Friday, January 25, 2008
How Often should you blog?
Depending on your blog, frequency of blogging will vary, but here are general guidelines:
1. At east 2-3 times a week to ensure regular readership and Search Engine Optimization. Remember Quality is more important than quantity so that readers come back to your site.
2. Write comments on related sites at least once a week
3. Respond to reader comments asap.
4. Ensure no spelling mistakes and reference material used.
5. Keep it personal and relevant to the blog topic
6. Paid posts are okay - no more than 1 per week.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Adsense and a great blog
Still waiting for Google Adsense to review my adsense application. It's been over 1 month since I submitted the application. They were supposed to get back to me in 1 week, but so far no word. I tried following up so no response. Does this mean I was not accepted or is my application still under review? Who knows?
Also, check out this new blog I discovered - http://www.johnchow.com. It some great articles on how to monetize your blog.
Friday, November 30, 2007
How much you can earn blogging?
Want to know how much you can earn from bogging? Then check out this article from Pro-blogger:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/11/30/how-much-money-do-bloggers-earn-blogging/
Shows only a fortunate few can make a living blogging
Saturday, November 24, 2007
How to set up an email contact link from Blogger
The blogger engine has one major limitation when compared to Wordpress or Typepad in that it does not have a contact form or a way for someone to email the site author directly. Well to get over this, you can add the following line of HTML to a HTML/Javascript widget box.
<a href="mailto:email address">Click here to email Me</a>
Put your email in the “email address” field. So for Joesmith@yahoo.com, the line would be
<a href="mailto:joesmith@yahoo.com">Click here to email Me</a>
Hope this helps.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Characteristics that can make your blog standout
From ProBlogger, some good tips on characteristics that can make your blog standout:
- A consistent and natural writing style can help make your content more distinctive.
- You're unique, so put yourself into what you write.
- Using formatting and imagery in your own way can set your posts apart visually.
- Doing the opposite of what others are doing can be a powerful way to differentiate your posts.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Good tips for blogging
From author doshdosh, here are some good tips for blogging the full article can be found here.
---------------
Breaking into a niche and accumulating critical mass quickly for your blog is not an easy task. While popular blogs in your niche have established brands, it is possible to ’steal’ their mindshare and build a strong readership of your own.
The success of a blog often depends on its audience size. When many people read your blog regularly, your content will potentially be circulated widely, which grows your site faster.
So what’s the secret to building a large blog readership? Content dissemination and the development of a supportive core audience. And that’s really the key. It’s not just about the quality of your content. It’s about having broad distribution channels.
Once again, readership growth doesn’t only depend on the merit of your blog posts, but rather their circulation reach. It’s about how much attention your content receives.
The value of content is subjective and much of its eventual impact actually depends on distribution more than anything. Top quality link bait will be impotent if only three people get to see it. On the other hand, a mediocre article can become massively popular if 100 bloggers see and write about it.
The same scenario occurs even when you hold content quality to be equal. Here’s an example: An Associated Press news story on Yahoo News hits the Digg frontpage and receives many citation links from many bloggers.
The exact same AP story can be found on sites like Google News or the Huffington Post, but they didn’t get any exposure on Digg and hence, didn’t receive as much attention from the blogosphere.
Having people who see and distribute your content is vital for readership growth.
If you can expand your distribution channels, you can even develop perceived authority and brand strength, just purely from your ubiquitous presence. People will naturally talk about what they see regularly or the brands they are familiar with, instead of something unknown to them. This is known as mindshare.
With that in mind, let’s examine the benefits of a core audience and how you develop such a network to increase your distributive power.
The Importance of Having a Supportive Core Audience
If you want to build a large readership or be regarded as an authority on any topic, you need to develop a core group of supporters. This is important because these people allow your content to spiral outwards beyond your existing readership.
The core group of supporters should have some or all of the following characteristics:
- They are bloggers, each with their own audience.
- They are influential thought leaders in their niche.
- They have the ability to send you links and traffic.
- They are loyal readers who value your content and opinions.
- They will follow your blog regularly and read most of what you write.
- They may also be the target audience for your content
Whenever you publish an important article, these are the people who will talk about it and disseminate it by sharing it with others. This brings more targeted visitors into your site, some of whom may subscribe and follow your blog, before eventually becoming a member of your supportive audience as well.
The only way for a blog to grow fast is to put out valuable content (something worth talking about) and have it spread through a core audience with the ability to link or influence links (people who talk about it). This is an unparalleled strategy that will easily help you to establish a consistently growing blog readership.
Three Strategies to Build a Supportive Core Audience
Let’s assume that you are already producing content of excellent quality. The next step is to focus on developing multiple distribution channels and a core audience.
The following strategies can be condensed to just one action: to build relationships for content distribution. Most of what is outlined below focuses on developing beneficial affiliations in order to establish a supportive circle of readers/peers.
1. Power Networking and Emotional Engagement
I’ve written many times about ways to network with other bloggers and I’ll just like to emphasize that the networking really starts with that first act of unconditional giving. That first sign of genuine interest in the other person or his/her work.
The most effective way of networking is to offer something of real value for the intended party, without requesting something in return (at least not immediately). Let’s take comments as an example. Instead of just promoting yourself in your comment, write words which initiate a conversation between you and the blogger.
For instance, Caroline has developed an excellent blog commenting strategy which allows her to grab the attention of bloggers and gain new readers. To me, the traffic you get isn’t really a big issue. The most important thing to do, when it comes to networking, is to demonstrate your commitment to the other party.
Apart from giving, here are three important points for effective networking:
Your Visibility. The more conspicuous you are with your support of the other blogger, the better. Ideally, you want to make them think of you as often as possible. Stay on their radar by leaving relevant comments and engage in actual conversations away from the blog.
Make them aware of you by linking, promoting, sharing and talking about them on your own blog or social websites.
Alternative Communication. It is important to move away from the commenter or email-pitcher role and get into a more casual relationship with the blogger. One way to do this is to talk via emails, phone or Internet messengers.
The mode of communication is an important relationship catalyst. Frequent conference attendees can attest to the value of networking with industry peers whom you’ve only met online.
Contact of this nature can generate affinity rapidly.
Even talking on the phone or IM breaks the reader/blogger dialectic a little and forces it to adjust itself to a new friendship or peer dynamic. Staying on one communication channel is a poor networking strategy that should be avoided.
community as Magnet. Encouraging interactions between readers and group discussions is an excellent way to draw people into your circle and turn them into hardcore supporters through emotional engagements.
Liz Strauss and Darren are bloggers skilled in developing communities around their blogs. Liz does some really interesting things in this area; for instance she recently held a virtual party to celebrate her blog birthday.
There are many other ways to build a community around your blog. Just an important point to note: It’s not about increasing the number of comments or the amount of visible activity. It’s about building relationships with a group of persuaders who will push your content because they favor you or your blog.
2. Content Syndication and Editorial Submissions
Increasing your distribution channels will also require some active effort on your part. Allowing other websites to syndicate your content in full is an easy way to get some extra exposure and develop some additional defensible traffic sources
Translating your content into other languages also makes your content accessible to a larger market. For example, the Blog Herald recently hired a translation team and set up a Japanese and Chinese version of their blog on subdomains.
Another method of getting your content across to multiple audiences is to practice guest blogging. For me personally, the real value of guest blogging lies in the building of deeper relationships with the bloggers you write for.
I don’t really care so much about the traffic or exposure you’ll receive. To only focus on the subscribers, traffic or deep links you’ll get is short term thinking.
Guest blogging is a doorway towards future recommendations and links. It is far easier to pitch a blogger who has previously published an entire article of yours on his or her site. If you have an exceptional article that just begs to be shared with others, you’ll easily get a mention because you’ve already acquired that trust.
There are many other benefits to guest blogging and many bloggers like Skellie, Chris Garrett, Leo Babauta and Steven Snell have built part of their audiences by guest blogging actively on various relevant sites with the audience they want.
In the context of our discussion, guest blogging is a good way to build a supportive network of peers, i.e. bloggers who will disseminate your content when needed. Pursue guest blogging strategically and above all, focus on relationship building.
3. Leverage Social Media Channels for Attention
I’ve already written about the importance of social media marketing and how I think social media websites are excellent distribution channels for you to disseminate your content. A well marketed article can bring a huge amount of visitors, who might stay on to track and support your blog.
In terms of building a core audience, social media is a match-maker. She puts up links to your blog in all the right places and shows you off to people who might not have come across your blog before. Social media makes introductions; you’ll have to convince the visitor that you are the right blog for him or her.
The marketing strategy here is simple; Choose a content topic that is relevant to your blog’s focus, while potentially popular with the social channel you are targeting. Unless you own a blog that is much loved and followed by the social media community, never assume that everything you write is perfect for it.
Angle your content for the masses to accumulate the greatest amount of attention. Those interested in what your blog offers will subscribe to you while the others will move on. This natural retention model weeds out the most casual of visitors.
On top of the usual submission of content to social news sites like Digg or Reddit, remember to network with social media influencers because these people have the ability to affect the popularity of your content both inside and outside of the community (links from secondary websites).
Apart from push marketing, you can also use social media to build your core audience by publishing on community news sites like Newsvine and networking within specific social communities like Bumpzee, Blog Catalog or MyBloglog. These communities largely contain webmasters and bloggers who might choose to follow your blog.
Traditional webmaster forums or niche forums/message boards can also send a good deal of relevant traffic, especially when you participate actively in a crowded space to build your personal brand.
Blog Readership = Word of Mouth Marketing
When people talk about you, you’ll get traffic and new readers one way or another. The quality of your content is incredibly important but equally so, is the presence of a core audience that will help to push your content and brand.
Actively develop a group of peers or readers that’ll support you and your efforts will pay off handsomely; The next time you create a fantastic article or break news, you’ll notice the powerful advantages that come with broad distribution channels
---------------
Breaking into a niche and accumulating critical mass quickly for your blog is not an easy task. While popular blogs in your niche have established brands, it is possible to ’steal’ their mindshare and build a strong readership of your own.
The success of a blog often depends on its audience size. When many people read your blog regularly, your content will potentially be circulated widely, which grows your site faster.
So what’s the secret to building a large blog readership? Content dissemination and the development of a supportive core audience. And that’s really the key. It’s not just about the quality of your content. It’s about having broad distribution channels.
Once again, readership growth doesn’t only depend on the merit of your blog posts, but rather their circulation reach. It’s about how much attention your content receives.
The value of content is subjective and much of its eventual impact actually depends on distribution more than anything. Top quality link bait will be impotent if only three people get to see it. On the other hand, a mediocre article can become massively popular if 100 bloggers see and write about it.
The same scenario occurs even when you hold content quality to be equal. Here’s an example: An Associated Press news story on Yahoo News hits the Digg frontpage and receives many citation links from many bloggers.
The exact same AP story can be found on sites like Google News or the Huffington Post, but they didn’t get any exposure on Digg and hence, didn’t receive as much attention from the blogosphere.
Having people who see and distribute your content is vital for readership growth.
If you can expand your distribution channels, you can even develop perceived authority and brand strength, just purely from your ubiquitous presence. People will naturally talk about what they see regularly or the brands they are familiar with, instead of something unknown to them. This is known as mindshare.
With that in mind, let’s examine the benefits of a core audience and how you develop such a network to increase your distributive power.
The Importance of Having a Supportive Core Audience
If you want to build a large readership or be regarded as an authority on any topic, you need to develop a core group of supporters. This is important because these people allow your content to spiral outwards beyond your existing readership.
The core group of supporters should have some or all of the following characteristics:
- They are bloggers, each with their own audience.
- They are influential thought leaders in their niche.
- They have the ability to send you links and traffic.
- They are loyal readers who value your content and opinions.
- They will follow your blog regularly and read most of what you write.
- They may also be the target audience for your content
Whenever you publish an important article, these are the people who will talk about it and disseminate it by sharing it with others. This brings more targeted visitors into your site, some of whom may subscribe and follow your blog, before eventually becoming a member of your supportive audience as well.
The only way for a blog to grow fast is to put out valuable content (something worth talking about) and have it spread through a core audience with the ability to link or influence links (people who talk about it). This is an unparalleled strategy that will easily help you to establish a consistently growing blog readership.
Three Strategies to Build a Supportive Core Audience
Let’s assume that you are already producing content of excellent quality. The next step is to focus on developing multiple distribution channels and a core audience.
The following strategies can be condensed to just one action: to build relationships for content distribution. Most of what is outlined below focuses on developing beneficial affiliations in order to establish a supportive circle of readers/peers.
1. Power Networking and Emotional Engagement
I’ve written many times about ways to network with other bloggers and I’ll just like to emphasize that the networking really starts with that first act of unconditional giving. That first sign of genuine interest in the other person or his/her work.
The most effective way of networking is to offer something of real value for the intended party, without requesting something in return (at least not immediately). Let’s take comments as an example. Instead of just promoting yourself in your comment, write words which initiate a conversation between you and the blogger.
For instance, Caroline has developed an excellent blog commenting strategy which allows her to grab the attention of bloggers and gain new readers. To me, the traffic you get isn’t really a big issue. The most important thing to do, when it comes to networking, is to demonstrate your commitment to the other party.
Apart from giving, here are three important points for effective networking:
Your Visibility. The more conspicuous you are with your support of the other blogger, the better. Ideally, you want to make them think of you as often as possible. Stay on their radar by leaving relevant comments and engage in actual conversations away from the blog.
Make them aware of you by linking, promoting, sharing and talking about them on your own blog or social websites.
Alternative Communication. It is important to move away from the commenter or email-pitcher role and get into a more casual relationship with the blogger. One way to do this is to talk via emails, phone or Internet messengers.
The mode of communication is an important relationship catalyst. Frequent conference attendees can attest to the value of networking with industry peers whom you’ve only met online.
Contact of this nature can generate affinity rapidly.
Even talking on the phone or IM breaks the reader/blogger dialectic a little and forces it to adjust itself to a new friendship or peer dynamic. Staying on one communication channel is a poor networking strategy that should be avoided.
community as Magnet. Encouraging interactions between readers and group discussions is an excellent way to draw people into your circle and turn them into hardcore supporters through emotional engagements.
Liz Strauss and Darren are bloggers skilled in developing communities around their blogs. Liz does some really interesting things in this area; for instance she recently held a virtual party to celebrate her blog birthday.
There are many other ways to build a community around your blog. Just an important point to note: It’s not about increasing the number of comments or the amount of visible activity. It’s about building relationships with a group of persuaders who will push your content because they favor you or your blog.
2. Content Syndication and Editorial Submissions
Increasing your distribution channels will also require some active effort on your part. Allowing other websites to syndicate your content in full is an easy way to get some extra exposure and develop some additional defensible traffic sources
Translating your content into other languages also makes your content accessible to a larger market. For example, the Blog Herald recently hired a translation team and set up a Japanese and Chinese version of their blog on subdomains.
Another method of getting your content across to multiple audiences is to practice guest blogging. For me personally, the real value of guest blogging lies in the building of deeper relationships with the bloggers you write for.
I don’t really care so much about the traffic or exposure you’ll receive. To only focus on the subscribers, traffic or deep links you’ll get is short term thinking.
Guest blogging is a doorway towards future recommendations and links. It is far easier to pitch a blogger who has previously published an entire article of yours on his or her site. If you have an exceptional article that just begs to be shared with others, you’ll easily get a mention because you’ve already acquired that trust.
There are many other benefits to guest blogging and many bloggers like Skellie, Chris Garrett, Leo Babauta and Steven Snell have built part of their audiences by guest blogging actively on various relevant sites with the audience they want.
In the context of our discussion, guest blogging is a good way to build a supportive network of peers, i.e. bloggers who will disseminate your content when needed. Pursue guest blogging strategically and above all, focus on relationship building.
3. Leverage Social Media Channels for Attention
I’ve already written about the importance of social media marketing and how I think social media websites are excellent distribution channels for you to disseminate your content. A well marketed article can bring a huge amount of visitors, who might stay on to track and support your blog.
In terms of building a core audience, social media is a match-maker. She puts up links to your blog in all the right places and shows you off to people who might not have come across your blog before. Social media makes introductions; you’ll have to convince the visitor that you are the right blog for him or her.
The marketing strategy here is simple; Choose a content topic that is relevant to your blog’s focus, while potentially popular with the social channel you are targeting. Unless you own a blog that is much loved and followed by the social media community, never assume that everything you write is perfect for it.
Angle your content for the masses to accumulate the greatest amount of attention. Those interested in what your blog offers will subscribe to you while the others will move on. This natural retention model weeds out the most casual of visitors.
On top of the usual submission of content to social news sites like Digg or Reddit, remember to network with social media influencers because these people have the ability to affect the popularity of your content both inside and outside of the community (links from secondary websites).
Apart from push marketing, you can also use social media to build your core audience by publishing on community news sites like Newsvine and networking within specific social communities like Bumpzee, Blog Catalog or MyBloglog. These communities largely contain webmasters and bloggers who might choose to follow your blog.
Traditional webmaster forums or niche forums/message boards can also send a good deal of relevant traffic, especially when you participate actively in a crowded space to build your personal brand.
Blog Readership = Word of Mouth Marketing
When people talk about you, you’ll get traffic and new readers one way or another. The quality of your content is incredibly important but equally so, is the presence of a core audience that will help to push your content and brand.
Actively develop a group of peers or readers that’ll support you and your efforts will pay off handsomely; The next time you create a fantastic article or break news, you’ll notice the powerful advantages that come with broad distribution channels
Adsense
Signed up for adsense to try and monetize the blog. However for the last week, I have had this public services ad.....google was supposed to get back to me in 1 week, but its been more than that....so perhaps I wasn't approved. It would have been good to get an update.
Adsense is probably the most common revenue sources for blogs around the place. It is not the most profitable, but is easy to setup from what I see - and I wonder how it will work.
Adsense is probably the most common revenue sources for blogs around the place. It is not the most profitable, but is easy to setup from what I see - and I wonder how it will work.
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