Blogging. Fatherhood. Business Building. It's all here.

The Profound Power Of Less Is More

March 11, 2011 By 2 Comments

Often in life and in business, we get stuck on the idea that more is better. In our attempt to accumulate the most stuff, write the longest article, publish the most posts, make the most money…we often forget the power of less is more. To illustrate this…let’s take a look at some two word phrases that carry a huge amount of power without having to add-on meaningless BS…

I do.

F*ck You.

We’re pregnant.

I’m sorry.

You first.

Trust me.

Hell, no.

Yes, m’am.

Why me?

You’re welcome.

Shut up.

It’s a constant struggle. Everything in us wants more but the power comes from less with extreme relevance and direction. When you really want to get your point across…you use less. When you really want try to impress someone you shouldn’t be…you use more.

Creating compelling content is more than just the amount of words in your article. It is about how you shape those words to keep attention and create emotion that connects with readers. If you are always worried about “is this article long enough”, you are going after the wrong goal.

Attack your blogging with passion…say what you need to say…but don’t water it down with bullshit it doesn’t need…

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Lifestyle Design Tagged With: , , , ,

How To Deal With Content Scrapers [Blog Tip]

July 15, 2010 By 10 Comments

Content scrapers are the scum of the earth in the blogging world. They take the hard work and dedication of others and try to capitalize on it for their own monetary gain. Instead of actually doing some work, they decide to try to profit of yours. Content scrappers are as sleazy as a hit and run and as annoying as road rash…so basically…they are just the scum of hte blogging world. While most of the time you are going to ignore content scrapers as they lift your content through your RSS feed or copy/paste, there are going to be times in your blogging when you need to handle a content scraping situation and handle it accordingly.

What Impact Can A Content Scraper Have?

A content scraper, when the situation gets serious enough, can have several adverse affects to your blog that are not easily quantified.

  • Traffic loss in search engines
  • Brand confusion (same content in two places with different sites/logos)
  • Duplicate content issues within search engines
  • Copyright violation if your content carries those rights
  • In low competition markets, they can rank well for your content

When Should I Plan Action Against A Content Scraper?

There are going to be very few times you really need to stand up and take serious action with content scrapers. Luckily, Google and other search engines have gotten pretty good at sniffing out who as the real content and who is just trying to fake it. Once Google and other search engines figure that out, they penalize the other sites through their algorithm by pushing them down the list. I had a unique situation lately that made one content scraper of my content get on the radar and I had to do something about it.

When I changed domain names from mtbtrailreview.com to Bike198.com at the beginning of the year, I new that Google was going to have to catch up and spider my thousands of pages. I was prepared for the change and knew it would all get sorted out. At the same time, someone decided to scrape the content off my site and put my full feed articles and pictures on a site of their own and the only content they were using was mine.

So what happened?

They started to rank for my content that had not been fully spidered by search engines yet. Big problem.

In this situation, I needed to take action to protect my brand and my content that I have worked so hard to build up.

How Do I Stop A Content Scraper From Stealing My Content?

When you run into this situation or another one that requires action, you have to handle it very carefully.

First, go to the site and see if they have a content form. 99 times out of 100, content scraper sites do not have any form of contact form or email available on the site, so you are going to have to get it stopped by other means. If they do…send an email requesting removal of your content and see what happens. If you get no response or an ugly one, continue.

Go to whois.net and do a whois lookup on the domain that is stealing your content. When you do this, you are going to get the name of the company that hosts the site. Once you have that name, Google the hosting company to contact them directly.

When you contact the hosting company, keep it short and simple. Here is what I wrote.

You have a domain hosted on your servers, scrapersite.com, that is scraping copyrighted content from my blog network, Bike198.com.

Since there is no contact information provided on the site itself, I am contacting you to shut off the content.

Thank you,
Robb Sutton
oneninety8, LLC
Bike198.com

If the company is reputable at all (like this one was), you should get a response that looks something like the following.

Dear Robb:

Rest assured we at [removed].com and it’s parent company [removed] take this type of infringement very seriously. I have passed this message on to the account holder and have given him 24 hours to respond. Failure to respond to this within 24 hours will cause an immediate suspension of the account. Once a response has been made, I will forward the same to you to reach a settlement.

From that point forward, you should be able to get your content removed from the site.

Is It Ever That Easy?!

Well…not always. Every now and then, you will get a site owner that knows he is wrong, admits it and moves on. However, remember who you are dealing with. Content scrapers are stealers of copyrighted content, so a lot of times they do not go down without a fight. Here are some excuses you might here from a typical content scraper as you go through the process. You need to ignore the excuses (You don’t have to explain anything! They are stealing your content!) and stick to your goal of content removal, but here are some explanations.

  • “But I Link Back To Your Site” –  Hold zero weight for you. Too many one way links have almost zero Google weight and they are stealing traffic off of your content and most readers will not know the difference.
  • “RSS Is Built For This” – Nope. RSS is designed for easy digestion of content…not to make it easy to publish copyrighted content on the web. Now, if your content is Creative Commons licensed, republish with credit is allowed.
  • “I’ll Just Stop Using Your Site, I Don’t Have Time To Go Through Everything” – Your time is not my problem. You stole my content and it needs to be removed.

Now…there are a couple of things you need to keep at the forefront of your brain as you deal with content scrapers and getting your content off of their site.

  • Keep a level head and keep emotion out of the picture. – You have just caught them stealing, so they are going to battle their way out. If you really want to see this issue resolved, you have to keep a level, business head without interjecting emotion no matter what they say to you.
  • Work with the hosting company - The hosting company has the power to shut down the site, so as you go through the process…keep a good working relationship with the hosting company as you move forward as they are going to be your partner in this. If you piss them off, things are going to be harder.
  • Do not make threats you can not keep – Do not throw the idea out there that you are going to call your lawyers if you do not have lawyers. You need to stick to what you can do and keep to your guns. If you have lawyers…by all means throw the book at them if you need to.
  • Don’t believe their threats – In the process, the content scraper is going to throw out threats they can not backup. If they were really that good or had that good of a lawyer, they wouldn’t need to steal your content for a couple of bucks a month.

In the end and about 17 emails later, my content was removed and things are back to normal. Will I need to spend my time hunting down every single content scraper going forward? No. Will this be the last time I have to deal with this? No. I deal with content scraping when it makes sense to invest the time into making sure the situation gets resolved.

Basically, if they hit that hard on my radar, it is time to do something about it.

Scum Image by ?japaneseblues

Filed Under: Blogging, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Riding The Big Wave Of Blog Traffic: 8 Ways To Go Big or Go Home

July 8, 2010 By 8 Comments

Watching trends is just a part of blogging. With information changing as fast as it does online, if you are not paying attention to what is going on around you, you might as well get used to being left in the dust.

In every niche, there is going to be an event or time of the year that you are going to have to be on your A game. Big name print publications are even looking to blogging as a way of providing real time information and updates for their readers, so where do you fit in as the blogger and how can you capitalize on trends in your niche to cash in big? Let’s take a look at my example and how you can apply it to your blogging.

Covering Real Time Events In Your Niche

As you can probably imagine, things are pretty busy over at the road biking side of Bike198.com this week. With the largest cycling event of the year taking place with the 2010 Tour de France, it is a jam packed 3 weeks of Tour results, information and coverage. As a blogger, I need to position myself as a reliable, return resource to capture the benefits of the largest event of the year without actually being in France. This is not always an easy thing to accomplish even if you have a vast amount of resources. As you can see by this traffic graph from Google Analytics…things are going pretty good so far.

Road Bike198.com Tour de France Traffic

So what can you do to get a 68% traffic increase on your blog and rake in the cash from this new traffic at the same time?

8 Ways To Go Big Or Go Home

So…you want to cover something big in your niche or ride the trend wave, what do you need to get done to enjoy the benefits of a drastic traffic increase over a period of time? Here are some tips to help you cash in on the increase and keep a larger percentage of those new readers as your blog moves forward.

#1 – Have Your Blog Prepared – Monetization and Conversion Items

You are going to see a sharp wave in traffic like the graph you see above, so you are not going to have much time to change and edit your blog. You need to have all of your conversion items and monetization strategies in place before the wave starts. About a week before you start your coverage, you need to make sure you have everything in place. During this time period, your main focus is going to be on delivering the content goods and not on blog design or monetization strategies. By planning ahead, you can cash in even bigger.

Money Making Note: It is also a good idea to throw in 1 or 2 extra monetization strategies for this time period. It will bring in extra income for your blog at a time when readers will not be as sensitive to the idea. Even this big publications are inserting a couple more ads here and there to cash in.

#2 – Credit External Sources

Since I can’t be in France to take my own pictures, I have to rely on the pictures and other resources of the people on the field. Because of this, you have to be extra careful about using pictures and make sure you credit the photographer and organization responsible for the shot. Unless you want to really piss people off to the point they will never work with you again, go overboard on giving credit where credit is due.

#3 – Integrate In Other Content Types

Your goal during this process should be to increase traffic to your blog but also to convert that traffic into regular readers. One of the best ways to do that is to mix in other content types with your coverage to show new readers what they can expect on your blog. Ideally, you want to mix in more pillar type articles to really feature your best of the best. For example, on Road.Bike198.com, I am mixing in in-depth how to articles and product reviews…my two “showcase” article types that convert the highest on that blog.

#4 – Be Prepared To Work Longer Hours

Right now is one of my busiest blogging times of the year, to even scrape together the precious minutes to put together this article took some planning. When you are covering realtime events or a growing trend in your niche, you need to be prepared to work longer hours than you are used to. There is time to research (or stay glued to the TV for hours in my case), write articles and stay on top of what everyone else is covering in your niche as well. All of this has to be done at the same time you are still mixing in your regular content. Tired yet?

#5 – Partner With Other Media Sources

One of the best ways you can lighten the load and have higher quality content during these periods of mass blogging is to partner with higher profile media outlets for content. For the Tour, I got together with the crew at Bicycling to use pictures, interviews and Tour stage explanations on my blog crediting back to Bicycling. This cuts down on my research time and provides Bicycling magazine with more vistors to their online real estate. It is a win/win for the both of us.

#6 – Bring Something Different To The Table

Everyone and their mom is providing the same cookie cutter information on whatever you are trying to cover. By bringing something a little bit different to the table in terms of related content, you can improve the stickiness of your blog during this time period. Since my readers are used to riding tips and product reviews, I am going to mix in articles related to the Tour from those two categories. This will differentiate my blog coverage from the typical news media coverage and bring readers back to Bike198.com.

#7 – Test, Test and Test Again

Unfortunately, the preparation you made at the beginning of the process might not be converting. If your monetization strategies or conversion items are not doing well during this time period, you need to put in the extra hours to get it right. This is your one and only shot at this, so make sure all of the extra effort isn’t going wasted.

#8 – Pre-Write and Plan Content

Do you have other blogs or already know what you want to mix in during your coverage? Pre-writing and scheduling content the weekend before you are covering a large event is the best way to lighten the load during periods of high blogging stress. If you have other blogs that are going to take up precious time needed to continue your coverage, schedule those posts ahead of time or get in some guest posts to lighten the load. The worst thing you could do for yourself is sacrifice your hard work in other areas just because your focus as shifted temporarily.

Stressed Yet?! It’s better than you think…

While this may seem like a stressful time in a bloggers life, it can also be one of the most rewarding. During times of extreme blogging, you can make the biggest gains and get over that plateau of traffic and earnings that you have been hopelessly sitting on for months. If you put in the extra effort with content and planning, you will see the increases and enjoy the fruits of your extra labor for years to come. You just have to go after it! Do large spikes due to special events last for forever? Of course not, you are going to see a decrease in traffic after the event is complete, but the idea here is to leave with more traffic and conversions than you came in with. If I am seeing a 68% traffic increase during the Tour de France, I would expect to retain a 20% increase on the backend with new readers and subscribers.

And remember…as the blogger, you have the unique ability to adapt and change on the fly unlike the big print publications.

Wave Image by mikebaird

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , ,

You're Boring. Just Admit It.

June 30, 2010 By 6 Comments

So I was hanging out over at Blogussion the other day when I fell upon this article titled, “Interviews are Boring, Reviews are Fake & Lists are Kind of Lame. Let’s Get Real“. In the article, Alex (who I respect in the industry by the way) brings up a valid point about a blogging timeline that seems to plague bloggers across the web.

The basic gist of the idea is that a blogger initially comes to the table with some engaging, unique content. You subscribe to their RSS feed because you like what they have to say. And after a period of time, the blogger gets away from their uniqueness and falls into the boring trap of being like everyone else. What you basically end up with is a RSS reader full of bland trash that used to be unique and engaging.

While I do agree with him to a point, there are several aspects of the article, that while I do see it happen out there, I do not hold to. Specifically that interviews are boring, reviews are solely to make money and lists are lame.

Blogging The Way I See It

The way I see it…there are two things that start to happen amongst new and experienced bloggers.

  1. The passion fades and complacency and bordom start to show in the articles. The result…what once used to be an engaging blog is now a cookie cutter copy of everyone else. Bring on the same lists and reviews as you see all over the web as the blogger is just going to do what he/she sees or reads.
  2. After a period of time, after putting in above average effort, the blogger only sees sub-par results. Instead of pushing forward and keeping the bar high, the blogger gets lazy and complacent once again, and that starts to show through the content…specifically by sacrificing value for writing money driven articles or a “Digg perfect” article and not taking as much time as effort as before.

The reality of the situation is that blogging is hard. If you are looking for an easy way to make money online, you have come to the wrong place. You have to keep the intensity high even when you are not seeing the results or “you just don’t feel like it that day” to make a real run at doing this craft full-time.

It is all about blogging priorities and where you stand at that point in time. When the shift in blogging priorities goes away from providing unique value to making money or trying to write the perfect Digg article, the content suffers in a big way and that is transparent as hell.

Don’t get me wrong…I still run businesses, but I absolutely love what I do and hopefully that shows in my writing. If I get to the point that I am ready to sacrifice that unique value (that can be done through product reviews, interviews and lists), then I might as well sell off the property and start up something else.

  • I started writing product reviews in the mountain biking industry because I saw a need for honest reviews instead of glorified advertisements. The money made from those reviews is secondary and a result…not the goal. (Bike198.com)
  • I started RobbSutton.com to help other bloggers bring in review product for their blogs. The money earned from eBook sales and this site is a result of that…not the goal. (Ramped Reviews)

When you focus on the right elements, the rest falls in place with time and smart decisions. When you shift those goals to ones that do not provide value, you are making the conscious decision to be boring.

Image by latigi

Filed Under: Blogging, Content Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Top 5 Reasons Why List Posts Work

May 10, 2010 By 15 Comments

As much as we all hate to admit it, if you really want to grab some attention and get new eyes on your pages, list posts are an incredible way to increase traffic to your blog. There is a reason that every year Road and Track runs their Top 10′s. It is consistently their best selling issue all year long (every year) as they nail down what they thought the best was in each car obsessed category. With this kind of success on and off line, if you are not preparing a list post for your blog…you are missing out on one of the biggest way to attract new subscribers. But…why is that?!

Top 5 Reasons Why List Posts Work

In true list post fashion, here are the top 5 reasons why list posts work. You didn’t actually think you were going to get through a post about lists without one embedded in did you?!

#1 – Easy To Digest Information

You have probably heard this theory until you are blue in the face, but your readers want to be able to digest your information quickly and easily. That is why we use short paragraphs, title tags, bolds and italics…so the scanners out there can use the scroll wheel and still absorb your content. Lists posts are the ultimate “quick read” for blog readers. They can quickly scan down the list and see the meat and potatoes of your article right away. For this reason, list posts are great for both the scanner and the “I have to dive deeper” reader that want to soak up all that is good on your blog.

The easier to digest your words are…the more people you will have taking it in…that is a simple fact in blogging.

#2 – Goes Viral Quickly And Easily

List posts tend to go viral for two different reasons.

  1. They are easy to digest and spread (see #1).
  2. If the person is in your list (or their product/service), then they are more likely to spread it for you.

List posts are one of the most common forms of traffic generation in blogging. Why do you think all of those bloggers are making their “Top 50 Bloggers” lists? They are compiling what they believe to be top quality content, but they are also banking on the fact that at least some of those bloggers in the list are going to want to spread the article as well.

Now…before you start thinking that this only works in the blogging/MMO niche, think about this. When you make a Top 10/25/50/whatever number you choose list of products, don’t you think the manufacturer would want to spread the word? What about your readers that have a favorite product that made #1 on your list? You are validating feelings and that spreads your article quickly. When you start thinking about what list you want to put together, think of Road and Track or some other product based niche and start to get the wheels turning outside of the blogging/MMO niche.

#3 – People Like To See Things Ranked

David Letterman has done an incredible job at attracting new viewers to his late night show through his nightly “Top 10″ list. Why does this work so well? People inherently like to see things ranked (and be entertained through humor in Letterman’s case). How many times during the day have you thought, “great…but how does this compare to this?” When you are looking to make buying decisions, you want to know how competing products or services relate to each other. Well…guess what?! So do your readers.

List posts are an incredible way to show ranking amongst products, services or people within your niche. Your readers are yearning for this ranking and by giving it to them, you become a more valuable resource within your niche. List posts are just another notch in your belt in your quest to position yourself as the expert in your field.

#4 – List Posts Have A Defined Purpose

The title of a list post tells you exactly what to expect in the article. With this defined purpose, you are more likely to grab some attention in that long RSS list of your readers. You have picked a topic that your readers will be interested in and now your list post stands out amongst the massive “to read” list of the day. List posts typically perform very well within your current subscriber base for this very reason.

#5 – Everyone Is A Critic

List posts in the blogging world are 100% personal opinion. What do people love to do when you give your opinion?! Give theirs! One of the things that I find hilarious in the blogging world is that readers who want to shoot down your opinions are…in effect…just increasing your traffic and comments. List posts are the most common form of blog article that generates the most controversy. Because of that controversy, your blog will spread in a positive way since you did not start the argument (in other words…the list post was not a rant or flaming post).

By feeding off the need of certain people to criticize, you can strategically grow your blog at the same time.

Start Writing Your List Post Today

Find something your readers are passionate about and write up a list post. Try to think a little bit outside of the box and come to table with something new that will generate feeling amongst your readers. While it may seem like a lot of work to put together, list posts (love them or hate them) are still the #1 way to get your words to spread so you can pick up new readers and subscribers to your blog.

Have you done a list post lately?

Filed Under: Blogging, Content Tagged With: , , , , ,

10 Ingredients Of A Successful Article

April 22, 2010 By 14 Comments

Every blogger knows the good article when he sees it (it’s simple – a good article is interesting to read ;-) ), but how to make it from a scratch? There are plenty and plenty of articles about that.

As the matter of fact, nearly every blogger who writes about making money online or blogging has some day made an article about that. We have carefully tasted their creations and designed a combined list of main ingredients of a good blog post.

#1: Difference

Almost anything that can be written is already out there and original idea is a real scarcity, so to appeal to readers be different. Do not make another hamburger! If it is impossible to come up with an original idea, try to put bread between two pieces of beef. It may not be delicious, but it will create a commotion and attract attention to your blog. But be careful not to scare-off your readers.

#2: Knowledge of Your Audience

That is one of the the most important rules of marketing (and that is what a good article is all about: you are exchanging your material for readers’ attention). All people are different and it is critical to understand who your readers are and what there problems are. What are they looking for? Why did they come to your website and what can make them stay? These are the questions that you should ask yourself every time you start a new article.

#3: Whatever Your Readers Order

The article is not for you, it is for them! After you start to understand your readers you should get an idea of what they are looking for. Just give it to them, or explain why they don’t need it. Imagine that you are in a restaurant, you ordered a chicken and they bring you soup. Unless you get convinced that you really want the soup you will simply leave (it would be better if they served you chicken in the first place, but nobody’s perfect).

#4: Interactivity

Make your readers think and interact with you through questions, stating arguable points or in any other way. Unless they are involved in your blog in any form, they will not feel themselves as part of it and will not become your subscribers. You know why Chinese restaurants are so popular? It’s not because of the food (you can order it home), its the process when everything is flying around just in front of you and occasionally ends up in your mouth as if by magic.

#5: Aftertaste

When the reader has found what he was looking for (the best outcome is when the search ends on your blog), do not let them leave you once and for all. Make your readers understand that there is much more interesting and important stuff coming later on your blog. The dainty can be delicious, but it must leave a pleasant aftertaste as well, or else what do we have left, when its all finished?

#6: Deep-water Bait:

Yet again do not let the reader just get off your hook, lure them deeper and deeper in your blog. Just like a pro chef gives you the appetizer and only after that the main course, you should tempt the appetite of your reader. These tricks can help you:

  • related articles widgets;
  • in-post links to related articles;
  • anything else that works ;-)

#7: Unforgettable Taste

That is not an ingredient actually, but the result and an extremely important one. It is often called brand development. You want your blog to be famous, don’t you? Internet marketing is not purely about links and bookmarks. Do not forget that you are marketing your brand and it should be not only recognizable, but also memorable.

#8: Knowledge of the Topic

You should know well any topic you are writing about. People try to find something new and original in your article, give them only the valid information and not some general stuff. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and if you’re at it, learn as much of them as possible (I actually love cats very much, but could not resist this game of words :-) ).

#9: Fresh Info

There is no way a person can know everything. Besides there is always new stuff emerging. So, unless you are 100% certain that your knowledge is complete and up-to-date, you should make a bit of additional research just in case there is something new.

#10: Collaboration

After you did your research, you should not be shy to show it and to link to the sources of your information. Besides being simply polite and honest it will also help to attract attention of the people you are linking to. They can get interested in your work and this may help you to make more connections for the future.

This, of course, is not the ultimate list of the things you should put into your article to make it tasty, there are other extremely important ingredients like passionate writing as well as self obvious things such as correct spelling and things of lesser importance like image for every post. All of them will be covered in further articles, so stay in touch.

Now that was an example of how to provide incentive to sign-up for an RSS feed ;-) Hope you will find these ingredients worthy using for your projects. Also feel free to post your opinion or questions in the comments.

This is a guest post written by Edward ‘The Chef’ over at Flavor of Success, “Be the Chef in the Kitchen of your Life”. Flavor of Success is devoted to gathering and sharing all kinds of success stories. We are interested in the stories of celebrities, businessmen and simply everyone else.

Image by Lexitaru

Filed Under: Blogging, Content Tagged With: , , , ,

The Goal Of A Blog Post Is Conversation

January 18, 2010 By 16 Comments

We who blog are constantly writing new content to publish to the masses. It takes a lot of work and energy to produce a great article and one of our greatest frustrations is the short life cycle of a post.

You spend time doing research, brainstorming, link collecting, drafting, writing, and promoting an article only to watch the crowd move on to other great content tomorrow. That’s the nature of the internet.

One way to remove this frustration of the fast-flowing nature of content is to focus more on the conversation generated by a post after it’s published. And I’m not simply talking about getting people to comment on the article – that’s only the beginning.

One of my own big beliefs about marketing is that “news spreads faster through a crowd than to a crowd.” In other words, we’ve managed to tune out mass media messages and advertising, but we still place great trust in the suggestions of our friends.

Applying this to a blog post means that the conversation surrounding your content needs to move away from the post itself.

Getting people to notice your content enough to comment on it is a great first step and probably the indicator of whether it’s a good conversation piece to begin with, but the real gold is when it moves from one Twitter user to another or across a network of Facebook friends, or rises to the front page of Digg. In other words, the goal is to see people talking about your content even if you and your site are not directly involved in the conversation.

If you get them talking about an article, they may just begin talking about you, the author. And then they’ll talk about your blog, your brand, your product, etc. So the conversation grows.

The negative side of marketing your content with conversation is that you can’t control it. In fact, if you try to force conversations to happen, you’ll alienate your audience. What you can do is stimulate conversation.

Let me leave you with some brief tips on how to persuasively encourage conversation surrounding your best ideas:

  • Go beyond the basics. Which is more likely to go viral – “how to have a great blog” (which has been done a million times) or “three brand new ideas for bringing in more traffic.”
  • Be controversial. Just don’t be stupid. Don’t alienate people, engage them.
  • Be thought-provoking. Most people won’t read your article, they’ll skim it, unless you force them to think about something. Surprise them.
  • Ask a question. What do you think? What’s your take on this? What’s your best idea about this subject?
  • Promote your post creatively. Instead of “new blog post:” how about “Hey, any opinions on this?”
  • Give something valuable – something people will want to bookmark, share, and reference.

The goal isn’t to get someone to read what you’ve written – it’s to get them to read it, and then share it. That’s why we call it the “web.” Now, what do you have to say about this post?

Brandon Cox is a Pastor, Web Designer, and Blogger. He’s Editor of Fuel Your Blogging and We Blog Better. You can also catch him on Twitter or Facebook.

Filed Under: Blogging, Content Tagged With: , , , ,

How To Write Quality Blog Articles and Content

October 6, 2009 By 2 Comments

Now we are at the meat and potatoes of blogging…your blog articles and content. At this point in the How To Start A Blog series, you have everything pretty much setup minus your sidebar and miscellaneous design items. Now – we need to get into producing quality content on your blog by writing articles that your readers are going to soak up like cold water on a hot summer day. Quality content is your blog’s foundation. Without these engaging articles and posts, you have nothing but graphics on a screen. There have been extremely well designed sites that failed miserably because all the focus was on plugins, design and other non-important items that – in the end – do not keep readers on your page. Your content is the #1 most important part of your blogging. Without compelling content…you are just wasting your time. [Read more...]

Filed Under: How To Start A Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Are you more worried about your blog design than content?

July 30, 2009 By 3 Comments

Blogging is all about quality content, but the way your content is presented to your readers through your blog design can have a strong impact on repeat visits. When beginner bloggers take on the task of setting up a successful blog, they take at look at other successful blogs in their niche (and sometimes the blogging/make money online niche) for ideas on blog design and layout. This normally equates to an obsession over every little design detail on your blog while you forget about content production. Much like an obsessed lawn perfectionist, we may worry about what everything looks like on the outside and forget the dense roots that make up our blog…the content. Without strong, healthy roots, the lawn can not flourish and grow, so we will be left with brown waste after hours of labor.

Falling Into the Perfectionist Mentality in Blog Design

It is a hard battle to fight. I have fallen into the obsessed blogger fretting over every pixel that graces the screen of a potential reader trap time and time again. As bloggers, we want our blogs to portray our voice, look unique and also look professional for potential new readers and advertisers. When we worry about every aspect of our blog design, we are getting away from producing quality content that will ultimately grow our blogs in the long haul. When you add the inexperience in coding that most blogger posses (minus the actual designers out there), the time wasted multiplies rapidly.

So how can we get away from the design obsession trap?

Here are a couple of tips/tricks that will keep your perfectionist mind at ease and allow you to focus on what is important as you grow you blog.

Designs come and go…but content is here to stay – Over the course of long term blogging, your design will change and adapt with the times. As new standards of html hit the streets and CMS’s like WordPress continue to evolve, you are going to change your blog design several times. Your content, however, is here to stay. Each time you change your design, you are changing how your existing content displays on the screen, so don’t you think it is more important to focus on the asset that is unchanging?

Buy a high quality premium blog theme – This site uses the Thesis Theme by DIYThemes…I have used various themes from the crew at WooThemes…there are dozens, if not hundreds, of high quality premium themes on the market that will give your blog a high quality, professional look by simply hitting activate and swapping out a logo. High quality, premium themes are also easily modified in the future for less than building up a custom theme from scratch. Typically, premium WordPress themes run in the 60 – 100 dollar range for a single use license and for that price…they are well worth the money.

Have Cash? Outsource and go custom with your blog design – Have the cash to throw down on a blog design? Outsource your design to a design firm that specializes in blog design. For Mountain Biking by 198, I hit up the crew at JusttheWeb.com for a great custom theme that really sets my blog away from the competition. I was able to work hand in hand with Just the Web as we tailored MTB198′s design to exactly what I needed and how the site was performing. The result was fantastic and the weight was off my shoulders as I continued to pump out content during the process.

As you can see by these tips, the goal is to take away the stress of blog design to allow you to focus on the vastly more important content production task. By focusing on blog content, you are able to solidify solid roots on your blog that will end up being the foundation for your future.

Obsessed Lawn image by Jez Page

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , ,