Written on January 3rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 01:01 am by Darren Rowse
In Case of Security - Planning for Blogging Disasters
I’m Michael Hampton, principal author of Homeland Stupidity, a U.S. politics blog. Today I want to address the issue of business continuity, that is, have you planned what to do if a disaster strikes your professional blogging operation?
Over the past few months I’ve had some all-too-common computer emergencies arise, and had to move fast to recover from them. In October, filesystem corruption ate about two weeks worth of e-mail, critical files such as all of my RSS feeds, and a few works in progress. I didn’t have up to date backups, and without them I’m only getting by as best I can without the missing materials.
And late Monday night my computer decided, during a round of system updates, to uninstall my feed reader, and then refused to reinstall it on Tuesday.
These are just two examples of things that can go wrong in pro blogging, but there are others. Have you planned what to do if your Web host suddenly goes down, as TypePad did recently, goes out of business entirely, or is hit by a natural disaster?
It’s one thing to simply address crises as they arise. About eight months ago, when my blog was still a small site running on my home computer, I needed to reinstall the entire operating system due to severe filesystem corruption. I pulled out an old Pentium 166 which I had laying around and pressed it into service as a temporary Web server to host my site while I was making repairs to my main computer. It was incredibly slow, but it served for the nearly full day it took to get the main computer running again.
And in October, as I said, due to lack of current backups, I lost a significant amount of email, all of my RSS feeds (since reconstructed, mainly from memory) and other files. I immediately began keeping backups after that; I learned my lesson!
Losing my feedreader itself was a somewhat different problem. Fortunately, it stores my list of feeds in an OPML file, rather than in the registry or elsewhere, so it was easy enough to get to them on a temporary basis using Bloglines.
But what about more serious, less likely, but far more disruptive, threats? What if a tornado, hurricane or terrorists destroy the data center hosting your Web site? A lot of you are (unknown even to yourselves!) hosted in a Texas data center which was near the path of Hurricane Rita this year.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has an excellent guide for small business disaster planning, much of which you can adapt to your situation. Another good overview appeared in Entrepreneur magazine. I want to address a couple of issues, though, which are peculiar to pro bloggers.
Primarily there is the issue of backups. We live and die on information, and our continued access to and ability to develop information is critical to what we do. As I mentioned above, losing access to any information can deal you a tremendous blow.
Do you have backups of everything on your Web host? My Web host (affiliate link) makes backups on-demand, not only of my files, but also my databases, which I can download whenever I need to, and I’m working on automating it from my end so that I always have a current backup.
And I backup the most critical files on my computer — to storage space on my Web host and to a USB thumb drive. That way I can survive a double whammy — losing both my computer and the USB stick backup, or losing the computer and the Web host. Other, less critical files, on my computer I back up to CD-RW on a regular basis now.
Less specific to pro blogging, but still critical, is protecting yourself in a disaster. Do you know what natural disasters are likely to strike your area, or the area where your Web host is located? Do you even know where your Web host is? Is the data center well protected and what contingency plans do they have for disaster? What contingency plans do you have, in case you have to live on the road for months at a time?
After Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S., I spent nearly two months blogging from my laptop in coffee houses with wireless Internet access. I had prepared in advance, though, for the possibility that I would have to live off my laptop. (Though not well enough!)
When you adapt these ideas to pro blogging, keep in mind that computers and other hardware are replaceable; you and your ideas are not. So you should not only have good, up-to-date backups of all of your critical information, you should also be aware of how to protect yourself in a disaster. Whatever your personal situation, you should take stock and prepare yourself for the worst. And here’s hoping you never have to face disaster.
Written on January 2nd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 10:01 pm by Darren Rowse
7 Blog Design Trends for 2006
Rachel over at cre8d design (with a new design on her own blog) outlines seven Blog Design Trends for 2006. She gives examples of each (and in the process points out some of the most beautifully designed blogs going around). The 7 trends Rachel outlines are:
- Big fonts
- Top border
- Big headers/footers
- Bright colours
- Speech bubble comments
- Rounded corners
- Highlighted links
Written on January 2nd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 10:01 am by Darren Rowse
Keeping it Legal
This post was submitted by Stephanie Patag from Beyond Adobo, Asian Cuisine - The Asian Food Blog and Stefoodie.net.
Recently, two of my fellow food bloggers were plagiarized. In response, some of us decided to launch a protest blogging event. While preparing for the launch, it hit us just how much plagiarism goes on all the time. Sometimes it’s because people are simply unaware of what’s legal and what’s not. Sometimes they’re aware of what’s legal but just don’t care or take an attitude that “everyone else is doing it“. Sometimes it’s because the information that’s out there is ambiguous and confusing, which is to be expected since some of the rules/laws regarding fair use, linking (controversial to this day), etc. are still being written. Right now, though, if you stick to some basic rules, you should be fine.
Consider this before you read on: most of the laws/rules I outline here are applicable to US residents only. Because blogging is a worldwide phenomenon, there are not only different countries’ laws to consider, there are cultural and individual differences as well, hence variations on what’s deemed acceptable behavior on the ‘net and what’s not.
Also, while a large percentage of blogs began as nothing more than online-diaries of the “I saw my boyfriend today” variety, there are those that have moved away from that model and towards more professional forms of blogging/online journalism. As the trend continues to grow it brings privileges and responsibilities that have always been associated with traditional media. If we want to be responsible bloggers, we need to follow a set of standards. At the very least, an understanding of copyright, fair use, and attribution would be helpful.
What is a copyright? It is the RIGHT of the creator of content (image, text, etc.) to CONTROL how his/her work is reproduced. Whoever owns the brain from which the idea came also owns the right to say how that idea — whether in the form of a book, article, pictures or other types of media — will be disseminated (or not). If you want to understand the details of US copyright law (and if you’re into heavy reading), click here: the Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code. If a crash course is more your style, here’s one from the University of Texas.
Here, Brad Templeton explains the 10 — actually 11 as he edited the page — big myths about copyright, IMO a must-read for every Internet user, blogger or not. Brad is the Chairman of the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), and here’s the link to their Bloggers’ FAQ page on Intellectual Property.
Basic Terminology you need to understand, from the University of Alabama.
When using content from a website or other source (book, magazine, etc.), assume that you need to get permission. Why? Because you did not write the text and/or you did not take the picture. It’s someone else’s intellectual property. Permission to use it is usually granted several ways:
- It’s right there on the page, a statement basically telling you that you can use whatever you want from that page and you won’t get into trouble.
- Or it may tell you that you can use the image/text/whatever but only for non-commercial purposes (you are not going to put it on a commercial site where you hope to make a profit).
- Or you have to contact the person who took the photograph and ask permission to use the image. As for text, you can quote snippets, but not whole blocks of text. Of course, that too is subject to interpretation. As a general guideline, fair use constitutes action that won’t affect the VALUE of the work, e.g., you put recipes from a book and now people won’t buy it because they get free access to the information just by accessing your site. The best thing to do is to refer your readers to the book or the link where they can read the material for themselves.
- You can use the images/text/whatever but you have to pay a fee to do so.
There may be other ways not listed here, but those are the most common ones.
The other important rule that covers just about everything else is this: if you’re in doubt, ask. Given all the technology available to us these days, communication should not be a problem, so “I tried to reach you but couldn’t” is no longer a valid excuse. It could be a simple e-mail or phone call asking the copyright owner for permission. In cases where you need to get information in writing, Cetus.org provides a model here for you to use.
My observation is that most food bloggers are sticklers for following the law. Here’s the copyright law as it pertains to recipes:
Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, where a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.
[Note that I copied a block of text there, but it’s legal for me to do that because this information (a US government publication) is in the public domain.]
In other words, if you have to post a recipe on your blog, you can use the exact ingredients from the original, but at least try to paraphrase the instructions. (This again, is a muddy area. There are those who interpret this — along with the fair use rules — to mean that as long as you’re only blogging one or two recipes, you’re not really affecting the value of the book.) IntelPropLaw has a rather lengthy article with more detail on writing/rewriting recipes.
If you’ve gotten to this point and are still not suffering from information overload, here’s more suggested reading for you:
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Legal Guide for Bloggers (for US residents, though of interest to all)
- the EFF’s FAQ Overview of Legal Liability Issues
- More info on blogging ethics here and here.
Lastly, one thing you should not forget is attribution. Here it is explained in the simplest terms possible, with a cute little presentation designed for kids.
Written on January 2nd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 09:01 am by Darren Rowse
The Undocumented Tools of a Blogger’s Trade
The Undocumented Tools of a Blogger’s Trade
I’m John Evans and I write Windows Vista and Microsoft Weblog for b5media. My personal blog is SYNTAGMA.
Medieval monks had their scriptoriums for the laborious task of illuminating manuscripts. Do modern bloggers have an equivalent nook?
A blogorium, ideally, would be a room set apart from the daily round. Quiet, even to the point of meditative in mood, it would contain the tools of the blogger’s art, plus a few indispensable extras. No, not a minibar. I was thinking more of a trampoline (see below).
The blogorium would be the focus of any serious blogger’s household. Children would pass the hallowed entrance in awe and perpetual silence. The dog would refuse to bark when padding by. Wives would remove suggestive clothing; husbands stop clanging their tools around. In short, it would be a place of retreat, devoted to blogativity.
My blogorium is a snappy space with a bay window which overlooks a rest-home for the elderly. I can gaze down and contemplate my future. Coincidentally, the room has become a repository for furniture nobody knows what to do with. Thus it has developed an old world colonial charm of decaying opulence, rounded off by the aroma of ancient books and polished oak. And that’s only the blogger.
All bloggers deserve a blogorium, I believe, if they are to do their best work undisturbed by the trivia that passes for life. A short verse written about the writer Rupert Brooke catches the mood :
The young Apollo, golden-haired,
Standing on the brink of strife,
Magnificently unprepared,
For the long littleness of life.
Ah, what a blogger he would have made.
Of course, the blogorium must also be available for other activities, especially for exercise ~ what I call blexercise. Yes, it’s one of those composite words again, beloved by denizens of the blogosphere. Actually I made it up, but I’ve no doubt that others have been there before me, given the fertility of the net-mind.
Blogging, like air travel, increases the risk of DVT (Deep-Vein Thrombosis) and other circulatory conditions. I can make that statement without consulting any medical sources, because it is self-evidently true. After a hard day’s blogging, the Olympic Games can seem aeons away.
Blexercising then, consists of the steps you take to get your circulation moving while in the process of blogging. It’s very important that we get up from time to time and move around. Calisthenics in situ is one option, though not my favourite. Until recently I practised a kind of home-made Tai Chi. Not any more. Sliding around the house in slow motion, imitating the movements of animals, is a fine way to “summon up the blood”, though I doubt Henry the Fifth would have approved. In any case, there’s a danger of developing a reputation for eccentricity. So what’s the answer?
I have as it happens made a remarkable discovery which will change your life ~ and your blogging. No, I’m not going to sell you a pension. I refer to trampolining. Blexercise and trampolining go together like … well … Russet apples and Wensleydale cheese.
It was my sister ~ not otherwise known for great discoveries ~ who turned me on to the power of lift-off. Her excitement led me to try out her 3 foot, 30 quid model ~ nothing but the best for her, obviously. After a week of overdosing on lactic acid, your correspondent emerged into a wholly new realm. Life flew by in rhythmical, vertical motion, up-and-down, up-and-down. It was uphill most of the way.
Mindful of Talleyrand’s advice to new French ambassadors : “Above all, no enthusiasm”, I won’t bore you with the details. But sports trainers testify to the amazing circulatory and mental benefits of trampolining. And you won’t wreck your knees in the process.
So take my advice: trampolining is an ideal form of blexercise. You don’t even have to leave the room, and three feet of space is all you need. Pass the Wensleydale, darling.
Written on January 1st, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 04:01 am by Darren Rowse
Blog Goals and Resolutions for surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.- Open Mike
Happy New Year friends. While I’m actually writing this post a week in advance of New Years Day I can just imagine what I’ll be doing today as I am on holidays.
The morning will probably involve a sleep in after a late night - but at least part of the rest of the day will be spent with ‘V’ my wife looking at the year ahead. We have something of a tradition where we spend some time on New Years Day (usually over brunch) dreaming a little about the year ahead and even setting a few loose goals.
It’s actually a fun exercise and something we do with a humerous and light hearted spirit but something that we actually keep ourselves to.
Our goals cover a wide range of areas from physical (health/fitness) to financial to spiritual to relational (both our own relationship but also the friendships we have with others) etc.
The goals are not things we whip ourselves over in the coming months when we fail - but they help us to focus on the year ahead and move into it with a positive outlook.
So - my question dear friends - is what are you blogging goals and resolutions for 2006?
What do you hope to achieve, avoid and attain this year? You might be thinking on a number of levels including traffic, networking, earnings, incoming links, numbers of posts, numbers of blogs, other ventures etc.
I’d be interested to hear what you’re planning for the new year so step up to the Open Mike, take the floor and tell us about how you see the year unfolding.
Written on December 31st, 2005 at 12:12 am by Darren Rowse
New Years Reflections (with a little announcement at the bottom)
It’s now New Years Eve here in Australia so I thought it appropriate for a few reflections on the year gone by here at enternetusers and a brief look forward at surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.(with a few hints at what’s in store for me).
2005 was a year that went beyond many of the expectations that I had for it on many levels. I remember writing some goals for the year back in January and feeling the potential that lay ahead for us - but what I wrote was nothing in comparison to what actually came to be.
On a personal level the year included many highlights including a wonderful trip through parts of Europe, buying our first home, growing our church community from 1 to 3 groups and marrying 8 couples.
In terms of business and blogging things were just as massive. Many of the highlights (and a few low lights) have focussed around enternetusers which has become the blog that I own which I’m most proud of (and addicted to).
Statistics:
In terms of performance it’s been a great year. Here are a few stats that I’ve just found as part of my annual review:
Unique Visitors (over last 15 months) - 670,000+
Page Views (over last 15 months) - 1,540,000+
Total Posts - 1814 with around 1500 written this year (although there will be a few more by the time this goes live)
Comments - 14263 (and counting)
Lattes Drunk - 730 (estimate for 2005)
Achievements:
There’s also been a lot of kind recognition from around the blogosphere with many kind links from bloggers (too many to mention) and even a few award nominations. Following are some of the current rankings of enternetusers on a variety of Blog Services and Tools:
Feedster Top 500 Blogs - 129th
Blog Pulse - consistently in top 100 (69th today)
Technorati - hovering just outside their top 100 (today at 102)
Pub Sub - regularly in their top 1%
Alexa - ranked 7327th (3 month average) or 4305th today
Truth Laid Bear - ranked 242 for traffic and 663 in ecosystem
Statistics, awards and rankings are not what blogging is about though and are secondary to the two things that I’m most proud of at enternetusers. Firstly I’m proud of the community and shared learning that goes on here. I’m constantly being told by readers that they appreciate the discussion that happens in comments. I’ve toyed for months with the idea of forums to enhance this but to this point have left it happen in comments (perhaps if there were two of me forums would eventuate). Thanks to each person who has contributed to the increased knowledge bank of enternetusers by leaving a comment or submitting a link or tip.
Secondly I’m proud of the growing levels of content in enternetusers’s archives. As I mention above we’re closing in the the magical 2000 posts level. While a lot of it is newsy and quite time related there are also a lot of posts that are making a contribution to helping many bloggers find ways to improve their blogs and even earn a living from blogging.
I always find it difficult to know how to showcase the posts in my archives - I’ve previously ranked some of my favorite posts in my enternetusers Turns 1 post but today thought I’d put the ranking in the hand of you the reader and report which posts were the most read this year. The following list is the 40 most read posts on enternetusers for 2005.
- Earning Milestones
- Chitika eMiniMalls - How much do they Earn Me?
- Adsense Tips for Bloggers 1
- How Much do I earn from Blogging?
- How Bloggers Make Money from Blogs
- What is a Blog?
- I’m a Six Figure Blogger
- Shoe Blogs Six Figure Blogger
- Earning a Six Figure Income from Blogging
- enternetusers Slashdotted
- Adsense Tips for Bloggers 2 - Is Your Blog Suitable for Adsense?
- Chitika eMiniMalls Review
- Look What Blogging Bought Me
- 11 Tips to Increase Page Views of your Blog
- Adsense Tips for Bloggers 4 - Increasing Traffic
- Adsense Tips for Bloggers 5 - High Paying Ads
- 31 Days to Building a Better Blog
- Chitika eMiniMall Tips
- Converting one off readers to your blog to Regular Readers
- enternetusers Turns 1
- How the Most highly visited blogs earn money
- Adsense Tips for Bloggers 7 - Well Placed and Designed Ads
- 20 Types of Blog Posts - Battling Bloggers Block
- Blog Case Study - Is it Time to Quit?
- Adsense Tips for Bloggers 6 - Relevant Ads
- Adsense Tips for Bloggers 8 - Miscellaneous Tips
- Adsense Developing Fully Customizable Ad blocks
- Principles of Choosing a Profitable Blog Topic
- Network Blogging vs Individual Blogging
- Positioning Your Adsense Ads
- The Importance of Title Tags in SEO
- Adsense Optimization Tips - BuzzMachine
- Monkey Bar Blogging
- Blogging Stories - How Blogs Change Lives
- A list of Business Blogs
- Social Bookmarking - Getting your Blog Noticed
- WordPress Plugins for enternetuserss
- 10 Tips for Using Affiliate Programs on your Blog
- Search Engine Optimization for Blogs
- Lessons from a Goose
In addition to these posts - the following three categories also got significant levels of traffic this year.
1. Adsense
2. Blog Design
3. Blogging Tools and Services
Partnerships
I quite often talk about how enternetusers.net is nowhere near the most lucrative blog in my stable of blogs in terms of advertising dollars. This is still true - but there is increasingly some wonderful (and potentially lucrative) opportunities coming from writing this blog. A number of great parterships and friendships have emerged from enternetusers this year including:
- internetusers - the initial partnership with Jeremy and Duncan (added to by Shai in more recent times) has been quite an amazing journey.
- six figure blogging - Andy and I discovered each other in the middle of this year and quickly developed our first course together. I suspect it won’t be our last.
On the Flip Side - I won’t pretend it’s been a completely wonderful year this year. In the midst of the many reasons to celebrate have been a number of real challenges for me and for enternetusers. There have been a few times where I felt like giving up and moments of wondering what the point was. I learned this year that while blogging can be a wonderfully community minded endeavor that it can also at times be a place of attack, bitchiness and selfishness. I’ve not always been just the victim of this and hope I’ve come out of it as a better person.
2006 and Beyond - Someone asked me today what surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.holds in store for me in terms of business and I had great difficulty in answering them. This is for a number of reasons. In part it is because there are a few projects that I’m working on (a couple in collaboration with others) that are not ready for public announcement. The other part of it is that I’m about to embark on a two week break (I’ll be on it by the time you read this) where I’m going to be spending some time (at the end of it) working out some goals and plans for the year ahead.
Sometimes it takes getting out of the craziness of life to be able to see it with perspective. It is my hope that the next few weeks will bring some clarity to the next steps.
Lastly surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.looks like it’s going to be the year that my life changes considerably on a personal front as in June we’re expecting our first child. I am so excited about this news on many fronts (and also a little fearful)! I’m certain it’s going to change every aspect of my life in ways that I’m sure I’ve not even thought of yet - but it’s a journey I’m looking forward to immensely.
Happy New Year - I hope this post hasn’t been too cheesy or arrogant. I’ve actually found it quite therapeutic to write. Sometimes at this end of a year it’s easy to be a little glum in the midst of one’s tiredness but I realize that I’m in an incredibly fortunate and lucky position and have much to be thankful for.
So I’d like to finish this post with thanks - thank you to my family (V especially), to my partners in blogging, to readers of all my blogs, to partners in advertising and affiliate programs and to the many of you who have gone out of your way this year to drop me an email or comment (and a few of you even a card) of encouragement. I do appreciate you and hope that you all have a great celebration tonight and happy and safe new year.
Written on December 30th, 2005 at 06:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Ten Tips for writing a blog post
The following post on tips for writing a blog was submitted by Lyndon from Flockblog who in his email to me with it described it as a simple ‘back to basics’ kind of post. Thanks Lyndon.
Here are ten tips that help me with my blog writing.
- Make your opinion known
- Link like crazy
- Write less
- 250 Words is enough
- Make Headlines snappy
- Write with passion
- Include Bullet point lists
- Edit your post
- Make your posts easy to scan
- Be consistent with your style
- Litter the post with keywords
1. Make your opinion known
People like blogs, they like blogs because they are written by people and not corporations. People want to know what people think, crazy as it sounds they want to know what you think. Tell them exactly what you think using the least amount of words possible.
2. Link like crazy.
Support your post with links to other web pages that are contextual to your post.
3. Write Less
Give the maximum amount of information with the least amount of words. Time is finite and people are infinitely busy. Blast your knowledge into the reader at the speed of sound.
4. 250 is enough
A long post is easier to forget and harder to get into. A short post is the opposite.
5. Make Headlines snappy
Contain your whole argument in your headline. Check out National newspapers to see how they do it.
6. Include bullet point lists
We all love lists, it structures the info in an easily digestible format.
7. Make your posts easy to scan
Every few paragraphs insert a sub heading. Make sentences and headlines short and to the point.
8. Be consistent with your style
People like to know what to expect, once you have settled on a style for your audience stick to it.
9. Litter the post with Keywords.
Think about what keywords people would use to search for your post and include them in the body text and headers. make sure the keyword placement is natural and does not seem out of place.
10. Edit your post
Good writing is in the editing. Before you hit the submit button, re-read your post and cut out the stuff that you don’t need.
I hope you enjoyed my tips for writing a blog post - feel free to share your own blog writing tips below.
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Written on December 30th, 2005 at 02:12 am by Darren Rowse
Three simple actions that doubled my website traffic in 30 days
The following post on how to increase website traffic was submitted by Adrian W Kingsley-Hughes.
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I started the PC Doctor blog in May of 2005 and for the first few months my traffic was really low - down in the few hundreds of visitors a day. It was pretty depressing I can tell you and there were times when I thought about quitting. I knew that the site was in the Google ’sandbox’ and so I either had to keep on plugging at it until it was out or I had to give up.
Fortunately, I decided to keep on posting but in the interim I decided that I was also going to do my utmost to drive traffic to my site manually until Google kicked in. I took a look around at what some of the successful blogs were doing and came up with three tactics that helped to double my website traffic in a month.
- First, I made the most of Technorati tags. I tagged every key word in each of my posts. Initially I did this manually but them I discovered a WordPress plugin called SimpleTags that made the job a whole lot easier.
I found that by tagging my post effectively they were getting a lot more attention then their untagged counterparts, and as an added advantage I was getting focused, quality traffic to the site!
- I leveraged my existing website. I’ve been running my business website for a few years and that was getting modest levels of traffic that was relevant to my blog - so why not try to drive some of that to my new blog! I placed a few FeedBurner headline animator blocks on some of my most popular pages and after a day or so I noticed a significant increase in traffic for 5 minutes worth of work on my part.
- Finally, I made effective use of trackback links to popular sites. If I commented on a post on another site I would make sure that I set up the appropriate trackback for it. The results from this are varied depending on the site and post that you are linking to but since I liked to comment and interact with the wider blogosphere anyway, it was free traffic!
Using these three simple techniques, I took The PC Doctor blog from a few hundred hits a day into the thousands in less than 30 days. This kept my interest in the site until it came out of the Google sandbox and I started to receiver some serious traffic. However, I’m convinced that these actions I took at the early stages have helped me create a loyal and targeted readership that continues to benefit my blog today.
Written on December 29th, 2005 at 04:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Preventing Blog Burnout
The following post has been submitted by Dan Zarrella from TomKatCrazy! (one of the new celeb blogs over at b5media).
We’ve all heard the normal tips about establishing a regular posting frequency and finding a tight niche to focus on, but as we start posting to more and more blogs it becomes important to prevent blogging burnout when posting to 5 blogs a day. The best way to do this is to plan for sustainability.
When picking a topic or niche most general wisdom indicates that you should focus as tightly as possible to really cover the subject well, but it is easy to select a micro-niche that won’t provide much material and will leave you hovering over the keyboard or scouring your feeds trying to figure out what to post. This was something I thought about when planning my TomKatCrazy blog, but it soon became obvious that between the baby, the wedding and all the gossip I would have plenty to write about. On another blog of mine, GuerillaScience, I started out with a more general anti-authoritarian focus which proved to be too wide of a topic for me to cover comprehensibly without dedicating all of my time to it. I tried narrowing it down to only Boston-specific anarchist news but this was way to tight of a niche and I found I had nothing to post most days. I’m in the process of finding a nice balance between locally relevant stuff and a more wide range of news.
Another thing that has helped me in dealing with posting on multiple blogs is establishing a routine. Most days once I get settled at my desk, I read my email, then start looking at my feeds, I’ll usually find a few things in my 100+ subscriptions that is a good match for one of my sites, and I’ll post about that. After I slog my way through what can sometimes be an overwhelming amount of posts, I start looking to “plug the holes”, that is find stuff to post on the blogs I haven’t yet posted on that morning. Once I get a single morning post on my all (or most) of my blogs, I carry on about my daily work and if I happen across something during the day I post it. Here’s where topic selection becomes important again. If the topic isn’t something I’m reading about and dealing with on a regular basis it becomes more difficult to maintain a 2 posts a day frequency (which is normally what I try to stick to). Since I do SEO as a day job, I often post on ideas I’ve had during the course of my day to my SEO blog, websearchnews. This is another way to handle a wide focus, there is no way I could cover all search engine relevant news everyday and find a unique voice in the saturated SEO blog space. So posting on things that I’m actually working on or news that is relevant to my experiences I’m able to differentiate myself from the crowd and deliver involved and informed posts.
Perhaps the best way to reduce blog burnout and create a sustainable blog is to develop a community, either via a healthy commenting culture or by inviting others to co-blog with you. Discussion stimulates interesting posts and worthwhile reading. This is something I’m still working on with my blogs and it is one of the harder things to develop well. A blog like Threadwatch is a very good example of this, as is Nick’s new project, Performancing. In this case the majority of the content is generated by a group of people, all involved in discourse.
Remember, while posting to your blogs 10 times a day will be highly rewarding, if you get quickly burned out and stop posting all together, that’s worse. It is more important to develop a structure by which you can reliably and sustainably deliver useful content to you blogs.
Written on December 29th, 2005 at 01:12 am by Darren Rowse
Seven Offline Tips for Increasing Blog Traffic
This post was submitted by Ted Demopoulos, co-author of Blogging for Business, Demopoulos Associates.
Most bloggers concentrate on online methods for building their blog traffic. There are also a number of effective offline methods worth exploring for increasing the number of readers.
Suggested offline methods can range from simple and practical, like mentioning your blog on your business card, to outrageous and impractical for most, such as hiring a skywriter or advertising on the side of a blimp. I’ll admit it — I’ve always wanted my own blimp!
Here are some simple and practical methods that my clients and I have had success with. Some are bound to be applicable and simple to implement for you.
1. Business Cards
Most business cards list the organization’s Web site. Listing your business blog on your business card as well is very respectable. Listing your blog on your business card can help it stand out instead of being filed with all the others — never to be seen again, and can start conversations with clients and prospects. When exchanging business cards, many people report questions such as ‘what do you blog on?’ and ‘how long have you been blogging?’ and others.
I’ll admit I don’t mention either Blogging for Business or The Ted Rap on my business card. Why? I seem to have a multi-year supply of “old” cards. If I were starting again however, I probably would print new cards and I obviously will eventually. I think I would have built readership for The Ted Rap faster if it had been displayed on my business card.
2. Letterhead
Just as your business card can mention your blog, so can your letterhead.
I just received correspondence from someone I’ve recently started doing business with. Their letterhead listed a blog, and I immediately went to check it out. I’m certainly not the only one that does this!
3. Stickers
I have stickers that say ‘TheTedRap.com’ and ‘TheTedRap.com, Ted Demopoulos on Technology and Business.’ I like to stick them on routine correspondence with clients as well as prospective clients. Stickers are cheap and get a lot of attention. I stick them all over.
4. Press Releases
Press releases normally mention the company’s Web site. A company’s press release template can be modified mention a blog as well.
A press release can also be issued to specifically publicize a blog, especially if the blog is a useful resource. A press release heralding Joe Blow’s view of the universe and what he has for lunch would be silly, however a press release describing a blog that offers benefits to its readers is not. For example, I’ll probably issue a press release for bloggingforbusinessbook.com
This press release is driving about 100 people a day to SantaBlog.org once the press actually picks it up (I’ve been interviewed by a couple of reporters so far) it should generate even more traffic.
You can send press releases for free from prweb.com. although I typically pay US$30 or US$80 for their enhanced services. Plenty of resources on how to write press releases on the web - it’s not hard.
5. Presentations
All my presentation slides and handouts list my blog and website on every page in small text near the copyright statement. These often serve double duty as well: they publicize my blog to presentation attendees and afterwards I usually place the presentation on my Web site for free download to anyone interested.
6. Voice mail messages
Some people have reported some success mentioning their blog on their voice mail message. For example, ‘Hi, this is Joe Blow at XYZ Corp. Unfortunately I’m unable to answer the phone at this time, so please leave a message. Also visit my blog at “XYZcorp.com/JoeSpeaks.’
I don’t do this because my name is so long that just saying “Ted Demopoulos at Demopoulos Associates” takes a long time and I personally hate long voice mail greeting.
7. Advertisements
Although some people and organizations have explicitly advertised their blogs, it is more common to add a blog URL to an existing advertising campaign.
Most people’s reaction when they find that you have a blog is not to immediately drop everything and go read it. By gently reminding them over and over, through both online and offline methods, they are more likely to eventually go look at your blog.
And if your blog has good content and offers them value, they are more likely to return and become regular readers.
Feel free to add more tips and experiences, for example anyone ever really advertise on the side of a blimp??
Ted Demopoulos, co-author of Blogging for Business, Demopoulos Associates.
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