Written on October 11th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse
AdSense Sandbox Tool
If you run AdSense on your blog then the chances are you see the same old ads being run to it every day. If you’re anything like me you wonder what other AdSense ads people could be seeing.
A little tool that might be interesting to some to use is the AdSense Sandbox Tool from Digital Point where you can add your URL (or your competitors) and it’ll serve 20 sample ads for your blog.
You can also use it to test what ads would show up if you targeted specific keywords - useful if you’re in the process of setting up a new blog and are wondering if there are enough ads around for your topic.
It’s not the most amazing tool in the world but seeing as though I’ve been sharing a few AdSense tools lately I thought I’d share it in the hope that some of you might find it useful.
Written on October 10th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 11:10 am by Darren Rowse
New Mac Ads Say it All
I think that the latest Mac/PC ads from Apple (counselor, better results and self pity) say it all don’t you? :-)
Written on October 10th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 10:10 am by Darren Rowse
Transitioning from Full Time to Part Time Blogging
One of my fellow blog tips bloggers ZMAng from blogHelper has written a post about Transitioning from Full Time to Part Time Blogging.
It’s a post that caught my attention for a number of reasons - one of which is that over the last few years I’ve seen more bloggers writing about transitioning from part time to full time.
ZMAng writes about some of the changes that he’s noticed about the transition including:
- Lack of Drive to Post
- More Incentive to Blog Faster
- Less Wories + Easily Satisfied
- Increase in E-main Response Speed at the Expense of Comment Replies
ZMAng manages 15 blogs so it will be interesting to watch how his story unfolds and whether he’ll be able to keep maintaining readership on all of them or whether there will be a need to consolidate his blogging back to a few main blogs.
I’m not sure what ZMAng’s planning to do with his blogs but do know that keeping 15 of them running on a part time basis will be a challenge.
Written on October 10th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 04:10 am by Darren Rowse
Speedlinking 10 October 2006
If you have an email newsletter you might like to read Stephan’s post where he asks ‘are you email response rates dropping?‘ and gives some tips on how to improve them.
Shel explains his blog comment policy - he calls it the Living Room policy. Do you have a comments policy for your blog? (here’s mine).
Written on October 10th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse
10 Ways to Improve Your Blogging through Practice
When I was 13 my life was fairly simple and largely revolved around one thing - Tennis.
I was fortunate enough to live next door to two tennis courts and so most evenings after school involved hitting balls with friends, family or even practising with myself hitting against the blue stone wall at the end of the court. I had coaching twice a week and practised a lot.
While I played tennis with quite a few friends there was one who was my nemesis - his name was John.
John played tennis (and most sports) really well. He was tall, athletic and had a good eye and reflexes. While he didn’t live next to a court, didn’t have coaching and only played once or twice a month the matches we had were always closely fought with him usually winning in tie breakers. John was a natural.
I on the other hand was also a good player but unlike John my ability wasn’t a natural one - it came from many many hours of practice. I can remember hitting balls against the wall until after the sun set on many evenings - working on my backhand and even getting up early in the morning to go jogging to work on my endurance.
In the end we ended up playing in the same team (in the highest grade in our competition) and had a very similar standard - but we got to the level we achieved through very different means - John just because he was a natural and me though a lot of work.
Regarding Blogging
For some people the writing of a blog comes fairly naturally - they have a good grasp of language and how to us it to communicate effectively - they find their voice reasonably quickly - they find ideas for posts come easily and readers just seem to respond to them.
For others - blogging is more difficult. It takes longer - finding a rhythm of posting is a struggle - ideas to post about are allusive and translating those ideas that come into words is takes a lot of effort.
Practice makes Perfect
The old saying of ‘practice makes perfect’ is true for many aspects of life - including blogging.
In the same way that hitting balls against a wall for many hours improved my tennis I’ve found that my blogging has improved the longer that I’ve blogged. Some of this has come as a result of time and some of it has been the result of intentional ‘practice’.
So how can one practice their blogging? Here are 10 intentional ways to ‘practice’ your blogging:
1. Action/Reflection
I am a big believer that the best way to learn is through a combination of Action and Reflection. Do and then analyse what you did. So with blogging this means to post lots and then to set aside time to reflect upon what you learnt from those posts. Here’s a little exercise - look back on your last 10 posts and ask yourself some of these questions:
- Which posts worked best? Why?
- Which posts didn’t work? Why?
- What posts did people respond to most (comments/feedback/linking to you)?
- What could you learn from the writing of the posts?
- How could you improve the posts?
There are a lot more reflection questions that you could ask - but even just asking these ones once a week could lead you to all kinds of learning and improvements to you blogging.
2. Set Yourself Assignments
One of the reasons why I’ve been running the group writing projects here at enternetusers over the last few months is because I personally find it really helpful to set myself tasks and assignments to help me move out of my comfort zone and experiment with writing in a different style. So every now and again choose a style of posting that you’re not used to or select a topic that is a little different to normal and see what you learn through the process (you may even choose not to publish your assignments and keep them purely as a learning experience).
3. Write for Different Mediums
While I focus fairly heavily upon blogging as my primary medium I do occasionally take on work for other mediums. I’ve written newspaper and magazine articles, have written for other types of websites and have even tried my hand at non written mediums like podcasting. Each time I’ve done this I find that it teaches me something new about communication. There’s something about writing for a new audience in a slightly unfamiliar medium that makes you pay a little more attention to what you’re doing.
4. Write as a Guest Blogger
Similarly, writing for a different audience on someone else’s blog can give you the motivation that you need to put a little more effort into your blogging and think more about how you’re writing. While I don’t do much guest posting these days on others blogs in my early days I did quite a bit of it and found it really beneficial.
5. Ask for Critique
Blogging is a medium where you are likely to get very immediate and at times quite blunt feedback from your readers. They’ll tell you what they like and dislike, what mistakes you made and how you should improve your blog. If people don’t give you this feedback - ask for it. Ask your readers, ask other bloggers and ask your non blog reading family and friends (they can be particularly insightful). Of course once you’ve asked for it - you need to be willing to take what you hear on board and learn from it.
6. Read and Analyse others
One of the places that I learned the most about playing tennis was by my yearly trips to the Australian Open Tennis tournament (while I don’t play tennis these days I still go). In attending and watching experts do there thing I learned a lot about how to play the game in terms of tactics and technique. Studying other bloggers (and writers and communicators in other mediums) you can learn a lot about blogging. Ask yourself about what voice they write in, what works (and doesn’t work) for them, what style of posts people seem to respond to etc. You probably won’t want to imitate them completely - but in reading and observing others you’ll find some of it will rub off on you.
7. Speak Your Posts
My background in communication is one of public speaking/preaching and so when I started blogging I found it a little odd not speaking and hearing what I was writing. To this day when I’m working up a lot of my posts I’ll read them out loud and will listen to how they sound. In doing so you pick up all types of mistakes. I also find that as I read them that I also come up with other ideas.
8. Critique Your Own Old Work
Have you been blogging for a while? Take a wander back through your old posts to some of the first ones you wrote and read them as though you were reading someone else’s work. Critique it - correct it and ask yourself how you’ve changed since writing it.
9. Get an Editor
One of the most confronting things I’ve done was work with an editor on some of my blog posts. I am very aware that I can improve my blogging in many ways and so a year ago hired an editor to work with me for a week on my blogging. Before hitting publish on any post for that week I made myself run it past her. The results were enlightening, frustrating and confronting. Enlightening because it taught me a lot, frustrating because I realised how much I needed to improve and confronting because it forced me to think about my posts in ways I’d been too lazy to think about previously. One lesson that I learned that week was how many unnecessary words I used in my posts (I think that it could be time to hire that editor for another week).
10. Take a Course
I’ve been considering enrolling in a writing course for the past 6 months (it’s something I’m toying with doing in 2007). I suspect that doing so will teach me a lot.
Just do it
My tennis coach used to encourage me to visualise myself improving as a tennis player with each ball that I hit against the wall. I think the same can be true as a blogger. Each post you write has the potential to not only be a post that impacts others - but one that you can learn something from as a blogger.
Written on October 9th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 09:10 am by Darren Rowse
Chickens Project Receipt
Just a quick note for those who participated in the ‘blogging for chickens‘ project to let you know that I have made the donation on your behalf today. The a screen shot of the web-receipt is posted below. The total donated via PayPal was $1030AU (a further 7 chickens were donated directly to Oxfam).
Thanks again for all who participated.
Written on October 8th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse
Which Bloggers Would You Love to Meet?
Phil has a post that got me chuckling a little. It’s called Get global - literally and it bounces off b5’s VC funding that we announced earlier in the week and mentions the way we as a founders team of four (Jeremy, Duncan, Shai and myself) are yet to meet.
I reflect in comments what a bizarre journey it has been.
Telling your friends and family that you’re a full time blogger is a strange enough experience (you wouldn’t believe the looks I’ve received) but telling people that you just secured investment in a company that you started a year ago with people you’ve never met before leaves the ‘I’m a full time blogger’ remark for dead.
It’s got me thinking about the nature of blogging/new media and the way it opens up all kinds of connections with people you’d never have had reason to bump into otherwise. The connections can range from business partners, to those who leave comments on your blog (including those you wish wouldn’t leave comments on your blog) to those whose blogs you read etc. Some of them become daily connections and a few become close friends - most you’ll never meet.
So who would you love to meet from your experience of blogging?
Jeremy, Duncan, Shai and myself will hopefully meet in the next month or two for the first time (yet another surreal experience to add to the list). They’re obviously at the top of my list of people to meet from my blogging experience - but there are so many more that I’d love to sit down and have a beer (or a coffee) with.
If you could meet five or so bloggers in real life who would they be - and Why?
Leave a comment or write a post and let us know about it in comments below. It’ll be interesting to look over the lists that people come up with.
Excluding Jeremy, Duncan and Shai - here are the first five bloggers that came to mind for me (and the more I think about it the more I think I could come up with a list of 100 or so):
Andrew Jones - I’d like to buy Andrew (also known as the Tall Skinny Kiwi) a beer because it was him that got me into blogging as he was the first blog I ever read. He writes on Emerging Church, Spirituality, Culture etc (the topic of my own first blog) and he’s a daily read to this day. I admire him for his longevity in blogging and his creativity.
Aaron Brazell - Many of you will know of Aaron as he’s been a guest blogger here at enternetusers off and on over the last year. Aaron is a guy that I speak with on a daily basis as he’s one of our core team at b5media. I’d like to meet him (and hopefully soon will) for a number of reasons. Firstly he’ll be fun to have a beer with, secondly I have to convince him that I’m not a complete tech idiot (it could take a few beers) and thirdly he’s show a real commitment to his work with us and me personally and I am coming to value him as a mate.
Brian Clark - Again - many of you will know Brian because I link to every second post that he writes. Brian is probably the blogger that I’ve learned the most off in the last 6-12 months. I appreciate both what he teaches on his blog but the way he does it. He embodies his message with his blogging style. Not only that he’s great for bouncing ideas around with and has given me some great advice in the last few months also.
Christina Jones - Ok - you’re all going to hit Christina’s link and wonder whether I’m a closet beauty product user - but it’s not the topic of her blog that makes me include her - it’s who she is. Christina is another b5 blogger/channel editor/project manager and is someone who has gone above and beyond the call. I admire her for many reasons but one of them is her ability to get things done. One of my many weaknesses is that I can be quite disorganized and impulsive - in this way CJ is my opposite. She’s also is compassionate, funny and passionate about the things she does.
Seth Godin - This is the person on my list who is least likely to know who I am (although we’ve exchanged a few emails from time to time and he’s been kind enough to link to this blog on occasion). I knew of Seth through his books before I had heard of blogging and admired his ability to put things that I ‘knew’ but didn’t ‘know’ into words so that I would ‘know’ them (that’s got to be one of the more confusing sentences I’ve ever written). I admire Seth’s communication skills, thinking and creativity and would just love to follow him around for a few days - just because.
Ok - so there are my five. They are largely people I’ve worked with or who I know reasonably well (with the exception of Seth) and are just the tip of the iceberg of bloggers I’d love to meet one day. I can think of 30 or so more even as I write this and know that when my head hits the pillow tonight I’ll think of many more.
But what bloggers would you love to meet in person?
Written on October 7th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 03:10 pm by Darren Rowse
Speedlinking 7 October 2006
Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani writes a great post on her analysis of Bloglines as compared to the newly improved Google Reader. Has anyone else switched like Gina?
Andy Wibbels (my co Six Figure Blogging presenter) is starting his latest course - Keyword Essentials (aff). He’s done a free preview call which you can listen to to give you a feel for whether the course is for you or not. I’ve got the call ready to listen to later today. (PS: Andy’s just extended the discount until Monday especially for enternetusers readers).
Adrian at the PC Doctor publishes a letter from YPN banning him from the ad network for sending non US traffic - the strange thing is that he’s never sent them any traffic as he’s never used their ads at all!?
James writes a post on the topic of 10 things to consider when choosing a Site Meter
Written on October 7th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse
Is AdSense Dead?
You might have noticed over the past few weeks that in some forums and between some e-book writers that there is debate over whether AdSense is everything it’s cracked up to be. Some are saying that it’s dead, others are saying it’s dead if you use it for Arbitrage and others are saying it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
I’ve been emailed to ask what I think numerous times this week and have been pondering how to respond.
Here are a few random thoughts:
Speaking Personally
Let me start on a personal note - I still make a lot of money from AdSense on my personal blogs. While there have been times where I’ve had bigger months than the one that is ending now - I’m still very pleased with my own AdSense earnings.
Yes numbers are down a little but that has more to do with a number of other factors rather than AdSense being ‘dead’. Some of these factors include:
- Coming out of a slow period (summer in the northern hemisphere is traditionally slow)
- Adding other Ad programs (for example when I added Chitika my AdSense went down a little (not as much as the extra money that was brought in) due to AdSense ads having a little less prominence)
- Being Hacked (I lost a full few of days income from my recent hacking)
Having said this - AdSense is still my equal largest earner and isn’t WAY down (in fact over the first few days of October I’ve seen a small upswing again).
AdWords Changes
A lot of the complaints against AdSense over the last few months have probably got more to do with changes to AdWords than anything. Arbitrage publishers were rocked a couple of months back when changes were made to AdWords that made it more expensive to send readers to landing pages in the hope of getting them to click AdSense ads that earned more than the AdWords ads that got them there. It’s no wonder that people are complaining about AdSense as a way to Monetize Arbitrage with the changes that were made.
However if you’re not into Arbitrage and are a publisher who develops quality sites that grow a natural readership via SE traffic or loyal readers then I think AdSense is still a great way to go - particularly if you have a blog with some commercial edge to it (ie AdSense doesn’t tend to work well on religious, political or personal sites).
AdSense Alternatives
The last 12 months have seen a lot more competition for AdSense. I have noticed a slight drop off in bloggers raving about AdSense partly because they’re now raving about other ad systems.
In my chats with bloggers I’m seeing a number of other income streams mentioned again and again. Here’s a few:
1. Text Link Ads (aff) - the team at TLA have gradually built a loyal publisher list over the past few months but providing an ad system that may not be as flashy or spectacular as AdSense in some senses but which works. Interestingly - I’ve chatted with a number of smaller bloggers over the past few weeks who say that TLA actually is their biggest earner. This is because it is not reliant upon clicks or traffic at all and is a very passive income for a blog that over time grows as more advertisers buy links. I spoke to an owner of a lesser known blog network recently and he told me that his network is earning five figures a month with TLA.
2. Amazon Associates - some publishers laugh off Amazon as not being worth the effort because the payouts are so small (4-6% in post cases) but I’ve chatted with a few publishers this week who are doing very well from Amazon. The advantage of Amazon over many affiliate programs is that they are a trusted brand. If you pick the right products to promote you can actually do quite well from them. I chatted with a publisher this week who is promoting lawn mowers and power tools on Amazon. Sell a $2000 tractor/mower a few times a week and it certainly adds up.
3. Chitika (aff) - as unpopular as they became with some publishers in their early days of launching they continue to be a big earner for some bloggers. They continue to be neck and neck with AdSense for me in the earnings they bring in. They continue to improve their products and expand what they offer in terms of channels, their recent launch of shoplinc etc and I know of a few product oriented bloggers who make more from them than anything else. Can’t say too much but expect their range of advertising methods to continue to increase in the coming months.
4. YPN - Yahoo’s contextual advertising system is still in beta (it has been a longer process than many expected) and is yet to fully compete with AdSense. I’ve given it a go (via b5’s account) and wasn’t too impressed with how it converted here at enternetusers but do know of some bloggers who continue to find that it does well for them. I think it’s a blog by blog proposition but is definitely an ad network to consider if you can get into the beta test.
5. Direct Ad Sales - another emerging trend among bloggers (and networks of them) is the increased focus upon direct deals that are being done between bloggers and advertisers (and their representatives). This month I had a sponsorship with Canon on one of my blogs that has been well worth while and I know at b5media we are finding more and more advertisers willing to do deals as the word gets out that blogs are online real estate that converts pretty well for them. It’s not always easy to negotiate these deals as a single blogger with a relatively small readership but we’re now seeing networks of bloggers banding together which makes it much easier to negotiate such deals.
6. Product Bloggers - while there are not a lot of examples of this yet I suspect that 2007 will be a year that quite a few bloggers will launch products in their niches. Bloggers are starting to switch onto the fact that after a year or two of blogging on a topic that they are sitting upon a goldmine of information and expertise that can be reused in other forums. While this past year saw a number of bloggers release books I know of quite a few who are working up to releasing online information products, membership sites and coaching services in their areas of expertise. Whether they succeed or not is yet to be seen but it’s a logical next step for many bloggers.
Of course there are many other AdSense Alternatives out there for publishers also (with more coming I’m told). The variety of systems open to publishers surely is having some impact upon AdSense and what people are earning with it.
What do you think? Is AdSense dead? What has your experience of AdSense (and other ad systems) been over the past 6 or so months? Are you finding it easier or more difficult to earn money from your blogging?
Written on October 6th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia28 zone.at 12:10 pm by Darren Rowse
Google Blog Search Offers Pinging to Get Your Blog Indexed
Google today announced that you can now ping their blog search service to let them know when you’ve updated.
You can manually ping it here or do it automatically if you’re a WP user by adding http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 to your ‘update services’ (under options/writing).
They will continue to watch other ping services so if you’re already listed in blog search you’ll probably be fine but it never hurts to ping them directly.
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