Guerrilla Insight

Using AideRSS to Help Identify Hot Topics to Cover On Your Blog (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

Split Testing: How To Increase Your Adsense Earnings 94% Overnight — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:08:40+0100

View the full sized version of this video at Blip, YouTube or Viddler (you’ll probably want to to see the text of what I’m talking about).

Yesterday I wrote about how to choose a topic to write about for blog posts and today in this video post I want to follow up this topic with a video demonstration of how I use a great service called AideRSS to analyze previous posts on my blog and observe trends in both the topics and styles of writing that can help to decide upon future topics to cover.

You won’t simply want to repeat past topics that have done well but will probably do better to extend upon them.

AideRSS can be used in lots of ways to track other blogs and help find great content on other blogs but for me this analysis of my own posts has become a valuable tool. I hope you enjoy this screen cast.

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The Why and How on Repeating Content on Your Blog (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

Blog World Expo (Winners of Passes) - I?m Going Too! — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:45:28+0100

Many bloggers come to a point in their blogging after they’ve been at it for a sustained period of time where they need to make a decision about repeating content and posting on topics they’ve already covered. Here’s a recent question from a reader who wished to remain anonymous:

“I would like to get your opinion about content repetition. When you have an audience that is always changing, it would seem that you would need to cover some content again. I realize that basic information can be linked to static pages but otherwise, what kind of rule do you have to regulate content repetition.”

This is the type of question that many bloggers come up against after they’ve been blogging for a while. It arises out of a number of realizations including:

1. Running out of new things to say - in some niches a blogger gets to a point where they realize that they have begun to exhaust their own expertise on their blog. This is particularly common on ‘how to’ type blogs (it’s easier to keep fresh content coming on a ‘news’ related blog where there is always a breaking story.

2. On blogs with a high rate of attracting new readers - as is mentioned in the question above - when you have a blog that is constantly visited by new readers it can be a challenge to direct them to content that will help them that you’ve already covered.

As a result of these two situations bloggers come to a point where they are faced with the choice of covering topics that they’ve already posted about on their blog.

For some bloggers this is a big hurdle to overcome on a number of levels:

guilt - some bloggers feel guilty about it and feel like they’re somehow cheating or short changing readers. boredom - others find that going over ground that they’ve already covered can lead to them as bloggers getting bored and feeling un-stimulated. reader expectations - Some longer term readers will react negatively to these ‘repeated’ topics. So what’s a blogger to do about Repeating Content?

I am sure that different bloggers will settle on different approaches when it comes to repeating topics on a blog (and I’d love to hear some of these in comments below).

My own approach is that I definitely do go over old ground on my blogs.

The way I justify this (if it needs to be justified) is:

1. As my blogs attract a lot of new readers I feel that repeating some of the basics is actually doing a service to those new readers.

2. I am constantly learning more about the topics that I blog about and as a result my own ideas and knowledge is growing. While I cover the same ground as I have previously I do try to add extra value and updates on what I’ve been learning for longer term readers. In a sense I see repeating topics as a way of updating my blog.

Alternatives for Repeating Topics:

There are a number of ways that a blogger can go about repeating past topics on their blog. Here are a few that I’ve done:

Repost Old Posts as Fresh Posts - this is what I do on Digital Photography School. In these cases I occasionally will go back to old posts and rewrite or update them and then change the date of publishing the post to the current date so that it appears to readers as a new post. This means that any outdated information on the post can be removed and that you can actually get a little extra search engine juice to the old post as it is appearing on your front page again. Important Note: this only really works if you have a permalink structure that doesn’t change depending upon the date that you publish the post on! Update Old Posts and Announce the Changes in a New Post - if you have an old post that is dated or now inaccurate there’s nothing wrong (in my mind) with going back to that post and reediting it. If you don’t want to republish it as a new post simply write a new post with a link back to the old one saying that you’ve updated it. This drives people back to the old post. When making changes to old posts I would usually highlight where on the post I’ve made updates so that readers are aware that what they are reading is ‘fresh’. Write a 2nd Post - this is generally what I do here on ProBlogger. My approach with this is to tackle the topic afresh as though I’d not written the first post (in many cases I don’t even look at what I’ve previously written until I’ve finished the new post as I don’t want to simply repeat it word for word). I attempt to find a new way to approach the topic, new insights, new examples and even write it in a different style/voice. A Few Other Tips on Repeating Content Mix it Up - whichever method you decide to use to repeat topics I would strongly advise that you mix the ‘repeated’ content up with fresh content. Don’t make every post that you do a rehashed version of an old post but give your longer term readers fresh content and topics also. Guest Posts - another way to bring freshness to things that you’ve already covered is to use guest posters to cover the old ground. I’ve done this recently on DPS and it’s worked really well. For starters it means I don’t get bored by covering ground I’ve already covered but it also brings freshness from a reader perspective. Highlight Key Posts for New Readers - one of the reasons some bloggers feel obligated to cover old ground is that new readers keep asking them questions about things they’ve already covered. One way to combat this problem is to create prominent gateways back to key content that you’ve already covered. Link back in your sidebar or navigation area to ‘best posts’ or ‘beginner’ content so that new readers have ways of finding the key things that they need. Acknowledge The Reader Life Cycle - it is a difficult thing to hear that a reader has decided to stop reading your blog because they don’t find it as useful as it once was and that you keep repeating ‘old stuff’. What I’ve come to realize is that most blog readers have a ‘life cycle’ and in many cases will grow out of your blog (particularly if your blog is a ‘how to’ type blog. They come to you as beginners and lap up everything that you write about but in time they learn and grow. They might lose interest in your topic or simply become proficient in it (partly due to your helping them). At some point they realize that they don’t need your blog as much as they used to and begin to ‘move on’. This can be hard to watch as a blogger - but it is actually natural and not worth beating yourself up about. Sure - do keep trying to connect with your long term readers but at some point don’t be surprised if they move on.

Do you repeat content? If so, how do you do it?

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The Buzz about Yahoo Buzz (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

ProBlogger Blog Tips — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:06:37+0100

I opened my inbox this morning to find quite a bit of mail on the one topic - Yahoo Buzz which today opened up its doors to the public and started allowing other sites outside of it’s initial closed test to submit stories to it. Yahoo Buzz is a social bookmarking/voting site (quite similar to Digg) and some of it’s top stories even get to the front page of Yahoo. Sites that have been to the front page of Yahoo have reported more traffic than they’ve ever seen before - even when they are just on the front page for an hour.

This lure of massive traffic has many bloggers ‘buzzing’ today. But is it worth getting buzzed about (OK, I’ll stop with the buzz talk now)?

Read Write Web today asks some questions about Buzz and muses that Buzz could be a system with more editorial control than Digg (particularly with what gets to the front page of Yahoo).

My advice to publishers is to not become obsessed by Yahoo Buzz but to keep an open mind.

I’m seeing bloggers either proclaiming it as the answer to all their traffic needs or writing it off as something that won’t last - but somewhere between these two extremes will be the truth.

As with all social media sites - Yahoo Buzz will appeal to a certain type of audience and reader and will therefore present different opportunities to different publishers.

You can submit stories to Buzz here and get Buzz Buttons for your Blog here.

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Split Testing: How To Increase Your Adsense Earnings 94% Overnight (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

Comment Moderation - How Do You Do It? — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:07:21+0100

In this post Brian Armstrong from StartBreakingFree.com shares some tips on using Split Testing to increase his AdSense earnings.

Long time readers of ProBlogger know that Darren is a big fan of split testing ads to improve your earnings. I took this advice to heart, and wanted to show you some real world results that I got on my own blog.

Feel free to take these results and apply them to your own site. Or better yet, do some of our own testing and improve on them even more!

I split tested 3 separate regions of my site and looked mostly at eCPM to compare them. If you aren’t sure what eCPM is click here. I think it’s better to use eCPM than click through rate (CTR) because it incorporates not just how often it’s clicked, but also how much you make per click.

Right Aligned vs. Left Aligned Ad In Post Body

This ad region makes the most money for me, and was smack dab at the top of each individual post page (but not on the homepage).

The right aligned ad got a 0.78% CTR and $1.41 eCPM The left aligned ad got a 1.30% CTR and $5.31 eCPM

Clear winner: left aligned (276% improvement)

It’s hard to say why this is exactly. Maybe the left aligned ad looks more like it’s actual content instead of an ad. Whatever the reason, the difference was substantial.

Top Right: image vs. text

This ad resides at the very top right of every page. I had been running it with image ads for a while and decided to test it against text ads (with some appropriate color choices).

The image ads got a 0.35% CTR and $1.74 eCPM The text ads got a 0.33% CTR and $2.15 eCPM

Interesting to note here that although the CTR went down slightly, the eCPM went up. This seems to indicate that the text ads were paying more per click. So even though it was clicked slightly less often it still made more money overall.

Winner: text ads (narrowly)

Under Posts: image vs. text

This ad was placed at the bottom of each post page and also on the homepage under the excerpts. I again decided to test some text ads against the incumbent image ads.

The image ads got a 0.58% CTR and $1.86 eCPM The text ads got a 0.43% CTR and $2.27 eCPM

Again here the CTR went down and the eCPM went up. Also worth noting is that the color scheme I used on the text ad block is consistent with my site. “Blockquote” tags on my site use a similar color scheme.

Winner: text ads

Conclusions & Next Steps

For those who are curious, here is the actual data from an excel spreadsheet. You can pull this out of Adsense under the “reports” tab if you use different channels to compare different ads.

Overall these results were impressive. The site-wide eCPM from these three ads went up overall from $5.01 to $9.73 which is a 94% improvement.

I could just convert all ads to the better performing version and call it a day, but what I’ll do instead is continue testing….forever.

There are plenty of other things to test, such as…

Trying text ads in the post body (since they performed better elsewhere) Left aligning ads under the posts Trying different color schemes Trying other types of ads (Amazon, Performancing Ads, Text-Link-Ads, etc)

Most people focus on growing their blog’s readership to boost earnings. This is a critical component, but don’t forget about the other major tool in your arsenal: split testing.

What ad formats and placements have worked best for you? Leave us a comment below.

To get more tips like these, check out my blog at StartBreakingFree.com. It’s is a blog for people who’d like to quit their 9-to-5 jobs, start their own business, and achieve financial freedom. I’ll even give you 3 of the top 10 books on building wealth for FREE when you subscribe, instantly delivered to your inbox! Check it out.

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Movable Type launch Version 4.2 and Movable Type Pro (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

Using AideRSS to Help Identify Hot Topics to Cover On Your Blog — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:23:25+0100

Today SixApart have laun ched Movable Type 4.2 and Movable Type Pro.

MT was the first blogging platform that I experienced (after a brief stint with blogger.com) and for a long while it had everything that I needed - however in time it became a little slow and problematic and with the surge in popularity around WordPress among bloggers I switched platforms.

Today’s Movable Type Pro launch marks another important step in the evolution of MT as a platform. I’m yet to test it but from what I see it’s continuing to develop MT in a direction that I’m certain will be attractive to many bloggers - at least on a feature level.

You can read about it’s new features in Anil’s announcement post but in short it’s taking blogs powered with MT Pro in a more ’social’ direction and makes MT no longer just a blogging platform but one that gives readers of MT Pro blogs the power to become members, set up profiles, rating of content, forums etc.

More and more bloggers are looking to find ways to integrate social networking within their communities and to this point most are having to settle for marrying two platforms together (one blogging platform and one social networking platform). Movable Type now offer a solution for an all in one package - something that will be very tempting for some bloggers.

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Join me in Blog Action Day - 15 October 2008 (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

AdSense for Feeds Goes Live — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:07:23+0100

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

I hope you’ll consider joining me in this year’s Blog Action Day - The topic This year is Poverty.

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Interview with Jack Humphrey (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

5 Methods to Enhancing Page Load — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:06:12+0100

This morning I got on the phone with internet marketer Jack Humphrey as part of his webside chats series of interviews. It was an enjoyable 45 minutes which you can listen into here:

Jack also has some other great interviews in his series - check them out here.

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Intellectual Property Law Tips for Bloggers (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

Join me in Blog Action Day - 15 October 2008 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:03:48+0100

Confused about Trademark, Copyright and other Intellectual Property Law issues as they pertain to your blog? Today Mark Patterson from Waddy & Patterson PC and the Tough Money Love Blog is going to explore some of these IP issues.

I am fully aware of the risks of publishing a post with advice on intellectual property law. The return fire could be overwhelming. After all, the blogosphere is supposed to be a place for open and unrestricted exchange of ideas and information, unhindered by rules and structures imposed by a legal system that can’t seem to keep up. On the other hand, blogging has become a business for many, providing substantial alternative or primary income streams for bloggers who work hard to research and publish original content. These tips, then, are intended for those bloggers who want to protect the business side of their blogging efforts, lest their hard-earned “blog assets” be snatched away by others who know how to use the legal system. So, please don’t flame me. Yes, I am an attorney but I’m a blogger too!

Protect Your Brand (and Domain Name Ownership Doesn’t Count!)

I won’t name names, but a quick check of the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO for short) tells me that there are some very successful (top 25) bloggers who have registered their blog title or domain as a trademark. If you blog with a plan to brand your site or yourself, and if you succeed, you now own substantial trademark rights. (Technically, publishing information online is a service, making it a “service mark” but the rules are the same.) Your domain name may or may not be the same as your blog title (or “brand” in marketing parlance). Even if the domain name and blog title are the same, owning the domain name does not protect your brand. That is the role of trademark law. To enhance and secure the valuable trademark rights arising from your blog publishing venture, your trademark should be registered.

Why do I recommend registration, particularly for heavily monetized blogs? There are many reasons but I want to mention two of the most important. First, registration puts everyone on notice of your rights. You do not want a business to accidentally adopt your blog title as the name for a book or other product or service. A trademark search performed by the lawyer for that business may include domain names but trust me, it probably will not be exhaustive enough to capture a blog title that is not identical to the domain name. If your blog title/brand is registered, a search will find it immediately. Even if no search is performed, your registration provides constructive notice to everyone. So if another blogger decides to use a blog title identical or similar to yours (even innocently), your registration is a powerful tool to shut that other blogger down – quickly.

A second important reason for registering your valuable blog title is that the registration becomes an important financial asset. If you ever wanted to sell your blog, the registration will add tremendous value. The same goes for licensing your brand for other products or services. A trademark registration provides a level of predictability and sophistication that is well understood by those in the corporate and financial worlds. If you want to play in those worlds someday, be prepared with the right tools.

If you want to register your blog title as service mark, you can do it yourself online at www.uspto.gov. I don’t recommend that because the risk-reward and cost-benefit ratios of DIY trademark work are decidedly against you. If you have a heavily monetized blog with great cash flow, let a pro do it right the first time.

Protect Your Content as if your Ad Revenue Depended on It

Unless you have the attitude that everything you write should be public domain immediately upon publication, you must pay some attention to the fundamentals of copyright law. What you call a “scraper” in the blog world, IP lawyers call “infringers.” This tip is for bloggers who don’t like scrapers and other copycat artists who are too lazy to write their own stuff or who are looking for shortcuts to page ranks and links.

Starting with the basics, I am amazed at the number of high traffic blogs I visit that do not display a proper (or any) copyright notice anywhere on the site. I won’t go into all of the legal benefits of using a copyright notice (of which there are many). Let’s just say that if you ever had to take legal action against someone who blatantly copied your content, your failure to use a copyright notice will substantially devalue your case. On a more practical side, there are lots of readers and bloggers who believe that if you don’t display a copyright notice, your content is public domain. This belief is wrong but it doesn’t help you if they don’t know it’s wrong and end up using your post in its entirety. So use a notice to at least discourage those who may not know any better.

While I am talking about copyright notices, let’s be clear about what this is. The notice must include “ © “ or the word “copyright”, your name, and the year of first publication of the content. For an established blog, that probably means using a range of years, reflecting that the content has regularly been updated.

Now what about guest posts, partial quotes from other posts, and comments? Generally, copyright ownership of a guest post is a matter of agreement between you and your guest poster. If nothing is said about that by either of you, then what you probably end up with is an implied license to publish the post on your blog and that’s it. The guest poster would retain copyright ownership and be free to use that same post as well. FYI – the same would apply to freelancers who write for you. You will need an assignment (in writing) of the copyright unless the freelance post meets the statutory definition of a work made for hire.

Quoting from other blogger’s posts is an established practice and fortunately copyright law supports it, typically under the fair use doctrine. There are no hard and fast rules in this area but be mindful of this one: Do not quote more than is necessary to make your own point about what was said by another blogger or author. If you follow this simple rule, no one will call you a scraper and everyone (including the lawyers) will be happy.

Finally, a word about the creative commons open source licensing scheme (www.creativecommons.org) If you want to use it for your content, that is fine, but make sure that you clearly notify readers of its application to your posts. If your content is copied for commercial use without your consent, for example, you cannot use the restrictions of the creative common license unless readers of your blog are told about it ahead of time. The creative commons license is fundamentally a contract, requiring an offer and acceptance on behalf of two parties, not just you. One way to invoke a creative commons license is to prominently reference it in your copyright notice and again in your site Terms of Use. (You do have Terms of Use, don’t you?)

Respect Third-Party Graphic Content

Most bloggers like to juice up their posts and pages with attractive graphics and photos. In my experience reading blogs, photos are used primarily for aesthetics and not for further educating the reader about the subject matter of the post. That immediately takes away the “fair use” argument. This means that if you import third-party photos or other graphics into your blog, be 100% sure that it is public domain material. If it is not, it may be available to you under a creative commons license, but you must use the material as specified in the license. Usually this means including an author attribution and a link back to the owner. Also, remember that just because a photo or graphic is published on the web without a copyright notice, it does not mean that it is public domain. Similarly, you cannot copy third-party material (graphics or text), modify it, then use it as if you owned it. That is called a derivative work and under the law, only the copyright owner has the right to do that.

Watch Your SEO Metadata

As metadata has become less important in search engine algorithms, IP lawyers are seeing fewer disputes over use of third-party trademarks in website metadata. Still, if you have a monetized blog that focuses on a hobby such as digital photography or collecting, do not plant company or product names in your keyword or heading metadata for the purpose of driving traffic to your site. The law is all over the place in this area but such usage creates legal risk. If you use third-party trademarks in your blog text, that generally will be OK, depending on the context.

Use these tips wisely (meaning get legal advice applicable to your specific situation) and if you have, or aspire to have, a money-making blog, your IP legal bases will be well covered.

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How to Find your Passion (& What You Should be Blogging About) (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

How to Craft a Blog Post - 10 Crucial Points to Pause — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:55:46+0100

In this post Glen Allsopp from Pluginid.com takes a look at passion and how to choose what to write about. I’ve included a few links to other posts on this topic below also. Image by Dario.

“Don’t do it for the money, do it because you love it!”

Sound familiar? It should do, because almost every blog about blogging has said something along the same lines. No disrespect to them though, I completely agree with the point that bloggers should write about what they love, not just what is making money for others.

Sounds great, right? Well, I’ve actually begun to understand that not everybody knows what their passion is. Not everybody knows what it is they should be blogging about. That is why we see 100 John Chow clones and niche saturation where it is clear bloggers are writing for the money.

Why Money is a Bad Goal

You can be as spiritual or as “un-materialistic” as you want, but in a practical world we all need money to survive. So then why is it bad to blog in a niche where there is a lot of money to be made, just because you have no interest? That’s easy:

You don’t have the value or expertise to offer others It’s likely you don’t have relevant personal experiences that readers can relate to You will struggle to find the motivation to write and to come up with post ideas

You can hear the following quote time and time again, but 99 out of 100 people who read it won’t believe it until they experience it themselves.

“It took me 5 brand new cars to realise they weren’t making me happy, as soon as I parked them for the first time I thought ‘what now?’”

- Russell Simmons (Def Jam Records & Phat Farm Clothing)

If there is large financial potential in the niche you are passionate about then that is great. Or, if you are interested in learning to make money online and want to write about your journey then that is fine too. However, don’t get sucked into writing about something because people are making money doing so.

They say that money can’t buy you happiness, but I believe sharing your knowledge on a subject you love certainly can. Just imagine the feeling of helping the world through your expertise, writing about something you love and making money in the process…you get the point.

Finding your Passion

I wrote about a similar topic on my own blog recently so I’m not going to copy that here. What I am going to show you is some quick questions you can ask yourself to reveal what it is you love.

Before I do that, I want to make clear that your passion may change, but don’t wait till you think you know what it is. What I mean is that if you are really passionate about poker right now, your interests may change in the future and you might turn to digital photography. Don’t wait until you are certain you are going to stay passionate about something, the joy of life is our ever-changing interests. The worst case scenario is that you can pay others to keep the blog going if your passion does change or simply sell it and start a new one; not a bad worst case scenario ;).

Note: Read the following questions and actually write down your answers. That way you can get the most out of this exercise.

1. If you could make the same amount of money blogging about any subject, what would it be?

2. Which subjects are you most knowledgeable about?

3. For the subjects in Question 2, would you blog about any of them even for no financial gain?

That is it, those are the three main questions you need to ask yourself, any more and you may miss the point of this exercise. If there was a level playing-field and no income potential yet you still wanted to blog…what would it be about? Your responses to the above questions should help you discover that answer.

Of course, they aren’t really true as any blogging niche has money making potential, but what you have to see is that it is a bonus. If you aren’t writing on a topic you are truly passionate about then despite the potential of financial gain, you still won’t be happy or enjoy it.

Benefits of Blogging Your Passion

If enjoying the topic and sharing your expertise aren’t enough to show you the benefits of blogging about your passion, what else is there to gain? That’s simple. Just the exact opposites of the earlier bullet points:

You have value and expertise you can offer to others You can share personal experiences that will help people relate to your content and connect with your words You will be excited to share new thoughts and discoveries with your readers

What you’ll also start to notice is that you become an authority in your niche, and this is highly valuable. With this authority you can release products, offer coaching or set-up a popular paid membership site depending on your industry. This is so much harder to do in saturated markets where there is a lot of competition.

Need more proof there is potential in any niche?

Here are the top 10 blogs in the world according to Technorati:

Huffington Post (General & Politics) TechCrunch (Web & Startup News) Gizmodo (Gadgets) Engadget (Gadgets) BoingBoing (Random / Weird News) Lifehacker (Productivity) Ars Technica (Technology News) ICanHasCheezburger (LOLCat Pictures) ReadWriteWeb (Web News & Trends) Mashable (Social Networking news)

Nothing about marketing, blogging or SEO which are all highly saturated due to people thinking they can make a lot of easy money. All of the websites have some authority status in their niche, whilst making a lot of money in the process. Michael Arrington has worked till 4am for years in order to get news out before anyone else and ensure that TechCrunch is the best source there is. Do you think he could do that if he generally didn’t have a passion for internet and startup related news?

So, what are YOU going to be writing about?

Glen Allsopp writes about finding the real you and expressing it through personal development at PluginID, a site that helps you ‘Plugin to your Identity’. You can help me help you by subscribing to the feed here.

Further Reading from the ProBlogger Archives on Choosing What to Blog About How to Choose a Niche Topic for your Blog Make Money Online Blogs - Should You Start One and How to Choose a Profitable Topic [VIDEO] What are YOU About? Choosing a Topic for your Blog

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How to Craft a Blog Post - 10 Crucial Points to Pause (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

Interview with Jack Humphrey — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:06:02+0100

It hits you like a TON of BRICKS! It’s an idea for that KILLER blog post that is just bound to bring you all the traffic that you’ve ever dreamed of.

With the idea fresh in your mind you sit down at your keyboard and BANG it out - desperate to hit publish as quickly as you can for fear that someone else will beat you to the PUNCH!

Image by pallotron

As SMOKE rises from your keyboard you complete your post, quickly add a title to it and proudly hit PUBLISH!

Visions of an avalanche of visitors, incoming links and comments swirl before you.

But then…

Reality hits you like a SLAP in the face. There are few visitors, no comments and no links. It’s not a KILLER post - it’s DEAD.

Ever had that experience?

I have - many many times over.

Today I want to start a series of posts that will walk you through an alternative workflow for constructing a blog post - one that takes…. time.

Image by Samyra.S

If there’s one lesson that I’ve learnt about writing for the web it’s that a key element to writing successful blog posts is that in most cases they take time to CREATE.

I emphasize ‘create’ because I think too often as bloggers we ‘PUNCH’ out content as though we’re in a race or under some kind of deadline. It’s almost like we’re on a production line at times - unfortunately the posts we write often reflect this.

In this series I want to suggest an alternative approach - the crafting (or creation) of content.

This process is a more thoughtful process that is about crafting words and ideas - shaping posts into content that take readers on a journey.

To kick off this series I want to suggest 10 points to pause at when writing a post on your blog. I’ll include a link to each post that follows in this series as I update them.

Instead of rushing through a post - I find that if I pause at these key moments my post rises to a new level of quality and posts tend to get more traction with readers. They don’t guarantee the perfect post - but they certainly take you a step closer to a good one.

Choosing a Topic - take a little extra time defining your topic and the post will flow better and you’ll develop something that matters to readers. Your Post’s Title - perhaps the most crucial part of actually getting readers to start reading your post when they see it in an RSS reader or search engine results page. The Opening Line - first impressions matter. Once you’ve got someone past your post’s title your opening line draws them deeper into your post. Your ‘point/s’ - a post needs to have a point. If it’s just an intriguing title and opening you’ll get people to read - but if the post doesn’t ‘matter’ to them it’ll never get traction. Call to Action - driving readers to do something cements a post in their mind and helps them to apply it and helps you to make a deeper connection with them. Adding Depth - before publishing your post - ask yourself how you could add depth to it and make it even more useful and memorable to readers? Quality Control and Polishing - small mistakes can be barriers to engagement for some readers. Spending time fixing errors and making a post ‘look’ good can take it to the next level. Timing of Publishing Your Post - timing can be everything - strategic timing of posts can ensure the right people see it at the right time. Promotion - having hit publish - don’t just leave it to chance that your post will be read by people. Giving it a few strategic ‘nudges’ can increase the exposure it gets exponentially. Conversation - often the real action happens once your post is published and being interacted with by readers and other bloggers. Taking time to dialogue can be very fruitful.

Taking extra time at each of these 10 points looks different for me in every post that I do - but I believe that every extra moment spent of these tasks pays off.

Some times the pause I take in one step will be momentary while in others it could take hours or even days to get it just right. Sometimes the above process happens quite automatically and other times I need to force myself to stop and ponder something like a title or the timing of a post.

Each of the 10 points above have much more that could be said about them so over the weeks I’ll be tackling each in turn in the hope that we can have some good discussion and sharing of ideas around them. I’ll link to each of them from within the list above as I release the posts.

For each point I hope to give some insight into how I tackle them and will share a few practical tips and examples of what I’ve done that has worked (and not worked). Don’t expect posts each day on this series - like all good things - this will take us some time!

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How to Craft Post Titles that Draw Readers Into Your Blog (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

Applying for a Blogger Job? Treat it Seriously — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:04:01+0100

Titles change the destiny of your posts.

Those few words at the beginning of your blog post can be the difference between the post being read and spread like a virus through the web like a wild fire and it languishing in your archives, barely noticed.

This month we’ve been talking about how to ‘craft’ blog posts and are looking at key moments in the writing of blog posts that it is important to pause and put a little extra effort into.

While there will usually only be a handful of words in your post title - they are the most powerful words that you’ll write because for most of your readers the decision as to whether to read the rest of your post rests upon them.

Why Blog Post Titles Matter

Blog post titles appear in:

Search engine results RSS feeds Links from other bloggers Social media sites On your archive pages (depending upon how you format them)

In each of these occassions the title can be the only thing that people see and the sole thing that people make the decision to visit your post on. Write a boring, complicated or confusing title and it doesn’t matter what you’ve written in the post - very few people will ever read it.

What should a Good Blog Post Title Do?

There are many techniques that copywriters use in crafting titles or headings both online and offline - but there’s generally one common goal behind them all. It can be summed up in the words of David Ogilvy who in Oglivy on Advertising (a great copywriting book) again and again echoes the refrain that:

> “the purpose of a title is to get potential readers to read the first line of your content.”

This is one of the lessons that has helped me the most in my own blogging and I’ve seen it’s power again and again.

Write a captivating and intruiging title and you’ll draw people into reading it every time.

How to Craft a Blog Post Title - 8 Tips

How do you craft a blog post title that get people to read your blog posts opening lines?
There are many techniques for crafting blog post titles that will draw readers into them. Below I’ll outline a few (you won’t be able to do all of them in every single post).

Before I share them - let me give one universal tip - Don’t Rush - this is the main point of this whole series on crafting content. If there’s nothing else you come away from today - take away that if you rush your titles you could well be wasting the time that you invest into your actual posts. Invest time into your posts, it’s something that will pay off!

Now that we’re taking our time - here are 8 tips that I use in the creation of blog post titles. Note: you’d not be likely to use all of them in the one post (although for fun I did my best to get quite a few of them into the image title above). Different techniques will work better in different situations.

1. Communicate a Benefit

This is SO IMPORTANT. If a potential reader comes across your post in Google search results or your RSS feed or on a site like Digg and they see a title that promises to meet a need they have - they’ll click that link on almost every occassion. Identify a need in of potential readers (we talked about this in yesterdays post) and communicate that your post will solve this problem or need in your title. This is why posts with titles like ‘How to Hold a Digital Camera’ and ‘10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits’ (LINKSSSSSSS) have driven hundreds of thousands of readers to my photography blog in the last year. They are not ‘clever’ or ‘cryptic’ titles - they simply SCREAM at those that see them what they’ll get if they visit the post. These titles don’t draw everyone that see’s them to them, but they’ll certainly draw in people with the needs that you’re aiming the post at.

2. Create Controversy or Debate

Another technique that can be very good at drawing people into a post is to set the scene for controversy, debate or a strong opinion. You need to be willing to back these types of titles up with posts that reflect the title - but controversy is one of those things that tends to pique people’s interest. Keep in mind that when you create controversy you’ll attract strong reactions in people.

3. Ask a Question

When you ask a question those who read it are wired to respond (or to see what the response is). I find that questions at post titles can be very popular at not only drawing in readers - but particularly effective at getting readers to leave comments - partucularly if the comment directs a question AT the reader (ie use the word YOU in the question) rather than just being a random question. I’ll write more on personalizing titles below.

4. Personalize Titles

When you write blog posts you are potentially writing to vast audiences of many thousands of readers - however readers can feel like the post is laser targetted in on their own specific situation, particularly if you personalize the language that you’re using. One of the easiest ways to do this is simply to use the word ‘you’ in your posts. I wrote a little about this in First Person Blogging about ‘You’ but mainly talked about using the word ‘you’ in the post itself but in the title of your posts it can have an even bigger impact. Example - 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky.

5. Use Keywords

Keywords in titles are good for two main reasons:

Firstly they grab the attention of readers who are scanning content - I noticed this recently when I was in a buying mode looking to get an iPhone. Anytime any post in my RSS feeder had the word ‘iPhone’ it was like a flashing light and attracted my attention to it. I could hardly help it but because I was on the look out for information to help me with that purchase the keyword was a great attention grabber. Secondly - keywords are important for the long tail life of your blog post as they tell search engines what your blog post is about and will help it to rank highly for those words. Search engines pay particular attention to titles to assertain what a web page is about - particularly if you use the words in your page ‘title tags’ as well (read more on title tags and SEO).

So use keywords that relate to your post in your titles. This is a particularly useful tip if you write about products, people or companies as these types of ‘names’ are some of the most searched for terms on the web.

One more tip for keywords - if you can include them at the start of your title they can have more impact with SEO than if you include them at the end of a title (particularly if the title is long).

6. Use Power Words

Not all words are created equal - some evoke a powerful response in readers and it can be well worth your while to find out what they are.

It’s difficult to compile a list of these ‘power words’ but a few that I’ve found that can work (although read my disclaimer below):

Free - there’s something about the idea of getting something for nothing that triggers a response in most of us. Stunning - I use words like ’stunning’ on my photography blog a lot. These words are ‘big claim’ words that draw people into the post to see if it matches up (see below for more on ‘big claims’) Discover - everyone likes to make discoveries. Another ther related word is ‘revealed’. Secrets - this triggers a response because it promises to show you something you don’t yet know. Similarly - you could use ‘Little Known Ways to…’ as an alternative to ’secrets’. Easy - similarly to ‘free’ - we all like ‘easy’ don’t we? - also use ‘quick’. Better still - what about ‘quick and easy’?

Disclaimer - power words can be very beneficial, however they can also trigger negative reactions. Some people get skeptical when they see titles with these types of words and will resist clicking them - others will click them but get angry if the post itself doesn’t live up to the title. Proceed with caution.

7. Big Claims and Promises

I’ve mentioned this technique already but it does deserve a little further exploration as it is a definite way to draw people into a post. Making a bit claim or promise really extends upon my first technique - ‘Communicate a Benefit’ - but takes it to a place where the benefit being shared in the title just cannot be ignored.

These sorts of ‘big claims’ make guarantees that even people without a real need in your topic will want to check out.

The only problem with big claim posts is that if you can’t actually back them up with the post itself, you run the risk of putting readers offside.

8. Humor Titles

The humorous title is yet another technique that can be very effective at drawing readers into you blog - that is IF you pull it off.

The risk with humorous posts is that they can also fall flat on their faces and leave you with a post title that not only fails to draw loyal readers in but which is not optimized well for search engines (unless you manage to incorporate some keywords).

Two More Quick Tips on Writing Blog Posts:

Keep it short - while it is possible to actually grab people’s attention with a very long title (the length itself can draw people to it) - in most cases you’ll want to keep it simple and easy to digest. This is good for readers but also search engines (they will only show 65 or so characters so if you go too long your full title doesn’t appear in search results).
Don’t use Periods (full stops) - this one might just be my personal preference and open for debate (although I’ve seen a number of copywriters talk about it) but using full stops or ‘periods’ at the end of titles can stop the flow of your readers. It’s not a big one but something that could have an impact.

Further Reader on Blog Post Titles: Andy Beal wrote a thought provoking post - How to Optimize Blog Post Titles - in which he explores two audiences of blog posts and how he suggests you optimize titles for each at different life stages of a post. Brian Clark has written some fantastics posts on Blog Post Titles in his series Magnetic Headlines. It includes some title templates that are worth experimenting with.

What have you learned about writing blog post titles? Do you use some of the above approaches or have you found other techniques to work for you?

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How to Choose a Topic for Your Next Blog Post (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

Authentic Blogging — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:19:02+0100

Today I’d like to talk about choosing topics for blog posts as part of our series on how to craft a blog post.

Image by devorocks81

Choosing the right topic to write about on your blog is vital if you want to write a post that engages your reader.

Rushing the choice of topic can set you off in the wrong direction and end up wasting both your time and that of your reader.

While sometimes the idea for a post hits you and needs little adaption - I find that many (if not most) times the first idea that comes to me for a post needs a little molding (or marinating) before it’s just right. I will often come up with a post idea and end up evolving it into something that is quite different - but which is much richer in terms of how interesting it is.

Here’s how choosing a blog post title often works for me:

I’ll jot down an idea for a post topic in a text document on my desktop (this usually happens while I’m doing something else). Once a day I scan my ‘idea’ text documents and look for a topic that connects with me for that day (I like to work on things that give me energy). With that document open I’ll begin to brainstorm points that I could write about, title ideas and think particularly about reader needs that the post might overcome). I often use a mind mapping technique to do this brainstorming - it can actually lead to hundreds of post ideas. As I brainstorm a post begins to take shape and more importantly the topic emerges. While I have points and title ideas jotted down it is the ‘topic’ that I’m particularly trying to nail down at this point. Anything else is a bonus and will help cut down work later - but it’s the topic I’m attempting to identify. Quite often as I engage in this process I’ll end up with more than one topic - many of these i’ll put aside for another day but some will emerge into a series of posts.

Other tips on choosing a topic for your next blog post

Identify a Need - As mentioned above - I’m particularly trying to name a need or problem that my reader has. I find that if I can have this in my mind as I write a post that it not only ends up being a well focused post - it ends up being useful to readers. So as you choose a topic to write about - identify concrete needs that you’re aiming for the post to fulfil and questions that you want the post to answer. Picture a Reader - Chris Garrett often talks about how he has a number of readers in mind as he blogs - he keeps their situation, needs, questions and challenges in front of him as he writes and even pictures them in his mind as he chooses topics and writes them. In this way he doesn’t just end up theoretical or abstract topics - but is closer to writing concrete and applicable posts that will connect with readers. Break out of the Echo chamber - one trap that many bloggers fall into is producing blogs posts that simply regurgitate what others are writing on their blogs. If the topic I’m wanting to write about is one that others are also covering one of the things that I attempt to do in this phase of choosing topics is to find a new angle. How can you bring your own spin to the topic? How can you give your readers something unique to ponder? Read more about breaking out of the echo chamber (and also here). Write Something that Matters to You - I find that when i write a post that matters to me (as opposed to one that is merely reporting news or tapping into a popular topic) that it tends to connect on a deeper level with readers. I guess it is logical really - when something matters to you it shines through in the way you communicate about it and this has a way of engaging others who also think it matters. Another way to say this is to ‘let your topics choose you’ rather than you choosing what topics you want to write about. Write Something Topical - Writing on a topic that is currently popular or that people are searching for information on is defitely something to keep in mind as you select a topic to post on. Use a tool like Google Trends to watch trends of what people are searching Google for, keep an eye on social media sites to see what people are voting for there - these topics can be well worth tapping into - particularly if you find a fresh way to explore them (see above point on breaking out of the echo chamber). One Topic per Post - this will vary a little from blog to blog depending upon your niche and style of writing but I find that posts that really hone in on one particular topic and communicate one main idea tend to do best. There is nothing wrong with writing long sweeping posts that cover many things, but do keep in mind that most people’s reading style on line is to scan content, flip between pages and not to dwell on any one thing for too long. So refine the topic for your next blog post down to one simple idea. If you have more than one write a series of posts or put those that you’re not going to focus upon into your ideas journal for another day. After all, you’re writing a blog and can expand upon your other ideas every day for the rest of your blogs life! Plan Ahead - one thing that has helped me a lot in my blogging when it comes to choosing topics to cover is to think ahead about my blogging and develop an editorial calendar. I do this in my computer’s calendar program (I use iCal) where I have a calendar dedicated to each of my blogs. I don’t use this all of the time but find it particularly useful when I know I’m going to have a busy week or two (or when I’m traveling) as it helps me to think clearly and plan ahead for my blogging. Chris G has a nice post on planning blog post topics with an editorial calender. Looking for more ideas? - also on the theme of choosing a topic to blog is my recent post 24 Things to Do When Stuck for a Topic to Blog About - In it you’ll find quite a few other ideas for coming up with post ideas.

Not every post that you write will be able to do all of the above things.

There are times where in most niches you’ll need to cover a story that doesn’t really ‘matter’ to you so much - or where you write about something that does matter that is not topical - however somewhere in the mix of all of these things a post’s topic will emerge.

Take Your Time With Topic Choice

The point of this current series is to challenge us as bloggers to take a little extra time at different points in the process of crafting blog posts.

So main point today is simply to do that when it comes to choosing a topic. Don’t fall into the temptation of always writing about the first thing that comes into your mind. Instead, take those ideas and mold and shape them into something special - something that will engage both you and your reader.

One More Tip on Selecting Topics for blog posts

Looking for a little more inspiration and teaching on how to select topics for your blog posts?

Here’s a video that I made a few months back that shows you how to find blog post topics by analyzing your blogs statistics.

Got some tips of your own on choosing topics to post on? Add them in comments below - looking forward to hearing how you do it.

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Comment Moderation - How Do You Do It? (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

10 Steps to the Perfect List Post — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:25:27+0100

Today I came across a post on one of the NYT blogs on how the blogger there, Marci Alboher, moderates comments on her blog - via Steve Rubel.

In the post Marci shares a few reasons why she doesn’t allow comments to go up:

1. It is too long (even though it might be well-written and make interesting points).

2. It is nasty, impolite or uses language that is unprintable in The New York Times.

3. It includes a a link that has a typo or is broken in some other way (again, even though it may be well-written and make interesting points).

4. It should have been sent as an e-mail since it is clearly addressed to me and does not appear to have been intended for other readers.

5. It is pandering to me (like visiting the blog to tell me that I?m brilliant and have my finger on the pulse of something) or blatantly self-promotional.

I’m fascinated by this list on a number of fronts.

I think it’s great that Marci (and the NYT) has thought through which comments she’ll allow up on her blog. I suspect that many bloggers don’t have any kind of policy on comment moderation (formal or informal) and have not communicated to their readers what they accept or don’t accept. I think that such a policy would be helpful for both readers and bloggers. My personal opinion on comment policies is that what the blogger (or the blog owner) says goes. We all have different opinions, values and approaches but in the same way that I decide what I want to happen inside my home I decide that boundaries of behavior on my blog. While a few of the things that Marci said do make me raise my eyebrows (moderating comments based upon length even if they are well written and interesting for example) it’s her (and the NYT) prerogative to set the boundaries where she sets them. Having said that - I find it interesting to see where bloggers do draw the line. Perhaps it’s partly to do with writing a blog for the NYT who would have strong guidelines on such matters - but I get the feeling that Marci moderates comments a lot more tightly and in areas that most bloggers wouldn’t even consider moderating comments on. Most bloggers do have concerns of self promotion (particularly when it borders on spam) and many would edit based upon unacceptable language or personal attack but the idea of moderating based upon length or comments with typos in links goes to a place that I’ve not seen many bloggers go.

I don’t really want to create a discussion based around debating whether Marci’s approach is ‘right or wrong’ (I think it’s really up to her to make those decisions for her blog) but I would love to hear readers opinions and experiences is setting boundaries in their own blog’s comment sections.

Do you have a comments policy on your blog (written or unwritten)? When do you moderate comments? What triggers you to moderate certain comments?

PS: My answers to these questions are in my comment policy. It’s a little dated (written in 2005) but it still largely fits with my approach.

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BlogMastermind Blog Coaching - 6 Student Reviews (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

How to Choose a Topic for Your Next Blog Post — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:01:05+0100

It has been two weeks since the launch of the BlogMastermind blog mentoring program and today I thought I’d ask some of those that I referred to the program to review it for me. While I think it’s a great resource I wanted to give actual participants in the program the opportunity to have their say. Last week I emailed all of those that I’ve referred to BM and invited them to submit a short review.

What follows is the mini-reviews of those that responded. All have links, except one who preferred to remain anonymous. I’ve not edited or left out any responses and they’re in the order I received them - so I hope it gives some good insight.

Don’t forget my bonus offer

As I mentioned in my previous post about BlogMastermind - I’m offering anyone who signs up for the full six month access before the end of August the opportunity to spend an hour of time with me. Read more details of this offer in this post.

Participant Reviews of BlogMastermind

“I thought that I knew something about blogging. Joining Blogmastermind has shown me I did know something . . . but little of it was useful. Blogmastermind is fantastic and I believe it will be worth every dollar?many times over.” - Mike Davenport

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“The Blog Mastermind coaching course is a jewel. Yaro Starak has managed to couple solid content with a simple and masterful teaching style in an information packed course that’s moving me step-by-step in a strategic fashion toward my goals as a blogger.

The content alone would’ve made me happy. The icing on the cake is that Yaro’s sincere desire for students to succeed bleeds through in his presentations and business systems.

He’s built a sustainable, highly profitable business, and most importantly, is teaching me to do the same. I’m elated with the program–my success is assured.” - Valerie Love

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“The first lesson received was on “Let’s Get Blogging” in which it contains a lot of blogging fundamentals. I get to know more on choosing a domain name all the way to setting up a blog. BlogMastermind provides very good video resources on how to optimize your blog’s setup such as the positioning of elements like opt in form. Audios on “Mastering your mindset” let me have a clearer goal in mind and fine tune my mindset with regards to blogging. BlogMastermind Forum is another channel in which I gain a lot of knowledge in both content and technical aspects.” - Wei Liang

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“I’ve just recently signed up for Yaro’s Blog Mastermind course and have already gotten a lot of value from it.

I’m a financial advisor and personal finance blogger in Atlanta, GA, USA, and I was interested in getting some help/mentoring about how to be a more effective writer while building my audience.

A couple of immediate things I’ve gotten from the course is the need to have a multi-pronged approach — for marketing, monetizing, etc. All too often, I see bloggers who have Google Adsense plastered all over their blog, but don’t have any other monetization strategies working for them. Similarly, I see many bloggers in the personal finance niche constantly commenting on each other’s blogs which in my opinion just creates a big echo chamber. And I’ve been guilty of this myself.

While I don’t plan to attempt to monetize my blog at this time, I do want to build my audience and build a large email list. At Yaro’s suggestion, I’ve begun using AWeber for my email and continue to use Feedburner for RSS. Also, I’m beginning to look outside the Personal Finance blogosphere for other interesting sites (like yours) where I can network and build relationships.

Yes, it’s very early in Yaro’s course, but I’ve already received tremendous value and am eager to get more and more info from Yaro in the coming days and weeks.” - Russ Thornton

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“I was tempted to join Blog Mastermind the first time it was offered but I procrastinated while reading the Blog Profits Blueprint. I realized after reading it there was lot’s I could learn and I saw Yaro was very truthful and helpful in his teachings. He never claimed to know everything but was willing to share what he had learned. He relied on others such as yourself, to add value to this course. I’m excited as I begin the lessons and I look forward to learning how to promote my blog and help others as I learn from Blog Mastermind.” - Patsy Stewart

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“My first impressions are positive. I already have a Wordpress.org blog up and running - but my site is ripe for improvement and I get the impression that as the lessons roll onwards, it’s going to be a steep learning curve. The members-only forum is filled with relevant FAQs and helpful fellow members, and I am already drawing upon this useful resource.” - anonymous

I hope you’ve found these mini-reviews of the course helpful. Read more about BlogMastermind here.

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Blog World Expo (Winners of Passes) - I?m Going Too! (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

How to Craft Post Titles that Draw Readers Into Your Blog — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:45:36+0100

A couple of weeks ago I announced that Blog World Expo had generously decided to give away two free passes to their conference in September to ProBlogger readers. There were a lot of entries so it took us a while to choose the winners but over the weekend Rick emailed me his two favorites.

He’s announced the winners (plus a few runners up who he is offering 50% off passes to) on the BWE blog.

The winners are:

Katja @skimbaco Jennifer Taggart

Congratulations!

I’m going to Blog World Expo!

My exciting news is that I’m going to be attending Blog World Expo! I was waiting to see how we adjusted as a family to having a 2nd baby in the house and wanted to give my wife the chance to find her feet before jetting off around the world - but over the weekend we decided that I’ll be making a flying visit (I’ll be there fore 72 hours and on a plane there and back for 48).

I’m booked to be on at least three panels and I’ll be there to meet as many bloggers as possible and to have some fun do some work with the b5media crew.

The panels I’m listed to participate on are ‘Making Money Online with a Blog’ (with other speakers like John Chow, Brian Clark, Zac Johnson and Jim Kukral), ‘Avoiding Disaster: How Not to Use Social Media’ with Jason Falls, Lee LeFever and Patrick O’Keefe and ‘How to Hire a Professional Blogger For Your Business’ (a panel for the Exec and Entrepreneur conference on the 19th) with Jim Turner and Gregory Go. I’ll let you know if Rick decides to use me in any other sessions.

Looking at the BWE site at the moment there does seem to be some discounts available (up to 25%) for those registering before August 22nd so I hope some of you are able to join me there. You can book at Blog World Expo.

If you’d like to meet at BWE I’ll try to post my schedule as it gets closer - I’ll have limited time so try to get to as many of the parties and public gatherings as I can so as to meet as many ProBlogger readers as possible.

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Authentic Blogging (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

Movable Type launch Version 4.2 and Movable Type Pro — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:29:23+0100

Ever had a ‘defining moment’ that changed the direction of your blog? A moment of realization that makes you stop in your tracks and reinvent your approach?

Maria Gajewski from Never The Same River Twice emailed me today to tell me about her recent defining moment which she calls her Authentic Blogging Manifesto in which she describes her quest to grow her blog by writing for social media (she describes herself getting to the point of being a “StumbleUpon Slave”) instead of her readers.

The story is honestly written and I’m sure will resonate with many of you (as it’s a tale that I’ve heard many bloggers share their versions of).

Maria also outlines her 4 point plan for moving forward:

Step 1: Stop Pretending That I Know Everything Step 2: Talk to People Who Know More Than Me Step 3: Share What I Learn With People Who Know Less Than Me Step 4: Put My Energy Into Communication, Not Traffic

Maria’s story and lessons are not new. Many bloggers have come to similar realizations and decisions in their blogging - however I wanted to post it as a reminder of two things that I’ve found to be important in building a successful blog:

1. Balance is Important - Most bloggers go through times when they become obsessed with one aspect of blogging (be it SEO, writing for social media, experimenting with a new tool or medium, getting links from other bloggers, tweaking their design etc) and where their blogging becomes unbalanced. In Maria’s case it seems that she became out of balance with writing for social media. While there’s nothing wrong with list posts or getting traffic from these sources - a blogger needs to keep some perspective and not become side tracked by the lure of big traffic from these kinds of sites. Read more about blogging balance.

2. Write For People - Perhaps the most obvious blogging tip that anyone could give is to keep your reader firmly in mind as you write and to aim to write something meaningful (both to them and you) that really communicates to them and enhances their lives in some way. It’s a pretty simple tip and one that we all know - yet it is amazing how many of us become distracted from this truth and need to be reminded of what it’s all about.

Have you ever had a ‘defining moment’ in your blogging? What did you learn? What decisions did you make? How have you gone since changing your approach?

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Applying for a Blogger Job? Treat it Seriously (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

The Buzz about Yahoo Buzz — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:08:05+0100

Today I received an email from one of the advertisers on the ProBlogger Job Boards. They reflected back to me that they’d had a lot of ‘low quality’ job applications and made some suggestions for those looking to apply for a blogger job.

I’ll include their suggestions below.

Let me say that I get a variety of feedback from advertisers on the job boards. Most tell me that they get great applications and generally quickly fill jobs (some end up hiring more than one blogger because they get so many good applicants) - but mixed in with them are always blogger job applications that they immediately disqualify due to poor quality.

Essential reading for all those applying for blogger jobs should be - how to apply for a blog job where I give 11 tips on applying for job board positions. However let me share with you the three points that the advertiser that I mentioned above made in their feedback about problems that they saw applications having (I’ve put their points in quotations and added a couple of comments of my own:

“Grammar and spelling - should go without saying, but we saw way too many applicants with poor grammar and spelling. Get someone to double check before sending.”

It staggers me that bloggers would not work hard to communicate clearly when applying for a job that is all about communicating clearly! While I understand not everyone has an amazing command on the English language - those looking to hire bloggers for commercial positions will take your abilities in your application as a hint as to how well you’ll perform on their blog.

“Follow directions - Increase your chances of the job seeker liking you by actually following the directions stated at the bottom of the email. Don’t, in a rush, send off an email with your resume attached when they ask for no attachments. Attention to detail is key to making a good first impression over email.”

Once again - this is common sense but something I saw many applicants fail to follow when I’ve previously advertised for bloggers personally. Failing to follow instructions again signals to your potential employee that you might not be the right person for the job.

“Email address - drop the cutesy “badass342@yahoo.com” email address and opt for something more professional. For extra bonus points, register a domain name that is professional and clever, and create a simple “firstname@cleverdomain.com” email alias.”

I personally wouldn’t rate this one quite as highly as the others - however it does add to the professionalism of your application and shows that you’ve gone to a little effort in branding yourself as an online worker.

Take it Seriously

Ultimately my main advice to bloggers wanting to get a blogging job is to take the application process seriously. Treat it as though you are applying for any job.

Advertisers are not advertising on the Job Boards simply for fun or looking for sub par bloggers. They are businesses looking to hire professionals. Present yourself this way and you’ll stand out from the crowd and give yourself every chance of landing yourself a blogging job.

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AdSense for Feeds Goes Live (ProBlogger Blog Tips)

The Why and How on Repeating Content on Your Blog — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:01:40+0100

Over the last week or two some Feedburner Ad Network publishers have been transitioned over to the new AdSense Feed Advertising system and over the weekend AdSense for Feeds has gone live for everyone. You should now see them in your AdSense setup tab.

AdSense for feeds is similar to most AdSense ads in that the ads served in your feeds are a mixture of CPM and CPC ads.

Publishers setting up AdSense for feeds have a number of options when it comes to ad formats (text alone, text and image and just image ads), design (colors) and how often ads are displayed (you can have ads appear every 1,2,3 posts or only on posts over a certain amount of words).

If you’re a Feedburner Ad Network publisher you now need to set up AdSense for feeds to keep monetizing your feeds.

For more information see the AdSense Blog announcement.

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