This is a guest post by Sherice Jacob. Are You Practicing “Safe Blogging”? When your blog is just starting to get attention, it can be all too tempting to stick to “safe” topics. But after awhile, you start to sound just like everybody else and people forget why they visited your blog in the first…
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Link Journeys for March 27, 2010
I spent more time this week playing World of Warcraft than reading feeds (too much feed reading rots your brain far worse than video games). WordPress posts vs. pages – everything you need to know – Ever wonder have trouble figuring out if a page would be better than a post in your blog? John…
Open Discussion: How Long Should You Wait Until You Stop Replying to or Disable Comments?
A friend sent me this question a couple days ago: How long should you wait before you stop replying to comments? He said he had un-replied-to comments from last November he still hadn’t gotten around to. My thoughts are: if it’s gonna bother you that much that you don’t reply to a comment, then just reply,…
Blogging Fears and How to Overcome Them – Part 3
In What are You Most Afraid of about Blogging? I asked you to lay bare your fears about blogging. In Blogging Fears and How to Overcome Them – Part 1, I took some of those fears and made them less fearful for you, and the response to that was gratifying. In Part 2, we continued to shine…
A Case Study in Mass Blogger Collaboration
This is a guest post by The Investor. More than plaudits, more than authority, and more than generating an income if they’ve got any sense, any blogger first wants to be read. The challenge of finding readers has changed over the years. In the early days of blogging, Internet users were unfamiliar with blogs, and…
5 Simple Ways to Increase the Reach of Your Blog
This is a guest post by Henri Junttila. We all want our blogs to be more popular. There’s a lot of content out there that will help you with just that, but what they often lack is personal experience. The 5 simple ways I am about to share are strategies I myself have used to…
Link Journeys for March 20, 2010
Enjoy these links! These are the best of the best I’ve found this week: Linkbait Generator – Automatically generates unbelievably good linkbait headlines. You won’t believe it until you try it! Theory of Change – Understanding how a “theory of change” can help you solve problems (especially blogging/marketing/selling problems). How to Get 1,000% More Sales…
More Buyers Every Month Mentorship – Insanely Awesome
Dave Navarro of Launch Coach fame has created an online training program that has become my most powerful secret weapon. It’s the More Buyers Every Month Mentorship program (Disclosure: affiliate link). The program consists of thorough training materials (PDFs, & audio) along with a forum. Dave is going to reopen it (it’s been closed after…
Open Discussion: Where are You Stuck?
Some things in our blogging & businesses are easy and we love to focus on those and ignore where we’re stuck. Thinking about where we’re stuck makes our heads hurt. It feels like the gears are spinning in “neutral,” but not engaged in anything real. You look stuff up online about your problem but it…
The Blogger’s Guide to Brain Surgery
How many times have you heard about blogging: it’s not brain surgery? As in, it’s not supposed to be that hard. Problem is, most of what you read about blogging makes assumptions you don’t know. Imagine trying to read something about better blog SEO and you don’t know what SEO means. And in the post it…
33 Thoughts on Creating Killer Content
Killer content: everybody tells you to create it, nobody seems to be able to tell you how. That’s because even the people who are saying it don’t know. Try writing from your gut instead of your brain. Don’t edit your feelings out of your writing. Tell personal stories that have a lesson to teach. Write…
Six Ways To Get People Tweeting About Your Blog Launch
This is guest post from Sid Savara and Srinivas Rao. “Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity” – Henry Hartman How many blogs do you have? Just one? Multiple? Are you already planning on launching another this year? Many of us will launch multiple blogs in our careers. There are many places you can look…
Blogging Fears and How to Overcome Them – Part 2
In What are You Most Afraid of about Blogging? I asked you to lay bare your fears about blogging. In Blogging Fears and How to Overcome Them – Part 1, I took some of those fears and made them less fearful for you, and the response to that was gratifying. Here in Part 2, we continue…
Open Discussion: Where Do You Draw the Line on Deleting Comments?
I got a great question from Marc the other day in a comment on my post Ten Ways to Crank Out Killer Posts in Ten Minutes or Less: Hi. I’d like to suggest a blog post topic for you. It has to do with where a blogger draws the line about posting someones comment. This…
The Difference Between Failure and Success
Do you know what the difference between a business owner and a blogger is? A business owner expects to exchange value for value (usually in the form of money for services, information, or products, and I mean both as buyer and seller). Bloggers, on the other hand, seem to expect to just get everything for…
10 Small Business Blog Tips (that Make a Big Difference)
In business blogging the “little things” add up to a cumulative effect. What little things have you overlooked on your blog? Here are ten little things that add up to a better impression on your readers—if you’ve paid attention to them. If you’ve missed these, well, you may not be making as good of an…
Attention Effectiveness and Chris Brogan’s Email Newsletter
In Chris Brogan’s latest email newsletter he talks some good stuff about the value of time, trust, and attention. There have been a few times when I replied to these and he has always been kind enough to reply back. But in this one he discusses the value of time and the transactional/opportunity costs of…
The Wealthy Freelancer – Book Review
The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and an Enviable Lifestyle (affiliate link) is a book worth getting if you are a freelancer of any kind. Check out my video review below: If you can’t see The Wealthy Freelancer Book Review video in your email or reader, watch it on the blog. The…
Why Integrated Online Marketing is the New Watchword for Bloggers
This is a guest post by Sheryl Sisk. Once upon a time in the golden days of yore, bloggers made money hand over fist (or so it seemed) simply by showing up and blogging. A handful of particularly lucky ones got lucrative book deals, and the rest raked in the dough with Google ads peppered…
The Business Blog Funnel Review – How to Get Profitable Freelance Work Through Your Blog
The Business Blog Funnel (affiliate links in this post) by Skellie of Skelliewag and Envato just might be the best overall book you will ever read on how to create a thriving freelance business from an existing blog. But before I get into the what I think about the book itself, let me tell you about…
Link Journeys for March 6, 2010
This week’s links are pretty darn useful if I do say so myself. If you especially like any of them, let me know in the comments and by all means, please share this post with your friends! Out-teach the competition – Training, education, teaching, whatever you want to call it, you can also call it…
11 Blogging Fears and How to Overcome Them for Good – Part 1
In What are You Most Afraid of about Blogging? I asked you guys to spill your guts about what your blogging fears were, and you totally came through. Not everyone would be willing to say what they’re afraid of about blogging. But enough of you were brave enough to give me eleven different blogging fears,…
Avoid These Common Grammar Mistakes When English is Your Second Language
ESL – English as Second Language speakers have an especially difficult time with blogging: if you can’t write in perfect conversational American English, you will almost never dominate your niche. I see certain common grammar mistakes being made repeatedly by ESL bloggers. With a simple checklist, you can avoid these mistakes easily. If English is not…
Open Discussion: What are You Most Afraid of about Blogging?
Here’s an interesting question: what are you most afraid of about blogging? What scares you silly? Is it something you’re afraid to do? Or is it some catastrophic event you’re afraid will happen? Is it something you think is so ridiculous you’re afraid to even say what you’re afraid of? If that’s the case, then…
Is Your Business Blogging Attracting the Wrong Crowd?
Business blogging is harder than it looks. Business blogging is not like problogging or hobby blogging. With business blogging, your goal is to attract qualified prospects to the blog and through their interactions with you and your content, convert them into leads or paying customers. We get so desperate for any kind of traffic that…
There Will Be Days When You Don’t Care
There will be days when you don’t care about your stupid blog. There will be days when you don’t care about lifting a finger to do anything “efficient” or “productive.” There will be days when Twitter and Facebook look like a bunch of chattering monkeys and you couldn’t care less. There will be days you…
Never Face Writers Block Again (and have Fresh Ideas Every Day)
This is a guest post from Ankesh Kothari. Writers block is a common problem bloggers face. Getting new ideas everyday is not easy. Sure you can keep an “idea journal” to save half baked post ideas and develop these ideas to stay ahead of your publishing schedule. But after a certain point, jotting down fresh…
WordPress Defender: 30 Steps You Can Take to Stop Your Blog from Getting Hacked
WordPress Defender (all links in this post are affiliate links) by John Hoff will show you 30 things you can do to protect your blog from malicious attacks. These attacks happen constantly. Often they are completely automated and the attacker does not know you or care who you are. It doesn’t matter if your blog…
