Written on 3/1/2005 at 3:09 pm by

A Blog Is A Blog Is A Blog? Darren Rants

Filed Under: Pro Blogging News

Clint Dixon over at SEO Chat has written a post titled A Blog Is A Blog Is A Blog which has blogging fairly and squarely in its sites. I get the feeling that Clint doesn’t really like blogs – I also suspect he doesn’t really understand them either. He writes

‘Is a blog a revenue stream? For some, yes I am sure it is. Is it a business model to consider for making money? I would say no. Are blogs the next thing in the Internet world? No they are not. As much as the media and marketing industry tries to put a new spin on its meaning, a blog is a timely ordering of content otherwise known as a Web log, and we all know Web logs are really nothing more than Web pages.’

I can think of a fair few bloggers who would disagree with Clint on this one both individual bloggers and blog network owners who would want to argue that they are building legitimate business models for making money. I think there is growing evidence that bloggers can actually be more than a revenue stream and is a legitimate way of building a business.

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Written on 3/1/2005 at 9:43 am by

Interview with Susannah Gardner

Filed Under: Pro Blogger Interviews

Me PhotoLast week Susannah Gardner from Buzz Marketing with Blogs posted a two part interview with me so this week she’s agreed to answer a few of my questions in my ProBlogger Interview of the week. Susannah is a web/blog designer through her own business (with her husband Travis Smith) Hop Studios, she’s an author of the soon to be released Buzz Marking with Blogs for Dummies (affiliate link) book and she’s an avid blogger. You can actually download the table of contents and first chapter of her book here. In the following interview I ask Susannah about her upcoming book, about blog design and about the pros and cons of having a blog (plus lots more). Enjoy.

ProBlogger – Thanks for your time Susannah – can you start us off by telling us how you would introduce yourself to a stranger – give a quick sketch of your life.

Susannah – I’m a Web designer, technical book author, blogger, and with all my spare time, I’m working on a master’s degree in public art studies. I love to read and travel. When I say I love to read, I mean it. Even at my busiest I just have to fit a few minutes in every day to make everything right in the world. I’m married to a great guy, Travis Smith, and we live with our annoying but cute cat in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Together we run Hop Studios, a Web design company. Whenever possible, we like to work on sites that bring together our combined expertise in online publishing, journalism, design and writing.

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Written on 3/1/2005 at 9:20 am by

ProBlogger Now Seeking Advertisers

Filed Under: General

Since re-launching ProBlogger on the new domain the interest in what in this site has grown considerably. I’ve been quite amazed by the amount of blogging enthusiasts who are seeking to blog at a professional level are regularly visiting this site and interacting with what I write.

Whilst traffic levels are not as high as some of my other blogs (currently averaging 400 visitors per day) the enthusiasm and participation of readers is high.

Readers of ProBlogger are serious about their blogging and want to improve what they do. They seek blogging tools, news and advice and willing to make sacrifices to get their blogs to the highest quality level. Many ProBlogger readers are themselves influential bloggers who are read by thousands every day.

As a result ProBlogger is an excellent niche blog well worth considering for your advertising needs.

If you want to get your product or service in the face of enthusiast and upwardly mobile bloggers then ProBlogger is worth your time to investigate.

For more information simply email me with you advertising needs and we’ll take the conversation from there.

Written on 3/1/2005 at 9:05 am by

Why Posting about the Oscars Today is 2 weeks to Late

Filed Under: Blog Promotion

This morning as I do the rounds of some of my favorite blogs I’ve noticed a theme. Its the Academy Awards – the Oscars. I wonder how many blogs are listing the winners of the 2005 Oscars today – I’ve just seen at least 10.

As I surfed around and saw these entries I asked myself – ‘why are they posting these posts today?’

Ok – most people are posting the Oscar results out of a genuine interest in the Oscars – however I suspect some are doing it because they think people are searching for the information today. I’ve got news for them – you’re two weeks too late with your post.

Why? Well to put it simply – if you are blogging about an event and you want people to find your post via Google or one of the other search engines you need to anticipate what people are searching for in advance and put up a post about it early. Here is what I would have done if I’d have wanted big hits yesterday and today from people searching for the results.

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Written on 3/1/2005 at 8:58 am by

Adsense Reporting Delays Rectified

Filed Under: Adsense

Adsense publishers (or at least some of them) have had emails arrive in the last few minutes informing them that for the month of February and January that there have been reporting delays that have meant a certain portion (undisclosed) of clicks being slow to appear on reports. They have emailed to say that they have adjusted these discrepancies on publishers accounts.

Written on 3/1/2005 at 5:20 am by

How to Keep First Time Readers to your Blog – Part IV

Filed Under: Blog Promotion

This is the fourth and final post in this series on making first time readers loyal readers. Read previous parts at part I, part II and part III

Promote your RSS Feed – Under my invitation to receive an email newsletter I have an invitation to subscribe to my RSS feed on each post. Again this just gives readers another opportunity to hook themselves into what I write about on a daily basis. Make it easy for them to get involved

Search this site – have a clearly labeled feature that allows readers to search your blog. My readers regularly use my search features to find if I’ve written on specific topics. I tend to use the Google search option that Adsense gives you that allows you to run Adsense ads in your search results. This not only allows your readers to search your site but gives you an other income stream for your blog.
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