how to - Robb Sutton

Free eBook: Problogging Is Dead

February 1, 2010 By Robb Sutton 41 Comments

For awhile now, I have been searching for a way to help bloggers make money online. I knew the information I want to set forth…I just had no clue how I wanted to format it. After a lot of going back and forth trying different blog posts, I realized this was only going to work as a free eBook. After some splicing, “Problogging Is Dead” was born and free to the public.

Problogging Is Dead

Bloggers struggle to make money online. Many…if not all…bloggers have zero business owning experience and are looking for a way to become self sufficient through their own doing. So…to overcome this, bloggers need to take a serious look at how money is made through blogging in today’s atmosphere. The “problogging” days are gone. What we are left with is a lot stronger business model of actually creating resources online that are valuable to our readers and generate income at the same time

If you are struggling to make money online or are only making enough to get by…this is your ticket to freedom. The old ways of doing things (that many people are still doing) are gone. If you are expecting to make a great deal of money by throwing up some Adsense and writing articles, you are going to continue to wait.

“Problogging Is Dead” is going to show you how to make a significant income online and you do not even have to give away an email address to get it! This is something I wanted to do for you guys as a thanks for everything you have given me over the years.

To download, fill out the form below.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: how to, how to make money on your blog, make money blogging, make money online, problogging

Blogging Tip: How To Make Your Blog Page Load Speed Faster

January 26, 2010 By Robb Sutton 11 Comments

I am going to let you guys in on a little pet peeve of mine…slow loading blogs! It never fails…I end up going to check out someone’s blog and they have fantastic content…but…that page takes so long to load that it is annoying to even try to navigate what they are trying to say! It really isn’t the bloggers fault honestly as 95% of bloggers have zero background experience in website coding or content production. They are just a blogger that wants to get their voice heard. So…as you move forward in your blogging, how can you make sure that your page is loading fast enough to keep the readers coming back for more?

Blogging Tips: How To Make Your Blog Load Faster

When you go to start speeding up your blog, there are certain things you need to look at in order to make most efficient use of your time.

Image Sizes – Getting Efficient With Uploads

I go to a lot of blogs that are incredibly inefficient at displaying images in their blog posts and on their pages. For web use, the max you should be loading onto your site is 800 pixels wide and no more than 100k in file size. Anything more is overkill for web use and your readers will not even be able to tell a difference in image quality. When you load up a blog post with multiple 300k or larger images, the page takes forever to load on slower internet connections. The longer people have to wait…the less likely they are going to come back. Keep your images in check and you can drastically speed up your page load speed.

The TimThumb script that creates the thumbnail images on homepages and other areas of your blog (99% of blog themes use this…so if you have thumbnails…you probably are too) generates the thumbnail with each pageview. What does this mean for blogs with large file sizes? The script is processing those large file sizes with each pageview! You will drastically cut down your load speeds on homepages by keeping your file sizes in check.

Also, self host all of your images and do not use Flickr or some other 3rd party site to display images in your blog posts. The more your site has to reach out to a secondary server to load items on your page…the slower it is. Even just the FlickrRSS plugin I use in the sidebar of this blog slows things down. Always host as much as you possibly can in your own file system.

Widgets, Widgets and More Widgets

When I go to a lot of blogs (especially newer ones), I see a ton of widgets. The latest and greatest of every Alexa ranking, Facebook and multiple other widgets are all trying to load at the same time. Furthermore, they are taking up valuable screen real-estate so they are just cluttering up where you call home. With each widget, there is a script and content to load, so the more widgets you have…the longer it takes each pageview to load.

I keep a general rule of thought when it comes to widgets and features on a blog. If 70% of your readers will not need it…you probably do not need to display it. If you are putting up widgets that are only going to apply to 10% of your readers, you are wasting time and screen real-estate on something you do not need. Take them down and reduce the clutter.

Plugins – Have To Have Everything All The Time

There are new plugins that hit the scene on a daily basis. Every single one of them is the latest and greatest that will bring you more functionality than you will ever imagine. Guess what? You do not need almost all of them. I see bloggers get all excited about new plugins to the point they just have to install them and try it out! Along the same theory of widgets (many times these go hand in hand), only use what you absolutely need.

With each plugin, you are adding database tables, code and functionality that has to load with every pageview of your site. The more plugins you have…the slower your blog will load. Try to resist the urge to download every plugin you think you might need and stick to what works for your blog. Any plugin that is not getting used or does not bring functionality to the majority of your readers, deactivate and delete. You do not need it that badly.

Picking A Efficient Theme

There are a ton of good free themes on the market, but…in my experience…the premium themes are coded better and that results in faster load times. By getting a high quality theme from the start (and not hacking it up with too many plugins and widgets), you can insure that you load times will be on par with what is expected in the industry.

Need help picking out a blog theme? Check out this post.

Caching

Server level caching can drastically increase your page load speed. Even just installing a plugin like W3 Total Cache can help your readers enjoy your content faster. If you really want to get fast, contact your web host and see what server level caching options they over. Over at Sliqua, we get wicked fast with some memcaching techniques.

Final Thoughts On Page Speed

As internet connections continue to get faster, page load speed becomes less of an issue…for those with faster download speeds. However, your site is only as fast as the slowest connection trying to read your content. The more efficient you make your blog by paying attention to a couple of tips, the faster your content will load on slow connections as well has fast ones. As things continue to get faster, so do the expectations of your readers.

Filed Under: Blogging, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: blog, Blogging, how to, image processing for blogs, page load speed, pageviews

How To Move Your Blog Or Website To A New Domain Name

January 12, 2010 By Robb Sutton 29 Comments

Moving your site or blog to a new domain name can be one of the biggest headaches in the world if not done correctly.

With Google rankings you have built up over time starring you in the face, you can almost think it is impossible to change domains and keep all of that work. While you will see some initial drop in search engine traffic (typically the first 30 days or so), there is hope as you can regain all of that link love on the new place you call home.

There are several typical scenarios where you would want to change domains.

Started off with a blogger blog (or any other free service) and are now going to self hosted.
Started off with one branding strategy and your blog takes a completely new direction that requires new branding.
Bought a domain and blog that you want to create a new site out of.
Looking to sell your blog in the future and need to get the domain name off your name.

Recently, I moved my mountain biking site…mtbtrailreview.com…to a new domain at Bike198.com to handle the new expansion of road and urban cycling. So…this is the process I went through to insure that everything went smoothly with the new change.

How To Change Domain Names On Your Blog

The following is a step by step guide to moving your website or blog to a new domain. Looks long and complicated…but it really isn’t once you jump in and start knocking things off the list.

Step 1 – Buy New Domain Name

Head over to GoDaddy and secure your new domain name. I would suggest doing this as soon as you know you want to change as aging does affect rankings in some search engines. You can also start linking to that domain to start the PageRank process to help out with beginning growing pains. When I moved to Bike198.com, that domain already had a PR4 with nothing on it.

Note: More on picking a domain name here.

Step 2 – Setup Hosting Account

If you are already self hosting your blog, this is a pretty easy step. If you are not already self hosting your blog (using a free service), I recommend HostGator for cheap, reliable hosting. You need to setup your new domain name on your hosting account as an addon domain exactly like you setup your first domain (database setup, email addresses, etc.).

Note: More on setting up DNS Records and Choosing a Hosting Account.

Step 3 – Export Database from Server

If you are already using WordPress, there is an export feature under the tools tab where you can export your database. This will download to a file that you are going to save onto your desktop. If you are using Blogger or another free service and you are moving to self hosted WordPress, there is an import feature you are going to use to pull your blog into the WordPress install…so you skip this step.

Step 4 – Download Existing Media and Theme Files

If you are already using WordPress, you are going to need to grab your existing theme and media files (pictures, audio, etc.). By going into your FTP account, you can navigate to wp-content/ and download “themes” and “uploads” to your desktop. Depending on how long your have been posting to your blog, this could take a little while.

Step 5 – Install WordPress On New Domain

Now that you have pulled out all the information you need, it is time to install WordPress on your new domain. (Instructions on installing WordPress can be found here.) Side note: If you are not planning on moving your site right away, I would recommend not letting search engines find your blog at this time (the beginning setting). You are able to change this setting once you are ready for the move and duplicate content and confusion will hit if you have both sites live at the same time.

Note: If you are installing WordPress for the first time, here is a guide to the settings.

Step 6 – Upload Media and Theme Files

Using FTP, upload those same media and theme files from your old domain to the new domain folder. (You do not do this if you are moving from a free blogging service…only if you are moving from self hosted WordPress to self hosted WordPress)

Note: If you are installing WordPress for the first time, here is a guide to choosing WordPress themes.

Step 7 – Install and Setup Plugins

Install and setup the same plugins that you had previously on your other blog

Note: My recommended plugin list is here.

Step 8 – Import Database File

In your WordPress install under “Tools”, you can now import your WordPress database or blog hosted through one of the free services. This is going to pull everything from the database file or free service into your new install.

Step 9 – Activate Theme

Activate your theme to get ready to troubleshoot the look, feel and functionality of your blog.

Step 10 – Use Find and Replace to Fix Database Files

When you upload your database or blog into WordPress, all of the linking you did to other parts of your site will be to the old domain. To fix this issue, install the “Search & Replace” plugin. This plugin searches your database for any word sequence you specify and replaces that sequence with a new sequence you tell it to. In my case, I wanted the plugin to search my site for every instance of http://www.mtbtrailreview.com/blog/ and replace it with http://mountain.bike198.com/.

My permalink structure was the same on both sites (just /%postname%/), so everything would be setup correctly with that switch. This plugin prevents the need to go back into all of your articles and fix links.

Step 11 – Test New Site

Now that everything is live on your new site, it is time to go click around and make sure everything works correctly. Test and retest every single element and feature to insure every element is functioning correctly. Fix whatever you need to fix at this time.

Step 12 – Setup Sitemap Plugin and Create Sitemaps

You should have already installed and setup the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, so make sure you have made your first, new sitemap on the new site after everything is tested and working correctly.

Step 13 – Create New Google Analytics (or other stat tracking) Account and Install Code

Create new accounts on your tracking services for the new domain and stall the necessary code.

Step 14 – Setup Google Webmaster Account (and other search engines)

Setup a new Google Webmaster account for the new domain and submit the sitemaps. Now…if you checked the box for not letting search engines see your new site, they are not going to be able to spider the sitemaps at this time, but it is good to already have this setup. Rinse and repeat for Bing, Yahoo and the other search engines.

Note: Google Webmaster Tools also has a setting for moving domains were you can actually specify the domain you are moving to help out Google in the spidering process. This only works if you have a verified old domain and verified new domain. Also, neither one can be subdomains. Since I was moving the content to subdomains, I was not able to use this feature, but the 301′s will take care of that over time.

Step 15 – Test and Retest New Site/Open Up the Search Engines

Before we direct traffic to the new domain, test and retest the new site again. Once you are sure everything is working correctly, go into WordPress under the “Privacy” tab and click the selection for allowing search engines to access your site.

Setup 16 – .htaccess 301 Redirects to New Domain

Now that you have everything up and running correctly on the new domain, you have to forward all of your previous traffic to the new address. This is handled by a .htaccess 301 redirect on you self hosted blog.

If your permalink structure (the stuff that comes after .com, .net, .uk, etc.) is the same on the new site, this part of the process is incredibly easy. All you have to do is create a .htaccess file with a text editor that contains the following:

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^oldurl.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.oldurl.com$
RewriteRule ^.*$ “http\:\/\/newurl.com\/” [R=301,L]

In the case above, I am redirecting both http://oldurl.com/ and http://www.oldurl.com/ to the new url http://newurl.com/. The redirect is automatically going to handle the rest! Each article will redirect to the corresponding article on the new site. Now…if your permalink structure is different on the new site than the old…this is going to throw them to 404 pages and you will end up losing all of that search engine juice you have been building over time.

If you are going to change your permalink structure with the move (which I do not really recommend doing), you are going to have to define individual 301 redirects in your .htaccess file. If you have a lot of pages and articles, this part is going to take awhile.

Redirect 301 /old/perm/structure/ http://www.newdomain.com/new/perm/structure

You .htaccess file is uploaded to the root folder of your domain (probably where you installed WordPress).

Note: If you are migrating from a Blogger blog, follow these instructions for 301′ing your free blog to your self hosted.

Step 17 – Test Search Engine Results

Now that you have all of your redirects setup correctly, it is time to do more testing. Go to Google and type in a keyword phrase you know you rank highly on. Click on the search engine result that contains your old domain name and see if it redirects you to the correct article on your new domain name. If it did…you are set. If it didn’t…there is something wrong with the way you setup your .htaccess file.

Step 18 – Move Feedburner Feed

Within Feedburner, you can change the location of your feed very easily. If your domain change is not too far off from your previous name, I would recommend just changing the feed location and not the feed name. While you can do a 301 on your feed as well, you are risking confusing or even loosing current subscribers. After you have changed the location, go over to the email syndication section of Feedburner and change any from email addresses and logo branding that was associated with the old site.

Note: Do not be surprised if your feed updates the latest 10 articles that people have already read when you move the feed address in Feedburner. That is normal.

Step 19 – Change “From” Email Addresses in Newsletters and Other Media

You should have already created new email addresses for your new domain. You will need to change all of the “from” email addresses in newsletters (ex. Aweber) and other media where you send out regular emails and corespondents. Also, when you start receiving new emails to the old address, respond with the new email addresses notifying the receiver of the change. You can make life a little easier on this end by actually redirecting those emails to your new inbox in your email setup.

Step 20 – Backup Everything

This is a final precaution. Back up everything before going forward. All of your databases, file folders on your server, email…everything! If something goes wrong, you do not want to be left without a backup of everything you have completed up until this point.

Step 21 – Delete Old Server Files

Now that you have a local version of the old site, it is time to delete all of your old server files and databases. Delete everything but the .htaccess file you setup previously to keep the redirects running.

Step 22 – Add New Domain to All Affiliate Sites

Over the course of your blogging, you should have setup several affiliate accounts to make some money online. Make sure you go into your affiliate accounts and add the new domain as an approved site and change any email addresses associated with that account.

Step 23 – Announce Your Move To The World!

You’re done! Everything is moved and working correctly! Congratulations. Now…it is time to tell the world about your move. Send out newsletters…make a post on your blog…tweet the change linking to the post on your blog…post something on Facebook. With this announcement, it is a great idea to tell your readers, subscribers and newsletter subscribers what to expect. Tell them which email address they are going to receive updates from (also tell them to white list it), show them the new features of the site and explain some of the process and reason for the change.

This is also a great time to email anyone who has linked to your blog or articles and request they change the links to the new address.

A Couple Of Final Notes On Moving Domains

While you are going to see the immediate result of the redirects, it is going to take the search engines a little while to catch up. Expect to see a small drop in traffic for about 30 days or so until all of your link juice is transferred to the new site. After a period of time, everything should level out and your site should be back to normal.

Google and other search engines recommend keeping the old domains and redirects for a period of 180 days. For me, it is worth the little bit of money it costs to have the redirects and old domain for a year just to be sure.

Filed Under: Blogging, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: change domains, how to, move blog, move domains, new blog

How To: Using The Aweber Follow-Up Message To Create An E-Course

December 15, 2009 By Robb Sutton 13 Comments

One of the biggest challenges in blogging is getting readers to keep coming back to your blog and creating a large enough call-to-action to get them to sign up for your newsletter and rss feed. I am a HUGE fan and cheerleader for newsletters and building your list as soon as you possibly can.

Even in today’s internet environment, the email list is still king if you want to make any run at actually generating a sizable income online. All of the major players make a huge amount of money by providing valuable information their newsletter subscribers. An email newsletter is also the #1 way that new bloggers can get a significant amount of income even when they have a small amount of traffic. 100 targeted, attentive newsletter subscribers are much more valuable than 1,000 search engines visitors that may or may not stay on your blog.

One way to drastically increase the amount of sign-ups to your email newsletter is to offer something for free in return for that email address you so desire. This normally takes the form of a free ebook or e-course that is delivered to your reader in exchange for signing up for your newsletter subscription. There are several services out there that can accomplish this feat for you, but I have found that Aweber does the best job at providing easy setup and consistent delivery.

Now, as you probably already know, as part of RobbSutton.com, you get a free ebook (Ramped Blogging) and a free e-Course for signing up for the newsletter associated with this blog. I want to go over how to setup a free e-course at this time because it is actually pretty easy to do and you can start offering something like a free course before you even have an ebook! I set mine up in an afternoon to compliment the free ebook and provide more value to you guys.

How To Setup An Email E-Course In Aweber

First, you are going to need an Aweber account. Like I mentioned before, the value and consistency of Aweber puts it a cut above the rest, so I highly recommend them (sign up by clicking here). Once you have an Aweber account setup, you are going to want to go through the formalities of getting all the settings correct and creating a web form. There are several different kinds of web forms (on page, lightbox, etc.) so you can pick what best works for your audience.

Once you have all of that setup, you are going to want to create your first follow-up message that welcomes your reader to your newsletter. Within this message, you are going to accurately depict exactly what they are going to expect out of your newsletter.

Welcome to ABC.com’s email newsletter and e-course. Over the next 7 weeks, you are going to be receiving your free e-course directly from me on a weekly basis. Be on the lookout for these emails and make sure you have news@abc.com whitelisted in your email account. Also, you will be receiving periodic emails from me with deals and other industry related news. blah blah blah…

You get the idea. You want to spell everything out right away so your reader knows exactly what to expect when your emails hit their inbox. This also helps with open percentages as your readers will have something to specifically look forward to!

Setting up the E-Course – What Should It Be????

Now you are ready to setup your email delivered course to your readers, but before you can even start…you need to know what your e-course is going to cover! There is one solid bit of advice that covers just about every successful e-course on the web…and it is the answer to this question.

What keeps your readers up at night?

If you can answer that question…and provide valuable information that helps you readers solve that problem…you have a successful e-course. Maybe you readers need to become better runners or want to cook better deserts or just want to live a happier and healthier life. You can setup an e-course that is “7 Steps to Living A Happier and Healthier Life”. It is really that easy and it will create another huge asset to your blog.

Setting up the E-Course Emails

So you have decided on a solution for your readers and you already have an outline of the topics you are going to cover in your e-course. Now it is time to setup Aweber to automatically deliver those messages for you. Aweber makes this incredibly easy by setting up follow-up emails. As you create each new follow-up email, you determine exactly how and when those emails will be sent to your readers.

Let’s take my Ramped Blogging E-Course as an example (you can sign up for that free e-course here). When I set out to create the Ramped Blogging e-course, I wanted it to be a 7 week, one email a week course that helped bloggers improve their blog and compliment the content contained within Ramped Blogging.

As you can see by this screenshot, I set up each email to deliver to my readers on a 7 day interval. This means that every 7 days, newsletter subscribers receive an email…directly from me…that contains that week’s lesson. All of this is done automatically and is completely hands off once I had it setup.

When you draft up your emails in Aweber, there are two options; HTML emails and text only emails. You need to fill out both fields as many people do not allow HTML emails in their inbox. By copying and pasting your email content into the text only field (be sure to type out any urls you may have embedded into the HTML version), you are insuring that all of your readers will be able to read your content.

There are templates you can load to give your emails a custom look, but I tend to keep things on the text only side at this point to make things easy to read in all outlets (web browser, email programs and cellular devices).

After you have drafted up your email, you are given several different options. You can attach a file to deliver an informational product or other digital items to your readers as part of this part of the course (also used to deliver free ebooks for newsletter subscribers) and track clicks (very useful for observing reader behavior) in those specific emails. The interval setting determines when that email will be sent after the previous email in the sequence (in days). As part of the interval feature, you can also set the exact days and times that your emails are sent. Don’t want your emails to hit their inbox on weekends? You can set it to only deliver on weekdays.

After you proofread…preview and save, you are live with your e-course. Rinse and repeat for the rest of your lessons and your e-course is on autopilot for every reader that signs up for your newsletter. It is really that easy.

Ways To Increase Open Rates With Your Emails

Part of the issue that every blogger has with any newsletter is getting your readers to open your emails. Let’s face it…our email inboxes get bombarded with new emails on a daily basis which means a lot of emails get trashed or buried in the archives without even getting opened. So how can you make sure that your emails get opened by your readers?

Make Sure They Know What They Are Getting!

As mentioned previously with the first follow-up email to new subscribers…you need to spell out exactly what your reader can expect from your emails…specifically…the value. Are there going to be discount codes and coupons on their favorite products, valuable/exclusive content related to the niche or your e-course? Tell them right away so there is no confusion and you are put on their email radar.

Call To Actions

In my Ramped Blogging e-course, I actually reward actions my readers take by helping generate traffic to their blogs. Within each email, there is a call to action to perform something on their blog, and by completing that task…I do something to help generate traffic. This creates a sense of urgency to open the new email and it provides another valuable resource for my e-course. Win/win for both me and my readers.

Catchy Title

Titles are everything in emails and blog posts. Be sure to have clearly defined and catchy titles for your emails that do not look like SPAM.

Whitelist

Tell your readers to whitelist your email address in their email program. This will insure that your email does not hit the spam box when your newsletter goes out.

How Can I Make Money With My E-Course?

Now…there are a lot of bloggers that have a difficult time justifying the small price that Aweber charges for their service, so how can you insure that you make your money back (and much more)?

Note: This also applies to any general newsletter you might want to setup on your blog independent of e-courses.

#1 – Paid E-Course

You can make your e-course a paid service! Have a solution to a big problem in your industry and a high quality e-course that solves that problem? You can charge a fee for your e-course. A great example of this is Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind course. It is delivered to your inbox via Aweber!

#2 – Affiliate Links Within Your E-Course

One of the most popular ways of generating income with your newsletter and e-course is to include affiliate links for products and services within the course itself. You are bringing added value for your readers and bringing in income at the same time. The best part…since all of the work is already done and it is hands off management…you are making money on a daily basis without having to touch anything!

#3 – Sponsored E-Course

Is there a company or service in your niche that would sponsor your e-course for a fee? By placing text ads in your e-course, you can bring in direct advertising income by delivering targeted exposure to your advertisers.

#4 – Link Back To Your Blog

Generate more traffic to your blog by linking back to relevant articles in your e-course emails. This brings more visitors back to your content…which…if you have your blog setup correctly…means more income on your bottom line!

Final Thoughts On E-Courses and Aweber

Whether you are looking to setup a standard newsletter or an e-course, starting your email list and providing something valuable in exchange for that email address (e-course, free ebook, exclusive content, coupons, etc.) should be a top priority for you as a blogger. If you really want to generate an income online (even with a small amount of traffic), you email list will be your key to success. Your newsletter email list will bring more visitors coming back to your blog and create a valuable asset that will bring your income from blogging to a whole other level.

If you are looking to try it out…Aweber does offer a first month promotion giving you all of their services for the low price of $1.00 for the first 30 days.

Filed Under: Blogging, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: aweber, email newsletter, follow-up emails, free e-course, how to

Turning Negative Blog Comments Positive – A "How To" Tutorial

November 19, 2009 By Robb Sutton 12 Comments

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been capitalizing on a negative comment left on Bike198.com by turning it into conversation and positive outcomes. During your blogging, you are going to come across differing opinions. That is normal! The trick is how to turn the blatantly negative comments into positive assets on your blog. Now…before we jump straight into this and I show you exactly what I did and how I accomplished it…there needs to be something clarified…

I ignore 99% of rant comments in my emails and comments sections. I get a very small amount of these types of comments and emails, but there are some people in this world that are just out to bring others down. Most of the time, it is better to just ignore them and move on unless you think by answering them…you can bring value to your blog. They have nothing to lose by spouting off and you have everything to lose by reacting in a way that can lose you credibility in the long run.

My Negative Rant Comment on Bike198

As most of you already know, I am an Aweber cheerleader for newsletter distribution. Part of Awebers features provides you with quality feedback on why a reader unsubscribes to your newsletter by providing that reader with a comment section. Once they unsubscribe and fill out that comment section, you get the info so you can better tailor your newsletter. Here is the comment I received from the reader that started this story.

I am unsubscribing because your website is just another commercial website. I am tired of commercialism; I prefer bicycles as a utilitarian vehicle, not a two – wheeled sport utility vehicle where the price of Chinese – made frames and components continually escalates. I think the founding fathers of mountain biking never wanted mountain biking to become the plaything of a small group of capitalists.

You have to admit…the amount of force and anger in this comment is pretty laughable on its own, but – like any cycling based blog owner – I had a defined opinion on his rant. Once I decided that I wanted to answer this reader back on his claims, I also decided it would be great feedback and conversation to post on the blog. The next day, I posted up this readers comment and my response.

You can find that response article here…The #1 Most Interesting Comment Left On Mountain Biking by 198

By reading that article, you can see I did one of a couple of things.

I did not jump into the mud with him – I created a well structured “you are allowed to have your opinion, but here is mine” response that did not flame the commenter. He can have his opinion, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have mine! So…I responded in a way that was not antagonistic…just a response.

I invited the opinions of my readers – By increasing the conversation around the subject, you are further engaging your readers on your blog. Controversial topics in your niche can be a huge source of traffic and comments when done correctly.

The Short Term Result Of The Response?

That article got a ton of traffic as my readers spread it through the web on Facebook and Twitter. I also got some of the most involved/deep responses out of my readers as they responded to the commenter with their own opinions and ideals. These comments ranged from just a difference in opinion to some readers really getting irritated that the guy would even type something like that!

One of my readers even went as far as saying…

Robb you are doing a great job here and may you make millions or at least a very good life for you and yours from this little verbal adventure you have here.

(See…your readers do want you to make money with your blog!)

By creating a conversation around a difference of opinion, I was able to create a valuable asset to my blog that brought my readers closer together. As a blogger, that should be your goal as you continue to grow a community around your words. In the short term, the article was a huge success and I gained a lot more than the 1 reader I lost.

The Long Term Result – You Never Know Who Is Watching…

In the long term, this article and my response benefitted my blog in a HUGE way and this is a perfect lesson in “you never know who is watching your blog”. Several days after I posted the article, I received an email from Breezer Bikes. In this email, one of the employees (who follows my newsletter and blog) thought it would be a great idea if I interviewed his boss about the comment left on my blog. For those of you that do not already know, his boss is Joe Breeze who is the founder of modern day mountain biking. Joe was the first one to make an offroad specific bike frame back in the ’70′s.

I was stoked!! I wanted to take the opportunity by the horns, so I drafted up my questions and shot them off. After several emails back and forth, we got to talking about the direction that Mountain Biking by 198 was heading. I sent him over my new logos and we talked about my expansion into the other cycling disciplines. Breezer Bikes happens to make some of the best commuter bikes on the market, so…due to the article and conversation…I know have a fantastic $2,000 commuter bike in my garage to review on the new urban section of Bike198.com getting released next year!

You can find the interview with Joe Breeze here…Interview: Joe Breeze – Founding Father of Mountain Biking

What Should You Take Away From This Story

Negative comments are not a bad thing. Sometimes there is a little bit of truth in negative rants, but you need to get a thick skin and realize that negative comments are just part of blogging. Sometimes, like in this case, you can actually turn those negative rants into quality content that can be a real asset in your blogging. If the comment is a hot button topic in your niche, capitalize on the opportunity and structure a well educated response. The communication with your readers will be amazing.

The part that makes me laugh through this entire ordeal is that the reader was trying to bring me down with his rant…but instead…he actually helped me by doing the following:

Increased my traffic through 2 high profile articles that increased subscribers.
Gained me another valuable industry contact for review product and networking.
Got me another expensive bike to review on my site.
And most importantly…opened up the chance for me to talk to one of the founding fathers in my niche.

So…a huge thank you goes out to my rant comment leaver…you brought me a lot these past two weeks through your several lines of words.

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media Tagged With: Blogging, how to, negative comments, rants, trolls