Written on 1/26/2007 at 9:37 pm by

The 2007 Bloggies – Finalists Announced

Filed Under: ProBlogger Site News

Finalists have been announced for the The 2007 Bloggies and ProBlogger has been nominated in the ‘Best Web Development Weblog’ category again.

This year the competition is pretty hot and PB is up against some of my favorite blogs including CopyBlogger (Brian – who I link to every second day). Also nominated is the amazing A List Apart, Learning Movable Type and Daily Blogging Tips.

Also this year I’m fortunate enough to see my Digital Photography School blog nominated in the ‘Best Photography of a Weblog’ category.

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Written on 1/26/2007 at 8:09 pm by

How Steven Bradbury Can Make You a Better Blogger

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Blog Tips

Steven-BradburyWarning – Tangent Ahead

Today is Australia Day here in Australia (a public holiday). As part of this annual celebration – when we eat a lot of BBQ lamb (BBQ), play backyard cricket and watch the Tennis and Cricket (could the Aussies have demoralized the English any more?) – a hundred or so Aussies are put on the ‘Australia Day honors list’. The list usually acknowledges Aussies who have made some sort of contribution – whether it be in business, charity, sport etc.

This year one of those honored was Steven Bradbury.

You might remember him from the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics when he did this:

The story is actually a little more remarkable than this video of the final shows.

In the quarter final Bradbury came third (only the first two go through) but one of the others who finished ahead of him was disqualified, meaning he advanced to the semi final.

In the semi final Bradbury was coming last when three others in the race crashed leaving him to come second and advance to the final.

Steve Bradbury’s ‘lucky’ win in the 1000 meters speed skating is video footage that gets played regularly on Australian TV and he’s become something of a symbol of the Aussie Spirit (he even had a postage stamp – above) – although we do laugh at him a fair bit too and his name is sometimes spoken with a giggle or two as we remember Australia’s first Gold Medal at a Winter Olympics (in fact someone told me it was the first Gold Medal for anyone in the whole Souther Hemisphere).

It’s not uncommon to hear people use the phrase ‘he did a Bradbury’ to describe events where fortune seem to fall in the lap of someone. It’s even in some Aussie slang dictionaries now.

I heard Steven Bradbury interviewed on the radio this afternoon and as usual he was introduced with the usual chuckle from the interviewer.

During the course of the interview I learned a few things about Steve that I’d not heard or considered before.

  • 2002 was Steven’s 4th Olympics
  • He’d previously won a Bronze medal in the 5000 meter relay in 1994.
  • In 1994 he had been the favorite of the 1000m but collided with a competitor and was knocked out of contention.
  • Steven had been a 3 time world champion medalist (Gold 1991, Silver – 1994 and Bronze – 1993)
  • Steve overcame two life threatening crashes of his own in his career. Once in 1994 he was impaled on a skate and needed 111 stitches and lost 4 liters of blood. In 2000 he broken his neck in training (he also fractured his skull in a bike riding accident)

So why am I talking about Steve Bradbury on a blog about blogging?

I love to learn from successful people so as I listened to Steve Bradbury being interviewed today I asked myself:

‘what could a blogger learn from him?’

Two main things came to mind.

1. The 12 Year ‘Hard Slog’

As I listened to Steve talk about his 12 years of sacrifice, hardship and commitment this afternoon it struck me that there was so much more to his story than ‘the moment’ that all Aussies remember in 2002.

While that moment perhaps defines him in the minds of many – in his mind he was defined by what preceded the moment. This is what he was talking about when after the race he said:

“Obviously I wasn’t the fastest skater. I don’t think I’ll take the medal as the minute and half of the race I actually won. I’ll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in.”

When I first started to see a few dollars come in from my blogging I’ll admit that there were moments when I had dollar signs in my eyes. I remember a few nights not being able to sleep as I’d dream of all the ways I could make quick and easy money from blogging. I quickly discovered however that ‘easy money’ or ‘quick money’ are not really words that many bloggers ever see from blogging.

This is a message that some new bloggers don’t seem to grasp. I speak to at least one a week with grand dreams of quick riches.

While I admire the excitement and passion of these bloggers – the reality is that blogging for money is a ‘hard slog’ with a lot of work, commitment and sacrifice. While there may be no physical injuries sustained (although I’ve had my worries on that level) you might even take a fall or two along the way that you need to push through in order to find success.

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Written on 1/25/2007 at 5:53 pm by

Digg Traffic vs Referral Traffic – Which is Best?

Filed Under: Blog Promotion, Social Media

Digital Inspiration has a post on Getting Noticed by A-list bloggers vs Getting on Digg Front Page which makes a few worthwhile observations.

It fits pretty closely to a comment I made last week in an interview with Jeremy when I was asked which social networking site I’d prefer to get traffic from. My response was (and I’m paraphrasing here) that while I don’t mind the rush of traffic of traffic that a site like Digg can bring in that I’d prefer a link from another blogger because it brings a different type of traffic.

Digg Traffic – While Digg brings a rush of traffic – it does so from a site with a very broad focus in terms of topics. It also sends the traffic largely from a link with little context around it and in most cases a link that comes from a largely anonymous person.

Blog Traffic - Traffic from another blogger is different on a number of levels. While it might not come in the same numbers – it will generally come with commentary and context, from a site that usually has some sort of a single focus, from a person who has established some level of trust and/or profile with their readers.

As a result – in most cases the Digg traffic comes and goes quickly and doesn’t usually hang around for dialogue – whereas referrals from other sites is more likely to ‘convert’ either as a longer term viewer, RSS subscriber, newsletter member or comment leaver.

Of course Digg traffic isn’t completely useless – in fact if you harness it you can grow a blog over time. It comes in such high numbers that even if only a very small group stick around it can be worthwhile.

It also brings a round of secondary links – which can be good for SEO and lastly it doesn’t hurt the old ego and can give a rush of motivation to a blogger. The key with Digg traffic however is to work on converting readers into loyal ones.

More reflections on different types of traffic at:

Written on 1/25/2007 at 4:09 pm by

DEVONthink Pro and Scrivener – Tools for Writers

Filed Under: Blogging Tools and Services

Over the last few days I’ve been playing around with a couple of writing tools for Mac OSX users that are really excellent.

While they are not blogging tools specifically they do offer writers some useful resources and for larger writing projects I think both would be invaluable (although you probably wouldn’t use both of them).

DEVONthink

DevonthinkThe first one is DEVONthink (I’ve been testing DEVONthink Pro). I found it after a recommendation over at Lifehacker (where Gina talked about using it to write her book) and am quite staggered by it’s power. You can import all kinds of documents (including importing parts of and full websites) then organize it in all kinds of different ways for printing or exporting. In essence it’s a database of content and I can see many applications for bloggers including the writing of books (as Gina did), having a version of your website on your computer (when you’re offline) or for drafting post.

One of the most useful parts of DEVONthink Pro is it’s concordance and ability to show you potential links between your different documents. There’s still a lot more for me to discover in it – but I’m seriously considering paying for the full version once my 150 hour trial ends.

DEVONthink is great for web users too – with RSS integration (I’m yet to fully explore it) and the ability to quickly clip information into your database as you surf. It also lets you export ‘as a website’ which is pretty cool (although I’m yet to do it).

Scrivener

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Written on 1/25/2007 at 5:55 am by

V7N Contextual Links – a First Impression Review

Filed Under: Advertising

Faq

Updated – this post has been updated below with links to the responses from V7N Contexual Link Creators.

Today I took a quick look at a new contextual links program that seems to have been launched this week by the name of Contextual Links at V7N. I saw it in my RSS feed earlier in the week mentioned on a couple of blogs but didn’t think much of it (as a result I’m sorry but I can’t say what site I read about it on first). However a couple of days ago I was rung by John Scott (one of it’s creators) and asked to take a look at it and give my opinion – so I took a second look.

V7N Contextual Links is difficult to describe in succinctly – but what comes to mind is that it’s a program that is a cross between PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads (as best I can describe it).

In short – it’s a way of advertisers to buy links (largely for SEO purposes) to their sites from blogs and websites that get paid $10 for posting each link. Links are placed ‘in content’ and need to be contextual.

I have a few concerns with the program to be honest (sorry John):

  1. From what I read, the posts don’t need to be new ones that you insert links into. As long as they are on a blog with a PR of over 3 and on the industry that the link is about they seem to be fine.
  2. Bloggers are not required to (or encouraged to) write directly about the advertiser they are linking
  3. Bloggers are not allowed to disclose that the link is paid for.

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Written on 1/25/2007 at 12:01 am by

How to Think Outside of the Box and Develop Attention Grabbing Content

Filed Under: Writing Content

I’d like to welcome Glen Stansberry from LifeDev (feed) to Problogger. Glen has offered to write a series of posts looking at how to use creativity, productivity and organization to improve your blogging skills.

With the blogosphere ballooning to gigantic proportions, more and more blogs are springing up in every single niche. While it’s great for the reader to see a wide spectrum of opinions, it makes the blogger’s job of standing out that much harder. Any blogger can read a bit of news in their topic, and regurgitate it on their own blog with little thought. But that doesn’t do anything to help our readers, other than give them one more reason to unsubscribe from Mr. RSS.

It’s quite easy to get lost in the sea of voices. However, there’s one often-overlooked way to instantly grab attention: thinking outside of the box.

Case Study: 37Signals

37SignalslogoloLets take a look at a quick example of what we’re talking about here. 37Signals runs a great blog Signal Vs. Noise.

In this blog the software company’s founders spend most of their time writing about the 37Signals mantra: great web software is simple, fast and elegant.

But what makes their writing so compelling is that they hardly ever write about software.

Huh?

That’s right – What makes their writing great is that they are able to take pieces of seemingly unrelated topics and link them to their mantra, like how comics relate to web design. Or film concepts and branding. They know how to breathe life into a concept, to let the viewer see an idea in a different light.

Apply, Rinse, Repeat

This technique not only adds a new dimension to your writing, but it also shows how knowledgeable you are on your topic, Obi-Wan. The deep understanding you have of the concept means that you can show correlations previously unheard of. Can you smell the linkbait? :)

And the best part about this strategy: you can start using it immediately. And it’s really not that hard.

It all starts by changing the way you think about information.

Try reading news about topics that interest you but are completely unrelated to your niche. Or read less news, and allow your brain more time to think.

In short: start becoming more aware of how everything relates to your blog’s topic, in some way or another.

You may not get ideas from your feed reader either. That’s OK. Odds are it will be better if you don’t anyway. You’ll want to use as little “influence” from other sources as possible to help ensure originality and to get the creative juices flowing.

[One word of caution: Don't get too abstract on your readers. Clarity is key in making this work. You never want to have your readers scratching their heads at your writing.]

There’s something that puts a well-crafted post ahead of the rest. By wrapping your posts in fresh perspectives, you’ll instantly improve your blogging, and your readers will thank you for it.

This is the first part in the series Cutting Above the Rest, a series focusing on how to use creativity, productivity and organization to improve your blogging skills. Check out Glen Stansberry’s blog LifeDev (feed) for more tips to improve your creativity.

Written on 1/24/2007 at 6:00 am by

Speedlinking 24 January 2007

Filed Under: Pro Blogging News
  • Akismet have launched a new plugin – version 2.0. It has some great new features which should enhance it’s performance including a search feature (something I’ve been testing the last few days – it’s great), the ability to to discard spam on old posts, a spam counter widget (so you can brag about how much spam you get), recheck moderation queue and a lot more (most of which is too technical for my little head at this time of night). All I know is that if it improves Akismet’s performance then I’m happy!
  • Allen Heat does a little reflecting upon 5 aspects of blogs to revise in 2007 (part II) For someone so young Allen has some wise words to say.
  • Andy Wibbels has put together a post that talks us through the steps that he and a client took in launching a blog – taking a website and moving it to be a blog. It talks through a number of important decisions that new bloggers need to consider when starting up.
  • James has written a post titled How to Increase Blog Traffic with YouTube that will hopefully be useful for those of you experimenting with video on your blog.
  • Forgetting to renew your domain name can happen to us all – even Google.
Written on 1/24/2007 at 4:00 am by

booBox To Help Bloggers Sell Stuff

Filed Under: Affiliate Programs

TechCrunch report that booBox (a Brazillian start up) are getting ready to launch a service that will help bloggers and other webmasters monetize their sites.

It’s an interesting concept which is best understood by using their demo of it here.

Boo Box 1 In short – bloggers add tags to images on their blogs which adds a little icon to images (you can see the little red icon in the top left hand corner of the image to the left).

If a reader clicks the icon they are taken to a ‘lightbox’ which opens up above the page with some pictures of the item (and others related to it).

The lightbox is where any transaction will take place (ie they don’t really leave your site as the blog will remain open behind it) and it can be closed down at any time during the reader interaction with it.

Readers are asked ‘Do you want to buy any of these items?’ (see screenshot below – click to get an enlarged version).

[Read more...]

Written on 1/24/2007 at 2:02 am by

Do Full Feeds Increase Your RSS Subscriber Count?

Filed Under: RSS

Bouncing off Leon Ho’s post 0 to 12,000 RSS Subscribers: Ways to Attract More Subscriptions (a good read about how LifeHack.org grew it’s subscriber list)) Steve Rubel wonders out loud if someone should do some study into full feeds and if they are what makes a blog’s feed successful?

He wants someone to do the research – something I’d love to see it too.

I personally don’t think it’s as simple as a full feed or partial feed thing that determine’s a blog’s feed subscriber count. It definitely can help though. For example here at ProBlogger when I moved to full feeds my feed subscribers did increase by 10-20% in the next month (although onsite traffic decreased a little).

However on Digital Photography School I’ve managed to get my subscriber count up to over 4000 in 9 months using partial feeds. Having said that – I’m close to moving it to full feeds also as I’m keen to see if I can boost it further.

Ultimately the biggest factor in getting people to subscribe to your feed is producing quality content that people don’t want to miss.

I’ve said here before that I’m still torn on whether to recommend full feeds or partial feeds. I think it depends upon a number of factors including the topic, the style of posting, how much time you have in dealing with content theft and whether you care or not if people steal your content.

Still – if someone does a study into full vs partial feeds I’d love to read it!