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7 Things NOT To Do Before You Have A Lot Of Blog Traffic

December 8, 2010 By 38 Comments

Everyone reads the articles about what you need to do to grow your blog. From “pillar content” to list posts to holding contests, there are a ton of ways you can increase your subscribers and pageviews on your blog as you strive to take your show full time. However, there are not as many articles that explain what you should not do on your blog before you have the traffic to support it.

Sometimes…there are certain aspects of your blog that can actually be detrimental to your success if you jump on the bandwagon too early in an attempt to jump the gun.

Top 7 Things NOT To Do

So here they are…the top 7 things not to do before you have a significant amount of traffic on your blog.

Run A Poll On Your Blog

1. Run A Poll

Polls are a great way to interact with your audience and get feedback related to subjects in your niche. However, as much as you wish your readers were holding on to every article you publish, that just isn’t reality. Not all of your readers are going to see the poll and…on top of that…even the ones that do see it aren’t guaranteed to participate. Do you really want a week old poll on your blog only showing 12 votes?

Social proof is a large part of blogging so you have to be careful about what you display on your pages. It is normally best to hold off on polls until you have at least 1,000 unique visitors a day in my opinion. Do you really think you are getting a great sampling in your niche if you are only getting 100 entries anyway? Probably not…

Starting A Forum On Your Blog

2. Start A Forum

Forums are incredibly hard to start even when you have a lot of traffic. When you do not have the traffic to support the launch, you will have to work that much harder to get an active community (contests are typically the best way). There is nothing more detrimental to a forum’s growth than silence. If you do have a plan for a forum in the future, look towards large traffic numbers and serious marketing planning to get it off the ground and running.

Bike198‘s forum is running on IP.Board.

Displaying Blog RSS Count

3. Display Your Subscriber Count

Displaying your RSS subscriber count is a debate in which there are two sides. Personally, I display my subscriber count in certain circumstances where I see fit (you’ll notice it is not displayed on this blog), but if you are planning on displaying your count…I would wait until you have at least 500 subscribers. You are not doing yourself any favors by displaying your 47 loyal subscribers.

There will be some cases (like with this blog) where you might want to hold off on showing your subscriber count even if you have a lot more than that. It is up to you on whether or not that fits inot your plan, but displaying a number that is too low will actually hurt you in the beginning stages.

Wordpress Blog Design

4. Spend A Large Amount of Time On Blog Design

Until you have a lot of traffic on your blog, you do not really know how your readers are going to interact with your content. While you can guess and predict how your readers will interact and click through pages, spending a lot of time on design when you are trying to grow your audience is a waste of time. There are certain fundamental design elements that you need to have, but the most important aspect of your blog when you are trying to grow traffic is content and promotion.

9 times out of 10…you are going to find that your favorite design element that you are so proud of is worthless. I remember spending a lot of time on a newsletter opt-in form on my homepage only to find that the pop up hover was the source of 98% of my newsletter sign-ups. Spend your time where it counts the most and have a clean design that you can tweak over time as traffic increases and more readers interact with your content.

Need a good looking design? For out of the box themes we recommend Woothemes and WPZoom and this blog runs off of the Pagelines Platform Pro framework.

Go Full Time With Blogging

5. Go Full Time

Blogging is not a “get rich quick” method of making a living. It takes a lot of work over time to build enough of an audience to support a full time income. Most full time bloggers started their online empire while working a regular 9-5 at the same time. If you plan on walking in your boss’s office and quitting today because you found blogging, be prepared to be standing in the unemployment line. Only take your business full time when it can support the full time income.

Ideally, you want to bring in as much income for your household as possible, so you can do like I did and work both jobs as long as you possibly can. Two incomes are better than one right?!

Direct Advertising On Blogs

6. Solicit Direct Advertising From Large Companies

I am one of those bloggers that fully supports and encourages monetizing your blog from day 1. However, it is also very important to remember where you stand in the blogosphere and adjust your money making methods accordingly. If you do not have a lot to offer in the form of traffic at this point in time, it is not a great idea to go after larger companies in your niche soliciting direct advertising spots…even if they are cheap. Larger companies have to show direct return for their investment and you are not prepared to deliver the results that requires.

On the flip side of that argument, partnering up with smaller companies in your niche is a great way to make a little bit of income and warm up your readers to the idea of direct ads on your site. It is all about knowing how your traffic levels affect success rates in direct advertising promotions.

When you are ready, check out OIOPublisher to auto rotate and handle direct advertising payments.

Email Newsletters

7. Ignore The Need To Start Building A Newsletter

If there was one thing I would do over again in my blogging, it would be starting my email newsletter from day 1 instead of down the road when I felt like I had enough traffic to justify the cost. My newsletters on my blogs is the #1 revenue and traffic generator and they also happen to be my readers most valuable option on my blogs. If you want to capture your readers and keep them for the long haul, an email newsletter is essential to success.

I use Aweber for my newsletters and I would recommend going that route as their start-up plans are wicked cheap (can you afford $1?).

Ready To Rock It Out?

Sometimes the strongest asset we can have is knowing what not to do. It is up to you to spend your time wisely and create assets that grow your business instead of constricting it.

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

Avoiding Blogger Burnout: How To Keep The Wheels Turning

December 6, 2010 By 11 Comments

This post on avoiding blogger burnout was written by Steve Roy of Ending The Grind.

To the untrained eye, blogging seems to be a relatively easy job. Hell, anyone can just sit around at Starbucks all day and play on the Internet, right? Not quite.

Actually, there are very few successful bloggers, if any, who have the time to just sit around. Blogging is work, lots of work. I’m not saying it’s especially hard work, but the sheer amount of to-do items on a bloggers checklist can be staggering.

The vast majority of us are not successful bloggers however, but are aspiring to become one. We are full-time employees and part-time bloggers with the goal of becoming full-time bloggers and no-time employees. Millions of people have the dream of becoming an online success story and living the fabled “Internet lifestyle” that we hear so much about.

If you are one of these people, then you know all too well how time consuming trying to build your blogging empire can be. You (hopefully) realize that creating outstanding content, building significant traffic, understanding and helping your readers, and properly marketing your blog are all vital to your success.

Since all of these things are very important and also very time consuming, where are we supposed to find the time to do them all? If you’re like me and have a full-time job, you know that trying to write good articles, network on Twitter and Facebook, promote your brand, and build a list, are all major time suckers.

Well, if you’re anything like me and want to get out of your day job as fast as humanly possible, that means forgoing those late nights out with friends, watching mindless tv shows, or playing video games. If we are ever going to be successful in the realm of blogging, then our time needs to be spent building our business.

We simply cannot waste any time not working on building our sites and our dreams.

The Burnout

With that being said, many of us are burning the candle at both ends. Our sleep is suffering, our family time is suffering, and we have become almost obsessed with blogging and all it entails. We need to realize that this lifestyle is not sustainable (or our heads might implode) and we need to figure out a solution.

As our days get longer and our nights get shorter, it’s easy to start feeling overwhelmed. We are pouring our hearts into our blogs and many of us new bloggers are receiving few, if any, signs that we are on the right path. For most of us, the rewards of our hard work will take months or even years to show up.

It’s obvious that if you give up on blogging because it’s too difficult or too frustrating then you will fail. However, I’ve heard from multiple blogging pros that pushing through when things seems pointless is when people begin to make it. Yaro Starak, a highly successful blogger, has said that if you follow the right steps, the only way to fail is by quitting.

If we know that we will only fail if we quit, then why do so many fail? I think one of the main causes is getting burned out. We write and write, spend tons of time trying to make our blogs the absolute best they can be, and nobody comes…

Many of us can only do this for so long before despair sets in and we take a break from our blogs. When we take a break, we tend to forget about it. When we forget about it, we start to lose interest and focus.

Three days turns into three weeks and we still haven’t looked at our blog. I can speak from experience here and this is exactly what happens. We get excited about our blog, we write a ton of content, we try to build traffic, and then we are disappointed with the results.

We do this over and over and we get burned out. Believe me, burnout can spell the end of a blog. Don’t allow yourself to fall victim to this trap.

Here are a few tips on avoiding blogger burnout:

  • Although we will have the tendency to do it, don’t spend all your free time working on your blog.
  • Make sure you understand that blogging is not a get rich quick business. It takes time, often a long time to build a popular and profitable blog.
  • Create a plan of action. For example, block out 2 hours for writing a phenomenal post or maybe plan an hour for writing your email newsletter. Don’t just randomly work on whatever you feel like at the time. Believe me, it’s a huge time waster.
  • Find inspiration. Make sure you understand why you are working on your blog so hard. If you have a strong enough “why”, you should be able to get through the tough times.
  • Find a mentor. I suggest finding a successful blogger/Internet marketer with whom you can really relate to. There are plenty of people making money online and just as many teaching us how to do it too. Your job is to find the one(s) that work for you. When you follow someone who has been through the process and has seen success, it’s easier to keep your head up and avoid burning out.

If you love blogging as much as I do and are doing it for a meaningful reason, then you are probably going to be busting your ass day and night to build your business. That’s awesome, keep it up! Just remember that too much of a good thing is not always good.

Steve Roy is a blogger with a passion for helping people who are looking to build an online business, quit their day job, and live life on their own terms. His blog can be found at EndingTheGrind.com

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

"Content Is King" Are you really buying that load of shit?!

September 30, 2010 By 2 Comments

If you are constantly buying into the concept of “content is king” that gets pushed on bloggers around the world, you are buying a used car with sand dust in the gas tank. This same tired out line has been played out beyond belief in the blogging world.

Content is not king…content is the product.

When you are looking to create your successful blog online, consistent and quality content is the given product that is required in blogging, but…just like with every industry…there is a massive amount of sub-par crap that can greatly outperform your “pilar articles” and “high quality list posts” because the bloggers behind that content have already realized the huge secret to successful blogging that really isn’t a secret.

Successful promotion is king…content comes in a far off second.

It’s true…go ahead and marinate on that one for a bit. Have you ever read a highly successful website and thought there is a lot better content out there? Better yet…have you seen sub-par, worthless products get huge launches and massive sales? You even see it in the retail world! The #1 main reason a blog, company or product makes it in the marketplace is because of calculated and successful promotion…not because it is providing over the top quality.

So Why Promotion Over Quality?

Now…there are cases where enormous quality creates enough press to warrant high dollars and fame, but those cases are extremely rare. The high quality cases for blogs and products that you have seen or read are actually the by-product of having the double whammy…quality content and successful promotion.

Quality “content is king” content is absolutely nothing without new eyes digesting it and then spreading it out to others. Without this promotion, your articles and products do not get past the development stage. They are just words on a page or items on a shelf that no one knows about…or even cares to.

Next time you hear someone say “content is king”, you need to think of it as a used car salesman selling you a big steaming load of crap. Content is not king…the promotion of that content is far superior if you are looking to create a successful blog.

How Do I Get My Content In Front Of A Massive Amount Of Eyes?

Now…there are also bloggers out there that are going to tell you the “top 5 ways to get more traffic” or how you need to find traffic on your blog. First, anyone that tells me there is only 1 (or 5 ways to do things) are typically people that I discount their opinion greatly. One of the things that you need to realize in blogging is that all niches are different. There is never one top way of doing things as your readers are going to interact and spread content online differently dependent upon subject matter so taking advice like that can be dangerous and detrimental to your growth.

Proper testing of different promotion methods are the only way to find out what works in your niche.

That said…there is one theory that will greatly reduce your learning curve when looking for promotion techniques that will work well for your blog. It is one simple task that every blogger should be doing…

Find your target audience (and be specific) and then research how that specific target audience communicates and spreads content online.

Not every niche is going to know what RSS is…or use Stumbleupon…or even know how to use Twitter. It is up to you to find out how they communicate and how they like to digest content and then provide those methods. On top of that…you need to find methods that force call to actions (newsletter sign-ups, content spreading, etc.) like contests, giveaways and other viral content monsters.

There is no “one size fits all solution” for all bloggers and “content is not king”. It is up to you…as the blogger…to promote your products and content in a method that your audience will absorb to truly be successful. Hey…no one who was ever successful online used a cookie cutter tagline. They worked hard for it. That means you have to as well. Ramp it up!

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Hot Chicks Are Always Going To Have More Twitter Followers Than You

August 5, 2010 By 14 Comments

It’s true…hot chicks are always going to have more Twitter followers than you, but…it doesn’t matter because 1/2 of them aren’t even real and the other 1/2 just have a bunch of worthless followers.

You see it all the time. Some hot chick avatar has 75,000+ followers but they are following 82,000+ and you say to yourself, “man…I wish I had that many followers. I am going to do whatever I can to get them.” I am here to tell you that you should much rather have your 1,000 or even 100 followers rather than their 75,000+ that they spam on a regular basis.

In today’s social media environment, there seems to be an obsession to race to the highest number. Whether it be Twitter followers, RSS feed subscribers or pageviews, aspiring bloggers and social media gurus are all watching stats closely to see where they stand. If you have some successful history in blogging/social media, you already know there is a numbers game and the more you have…the more you typically make. But…the really experienced know that the numbers game is about QUALITY more than it is about quantity.

In the pursuit of stat racing, many aspiring entrepreneurs take the road too much traveled of lowering themselves to sleazy tactics in the attempt to attract more followers or subscribers. They throw up controversial blog posts in the interest of viral spreading instead of quality content. They put up pictures of barely dressed women in their avatars and posts. They even go as far to try to call out other successful entrepreneurs to try to attract attention. If they are trying to use sleazy tactics like putting a hot chick as their avatar, they do not know the first thing about making money online and their business is failing before they even get started.

It’s Not A Race and Quality Matters More Than Quantity

I don’t know about you, but when I build up my online businesses, I do not want a bunch of dirty old men on my lists. I want targeted leads that actually want to digest what I have to say. While there is something to the whole “social proof” theory (more people sign up when they see a big stat…wish it wasn’t true but it is), I would much rather have 1,000 highly targeted followers/leads than 100,000 that are just random.

When you are seeking out new subscribers, followers or new visitors to your blogs and social media outlets, the #1 goal should be finding quality, targeted eyes not just a mass quantity.

How To Find Quality, Targeted Leads and Subscribers

So…we know you need to have better followers and subscribers than the internet marketing hot chick, so where do we find these targeted leads? The #1 way I have found to grow my online real estates is simple.

Find where your potential new visitors are hanging out and bring them back to your blogs, Twitter account, Facebook fan pages, etc.

New followers and subscribers are not going to magically find you online. The “build it and they will come” theory to online growth never held true so it is not going to work for you. If you really want to grow your blog and business online, you are going to have to actively search out new visitors and find a way to get them on your pages. Here are a couple of examples to get you started.

  • Actively Guest Post On Popular Blogs In Your Niche – One of the most popular ways to attract new readers is to guest post on other blogs. This theory works incredibly well in niches that have active bloggers. If you are in a niche that does not have a strong blogging community, you are going to have to look to other outlets to pull new readers in.
  • Build Up Online Forum Profiles – Online forums are still the #1 place for dedicated online obsessed to exert their passions and share them with others. For every niche that you would want to blog about, there are a ton of active forums that you can participate in. However, forum communities are extremely sensitive to spam, so becoming a valuable member of the community is essential before you start pushing your content.
  • SEO Targeted Content - In my biking niche, I rely on Google and other search engines to deliver a large portion of my new leads. By doing keyword research with Google Adwords and writing SEO optimized articles using Scribe, I can bring in a massive amount of targeted, new visitors a day. While building up a blog with strong SEO presence can take time, it is still the #1 way to pull in new visitors. For beginning blogs, focusing on long tail keyword strings can bring you in some early success when you can’t compete with the older, larger sites on high competition keywords in the beginning.
  • Use Your Search Functions - Within Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets, there is always a search function that allows you to find targeted leads. While this may not be the most efficient way to get a large number at once, they are highly targeted. By finding out which hash tags your audience is using in Twitter and which Fan Pages they are following on Facebook, you can open your blog and social media accounts to an entirely new audience.
  • Interact and Communicate – Blogging and social media is still a people business. Interact and talk with as many people in your niche as you can. Those friendships that you grow over time will help you grow your business exponentially.

It isn’t rocket science. The more you try to cheat the system and employ tactics that you think are going to get you drastic results with 1/2 the work, them more you are setting yourself up for failure. Just remember, the fake hot chick on Twitter is going to act like they are making butt loads online…but in reality…their un-targeted leads are not making them a thing. Focus on quality and the results will be bigger than you would have ever imagined.

Model photo by Mike__G

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

EGO: Drop It or Get Dropped

August 4, 2010 By 17 Comments

If there is one consistent character trait that I can honestly say I see in all of my successful friends from big corporate CEO’s to one man show entrepreneurs (in life and business)…it is a simple one.

They are humble.

I see a common occurrence among bloggers. They start up a blog, get a little bit of press, start to grow a following and then all of the sudden…out of the blue…said blogger thinks their shit doesn’t stink! Their writing starts to change. Their interaction with other bloggers turns into “only talking to the elite” and forget that they used to be the small guy on the block (and in some cases…they still are!)

Entrepreneurship Is An Ever Learning Process

When you hit that point in your brain function where you start to think you are better than others, you are forgoing the ability to be teachable. Entrepreneurship is not a race to who knows the most. It is an ever changing, learning process that can flip at the drop of a hat. If you are not teachable, you are going to be left in the dust…and quickly.

Here are a couple of things to remember when dealing in a highly social environment like the blogging world.

  • That blogger you put off as small potatoes and not worth your time…might end up passing you one day. How do you want them to remember you?
  • If you already know everything, do you have any room to grow? I would hate to think that I am so awesome that I am already at the peak of my game.
  • When you were just starting out, how did you feel about those “ego bloggers”? Is that how you want to be remembered?
  • To REALLY GROW YOUR BLOG…you will need the help of others.

There Is A Difference Between EGO and Confidence

As a business owner and blogger, you are going to have to be confident in yourself and your abilities. If you spend your entire career doubting your ideas and processes, you are never going to get anything accomplished and you will never go out on a limb and take some risks. However, this confidence can not translate into an inflated ego.

The moment you cross that line from confidence to ego, you are making the willing decision to not grow your blog any farther than it already has.

An over-inflated ego can be spotted a mile away. When it starts to become transparent in your business activities…you will start to see a decline in traffic and earnings because no one likes to hear someone pat themselves on the back all day long. Of course, the ego driven blogger will put it off and think the rest of the world just doesn’t get it, but the profit producing audience will know and leave.

As I continue with my blogs and business practices, I try to keep one moto true throughout the process.

The day I think I know everything will be the dumbest day of my life.

Stay teachable and continue to help out those around you. By staying humble, planted in the real world and forever teachable…you will be able to grow your corner of the web farther than you would have ever dreamed. If you want to be #1 and awesome…be prepared for disappointment.

Filed Under: Lifestyle Design, The Web Tagged With: , , , , ,

Performance Anxiety and How to Beat It

August 2, 2010 By 8 Comments

In this guest post by Andrew Rondeau of WeBuildYourBlog.com, Andrew takes a look at how to beat performance anxiety which is a common occurrence among new and experienced bloggers. At some point in time, we all need a kickstart.

So. You have a great blog up and running, you’ve had lots of visits and a number of comments.

Now, you’re starting to worry. How can you keep people interested in what you have to say?  Is someone going to leave a comment telling you that you’re completely wrong? Everyone who visits your blog is judging you on what you write, right?

It’s performance anxiety rearing its ugly head

Performance anxiety is the feeling you get when you start to worry you won’t meet your readers’ expectations, just like an actor about to go on stage or a businessman waiting to give a big presentation for a new contract. We all suffer from it at some point in our lives; it’s normal.

Don’t panic. You can use this natural fear as a source of motivation. Everyone, from Hollywood actors right through to best-selling novelists and rock stars suffer with performance anxiety. It’s a great way of keeping an eye on what you’re writing, and keeping you on your toes. If you always feel some level of nervousness as a blogger, then you are more likely to take care over what you write, and do the best job you can.

Keeping abreast of what your customers are looking for

How do you know what your visitors are expecting, anyway? People keep dropping in to your blog to read what you have to say because they are interested. They like the way you write. Relax, and don’t start comparing what you have just written to something you wrote last month, that got you loads of comments. That was another day and another blog post. Have faith in yourself and in what you have to say.

One of the best ideas I have heard is to inform your reader of what you are saying, rather than trying to persuade them. You are your own expert, so have the confidence in your own abilities to complete the job you set out to do.

If you are running a business blog concentrating on an aspect of your working life then make sure you use the most up to date information you can. Have a browse around to identify what other great bloggers are doing. You know your industry inside out, so have faith in your ability to write with authority. If your blog is a personal one, then don’t be afraid to write up your opinions.

Going forward after researching your niche

Now you’ve done some research, have the courage of your convictions. You know what you have to say and you are the best person to say it your way. Whether you’re writing on a business subject or offering up insights in to your personal life, be confident with what you want to say.

If you sound like an expert in your field, you’ll encourage people to visit your blog regularly. Ask people to comment on what you have posted, as discussions on a particular subject will give you fresh inspiration and guide you to cover subjects which your readers are interested in.

Being positive and confident works wonders when it comes to writing authoritatively on your chosen field of expertise. By overcoming performance anxiety and being confident, you’ll have the ability to engage your readers, share your knowledge, and ultimately engage and retain a wide readership.

Andrew Rondeau blogs over at WeBuildYourBlog.com on blogging and provides a service to setup your own successful blog. You can check out his free Blogging Guide.

Cropped image by akhater

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

The Gizmodo Trap: Don't Fall Into A Negative Blogging Tailspin

June 28, 2010 By 10 Comments

Over the past couple of days, Gizmodo – a reputable tech blog on gadgets – has been on a tear trying to rip apart the new iPhone 4 during its initial release. This all stems back to the prototype iPhone 4 leak and Apple not inviting them to the iPhone 4 release or making a review unit available for their site. Now…while that is the bare bones of the history between Apple and Gizmodo over the previous weeks, what has happened over the last couple of days is something that you need to pay close attention to as a blogger. Gizmodo has decided to take their fight with Apple public and go on a tear trying to discredit the iPhone 4 and…by doing so…has sacrificed some of their credibility in the industry.

Unfair Bias Leads To Credibility Decrease

No one will ever really know what goes on behind closed doors, but during the span of your blogging, there are going to be times that you get into disagreements with other bloggers and companies. The initial ego reaction is to use your spread online to bash and attempt to bring down the other participant in your disagreement because you feel you are right and other people should know. However, by doing this, you are destroying your credibility and losing subscribers by showing an unfair bias and prejudice against one individual or firm.

The first couple of articles that Gizmodo published on the new iPhone 4 (I have 2 of them by the way!) addressed some issues with the initial release. Now, they were not the only ones covering this part of the story as other Apple related blogs were also following suit. At this point in time, it was more of a reporting atmosphere on the initial units and not an online bashing argument. Like most gadget/electronic redesigns, there are going to be those that love it and those that hate it. With a couple of small issues being reported amongst early adopters (specifically the signal and screen issues…both of which do not affect my 2 units), Gizmodo used this opportunity to publish content that was being searched for on a second by second basis.

Then something changed…

All of the sudden, the Gizmodo articles moved from reporting issues to multiple articles in succession that were pure flame war styled publications. Whether it was an attempt at humor or getting their feelings hurt over the past couple of months, Gizmodo decided that this would be a good time to stretch their jaw bones and try to take their chunk out of the Apple. Take a look at some of the responses…

Gizmodo is becoming the Apple bashing site- how many people are reporting this- everyone I know, including me, with iPhone 4s has not experienced any problems…. It’s not good journalism to create inflammatory headlines when the real story is much simpler.

giz is so noob. they are just apple haters. remember, they didnt get ticks for othe last keynote? anyway, intelligent people dont get convinced about this noobish site, which isnt credible!

Alright, I get it. Gizmodo hates apple and has a big axe to grind.

Giz calling apple users a cult is going a little far me thinks. Especially after being kicked out of the cult so recently. Have you no class?

Used to love gizmodo. But ever since they were raped over the iPhone all they do is bash apple.

Of course…the flipside to these comments are the readers that get entrenched in online drama and love to get in on the bashing ring. But, the reality is that Gizmodo has not shown this much negative attention to anything else in the past.

Gizmodo Forgot The #1 Rule In Marketing

While Gizmodo may have thought they were being funny or “revealing the truth” as they say it, they forgot the #1 rule in marketing that will actually get you the opposite result you are looking for if you go down this same road.

Even bad press is good press.

By going on this tear online, Gizmodo is not achieving the goal they have set out. They are…in reality…actually selling more iPhone 4′s for Apple than they are hurting sales. If there is one true thing in marketing, it that even bad press is good press. Now, even people who had no interest in the new iPhone 4 are wanting to check it out to see if Gizmodo’s articles are true…and this comes at the expense of some of Gizmodo’s credibility.

When you start to jump into EGO blogging, you might feel good for a split second, but you are sacrificing all of the hard work you have put forth to try to win an online argument. And guess what…no one wins online arguments.

How To Avoid The Negative Blogging Trap

Feeling like you need to vent online? Here are some tips to bring you back down to reality.

Remember You Are Running A Business

Are you willing to throw all of your credibility on the line and possibly lose everything? By taking the flaming path, you have to be ready for backlash that will inevitably ensue afterward. Personally, I am not ready to throw away years of hard work to try to show how cool I think I am online. I run online businesses and I treat them that way. When was the last time you saw Coke make a political like flaming to Pepsi? You don’t…why?…because that would actually make Coke look bad instead of bringing Pepsi down.

Honesty Does Not Mean Flaming

Blogging is built upon the principle of honest opinions. But there is a difference between your honest opinion and biased flaming. It is all in the delivery, so even as you have negative things to say about a product or service, deliver that message in a respectful, fact based manner and you should keep your integrity/reputation in tact while not pissing off the company and your readers at the same time.

Think Past Today

Do you actually think Gizmodo is going to have a good working relationship with Apple after this incident? Even if they do, it is going to take a lot of work to get that trust built back up again. As you look at the temptation to flame online, take a serious look at how it will affect tomorrow and not just today.

Take A Deep Breath

Draft up your article and then walk away for awhile. After you have had some time to calm down, go back a re-edit the article. You might be surprised what kind of perspective you will have after you get out of the heat of the moment.

What Kind Of Readers Do You Want?

Do you really want the kind of readers that feed off of that kind of controversy. As you look at the most successful blogs online, can you count on more than one hand the ones that take that tactic? I can’t. Controversy blog readers are typically the least profitable. They are more interested in controversy and online arguments than they are with value and consuming your products, services and content. When you are trying to make an income online, you need readers that will value your content and products to make money online.

The Gizmodo Aftermath

Will Gizmodo lose all of their readers and fall off the face of the Internet. No…probably not. With a blog that large, things will appear to go on as normal even if they do see a small subscriber decrease. In the world of blogging, it is much easier to weather those types of storms the larger you become and they are probably justifying any decrease with ego.

However, as you look at your blog with 100 to 1,000 subscribers or even up into the 25k range, are you willing to throw it all on the line by taking a similar stance on an issue in your niche?

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, The Web, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Top 12 Success Killers In Blogging (with Solutions!)

June 23, 2010 By 17 Comments

We all want to be successful. As we pine away at producing content into the wee hours of the night, we do not hit that publish button hoping that no one will read what we have to say so that we can make $0.00 per hour…we hope that it takes off like a viral masterpiece so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor! However, there are certain aspects of blogging that can completely derail your goal and keep you in the “could have been” pile for years to come. It is important that you address each of these success killers in your blogging to insure that you can be more efficient and keep the snowball effect rolling. Otherwise…you are just going to be spinning the wheels of disappointment.

Top 12 Success Killers In Blogging

So let’s jump straight into it. Here are the top 12 success killers in blogging. If you do not get these items in check, you might as well pack up the laptop now and give up. These are not in any particular order as I find each of these items just as important as the rest.

1. Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media

Yes…social media is a fantastic way to bring in traffic to your blog and establish yourself as an expert in your niche. But…social media is also an addiction that can rob you of precious minutes throughout the day that could be used for actual productivity. If you want to really see how rampant this addiction is in today’s society, just take look at how much your friends that don’t own blogs spend on Facebook and Twitter!

Solution: You can use tools like HootSuite and MarketMeTweet to schedule tweets that also update your Facebook accounts and pages. It is also a good idea to block off a small portion of time during the day to focus on social media and then close those apps to cut down on distraction while you work.

2. Your Email Inbox

If you are anything like me, that 3 (or 40 in some cases) that is in a red circle on my email app drives me crazy. I just can’t not open it up and read it! Your email can drown you as a blogger. We all want to answer our emails in a timely fashion, but if we are spending the day answering one email at a time, we are disrupting work flow and concentration on our goals.

Solution: Just like with social media, block off a period of time each day to handle your email. During the rest of the time, close your email app or window to prevent the urge to jump into it every 5 minutes.

3. Not Tracking Statistics

Watched statistics increase. Any business owner will tell you that is just a natural part of the business building process. As you start to watch your metrics and earnings, you will see trends that can help you in the future as you try to increase income and productivity. How do you know what you need to improve if you are not sure what isn’t performing well? You don’t, so watching and tracking statistics is vital to success.

Solution: Luckily for bloggers, there are a ton of free and paid tools to make this happen. For web stats, you can use Google Analytics, Mint or CrazyEgg. For the monetary side of things, I typically like to just use Excel to track earnings and trends.

4. Procrastination

“I’ll just do that tomorrow.” I can not even begin to tell you how many blogs that one line has killed. Procrastination is a hard thing to combat when you do not have a boss leaning over your shoulder asking when a project is going to be completed. Being your own boss means that you actually have to be your own boss.

Solution: Set time lines and checklists and then stick to them! By writing things down and mapping out your day/week/month/year, you make yourself accountable. You are the only one that can get the job done and no one else cares (well maybe your readers) if you do or not. So get on it and get organized.

5. Low Self Worth

You started a blog or business because you wanted to make something better for yourself. You also started it with the belief that you were actually capable of completing that goal. With time, after a couple of trolls hit your site or you do not see success right away, you start to think that maybe you aren’t good enough or it just isn’t in the cards for you. One of the worst thing an aspiring full-time blogger can do is to start lowering their self worth by not believing in themselves. Confidence is required for success.

Solution: To keep the motivation and confidence rolling, celebrate the small successes. Did you have more subscribers today? Make your first 50 bucks? Celebrate these small successes that will lead up to large ones. You will be surprised what that can do for your blogging morale.

6. Unrealistic Expectations

A lot of bloggers jump into the scene with unbelievable, unrealistic expectations about blogging as an income. Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. If you are looking to make money fast online, take a look at pure affiliate marketing or some other form of faster income generation because blogging is about building a real business over time. If you are expecting to start a blog and be full-time in 6 months, you are just going to be disappointed and give up at the 6 month mark.

Solution: Set real, obtainable, honest goals for yourself and then start chipping off those goals one by one. The addition of small, completed goals equal the large payoff over time.

7. Not Setting Goals

Are you just winging it hoping for the best? Do you even know where you are headed? If you are not setting goals, you are just wandering in the wasteland of the Internet with the hope that something is going to hit one day. Successful business planning is centered around setting and achieving goals. Without that…you are just a blind man in a maze.

Solution: Set long-term and short-term goals. The short-term goals should add up to the long-term over time. Track these goals and cross them off as you compete them.

8. No Defined Purpose

How many blogs have you gone to that do not seem to have a defined purpose. They start off with a specific niche and then start talking about blogging, their life or some other random subject that has nothing to do with their original intent. The by-product of this behavior? The blogger starts to lose their audience, credibility and success.

Solution: Pick a niche and rock it out. No one wants to hear about blogging on your gardening blog. They want to hear about gardening! As time progresses, you can expand into other related subject matters (like tree growing), but you need to keep it related. You can kill your blog by going off topic frequently.

9. Bad Promotion Strategies

The “build it and they will come” mentality to blogging is gone. Unfortunately, there is just too much mess on the Internet today to rise above the noise without some kind of self-promotion. In today’s world of successful blogging, you have to be a marketer as much as you are a blogger to get your name out there.

Solution: Find the promotion strategies that work best in your niche. There is no “one size fits all” solution here so you are going to have to test guest posting, forums, social media and other outlets to see what works best in your niche…and then keep testing.

10. No Monetization Strategy

As I wrote in a recent article “Are you writing articles that actually have the ability to make money?“, there are a lot of bloggers that assume that traffic equals income. So…they keep writing, day in and day out, to find they are increasing their community but they are not making a dime doing it. You have to actually have a monetization strategy in your blogging to generate income. It is that simple.

Solution: Test, test and retest different methods. Whether it is PPC campaigns, having your own product, affiliate marketing, direct advertising, membership sites or a combination of all of those methods. You need to take an honest look at how your content is actually going to generate income and then test those methods to death to see what works the best on your blog.

Bonus Hint: If you do not have an email newsletter (I use Aweber), you are not going to make a significant income online. Quite possibly the biggest mistake you can make as a blogger from a monetization and growth standpoint is not starting an email newsletter from the very beginning.

11. Not Treating Your Blog Like A Business

Blogging for income is not a hobby, it is a business. If you treat your blog as a hobby…it will only ever be a hobby. You have to treat your blogging as a business if you ever want to be successful.

Solution: Treat your blog as a business by tracking expenses, income and filing the appropriate taxes. My blogs are actually under a LLC as well. When you start implementing some of these solutions and planning goals for your blogging, you are stepping into the serious end of the business. Take yourself and your business seriously if you really want to make it.

12. Sub-Par Copycat Content

Saw someone else making money on their blog and decided to do the same thing? Or did you start a making money online blog without having actually ever generated a penny online? Blogging is all about over-the-top quality content. The “go on this journey with me” content strategy does not work. Blogging is still and will always be about connecting with readers through high-quality content.

Solution: The trick to producing incredible content is writing about a subject matter in which you are passionate about or have a lot of knowledge. Your readers are going to be able to see through a fake, so by writing on these subjects, you are being honest and providing quality. Once you have done that, get on a posting schedule that works for you and allows great content…then stick to that posting schedule.

There you have it! The top 12 success killers in blogging. Are you doing anything on the list?!


Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Generating Cash, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Secret To Blogging Success Is No Secret: Niche Blog Marketing

June 21, 2010 By 9 Comments

If you are starting a new blog or trying to torque some success out of your current one, there is one thing that will always hold true. Without anyone actually reading your words, you are not going to see success in blogging. With all of the competition today on the net, many beginning and experienced bloggers find difficulty in rising above the noise so their voice can be heard. This frustration level can be alleviated greatly, but it takes looking at blogging in a new light by mimicking the experience of large companies and corporations. That’s right…the success in blogging is actually found through copying actions of that brick and mortar world. It should also not surprise you that 99.9% of successful bloggers do this simple fact…so let’s get rolling.

It’s A Law Of Numbers That You Need To Win

When Hyundai originally entered the North American automobile market, they were not the same company you see today. Knowing full well that they would not be able to compete in the largest automobile market in the world with a “me too” product (luxury sedan, suv, etc.), Hyundai took a different approach. Hyundai carved out a niche market in the US by providing an extremely affordable, new car with a blistering good warranty program.

By providing a car that was not currently available in the market, Hyundai was able to weasel their way into the US auto market by creating a niche product that consumers wanted to buy.

After a couple of years of making a name for themselves, Hyundai turned into the automobile company you see today through expansion into other niche market areas like the SUV, luxury sedan and affordable sport coupe. As we look at this short case study, what do you think would have happened to Hyundai if they came to the market with their current lineup right off the bat? They would have been laughed straight out of the market by companies with larger brand presence, gigantic marketing dollars and a stable reputation amongst consumers.

Hyundai saw the automobile market as a law of numbers. They needed to build a reputation within the market by providing something new and then…through expansion…they could take on the other sectors with a strong brand presence.

Niche Marketing + Expansion = Blogging Success

The #1 mistake (I know…I say that a lot!) I see beginning bloggers make is trying to take on too much at once. New bloggers look at experienced bloggers that are seeing a lot of success within a given subject matter and think…

Wow…I am really into that subject too! I’ll start a blog that covers all of those areas and see if I can make it!

When they take this route…they fail 99% of the time.

Why? Because they forget that their favorite successful blog is not 1 day old. That successful blog has been built over time and has expanded its topic offerings over time to promote growth. When you start in a small niche market (ex. basketball shoes instead of all things basketball), you are able to do several things that can guarantee you early success that you can build off of.

  1. You are competing on a much smaller field (greater success in long-tail keywords in search engines).
  2. You build a reputation as an expert in your field by providing quality content to that smaller audience (growing subscribers and traffic).
  3. You open up the opportunity to expand into other areas (ex. basketball goals).
  4. You attract more links in through niche content (builds authority in search engines).
  5. You open up the opportunity to make money with niche products.

Overtime, as you continue to add to your content offerings, you can find yourself several years down the road competing with the monsters in your niche with news, editorials and product reviews! But it does not come overnight and it does not come by taking on the world all at once.

The trick is to have a defined topic focus that you can write on for at least a year (don’t go rambling off topic unless you want to lose subscribers) and then start to look into your options for expansion down the future as it relates to your niche. With this constant business development and focus, you will see success over time.

When you start that first post of your new blog or hit that one year anniversary, remember one thing.

Blogs are an ever evolving process. What you are blogging about today will expand and change with the times. Your success is dependent upon the management of that expansion that complements your current offerings to provide your current readers with more content and attract new readers through that new content.

Image by mugley

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

Video Blogging Lesson: Treating Your Blog Like A System

June 15, 2010 By 18 Comments

As many of you know, I do blog consulting on the side and one of the biggest problems I see with most blogs is the lack of system integration between the blog and other social media outlets. It is almost as if the blogger thought about each individual part, instead of how they affect each other as a whole. Your Twitter account, Facebook account, email newsletter and blog are all apart of a system that you, as the blogger, use to convert casual viewers into longtime readers and customers. Without this integration and planning, you create branding confusion amongst the different mediums and your conversion rates suffer. So let’s take a look deeper into how you need to treat your blogging like a system.

Video Blogging Lesson: Treating Your Blog Like A System

Discussed In This Video – Logopond.com | Aweber

Ok…so the idea here is that you want your blog and your related sites/social media to be a sum that is greater than it’s parts. With branding and design consistent across mediums, you are able to build trust in your content and brand through integration. Think of it this way…what do you think when you switch from someone’s blog to their Twitter account and finally to their Facebook account and everything matches? It helps you remember who they are and what they are about right? Well…that is the idea.

So…how do we treat our blogs like a system?

While the video goes more in-depth on the subject, here are the cliff notes.

Your Blog: On Page Optimizing

Your blog is typically your first line of attack with your readers. It is what creates that first impression and gets a new reader to start absorbing your content. On your blog you need to have some items that all look seamless within the design and compliment your goals.

  1. Unique Logo in the header.
  2. Social Media Icons that match your color scheme and design.
  3. Newsletter Opt-Ins below content and in sidebar that carry the same color scheme and design. (Preferably through Aweber)
  4. Personal photo on about page that is professional looking even if it is humorous.

From your on page blog system optimization, you are laying the foundation for your other social media and newsletter elements.

Your Social Media and Newsletter: Off Page Optimization

We carry this same theory to your off page sites using your blog as the foundation.

Facebook Fan Page
  • Professional picture – Matches the picture on your about page.
  • Matching Logo – Same as the one in the header of your blog.
  • RSS Feed – Deliver your content to your Facebook fans.
Twitter Account
  • Professional Looking Personal Avatar – Matches your Facebook fan page and blog about page.
  • Logo – Located in the background of your profile page.
Newsletter
  • Same voice and style in content as blog content.
  • Same color scheme and logo if html formatted.

There Are No Assumptions in Blogging!

The biggest excuse that I hear bloggers say as they choose to ignore this crucial part of the process is…

I don’t have to worry about that…they’ll know.

Well…guess what? They don’t. It is up to you as the blogger to operate under the assumption that there are no assumptions. You have to make your blog and your brand stand out from the competition by making everything easy to recognize and as simple as possible. Any confusion will only hurt you in the long run. It is not always about what you like or what you think looks good. It is about what converts the best while keeping within your personal voice and originality.

Next time you are jumping around blogs being a consumer of content, take a look at how the successful blogs attack this theory. Chances are…if they are seeing a lot of success…they are holding true to their branding and voice across all of their outlets.

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Social Media, Tutorials/How To, Videos Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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