Written on September 8th, 2007 at 12:09 am by Darren Rowse
27 Blog Workspaces Explored
Earlier in the week I took you on a video Tour of enternetusers HQ (office) and invited you to show us (via picture or video) where you blog from. I promised to compile all of your submissions so we could see them all in the one place. So here’s the enternetusers Reader Blogging HQ Mashup with 7 video tours and 20 pictures (click to enlarge them)!
Lindsay’s blog HQ is pretty unique - he really gets out and about!
David Appleyard’s HQ is slightly more traditional than a boat:
Lorraine’s setup is out on the patio and seems to have everything she’d need:
Glenn’s looks very cool - and he’s got a 30 inch screen!
Kevin’s setup is down low:
Tejvan shares his room:
but also points to the view he gets from a local cafe where he blogs
John has a pretty major set up with lots of screen real estate:
Char gives a glimpse in their home office (lots of storage!):
James is a Mac man like me:
Eve shows us her set up - nicely integrated into the room:
Cifra put together a video tour:
Tomaz shares their setup:
Mark also does a video tour:
Anthony has just renovated his office and has lots of pictures. Here’s one:
Ian thinks his HQ is better than mine :-)
Dave shares a picture of his - wow, that’s a big microphone!
MoneyNing’s set up is a little different to most
Rich Minx does another video tour
Sebastian gives us a look at his
Taste Like Crazy shares theirs on video - complete with cat, dog and baby:
Marisa posts hers
Dean shares his on video - very organized:
Jeremy has shared a few pics too. Here’s one:
Serge posts a picture of his
Doug just moved and needs a desk
Nate shares his mobile podcasting setup on video:
Chris is in the process of moving house - so he’s blogging from a coffee table:
Thank you to everyone who got involved with this. You’re welcome to continue to post links to your pictures and videos in comments below. I’m not sure that I’ll do a full mashup post like this again - but I’d love to see more of where you work from!
Update - due to public demand (and me missing a few) I will do one more mashup mid next week - so feel free to keep leaving your links to pictures or video tours of your office in this comments of this or the previous post - if you don’t leave a comment I won’t be able to find it - so please do leave a link.
Written on September 7th, 2007 at 12:09 pm by Darren Rowse
AuctionAds give $25 to New Publishers
AuctionAds have announced a bonus of $25 for new publishers signing up to use their system.
Sign up and your balance will automatically receive the $25 without you having to do anything. They do have a minimum payout of $50 so you’ll need to implement their ads to reach that mark before you get your money but it’s nice little incentive to get you using their system.
If you’ve already signed up with AuctionAds you will still get your $25 bonus if you’ve not had a payout previously.
Written on September 7th, 2007 at 05:09 am by Darren Rowse
Organizational Techniques for Bloggers
Having looked at some of our reader’s rhythms and tools for enhancing productivity today we’re going to wrap up this mini series by looking at some other organizational techniques that they use:
1. Marko Novak tells how he sets himself daily tasks:
“I’ve made a week list which tells me what should I write on a particular day in a week. For example: from monday to friday I write posts about blog, seo, making money,… on weekends I write more entertaining posts. I guess is just like a job. On work days serious topics and on weekend more casual ones.”
2. Neena has a similar process:
“Everyday I allocate a set number of hours to work on my blogs. I also prepare a detailed “to do” list at the end of each blogging session. The next day I tackle the items on the list during my blogging time. This keeps me focused and I get much more accomplished.”
3. JD shares along similar lines again:
“I have an ongoing To Do list of a variety of tasks: writing, marketing, research, reading and commenting on other blogs, ad stuff, design stuff... the list is never ending! By having a lot of different choices of types of blog work, I can’t use the excuse that I am not “in the mood” to do X, Y, or Z.
If I am not in the mood to write, then I can read other blogs. If I am not feeling motivated to work on marketing, I can jot down some ideas. If the idea of figuring out how to set up an amazon store fills me with dread, I can play around with my layout. And so on. I may not write a post every day, but I am always working (playing!) on my blog in some capacity.”
4. Sean suggests a simple prioritizing method:
“Write down the 10 most important things you can do for the day and list them from most important to least important, now start with the most important.”
5. Mark plans ahead:
“I like to try to keep at least ten articles in my WordPress dashboard at all times, all ready to publish. I only resort to those when I am in a rush or for the rare occasion when I can’t think of anything to blog about. I also like to list hundreds of ideas on my Invision Power Board forum. I have hundreds of blogging ideas listed in a restricted forum (where only I can see them) with dozens of articles in varying stages of development. When I finish one, I pop it straight into my WP dashboard.”
6. Sharon Sarmiento shares a tip on hiring some help:
“Get yourself some help– Really, if you can make more money per hour than you’re paying the business manager or assistant who’s helping you, then it’s worth it to shell out the dough so that some of your blogging (and other) tasks can be taken off your plate. It also usually allows the blogger to increase his income even though he’s spending money on the help, because his time is freed up to pursue more projects. But, obviously for this productivity strategy to work, you have to be making money already, so it’s not for everyone :-) If you’re a seasoned enternetusers though, it could radically improve your life.”
Written on September 7th, 2007 at 12:09 am by Darren Rowse
Editorial Calendars and Professional Blogging
This post on Editorial Calendars And Professional Blogging was submitted by Gerard McGarry. Gerard is a web designer from Northern Ireland and runs a popular music blog called Unreality Music.
Professional publications use editorial calendars to plan features and stories for future editions. Steve Rubel talked about this a while back and I know a few people who thought it was a great idea for running a more professional blog.
Why? Because it forces you to think about what you’re posting in advance and to try to structure your writing. You might consider writing a series of related posts and running one every Tuesday. Or possibly having a theme for certain days. I know a couple of bloggers who have “Friday Links Round Ups” or “Ask The Author” days where a dialog is started between the blogger and readers and plays out in the comments of a post.
Who Would Benefit From An Editorial Calendar?
Bloggers, because the calendar would introduce an element of consistency into their blogging, and would encourage them to think about the bigger picture. You don’t have to be locked into the calendar - if a topical news item breaks, then you have a duty to cover it if it’s important to your readers.
Readers would also benefit, because posts would appear more regularly, and by using themes they know what type of content to expect on any given day.
Some Ideas For Blogging Themes
There are tons of techniques that you could tie to particular days in your blogging calendar. Here are a few:
- Link round-ups - put together a list of the best posts you’ve read within the week (always good for Fridays)
- Interviews with other bloggers in your niche
- Reviews of products/services/websites in your niche
- Tutorials or how-to articles - pick a day where you’ll share your expertise with your readers
- Ask Me - create a post where you answer open questions from your readers in the comments section.
- Blog Carnivals - host a blog carnival on a regular basis.
I’m sure there are other ideas you can use (share them in the comments if so). I have some ideas that are specific to the sites I run that I’ll be experimenting with soon.
You don’t have to have a plan for every day of the week either. There’s nothing wrong with spontaneity in blogging. But sometimes it’ll help you if you have to think ahead - you’ll see themes and relationships between your posts that will give your blog more flow. Forward planning rocks.
Editorial Calendar Resources
You can create a basic editorial calendar in a number of ways - tables in a word processor, or a spreadsheet. Steve Rubel used a Google calendar for his, on the basis that prospective advertisers could see what was upcoming and purchase ad space.
If you’d like an editorial calendar template, Andy Wibbels has a spreadsheet version available for download which is worth a look.
Written on September 6th, 2007 at 05:09 am by Darren Rowse
Productivity Tools for Bloggers
Yesterday we looked at some reader submitted productivity ‘rhythms’ for bloggers - today we’re going to look at a handful of your suggested tool:
1. Millionaire Mommy Next Door shares a useful tool…. from the kitchen:
“My favorite productivity tool is a digital kitchen timer. Nothing can sideswipe your attention and redirect your efforts quite like the world-wide-web. The timer keeps me focused, motivated and targeted on the individual task at hand. Identify your daily, weekly and monthly activities, set a time limit for each one, and start the digital timer in countdown mode. Save your favorite activities for last to serve as your reward for staying on task. More on this technique here.”
2. StarXLR8 shares a blogging tool tip (plus more):
“Transitioning from blogging online with Wordpress to using Ecto offline is my biggest blogging productivity secret. I have much more flexibility in brainstorming, planning and organizing my thoughts and ideas for the next great post.
I would say that future date posting comes in second - as Darren said today and Leo at Zen Habits a few days ago - you can take advantage of creative bursts that appear like consistency to your user. This gives me more time to read and respond to comments.”
3. Michael from Pro Blog Design shares about how motivation is a key for him and how he uses a plugin to help him in this:
“I am most productive when I am motivated, so my best productivity tip is one that makes me motivated. I use the Updated Today plugin, in combination with a trick I created to show something only to the blog admin on Wordpress. Whenever I have written a post today, I see a little yellow banner up at the top of my blog. That let’s me know that I’ve accomplished something today. If I don’t see it, then it’s a great motivator to actually do something!”
4. Brian Friedlander shares another useful technique:
“I always have a mindmapping application out that I can use to brainstorm and capture my ideas with. If I come across an interesting website I link it to my mindmap so that I can go back to it later. This really helps me to focus and when I am ready to write I just pull up my midmap and have all my resources in one place.”
Written on September 6th, 2007 at 12:09 am by Darren Rowse
Take A Tour of enternetusers HQ
“What does your blogging setup look like?”
This is a question I get quite a lot - so today I want to invite you to come along for a short tour of my home office.
It’s a fairly simple setup really although I do try to make it reasonably comfortable as I’m sitting in it for long periods of time each day.
I’d love to see your blogging setup - post a picture or video to your blog or to flickr or YouTube (etc) and leave a link in comments below.
Products mentioned during the video include:
- Herman Miller Aeron Chair
- Apple Cinema 23″ HD Flat-Panel Display
- Apple Power Mac G5 Desktop (mine is a 2 Ghz - G5)
- Apple MacBook Pro (although I have an older 2.16 Ghz Intel Core Duo)
- Moleskine Notebook
- Fischer Space Pen (I love these pens)
The only other thing that I didn’t have out today was my headset which I use daily on skype. I have a Plantronics DSP-400 USB Headset which has been a big improvement on my previous headset.
Update: two other elements of my office that are normally in place (but were not present when I filmed because they were away as a result of us just having been in selling house mode).
1. White board - I use my white board a lot for planning.
2. Coffee cup - it’s a permanent feature next to my mouse. I’m actually toying with the idea of getting a coffee machine for my new office!
Written on September 5th, 2007 at 07:09 pm by Darren Rowse
Speedlinking - 5 September 2007
A few quick links:
- Mashable puts together 17 WordPress Plugins for AdSense
- Leo shares 12 ways to keep your posting going for ever
- Are you a US College Student with a blog? You might want to check out the $10,000 blogging scholarship
- Blogging Tips shares 5 Secrets to Bad Search Engine Rankings
Written on September 5th, 2007 at 07:09 am by Darren Rowse
10 Rhythms for Productive Blogging
As a follow up to my own productivity tips for bloggers I asked readers to submit some of their own tips for keeping productive. The response was fantastic with over 40 responses already. As promised in the call for tips I said I’d be publishing some of my favorite submissions. Here are some of the highlights for me. I’ve divided them into ‘Rhythms, Tools and Organizational Techniques’ to help make it a little more digestible and will post a summary of each of these areas over the next three days. Lets start with blogging rhythms:
1. Tejvan Pettinger writes about removing distractions:
“I set aside time for writing. When I write I turn off the internet (good excuse for going to a coffee shop). The main thing is to do one thing at a time. It’s when we get distracted that we lose time and productivity.”
2. A Blog about Nothing starts the blogging process offline too:
“Pen and paper are my biggest organizational habits. I generally write down an outline of what I want to post about over the course of the next week and carry it around with me. Just the exercise of having written it down seems to help me stay on track as far as subject matter.”
3. Simmons advises cutting down on reading about blogging:
“My #1 tip: Stop reading blogs that help you blog. I used to read around 10 a day, but I’ve cut it down to one (enternetusers). I’ve saved a LOT of time.”
4. CatherineL shares a how she captures ideas when offline:
“It’s usually when I am not thinking about things to blog about that I come up with an idea. So, I keep a notebook with me and write down a sentence or two that will remind me of the ideas later on. If I didn’t do this I would forget. If I read something in a magazine or newspaper that inspires me, I cut it out and put it into a file for later.”
5. Jeremy Killian writes:
“The most productive thing that I can do for my blog is to get up by 5:30. This gives me a good 45 minutes to work before I have to head to work. Although you may not believe it, these 45 minutes are more productive in my work day than three hours could be later in the day. It is unreal how much I can get done!”
6. Shawn Hoefer says reading posts out loud before publishing can help a lot:
“Skip rough drafts and rewrites. instead, read your post aloud to someone before hitting the publish button. It’s amazing how many errors you’ll find and correct as you read it.”
7.Tomaz Mencinger shares some wise words:
“My least productive days are those, when I start reading first (emails, forums posts, RSS news, …) and producing second. (writing, getting links, optimizing my websites, …) The key to great productivity is then to discipline yourself to produce first and learn second.”
8. Vargas talks about a more productive time to blog:
“I tend to be more creative in the evening and at night and sometimes I get a lot of ideas during that time. What I do to harness that wave of creativity is start several posts about different things I want to blog about and then save them instead of posting them. On days that I find it very difficult to come up with ideas to write about I can always go back to these unfinished posts and finish them, polish then up and post them. Between that and the list, I rarely miss an opportunity to post.”
9. Rich Minx shares a 6 point plan:
1. Drinking strong coffee.
2. Refraining from checking my stats all the time.
3. Leaving the house occasionally, which clears my head and the stimuli of the outside world give me new ideas.
4. Cutting down on the RSS feeds I subscribe to.
5. Building a close blogging network so we all inspire each other to keep going.
6. Time-stamping posts.
10. Brad Shorr shares how he uses delicious to help him and shares a tip on writing series of posts rather than long posts:
“Whenever I come across a fascinating blog article or Web site, I tag it in My del.icio.us, usually with a category and/or note that corresponds to one of my blog categories. Then I come back and review the tagged material when I have time to really absorb it. Often, in the process of doing that, I’ll develop an idea for a post of my own. At the very least, I’ll write a link post that point my readers to quality posts related to the theme of my blog.
I am also trying to break down long posts into a series of posts - something I learned from enternetusers. Not only does this fill out the editorial calendar, I think series posts make it easier on the reader to focus in, and hopefully, return to your blog for the next installment.”
Written on September 5th, 2007 at 05:09 am by Darren Rowse
When Going Off Topic Can Help You Find New Readers
Drawing on other niches in your blogging can have benefits.
On the weekend I wrote a post here at enternetusers titled 9 Lessons You Can Learn about Blogging by Watching Me Sell My House which was a post that I hesitated to publish for a day or two before putting it up on the blog because I wondered if it might be a little off topic.
While it was about blogging - it was also somewhat personal and if anything more focussed upon the topic of real estate than anything else.
However as I felt it contained enough ‘blogging related tips’ that I decided to go ahead with it.
The response from readers was very interesting.
The first wave of responses was from regular enternetusers readers who made comments and linked up in a fairly typical fashion. I think giving a little insight into my personal situation was appreciated.
The second wave of responses was very interesting and a little unexpected. About 24 to 36 hours after publishing the post I noticed a second wave of incoming links to the site - from real estate blogs and other related topics (for example this one from Decorating Diva). What interested me about these secondary linkups was that they picked up the ‘off topic’ components of the article as their primary focus.
While I did know that some real estate bloggers follow enternetusers - I hadn’t expected them to link up to my post on blogging. However using real estate as the illustration to teach about blogging was enough to generate interest in the post (which seems to have triggered other blogs to link up too).
I guess the lesson is that a little ‘off topic’ posting - or at least using another topic to illustrate your main topic - can help to attract a different kind of reader to your blog.
I wouldn’t suggest doing it in every post - but throwing in this type of post every now and again can be worth considering. The key is to keep it relevant to both your regular readers as well as potentially new readers.
Written on September 4th, 2007 at 06:09 pm by Darren Rowse
Map Your Blog’s Visitors
Want to see where readers of your blog are geographically?
maps.amung.us might be a tool (toy?) that you find useful. Here’s the enternetusers reader map (it could take a little time to populate - but it is supposed to be flash based so it won’t need to refresh the page to update)!
Of course it only tracks visitors on the page/s that you run the map on. So this map will only show visitors to this actual post or the blog (until this post drops off the front page). To get around this you could put it in your sidebar.
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