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Win an Ultimate Digital Training Day Prize [AUSTRALIAN RESIDENTS ONLY] (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Let me make this very clear up front - this competition is for Australian residents only. I know this cuts out the majority of you but it is for charity and every other competition I’ve run is for everyone - so please forgive me for this localized focus. Having said that, I would still encourage you to get involved in Blog Action Day and visit Learn About Poverty for some great resources and info .
I’m excited to announce today that World Vision Australia and more specifically their blog Learn About Poverty (a blog that they have specifically set up for Blog Action Day which contains some fantastic resources for all bloggers wanting to participate in that very worthwhile project) are offering one Australian ProBlogger reader the chance to travel to Sydney on 29th October for an amazing day of Digital Training. This prize is quite amazing and I’m actually quite disappointed I can’t win it myself!
Please don’t just read the prize details - also read the rules to put yourself in the running to win!
The Prize
The prize includes multiple parts of a day of digital training on 29th October.
1. Flights to and from Sydney from your nearest capital city (you need to get to the airport yourself), accomodation overnight and transport on the day are all provided for you. I’m sure they’ll probably buy you lunch somewhere along the way too :-)
2. 4 ‘classes’ of digital training. The classes are:
Class 1 (10:30am-11:30am) Microsoft Surface
Spend an hour with the only Microsoft surface machine and experts in Australia.
Class 2 (11:45-1pm) Digital Strategy & Creative
Learn about the trends and attitudes that drive the one of the premier digital agencies in Asia Pacific: Amnesia.
Class 3 (2pm-3pm) Yahoo!7 SEO Training
Tutorial with Yahoo! 7’s SEO and SEM expert.
Class 4 (3:30pm-5pm) Google Australia
Finish off the day at Google’s Sydney office. Dialogue session with the digital experts at Google Australia.
3. It’s important to note here that World Vision has been able to provide this incredible prize through the generosity of the organisations providing the associated prizes. They have not needed to spend a dollar, and these organisations should be congratulated for their involvement.
The Rules
To put yourself in the running to win you need to do the following:
Be in Australia and be willing to get yourself to a capital city (or major airport). Leave a comment below in this post that helps about how World Vision Australia can develop a better blogging and social media strategy. I’ve included some more information from World Vision below to help you with this. The winner will be chosen by World Vision based upon your comments. So make them as helpful as possible and make sure you look over what they’re already doing and what their goals are (see below). Entries need to be received by 5pm Melbourne time on Thursday 16th October. The winner will be announced in the days that follow. Please confirm that you live in Australia in your comment. Please use the word ‘poverty’ in your comment - this will help us make sure comments don’t get filtered into our spam filterInformation About World Vision Australia and Learn About Poverty to help you in your entry
The blog Learn About Poverty has been specifically set up for Blog Action Day (happening later this month). It is one of World Vision’s first blogging efforts and is being developed to give bloggers video and other types of resources to help them with their posting on Blog Action Day.
Here is some information provided by World Vision Australia that might help you in giving them the most helpful advice in your comment:
Goals as an organisation: We’re really trying to help ignite a social movement. Poverty is such a massive issue, that no one product or campaign will solve it, so our focus is very much becoming how we can help create/participate in the momentum already happening in society. This is a key for us moving forwards.
General direction of online: We’re moving towards a place where we can better tell our stories with anyone out there. We have a huge number of latent stories and information that circles around World Vision - literally, we walk past people in our office how are changing the world. We’re trying to come up with how we, as a large organisation, can begin to show people more of the amazing stuff we do. I’d be keen to hear how your readers think we might be able to do this and still remain authentic at the same time.
What kind of ideas: We would love ideas on how World Vision could implement more blogging and social media activities. Blogging for us could be tricky, as in some cases we can’t talk openly about our work for fear of putting governments where some of our staff and stakeholders work off-side, bringing about obvious safety issues. This has been especially tough with Learn About Poverty. But we realise we need to be much more connected with the public, in order to better communicate the urgency of the issue of global poverty. We’re really keen to hear from the probloggers our there how we could tailor a social media/blog strategy to help ignite a social movement that acknowledges this.
There you have it - please let me know if you have questions and good luck to my fellow Aussies!
Tags: Blog Action Day, competition, World VisionTimothy Ferriss vs Gary Vaynerchuk - Two Approaches to Successful Blogging (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
One of the things I love about the blogging community is how there’s such a diversity of approaches being tried by successful bloggers in their pursuits.
Take for instance two well known bloggers - Timothy Ferriss and Gary Vaynerchuk. Both take different approaches but both have been very successful in building strong online presence.
Timothy is famous for his book The 4-Hour Workweek a book looking at the simplification of life, outsourcing and focusing upon the important tasks at hand. Tim certainly works hard for his money but his approach is certainly a little different to Gary’s.
For example Tim has written here at ProBlogger about how he finds that posting every 4-6 days on his blog is enough (and actually beneficial).
On the other hand Gary Vaynerchuck’s inspirational keynote at Blog World Expo showed a different approach with a guy working massive hours, arguing that you should respond to every single email you get and that you need to be producing content every day.
Both of these guys have built successful businesses and great online presences through their blogging and social media (and I’m sure that there are some similarities between them also ) but both have done it differently.
To me this is encouraging. There are not ‘formulas’ and there is room for a diversity of approaches!
Which bloggers approach do you resonate with most - Gary or Tim?
Tags: Gary Veynerchuk, successful blogging, Timothy FerrissShould Blogs Have Comments? (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Should blogs have comments?
It is a question that comes up fairly regularly in blogging circles and one that different bloggers take different approaches to.
Most bloggers have them - they’re on by default when they set their blog up and they never switch them off. They see the comments as adding a lot to the blog - making it a place of shared learning, interactivity and dynamic conversation. Other bloggers decide not to have them. Their reasons vary from not having time to moderate them to being frustrated by comment spam.Between these views other bloggers take a variety of other approaches ranging from:
having comments on some posts but not others switching comments off over a certain amount of time (to protect from comment spam) to not having comments in the early days of a blog and switching them on later once there is a big enough audience to justify them (this is what I did on DPS). to requiring membership for comments (thereby effectively switching them off to the general public and reserving the privilege to comment for those willing to sign up).There are many options - but I thought it’d be interesting to open it up for some discussion.
Do you have comments on your blog? Why or Why Not? Do you think a blog is a blog without comments? What are the advantages of having or not having them?Interested to see where this discussion leads us.
Further Reading on Comments on Blogs:
Keys to Success - Jerry Seinfeld Style (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
On a recent 15 hour flight from the US to Melbourne I was surfing through the in flight entertainment and came across an interview with Jerry Seinfeld.
The interviewer asked Jerry for his keys to being successful and Jerry answered with three points (I’m sure I’ve heard him talk about these before in other contexts also). The three points are simple - yet challenging and as I listened to him talk about them it struck me that they were three great tips for bloggers wanting to be successful.
Here they are (paraphrased):
bust your ass - whatever you do, work at it with everything you have. He talked about doing things that you enjoy and are passionate about but then working your ass off. pay attention - be attentive and learn from everything around you. Ask lots if questions in every situation you find yourself in. fall in love - if you find something good in life, stop and enjoy the moment. Learn to see the good around you and celebrate it!Three great lessons for life and for blogging.
Is Twitter Selling Links and What in the World is a ?Promotion? (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Yesterday I logged onto Twitter and find a little addition to their sidebar. It says ‘Get some Perspective’ and contains a link ‘Watch Hack the Debate‘.
Here’s how it looks.
So I have two reactions to this.
1. How much more politics does Twitter need?
I’m sick of the ‘election bar’ that continues to appear when I visit Twitter. I’ve closed it many times but it continues to appear. I thought perhaps it was just me or at least just a frustration that other Non US Twitter users had seeing that Election promotion - but when I tweeted about it I only had 2-3 out of 50-60 responses that were positive about the election bar (including US Twitter users).
WIth the election bar and now a sidebar link Twitter seems to be moving away from their ‘what are you doing’ type focus. Sure a lot of the world is ‘doing’ elections but a large number of the world is also sick of them.
I do think that the US election is important but I’d love to see them give us the choice to opt out of this type of ‘promotion’ or at least to know if it’s an ad or not. But maybe that’s just me?
2. Is this a partnership, paid link… or?
My first reaction when seeing the link was that it looked a lot like an advertisement. There’s no marking of it as such but it does seem a little odd to just have an unexplained link to a political site just sitting there on the sidebar of a social media site under one’s stats.
When you look at the ’source code’ of a twitter page you see that the link is tagged as a ‘promotion’ (click to enlarge the source code):
Interesting…. but what is a promotion?
On the site it links to (Current.com) it says that Current and Twitter have ‘teamed up’ - so it looks like some kind of ‘partnership’ but that doesn’t really explain it fully.
Now I’ve got nothing against Twitter monetizing with advertising, but I’d love for them to disclose whether that is actually an ad or not. If it is - they might want to ‘nofollow’ it or they might just find themselves penalized by Google for trying to game them (or for helping someone else game them at least).
What do you think?
Update - Evan Williams from Twitter has kindly commented below clarifying the situation. You can read his comments here. The most important clarification (in my mind) is that the link is not a paid link at all but a voluntary link. Thanks Evan!
Tags: disclosure, social media, twitterIf you have a spare 55 minutes and 33 seconds this weekend?. (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Produced by Dr. Micael Wesch and his team at Kansas State University - via David.
Tags: social media, Video Posts, YoutubeIf You Missed the Last ProBlogger Newsletter - Here?s a Sneak Peak (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
One of the strategies that I use on each of my blogs these days is to have a newsletter (I use Aweber to send them) that is associated with each blog. On my photography blog this newsletter is a weekly affair (I send them each Thursday) but here on ProBlogger they are monthly (ish).
I sent this months email yesterday - but if you are not yet subscribed you can get a sneak peak of it as a html version (the formatting doesn’t convert perfectly from the email version) at:
If you like what you see and want to receive future editions via email you can sign up by adding your email address here:
As a small thank you bonus for subscribing - on the thank you page for subscribing there is a link to a one hour podcast interview that I did a few months back with Denise and Patsi from The Blog Squad. In it they interview me about my journey as a blogger and I share a lot of tips on how to improve your blog.
This is not available anywhere else on the web for free so the only way to get access to it is via the newsletter. Enter your email and you’ll have immediate access to the podcast.
Lastly - I’m hoping to expand ProBlogger later in the year. I’ll be inviting those subscribed to the newsletter to beta test the new features before everyone else. So if you’re interested in getting access before everyone else the only way is to be subscribed.
How to Get Featured on the New York Times, CNN, CNET and Newsweek (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
In this post Kim Roach from BuzzBlogger shares three techniques for getting featured on mainstream media news sites.
Did you know that you can get your site featured on major news sites like CNN, CNET, Newsweek, USA Today, and even the Wall Street Journal. It’s one of the best kept secrets in the blogosphere and I’m going to reveal it in this article.
There are actually three ways you can get your blog articles published on major news sites.
1. BlogBurst
The first technique uses a site called BlogBust. BlogBurst is a blog syndication network that places the best blogs on mainstream media sites like Reuters, USA Today, Fox News, and the Houston Chronicle.
Join the BlogBurst network and start getting picked up by some of the world’s most popular media sites. Keep in mind that they only accept full text feeds. No partial RSS feeds are allowed.
Once your blog has been accepted, you’ll gain increased visibility, branding, and traffic. This is an easy and automated way to increase your exposure. Plus, you’ll be associated with some of the best websites online and you’ll be able to tell your readers that you’ve been published on USA Today, Fox News, and other high-profile websites. Just think how much more credibility this will give you.
2. Blogrunner
My second strategy allows you to get links from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. You do so with a service known as Blogrunner.
If you go to the New York Times website, you’ll see the Blogrunner widget integrated into almost every page. This is a news aggregator that collects related headlines from news sources and blogs. Each of the news stories in the Blogrunner widget is ranked by its popularity.
Sources are selected based on an automated process so you won’t be able to submit your blog directly. However, they currently monitor thousands of blogs and media sources, so it’s likely that your blog is already indexed.
Now you simply need to write on topics related to those published in the New York Times and get some extra buzz to get linked.
3. Sphere
There is a third and final way to get your blog featured in major news sites like CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek.
All you have to do is link to a story on one of these major news sites and they will link back to you at the end of the article.
This is all automated by a site called Sphere.com, which matches mainstream news items with related articles in the blogosphere. For example, you can go to the bottom of any CNN story and see a drop-down box that says: “From the Blogs”. This box includes stories that have linked to this article. You can get hundreds of extra visitors by positioning yourself to show up here. All you have to do is link to a CNN story and you’ll get your own spot of fame.
The mainstream media is really starting to embrace the blogosphere and you can join in on the fun with these simple strategies.
Sphere is also being used by TechCrunch, Time, Reuters, CBS, AOL, the Washington Post, WordPress, GigaOm, Newsweek, and ZDNet, allowing you to get your blog featured on any of these prestigious sites. In fact, there are over 100,000 web sites using Sphere, providing you with almost unlimited link opportunities…
The key to getting picked up is to write content that adds to the conversation on partner sites. Your articles need to be highly relevant and add value to the article your linking to.
All you have to do is make a post to your blog, include a link to one of the stories on a site that uses the Sphere plug in, get a link inside the sphere widget, and watch the traffic roll in.
Kim Roach is the hip marketing gal at BuzzBlogger.com. Grab Front Page Rankings in 24 hours with her Free Google Domination Videos.
Tags: Blog Promotion, Main stream mediaHow to Choose Categories for Your Blog (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
“How do I choose categories for my blog?” This is a question I’m asked a lot so when Ali Hale from Alpha Student asked if he could write a post on the topic of choosing categories I was all ears!
Before you start reading this, take a quick look at something very important: your own blog. What do you see when you glance at the Categories list? If you’re anything like most bloggers, it will include categories which:
You used a couple of years ago but don’t use any more Have only one or two posts in Have names that aren’t self-explanatory Seemed like a good idea at the time, when you added them for one specific postThere’s plenty of blogging advice about how to craft posts, how to gain readers, and how to start your first blog - but surprisingly little has been written about how to choose your categories. The only advice I could find was from Lorelle on Wordpress:
Most people add categories on the fly or list everything they want to talk about in their categories and then work to fill them up as they go. I made a plan for this blog’s articles and I wanted to keep the focus narrow and the structure clean. I believe working from a very specific plan helps keep a blog on track and more successful. Plans can change over time, but start your journey with a good map.
I’ve just launched a new blog (Alpha Student), which has meant a lot of planning, brainstorming and head-scratching. One of the biggest puzzles has been how to choose suitable categories - which has led me to think hard about how I use categories as a reader, and how categories are typically used in the blogosphere.
I thought a good place to start was my first blog, The Office Diet, where I followed a similar process to most bloggers:
I entered the categories that I thought I might write on when I launched the blog without putting much thought into it. I added more categories as I went along (for series, or any post which didn’t fit an existing category).In doing so, I unwittingly made a number of common mistakes. I’m going to go through four big ones - and bring in some examples from other blogs where I think the categories list could have been more effectively planned.
And once I’ve shown you some of the mistakes, I’ll explain how you can choose your categories effectively in order to avoid making them.
Mistake 1: Failing to Plan
The mistake which most bloggers make is failing to plan at all - and, if they do plan, failing to adjust that plan to fit reality!
With The Office Diet, I knew I wanted to create a few downloadable resources for readers in the first month (January) - such as a food diary template. So I had a category called “Resources” which was supposed to hold this sort of posts. In practice, though, I’ve only written a handful of these.
I suspect some other bloggers have met similar problems, when they’ve either not planned ahead (ask yourself “Will I use this category frequently?” if you add one for a specific post) or where their plans haven’t quite matched up with what really happens.
For example, on The Simple Dollar, Trent has the categories “Décor” and “S&P 500” which only have one post in each. “Sunday Conversation” only has three posts. Although this is conjecture, I think Trent probably added those categories on a day when he wrote on those specific topics - and didn’t plan ahead for whether he’d use them again.
Mistake 2: Using Categories for Series
Lots of big blogs, including ProBlogger, Daily Blog Tips and many more use categories for series. I did the same on The Office Diet, when I wrote the “Basics”, “Healthy Mind” and “Excuse-Busting” series. I now think that this was a mistake.
Readers who come to a blog for the first time are likely to use your categories to navigate to posts that they’re interested in. Category names often aren’t self-explanatory, and if the series ran a year ago, all the posts in that category will be old. If you run a lot of series, your category list will quickly become cluttered up. And navigating through a series by clicking on a category often means scrolling through multiple pages of posts - often a pain for readers.
I would suggest that, for the majority of blogs, posts in a series should be categorised “normally” just like any other posts. Each post in the series should have a link at the top and bottom going to an index post (or even a page) which holds links to the whole series. You might also want to include a link to the previous and next posts in the series from each.
For a shortish series (under 10 posts), you could even put the index at the top of every post - the Men with Pens do this to great effect on their Guest Posting series (as an aside, this is a great read for any blogger thinking about writing guest posts). Or put it at the bottom of every post, like Sonia on Remarkable Communication is doing with her Objection Blaster Series.
Mistake 3: Categories at Different Granularities
A very common problem with categories is not keeping your categories at the same level of granularity. By that, I mean that some of your categories are probably very broad and others are very narrow. This is often caused by failing to plan: it’s a good idea to sit down for an hour or two and decide roughly how many categories you want, and how broad or detailed that means they’ll be.
Blogs which are narrowly focused on a niche will probably have narrow, specific topics as readers are likely to be looking for expert advice in particular areas. Blogs with a very wide remit need broad categories to help readers weed out the areas that aren’t interesting to them.
On Problogger, I would suggest that the categories list has some items which cover too narrow an area. For example, “Yahoo Publishing Network” is very specific when compared with categories like “Advertising” and “Blog Networks”.
Mistake 4: Inconsistent Category Naming
I’d bet good money that, at some point, you’ve come across a categories list on a blog and wondered what the heck some of the categories meant. Perhaps most were self explanatory, like “Reader Questions” or “Content Writing” but then you came across “Special”. Special what? Try to make sure your category names can be understood without the reader having to click on them to figure out what they might mean.
Or maybe you see a blog which has a nice neat list of one-word categories, then one which is five words long so gets a disproportionate amount of space compared to its importance. (Usually, the shorter the name of a category, the broader its remit and the larger the number of posts it contains.)
This is a tiny point - but be consistent with capitalisation. One of my favourite blogs, The Change Blog, capitalises all the categories except two (“blog carnival” and “personal growth”) - to me, this looks a little odd.
Another problem is when some of the categories have quite formal names (“Finances, Frugality, Investment”) and others are slangy or chatty (“Quick tips”, “Easy wins”). The way in which you name your categories is important in setting the tone for your whole blog. On most blog templates, the categories list displays on the front page: that means you need to put at least as much thought into the wording of your categories as you do into the wording of your headlines.
Doing It Right
Now that I’ve been through the common mistakes people make with categories, you might be looking at your own blog in dismay - or rethinking your plans for the one you’re about to launch.
I mentioned earlier that I’ve just launched a new blog which took a considerable amount of planning. You can see the categories page at www.alphastudent.com/categories (I chose not to list the categories on the front page).
Rule 1: As Few Categories As Possible
Due to my blog design, I needed to keep the number of categories down to make sure they fitted comfortably in the list. I also wanted room to show the latest post from each category.
Most bloggers would benefit from using as few categories as possible. This avoids blog clutter in your sidebar, and avoids presenting readers with a forbidding list of dozens of different topics.
Alpha Student has a wide remit - “Helping you make the most of your time at university” - and covers everything from advice on exam technique to lists of flash games to play when you need a break. I decided on the categories:
Academic
Career
Financial
Personal
Practical
Social
When you’re planning your blog, think about how many categories you really need … can two of your topics be conflated into one are?
If you’ve got an existing blog, take a look at your categories list and note any which are superfluous.
Rule 2: Don’t Be too Specific
Try not to be too specific, at least to start with. I deliberately kept my topics very broad. I could have broken down “Academic” into “Essays”, “Exams”, “Lectures”, “Seminars” and so on. When your blog is new, having dozens of categories means that lots of them will only contain one or two posts for a while.
Even if your blog’s been going for a while, you’ll find that some categories are too narrow - anything which contains under 5% of the total posts on your blog can probably be ditched.
Rule 3: Think Ahead
I know that with Alpha Student, I’ll want to run some series. For example, I’m going to do a series on essay writing with posts on topics like “Planning your essay”, “The first line of your essay”, and so on. But I don’t want to introduce a category just for a short series.
So I’m planning to categorize all those posts under “Academic”, which means readers browsing the academic section can find them easily. (Bear in mind that the majority of your readers won’t sit down and follow a whole series from beginning to end - they might only read one post from the middle.)
I’ll also have a single post announcing the series which will contain a list of the posts in the series, linking to each one. The individual posts in the series will link back to this index post.
How do you (or how will you) manage series on your blog?
What about competitions, giveaways and other one-offs? Think about how you can make these easy for readers to follow without using a category.
Over to You
As I said at the start of this article, little has been written about choosing categories for your blog. I’d love us to start remedying that here!
What are your thoughts on this topic - do you have a particular plan behind the categories on your blog? Do you think that categories aren’t really that important? Is there anything you wish you’d done differently with the way you’ve used categories?
Ali has just launched Alpha Student, a blog aimed at helping students make the most of their time at university.
Tags: blog categories, categoriesHow To Get Free Books To Give Away On Your Blog (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
One of the most successful ways to bring in new subscribers to your blog is to give away a bonus when people sign up.
In this post Brian Armstrong from StartBreakingFree.com shares some tips on getting free books to give away on your blog.
If you’re like most people, you haven’t had time to write a great book to give away as a sign-up bonus. Well, today I’m going to show you two very easy ways to get such a book:
Create your own with an e-book template Use someone else’s book that is in the public domain (you’d be amazed how many great books are out there for free!)Create Your Own eBook In 48 Hours With An E-book Template
About a year ago I stumbled across these excellent e-book templates which were being given away by Eben Pagan (he is a successful internet marketer and deserves all the credit for these, I didn’t create them!)
They have a professional design in nine different colors, come with instructions, and make it super easy to get a book done quickly.
Here are the steps which I’ve personally used to create an eBook in less than 48 hours:
Use a “top 10″ formula. Writing a book from scratch sounds hard but anybody can come up with 10 tips in their niche. Even if it ends up being only 20 or 30 pages that’s ok for an eBook. Create a catchy title based on the top 10 theme, such as “10 Ways To Raise Your Grades By Studying Smarter, Not Harder” or “10 Secrets To Making Money Online” Come up with the 10 tips by brainstorming and looking at the best posts on your blog. Put the tips in a logical order and include several sub-points under each one. Now plug your tips and sub-points into the template and write a paragraph or two under each one (copy and paste text from blog posts you’ve already written when appropriate). Summarize your main points in an introduction and conclusion and you’ve got a book! Use Adobe Reader to convert it to a PDF for distrbution.
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You should also familiarize yourself with Microsoft Word’s “styles” to keep your formatting consistent. If you want to change how a subheading looks, for example, you shouldn’t change it manually. Instead, you should edit the “subheading style” and it will apply your changes to all the subheadings. This will save you a lot of time down the road.
Finally, upload your PDF to your server and find a way to automatically send your eBook to new subscribers. In Feedburner you can include this link in the confirmation email (login to Feedburner and go to Publicize -> Email Subscriptions -> Communication Preferences). Similar options exist for Aweber and other newsletter providers. Some people also include the link in the bottom of every RSS post.
Second Option: Get Free Books To Give Away!
The second, and perhaps easier, method is to use a book that someone else has already written.
There are an amazing number of books in the public domain (and also under the creative commons license, more on this later) which you can give away on your site. For example, in my niche of entrepreneurship, I paid good money for three books years ago that I heard were excellent: Think and Grow Rich, The Richest Man In Babylon, and The Way To Wealth.
Imagine how surprised I was to discover that all three of these books were now available online for free! I found PDF copies using the method I describe below and started giving them away on my website. My subscribers started going up immediately!
So how do you find these books? Well, according to Wikipedia…
In the United States, all books and other works published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain. In addition, works published before 1964 that did not have their copyrights renewed 28 years after first publication year also are in the public domain…
Many books which are not in the public domain can still be found under the creative commons license. The Creative Commons license is somewhere in between a full copyright and a public domain work. Many times, the work can still be given away for free, but you are not allowed to sell it and you must pay attribution to the original author. This still works fine for our sign-up bonus however.
I’ve had the most success finding public domain and creative commons works at a site called Scribd.com.
They have tons of PDF’s of various works. And it’s easy to see the the copyright at the bottom of each page. Many of them use the creative commons terms like “attribution” (meaning you must keep the original author’s name in there) or “non-commercial” (meaning you can’t sell it). It’s probably a good idea to familiarize yourself with these terms by visiting the creative commons definitions page.
Once you’d found a PDF you like, you can download it directly from Scribd.com and use it in the same way described above.
Conclusion
Now you have no excuse NOT to give away a great sign-up bonus for your new subscribers! Set aside some time this week to get this together, and start watching your subscriber numbers climb!
To get more tips like these, check out Brian Armstrong’s blog at StartBreakingFree.com. It’s full of great advice on how to quit your 9-to-5, start your own business, and achieve financial freedom. He’ll even send you 3 of the top 10 books ever written on building wealth for FREE when you subscribe, instantly delivered to your inbox!
Tags: Blog Promotion, ebooksHow Much Do Bloggers Earn? [Survey Results] (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Read Write Web today published the results of some research that they’ve done with Top Tier Tech Bloggers and Social Media Consultants regarding how much they earn in that work.
To get the information they approached 20 top-tier tech bloggers and social media consultants, half of them responded (so this isn’t a massive sample).
While the sample size is small the results revealed:
Most bloggers getting paid about $25 a post (with the full range being between $10-$200 a post). In house/Full time bloggers earn annual pay of between $45,000 to $55,000 (with benefits) and up to $70,000-$90,000 with bonuses. The real money seems to be in consulting with hourly rates not below $150 an hour and $300 an hour the most common rate named.Read the full report and analysis at How Much Do Top Tier Bloggers and Social Media Consultants Get Paid? We Asked Them!
Tags: blogger earnings, blogging for money, make money blogging, money, surveyHome Bases and Outposts - How I use Social Media in My Blogging (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Lately I’ve been pondering the part that social media plays in my blogging business.
This post is an attempt to make some sense of it. I’d value your thoughts in comments to help me take these half thought through ideas to something more concrete.
Those who have been following me for a while know that I not only spend a lot of time on my blogs but also invest significant time on sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn…. (the list could go on).
What’s my strategy? Why invest so much time into sites that I don’t actually own?
To be honest there are days when i wonder if I have a strategy at all. There’s so much I don’t know about social media and how it fits into what I do - some days it just feels messy. However in the midst of it all there are moments of clarity.
Home Bases and Outposts
Today I was watching a video of a presentation by Chris Brogan and a short segment of it resonated strongly and put words to the way I use social media. He talked about:
He’s used these concepts numerous times on his blog before (here and here for example) but today it got my attention a little more than previously - particularly the idea of the ‘Home Base’ and that of the ‘Outpost’.
A home base is a place online that you own, that is your online ‘home’. For me I have two home bases - ProBlogger and Digital Photography School. For me my home bases are blogs but for others they will be other types of websites.
Outposts are places that you have an online presence out in other parts of the web that you might not ‘own’. I’d previously being using the word ’satellites’ to describe this but I think ‘outposts’ works better.
Outposts will mean different things to different people and businesses. Here’s how it looks for me as I think about my home base of ProBlogger.
As you’ll see, most of my ‘outposts’ are social media sites - however for others an outpost could also include forums, other community sites and even the comments sections of other blogs.
Each of the outposts that you see above are places that I have accounts and am attempting to grow my online presence (some better than others). These ‘outposts’ are sites where I:
add content build relationships test ideas grow a profile listen experiment make connections try to be useful playOut of this combination of activities many things come. Relationships, ideas, traffic, resources, partnerships, community and much more emerge from the outposts - much of it making my home base stronger.
Two Way Streams and Outposts Taking on a Life of Their OwnThe outposts do drive some traffic back to the home base, but many of the benefits are less tangible and have more to do with building the brand and influences of my blogs.
Also worth noting is that the outposts don’t just feed the homebase (it isn’t just a one way thing)- but the homebase feeds the outposts and sometimes the outpost seems to take on a life of its own and becomes the real place of action where without really trying a community emerges.
For example this week I discovered that a small (but growing) group of ProBlogger readers had been interacting with my content and one another on my Facebook Profile - despite the fact that I’d not spent more than 20 minutes on Facebook in the previous three months. Just the fact that I link to Facebook and pull in my Twitter activity means that the ‘community’ there has sprung up (now that I’m aware of what’s going on I can participate and feed the community.
This Post is Half FinishedI laugh when people occasionally refer to me as a social media expert.
You see while I’ve managed to grow a reasonable social media presence over the last few years there is still much to learn. As a result I’d love to here your thoughts on what I’ve written and how you see and use social media in your blogging and business. Your comments will take this post a step closer to completion - looking forward to how it ends!
Tags: blogging, chris brogan, facebook, linkedin, social media, twitterGoogle BlogSearch Adds Meme Tracking (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Today Google released an update to their BlogSearch service - and it isn’t just cosmetic.
The update is all about tracking what’s hot around the blogosphere and presenting stories ranked in 11 different categories according to how many other blogs are linking to those stories. You can then drill down and see the blogs that link to the story and a chart of how many did over time.
It isn’t a new concept - TechMeme, Technorati, Blogs.com and others have been doing it for years - however what strikes me here is just how comprehensive Google’s results are. While TechMeme only indexes a limited number of blogs Google’s BlogSearch has been indexing millions (?) of blogs for some time now and will be able to provide a different perspective to what is happening in the wider blogosphere (instead of just the cool gang).
It’ll be interesting to see how their results compare over the longer term and how they’ll deal with spammers and those trying to manipulate the service - but at a first impression I like what I see. I just wish there was a way to subscribe to the top stories in each category (I’m surprised that there is not… or am I missing it?).
Further Reading
Get 30-40% off BlogMastermind Courtesy of a Weak Australian Dollar (Until Monday) (ProBlogger ...
Regular readers of Problogger will know that I’m a big fan of Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind coaching program (you can read about it’s recent relaunch here and see six student reviews here).
This is just a short note to say that until next Monday you can get an unofficial discount of around 35% off the price of the course - simply because the Australian Dollar sucks at the moment!
Here’s why.
Yaro set up the price of Blog Mastermind in Australian dollars rather than US dollars (he’s an Aussie living in Canada). At the time he did this the exchange rate between the two currencies was almost dollar for dollar (the AU$ was slightly less).
Over the last couple of weeks the Australian dollar has quite simply taken a nose dive! Yesterday it hit $0.66 USD (as I write this it is 0.67)!
This means if you buy Blog Mastermind today you’re getting between 30-40% discount (depending upon what financial markets are doing at any given moment). Instead of $97 USD for the month it is actually around $65 USD.
This ends on Monday as Yaro is switching to charging in USD (and I can understand why - the Australian dollar is not a good one to be earning right now). He is also ending the month by month payment option for those who sign up after Monday.
Tags: Blog Mastermind, Blogging Resources, Yaro StarakAweber to Add Twitter Updates Feature (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
I just found out that later this week Aweber (the newsletter delivery service that I use) is adding a new feature that will allow their publishers to automatically send an update to their Twitter account when they send a new broadcast/newsletter. The tweet will link to an online version of the newsletter so that your twitter followers will get to see what you’re sending out to newsletter subscribers.
This new option will appear in the ‘Syndicate’ section of the admin area of sending out new newsletters.
It’s a cool little feature that should help publishers extend their newsletter reach.
Tags: , Aweber, blog tools, newsletters, social media, twitterAffiliate Marketing on Twitter - Does it Belong? (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
What do you think about affiliate marketing on Twitter?
Lately I’ve noticed more and more affiliate marketers getting onto twitter. There’s been a real buzz about it actually in many internet marketing circles - almost like it’s the latest ‘new’ thing (I guess it is relatively new).
The unfortunate thing is that the model I’m seeing some internet marketers use on Twitter is quite spammy. Some have spammed Twitter so much directly that they’ve been booted off.
Today I got an email from Joel Comm. I’m one of his affiliates and have promoted some of his books and ebooks previously. We’ve met in person and I admire his knowledge of internet marketing greatly. However todays email didn’t really sit that well with me and I’d love to hear your opinion on it.
Joel is currently promoting an AdSense Secrets ebook. I actually like his writing on AdSense and some of what he teaches helped me a lot in the early days of getting into blogging.
I’ve promoted his AdSense stuff before and would probably do it again - but not in the way he’s asking his affiliates to do it this time.
The promotion he’s asking people to do is to Tweet a link to his book. Not only has he asked us to tweet about it (something I wouldn’t be anti doing to some extend) he’s given his affiliates a link to make the whole process automated.
All you have to do is click the link and it sets up a tweet in your own twitter account (if you’re logged in) and it embeds an affiliate link into the tweet automatically for you so you can earn money if people make a purchase of one of Joels products as a result of clicking on your link ($10 a month for each month they stay in his program).
Looking at Twitter Search just now it seems that his tactic is working - to some extent.
I wouldn’t call it a raging success (yet) but with 30 or so people tweeting about it (largely using the automated script Joel’s provided) there’s been some take up of it.
Now on some levels I don’t have a problem with Joel’s campaign. I am not against affiliate marketing, I’m not against promoting products in new media - however there’s something that has been playing on my mind about this all day.
To be honest I’m not completely sure why I don’t like it (as I say above I don’t have a problem with some of the principles behind it) but there’s something that doesn’t sit well with me about this.
Risky Behavior and SpamI think one of my main problems with it is that it almost seems like Joels asking others to engage in a little risky behavior for him and putting them a little at risk. Twitter is pretty anti spam and while he’s not done it directly the search results do look quite spammy when you line them all up and see the exact same message over and over and over again. I wonder how Twitter will respond to this and who will suffer? Joel or those who tweet it?
Impersonal MarketingAnother thing that I am reacting against with this strategy is that the tweets Joel is suggesting seem very impersonal.
>“Download Joel Comm’s Adsense Secrets For FREE! “
This just doesn’t resonate with me as the type of message that would do well on Twitter. A message out of the blue about someone encouraging a download. I’m not sure it’s where affiliate marketing is going online either.
My own experimenting with affiliate marketing over the last few years is that it works best out of relationship and trust with those that you recommend products to. I find that promoting products do best when you are able to give an honest review of them, when you’re able to tell people who they are best suited for etc
This is actually why I think blogging is an ideal message for affiliate marketing. It’s a great place to build trust, fully review a product and give a balanced recommendation - 140 or so characters just doesn’t seem enough to do much to do most of that.
I guess what I’m coming to is that a tweet like this doesn’t really sit comfortably with my style of affiliate marketing.
What do you Think about Affiliate Marketing on Twitter?But that is just me - what about you? Does affiliate marketing belong on Twitter? If so - how would you do it?
To be clear - I’m not wanting to start an anti Joel Comm thread of discussion here - like I say, I like the guy and don’t have anything against his products, but I am interested to hear what you think about the topic of affiliate marketing on twitter (and other forms of social media). Over to you….
How Affiliate Marketers Should Use Twitter?It’s pretty easy to say you don’t like affiliate links on Twitter and not say anything constructive. So tomorrow I’d like to attempt to put forward some ideas on how Twitter (and other social media sites) could be used by affiliate marketers appropriately and effectively. Keep an eye on my RSS feed over the next 24 hours to see when the post goes live.
Tags: affiliate marketing, Affiliate Programs, social media, twitter8 Tips for Affiliate Marketers on Using Twitter (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Two days ago I asked Does Affiliate Marketing belongs on Twitter. The conversation that has emerged from that question has been rich - thanks for your contribution.
At the end of that post I said that I would post some tips today for affiliate marketers on how perhaps they should engage in the practice on Twitter (if at all).
As I mentioned in the previous, post I’m not anti affiliate marketing or doing it via new media - but I think the ‘method’ and ‘attitude’ of the marketer is very very important. It can mean the difference between conversion or not - it can also mean the difference between keeping followers and losing them.
Before I get into some Twitter specific tips let me share a previous article with some general affiliate marketing tips for bloggers.
Let me also say that I’m still not convinced that Twitter is the best place for affiliate marketing. However if you do choose to do it on Twitter here are some starting points:
Tips for Promoting Affiliate Products on Twitter 1. Relevancy is Key
One of the things that I noticed earlier in the week about those who were promoting the affiliate product on Twitter (an AdSense tips product) was that quite a few of them were not normally writing about anything to do with AdSense. Adding a link to an affiliate product that has little to do with what you normally write about on Twitter is not smart. For starters it won’t convert and secondly it potentially will annoy your readers. If you’re going to directly promote products from Twitter make sure they are relevant to the followers you have.
2. Personalization Matters
Another obvious flaw in many of the tweets that we saw in the example mentioned in the previous post were that they were identical to everyone else’s. We saw Joel Comm set up a system where he pre-populated tweets with a script that simply told those reading it to go download a product. Joel actually stopped by my previous post and reflected (among other things) that those who personalized their messages converted better than those who did not. I think this says a lot. A personal recommendation is going to get a much better response in terms of actual conversions and it is far less likely to hurt your relationship with your followers as the tweet will be in your voice and hopefully out of your experience with the product.
3. Genuine Recommendations
My policy with affiliate marketing is to only recommend products that I have used or have had someone close to me who I trust use and recommend. This is again something that will add weight to your recommendation and increase conversion - but it’ll also help your reputation and stop you from promoting products that are rubbish. Recommend a product that doesn’t work and your own reputation and any trust you’ve built up with those who follow your advice will suffer. Don’t sacrifice your own brand for the sake of a few quick dollars.
4. Be Conversational
I have used affiliate links directly on Twitter on three occasions (from memory). In each instance they were Amazon Associate links and they were a part of a conversation that I was having with other Twitter users (from memory they were at times when followers asked me for recommendations on products). The links that I left were relevant, the conversations were started by others and they fit naturally into the conversation. From memory I declared that they were affiliate links on at least two of those occasions. The opposite of this ‘conversational’ tweeting is the ‘cold call’ tweet which comes out of the blue.
5. Link to Affiliate Products Indirectly
If I were to recommend one tips above others it would be this one. I think it would be much more effective and less intrusive with the culture on Twitter to tweet a link to a post you’ve written on your blog that includes an affiliate link - than to tweet the affiliate link directly. Write up a review of the product on your blog, give a balanced review, share why the product is relevant to your readers, tell them who would benefit most from it etc. And THEN tweet a link to the review. The problem with Twitter is that you’ve got 140 or so characters and to really do the product you’re promoting service and to give your readers a well balanced review you need more than that.
6. Moderation is Important
In any affiliate marketing (and perhaps all types of marketing) those who you are speaking with will begin to ’switch off’ and become blind to your promotions if you hit them too many times with marketing messages. This will especially be true on Twitter where I see the audience is highly skeptical to marketing messages, are attuned to transparency and where they can very quickly opt out of receiving future communication with you. Not only can they opt out when your messages get too much - they often subscribe or follow you on the basis of what you’ve already written. If all you ever do is promote products (or yourself) you’re unlikely to grow a readership or become anyone with any kind of influence on Twitter.
7. Listen to Your Followers
The thing I love most about Twitter is that it a listening device. A lot of people use it and promote it as a broadcasting tool (which is can be useful for) but I’m increasingly finding it to be a fantastic way to hear what people are thinking - both about life in general but also you. If you engage in affiliate marketing on twitter make sure you stay in tune with how people respond. This doesn’t just mean watching what people ‘reply’ to you but also means watching what happens to subscriber numbers after you tweet and also watching what people say about you without using your @username (you can set up an RSS feed on Twitter search to watch for keywords like your name).
8. Be Useful
This is a fairly general Twitter tip but it applies to affiliate marketing. If you’re going to promote a product on Twitter make sure it’s highly useful to your followers. This is connected to being relevant - but goes beyond it. I find that the more useful my Twittering is the more positive feedback I get from followers. The same is true from blogging and interestingly enough it applies to the products I’ve promoted over the years. The best feedback that I can possibly get after an affiliate product campaign is from someone who bought the product and thanks me for recommending it because they found it useful. To me this is the ultimate feedback because it means I’ve not only made a little money, but more importantly I have a reader who is happy, who remains loyal and who is perhaps even more loyal than they were before I made the recommendation. This really comes down to smart selection of products to recommend - make sure that they are the best!
There you have it - my guide for Affiliate Marketing on Twitter.
Have Your Say about Affiliate Marketing on TwitterI’m aware that some will still be pretty anti the idea of promoting affiliate products on Twitter (and I remain unconvinced except through the indirect method of promoting links on your blog rather than direct ones that I mention above) but IF you’re going to do it - those are my starting points.
I’d love to hear more discussion on this topic though. Marketing on Twitter (and all kinds of social media sites) will only continue to happen more and more so the more we discuss it the better!
Tags: affiliate marketing, Affiliate Programs, social media, twitter5 Ways To Optimize Your Blog and Capture More Repeat Visitors (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Today Rich Page shares five tips on how to optimize websites to capture repeat readers.
You may be a blogger that thinks they have a pretty popular and well created blog - if so, well done. But remember every blog is a work a progress, and there is always room for improvement. Here are 5 great ways to help optimize and improve your website, and inspire new visitors to become repeat visitors:
1: Track your Internal Search Results
One of the easiest ways to gain insight into your blog and improve it is to track your internal search results. You can easily do this using Google Analytics (learn how to track this), or use this cool wordpress plugin. It’s very important to identify your top searched keywords - it helps you identify what’s popular with your visitors (write more content relating to these), and also, just as importantly, what visitors are failing to find on your blog (look for keyword searches that have zero results and create a post about them - as long as you can make it relevant to your blog). The more relevant internal search results the user finds, then the more chances of them signing up to your feed and coming back for more!
2: Reduce the Bounce Rate of your Articles
The best way to stop someone from leaving immediately after reading your blog articles (i.e. bouncing) is to expose them to as much of your blog’s great content as possible, or by getting them to sign up to your feed. And what is the best way to do this? Immediately after the visitor is done reading the blog entry they arrived at (and remember, most visitors don’t arrive at your homepage - they get deep linked in from search engines or other blogs), at the bottom of the article place prominent text links to subscribe and links to read related content (problogger.com actually does a great job of this). Just don’t fail here and bury these important links away on the right hand column, or at the bottom of your comments, like I see so often.
3: Survey and Learn from Your Website Visitors
What’s another great way to improve your blog? This one is simple, yet many blog owners don’t do it - you need gain feedback from your visitors! Simply sign up for a free survey tool like 4Q, and get to know your visitors better. It allows you to ask your visitors questions in the form of a non-obtrusive pop-up survey. Here are the 3 main questions you need to ask your visitors in order to gain insight for optimizing your blog:
What was the reason you came to this blog? Did you find what you were looking for? What else would you like to see at this blog?Asking these questions allows you to gain some real insight into your visitors and their needs - and remember, a blog that doesn’t meet the needs of visitors could spend all the money in the world to get new traffic, but it wouldn’t get many repeat visits (way cheaper) because the visitors aren’t finding what they want. And don’t just survey your visitors - act on what you find! It can often be very revealing…
4: Build a Community into your Blog
Want to get as many repeat visits as possible, without having to rely on RSS feeds to pull visitors back? Then build a community for your blog, and engage not only yourself with your readers, but allow your readers to engage with each other. This is particularly a great idea if you are niche blogger and you have a small but captive audience. There are a number of ways to create this community for your blog - the basic way is to setup and install ‘MyBlogLog‘ or ‘BuddyPress‘ as a widget on your blog. The more advanced way to build a community is to create a social network around your blog using Ning or KickApps. Both of these are free and allow you to fully customize, brand and create your own community, and use your own blog feed as a main ingredient of the community. Win-win situation for you and your readers!
5: Setup Goals and Begin Testing to Improve Them
Lastly, one of the most important things to remember for blogging success is to set goals and try and beat them. And for blogs, your goal is likely to get as many readers as possible. But be more specific and actionable. For example set a weekly goal for new readers, i.e. 100 new subscribers per week. Then, test elements of your website (using Google Website Optimizer) to try and improve your subscribers and reach your goals. One of the best things to test is the ‘subscription’ area, usually found to the top right of your blog - where your RSS feed links and newsletter signup form usually is. Test different calls to actions, different images and different copy. See which one drives the most goal conversions. And for the goal conversion to work, you will need to tag your thanks page with tracking code (which is easily done if you use AWeber to manager your feed readers). Here is a cool plugin to help you use Google Website Optimizer on your blog. Also, if you are selling a product or giving away something like an ebook on your blog, you can track that as a goal and test to improve sign up rates.
So there we have it. And remember, don’t ever think your blog is ‘done’ - always keep striving to improve your blog. If you don’t, before you know it, a competitor will appear out of nowhere and start stealing away your beloved visitors. For more ideas on how to help improve your blog (and websites in general), and to find ways to stop wasting so much money on online marketing, consider checking out my new free ebook all about this.
So, what are you waiting for? Use these tips and start improving your blog right now - and who knows, it may end up being as successful as ProBlogger one day!
Tags: blog tips, optimize blogs, repeat readers10 Prolific Bloggers Share Tips on Generating Conversation on Blogs (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
Yesterday I gave 13 tips for having great conversations on a blog. As a followup to that I shot an email to a number of bloggers that have a habit of having active comment sections to ask them how they make their blogs more conversational.
As expected - their responses were rich and full of goodness! Here are their responses.
Leo Babauta
“Conversation on Zen Habits is as important or more important than the posts themselves. The readers on my blog have really formed a positive community and I am deeply grateful for such a great readership.
A few things I’ve done to foster conversation at Zen Habits:
1. Write posts that go beyond the usual and provoke a little thought and some sort of response from readers. If your post doesn’t generate some kind of emotion in your readers — whether that’s inspiration, motivation, anger, laughter, whatever — you need to look at ways of being a bit bolder while still being true to yourself and your readers.
2. Ask for thoughts at the end of the post. Ask them to post their ideas, thoughts, experiences in the comments.
3. Always, always be grateful for comments, and don’t attack commenters. This is huge for me. Even if a commenter is negative or even a bit rude, I thank the commenter. I try to find the nugget of truth or wisdom in the comment and ignore the rudeness. I never reply in anger. I try to be grateful for the feedback, because it helps me to get better. And I try to learn from my readers instead of thinking I have all the answers.
4. Sometimes it’s better to step back and let readers converse. Conversations don’t always have to be between the reader and the blogger. Conversations between readers can be lively and enlightening. Don’t feel you have to respond to every comment — let others handle things sometimes, and only step in when you have something valuable to contribute that others couldn’t contribute themselves.”
Gala Darling
“People always say that you need to start conversations on your blog in order to foster community, but one of the main problems is that some people try to do it just because they think they should — out of some sense of “blogger obligation” (blogligation?!), rather than an authentic desire.
The most important thing in blogging, I think, is to be genuine. This applies to getting people to comment, too. If you don’t actually care about what your readers have to say on a given topic, that comes through pretty clearly, & you’re not going to get the response you’re hoping for. People can smell your lack of sincerity, & they won’t bother!
All that aside, I find that the best tactics for stimulating conversation are to…
a) talk about something which everyone has an opinion on
b) ask for people’s real life experiences
c) share something personal & invite others to do the same
d) request advice or help — people love to help others!
Of course, the more positive energy you put into your writing, the more likely it is that people will bounce that back at you… So if you make an effort to write with a sense of fun & delight, your readers will respond positively in their own charming, utterly individual way!”
Duncan Riley
“By making commenting as easy as possible, and by facilitating conversations where people want to have them. We use the commenting 2.0 service Disqus (although there are a number of players you can use), and the first advantage is that Disqus users can immediately leave a comment without having to enter their personal details, encouraging more spontaneous commenting. Further to that, they can track comments they’ve left on Disqus and easily comment again on the same post in response to other comments left where as in the past, a comment may have been a one off without followup. We’ve found that using a service such as Disqus delivers more comments, and increases the levels of engagement and repeat traffic, and it’s why I’ve been more than happy to evangelize the commenting 2.0 space.
On the broader conversation front, we also incorporate comments from FriendFeed, both in importing FriendFeed comments in, and allowing people to make comments using their FriendFeed account on the site itself. We often see far more discussion on FriendFeed than directly through comments on the site. People are going to have those conversations anyway, so if you can incorporate FriendFeed comments on your site and give people a choice to use their FriendFeed account as well, its a win/win: a win for your site, and a win for your readers.”
Liz Strauss
“I do a few things to keep the conversation going. I try to write my blog posts complete, but not too thorough so that readers can add something to what I’ve started. I also try to learn rather than teach — that’s a hard one. When I end a blog post with a question, I make sure that it’s one that can be answered and that I’d be able to answer it myself. In the comment box, I look at who’s talking and answer to that individual. I’ll often continue the dialogue by ending my comment with another question. Sometimes it makes sense to stay back and let readers talk with each other. They discover and uncover even more ideas if I’m not in there talking all of the time.
Mostly though, I make sure that everyone knows that their ideas are respected and protected. There’s one rule on my blog, “disagree all you want, but be nice.” Saying “thanks,” doesn’t hurt either. “
Timothy Ferriss
“-Ask questions at the end of the post — ideally ask for not just facts but opinions. Few people feel qualified to offer facts but everyone has opinions.
-Do not try and be comprehensive on a topic. Offer your strongest position and don’t hedge or steal others’ thunder; let readers add their perspectives.
-Identify and thank commenters on occasion in main blog posts. Make them famous (even for one post) and make it clear that you’re reading the comments, especially to those who have never left one b/c they assume you don’t.”
“I foster conversation on my blog by taking a stand on issues. Sure, that can be polarizing, but that’s the point. Nothing gets people either yelling, “Amen,” or, “You S-O-B,” better than drawing a line and saying, you’re either with me or against me. Pick one.
But I would caution you to make sure you’re ready for it. Thick skin, a healthy dose of humility, a sense of humor and the ability to disagree without being disagreeable are required.”
Jeremy Schoemaker
“I try to inspire conversation on my blog by asking a questions throughout the post.”
“There are three types of conversation that I see on blogs.
1) Inter-blogger conversation - Bloggers talking to each other through their blogs
2) Blogger-Reader conversation - Bloggers and their readers discussing topics through posts and comments
3) Reader-Reader conversation - Readers creating conversations in the comment area
The last one is the least common and for those who want to build community, it’s the holy grail.
To foster the first, you have to get into a link bait state of mind. Which approach is going to get a reaction, how can you press topical or emotional hot-buttons? Many bloggers drift into snark territory with those. It could, though, be as simple as linking to other bloggers with an interesting and unusual question that you would like to see answered.
Most people know what to do with the second. Getting readers to comment is about leaving the opening, inviting a response, and creating the appropriate environment. In marketing terms this would be a “call to action”. At the end of your post ask for comments in a way that anyone can answer without fear of looking stupid.
For readers to comment to each other takes that commenting environment to a new level, and also requires that you get out of the way a bit. So while you answering comments encourages more comments, answering too often discourages readers answering each other. You have to balance the need to make commenters feel valued and welcome, with the need to open up the floor for other readers to jump in and respond to another comment.”
John Chow
“The best way I’ve found to foster conversation on my blog is to ask for feedback from my readers. If you want something, you have to ask for it. I got a free Macbook Air at IZEA Fest because I asked for it. You’ll be amazed at what you can get if you simply ask.
Once you get the feedback, the next thing you need to do is to reply to it. Fostering conversation is a two way street. If your reader took the time out to make a comment on your blog, please reply to it.”
Lorelle VanFossen
“While I believe conversation and interactivity is the key to the definition of a blog, I find the issue of blog conversations fascinating. Not all blogs need comments. Not all of my blog posts need comments either. The conversation can happen on the blog or in someone’s head and I’m still happy. But when I want to get the conversation rolling, it rolls because of the community created by the blog’s overall theme, content, purpose, history, and historical climate of trust.
While many will tell you the basics of opening up the blog conversation by writing open ended blog posts, asking questions of your readers, and leaving room for them to enter the conversation, I believe that people contribute their thoughts to my blog because they already feel like I’m their friend. They trust me. We’ve created a relationship. They feel like they know me, thus feel safe leaving a comment. We’re family.
Creating a safe space for comments doesn’t happen with your first blog post. It might not even happen with your 1000th. It begins with trust. Your blog showcases your history and expertise in the subject matter. Your blog post publishing history speaks for your passion for the subject, enthusiasm, and consistency - you’ve been there and you will continue to be there. When you show you care about the readers, and you are blogging for them and their needs, they tend to open up the conversation with you more than you open it up for them.
The synergy of like-minds keeps the conversation going. You don’t have to respond to every comment, but you must let your community think that you do. When you show you care, they care back, and together you create the content on your blog.”
Tags: blog tips, blogger tips, comments, conversation1 Man Blog Sells for $15 Million Dollars (ProBlogger Blog Tips)
I’ve had four people email me this news in the last 10 minutes. PaidContent is reporting that a WP blog by the name of Bankaholic has just been acquired by BankRate For Up To $15 Million.
Bankaholic has a staff of 1 (Johns Wu) who will remain on at the blog.
If this price is true it’s a fairly decent sale for Mr Wu (understatement of the year) - the blog has an Alexa ranking of 42,168 and averages less than 20 comments per post. The blog does seem to rank very well for a lot of bank terms and I’m sure drives targeted traffic and would convert well with affiliate products - but this is still a fairly inspiring sale!
Here’s the Google Trends chart of the blog showing a steady growth over the last year.
Hat tip to Patrick who was first to let me know of this.
updated for accuracy
Tags: bankaholic, bankrate, make money blogging, selling blogs7 Unexpected Moments of Guitar Awesomeness (The Best Article Every day)
Written by Adam Brown
he interweb tubes are stuffed with lists heralding the high fallutin’ achievements of all those “greatest of all time” type guitar players that the mainstream media throw in your face everyday. Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Kirk Hammett, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Morrello, Slash…they’ve all done some pretty impressive stuff. But you know what? They aren’t the only people that play the damn guitar. In fact, there are several artists who, on any given night, can burn any given venue to the GROUND using nothing more then their guitar shredding abilities. For example…
7. John Mayer (Live)
Hey, you know what’s fun to do? Make fun of John Mayer. What a tool, right! I mean, he’s got that dorky blog that everyone likes and that killer sense of humor and he’s bedded all those hot chicks and he kicks ass on guitar and…wait. What the hell is going on here? Is John Mayer secretly awesome? While some signs point to a definitive “No” (looking at you, “Your Body Is a Wonderland”), there are even more signs that point to a solid “Maybe?”
One thing that isn’t open for debate is this… John Mayer can play the damn guitar. His songs don’t go to any great lengths to show it, but it’s the truth. YouTube is littered with videos just like the one below if you don’t believe me.
Kurt Cobain did more with noise, mistakes and catastrophe than most guitarists could with years of training and flawless playing. He once said something along the lines of “I could never play like Segovia, but Segovia could never play like me either.” It’s debatable whether Segovia would have wanted to play the guitar like Kurt Cobain, really. But thank God someone wanted to. Without the noise filled intro of “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” or the perfectly-out-of-tune strumming of “Polly” and “Something In the Way,” the world would be a much lesser place.
If Kurt ever embarked on a “tour-de-force” of guitar work, it would be on “The Priest They Called Him,” a William Burroughs’ spoken word piece that featured Cobain on guitar. To hear it, check out the video below. Or, if the mood strikes, seek out a copy of the ridiculously cool 10″ picture disc release that features etchings of Burroughs’ and Cobain’s signatures. It’s cheaper than you think.
With their penchant for experimentation, it’s easy to forget that at their most basic, Radiohead is a great guitar rock band. But where a lesser person could find themselves disappointed with their primary instrument’s diminished role in their band’s music, Greenwood rolls with the punches. And by “roll with the punches” I mean he “plays” a portable radio onstage.
But it’s not all theremins and didgeridoos for Jonny Greenwood. When it comes time to rock, he’s as good as it gets. Employing a Max/MSP patch based guitar setup, Jonny strangles enthralling guitar sounds out of a simple Telecaster every bit as well as the much more heralded Tom Mo