic. Whilst this is an admirable goal - I always encourage them to think broader than this and aim for being the number 1 website in their niche. Usually the biggest sites in a niche are non blogs and to ignore them is not a smart move.
In the end a blog is a type of website and bloggers should not lose site of this. Blogging is just one form of online communication - a small (but growing) subset of the wider market in which we live. The sooner we accept this and work at integrating into the wider online community the better our ‘blogs’ will do.
Having said this at times it can be useful for a blog to distinguish itself as a blog and should do so. For instance here at enternetusers.net I think it’s in my best interest to make it clear that what readers is reading is a blog. In other circumstances it can also be useful in positioning your blog - but in general it’s not such a big deal.
Have your say in comments below.
Written on July 17th, 2005 at 08:07 pm by Darren Rowse
enternetusers Slashdotted
Well I never expected that enternetusers.net would get Slashdotted (it’s not unusual on some of my other blogs) - but tonight it happened. They linked to my post where I talked about my last Google Adsense cheque. Let me start by welcoming Slashdot readers. I hope you enjoy your stay.
As per usual with a Slashdotting there are a number of impacts upon a blog.
1. Traffic - Lots of it. Last hour was close to 4000 visitors. It being the weekend has curbed this.
2. Server Problems - So far so good. My host tells me its hardly a blip on the radar and everything is holding up very well.
3. New Readers - The influx of readers brings with it a variety of perks. Subscriptions to my free weekly newsletter are up and there are some positive comments being left across the site.
4. Slashdot readers on the whole are a great bunch - but the comments being left over at Slashdot itself are as per usual ‘mixed’ to say the least with a lot of misinformation and generalizations.
Let me try answer a few of the questions and comments quickly:
- It is not against Google’s TOS to reveal your earnings. This changed a few months back. You are not allowed to reveal other details like Click Through Rate, Impressions etc - but income levels are fine.
- Yes I do pay tax on my earnings. the Aussie Tax Office makes almost as much as I do from my blogs.
- I do not use automated blogging tools to run my blogs. I work 8-12 hour days and have been at it for 2.5 years. In that time I’ve posted almost 12,000 posts on a variety of topics.
- I do not make the majority of my income off this blog. Some of the comments cast doubt on the fact that I earn what I do because of low traffic of this site. I’ve always been totally honest about the fact that this site usually earns me very little. Most days it’s enough for a coffee or two. My earnings come from other blogs - some of which are linked to from this site - others which are not.
- This is not a front for me putting the hard sell on readers. Whilst I’ve considered compiling some of what I’ve written into a book - at this stage I offer free advice to bloggers here. I figure I can earn a good living from what I do so I’m happy to give information away freely where I can.
- A side note to those who complain about blogs being passe or don’t believe blogs should have ads. You might want to look at the site that is sending me all the traffic today. Slashdot is a blog - it has ads. It would be making significantly more than I am.
- Yes I did earn between $10k and $20k in the month of May. If you want to know how much I suggest you start counting at $10k and stop counting a few hundred dollars short of the halfway point to $20k. As I said in the post everyone is coming in on - it was a particularly good month and June’s cheque won’t be quite as high (although July will be in the same region. I know a lot of commenters are doubting the figure - I’m not sure how to prove it and don’t feel I really have any need to. I know of quite a few other bloggers who earn well in excess of $10k per month. Whilst it’s not the norm by any means (and I’m realistic to my readers about this - most will never make that level of income) it’s not completely unusual and is becoming increasingly common.
If there are more questions that readers would like to check with me I’d be more than happy to answer them.
As a result of the many comments (and emails) which are doubting that I could earn what I’ve said I do and asking for proof I’ve decided to post a screen shot of my Adsense stats. I’ve blacked out some personal details and the details that I’m unable to share as a result of the rules that Google sets that forbid sharing of impressions, CTR, CPM etc.
You’ll see from the following that from 1 May - 31 May 2005 I earned $14,436.45. I know some will accuse me of doctoring this but this is all I’m giving you. I can’t think of any other way to prove what I earn and feel like I’ve stooped a little in doing it anyway. Hopefully in doing this I answer a few questions and dispell a few myths.
Right now though - I’m headed for bed!
Written on July 17th, 2005 at 02:07 pm by Darren Rowse
WeblogsInc Network Hacked
WeblogsInc was hacked in the last few hours. ScottKidder.com has the news and screenshot.
Their sites now seem to be up and running again. Not a nice experience to go through I’m sure for the WeblogsInc team.
Written on July 17th, 2005 at 02:07 pm by Darren Rowse
Yahoo! Health Expert Blogs
I wondered how long it would take for the Search Engines to get into blogging themselves as a commercial endeavor and it seems that Yahoo! have decided to get in on the act with Yahoo! Health Expert Blogs.
As Steve points out this is probably a strategy that they’ll roll out on a larger scale which could be seen as something of a threat to many entrepreneurial bloggers (especially the networks).
I always did wonder what the ethics were of a search engine having it’s own content sites to drive traffic to are - any thoughts?
Written on July 17th, 2005 at 11:07 am by Darren Rowse
Changes at Gizmodo
Megablog - Gizmodo - is going through some changes at the moment with the leaving of editor Joel Johnson who is leaving to pursue a freelance career and plans to find a new Gizmodo team (apply via that link).
It will be interesting to see how the changes impact the blog. Joel is a great blogger who has built Gizmodo up incredibly over the past couple of years. I wonder if the new team can build on his success.
Good luck Joel - it’s been a pleasure interacting with you over the past year or so - best of luck with the new ventures. Joel will be able to be contacted through his own site here (currently down as he’s moving servers).
Written on July 17th, 2005 at 10:07 am by Darren Rowse
Responding to Blogging Criticism
Thanks to Robert for linking up to enternetusers.net while I slept last night. It’s always nice to get a positive link from a larger blogger who sends an influx of new readers into your blog.
It’s been an interesting week here at enternetusers for this reason - after the exposure I had in the Aussie Press and a few link ups from bigger bloggers I’ve ridden the roller coaster ride of publicity. With it comes some amazing opportunities but also a few hard knocks.
I’ve been on the receiving end of a few critiques of my blogging style this week - some of which have been quite valid and helpful - others of which have been quite scathing and verging on personal attacks (and of course quite a few of these are anonymous as per usual).
So what is my response to an ‘unfair critique’? Firstly I’d say don’t ignore it - I like to see every critique/threat/attack as an opportunity to better your blog and to win over more readers. How do you do that? Over the past couple of years I’ve developed the following type of process in responding to them:
1. Take a deep breath and give yourself a little space from the criticism - One of the worst things you can do when getting a critical comment or email is to respond in the moment out of the anger, fear, confusion and hurt that you might feel as a result. Go for a walk around the block, have a coffee, ring a friend or just take a few minutes to cool down before responding. At times I’ve even left responding until the next day when I’m thinking clearer.
2. Listen to the criticism - This is not easy and I’m still learning to do it - but recently I’ve decided to actually attempt to give my critics a chance to teach me something. Perhaps they haven’t communicated it as subtly as they could, perhaps they’ve overreacted and taken it to a personal attack level - but maybe behind their rudeness and generalizations is a point - a point that can improve your blogging. A wise person once told me that behind the emotion of anger is often the feeling of fear. And behind the feeling of fear is sometimes the fact that you’ve heard something that cuts close to the truth. Does the critic have something to teach you?
3. Respond with grace - I learned the power of a graceful reply to a stinging comment or email a couple of years ago when my personal blog came under fire from a very unreasonable troll who started a widespread campaign to discredit my name. Instead of reacting out of anger and hurt I took the approach of thanking him every time for his comments and reacting in the most civilized and generous nature that I could. This had a number of results. Firstly it took the sting out of his attack - people don’t like to attack people who don’t react. Secondly it made him look very stupid and small. Thirdly my readers admired my approach incredibly. I had many comments and posts on their blogs noting how gracious I’d been. It really made an impression on them. I’ve also had instances where in responding in this way that the person who has attacked me has done a real turn around and has ended up apologizing for being so aggressive. One or two have become loyal readers and good friends.
4. Try dialogue - This week I saw a post written about me that made me very angry. It seemed to make some real generalizations about my approach to blogging and without asking me made some assumptions that I didn’t think were fair. At first I ignored my own advice above and reacted in a pretty emotional kind of way - defending myself (in the comments of their blog) and pointing out weaknesses in the other blogger’s argument. After a few comments bouncing back and forth between us I began to realize we were getting no where and decided that instead of flaming each other it might be more productive if we tried listening to each others points of view. I admitted that he was right on something and told him I’d take it on board - he then did the same thing. The dialogue actually got more productive and I actually came away from it feeling I’d learnt something from him.
5. Let it go - Sometimes you can give yourself space, you can listen to the criticism, you can respond with grace and attempt dialogue but no matter what you do the other person will not back down and continues to be totally unreasonable. These situations can be very difficult - you just get angrier and angrier - your day becomes filled with checking their blog and writing long emotional emails, comments and posts defending yourself etc. In such situations I always ask myself if the argument is actually a productive one - is it life giving to me and those who are watching on, or is it actually destructive? It’s worth being aware that your regular readers can actually become quite disillusioned by such arguments. There comes a point where you just need to disengage and let it go.
This can be hard - such interactions can be like a scab over a wound that you just can’t stop picking (eeeew - sorry for that image - I can’t believe I used it). The way I do ‘let go’ is to ban myself from the blog concerned. I have a few blogs that I refuse to look at - simply because I know they will trigger an angry and destructive reaction from me. I just don’t go there.
Ok - I know some of you now think I’m a freak and are plotting ways to test if I’m really as reasonable and calm as this process looks (I can picture the hate mail already :-) !) Let me just say that sometimes I’m good at this - other times I get as caught up in the emotion of being attacked as much as anyone. Perhaps I’ve also been on the other side of things also and have been unreasonable to someone else. Such interactions happen to all bloggers at some point and we all do things both badly and well in such interactions. I guess as I look over the past couple of years of blogging I want to learn from situations like these and grow as a blogger. Hopefully out of such times we can grow and become a little more mature in our blogging.
So how do you respond to criticism? What advice would you give?
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