Written on August 30th, 2005 at 02:08 am by Darren Rowse
There’s a Hole in My Blog? - Holistic Blogging
“Your blog will only ever be as good as it’s weakest component.”
Warning: Tangent Ahead
Imagine you’ve been given a task of hauling water from one place to another (over a long distance) - but that all you’ve been given to do the job is a rusty old bucket which has multiple holes in it. There are holes both low and high on the bucket which make transporting water a real challenge.
You’re given materials to patch some but not all of the holes in the bucket. Which one’s would you fix?
There are a number of ways of approaching this problem - you could attempt to patch the biggest holes first, you could patch those which are most prominent on the bucket etc…
But perhaps the smartest thing to do would be to make the priority of your repair work those holes which are lowest on the bucket.
The reasoning for this approach is that over time your bucket will only be able to hold as much water as the lowest hole on the bucket. Common sense really and a principle I want to suggest bloggers think about on their blogs.
Your blog will only ever be as good as its weakest component allows it to be.
I’ve been thinking about how to say this all week after what must have been around 50 conversations with new bloggers via email, IM and in person. In conversation after conversation it seems that many of the bloggers I’ve talked to seem to be quite obsessive about one element of their ProBlogging efforts. Whether it be Adsense, finding readers, Search Engine Optimization - in most of these conversations the bloggers have seen all of the answers to their blog’s success as laying in the one area.
What I’ve found myself suggesting this week to many of these bloggers is that to concentrate on one area of your blogging is ok for a short period of time - but for your blog to grow to its fullest potential you need to be willing to work at it on a variety of fronts. If you don’t it’s like patching holes high on the sides of a bucket and ignoring others lower down.
One of the common holes that I’ve noticed recently on new blogs is a severe lack of content.
I spoke to one blogger this week on around 20 occasions - each time they asked questions about design and ad placement issues. They spent hours and hours chopping and changing things on their blog but in that week wrote no new content on a blog that only has a handful of pages. At the end of the week they asked me why they didn’t seem to have any readers and why the ones who had stopped by didn’t come back? The fact that the page’s content hadn’t changed all week didn’t cross their mind.
Another problem on some blogs is to focus upon content TOO heavily at the detriment of other factors.
I had contact with another budding entrepreneurial blogger this week who writes brilliant content for his blog (and has done so for months) but who has virtually no readers because he has never worked on blog promotion, SEO or networking with other bloggers. As a result in the months that he’d been blogging he’d not had more than 10 visitors to his blog per day. He’d never left a comment on another blog, he’d never even submitted his blog to a search engine or to his knowledge been linked to by anyone else (and subsequently he’s still not been indexed by any search engine). Writing content is a great start - but if its all you do it won’t take your blog to its fullest potential.
I could go on with example after example of bloggers who either ignore or become obsessed with different factors of their blogs. I’m getting to the stage with some where I’m going to start saying that if they don’t work on the areas that I suggest that I’ll stop helping them because while their intention is to improve their blogging - some are getting to a stage where they are just wasting their own time (and mine) with their efforts.
So what should a blogger work on?
This is a difficult question to answer with a sweeping statement because each blog is different and needs different levels of attention put to different areas of it depending upon many factors. Having said that - there are a number of areas that I’d suggest bloggers consider devoting serious time to.
• Writing Content - without content your blog is nothing.
• Sourcing Content - this will depend upon the type and style of blog you’re running - but if your blog is not solely about original content (for example here at enternetusers I mix original content and link/quote posts to other blogs) you need to work on developing good sources of content via RSS, other sites, alert lists etc.
• Design - while not essential to be successful I believe that thinking about how your blog is designed and laid out can improve it on many levels.
• Income streams - not all bloggers are into making money from blogs but I’m assuming most readers of a blog on the topic are. This doesn’t just happen - put time aside to learn about different income streams, ad positioning, affiliate programs etc
• Networking - I’m a massive believer in NOT blogging in a vacuum. Build relationships with other bloggers and site owners - work on common projects, share ideas, learn from one another.
• Promotion and PR - You don’t have to hire a PR company or have a complicated publicity plan - but ask yourself how potential readers will find your blog and work on some ways to get your name out there.
• SEO - Most web users start with search engines when looking for information online - if you’re not working on being on the end of their searches you could be ignoring potential readers.
• Trend Watching - I recommend that bloggers keep an eye on the big picture as well as their blogging niche. Is your niche growing or shrinking? What opportunities might exist to expand your blog or even start another one? Are their areas within your niche that can be developed?
• Tracking Performance - I devote time each day to analyzing the performance of my blogs on many fronts including traffic levels, earnings, mentions on other blogs, search engine rankings etc. Keeping an eye on these internal trends help to determine future strategy.
I’m sure there are other aspects of blogging that we could (and should) add to this list. I’m really interested to know what you think? What do you spend most time doing on your blogs? Where are the holes in your blog? What factors would you add to or subtract to this list?
Written on August 29th, 2005 at 09:08 pm by Darren Rowse
31 Days to Building a Better Blog - Day 29
We’re at day 29 of the 31 day project and it’s a bumper day (just two more days of links like these - get your submissions in quick). Here are today’s 11 submissions:
- Jon has put together a post titled Boost Earnings from Adsense for Search
- Christe wrote a post on Why the Elite Blogs are the Elites?
- Miha let us know about More links, more traffic, more…
- Tony submitted Website Infrastructure - Building your web site
- Michael wrote Could you be sued because of others’ comments? Create a comment policy now!
- Chris let us know about Backup Your Blog
- Edrei submitted The Sin of Noodle Posting
- Tony has written Just Two Posts a Day
- Fantababy has notified us of Ping your Blog
- Bennett submitted Read your Readers’ Minds
- George wrote Syndicate Headlines Using BuzzBoost
Written on August 29th, 2005 at 09:08 pm by Darren Rowse
More on Blog Pay Rates
Duncan writes an excellent piece in response to the criticism of Weblogs Inc’s $4 per post pay rate that was revealed last week. I’ve similarly had quite a few comments here at enternetusers on the issue in the past few days - many of them critical at Weblogs Inc. I’ve been trying to work out how to respond to the criticism myself (although I’m not in the habit of defending Jason - he’s a big boy). I think Duncan says it well:
‘You see, if I’d been asked by Jason Calacanis to write for Weblogs Inc 12-18 months ago for a gaureenteed $500 USD starting rate per month I’d be writing for Weblogs Inc., today and I probably wouldn’t be writing the Blog Herald. Sure, if he asked me today I’d be wanting more money because I’m now making more.
But it took me a very, very long time to get to $500 USD per month.
And the reality is that most bloggers will never get to see this sort of money, even if you don’t think its a lot of money.’
$4 per post or $500 per month doesn’t seem like a lot of money - but as Duncan says - it’s more than the majority of bloggers don’t earn this much from their blogging.
You might remember I ran a poll on Adsense earnings a few months back - it found that only 23% of those who responded to the question of how much they earned from Adsense earned more than $500.
I talk to bloggers every day who tell me their blog earnings - many of who are lucky to get more than one Adsense cheque per year let alone each month.
This week I also had email from four Weblogs Inc authors in response to the issue. None wanted to go on public record but all expressed their appreciation for Weblogs Inc as it has given them an income stream that they acknowledged they’d never have without it. Two of them told me how much they earn from Weblogs Inc and highlighted that the $4 per post figure might be true for some bloggers in the network but that its not the case for all. It seems that there are multiple factors in determining the pay rate at WIN including the topic, whether the topic is established, the profile and experience of the blogger, how many bloggers are working on the blog and probably how desperate they are to find an author.
I am not arguing that Weblogs Inc is for everyone. But I can think of quite a few bloggers who would do well to accept any offer they might get from them if it ever happened.
Written on August 29th, 2005 at 07:08 am by Darren Rowse
Getting inside your Blog Reader’s Mind
Peter has another worthwhile post at Ads On Blog on the topic of Optimum Placement of Google Ads where he suggests that bloggers consider five questions when they decide how to place ads on their blog. Here are the first three which I think are key:
‘1. What is a user trying to accomplish by visiting my site?
2. What do they do when viewing a specific page?
3. Where is the focus of their attention likely to be?’
One of the traps that many bloggers fall into when placing Adsense ads is to just put them where everyone else does - but I think these sorts of questions are a better starting place. Understanding the thought processes and habits of your readers is actually a very helpful thing.
How do you do this? I have done a number of things to try to get inside the minds of some of my readers. Here’s a few suggestions:
1. Watch someone surf your blog - ask someone who hasn’t been to your blog before to have a look around your blog while you watch on. Don’t tell them where to go - but watch what they do. After a few minutes ask them a few questions about what they saw, what they read, what stood out etc. Of course you could pay for a professional eye tracking type service - but even just what you can glean from just observing one person very unscientifically can be very useful.
2. Email your regular readers - On occasion I pick a random regular reader from one of my newsletter lists or comments lists and will ask that reader for feedback on my blog. I seek their opinion on design, ad placement etc and ask them for their impressions of my blog.
3. Do a survey or poll - this can be as big or as small as you like but give all of your readers the opportunity to feedback to you who they are and what they think of your blog. Collect data on who they (demographics), why they come to your blog and what they think of it. Also give them an opportunity to make suggestions. I’m always amazed at how my readers see things that I’ve never noticed before about my blog because they look at it as an objective outsider.
Written on August 29th, 2005 at 01:08 am by Darren Rowse
The Secret to InterActive Blogging - Expertise blended with Invitation
Rob Hof over at Business Week has stumbled upon one of the secrets of growing interactivity on a blog - it’s about not knowing all the answers. He notices that the posts with most comments on his blog are where he asks for help.
‘The tough thing for journalists, I think, is that we’re supposed to provide answers, not just pose questions. So what makes a really good story–insight into an issue or person or company, wrapped up in a tidy, complete package–is precisely what doesn’t work on a blog. People are more interested in responding to questions. Provide just answers, and, well, there’s nothing more to say….’
This is so true yet I’d not write off posts that provide answers altogether.
What I’ve discovered over the last couple of years is that people want a mixture of expertise but also room to speak from their own experience. I’ve tried in the past few months to create this type of space in the way I blog here at enternetusers - blending posts that are are quite ‘How To’ in nature (with lots of tips and answers) with plenty of opportunities for readers to share their own expertise.
In a sense this was my motivation behind the 31 Day Project and my invitation for readers to submit their blog tip posts. The result is quite spectacular with around 160 reader submissions already in addition to my own 45 or so ‘expert’ pieces.
Written on August 28th, 2005 at 11:08 pm by Darren Rowse
31 Days to Building a Better Blog - Day 28
As we approach the end of the 31 Day project I’m feeling a mixture of sadness that readers won’t be submitted their great blog tip posts every day - but also a little relief because the list of submissions is now getting quite massive (I think we’re now over 200 posts - including mine). Here are three more for today:
- Fintan let us know about his Technorati Tag Generator
- Murphy submitted How to Restore Lost Blogger Template Code
- Hatem has posted How to convert visitors into regular readers - part 1
there is still a few days left to post your own blog tip on your blog and let me know the URL so I can link up.
Written on August 28th, 2005 at 02:08 pm by Darren Rowse
Feedster 500 List - “Dead Wrong”
Jason Dowdell at Marketing Shift has a post where he analyses the Feedster top 500 list and finds that it is ‘dead wrong’.
‘Sites with RSS feeds and even some without are being considered blogs when they clearly aren’t. Blog search has a long way to go but that’s another story for another day.’
Written on August 28th, 2005 at 01:08 pm by Darren Rowse
enternetusers in the Press Page
Today I’ve added a enternetusers In the Press page to this blog as a central place to list the mentions this blog has had in mainstream media (and some of the larger online news sources.
Written on August 27th, 2005 at 11:08 pm by Darren Rowse
31 Days to Building a Better Blog - Day 27
Here are today’s reader submissions for the 31 Day Project:
- Thom submitted Networking and Blogging - Blogging and Networking
- Ignat has written Helping Bloggers get to the top
- Jon’s submitted Copywriting Tips from the Donald
- Gary has written How to become the ‘Go To’ in your niche
- Connected Internet alerted us to an older post - Online libel: How to avoid
- un papier let us know about Do you see Ads on this Page?
There are some good posts in that lot - I hope you find them helpful. Just four more days til the 31 Day project is over! What an amazing list of Blog Tips we’ve compiled so far.
Written on August 27th, 2005 at 06:08 pm by Darren Rowse
Blog Forums
Ads on Blogs (a newish blog - to me at least) has a list of Useful Blog Forums for those interested in discussing the ins and outs of blogging.
Do many here use blog specific forums? I have to admit to not using them much - if I go to forums they tend to be less focused upon blogging and more focused upon other website building activities like SEO and Adsense.
Which forums (if any) do you spend time in?
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