Written on September 4th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 03:09 pm by Darren Rowse
112 Days until Christmas - Is Your Blog Ready?
September has arrived at last and entrepreneurial bloggers and web-masters everywhere are rejoicing!
Why?
I’ll give you a hint…. Yesterday I was in one of my city’s big department stores and I saw something that shocked me a little - they’d begun putting up their Christmas decorations!
Traditionally August is a bit of a downer for many publishers attempting to make money online as it’s at the peak of when many people in the northern hemisphere take a holiday. I remember this time last year traveling through parts of Europe only to find some cities almost like ghost towns as large percentages of their populations migrate to the coast for August. There are similarities in North America over the summer.
I guess web surfing isn’t quite as high on the list of things to do when the sun is shining outdoors (go figure)!
Most web-masters look to the Labor Day Long weekend in the US as a point where things begin to pick up again in the lead up to the end of the year and Christmas (just 112 days to go) and the other holidays.
I just looked at some of my own traffic stats for the same time last year and on many of my blogs I saw a stead increase over the next four months - culminating in traffic in December over 35% higher than the August figure in most cases.
Of course these traffic trends depend quite a bit on the topic you’re writing on. If you have product related blogs then Christmas can be quite good, but if you have ’summer related’ topics you could even see a fall in your stats.
Spring Cleaning
Here in Australia September also means that Spring has arrived (a little hard for some of you northern hemisphere types to get your head around I know) and I think the symbolism of a new season with lots of life (blossom on trees, new buds on trees etc) fits well.
Of course Spring means ’spring cleaning’ so perhaps its time to get your blog in order in preparation for the end of year. Don’t forget that sometimes the changes you make on your blog take a month or two (or longer) to take effect in search engines - so if you’re a blogger wanting to position yourself for the end of year you might want to at least start to think about how you’ll do it.
Written on September 3rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 02:09 am by Darren Rowse
Official enternetusers Seal
Looking for an official seal for your blog?
No? Neither was I until I found the Official Seal Generator.
This one goes in the ‘weekend distractions’ basket.
found via Presurfer
Written on September 2nd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 08:09 am by Darren Rowse
Slander In Comments - What are the Legalities?
I’ve been asked 3 times over the last few weeks what the legal implications of letting people post comments on your blog are and to this point I’ve never been able to point them to a case that I knew of where legal action was taken over comments.
But it seems that there’s a current case that involves Jeremy Schoemaker over at Shoemoney.
Jeremy doesn’t go into great detail (as you’d expect) but it’s a tricky issue (given the global nature of blogging) and one that I’ve been aware of in watching my own comments.
Just yesterday I had to stop a comment from being approved where one commenter accused another of being a pedophile - something that had lawsuit all over it.
Does anyone else know of cases where comments led to legal action?
Written on September 2nd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:09 am by Darren Rowse
Why Having a Blog is Like Having a Baby
This Sunday is Fathers Day here in Australia and to celebrate my first one as a Dad I thought I’d do a little post on why having a blog is like having a baby.
Disclaimer - yes I know having a blog is nothing like having a baby - for every reason why they are similar there are 10 why they are not (for instance it’s difficult to put advertising on your baby…. so I’m told….) but I thought I’d have a little fun with it anyway to mark the occassion.
So here are my 8 reasons why having a blog is like having a baby:
1. Everyone has advice
It’s quite amazing to experience the attention that everyone gives you when you’re pregnant or have a newborn baby.
This attention comes from everyone from family and friends to complete strangers who will walk up to you on the street to ‘ooh and aah’ at your little one. Oh course with every interaction with people comes advice ranging from - ‘I think he might have a little wind’ to ‘don’t let him sleep for more than 2 hours at a time’ to ‘let him sleep as long as he likes’, to ‘have you tried taping his ears back so they don’t stick out’…. etc
Much of the advice you’ll get is well meaning, most of it is conflicting with other advice you receive and in the end you learn to take it with a grain of salt, nod as if you’re going to do exactly what they say and then go home and find your own way.
When it comes to advice about blogging the story is very similar. Every blogger and their dog has a tip on what makes a good blog great and how to do everything from find readers, to climb the search engines, to choose a blog platform, to have a sexy design, to writing compelling content.
Much of the advice out there is good advice from well meaning people - but perhaps the best advice I’ve heard (and passed on) is to be yourself and find your own way. Every blog is different and for every rule or tip you might be given there’s an example of a successful blog that has done well despite breaking that very rule.
2. Short Attention Spans
I saw a really helpful video in one of our pre-natal classes that talked about bonding with a baby. It said that many people say its not until a month or two of age that babies connect with those around them - however they showed a few examples of how even a few minutes after birth a baby will be having short moments of concentrated connection with others. The problem isn’t that the baby doesn’t connect - it’s that the parent doesn’t look for the connections.
I’ve come to value those short moments each day when Xavier and I ‘connect’ with a look, a smile (I refuse to believe it’s just gas) or a touch. The key is to look for these moments and to take advantage of them.
Web readers have notoriously short attention spans also and while they do read longer articles from time to time, mastering the art of writing concise, attention grabbing and compelling posts that worth with the short attention span of readers is important.
3. It’s an Investment of Time
A good friend of mine who became a Dad for the first time a few weeks before me told me one night that the biggest surprise for him was how much time it took to do anything with his baby.
Getting ready for a walk, giving a bath, feeding, changing nappies - all of these activities took considerably longer than he expected and when you put them all together they can become quite consuming. In fact a few days after Xavier was born I asked ‘V’ if I’d ever find time to work again as my life was quite full just being a Dad.
Blogs - like babies - take a lot of time to get off the ground. While most bloggers find that writing and posting content gets quicker over time, it still can become quite time consuming.
4. Long Term
It’s just starting to sink in that being a Dad means my life is irreversibly changed.
I’m sure that there will be elements of my life that will return to some level of ‘normality’, but there are other things that will always be different now (some of them good and some of them difficult). Having a child is a life long commitment and something a parent needs to work on on a daily basis over a very long time.
Blogs too need a long term effort. While it might not be a life long commitment that is needed (and the seriousness of the commitment will of course be lower than one to a child - one would hope) - too many bloggers don’t take into account that the setting up and sustaining of a blog is not only a lot of work initially - but it’s something you need to put continued effort into over time.
I know this from personal experience this week after trying to clean up after being hacked on top of my normal blogging load. Blogs have a way of presenting you with a challenge just at that moment that you think you’re cruising - something I’m told kids do too!
5. Sometimes it’s a Smelly Business
Someone told me that newborns don’t do smelly poos…. and while I’m sure they’ll get worse - I’ve seen my fair share of messy and smelly things in the past couple of weeks.
Often having a baby can be glamorized - all the baby product ads show serene scenes of smiling or sleeping babies who smell wonderful, never make a sound (other than a cute giggle) and who look just perfect.
The reality might include such moments - but they are also mixed up with a lot of noise, smell and sights for sore eyes.
Sometimes I think people talk about blogging in such glowing terms that I hardly recognize it - it’s like the baby ads that only show one side of the equation.
The reality is that having a blog is a wonderful thing (otherwise no one would do it) with many benefits - but it can also get messy. Dealing with trolls, comment spam, being attacked by other bloggers, having servers crash, deleting long unsaved posts just before hitting publish, being hacked, accidentally posting your bank account details….. all of these things (and more) can - and will - go wrong when you blog. Sometimes it’s a messy business.
6. It’s Fun
- amidst the smells, late nights, worry and moments of terror - having a baby in the house is fun - a lot of fun.
Each day is punctuated with all manner of moments to look forward to - morning cuddles while he wakes up, watching his eyes roll back in ecstasy when you rub his feet, the satisfaction of settling him at 3.37am after three hours of screaming, watching the look on his face when you put him in a nice warm bath, getting one of his cheeky smiles and holding him when he’s in one of his milk-drunk floppy states after a feed (I could go on). I wouldn’t swap the last two months for anything - anything at all.
Blogging can be hard - but it can also be a lot of fun and is punctuated with a variety of moments which you come to look forward to - seeing another blogger link to you for the first time, checking your stats and finding that you’ve had a record breaking day for traffic, getting your first comment ever, the satisfaction of hitting publish on a post you’ve been working hard on and are proud of, being quoted in the NYT as an expert on a topic you mentioned once in passing in a post (I’m an expert on the spiritual motifs in the Lord of the Rings apparently!), the rush when you see a post you’ve written rising up the front page of Digg and the elation at the 8000 visitors an hour that can follow etc etc
7. You Need Time Out
Even after just two months at this parenting game I can see how important it is for ‘time out’. In fact I just packed ‘V’ off in the car and told her to go shopping (something I rarely encourage!) while Xavier has a sleep because I can see already how all consuming babies can be. Even when they’re asleep your day revolves around them and to have even just an hour or two away is like a mini holiday in the middle of the day.
As I’ve already said above, blogs take a lot of work. They are also a little addictive and new bloggers can especially be tempted to spend every spare moment they have on them.
While it is fun and addictive - it’s important to take time out from a blog from time to time.
Doing so will keep you fresh, stop you from burning out, keep your life balanced and mean you are healthy (body, mind and spirit).
I try to take time off in different ways - daily (I tend to take a couple of hours off in the afternoons), weekly (weekends) and yearly (I take a number of week to 2 week holidays each year).
8. Finding a Rhythm
- 48 hours after we got home from the hospital with Xavier V and I looked at each other and said ’something’s got to change’.
Amidst the chaos of birth, visitors at the hospital, learning the basics of nappies and feeding etc we’d enjoyed our stay in hospital but hadn’t really established any kind of rhythm or routine with Xavier.
Of course in the first few weeks I’m told you should throw routines out the window - but we were in a pretty chaotic lifestyle and we needed something to at least give us a starting point for what a normal day would look like. Luckily we were recommended a great book which suggested such a daily routine which has been a great thing for us to have.
While Xavier doesn’t stick to it down to the minute - we’ve found it helpful to at least have a little structure to our day (and it does seem he’s responding to it too).
I write quite a bit about blogging rhythms and how each blog will have it’s own. I think it’s important for a blogger to find his or her rhythm for each blog that they write and to attempt to stick with it. From my experience - finding a rhythm is not only good for the blogger but readers seem to respond to it pretty well too.
I’m sure I could go on and round this list out to 10 reasons why having a blog is like having a baby - but as I write this the man of moment is waking up from his nap an it’s time to go be a Dad again (I still havn’t mastered the art of blogging one handed).
To those of you celebrating Fathers day (I know in some parts of the world it’s in June) - have a great day.
Written on September 1st, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 07:09 am by Darren Rowse
BLaughed
I got BLaughed:
Written on September 1st, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 02:09 am by Darren Rowse
Sailing vs Rowing (or how to get your Blog going when it loses Momentum)
‘When the Wind Stops Blowing, Start Rowing’ - Darby Checkett, “Leverage”
Have you ever felt like the wind in your blogging ’sails’ disappeared? Perhaps it’s time to start ‘rowing’.
Wind in Your Blogging Sails
Over my three years of blogging there have been many times where it felt like the wind was blowing and my blogs were moving forward at fast speed - almost without me doing anything to make it happen at all.
Perhaps you know the feeling?
You get in the groove with your writing, ideas just come, the writing of them is easy, readers respond, people link up, viral like traffic comes…. you feel on top of the world and blogging is a real joy.
Most bloggers have felt the wind blow at one time or another to some level. I still remember the first time it happened to me just a few weeks into my first blog when another blogger noticed me for the first time and sent me readers. For the first time people who were not family members or close friends were reading what I had to say. In the scheme of things it was just a handful of readers - but I didn’t care, my blog had caught a gust of wind and it felt good.
It’s a feeling that has happened numerous times over the years. Sometimes in relatively small ways and other times where it got so windy that it felt like it was blowing a gale!
When The Wind Stops
However for every moment where the wind has blown on my blogs there have been 10 where there was barely a breeze and they felt almost dead in the water.
I’m sure most bloggers know this feeling also….
You can’t come up with anything to write about, bloggers block settles in, your readership seems to disappear over night, the search engines stop indexing you, something breaks on your blog and you wonder what you’re doing it all for.
I remember many times like this. One of the worst of them was the day my blogs fell out of the search engines just in time for the Christmas rush (something I’d been working towards for months). Traffic dropped significantly, comments dried up, earnings almost disappeared and I found myself with a massive dose of bloggers block.
Start Rowing
Sailing with wind in your sails is a wonderful feeling. The efforts you do put in seem to be amplified as you’re propelled along by an external force that you have little control over. However it’s something that shouldn’t ever be taken for granted as in every blogger’s life there will come a time where the only way to move forward is to pick up some oars and start rowing.
Rowing a boat takes hard work and for the uninitiated (like me) it takes a lot of energy. Sometimes when you’re rowng it feels like you’re not getting anywhere.
‘Rowing’ a blog is similarly hard work. It’s no wonder that I see many bloggers giving up on their blogs when the going gets tough and when they realize there is no wind in their sails. It’s something I understand and have felt, having given up on numerous occasions - however sometimes rowing would have been a better option.
For example in the time I described above when I found my blogs dead in the water after problems with how they were being indexed in Search Engines I spent a few days moping around feeling sorry for myself and getting down. I considered throwing it all in for a day or two but then realized that it was time to get back to work.
I’d been taking the wind of SE traffic for granted for too long and made a decision to work my butt off to add different sources of traffic. I began to row…
For me ‘rowing’ meant numerous things including:
- building relationships with others in my niche - I began to talk more to them and do projects with them which in turn brought traffic
- writing content that was more useful - I renewed the efforts that I put into writing content that was more helpful to readers
- increasing my posting frequency - I realised that my posting frequency had dropped and that I needed to get my posting rate up a little
- SEO - I didn’t give up on search engine traffic and decided in this time to do a little research into how SE’s ranked sites and made a few tweaks
- diversification - I started a number of new blogs on different domains and on different topics at this time and decided never to rely upon one income source again
- developing reader loyalty - I started a number of programs to build reader loyalty into my blogs including competitions and newsletters
Some of the above worked well, other parts didn’t - however over the coming weeks and months I began to move my blogs out of the windless patch of the blogosphere that I had found myself in. I did it through sheer hard work and in time began to feel things pick up again.
‘Rowing’ in a blogging sense will no doubt mean different things to different people. What I did in getting my blogging going again won’t work for everyone (each blog is different and in the last couple of years the blogosphere has changed a lot and become a different place) but the principle of hard work in building a blog up doesn’t change.
If the Wind has Gone out of Your Blogging Sails maybe it’s time to pick up the oars and get back to some of the basics of blogging in an attempt to get the momentum back again.
Written on September 1st, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:09 am by Darren Rowse
Speedlinking - 1 September 2006
- If you’re a web developer looking for distraction or with a few days to kill you might like to check out the Web Developer’s Handbook - with around 1000 links for Web Developers there’s sure to be something for everyone (although I can think of a few links that they could add to their blogging section). Found via Lifehacker and LifeClever.
- Dave Winer links to YoMoBog - a service for posting to blogs from mobile devices. It’s still in it’s experimental development but looks like it could be useful.
- Chris gives some reality check advice for people hoping to make a living from blogging.
- Mindful Entrepreneur writes 7 Mindful Business Practices - thanks to Martin for the tip on this one.
- WordPress.com today added Avatars which can be added to your profile.
- I’m going to bookmark this great time zone map tool as I’m constantly looking up what time it is in different parts of the world - found via Duncan.
Written on August 31st, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 03:08 am by Darren Rowse
Speedlinking 31 August 2006
- eMoms at Home writes Top 10 Blogging Lessons Learned on Traffic, Monetization and Life - it’s got some gems in it.
- Chitika have a new feature called ‘Globe Trot’ that lets you see what people in different countries see of your Chitika eMiniMall ads when they view your blog.
- Dane shares 6 tips for working at Home with Children (I think i need to digest some of this)
- Shel Israel writes 9 Random Thoughts about Blogging including ‘Law of Diminishing Share’, ‘The buck’s not there’, ‘Size isn’t relevance’ and ‘Blogging is like an elephant.
- Stephan has put together a screencast video on how to optimize your blogs and RSS feeds for different search engines including specialist engines (quite long, 58 minutes, but contains useful information if you’re starting out with Search Engine Optimization).
Written on August 31st, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:08 am by Darren Rowse
Random vs Planned Blogging
One of the things that I enjoy about blogs is how random they can be.
Within the blogging medium it’s quite acceptable to bring together a collection of seemingly unrelated ideas over the course of a week or more. I guess this comes partly out of the personal blogging scene where it’s not unusually to see a post one day on the blogger’s political views, to see them post a little later reviewing a movie they’ve just seen, posting the next day a link to a fart joke that they just came across and then following it up with a description of last night’s date.
There’s something wonderful about this (it can be a wonderfully surprising ride to read such blogs) however recently I’ve found myself advising quite a few business bloggers and entrepreneurial bloggers to think through their posting a little more.
The Problem with Random Posting
While random posting can be a lot of fun and works well for some blogs (particularly those who build themselves on the back of their weird and wacky approach) it can also be quite frustrating for those readers who come to your blog not to be entertained but because they want to learn something.
Planned Posting
I’ve been asking myself the following question each Monday morning over the past few weeks….
Where do I want to take my readers this week?
In doing so I’m beginning to look at each week as a mini journey with readers.
I don’t ask this of all my blogs (particularly those whose content is more ‘newsy’ and where the breaking news within the niche determines what I post) but on my blogs like enternetusers it’s a question I’m very intentional about asking.
In answering the question I map out a posting schedule for the week and identify a number of topics that I want to cover on each day. Some weeks this results in a series of posts (like last week when I tackled persuasive blogging) and other weeks it will result in a random looking collection of posts that may or may not seem directly related but which fit within where I want the blog to go this week.
I still throw in random or newsy posts that I didn’t plan on at the beginning of the week - but am finding that the result of this planning at the start of the week (or at the start of the month - as I do on one of my blogs) is more effective communication, positive reader feedback and increased repeat readers coming back to see what’s next.
One last benefit of it is that I’m feeling a lot more focused and in control of where my blogs are headed each week. Instead of waking up on Thursday morning and stressing that I need to not only write something but have to think of a topic - I already have an assignment waiting for me ready to start writing up.
How far ahead do you plan posts on your blog? Do you plan ahead at all or are you more spontaneous? Do you think about the journey you want to take your readers on over a period of time?
Written on August 30th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 08:08 pm by Darren Rowse
aStore: Get Link - Amazon.com Associates Central
Amazon have just emailed those testing their aStore to let them know of three ways to integrate it into their website.
1. Link to your aStore as a stand-alone store (this is what they were offering previously and is as simple as having a link (like this) to your aStore.
2. Embed your aStore using an inline frame - where it will appear as though the aStore is a part of your site and they can shop without leaving your shop (as in the picture above/left).
3. Integrate your aStore using a frameset - placing the aStore in one frame and your site’s navigation into another - also making it seem like it’s part of your site (below).
Instructions for each method are in the ‘get link’ section of the aStore menu.
It’s nice to see Amazon taking their stores in this direction - it answers a lot of the concerns expressed by publishers when they were announced.
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