Written on March 3rd, 2007 at 12:03 am by David Shawver
Clear Blogging
This afternoon I was filling in a couple of hours in the CBD of Melbourne before heading to the football and I gravitated to one of the major bookstores - as I do.
After looking through the business section I ventured into the area dedicated to computers - you know the one, full of books about coding languages that most of us will never know (or care to know). In the ‘internet’ section there were three books on blogging. I grabbed each one and sat down on the floor to see what I could learn.
The first two didn’t really grab my attention but one called Clear Blogging (aff) grabbed me - mainly because it was bigger than the other two and had a familiar ring to it.
Instead of starting at the front - I flipped to the index to see if there might be a section on ‘money’ or ‘professional blogging’. Imagine my surprise when I not only saw ‘professional blogging’ but saw numerous pages that mentioned ‘enternetusers.net’.
Always one who is interested to see what’s being said about me I flipped to the first page to find a whole section dedicated to ‘An Interview with Darren Rowse’!
Suddenly I remembered why ‘Clear Blogging’ seemed so familiar - I’d spent a good 45 minutes with it’s author, Bob Walsh, on Skype a few months back! Not only that his publisher had sent me an e-copy to review (it’s buried under a whole heap of other ‘things to do’).
With two hours to kill I realized that I’d found the perfect way to fill in some time so proceeded to work my way through the book.
While I did only skim most of it - I was quite impressed with the depth and breadth of what Bob managed to cover in the book. It’s the most comprehensive book I’ve seen on the topic of blogging and well worth the read. I’d recommend it to any new blogger wanting both theory and practical advice about everything from the setting up of a blog through to the running of one.
Bob uses a lot of current examples and gives sound advice.
Written on March 2nd, 2007 at 10:03 am by David Shawver
Bloggers Face-Off
Daniel at Daily Blog Tips is doing a novel interview series at the moment called ‘Bloggers Face-Off’ where he asks two bloggers the same set of questions and puts them side by side.
I’m featured in the first one along side my virtual twin co-speaker at Elite Retreat Jeremy Schoemaker.
Apart from being fun I like Daniel’s idea because he didn’t make it too demanding for interviewees to participate. It’s a novel idea and one I think will work well for him particularly as he roles out more higher profile face-offs in the coming weeks.
Written on March 2nd, 2007 at 03:03 am by David Shawver
How to be a Good Guest Blogger
This week we’ve been looking at the practice of guest blogging. So far we’ve covered why guest blogging is good, how to find guest bloggers for your blog and how to get guest blogging jobs. Today I want to finish this mini-series of posts by looking at one last question:
How do I be a Good Guest Blogger?
So you’ve got the guest blogging gig - perhaps its for a week while the blogger is away, perhaps it’s just a one off slot - but how should you approach it? Here are six things to keep in mind:
1. Research the Blog - do a little homework on the blog that you’ll be writing for. Your posts will be much better received both by the blogger you’re helping out as well as their readers by finding answering some of the following questions before you start writing:
- who reads it?
- what voice or style does the blogger write in?
- what is the reach of the topic that is usually covered?
- what posts get most comments?
- what level is the blog pitched at
- what are the unwritten rules of the blog?
With this information in mind you’ll be in a much better position to write something that meets the needs of the reader, blogger and yourself.
2. On Being Yourself - one of the fine lines that you need to walk as a guest blogger is that between being yourself and respecting the culture already established on the blog you’re posting on.
While I would strongly recommend that you write in your own voice and style I think it’s important not to take the blog in a completely different direction while the blogger you’re helping out is away. While some readers won’t mind a radical change some will react against it and the blogger could come back to a disgruntled readership.
3. Look for Gaps in the blog - one of the reasons that I love having a guest blogger come on at my blogs is that they bring a different skill set and knowledge base to the blog to my own. I attempt to find bloggers who will add something unique and different to the topic I’m discussion (while writing in a style that fits with mine).
As a guest blogger you can really get on the radar of your readers by fulfilling a need in readers and plugging a gap in the topic of the niche.
4. Sell Yourself - as part of the agreement that you have with the blogger that you’re helping out negotiate a byline (or by-paragraph) that will enable you to sell yourself (within reason). Include a link back to your blog and RSS feed as well as a brief biographical/descriptive sentence or two about who you are and what you do.
Link back to your site if you have something write on topic that adds something to the post - but don’t fill your posts with self referential links - this looks cheap and nasty.
Another aspect of selling yourself is sharing some of your story. While blog readers ultimately want great content on a blog - many also want to connect and relate to the person they’re reading to. This doesn’t mean writing a biographical post but it could mean sharing some of your experiences on the topic at hand.
Lastly, part of selling yourself is to consider what is happening on your own blog during your guest posting stint. If you blog on someone else’s blog for a week but let your own slip you don’t provide those who come over to check more of your work out with much incentive to stick around. If anything - the times that you guest post you should put a concerted effort into making bigger efforts onto your own blog as it’s an opportunity to find new readers.
5. Be Reliable - if you commit to post daily for a week - post daily for a week. If you promise to write a series on a certain topic - finish the series and don’t leave it hanging mid stream.
If you can’t meet your commitments you let the blogger and their readers down and could damage your own reputation. It’s better to set lower expectations and over deliver than to promise the world and not deliver to the expectations that you’ve set.
6. Add Value - don’t view guest blogging as purely an opportunity for you to get new readers and promote yourself. Remember the reason that we talked about guest blogging being a good thing was that it was a win win win situation where you as the guest blogger might raise your profile but where the blogger and their readers need to come away from the interaction better off too.
Add genuine value to the blog you are writing on and you’ll win yourself new fans with readers and the blogger and could just find yourself with a regular guest blogging spot.
Being a good guest blogger is like being a good guest in any situation. Do everything in your power to leave the place you are visiting in better shape than when you arrived and you’ll create a great impression.
Read the full Guest Blogging Series at:
Written on March 1st, 2007 at 08:03 am by David Shawver
34 Reasons Why Readers Unsubscribe from Your Blog
Thanks to everyone who has added their thoughts on why they unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed. There have been 109 comments left on that post so far and some interesting recurring themes have emerged.
I’ve attempted to categorize them below. Obviously with 103 opinions (and most people giving multiple reasons all in their own words) I’ve had to make some judgement calls in classifying comments left. Some of the categories below have overlap but I think you’ll get a pretty good picture of what motivates people to unsubscribe from RSS feeds.
34 Reasons Why People Unsubscribe from RSS feeds:
- Too many posts (the post levels are too overwhelming) - 37
- Infrequent Posting (or the blog is effectively dead) - 29
- Partial Excerpts Feeds - 25
- Blog Changes Focus (too much off topic posting) - 23
- Too many posts that I see elsewhere (Redundant, Repeated or Recycled News) - 19
- Uninteresting Content - 16
- Irrelevant Content - 13
- The Blogger’s Ego - Too much self promotion - 11
- Low Quality Content - 11
- Too many posts that are too long - 10
- Negative blogging - 7
- Feed Errors - Especially when a Feed Reloads the latest 10-20 posts every time - 7
- Offensive Content/Personal attacks/Discrimination - 6
- ‘infomercials’ (too much selling) - 6
- Blog Titles that Don’t Tell what the post is about - 5
- No or Poor Formatting in posts - 5
- My own interests as a reader change - 5
- No Longer Useful or Valuable - 4
- Too many links in the text and not enough content - 4
- Advertising - 3
- Inconsistent writing (style and focus) - 2
- Too Many Grammatical Errors - 2
- Found other feeds that are better - 2
- Too Narrow a focus - 1
- Too much repetition in topic - 1
- Pushiness of Blogger - 1
- Blogger Doesn’t Respond to Comments - 1
- No Images in the feed - 1
- Lack of Confidence or Opinion - 1
- Lack of a sense of who the blogger is - 1
- Too much clutter/extras at the end of posts - 1
- Talking Down to Readers - 1
- Too many quotes - 1
- Change of Primary blogger - 1
A few brief comments (I wouldn’t want to have a long post now….):
The Frequency of Posting is obviously a big factor with 35% of respondents saying that too many posts was reason for unsubscribing and 28% saying that infrequent posts was reason to delete a feed from their reader. Interestingly, the ‘infrequent posting’ vote was perhaps a little less than last time I asked a group of bloggers this question. I suspect that with advancements in Feed Readers that inActive feeds don’t bother as many people as they did previously (ie Google Reader has a mode where you simply don’t see a feed unless it’s updated).
The Partial Feeds Vote got off to a slow start but gained momentum as the comment thread grew. 24% of respondents said they unsubscribe from feeds that are partial or just title feeds.
Off Topic Posting and blogs changing direction/focus is an obvious annoyance to many (this one surprised me slightly) with 22% of people giving it as a reason.
Content - I found it interesting that the quality, relevance and nature of content came down the list. Things like the form and frequency of the feed dominated the discussion while the actual content itself came in as secondary importance. Perhaps this was skewed slightly by the way I asked the question and by the first responses (I suspect that some people were swayed by the issues that others already raised).
Written on March 1st, 2007 at 01:03 am by David Shawver
How to Get Guest Blogging Jobs
When I started writing about Guest Blogging earlier this week with my post Why Guest Bloggers are Great for a Blog I didn’t intend it to end up as a series of posts - but then people started asking about how to find guest bloggers so I wrote another one. Today I’ve been asked about how to get guest blogging gigs - so I guess this is a series of sorts after all.
So as a blogger looking to guest blog on other people’s blogs how do you go about getting the gigs?
1. Watch for Opportunities - keep an eye on blogs in the niches that you write about and look for the opportunities. If the blogger mentions that they are going away, that they are busy with family or business, that they are looking for submissions etc - shoot them an email with an offer to help share the load with them.
2. Be Relational - when I’m pitched by potential guest bloggers I’m far more likely to take them up on their offer to write for me if I already know them. In fact these days I rarely accept posts that have been pitched to me - I prefer to approach people that I already know and have some level of trust and respect for. So get yourself out there before the opportunities arise and interact with other bloggers in your niche.
3. Sell Yourself - if you don’t already know the blogger that you’re volunteering to help out with you need to do so quickly. Include a short bio outlining why you’d fit with their blog (don’t include loads of irrelevant information). Include links to your own blog and examples of work that you’ve done that relate to their topic to illustrate your style, voice, expertise and ability to communicate. Also include some headlines/titles of posts that you’d like to write for them to show that you’ve already given it some thought.
4. Be ProActive - another option is to actually write the blogger that you’re pitching a sample post and something that they can use immediately. Pick a topic within the niche that they cover (preferably something on a topic that they haven’t covered and/or something that they might have a weakness in themselves) and write a medium sized post. When you email them include it and invite them to use it. This will get their attention, give them a living example of your work and give them something to use immediately. If they don’t use it you can always write it on your own blog so what have you got to loose?
5. Keep Your Expectations Realistic - I use link to about 20-30% of the posts that people send me and I suspect that the ratio of guest posts that I use would be similar. Perhaps this is partly due to the numbers of pitches that I get and on other blogs it might be higher. The point is that you shouldn’t get your hopes up too high. Make your pitch professional and short but don’t take it personally if it doesn’t come off.
Read the full Guest Blogging Series at:
Written on February 28th, 2007 at 12:02 pm by David Shawver
SXSW BlogNetworkCamp
If you’re going to SXSW in a couple of weeks and want to get together with some other bloggers to talk blog networks you might be interested in the BlogNetworkCamp meetup that b5media is hosting.
Topics under discussion:
- Better ways to pay bloggers
- Infrastructure requirements of a growing blog network
- How to sell ads in today’s online ad environment
- Challenges of 2007
- Ways to collaborate (or not)
I won’t be there but Jeremy and a few other b5′ers will be and I’m sure they’d be happy to have you along no matter what size your blog network (or potential one) is.
Written on February 28th, 2007 at 07:02 am by David Shawver
How to Find a Guest Blogger for your Blog
Aditya makes a good point, bouncing off my post yesterday on guest bloggers.
The main point made is that it can be easier to find a guest blogger when you have an established or popular blog.
They write:
“Some good points - but it certainly is much easier to get a guest blogger when you have a very popular blog, right?
Now i think you’ll get the idea. Guest bloggers can be useful especially if you’re running a popular blog on the blogosphere and of course they also lining up to write on your blog even if you are not asking for it.”
Aditya does make a good point and it is something I should have included in yesterday’s post. It is easier to find people to fill in when you have an established readership.
However just because you might have a small blog doesn’t mean guest bloggers are out of the equation for you. In fact I first started finding guest bloggers for my blogs in the first few months of blogging.
Here are six ways to find guest bloggers:
1. Look in Your Comments Section - perhaps the best place to find guest bloggers is in your comments section. It is there that you’ll find readers who’ve taken a step towards Active participation on your blog already (a good sign that they want to interact with you). Look for repeat comment leavers and those with something worthwhile to share. Even in the early days of a blog those who are commenting can be great contacts to deepen connections with.
2. Aim High - ‘you’ll never know unless you ask’ is a saying I utter a fair bit. While most well known bloggers are probably unlikely to say yes to blogging on a blog that they’ve not heard of - you might just be surprised. I’ve asked most ‘A-listers’ from time to time to come post something for me at enternetusers - and some of them even took me up on the offer.
3. Aim ‘Low’ - ‘low’ is the wrong word and I don’t mean to cast any judgments - but sometimes the most willing guest bloggers are those just starting out who are attempting to make a name for themselves in your niche (or a related one).
4. Look for Networkers - look for bloggers who have a history of being networkers and who are already taking up similar opportunities on different blogs. That’s why I asked Tony Hung to guest blog for me last time I went on holidays. While Tony was already making a name for himself in our part of the blogging community he was someone was Actively seeking to connect with other bloggers and offering to work with them Actively.
5. Look Offline - some of the most successful guest posts that I’ve had on my photography blogs are from people who’ve never heard of blogs before - pro photographers. These experts in my niche were not Active content creators - but were willing to share what they knew. You don’t have to go for Pros or Experts in your niche - family members, friends, colleagues or associates might make a great guest poster and bring a unique perspective to your blog.
6. Make it ‘easy’ - when you approach a guest blogger don’t ask for too much. A good example of this was a series of guest posts that I produced mid last year with my 1 question interviews. In the series I approached some well known bloggers with a single question which formed the basis for 14 guest posts over a two week holiday. Similarly, this week I approached a number of bloggers to help me keep enternetusers ticking over on my upcoming trip to the US.
Read the full Guest Blogging Series at:
Written on February 28th, 2007 at 01:02 am by David Shawver
The Rise of the Multi Blogger Blog - Outsourcing Content Creation
There’s something in the air today - everyone seems to be talking about outsourcing your blogging (or elements of it).
Daniel is writing about it from a perspective of outsourcing some of your non core blogging activities (like design, blog maintenance, marketing and even content creation) and Yaro is talking about his journey of outsourcing his own blog’s content creation and management.
It’s an interesting topic for discussion and something that a lot of blogs are moving more towards with numerous large blogs around the wider community moving to a group blogging model. To some extent I’ve even done it a little here at enternetusers with the invitation to a couple of fellow bloggers (Tony and Glen) to submit articles every week or two.
I’ve also tinkered with it over at DPS where I’ve been using more and more reader submissions (from semi-regular contributers mainly).
Why would you want to outsource elements of your blogging (particularly content creation) by adding new authors to your blog? Well there are numerous advantages that immediately leap to mind:
- fresh ideas
- new styles/voices
- less reliance upon you personally to drive the brand
- introduce new skills, opinions, experiences and expertise into the mix
- potentially increase posting frequency
- having people in different time zones to keep things well maintained
- gives you a break or allows you to focus on new projects
Of course for every upside there’s usually a downside to accompany it and some of the negatives of outsourcing through adding new bloggers can include:
- more time spent on managing others and the issues that they can bring
- motivational issues for bloggers
- potential dilution of your own personal brand
- risk of lower quality content
- new voices can disenfranchise some loyal readers
- compensation challenges - finding the right model and administering it
- recruiting - how do you find the right person with the right ‘fit’?
- Stanton Termite Control
I certainly don’t have all the answers to any of these issues and like most others at this stage am still finding my way with it. My own ‘outsourcing’ has been largely out of wanting to free up a little more time and a desire to add a few new voices into the mix - but I suspect we’ll see more and more blogs going the multi-blogger direction in the coming months.
Written on February 27th, 2007 at 08:02 pm by David Shawver
What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed?
In my recent call for questions from readers Barry asked:
“What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed?”
It’s a good question and one worthy of some discussion as an ‘Open Mic’ discussion. Perhaps the result will be that we’ll all learn a thing or two NOT to do in our blogging.
So what makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed? What makes you ‘un-bookmark it’ or stop visiting via some other method?
Is it to do with the style of blogging, the frequency of posting, the feed itself (whether it be full/partial feed, whether they include other links, ads etc), the topic, the attitude of the blogger or some other factor?
Enjoying the discussion below? Digg it Here
Written on February 27th, 2007 at 04:02 am by David Shawver
Why Guest Bloggers are Great for a Blog
Matt Coddington has written a guest post over at John Chow’s blog on the topic of guest blogging and makes the point that it’s something that is really a win win win situation.
The blogger who does the guest spot wins because it exposes them to a new readership and (as Matt does) if you link back to your blog or if you arrange to have a byline with a link in it you can directly draw traffic back to your own blog as a result. Of course if you’re going to include links in your post make them relevant to the post itself.
The blogger who owns the blog wins because they get to take a break and keep their blog ticking over, they get to involve another blogger (remember giving readers jobs can be a great way to increase ownership of your blog by them) and they get a fresh perspective on their topic.
The reader wins because they get to hear about the topic of the blog from a new angle. Someone once told me (I think it was a parent blogger) that one of the lessons that they learned as a mother was the its not just parents who need a break from kids - its kids who sometimes need a break from parents. I think the same thing applies for bloggers and their reader - as much as your readers might love you - they need a break from you just as much as you need a break from them!
Wondering what else you can do with your blog to give yourself a break? Here’s 7 things I’ve done with my blog while taking a holiday.
PS: it’s only 3 weeks to go until I’m off for my US trip. I’ve already started lining up some guest posters who I think you’ll enjoy hearing from.
Read the full Guest Blogging Series at:
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