Written on August 26th, 2007 at 12:08 am by David Shawver Stanton
Link up to a Competitor
Earlier in the 31 Day Project that I’m running this month I suggested taking some time out to analyze your Blog’s Competition as an exercise to help you improve your own blogging.
In that post I wrote:
“I use the word ‘competition’ hesitantly because the thing about blogging is that those blogging on the same topics as you are potentially your biggest allies. Connect and work with your competition and everyone improves.”
I’ve previously written more on when competition is good in blogging - but today we’re going to put the theory to the test.
Today’s task in the 31 Day Project is to link to another blog in your niche - a ‘competitor’.
While linking to other blogs in your niche might seem a little bizarre to some I’ve seen it’s power many times in my own blogging and that of others. Outbound links Matter!
So here’s the task - find a way to link up to at least one other blog in your niche.
There are of course many ways to do this. I regularly do it here at enternetusers in my speedlinking posts (random recent links) and at DPS in a similar format called Digital Photography Tips from Around the Web - but there are other ways to go about it from linking to a post someone else has written, to writing a review of the blog in question etc.
So get linking up - and let us know how it goes in comments below!
Written on August 25th, 2007 at 09:08 pm by David Shawver Stanton
Subscribe to Comments Reactivated
Just a short note to let readers know that due to an overwhelming number of requests for the feature to be re-added to this blog that I’ve activated the ’subscribe to comments’ feature again.
By default it is not activated when you leave a comment - so you need to manually check the box under comments as you leave your comment to be notified of further comments via email.
A Word of Warning - while this feature is very useful at helping people to engage in conversation it is worth stating the obvious warning - ie that some threads here at enternetusers get a lot of comments (some get hundreds) so subscribing to some threads could quite quickly lead to a full inbox (welcome to my world)! Of course you can unsubscribe from comments at any point - however it might be worth being a little selective!
So to those of you who have been badgering me for this feature - enjoy!
Written on August 25th, 2007 at 05:08 am by David Shawver Stanton
10 Lessons in Blogging Learned on a Shopping Expedition
Earlier today I suggested that bloggers go shopping as an observational exercise to help them improve their blogs.
While it is a fairly random idea - I did it myself today and as I sat in the food court of my local shopping establishment I jotted down the following 10 lessons and observations on a napkin:
1. Best Seller Lists Work
One of the things I noticed in a number of stores were best seller lists. They ranged from the normal books, CD and DVD ones that most of us will have seen before to a jeans store highlighting best selling jeans, a perfume store highlighting popular fragrances and an consumer electronics store highlighting top MP3 players.
This connects pretty closely with a lesson that I wrote about a while back - How to Dramatically Increase Amazon Affiliate Sales with Bestseller Lists.
2. People Want to Be Acknowledged but Not Overwhelmed
Today I must have gone into 50+ stores and as a result saw a lot of different sales techniques. They ranged from customers being totally ignored (but sales staff surfing the web, reading magazines and talking to friends on the phone) through to customers being almost bullied into making purchases by hyped up sales staff who invaded personal space and basically bombarded them with attention.
Blog readers like to be acknowledged, they like some personal attention, they like to feel listened to - but they don’t want to be bombarded with a hyped up sales pitch.
3. Lines and Waiting in Queues Kill Customer Loyalty
A bank that I went into had a 25 person line in it. I joined watched on from a distance for a few minutes and witnessed just how frustrated the customers were. Some entered the bank, took one a look at the line and turned around. Other grudgingly joined the queue, grumbling to those around them. One customer had a shouting match with a manager. We live in a world where people don’t like waiting and if you make them do so you hurt any relationship or loyalty that you might have built up.
Slow load times on blogs are an issue that many readers get frustrated with. I know I’ve lost my fair share of loyal readers as a result of this (it was one of the main reasons I did my last redesign).
4. Sensory Experiences Make a Difference
One of the things I noticed today was how some shops were really aiming at stimulating the senses of their customers. While most have some sort of music I went into a number of food stores which were giving away tasters/samples of the food they were selling and a confectionary store who is known for spraying the smell of licorice into the air at the front of their store to draw people in.
While I’m not sure how a blogger can stimulate the taste buds make their blog smell I do know that using pictures, video and audio can really add a new dimension to a blog.
5. Surprise People
The shopping center that I visited today had hundreds of stores and after walking through many of them I felt the effects of sensory overload kicking in (must have been the licorice smell). One store began to merge into another as the marketing messages mounted up. However towards the end of my period of observation I walked into a store where the owner greeted me and offered me a free Hot Chocolate. I was so taken aback by it that it stopped me in my tracks - it grabbed my attention and shook me out of the zombie like shopping stupor that I was in.
I guess this technique was a combination of #2 and #4 above - but it also took me by surprise, gave me a story to tell my friends and a memory of an experience that I’m sure will inform my shopping at some point in the future (if I’m ever in the market for a large screen TV - as that was what the store was selling). When it comes to blogging I think there’s a place for surprises also.
Sometimes a blog can become very humdrum and both readers and the blogger themselves can become complacent. Throw in a curve ball occasionally, give something away, write a post in a completely different voice or style to normal etc and you might just find a new energy among your readers.
6. People Make Social Decisions When Buying
On three occasions today I saw customers watching other customers and seemingly making decisions about what they would buy by watching what others were having. ‘I’ll have what she’s having’ is actually a statement I heard uttered today in the food court! This social nature was also evident today when I saw two cafes side by side. One was packed with customers, the other empty. While I’d never been to either before and didn’t know what the quality of the empty one was like you can guess which was I was drawn to for my coffee.
While we all like to be individuals, there’s no doubt that most of us make ’social decisions’ from time to time - whether it be in deciding what to buy, do with our time, put our focus on etc. The same is true in blogging. Highlight the fact that others are reading your blog by showing feed subscriber numbers, drawing attention to recent comments and involving your readers and you’ll find new people more willing to join in and become loyal readers too.
7. Quiet Times are Opportunities
One lesson that I learned from a resourceful shop assistant was that quiet patches in a shop are not something to bemoan - but are actually opportunities to do other things. I watched this sales person rushed off her feet with customers for a few minutes and then suddenly in an empty store. Instead of slumping down in exhaustion at having a spare moment she took the break in customers to restock shelves.
Most blogs have peaks and troughs when it comes to traffic. I know some bloggers get really down when traffic is down - however perhaps it’d be better to see the quiet patch as an opportunity to ‘restock’ - or do some of the little tasks that we often don’t have time to do that go into making a successful blog (tasks like many that I’ve been talking about in the 31 Day Project).
8. Up Selling Works
“Do you want fries with that?” as an up selling strategy is perhaps one of the most common sales techniques used - and for good reason - it works.
I saw a variety of up selling techniques used today ranging from ‘upsizing’ meals, to sales assistants suggesting accessories that would match clothes, to 2 for 1 deals (just to name a few).
Up selling on a blog is a little different because in most cases the ’sell’ isn’t an actual product (although more and more bloggers are selling actual products). The application that came to mind as I observed up selling today was selling readers on extra things to read and do on a blog. Suggesting another article to read, a poll to participate in, a feed or newsletter to subscribe to, a video to watch or a conversation to join into are all examples of extra things you can get readers to do that increases the chances of them continuing the relationship with you.
9. Positioning is Everything
In different parts of the shopping centre that I was at today there were two homeware shops that were almost identical to one another. One was in the heart of the complex and the other on the outskirts in a section that was difficult to get to.
You can guess which had the customers and which looked like it was about to go out of business. The one in the middle of the action was thriving.
This is relevant for bloggers on two fronts. Firstly in the positioning of their different design elements. For example if you want to get clicks on ads, you need to position them on parts of your blog that will naturally draw the eye. If you want to get subscribers to your blog - you need to place the subscription methods in the ‘hot spots’ etc.
Secondly the lesson of positioning is highly relevant for the overall marketing of your blog. Learn to place your blog on busy intersections of activity on the web and you can grow your blog quite quickly.
10. Some Shop to Belong
The last thing I noticed today as I saw in the food court reflecting upon the experience was that there were a lot of people wandering around that were not buying anything. Many of them were alone and seemed to just be ‘hanging out’.
At this point I got chatting to an older gentleman on the next table to me who had been watching me writing away on my napkin. I asked him what he was shopping for today and he told me that he didn’t come to the shopping centre to shop - but because he just liked to be around people. He lived alone and came down each day for a ‘bit of a wander’ to see what people were doing.
I suspect that many people use the web in a similar way. We all long to connect, to be a part of something bigger than ourselves and to have community. Build a blog that draws people in and gives people a sense of belonging and I suspect you’ll build something that matters to people.
Written on August 25th, 2007 at 12:08 am by David Shawver Stanton
Go Shopping and Improve Your Blog
Today’s task in the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog project is to go Shopping!
OK - I can hear what you’re probably thinking:
“What? The enternetusers has lost his mind - what does shopping have to do with blogging?”
Stick with me for a second and let me explain….
The reason I want to encourage you to go shopping is twofold:
A. It’ll get you away from your blog for a bit - I was chatting with another blogger yesterday and we both admitted to each other that we’d been in our PJ’s all day blogging (it was 4pm for me) and needed to get out more - sad but true.
B. It’ll give you a chance to do some observation exercises that could help your - this is the main reason for today’s task and is based upon an experience that I had today at a local shopping centre (or ‘mall’ as many of you non Aussies would call it).
The exercise:
1. Step away from the Computer (come on, you can do it)
2. Grab a notebook and pen (do you remember them? They are the things you used to use before your primary form of communication involved typing)
3. Head to your local shopping centre/mall/CBD shopping area (easier for some than others I realize - apologies to those in rural areas, this may or may not work in your local general store)
4. Once at the ‘mall’ take 30 minutes or so to go ‘wandering’ with no agenda (don’t do your groceries) except to ‘watch’ and ‘observe’ in some of the following ways:
- Who is there? Who are they with?
- What are they doing?
- What are they buying?
- How do they make their buying decisions?
- What are the retailers doing to get people’s attention and stand out?
- What messages are they using in their marketing?
- What colors are in at the moment?
- What other things are ‘hot’ or in fashion?
- What sales techniques are sales staff using?
- What are retail outlets doing well? What are they doing poorly?
5. As you watch, make some notes. Don’t attempt to find any ‘lessons’ or try to tie it back to your blog yet.
6. Once you’ve spent half an hour or so on ‘observation mode’ find a spot to sit down (a food court perhaps) with a coffee and go over the things that you’ve noticed and see if there’s any lessons there that you might be able to apply to your blogging?
This process might seem a little random and pointless - but it’s something that I’ve done on numerous occassions over the last few years and each time that I’ve done it I’ve come away with at least one new idea that I want to apply in my blogging.
Some of the ideas have come directly from things I’ve seen retailers doing in their marketing (for example, today I saw a store using an attention grabbing technique that I want to try to apply to one of my blogs to draw readers eyes) - while others are more lessons about ‘people’ and how they operate and once or twice I’ve even seen illustrations to use for posts or ideas for new blog topics.
If nothing else it’ll get you out of the house for a bit!
I’d love to hear your experiences of this exercise in comments below!
Update: Here’s what I learned on MY shopping expedition today.
Written on August 24th, 2007 at 05:08 am by David Shawver Stanton
Same Niche, Different Blogs: Why Not?
This guest post has been submitted by Sara Ost from www.healthbolt.net and www.marksdailyapple.com.
Do you find yourself dreaming about writing posts that aren’t quite the right fit for your current blog?
The dilemma: you have a successful blog with a specific style and you want to depart from it and express yourself in a new way - but without confusing your readers. You can run two (or twenty) blogs in different niches; but there’s another option, as well. Why not start another blog in the same niche, but to suit different tastes and share your thoughts in a different way?
I run two very successful health blogs. They’re in the same niche - health - but the audiences are worlds apart and the purposes are totally different. Though running two popular blogs takes a lot of work, by doing both this year, I’ve also happily been able to invest more of my day in doing what I love - writing - and cut back on some of the drier pay-the-rent work. So, I want to encourage you to think about the possibilities of a second blog - but in your current blog’s niche. Overlap? Over-extension? Run out of material? Not necessarily! Drawing from my personal experience thus far, here’s why you might want to give the same-niche double-blogging a shot:
Experimentation and Learning
There’s no reason you can’t experiment with a new tone or style of post at your existing blog, but if you’ve already established a certain brand and community, it’s risky to serve up a novel post. A few misfires may not be a big deal, and that’s how you learn. But if you’re consistently finding that you have additional post ideas you’re passionate about that you know won’t really suit your existing blog, maybe a second blog in your niche is just the ticket. You can always let your readers know about your second blog, of course, and ask for feedback. The reason I think a second blog might be better in some cases than experimenting on your existing blog is because passion just works. Why reign it in cautiously on your current blog or test it out only occasionally when you could let loose with your spirit? If you’re going to experiment to learn, why not really experiment?
Expression
The more we learn and read and blog, the more the ideas flow, right? Blogging takes the mind in new directions and expands both the depth and breadth of your interests. And sometimes a first good project serves to lay the groundwork for your best work of all. How will you know if you don’t try? At any rate, it’s my opinion that your current blog will improve as a result of doing a second, namely because running two projects helps you to detach a bit and see the bigger picture - you might work a bit less on each, but on the positive side, you’ll make more objective decisions and focus on what’s important. There’s also the good possibility that your second blog may take off unexpectedly now that you’ve got a comfortable grip on blogging. Maybe it’s time to express yourself in a new way and see just how far you can go.
Income
Why not earn more from sharing what you already know and care about? Now that you’ve got the know-how, and the network, and the community, extend your experience and try something new. You might just make some extra cash much more quickly than the first time around. You’ve already sunk all that energy into your first blog; why not get a further return on the investment of your personal equity? There’s nothing wrong with promoting yourself on multiple platforms if you’re investing yourself authentically and providing useful or entertaining content.
Productivity
Running two blogs (or more) forces you to think about what is really important (do I really need to check stats for the tenth time?). Although you might think two blogs in your niche would be harder than one, in my experience, it improves efficiency, focus, and productivity. If you go for a second blog, plan your posting frequency, type, and length before you start, then stick to it as best you can.
Downsides
There are several downsides, as mentioned. One of the so-called “immutable laws” of marketing is not to over-extend (e.g how many new types of Coke do we really need?). But I prefer to think of working on multiple blogs in a similar category as a sensible way to invest your energy: it’s diversification! You have the opportunity to really maximize the value of testing this way (translation: faster learning, better traffic). You will work more, but you’ll learn more, connect more (especially nice if you work from home), and probably earn more income doing what you already like, too. That’s just my experience - but maybe it could work for you, too!
Sara Ost writes and runs www.healthbolt.net (the #1 health blog on the web (as per MedGadget) and edits and contributes to www.marksdailyapple.com (#38 of the top 100 health blogs).
Written on August 24th, 2007 at 12:08 am by David Shawver Stanton
Do a Search Engine Optimization Audit on Your Blog
One of the biggest sources of traffic on the web is Google (and it’s fellow search engines). As a result it makes sense that a blogger interested in building traffic to their blog would take some time to learn how Search Engines Rank sites.
Today’s task in the 31 Day Project your task is to do an SEO Audit of your blog.
I’ve written everything I know on SEO previously in a post called Search Engine Optimization for Blogs so I wont rehash it all in this post and I’d highly recommend you head to that post for a refresher on the topic (or an introduction to it if you’ve not learned much about SEO before).
Invest in Your Knowledge of SEO
If you have a budget for your education and want to learn from a real expert in SEO I highly recommend checking out Aaron Wall’s SEO Book (aff). It costs $79 and is the best resource I’ve found on the topic with 328 pages of instruction (with free updates - and Aaron does update it) plus a nifty little bonus called 33 Days to Online Profits. It has a 100% Money Back Guarantee if you find that it’s not for you.
A few tips for your SEO Audit
It can be easy to get overwhelmed by Search Engine Optimization so if you’re new to it or need a place to start here are a few basics that you might want to work on today:
- Make the Titles of Your Posts the Title Tags of Your Post Pages (Aaron shares how to optimize your title tags for SEO in this post. Also check out Title Tags and SEO).
- Use Good Anchor Text for internal links - hunt back through your old posts for poor anchor text to replace.
- Pick a few posts to do some analysis of your use of Keywords as outlined in the SEO for Blogs post. You might like to rewrite some older posts to make the most of this knowledge.
- Use good keywords in images in your posts - if you are optimizing particular posts that contain images renaming them and using good Alt Tags with the keywords you’re chasing can give you a boost.
- Think about head tags in your posts - here’s a very quick tutorial on head tags.
- Pick some key posts that you want to grow the SEO ranking for. Link to them from your sidebar/menus.
A Last work on Balance in Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization can become something of an obsession (as can many aspects of blogging if you concentrate on them to the exclusion of other factors). For a little balance on the topic you might find my Confessions of a Linkaholic and Should You Write for Humans or Computers? helpful.
Further Reading on SEO
If you want to read more you might like to check out a recent post from Matt Cutts which is a summary of a talk he did on Whitehat SEO for bloggers (or watch the video of the talk below if you’ve got a spare hour - it is really great):
Written on August 23rd, 2007 at 10:08 pm by David Shawver Stanton
What Everybody Ought to Know About Blogging - 97 Blog Tips
We are entering the last week in the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog project and I’m continuing to enjoy both writing my own tips and reading those being submitted by readers.
Today I’ve got another 97 reader tips for you (taking us to a total of 456 submissions so far) and once again they cover a wide array of topics relevant to any blogger wanting to improve their blog. If you’ d like to be included in the last lists simply follow the instructions in the Introduction to the 31 Day Project post. It’s worth doing - the last one of these posts went onto the front page of Delicious and i heard from a few readers that they had quite a bit of traffic as a result.
I hope you enjoy this wonderful array of blog tips:
- Testing Post Readability by Andrew Boyd
- Link Baiting Within Your Website - Part 2 by Rob Malon
- 50 Tips to Unclutter Your Blog by Skellie
- What kind of URLs are the best ? by Shrihari
- Everything you need to know about Linkbait : The Comprehensive Guide by kuanhoong
- Ultimate Guide to time saving for Bloggers - Tips and Resources by Shankar Ganesh
- Updating WordPress with Subversion by Bryce
- Write Content, Then What? by Martin
- How to Not Mangle Your WordPress Blog Code with Plugins by Jason Bartholme
- “Banned” By Google? Find Out How to Entice Googlebot to Recrawl Your Site by gaman
- Run a Blog Promotional Contest by JerkyBeef
- Three Rubbish Things New Bloggers Do, and Three Better Things To Do Instead by Rhys
- HOW To: Add emoticons/smileys in GMail by Sumesh
- Successful Health Blogging by James
- What I Learnt from My First Year Blogging by Tejvan Pettinger
- Increase your subscriber count overnight - Sureshot tip by Mani Karthik
- How to avoid duplicate content on Wordpress blogs by Mani Karthik
- Is it Easy to Make Money Blogging? by Jake from MoreMerchant.com
- 2 Steps to Quit Working by Jake R
- Identifying your Audience, and Knowing what YOU should expect from THEM by Simon
- Optimize WordPress Page Headings by David Zemens
- A Blogger on Blogging - Chapter 3: Unblocking Writer’s Block With the Help of Your Users by Vlad H
- Header KISS by Dan Cole
- 7,076 Unique Visitors! The Power of StumbleUpon. by Matt Harzewski
- What is it about a blog that makes you want to unsubscribe from its feed? by Mark
- Secret Formula To Writing Headlines That Catch Your Eyes by Vivien
- 3 New Wordpress Security Tips I Learnt from Matt Cutts by pchere
- Some Facts About Social Bookmarking Websites and the Traffic You Receive from Them by Vahid Chaychi
- Improving the Reader Experience by Robert Irizarry
- From Casual to Serious Blogging - what makes the differences and what does it mean? by we-wet
- 10 More Things To Do When You Have Nothing To Blog About by Sly from Slyvisions.com
- Top 10 SEO Tips for Blogs. by Vin
- How enternetusers Inadvertently Gave Me 359 Headline Ideas by Tomaz Mencinger
- The Blogging Tips Google Gadget. by Vin
- Free Publicity for Blogs with Google Gadgets. by Vin
- Quick Blogging Tip: check all links by Trevor Hampel
- Good Words vs Great Words by Ken Xu
- Want to meet a great bunch of bloggers AND improve your Technorati rank? by Andrew Boyd
- Got blogger’s block? Two quick fixes comin’ your way… by Lori L
- 7 Top Ways To Lose 70% Of Your RSS Readers by Matt Jones
- 13 Quick Tips To Improve Your Blogging by Chris Lodge
- Wandering the Web at night by Frances McLean
- Is Your Corporate Identity Seductive? by Mason Hipp
- Blog Marketing by Mail by JerkyBeef
- Site subscription for dummies by Sue Hickton
- Hosted Blogging Platforms - Why and Why not ? by Shrihari
- 10 Things You Can Blog About On Weekends by Ramkarthik
- Put a tag cloud on your 404 - not found Page by Paul
- Be Your Competitor’s Friend by Charles Wolf
- Why You Should Want More Subscribers and How to Get Them by Jan
- 5 Ways I TRIPLED my Adsense Income by Simon
- Be Yourself in Blog Land: Don’t Join the Rat Race Unless You Like the Bait by Samir Bharadwaj
- Convert Category feeds to feedburner by violin kid
- AdSense and Chitika Combos That Will Skyrocket Your CTR by Tomaz Mencinger
- What is LinkLogger Feed? by Thejesh GN
- How blogging can help your business by Aaronontheweb
- 14 Reasons Readers Unsubscribe From Your Blog. by Snoskred
- Tuesday Think Tank: All About RSS by Sephyroth
- Make Sense of Your Blog With Proximity by Michael Martin
- Marketing your Blog with business cards by JerkyBeef
- Jimmy Spam (& SEO Tip)! by Lucia
- Blogging lessons I have learned that will benefit you and your brand! by Mark
- Retire Years Earlier with 1 Easy Tip by Jake - MoreMerchant
- Blog migration series - Choosing a webhost by Blogmunch
- Blog migration series - choosing my Wordpress theme by Blogmunch
- Important Points to Remember While Choosing a Theme by Simon Ward
- What does a Professional Logo do for you? by Eve
- How to use Robots.txt file effectively by Vijay Shinde
- Keeping your niche blogs on track by Andreas Sundstrom
- 10 Easy Ways to Find Permalinks of Blog Articles by pchere
- Do You Make This Mistake? by Dean Taplin
- Go Mobile: Get Your Blog Published On Your Readers Cell Phones Free! by Matt Jones
- Get the most out of guest blogging by Jordan (MamaBlogga)
- Video: Qualities Of a Good Website by Sly from Slyvisions.com
- Ride the enternetusers Wave and Build Your Blog by Jake from MoreMerchant.com
- 7 Ways To Increase Your Productivity by Jeremy Steele
- Blog as if it matters – it does! by Ted Demopoulos
- 10 Traits Of Successful Bloggers by Bryan@OneMansGoal.Com
- What Makes A Digg-worthy Post? by Bryan@onemansgoal.com
- How To Get More Comments by Bryan@OneMansGoal.Com
- 3 Days to Successful Blogging by Takuin Minamoto
- What’s Holding you Back? by Jo
- A Guide To Overcoming Writer’s Block by Mohsin Naqi
- I Am Working My Way through 31 Days of Blogging Tips so you don’t have to by JD
- 10 Rare Tips and Tricks for Blogspot Blog by Muhammad
- 3 Best Affiliate Programs Of August For Your Money Making Blog by Ramkarthik
- Transform your blog into podcast using autocasting by Benedict Herold
- Increase Sales, Conversions, And Profits With The “Rule Of Odds” by Steven Bradley
- Competitive Ad Filtering with Adsense by Suzanne Atkinson
- Creating a More Valuable Blog for Your Readers by Steven Snell
- How Should New Bloggers Build Community? by PabloPabla
- How To: Niche Link Building by Alexandru
- Offer Multiple Feeds and Blogroll by Tech For Novices
- Top 5 Confidence Corruptor by Ken Xu
- Blogger does a Technorati umm Delicious - All profile links are tags by Tech For Novices
- Website Testing Validation URL Tools by Tech For Novices
- The Blogging Evolution by Vivek
Written on August 23rd, 2007 at 06:08 am by David Shawver Stanton
Go on a Dead Link Hunt
Today your task in the 31 Day Project is something that most bloggers who have been blogging for a while could probably benefit from doing - go on a dead link hunt.
Blogging is built on the ‘link’. One blog links to another blog who links to another who makes comment on another. This is a wonderful thing - but what happens when one of the blogs that you’re linking to is retired, is deleted, changes it’s link structure, moves etc? The link is a dead one (also known as Link Rot) and can cost your blog on two fronts:
Readability - clicking on a dead link can mean your readers can end up on error pages or being redirected to other irrelevant content to the one they were expected to get to. This can lead to reader frustration or giving the impression that your blog is old and/or out of touch.
SEO - I’m not sure of the technicalities of it or what the latest research shows but from what I can tell a dead link is not looked upon favorably by search engines and you run the risk of penalties.
So how do you detect dead links on your blog?
The most obvious ’solution’ is to surf every page on your blog and manually check all the links. This is something that might be achievable on a new blog - but on older blogs with hundreds or thousands of posts it’s just not feasible.
There are many link checking tools available but to be honest I’m yet to find one that I’m really happy with. I do hear that Xenu’s Link Sleuth is a good option for those using Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. I’ve also used the free version of Dead-Links.com (which only checks to a reasonably shallow depth) - but I’d be keen to hear from readers on their suggestions of other options.
Written on August 23rd, 2007 at 12:08 am by David Shawver Stanton
When it Feels Like Nobody is Reading Your Blog
I was chatting with two friends last week - one of them is a blogger and the other was considering starting a blog.
My blogging friend was dispensing a few words of wisdom on how to start out (the usually kind of beginner blogging tips) when he said something out of the blue which made me take note because of the wisdom of it.
He said:
“In the early days you’ll feel like you’re talking to yourself (actually in the very beginning you probably are) - but don’t give up because it’s a feeling that will subside. The key is to keep blogging through that awkward beginning because if you do you’ll find people will begin to find you and the memory of talking to yourself will be a distant memory.”
I really appreciated my friend’s words. They reminded me a lot of my own beginnings in blogging when I felt quite foolish about pouring out what was on my mind for everyone (and nobody) to read).
His words also reminded me of another time in my life where I felt like I was talking to an empty room.
Warning - Tangent Ahead (it’s been a while since we had a tangent hasn’t it!)
In my previous life, before I was a blogger, I was a minister of a middle sized suburban church (I still do this work in a part time voluntary capacity in a small emerging experimental church).
Part of my work in this church that I really enjoyed was preaching. I loved preparing for and delivering sermons (in fact I find the process very similar to putting together blog posts).
My workflow for preparing a sermon went something like this (it took a week or more to go through the full process):
- Pick a Topic (or be given one by the senior minister).
- Begin Brainstorming ideas/angles/points
- Research the Topic (bible study, reading the opinion of others, surfing the web/forums/sermon resource sites)
- Putting together some main points
At this point I would jot my main points (usually 5 or so) down on a piece of paper and leave my office to go and find a quiet empty room (quite often the main chapel of the church). Once in that empty echoing room I would do something that felt quite awkward the first time I did it - I would begin to preach.
With my main points before me I would begin to speak them out - playing with how the words sounded - adding stories, illustrations and ideas as they came to mind.
For me the researching/brainstorming process of the first 4 steps outlined above was a fairly dry process. I gathered information - but it wasn’t until I began to actually do it that the real magic happened. While it felt a little weird at first to start talking out loud in a big empty room it was actually a valuable practice.
As I would preach to the empty pews and as my word echoed around the room I found that I learned so much about the topic I was exploring and how to deliver it. I also learned a lot about preaching. New ideas would come, I’d try different ways of expressing it and slowly the final version of the sermon would begin to form - to the point that when I got up in the same room on Sunday to deliver the final version it would flow.
The more I practiced in this way the more I improved as a preacher.
Lessons for Blogging from Preaching to Empty Pews
As I reflect upon my early days of blogging where I felt that nobody was listening I now realize that that was a time where I learned a lot about what I wanted to say and how to say it.
In those early days I tested ideas, tried new ways of expressing them and learned a lot about my topic and the medium of blogging.
So my advice to new bloggers who feel like no one is listening is to not give up and see the experience of preaching to the empty pews on your blog as a learning experience.
The things you learn now will shape your future blogging, will grow your understanding of your topic, will grow your character and make you into a better blogger.
Hear endeth today’s sermon….
Written on August 22nd, 2007 at 12:08 pm by David Shawver Stanton
First Impressions Matter on a Blog
First impressions matter in the day to day real life relationships that we all have. Like it or not, people are making decisions about who you are in the first few seconds that they meet you.
The same is happening when they come to your blog too!
In this Video post I explore five aspects of your blog that first time readers are using to get their first impression.
- Titles
- Design
- Taglines
- Post Titles
- Opening Lines of Posts
Video Length - 7.40
Update: to those wishing to use the video - you can grab the code to embed it on your own blog at it’s page on blip.tv
Further Reading on the Creating Strong First Impressions:
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