A few minutes ago, I logged into BloggersWalk and what do I see other than an RSS feed from WordPress.org! Yes people, WordPress 2.6 is now released. Here’s a video from WordPress.
Regarding upgrades, WordPress claims that the theme and the plugin sections of WordPress 2.6 is pretty much identical to 2.5, so at least I’m happy about not having to fix this theme a bit here and there and wait for some plugin updates.
Once I’m done with conducting the update for BloggersWalk, I’ll give a full review on the changes. Tune in, as I’ll probably do the update sometime this week!
Entrecard is a great tool for bloggers. While I knew of it since long ago, I only decided to try it out yesterday, as you can see from my Entrecard widget on the side. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s basically like a little business card for your blog, and you go around blogs with the Entrecard widget on it, dropping your card in that blog. Every card you drop and card dropped on you equals one credit, which can be used for various purposes, such as for money and contest prizes. However, if your blog is relatively new like this one, it might be a wiser choice to save up on your credits and spend big on advertisements.
On the side, if you see a 125×125 ad that is not BloggersWalk ad, it is someone advertising on this site using their Entrecard Credits (EC). So basically, with your ECs, you can advertise on any of the blogs listed on Entrecard, assuming that the blog owner approves your advertisement.
So, you’re probably thinking, “I knew all that stuff. Why should I read more?” Well, if you’ve got more than enough ECs, then I guess you don’t have to read any further. However, if you’re just earning your ECs by dropping 300 a day and getting a few drops, reading more couldn’t hurt. Content may be king, but without effective advertising, what good could it be? Anyways, so, how do you use your cards effectively?
Don’t always advertise in your category! This might seem a bit weird, but usually, those who are pioneers are those who win. Usually the sheep, or the ones following, don’t. What does this mean? So, if you run a blog about making money online, the perfect category to advertise would be the “Make Money Online” category. However, looking at the categories avaliable on Entrecard, Internet Marketing, Computers and Internet, Web Development, and a couple others could also work. Now, I’m not saying you should completely ignore your category as an ad on John Chow would be cool. Still, advertising at different categories could prove to benefit you as you could expose yourself to those “untapped” visitors as opposed to the John Chow visitors that already believe that JC is the best and probably won’t even give you a good look.
What days are the most effective? You know how the stores are full during the Holiday season? With websites, it’s pretty much the same. You’ll have a specific day when there will be a lot of visitors. Also, these statistics are pretty consistent. So what do you do? Although not guaranteed, I believe that if you kindly asked a blogger about the blog’s traffic stats, they should give it to you. Of course, you would also have to express your desire to advertise. With these statistics in your hand, there should be a couple obvious days when the hits are quite high. Find the right day, PLAN AHEAD, and make sure that you get your ad in. Due to the nature of Entrecard, the blog owner may accept yours later, thus, resulting in a wrong day, in my opinion, it’s worth a shot. Especially with the bigger blogs, you’ve got a great chance.
Make your ads catchy!
You know the saying, “Sex sells”? Well, the concept is similar. Make your 125×125 advertisements catchy! A few days ago, I was talking to this blogger who was running an MMO blog and he said that he was using a banner that showed a monthly income of $4000+ USD. However, he doesn’t earn that much in reality, but with the help of those numbers, he does receive a lot more visitors. Making your ads catchy is a basic, but not many people utilize it. My ads could also get a lot better! You need something “viral”, something that will get people to WANT TO click! Sounds simple, but it isn’t.
Don’t forget, ECs can be converted to money too!
If you think there isn’t a great place to advertise, don’t force it! Remember? EC can be converted into real cash! Simply convert it and if you want to advertise in a site that does not have the Entrecard widget, just personally get in touch with that blogger to see if there is any ad space opening.
Analyze the incoming traffic!
Analyzing where your traffic is coming from is so important. This should be an obvious thing, but unfortunately, not many people do it all the time. With whatever stat recording program you have, see where the traffic is coming from. See which blog that you advertised at is working right. Entrecard is cheap and since you get 24 hours at one site, you should easily be able to test quite a few sites. If one works well, try that blog out again. Impressive again? Well, you know which one to stick with then!
These are probably simple tips and may or may not be beneficial to you. However, after a day of a lot of reading about Entrecard and lurking around in their forums, these are just a few tips I thought would work for me. Have you tried any of these? Think some of these might not work?
Feel free to drop a comment as we can’t always be perfect!
So before trying to hire someone else, I played around with Photoshop and created a logo for BloggersWalk. As the logo suggests, the color scheme of a possible theme for BloggersWalk in the future will probably be centered around the two colors you see in the logo.
Tell me what you think of it. Give me some feedback! I’ll probably stick with this for now, but I’m still open to modifications.
Every blogger will, sometime in their blogging career, hit a writer’s block. There simply will be a time when you think, “I want to update my blog, but what do I write about?” I’ve compiled a few tips that has helped me get my ideas going again. See if they help you. Also, don’t forget, but if you have anything to add to the points below, feel free to add a comment with it and I’ll edit this post!
See Other Blogs in Your Niche Many times a question will stimulate another question. A great thing about being a blogger is that you can answer these questions that are flowing in nonstop. See other bloggers in your niche and see what questions they are addressing. See what the blogosphere and the readers are curious about. This could really get you going as you will soon find out that as the world is rapidly changing, there are a lot of things to talk about.
Link Out to Quality Posts I’ve seen quite a few bloggers do this on a designated day every week. If you read an awesome post in some other blog within your niche, don’t just close it, but save those links. Then, on that one day, link out to these quality posts! I know that you want to keep your visitors in your blog, but linking out to a few quality posts can also show that you are really interested and knowledgeable in your niche. Also, when you link to another blogger’s post, a trackback will be left. This forms a new relationship between you and that other blogger. There is a chance that this blogger may link to one of your posts sometime in the future.
Let the Burden of Quality Posts Go
All bloggers want to post these super quality posts that would be contenders for the first page on Digg. However, that is simply not possible with every single post. Are you one of these bloggers? If so, you may find yourself concerned more with the quality than getting your thoughts down. Now, I’m not saying make some crappy posts, but just don’t think like a super quality post is a must thing for every single one of your posts. It certainly won’t hurt it, but when you’re in a writer’s block, it can be a problem.
Forget Your Niche Once
Although the majority of your posts should be related to your niche, not every single one of them have to. For example, you could go to Yahoo! News or CNN and see if a topic interests you. It would be great if the topic was at least a bit similar to your niche, but if not, that’s okay too. Why not put up a random blog post stating your opinions on that topic? Chances are, as long as you don’t do this too often, your visitors won’t mind too much. Heck, maybe some of them might be interested in that topic too!
Take a Break!
Okay, maybe it is just not your day. Take a break that day. Don’t sit in front of your computer all day doing nothing. It’s probably more productive to go outside and shop or meet your friends. Maybe some of these experiences from here might get your head flowing again for another post!
These are just a few tips you could reference. While I was writing this post, I thought, “Well, maybe you can just write up a lot on one day when you’re ideas are flying, and you could use those drafts.” While that is true, this is for those who really have no drafts and nothing to post on a certain day. Personally, I’ve hit days when there was nothing to blog about and I believe that it is a common thing with all bloggers.
If you have any more ideas to add, feel free to make a comment!
BloggersWalk didn’t start with a big bang or anything. Still, I’m getting some feedback via email, messenger, and PMs on various forums. One of the things that many of these people said was, “Wow, is it working? Do you think I can do that too?”
The first time I read that type of a PM, I was about to make a quick reply saying, “Sure. All it takes is setting one up.” But then, I halted and thought a bit further. Instead, I sent a reply asking a question, “I don’t know, but do you think you’ll love blogging?”
Let me be straightforward now, since I rambled around already. Blogging is not for everyone. Now, don’t take this as an offense, as it isn’t. It’s the same thing as how soccer is not for everyone, how math is not for everyone, and how playing the piano is not for everyone. Each individual has different talents and blogging is one of them. Blogging is a form of writing. Thus, before setting a blog up, you need to first ask yourself if blogging is really your thing.
Do you like writing?
The very basic of blogging is writing. There’s no way to get by it. You certainly don’t need to be a Tolkien or a Rowling and you don’t need to absolutely love writing that your future dream is an author, a journalist, or a reporter. However, you can’t hate writing. If you don’t like writing, blogging probably isn’t your thing. Maybe vlogging might be your thing.
Can you meet deadlines?
If you want a successful blog, you need to meet deadlines without a boss behind your back. There are some professional bloggers out there who do this for a living. In fact, I hope that I become just as professional as them, as that is my goal with BloggersWalk. However, at this stage of BloggersWalk and myself, blogging is really a hobby. Nonetheless, I have publicly stated that I’m going to at least make two posts a week on Tuesday and Friday. I haven’t missed it yet. You can always do more, but you shouldn’t do less when there is a deadline. With blogging, deadlines are crucial as that is when your subscribers will come and check out your blog. If you can’t meet it, I won’t say don’t blog, but it might be kind of hard to get your opinion out.
Can you reach out?
This may not be so big to you, but in my opinion, it is. I blogged about how a big portion of blogging is about creating a community and getting people to comment on your views. But to do that, you need to take the initiative. Can you invest your time in trying to connect with other bloggers? Can you put effort into really getting to know your visitors? A healthy and an active blog is one where the bond between the blogger(s) and the visitor(s) are evidently strong. If that is too much, or your not the type that likes taking the initiative, maybe you could rethink about the idea of blogging.
Can you be different?
This is one of the biggest questions you should ask. Can you stand out from the rest? Can you be the one stepping left when everyone is stepping right? Take note that people like Darren Rowse and Jeremy Schoemaker could only be who they are right now because they were different. What’s the biggest part of being different? Showing yourself. It’s as simple as that. I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers “imitating” successful posts and tactics. Okay, I believe that “imitating” is a way to get started as you really don’t know a thing at the beginning. Even with subjects like math, you first see an example of how a problem is solved, and then you solve a problem that is nearly identical (except for numbers) with the example that you just solved. Eventually, you start solving variations and applicable questions. Blogging is like that. You can start out following a couple or a few, but eventually, you need to be original. You need to be different. The best way is being real and being yourself. So what if John Chow thinks that his dinner he had last night was the best dish in the world. If you think it stinks, say it!
Can you keep it up?
This one is for those looking to make money through blogging. You’ve probably heard it before, but you’ll hear it again. A lot of bloggers start to pump out a lot of content at the beginning. However, soon, they lose the gas and you start to see a very promising blog fade away. If you’re looking to earn money from blogging, you may be able to earn $2 USD from a quick link sale, but you won’t earn a lot unless you’re willing to stay alive. Even if you’re writing the most beautiful content ever, if you’re in this thing for money, you need to be consistent and persistent. Small money can follow cheap tactics, but big money follows reputation. There’s a reason why big companies like Nike and adidas in the sports equipment industry make way more than some of the smaller ones.
Note that I am not discouraging anyone from blogging. Blogging is really an awesome way to improve in many ways. In fact, a few days ago I was really happy by the fact that my book-addict and movie-addict brother started a blog about books and movies. It’s a rewarding activity and everyone should certainly give it a try. Nonetheless, as much as I enjoy seeing people jump into blogging, I also feel slightly sad when a blog is abandoned, especially some promising ones.
Also, not to forget, maybe you’ll begin to like blogging as your blog more and more. I’m one of those types who didn’t like it at first, but as I forced myself more and more into it, now I can’t wait to publish my next post. I’ve also seen it happen with quite a few people on various blog forums that I participate/visit/lurk in. This could be your scenario too.
Again, you may prove me wrong and still go at full throttle with your blog even if it may not be your thing. However, these are just a few questions to think about if you’re on that line of whether you should start a blog or not.
One of the key successes behind many big blogs is the comments. Personally, I can’t imagine a blog without comments. It is what differentiates a good blog and an excellent blog. It is also what brings your visitors back, especially if the blogger personally replied to their replies. However, I do realize that even if you post tens and hundreds of quality posts, you may not get so many comments. Here are 7 tips to increase your comment rate.
1. Make your post welcoming!
Maybe your visitors just can’t comment on your post because they don’t see any room to do it. Try to blog in a way so that your post is a quality post, but at the same time, it is provoking the users to make a comment. Blog like it is your forum, just that when blogging, you’re the one responsible for creating all the threads that people reply to. To do that, you need to make your posts welcoming. Even a “What do you think?” line at the end of every post will significantly increase the comment rate.
2. Comment on other’s blogs!
A good portion of blogging is social networking. So what does this mean? You need to go read other’s blogs and make comments in those blogs to form some sort of a network. Usually, if you comment in these blogs, these bloggers will come visit your blog too and probably make a comment. They probably won’t only come once, assuming your content is good, but will come again and again and make more comments if possible. Good?
3. Using a SPAM protection
I have seen quite a few blogs with quite a lot of spam in the comments. Many blogging softwares have ways to deal with problems like spam. For example, WordPress comes right out of the box with a plugin called Akismet. Why not use it? From a visitor’s perspective, I wouldn’t want to make a comment when the five comments above me are spam advertisement links.
4. Moderate the comments
In addition to using a spam protection modification, you need to moderate your comments one by one too. These plugins cannot block all spam. Especially those that were commented by a human, but just sucks. Now, I’m not saying delete all these comments, but a little moderating will take care of a lot of spammy comments and increase the overall quality of your blog. Wouldn’t you want to comment in a good blog?
5. Do-follow is great!
Do-follow is an awesome plugin for WordPress. There are actually quite alot of variations you can select from. What’s great about this? It is a small reward for those that make comments, by removing the evil “rel=”nofollow”.” If you’ve noticed many blogs that do do-following tend to have a lot of comments!
6. Reward the best
In addition with the do-follow plugin, a show top commentator’s plugin can encourage people to continously make comments. Why? Wouldn’t you make quality comments if a huge blogger said that s/he’ll give you a sitewide backlink on the sidebar in exchange? I certainly would and I’m sure most blog readers would too.
7. Threaded Comments
Threaded comments are an awesome way to get a lot iof comments coming in. It allows a user or you to comment on a specific comment. Brian’s Threaded Comments (BTC) is one of the more widely used plugins, but there are also good variations of the plugin doing the same job. Not only does this allow a healthy and an easy to follow discussion, but especially from the visitor’s perspective, it can be warming to see the blogger making personal replies. I guess that concludes to another potential returning visitor.
After writing this post, I wondered what the title of this post should be, as I think up a title the very last. In my many candidates, one of them was “Blog Like It’s Your Forum!” In fact, I mentioned the “a blog is like a forum” idea in the my first point. It truly is! You need to really begin the discussions!
So, try these tips and tell me how it works. If you’ve got more than these 7 tips, why not share it with me and the rest of the BloggersWalk readers by making a comment below?
This is actually a question that I thought over for a very long time before I began BloggersWalk. I believe that quite a few people thinking about starting a blog might have the same debate going on in their head. Which way to go?
Today, there are a lot of blogs that deal with topics like the blogger’s life, make money online, blogging, and SEO. Also, all these topics are focused on one blog. Then, there are those blogs that deal with a very specific niche like soccer shoes, mp3 players, and cell phones. The do-it-all blog concept has its strengths and weaknesses, and the every niche a blog concept also has its strengths and weaknesses.
Personally, I believe it comes down to preferences. I decided to go with the Every Niche a Blog concept. Consequently, BloggersWalk only talks about blogging while I have a few blogs lined up right now that are very niche specific. Anyways, let’s get on and analyze some points to see which one fits you.
Do-it-all Blogs Strengths
Your visitors could be concentrated all into this one blog, increasing the possibility of success.
As you’re not so niche specific, there are more opportunities to update your blog. (eg. Something Blogger John ate for dinner on some day.)
Especially if many of the topics you are dealing with are similar, there is a greater chance for your visitors to return as your blog can be the place to get all their updates.
You only have one blog that you have to put all your monetizing efforts into.
If you’re short on money, you don’t have to invest as much to promote one blog compared to promoting 10.
Weaknesses
Equally, you might lose a few visitors that could have potentially been loyal visitors, because you talk about so many other topics that are irrelevant to them.
Again, equally, as you only have one blog to monetize it could mean a potential loss.
You can’t really sell the blog if such a time ever comes, because what are the chances of the buyer being interested in blogging about the topics that you used to blog about? Also, you’re pretty much left with nothing after selling it off.
Every Niche a Blog Strengths
There are a lot of opportunities to monetize your blogs and a chance of a higher pay too as your blog is very niche specific.
There is a greater chance that you will rack up loyal returning visitors as people like seeing blogs that talk about what they are interested in.
You can guesstimate about how many people will read your blog post if you post it. (eg. A blog with an average of 1000 UV a day will most likely have about 1000 people reading the first post. On the other hand, with a do-it-all blog, where it is likely that a good portion of the 1000 will not be interested in the first post.)
You can effectively link your blogs together to develop your blogs’ backlinks. This would especially be powerful if all the blogs are on different servers and are all quite popular with a good ranking.
If you ever want to see your blog(s), you can do so without losing so much.
Weaknesses
You need to regularly think up original topics to write about for each blog you have.
It is also time and money consuming in the part that you will need to separately promote each and every blog.
Your traffic will be split among your blogs most of the time, which could lead to one of them possibly failing.
In the end, it really is up to the blogger on which way is the right way to go. Again, my personal preference is the Every Niche a Blog approach, as in my opinion, it really gives me more freedom. Sure, it may take a bit more time and a bit more effort, but I feel that if you enjoy blogging, the difference pertaining to time and effort isn’t huge between a Do-it-all Blog approach and an Every Niche a Blog approach.
If you feel that I missed a strength or a weakness with any of the two approaches, feel free to drop a comment and I’ll add it in!
P.S. You probably noticed this, but there are five strengths and three weaknesses per approach. Why? I personally believe that the art of blogging as way more strengths than weaknesses, hence the difference in the number of points.
Starting today, I’m planning on giving a review on the various blogging platforms currently in the market. Although I did have quite a bit of blogging experience in the past with WordPress, I was still unsure whether WordPress was the platform to go with for BloggersWalk. This certainly isn’t because WordPress is a bad platform or anything. It simply was because of the avalibility of so many quality platforms, each and everyone had its strengths and weaknesses.
Over the next few weeks, I plan on testing an ample amount of blogging platforms on my local hard drive. Everything from famous platforms to some that may not be well known, I really do hope to cover.
If any of you know of any blogging platforms that you would like me to do a review on, please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll be sure to check it out. Thanks!
Below is the list of all the bloggnig platforms I’m planning on covering. This will be updated as I go along.
It is widely known that when you meet someone, their first impressions are what lasts the longest. This seems to be true with blogging too. In a few seconds you are either going to make that visitor a constant follower of your blog or just another person surfing by. Here are a few things that I have been trying out to start getting some regular visitors.
Anything BUT! Default
The default theme is doable regardless of the script you are using. However, the blog is like the makeup that you have on and the clothes that you are wearing. Certainly a normal person will look once again at a Vogue model than an ordinary person, at least in terms of looks. With blogs, it is similar. Any free, premium, or custom theme will be at least some sort of an improvement from the default. I personally believe that this is one of the biggest factors to consider when working on your blog’s first impression.
The Content
A log should have some sort of content. At first, all blogs lack quality content. However, with constant and regular posting, this can be overcome. In my opinion, this is the hardest part when working on your blog’s first impression. Nonetheless, it is one of the more important factors as quality articles among the junk seems to always receive recognition.
Minimizing the Advertisements
There are clearly two types of people when it comes to blogging: those that blog without making money and those that do make money. Making money is fun, exciting, and certainly an attractive aspect of blogging. However, a blog full of advertisements is unaesthetic. Flash banners screaming “You’re the 1,000,000,000th visitor! Claim your prize!” and “iPod at only $10 USD!” certainly degrades your blog’s level. Anyone who cares about their blog should avoid this. While a small degree of advertisements are okay, an excessive amount that would surely distract the user from the content of the blog should definitely be avoided.
Visibility of the Most Recent Post
I can’t stress how important this is. I am an avid blog-surfer, and read many random and sometimes even totally off-topic blogs. However, from time to time, I hit a blog and I just am overwhelmed by everything around it that I really don’t know, can’t find, or just can’t focus on the most recent post! If you want your bloggers to read your blog posts, make sure that it is there, available, and easily accessible.
Visibility of the RSS Feed Icon
This isn’t too big of an issue lately with the themes rolling out. Still, it is important to note the positioning of your RSS feed icon. It is your opportunity to make a random reader into a subscriber. Feed subscribers will probably come back sometime. A random surfer probably won’t.
These are just a few things that I’ve been focusing on lately and I have to admit, the traffic is certainly increasing. Sure, I don’t have much content yet nor is this some unique blog, as yes, it is yet another blog about blogging. Nonetheless, these little techniques seem to be clicking correctly for me at least.
Okay, so after the first BloggersWalk introduction post I have yet to post another post. It certainly is not a lack of enthusiasm for the project and nor is it because I totally forgot about it. I was just too busy with my summer work and while I constantly thought that I should post my first quality post, I never had the chance. So, to push myself, I decided to make a schedule.
From today on, BloggersWalk will publish a quality blog post every Tuesday and Friday. It is possible that I will post even more whenever time permits, but these are the two days that I will for sure write up a new content.
Now, this does not mean that you should only check BloggersWalk every Tuesday and Friday. Infact, you should check everyday! As I said, I will try to post more than twice a week, but for now, I will at least get two posts up a week.
So, what does that mean? The first blog-related, the road to becoming a professional blogger-type of post will come tomorrow, June 24, 2008!
