Monday, August 5, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
How Many is Too Many Blogs?
Lots of people like the idea of blogging. Sometimes it's difficult to get started but once you do it's easy to get hooked. Blog post ideas lead to more blog post ideas. Your blog is doing well and before you know it you find yourself wondering if you should start yet another blog.
I know this type of person exists because I happen to be one. I also know that I am nothing compared to many professional bloggers (people that make a living off of blogging).
Why even start a separate blog? Why not just blog about anything you feel like on one blog?
You could. No one is stopping you. However, a blog that covers a wide range of topics is going to have a hard time attracting traffic. If you want people to read your blog, your posts must remain focused. Magazines sell because they cater to a specific audience, not all audiences. A blog is no different.
Ok, so you're staying focused and you're going to start another blog. You're tired of only blogging about new recipes you've tried and now you want to blog about funny cat pictures you've seen. Now what?
Before you hit the start new blog button (which is surprisingly easy to do), stop yourself and consider for a moment if you could talk about your new topic over an extended period of time. One really good post idea does not make a blog.
Now consider that if you start a new blog you are literally doubling your post writing commitments. If you want to keep up with your current blog and get a new blog started, you need to double your efforts.
If this still doesn't sound like it will be an issue for you, go for it! The important thing is not to overextend yourself. If your current blog is doing well and you want it to continue doing well you can't neglect it for newer, shinier objects.
Yes, it is possible to adjust how frequently you post and not have a blog suffer. How much flexibility you have depends on the topic you're writing about. Non-Techie Blogging, for example, covers "evergreen" content. In other words, the material will be applicable for a long period of time. I could schedule this post to appear at any point in the year and in will still be relavant. Evergreen content has more flexibility. Topics that are time dependent are less flexible. Politics or media would be a good example of this. If you wait too long, the issue you're discussing may no longer be relavant.
Point being, you need to know your audience and you need to be clear about your blogging goals if you want to increase readership. Having more blogs can help alleviate boredom or writer's block but it's also more work.
I know this type of person exists because I happen to be one. I also know that I am nothing compared to many professional bloggers (people that make a living off of blogging).
Why even start a separate blog? Why not just blog about anything you feel like on one blog?
You could. No one is stopping you. However, a blog that covers a wide range of topics is going to have a hard time attracting traffic. If you want people to read your blog, your posts must remain focused. Magazines sell because they cater to a specific audience, not all audiences. A blog is no different.
Ok, so you're staying focused and you're going to start another blog. You're tired of only blogging about new recipes you've tried and now you want to blog about funny cat pictures you've seen. Now what?
Before you hit the start new blog button (which is surprisingly easy to do), stop yourself and consider for a moment if you could talk about your new topic over an extended period of time. One really good post idea does not make a blog.
Now consider that if you start a new blog you are literally doubling your post writing commitments. If you want to keep up with your current blog and get a new blog started, you need to double your efforts.
If this still doesn't sound like it will be an issue for you, go for it! The important thing is not to overextend yourself. If your current blog is doing well and you want it to continue doing well you can't neglect it for newer, shinier objects.
Yes, it is possible to adjust how frequently you post and not have a blog suffer. How much flexibility you have depends on the topic you're writing about. Non-Techie Blogging, for example, covers "evergreen" content. In other words, the material will be applicable for a long period of time. I could schedule this post to appear at any point in the year and in will still be relavant. Evergreen content has more flexibility. Topics that are time dependent are less flexible. Politics or media would be a good example of this. If you wait too long, the issue you're discussing may no longer be relavant.
Point being, you need to know your audience and you need to be clear about your blogging goals if you want to increase readership. Having more blogs can help alleviate boredom or writer's block but it's also more work.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Wordpress vs. Blogger
Due to my involvement with a writing group I belong to, I've become quite a bit more familiar with Wordpress as of late. For those of you new to the blogging world, there are two major (free) blog hosts that seem to consistently dominate the heap: Wordpress and Blogger.
Well, I apparently can't commit to just one so I freely admit to being a switcher-back-and-forther. The general consensus between the two hosts is that Blogger is more user-friendly while Wordpress is more customizable.
This is sort of true. Sort of. If you've never blogged before both platforms are going to have a learning curve. I also feel that the general consensus is somewhat flawed because Wordpress is only more customizable if you switch over to the paid version.
To help you decide which is for you, I decided to make a more detailed list of what I like and don't like about both. Keep in mind that this list is only of noticeable differences. I'm not going to list things that I like that both platforms have. Also keep in mind that I am only comparing these two platforms.
So here it goes:
Wordpress
- Overall, the blog will look sleeker.
- You have the ability to make a static site (like a regular website, not a blog)
- There aren't a whole lot of free themes (the way it looks) to choose from.
- If you're using the free version, there's not much about the theme you can adjust (so you're stuck with default fonts, colors, etc.)
- You can automatically have your blog send new post updates to a Facebook fan page
- Lacks the ability to upload pictures from your computer and place them in your sidebar(s). Requires you to get your image from an online URL.
- Dashboard that you use to make blog changes is not user-friendly at all (this is coming from someone who already knew how to blog).
- Spam filters are really good at default setting.
- Can look sleek but takes a lot more work.
- Dashboard is far more intuitive.
- Requires you to find a third-party program in order to send updates to Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Owned by Google so easily syncs with other Google programs such as Google+.
- You can adjust just about anything you want with your free blog (background, colors, font, tab sizes, etc.).
- EasiER to monetize. Google AdSense is already built in.
- As the blog ages, you get lots of spam comments. Can be avoided but requires some tweaking with the security settings.
To sum up: Even after becoming comfortable with both platforms, I find I still prefer Blogger. The only real advantage Wordpress has is the swankier vibe. But overall I find myself annoyed with how limited the free Wordpress blog is. If you want to pay the small yearly fee, however, the number of Wordpress options does increase. But I think it's saying something that you have to pay money to get features that Blogger already offers for free.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
Should Your Blog Title Ask a Question?
I don't always do this with my blog posts but it is a useful trick for attracting attention to a blog post. People are curious and if they see an unanswered question for a topic that interests them, there is a higher chance that they will click on the link to find out more.
Don't believe me? Use my go-to default realty check: how would you respond if you saw these two articles:
Giant Shark Found on the Beach
or
Giant Shark Found on the Beach, Researchers Puzzled
Ok, so yeah, maybe you'd click on the first title. But all the information is already given to you in the title. So the only reason why you'd want to read further is to find out which beach or maybe a picture of the shark. Very little is left to the imagination.
The second title is more open-ended. Researchers puzzled? What the heck? Puzzled over what? So now you have more motivation to read that article because you not only want to know which beach and maybe see a picture but you also want to know if researchers are puzzled over the possible alien glyphs they found written on the fin (or whatever).
Point being, that your blog post title is going to be the selling point for most readers. It will be the first thing they see and it will be the deciding factor in whether or not they want to read more.
Don't believe me? Use my go-to default realty check: how would you respond if you saw these two articles:
Giant Shark Found on the Beach
or
Giant Shark Found on the Beach, Researchers Puzzled
Ok, so yeah, maybe you'd click on the first title. But all the information is already given to you in the title. So the only reason why you'd want to read further is to find out which beach or maybe a picture of the shark. Very little is left to the imagination.
The second title is more open-ended. Researchers puzzled? What the heck? Puzzled over what? So now you have more motivation to read that article because you not only want to know which beach and maybe see a picture but you also want to know if researchers are puzzled over the possible alien glyphs they found written on the fin (or whatever).
Point being, that your blog post title is going to be the selling point for most readers. It will be the first thing they see and it will be the deciding factor in whether or not they want to read more.
Monday, March 4, 2013
How To Get Blog Traffic: Have a blogging schedule
A blog can be approached one of two ways:
- As a personal diary OR
- As a source for public news
If your blog is more like your diary, feel free to update it whenever you like. It's for writing down your own personal thoughts so whether or not anybody reads the posts is not important.
Regardless of topic, if you do want people to read your blog, you must treat it as a source for public news. A blogging schedule is crucial if you want to increase your readership.
Think about it: a magazine or a newspaper cannot become a trusted source of information if the news they provide is sporadic. One day they report on a political announcement, you don't hear from them in months and then they decide to report on election results. This is not the way to gain readership. Even if the readers neglect to read every article, they need to know that the articles are at least there.
The difficult part is that a blog is usually run by a company of one: you. It's exciting when first starting up a blog but eventually life will get in the way. Hence, the blogging schedule. It is better to have your posts follow a predictable schedule rather than posting at random.
Why?
If your readers suddenly receive a slew of email notifications from you saying there have been four new posts, chances are they will only read one or two. So much of your hard work will be lost on them. It's ok to have a space of time between posts, so long as your readers know when to expect the next one.
A blogging schedule also makes your blog look more active when new potential readers stumble across it. If you post all four at once and then nothing for the rest of the year, it's discouraging to see that the last entry you made has last year's date on it. Why read a news source that has already shut down?
A blogging schedule will also help from an SEO perspective. When people type in keywords, search engines are looking for the latest, most relevant content. A blog that has updated recently will be more desirable than one that last updated years ago.
In order to establish a blogging schedule, start small. Take what you think you can handle and then cut it in half. Think you can post every week? Aim for every two weeks. Every day? Every other day. Start easy because you are planning for the times you don't feel like blogging. Take advantage of the times when you feel inspired to write. Write several posts in one sitting and then schedule them to appear at future dates.
What you want to ideally happen is have posts scheduled out for several months. This will give you the leeway to write when you feel inspired and not have the blog consume your whole life.
The difficult part is that a blog is usually run by a company of one: you. It's exciting when first starting up a blog but eventually life will get in the way. Hence, the blogging schedule. It is better to have your posts follow a predictable schedule rather than posting at random.
Why?
If your readers suddenly receive a slew of email notifications from you saying there have been four new posts, chances are they will only read one or two. So much of your hard work will be lost on them. It's ok to have a space of time between posts, so long as your readers know when to expect the next one.
A blogging schedule also makes your blog look more active when new potential readers stumble across it. If you post all four at once and then nothing for the rest of the year, it's discouraging to see that the last entry you made has last year's date on it. Why read a news source that has already shut down?
A blogging schedule will also help from an SEO perspective. When people type in keywords, search engines are looking for the latest, most relevant content. A blog that has updated recently will be more desirable than one that last updated years ago.
In order to establish a blogging schedule, start small. Take what you think you can handle and then cut it in half. Think you can post every week? Aim for every two weeks. Every day? Every other day. Start easy because you are planning for the times you don't feel like blogging. Take advantage of the times when you feel inspired to write. Write several posts in one sitting and then schedule them to appear at future dates.
What you want to ideally happen is have posts scheduled out for several months. This will give you the leeway to write when you feel inspired and not have the blog consume your whole life.
Monday, February 4, 2013
How to Get Blog Traffic: Twitterfeed.com
The site twitterfeed.com is a useful tool for those that use Blogger. On Wordpress you can have an option to push your posts through to Facebook. Blogger has no such feature, unfortunately. As the site's name indicates, twitterfeed may also be used to autopost links to your blog on Twitter. As of right now, you can use twitterfeed to update Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and App.net.
The way it works is you input your blog's feed to twitterfeed. Then you tell where you want the feed sent and how often twitterfeed should check for updates. When you post a new blog, twitterfeed will detect it and then send the post's title and a link to your FB page or Twitter (or whatever). That's it! So it's a really easy way to get extra blog traffic and save you the hassle of manually posting the link everywhere manually.
As far as third party programs, twitterfeed is fairly reliable. I use it for all my blogs and only occasionally do I have problems. It sometimes forgets to "check" a blog for updates so the latest post does not show. However, the problem usually corrects itself by the next post. I've investigated several other services and so far twitterfeed has been the easiest to use/most reliable.
On the most basic level, people need to know about your blog if you want more blog traffic. Having your blog merely exist in cyberspace will eventually get keyword-related traffic but if you want to speed the process up, you need to share your blog link with PEOPLE.
The way it works is you input your blog's feed to twitterfeed. Then you tell where you want the feed sent and how often twitterfeed should check for updates. When you post a new blog, twitterfeed will detect it and then send the post's title and a link to your FB page or Twitter (or whatever). That's it! So it's a really easy way to get extra blog traffic and save you the hassle of manually posting the link everywhere manually.
As far as third party programs, twitterfeed is fairly reliable. I use it for all my blogs and only occasionally do I have problems. It sometimes forgets to "check" a blog for updates so the latest post does not show. However, the problem usually corrects itself by the next post. I've investigated several other services and so far twitterfeed has been the easiest to use/most reliable.
On the most basic level, people need to know about your blog if you want more blog traffic. Having your blog merely exist in cyberspace will eventually get keyword-related traffic but if you want to speed the process up, you need to share your blog link with PEOPLE.
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