Written on September 3rd, 2007 at 09:09 am by Darren Rowse

Ask Your Blogging Questions Here

ProBlogger Site News, Reader Questions 130 comments

Blog-QuestionsOver the coming month or two I’m wanting to get as practical as possible here at ProBlogger and as part of that I’m wanting to base as many posts as possible on real questions from readers.

So - the ‘question box’ is open.

I can’t guarantee that I’ll answer them all - but I’ll attempt to get through as many as possible or to find others who are better qualified than I am to do so.

Any topic is fine - but I’ll of course give priority to those that are on topic to this blog.

Fire away - looking forward to seeing what the ProBlogger community comes up with.

Note: If you don’t want your name/blog to be linked to your question feel free to ask it anonymously. Please submit the questions in comments below.

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130 Responses to “Ask Your Blogging Questions Here”

  • Chad

    September 3rd, 2007 9:04 am

    In the nature of Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, (great read!), what do you think was the tipping point for ProBlogger.net?

    Stickiness? Any favorite “word of mouth” tactics? A particular connectedness that you found or had?

    Look forward to hearing from you!

    -Chad.

  • Glenn Wolsey

    September 3rd, 2007 9:22 am

    What is your working setup like and how is your office mapped out? Do you have a separate room specifically for work where you can close the door on at night and leave it all behind?

  • Gavin Smith

    September 3rd, 2007 9:23 am

    Do you have any experience dealing with advertising based on a user’s geographical location (or geo-advertising). Does ProBlogger use any plugins or software to facilitate geo-advertising?

  • Roberta

    September 3rd, 2007 9:50 am

    I just started a celebrity blog, how would you suggest I monetize it? Also, how can I drive traffic to it? I found a niche, highlighting mishaps and funny happenings. I need to learn how to network with other bloggers in the same niche, but a lot of them don’t seem open to friendliness. Not sure if they look at me like I’m competition…?

  • Jason

    September 3rd, 2007 9:57 am

    How long before your first blog reached over 1,000 visitors per day?

    Thanks Darren.

  • RT the fitness guy

    September 3rd, 2007 9:59 am

    I’d love you to write some more articles based around getting comments. feed subscriptions, etc. for blogs who aren’t about blogging. The less tech saavy readers still don’t really get a lot of the stuff we think they are “supposed” to do!

    Thanks Daz.

    RT

  • Chad

    September 3rd, 2007 10:02 am

    What do you find the best way to add relevant graphics to each post without violating licensing or infringing on copyrights?

  • Paulo Sidney

    September 3rd, 2007 10:06 am

    I am from Brazil and I hold a blog to help people with their studies about English Language. My blog is quite new (around 7 month), but I would like to expand its reaching, increase the readers by feed and subscribe.
    So my question is: what should I do to get that?
    By the way, I sign ProBlogger feed and you really make a great job.

  • Travis

    September 3rd, 2007 10:13 am

    What do you think is the best way to approach and acquire guest contributors to your blog? And what should they expect in return?

  • Punny Money

    September 3rd, 2007 10:16 am

    What do you see as the greatest threats to the viability of the blogging industry in coming years?

  • Midg

    September 3rd, 2007 10:23 am

    I start a personal finance blog about a month and a half ago. I’ve had abut 50 visitors so far with my best day having 7 visitors. This is my first experience with blogging so I am not sure how to draw people to my site. What are some good methods for beginners for drawing traffic to a blog? Any suggestions for improving my blog in general would also be appreciated.

  • Glen Allsopp

    September 3rd, 2007 10:23 am

    I started another blog recently that you kindly linked too. Ive decided I don’t want to write that blog and should focus more on the one I have. Should I sell it or redirect it, in your opinion ;)

  • Brad V.

    September 3rd, 2007 10:24 am

    Over the last few months I’ve seen a surge in traffic to my blog! However, the clicks on my Google Adsense ads has dropped to virtually zero! How can this be? I thought increased traffic would mean more clicks. Am I doing something wrong?

    Thanks for any help you can give regarding this very vexing issue!!!

  • Maldino

    September 3rd, 2007 10:39 am

    i want to know .. what is the best site that provide a good hosting with good prices and accept e-gold to use it for my new blog ??

  • Nate

    September 3rd, 2007 10:47 am

    Is RSS feed a must? I don’t read them, and am not sure people in my niche subscribe to them either. It seems like it detracts people from actually going to your site everyday (where the money is made).

  • MillionDollarJourney.com

    September 3rd, 2007 11:24 am

    I find that some weeks are great for google indexing, then other times my best “key words” are dropped from the index. What are some of your SEO tips to stay indexed with Google?

  • infmom

    September 3rd, 2007 11:28 am

    I am seeing the same thing as Brad V. My blog about tattoos has begun picking up readers quite nicely the past month, but the number of Adsense and Amazon clicks have both declined. I am certainly not complaining about the increase in readership, but the lack of clicks makes me wonder if it’s all just bots.

    I tried installing one of the “stats” WordPress plugins that I saw recommended here, but for some reason it didn’t work properly. It gave me a couple of error messages that removing and reinstalling it from scratch did not fix. I would appreciate seeing continued advice about statistics and referring sites, so perhaps I can figure it out in the future.

  • dorkas

    September 3rd, 2007 11:33 am

    You’ve got lots of great advice about strategies for attracting advertisers that I’ve found really handy. However, I’d love to hear some of the absolute nuts and bolts of the process — not just optimizing the blog for advertising, but the following:

    -where do you find contact info for the marketing departments of companies, both large and small?
    -what do you propose as being a reasonable rates to ask for? i imagine this is pretty fluid based on niche and ad run time, but can you suggest ballpark figures for bottom-, middle-, and high-range prices?

    thanks!

  • Costa

    September 3rd, 2007 11:37 am

    Dear Darren,

    What is the cheapest, fastest and most effective way of popularising my blog?

  • Koby

    September 3rd, 2007 11:40 am

    I run a blog that is more of personal nature so with that in mind I ask the following questions:

    1) Do you find personal blogs to be relevant in today’s blogshpere?

    2) What are some tips you can give to someone running a more personal blog to help them gain readership?

    3) In general what would you say is the best way to monetize a personal blog?

  • thatedeguy

    September 3rd, 2007 11:53 am

    What value do you put on guest blogging? I’ve seen some people that have complained about it, saying that you read a blog for the author and the author’s point of view. Not the point of view of some schmoe down the street.
    I know you’ve used guest bloggers here before, so you obviously see some value in it, but how much?

  • Al

    September 3rd, 2007 11:56 am

    Darren,

    What are your top 3 predictions for an emerging trends or disruptive forces that will hit the blogging world in the future? What advice would you give your readers to stay ahead of the curve? These can involve a new technology, blogging fad, or whatever. Thanks for this blog!

  • inspirationbit

    September 3rd, 2007 12:00 pm

    What is the best approach in successfully getting interviews from prominent bloggers, such as yourself?

    You’ve dedicated several posts on guest blogging, perhaps you could write a post on writing and getting interviews with interesting people in our niche.

    What would be on your list of DOs and DONTs for approaching the interviewee, conducting the interview session, making the interview interesting for everyone involved and reading?

    Thanks,

    Vivien.

  • mgroves

    September 3rd, 2007 12:15 pm

    What is a blogging niche? How do I know what niche I’m in? How can I find other blogs in my niche?

  • Patrick Burt

    September 3rd, 2007 12:16 pm

    What were the fundamental differences between my blog and your blog when it was of similar age? What have you already done in terms of monetization and personal goals?

    Have you noticed that returning visitors are less inclined to click-through? If so, how would you go about monetizing such traffic?

  • Kayla aka The Legacy Lady

    September 3rd, 2007 12:17 pm

    I write a blog about digital scrapbooking. My readership is growing and I am wondering as I take steps to commercialize my blog - how do you determine the worth of links in your posts referencing a product?

    For example, I will have companies contact me and send me their products to try and I comment about those products in my blog if I like them - then I link back to the product and company.

    My questions are: 1) if this is truly a product I use and would endorse, am I cheapening my blog by accepting product from those who give it to me to write about it? 2) How do you determine what that type of exposure on your blog is worth? 3) Can someone truly do professional blogging (make money) from the TypePad platform - or is Wordpress a better fit?

    Lots of questions - I really appreciate your blog - can’t wait to read answers to other questions in the comments on this post as well.

  • Andrew

    September 3rd, 2007 12:28 pm

    What is the best way to keep track of which blogs you have posted comments on? As I look to establish my blog and my reputation in the industry I am targeting, I am becoming increasingly engaged with other bloggers in the community. Keeping track (efficiently) of where, when and how often I have commented would be a great plus. Are there good tools for this? Some blogs will have a RSS feed for comments but others will not and this alone would not capture all of this info that I think is relevant and useful.

    Many thanks.

  • Simon

    September 3rd, 2007 12:53 pm

    I’d really like to know how you manage writing for multiple blogs at the same time. I’ve tried it, and everytime the stats look like they are on a see-saw. One goes up, the other goes down, I can’t strike a balance. How do you do it? Is it all about time management, or is there some trick I’m missing?

    I’d also appreciate some technical posts covering monetisation. As soon as I think I understand something like AdSense it does something to really confuse me, like giving me small amounts of money without any clicks. There are also loads of acronyms, it would be nice to see how these specifically apply to bloggers.

    Thanks.

  • Debo Hobo

    September 3rd, 2007 1:30 pm

    I find it frustrating when I link to other blogs and don’t receive as much as a thank you let alone a linkback. Am I wrong for feeling this way? Shouldn’t proper blog etiquete call for a show of gratitude?

    What are your thoughts on this?

  • Brennan

    September 3rd, 2007 2:38 pm

    For you, at what point did blogging go from being a hobby, to being your income? How did you decide that blogging was the avenue you wanted to pursue?

  • papaman

    September 3rd, 2007 3:21 pm

    I’m reading your blog mostly through Google Reader and I noticed that at the end of every post there is an Ad. Something like “Advertisement: Make Money with Chitika….”. Is there a wordpress plugin that you use so to rotate and display ads on RSS feeds?

    Thanks

  • Chrissy

    September 3rd, 2007 3:42 pm

    I’d like to learn more about SEO. I just started blogging and originally set up a site on wordpress.com before moving to my own domain. I have a niche blog and when I search for “blogs for executive assistants” my old wordpress.com one shows up but my new one only shows up on the 3rd page of results! I’m obviously missing some critical steps.

  • vargas

    September 3rd, 2007 4:08 pm

    I don’t understand the need for bloggers to bother with putting those RSS feed icons and the subscribe widgets on their blogs. It just seems like unnecessary clutter. After all, the little RSS icon can be found in the address bar, right? Why can’t a blogger just direct people to click on that to subscribe? Or is the icon only available in the Firefox address bar?

  • Rich Minx

    September 3rd, 2007 4:33 pm

    Hi Darren.

    How do you decide which blogs to add to your RSS Reader, how do you manage your feed list and when/why would you unsubscribe from a blog?

  • Eric

    September 3rd, 2007 4:47 pm

    Darren,

    First of all, lots of luck with reading the questions your gonna get. And much more luck on trying to answer them :)

    So here’s my question: What did you do before you where a Problogger, and what made you decide to become a problogger?

  • violin kid

    September 3rd, 2007 4:48 pm

    I have the ultimate question.. I made a post on it trying to get readers to help but no one could solve the problem. Click here to see the problem and post

  • Zane Dickens

    September 3rd, 2007 5:00 pm

    Hi Darren,

    My blog has recently been stumbled via the use of linkbait: a video of the simpsons intro in live action.

    Since then my traffic has stabilized to roughly 1200 visitors a day (from 2800, decreasing slowly)

    My question is two parts:

    Part 1 - how do you make you site sticky enough to convert stumblers to subscribers.

    (I have managed to ‘capture’ about 28 stumblers so far, I would like to increase that hopefully)

    Part 2 - How do you monetise without angering your incoming stumblers?

    Thanks again,
    Z.

  • Vincent Sparreboom

    September 3rd, 2007 5:04 pm

    Hi Darren,

    I’m curious; do you have a special (perhaps SEO) reason for hosting your site with the .net URL instead of using the .com URL?

    Thanks

  • Chong Choon

    September 3rd, 2007 5:08 pm

    Hi Darren,

    From your experience, how would you advise those who are new to blogging in managing their time well, ie. between learning (from various avenues such as blog like yours) how to blog effectively and the actual time you put what you had learnt into practice???

    Thanks and regards,
    Chong Choon

  • Karthik

    September 3rd, 2007 6:55 pm

    in all your blogging days, have you ever wondered what the future of this blog would be if/when you run out of ideas? What would you do then - I see you branching out to other activities such as the Jobs Board too - would you instead convert this into a freelancer’s domain?

    And yes, guest blogging doesn’t count as an answer ;)

  • Matt Jones

    September 3rd, 2007 7:12 pm

    Do you feel Problogger.net is giving bloggers a false impression that they should start a blog about blogging? This blog is the number 1 port of call and to many you are a role model. Do you think you should encourage bloggers to NOT start a blog about blogging because it is such a saturated niche?

  • Mark

    September 3rd, 2007 7:26 pm

    Would you recommend using wordpress or any other blogging platform as a cms?

  • CatherineL

    September 3rd, 2007 8:41 pm

    Darren I know you’ve mentioned using colours, pictures, design etc before to make your blog unique.

    But how can I go about doing this? I have a wordpress theme with colours that match the site the blog is attached to. But neither really reflect my personality. And I don’t have the first clue on how to change a wordpress theme either.

    Can you please recommend some good resources for choosing colours layout, design etc and also for learning how to adapt a wordpress theme. Thank you. Catherine.

  • Kathy

    September 3rd, 2007 8:56 pm

    I second Chad’s question about adding graphics to my blog. I’m concerned about licensing and copyright issues.

  • Abhijit

    September 3rd, 2007 9:08 pm

    I designing my first blog. and I selected subject homejobs. where can i will found easy to navigate template for this? and how i can monetize the same?

  • samuro

    September 3rd, 2007 9:12 pm

    Where’s your idea come from to write posts. or How to make a bloggers is’n confused to write a post. Thanks!

  • silvino

    September 3rd, 2007 9:25 pm

    what question would you like to answer?

    seriously, what do you believe to be your strongest topic within the problogging field?

  • Tejvan Pettinger

    September 3rd, 2007 10:08 pm

    Would you recommend a high frequency of posting to get traffic through Google. Or do you think it is more beneficial to write a small number of high quality articles that may get picked up by social networking sites?

    Basically: Quantity vs Quality which is more important?

  • TechZilo

    September 3rd, 2007 10:13 pm

    Well, here’s something easy for you :D

    Which stat package do you recommend? I like it to be free or cheap($5 or less), able to take large traffic, say 500k, and with no linkback like sitemeter.

    another one: do you recommend using post excerpts on index in WP? I see many people saying it helps SEO, and others like Lorelle says Google knows blogs and considers them differently.

  • Adam

    September 3rd, 2007 10:13 pm

    Thanks for your comments on my blog.

    I became a full time blogger early this year. However, unlike other people, I miss the work place and socializing with “real” people. Did you ever face this situation?

  • Jack @ The Tech Teapot

    September 4th, 2007 12:18 am

    How do you present a single “feel” on a blog with multiple posters?

  • Taylor Scott

    September 4th, 2007 12:47 am

    I have only been blogging for two weeks, and am finding that I’m actually nervous to make comments on other blogs. This is crazy because I strike up random conversations in public with strangers wherever I go.

    There are several reasons for this timidity, but one of the reasons you (or others) may be able to help me with is this: What is the etiquette regarding commenting on/linking to old posts? Am I wasting my time to comment on posts that are older? If I just found them myself, they’re new and interesting to me. Are bloggers still responding to comments left on old posts? Do other readers still care to discuss old posts?

  • SingForHim

    September 4th, 2007 1:39 am

    I currently have a Blogger blog with a confusing url. (My blog title was already taken, but inactive for several years, so I had to register my screen name.)

    I registered a Wordpress blog, because I wanted to reserve a better title for future migration. (reallifeblog.wp) I also have a domain (reallifeblog.net)

    Would it be better to

    a) keep my blogger blog, but redirect my domain name to the existing blog (and how do I do this?)
    b) migrate to wordpress and use the wordpress hosted blog at my domain name (and how do I do this?)

    I am happy with all aspects of blogger except the tech support, and I’m thinking WP has better support.

    Was that too confusing?

  • Anne

    September 4th, 2007 2:08 am

    I am building a blog that appeals to visitions who most often use a search engine. Should I hire a SEO specialists or try to do it myself. If the answer is yes, do you have recommendations and/or can you steer me to a site where I can find someone.

    Thanks!

  • TheOxhorn

    September 4th, 2007 2:09 am

    Thanks for creating such a wealth of information, Darren. I am in the process of launching a music blog, and I would find a resource center dedicated to launching blogs.

    You have written many posts that pertain to components of launching a blog, but it would be great if you could gather them in one spot. It would also be nice to have something like a timeline or checklist to which a new blog could track its progress.

    Darren, thank you for your consideration and all the great work you’ve done so far.

  • Kanquona

    September 4th, 2007 3:04 am

    Hi,

    I am new to blogging and blogging seriously and in my belief I write quality articles. My question is how many months or years it took for you to get success. I mean for getting steady flow of visitors to your website. Please let me know, else it is counting on my patience.

    Thanks and Regards
    K

  • Mark Boudreau

    September 4th, 2007 3:23 am

    My blog The Rock and Roll Report was drawing consistent hits (close to 1000 a day) and making a nice income from Adsense when I switched it from Typepad to a WordPress set up. Since then my hits and earnings have dropped dramatically. I attribute some of that from the slow summer months when a lot of my readers are on summer break and from Google having to re-index my site but how long should that process take?

    Thanks

  • Richard

    September 4th, 2007 3:24 am

    Hi Darren,

    Classic marketing says “let people know what your point of difference is”.

    I’ve just set up a links page on my website where I give each link a brief description (www.campfire.net.au/links). In my description I’d also like to say “how campfire is different is…” for each entry (for the sake of defining us - good marketing, yes?)

    But somehow, I think I know “what Darren would say” about this! It comes across as stingy and a bit defensive - opposite to the idea of freely sharing. Can you see how I’m torn?

    Would you recommend I DO describe my point of difference wherever I can - or let people work that out for themselves and “let it go” in a spirit of generosity, as seems to be so much of what your approach is about?

    Richard

  • prasanga

    September 4th, 2007 3:44 am

    Great Idea to help other bloggers out. Some bloggers really need help for example bloggers like me…..who are not seasoned bloggers yet. I will become one through reading Problogger Thanks

  • Heather

    September 4th, 2007 4:02 am

    Thanks for doing this, Darren!

    I’m just now starting up a blog aimed at high school teachers. I’ve read many suggestions to have a few key quality longer articles as pillars and then shorter blog posts more often to refresh content. Should I create individual pages for those articles or just make them blog posts, but longer?

  • Cindy

    September 4th, 2007 4:16 am

    Thank you so much for the excellent series “31 days to a better blog”. It was SO informative! My question may seem extremely simple in nature, but I haven’t been able to find the answer: How do you schedule entries? I would like them to come out at the same time every day, but, of course, with real life, that’s hard to do! Is there some sort of scheduling program available? Thank you again for all of the help!!

  • IGIZMORE

    September 4th, 2007 4:39 am

    hey darren , i have been blogging for 4 months now , i get pretty good traffic for my blogs age (around 1000 a day) , but i dont seem to get linkback’s from other sites ??? i am sure this is faced by many blogger’s , so could u plz give me a solution ??? thanks alot in advance

  • Bloggrrl

    September 4th, 2007 5:21 am

    Hey Darren~

    I’d love to know which conferences you think give the biggest bang for your buck. I like mixing it up with the guys too, so I’d like to know about some inclusive ones–I primarily hear about BlogHer.

    Actually, how beneficial do you think conferences even are?

    Thanks,

    Michelle Cepeda

  • R. Neil Scott

    September 4th, 2007 5:51 am

    When you want to use a keyword in your url that’s already taken in .com .net .info etc. do you think going with .pro or .md would work?

    For example, I’m sure that all the variations of dictionary.com, .net, etc are takem — but one can probably get .md — would it be the best move?

    Thanks for your good work –

  • Mary McCollum

    September 4th, 2007 6:51 am

    Hello Darren,
    I feel like my question is the dumb one of the year but I keep reading about links but really don’t understand them. What happens when I set up a link on my site? My goal with my blog is to attract readers that may then eventually go to my web site which sells my book, MIGHTY MERRY TOO. Thanks,
    Mary the Antique Sailor

  • Rich Minx

    September 4th, 2007 7:11 am

    Ooh, if I may add one more (inspired by Bloggrrl’s question): are there any decent web/blogging conferences in Australasia or are they all in the US?

  • Simmons

    September 4th, 2007 8:28 am

    Which would you promote more: RSS feeds or newsletters?

    Thanks,
    Simmons

  • Dave

    September 4th, 2007 10:27 am

    Are you planning on coming to the Australian Blogging Conference?

    If you haven’t heard about it see http://www.freedomtodiffer.com/blogoz/

  • Doppleganger

    September 4th, 2007 11:27 am

    What’s the best way (or is there a way) to change the domain name of a blog while keeping the content, SERP, backlinks and other particulars in place?

    My blog needs a face lift and a new web 2.0 look!

    Thanks!!!

  • Tom

    September 4th, 2007 12:16 pm

    Darren -

    I’m a huge fan of the blog, thanks for what you do!

    I’m looking into attending SEO conferences? Which ones would recommend that are well worth the value?

    Thanks!

  • Moksh Juneja

    September 4th, 2007 1:33 pm

    Hi Darren,
    Would love to know, if I can put tabs on my blog, segragating the topics, Movies, books, tech, etc.. I have a blogger account

    http://mokshjuneja.blogspot.com

  • Casey and Peanut

    September 4th, 2007 7:07 pm

    Offline Blog Editor

    Dear Pro Blogger,

    Your blog is a jewel. It contains lots of info. I am an Internet Newbie, sorry if this question has been posted before …

    Currently, I am using Blogspot (free). Is there a good Offline Blog Editor that I can upload photos to my FREE blogger account?

    I have tried Windows Live Writer, RocktetPost, etc but cannot upload the photos.

    I like Offline Blog Editing because I can write many post and set them to post at future dates.

    What is a good offline blog editor with the above mentioned requirements which you recomend?

    Thank you and kind regards

  • dorisC

    September 4th, 2007 10:33 pm

    Hi darren, Why do advertisers prefer bloggers with own domain over free ones like blogspot, wordpress…etc?

  • Hari

    September 4th, 2007 11:17 pm

    Hi Darren,
    When starting to display Ads on a blog, is it better to start running Google Adsense or go in search for private advertisers.
    Assuming, the blog has some nice pagerank, traffic, which is the best place to look for private advertisers ?

    Thanks,
    Hari

  • Kim

    September 4th, 2007 11:45 pm

    Hi! I was wondering how to go about tracking the numbers of people who have visited your blog, and where they came from…any help, please write back! Thanks!

  • Mohamed

    September 5th, 2007 12:00 am

    what will you do if you haven’t something to write ?

  • Ian McKenzie

    September 5th, 2007 1:01 am

    In the past two or three months, I have received queries from companies that would like to advertise on my blog. I haven’t said yes to any of these requests as I don’t have any system, or any idea how to start one, to handle invoicing, payments, tracking impressions, etc. Do you have any thoughts to share on that, or any recommendations as to where to find such information?

  • MommyPoppins

    September 5th, 2007 2:48 am

    I am very frustrated by statistics tracking systems that I am using. I use the Wordpress plug in Stat Trac (self hosted) and Feedburner stats plus Google Analytics, but the stats from each thing are so disparate that I have no idea what my true numbers are. Feedburner is obviously low. I have emiracle proof of that. Google’s numbers tend to be slightly higher, but even those tend to be 50% lower than my wordpress number.

    I have read what you have written on ProBlogger, and that lead me to try Site Meter, but my sitemeter stats are even lower (or sometimes higher) than my Feedburner stats.

    I have told all systems to not count bots and not to count me.

    Is there any way to get accurate stats or do you suggest which one I should believe.

  • MrsE

    September 5th, 2007 2:51 am

    If you run your feed through Feedburner, does Google own your subscriber list? Can they use it? Doesn’t that make your blog infinitely less valuable?

  • MrsE

    September 5th, 2007 2:52 am

    Can you do a series on steps toward selling your blog for $50 million dollars?

  • Taoski

    September 5th, 2007 2:54 am

    My (current) blog is a mix of technical and personal posts. Probably more personal.

    Do you think it is worth cleaning the current blog up to delete non-relevant items leaving only technical posts with a view to monetizing and popularising it?

    Or is it best to start a new blog - with a new, more relevant domain name and move the technical posts to that?

  • Kim Kinrade

    September 5th, 2007 4:14 am

    Hello,

    Google pulled my Adsense because, as they said, it racked up over $40 in 2 days.

    Now, I was carefeul not to click my own stuff (I’m not clueless) and my friends are computer-savvy enough not to do it. A web designer said it could have been a spammer.

    Question: How do I explain that to Google and get my Adsense back or is it possible? Or do I want my Adsense back!

    Thanks

  • Jon

    September 5th, 2007 4:52 am

    What is the best way to make money on a site without a niche?

  • Bradly Fletchall

    September 5th, 2007 4:54 am

    I started my blog using Drupal because I got hosting for free on the web server at my day job and that is what our company web site was built on.

    Now I really want to switch to Wordpress because it is a much better blog platform than Drupal.

    Can you post on any platform migrations you have done or that others you know have done in the past? Are there any services or people that do these types of migrations or am I on my own to figure it out?

  • Priyam

    September 5th, 2007 5:58 am

    Hi Darren!
    I started publishing post one week back on some topics.
    I can write short stories. I cant exactly understand the purpose of blogging.Someone told me its to improve your writing skills.What are the purposes of blogging?what opportunities does blogging has for ur??what type of transactions are done from blogging.??
    i want to know details,knowabout about blogging from scratch level…Is it of any kind of help to me.

  • Andrew Ferguson

    September 5th, 2007 7:44 am

    Here’s one for you Darren:

    When responding to multiple comments, is it better to respond in individual comments of your own, group them together in small batches, or all at once in a big lump?

    I’ve opted for the ’small batches’ of no more than 3 or 4, with the commenter’s name bolded. I settled on this because it’s a balance.

    I was concerned with sending too many notifications to readers subscribed to comments, looking like I was the only commenter on my own site, and keeping my comment stats somewhat normalized. I’m not sure if I’ve taken everything into account, though.

    Your thoughts?

  • Practical Archivist

    September 5th, 2007 12:07 pm

    What’s a good mix for new vs. returning readers?

    I know the % of new visitors to my blog thanks to Google Analytics…but I’m not sure what I should be aiming for.

    Any suggestions, Darren?

  • Leo Piccioli

    September 5th, 2007 9:25 pm

    I run a corporate blog in Spanish.
    Do you think it makes any sense to generate links from blogs in other languages? (i.e. English)

  • Madison

    September 7th, 2007 9:23 am

    I am looking for something for the school I’m at. It is a cloth-ribbon contraption that hangs from the ceiling. Performers climb on it. I was wondering what it is called and if possible a price range. Thanks.

  • Kim

    September 7th, 2007 4:33 pm

    Hey Darren! I figured I should jump on the train. I’m running three blogs now in my spare time, and although I know I have the hours to do them in addition to my job (night hours, I blog before work), I’m finding making a schedule different?

    Before you went pro, how did you schedule your days? I’ve seen how you work your hours now that you do it full-time, but how do you squeeze all that into a few hours a day?

    Thanks, and keep on keepin’ on.

  • Taylor

    September 11th, 2007 7:20 am

    Darren,

    I’ve been blogging for 3 weeks. I just checked my page on Technorati and realized there was a comment about me on another site so I went to the site, and it’s really strange. My website title and link are just thrown into the middle of his page, out of context, and for no reason. Also, the VID101 link to the right of mine is a page I have visited and bookmarked on delicious, but not on Stumble, which his page seems to be about. I also had that website saved on my desktop for about a week.

    This seems weird to me. Is this something I should be aware of? Anyone?

    You can see the technorati comment here: Taylor’s Technorati

    It goes to this page: page I don’t know or understand.

    A related question is:

    I also have a different page listed as a referring page in my wordpress stats that I don’t recognize and which has no reference to me on it when I go there. That page is here.

    Also, what is /?p=80&preview=true

    this is something I don’t recognize either, but Google Analytics said that page was viewed 580 times yesterday.

    I hope this wasn’t confusing. It sure is to me!

    I appreciate anyone’s help!

    Thanks a million for your excellent blog, Darren!

    Taylor

  • Tejvan Pettinger

    September 13th, 2007 2:08 am

    Q. Which part of blogging do you enjoy the most?

    Money, traffic, engaging with readers, writing or something else

  • Salman Siddiqui

    September 13th, 2007 3:49 am

    As your blog is so famous so don’t you think you should be registering few doimans which are similar to your current domain. To name a few:

    http://www.porblogger.net/ http://www.porblogger.com/

    http://www.probloger.net/ http://www.probloger.com/ (already registered)

    and many more of such types which can easily be used to drive traffic to there blogs and earn money with ads…!

  • Adam Walker Cleaveland

    September 13th, 2007 3:49 am

    Q. Darren - I’ve been reading this site now, for awhile, after we first met @ living room. My question is about naming conventions for images - what is your format of choice for images? Some people say hyphens between words - others use _ between words. What is the best for SEO?

  • doug m

    September 13th, 2007 3:54 am

    Q. What made you decide to drop Google Adsense when you redesigned Problogger?

  • Jamaipanese

    September 13th, 2007 4:12 am

    Q. Most sites offering tips on blogging focus on North American and European Bloggers. What have you done to attract bloggers from other countries?

  • Frenchmat

    September 13th, 2007 4:39 am

    Hello,

    Do you happen to have some decreases in traffic and in comments ? Do you this feeling of : “nobody is reading my stuff anymore ?” and how do you manage this ?

    It can be quite disturbing when you put the same amount of effort in every single post.

  • Markus

    September 13th, 2007 5:26 am

    First of all: Thank you very much for the very informative articles you wrote and hopefully will write on this blog. If someone deserves to earn his money with blogging, than definately you :)

    My question is (feel free to translate it in correct English ;))

    I recently started a blog and I want to write about a lot of things but specialize on let’s say 3 main topics. What is your advice? Should I start two or three blogs with only one main topic (nokia phone software for example) or would you recomment writing my content in one blog?

    I’ve the feeling if I would seperate my blog content in more than one blog that - if one topic is more interesting to me at one time - I would lose readers on the other blog and vice versa.

    On the other hand I think that some of my readers would not be interested in every blogpost I write if there is only one blog. Would be great if you could give me advice.

  • Rian

    September 13th, 2007 5:28 am

    When did you first decide to get a professional design instead of rolling your own? Was there a point where you said “OK, it’s time” and how did you select your design firm?

  • Sly from Slyvisions.com

    September 13th, 2007 8:02 am

    Darren, my blog is becoming more and more popular everyday. I think that it is getting the right exposure it’s suppose to get. My question is: how do I go BEYOND this? What else can I do to expose my blog other than getting linked to my blog?

    It’s like I have to keep posting the great articles I write just so that I can get readers coming back. But I feel that there is something missing. Something that I think I am not doing which is keeping my blog an average blog. This might be a really confusing question, but hopefully you know what I mean.

  • Mike

    September 13th, 2007 9:28 am

    I have several blogs but have never been able to monetize them nor get many people commenting. How can I improve this and also indirectly sell my own products on my blog? I am currently coming out with my first personal (my name) blog in my niche of golf and really want to make a go of it, both in sucess of growing that new blog AND converting visitors to sales of my golf products. Any suggestions from you or your readers would be greatly appreciated. I am thoroughly impress ed with your blog!! Well done!!

  • Greg Hickman

    September 13th, 2007 10:30 am

    Darren,

    I’ve recently started a blog (August) and I’m trying to figure out the best way to drive quality traffic to my site. I’ve been writing at least a post a day if not every other day. I began commenting on 9rules and a few other sites that I enjoy visiting. I was wondering if you could provide some insight for a beginning blogger on getting that initial readers base. Do I just continue commenting on sites I read or digg articles, what can I do to get this jump started. Please help! Thanks!

  • Jaseem

    September 13th, 2007 11:17 am

    Darren,
    Many blogs run by beginners get popularity gradually and they don’t get much traffic in beginning. But blogs run by popular bloggers -like you- get good traffic in the beginning itself. This blog may be getting attention if you were popular before this.Do you think that the success of ProBlogger is a result of your other blogs and popularity also?

  • Karen (Miscellaneous Mum)

    September 13th, 2007 11:44 am

    Darren,

    I’m about to go to Blogger to Wordpress. A handy checklist of things I need to be aware of/arrange/ensure so as not to lose any SEO ranking, readers, auto pings etcetc would be really handy

    (and, also, naturally, to make as smooth a transition as possible!)
    Cheers, Karen

  • Tim Miller

    September 14th, 2007 1:46 am

    Darren

    I have started a For Profit blog and was lucky enough to get the .com domain I wanted. Do you think it is worth the expense to buy and park (and forward of course) the .net and ,org for this domain as well?

  • Ryan Paul

    September 14th, 2007 4:11 am

    My blog is probably mundane to a lot of people probably because I type exactly as I think, letting the words flow as I think, and don’t plan my posts.

    Anyway… any ideas why I should NOT do that?

  • JoLynn Braley

    September 14th, 2007 5:11 am

    Was there a time when you first started blogging that you became despondent and thought about quitting? If so, what happened that gave you the confidence to keep going?

  • JoLynn Braley

    September 14th, 2007 5:15 am

    How many hours do you spend working each day, and how do those hours break down? (i.e.: hours spent on ProBlogger, B5 admin, Digital Photography, etc.)

    Also, how do the amount of hours that you spend working each day today differ from the # of hours you spent when you first started blogging? Do you work every day, or 5 days a week?

    Thanks Darren!

  • Dave

    September 14th, 2007 4:25 pm

    A friend and I are looking to start a new blog together featuring a podcast. We were considering our niche and we have ideas, but not sure which would be the best course, something that requires more research.

    I constantly hear that catering to a more finely honed niche is better for traffic, but what if instead of focusing vertically, we focused laterally, catering to more people, but with a specialized approach to what we’re talking about? For example, using farce or satorization, like The Onion news? Would that be consider a niche in itself?

  • fable

    September 14th, 2007 5:22 pm

    Hi Darren,

    Do you believe that social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us, digg, reddit, netscape and the like are still worth submitting your time to?

    By this I mean: Do you feel that taking the time (and having the patience!) to try and get your article on the front page of digg is still essential, or is it a better idea to focus your talents on building backlinks naturally.

    Thank you for the opportunity and I hope this isn’t a rubbish question. :)

    Steve

  • Raffi

    September 14th, 2007 8:34 pm

    How can we make use of Facebook and its applications in marketing our blog?

  • Kelly

    September 14th, 2007 11:25 pm

    Hi Darren,

    I have been working on my blog for just over a year now. I gave my “niche” some thought before taking the plunge, but now I’m wondering if my niche is too…well, niche?

    I’ve been reading up on all the blogging for profit sites & took the advice to love what you blog about. I’m making very small dollars from Adsense & a few others….but when & how is it best to step back & take a hard look at the site and it’s money making capacity? Can you niche be too narrow? If so, any suggestions for drawing more visitors without loosing your focus?

    Granted, I love blogging about my topic…and I am now making enough to cover my hosting costs. But I’d like to take it to the next level.

    Kelly

  • Genesis

    September 15th, 2007 1:35 am

    My question is one that I think could be relevant to others as well:

    What are the most common reasons for a sudden drop in traffic?

    This just happened to me, I neglected my blog a little (mostly in the promo department) during August, due to the 30 Day Challenge and understandably the readership dropped slightly. However, last weekend, I suddenly lost nearly 65% of my visitors! I have no idea what happened, I was posting regularly, didn´t change anything significant . . . any ideas on what causes this sort of thing?

  • Andrew M Harvey

    September 15th, 2007 2:06 am

    Hello Darren,

    I am also quite curious as to why you have dropped adsense off your blog too? Is there something i should know about?
    The reason i ask is that i’ve just started to implement them on my blog…Great blog by the way -keep up the good work!

  • Robert

    September 15th, 2007 6:28 am

    I have a different kind of blog. I do not have a lot of text mostly images. I started this a month ago and so far my traffic is about 100 views per day but it seems to hold steady there. How do you promote a blog of images?

  • My Awesome Blog

    September 16th, 2007 8:26 am

    Hello Darren!

    My question is regarding the use of images on my blogs. Can you recommend a few good royalty-free photo sites that I can use without worrying about being sued? Any other advice regarding the use of images on blogs would be very helpful… :)

    Thanks,
    James

  • Talia Mana, Centre for Emotional Well-Be

    September 16th, 2007 9:16 am

    Hi Darren

    Love your blog. My question is on domain names.

    I am based in New Zealand but selling to an international audience. Do overseas people frown on .co.nz domain names and think they must be dinky little companies, or does it make no difference?

    How do people respond to some of the unusual domains? .net has become more mainstream now but there are still .us .name and other strange extensions out there.

    What is your advice for domain name selection?

    Talia Mana
    http://www.taliamana.com
    http://www.emotionalwellbeingblog.com
    http://www.nzrealitytv.com

  • Nelson

    September 16th, 2007 11:47 am

    Darren, how come I don’t receive certain posts via e-mail subscription?

  • Talia Mana, Centre for Emotional Well-Be

    September 16th, 2007 12:45 pm

    Just adding to the last question.

    I did listen to your video on .com and .net but I was wondering also about .info and other unusual domains as well as the country domains .co.nz .com.au yada yada

  • SpicePuppy

    September 16th, 2007 2:13 pm

    Darren, could you comment on the income distribution of your various blogs? Do your blogs generate similar incomes, or are they wildly different? Do you attribute the differences mainly to age, topic popularity, amount of time you spend on them, etc? Do you ever feel conflicted in that perhaps your favorite blogs to work on are not the best money makers?

  • Devil May Cry

    September 16th, 2007 9:37 pm

    Hello,

    What software do you use to convert your blogging videos into fancy flash? I see it used on quite a few popular blogs and I’d like to incorporate it into mine if possible.

    Thanks

  • Eliza/ BookTestOnline

    September 17th, 2007 9:29 am

    Hi Darren,

    Great Video answering Questions. It really makes me
    think and helps me get a few new ideas too.

    O.K. my question?
    What do you think about YouTube and how they own the rights to the videos that people submit to them?
    Just wanted your advice! I want to advertise my website and blog. Should I use YouTube or maybe another site that you suggest?

    Thanks again for all your great help!
    Elizabeth G.
    http://BookTestOnline.com - Website
    http://BookTestOnlinecom.blogspot.com

  • Ritu

    September 17th, 2007 11:10 am

    I just started an informational blog on softwares and application that are usually hidden on the internet are unknown most of the time.

    I was wondering how I can get traffic and turn them into visitors. I make sure to post atleast one entry everyday. Any suggestion from you would be very helpful. Criticism welcome!
    Ritu
    http://www.worknplay.net

  • Kirk Warren

    September 24th, 2007 11:37 am

    I was wondering what you think about justified text in relation to blog posts. Your blog is quite popular, but you never use justified text. I always find this makes a blog look unprofessional, but that is only my opinion. Despite that, yours still looks and reads great.

    So, my question is, what is the reasoning behind using or not using justified text in posts? Is it just a personal preference? Are you trying to make it feel less clinical or overly precise by adding slight imperfections?

    Thanks,
    Kirk Warren
    The Weekly Crisis
    http://www.weeklycrisis.com

  • Ryan Mac

    October 22nd, 2007 10:48 am

    A few questions Darren.

    How many posts (in general) does it take to earn a decent amount of income and how many posts per day do you need to do to continually update your site.

    Also how do you write so many posts in such a professional and developed way?

  • Rudi

    November 7th, 2007 5:05 pm

    Hi Darren,

    what I would like to know: I tested about 10 to 15 Blog-Counters and all of them deliver different statistics, some of them show even VERY EXTREME differences! Do you have an explanation for this strange phenomen? For me a visitor is a visitor and a hit is a hit. Not so for the counters? What’s wrong with them? What are they counting? Last not least: Which counter(s) do you really recommend?

    Thanks a lot!
    Rudi

  • Rudi

    November 7th, 2007 5:07 pm

    Hi Darren,

    I really like your site and so I put you as an “Alpha-Blogger” in my WebKompass:

    http://eisbrecher.net/indexu/blogs/alpha-blogger

    what I would like to know: I tested about 10 to 15 Blog-Counters and all of them deliver different statistics, some of them show even VERY EXTREME differences! Do you have an explanation for this strange phenomen? For me a visitor is a visitor and a hit is a hit. Not so for the counters? What’s wrong with them? What are they counting? Last not least: Which counter(s) do you really recommend?

    Thanks a lot!
    Rudi

  • Pete

    December 30th, 2007 5:22 am

    Do search results for blogs appear in conventional search engines such as google-search or are they restricted to blog search engines such as google-blog-search.

  • Anne

    December 30th, 2007 12:03 pm

    Darren…..You’ve been my guru and thanks to your incredible tips, I opened my blog in November. http://www.shipcriticblog.com. Now comes the fun part, building traffic….you’ve given me so many ways to generate income, I thank you and wish you a very Happy New Year!

  • Jeff Jack

    April 8th, 2008 4:19 pm

    Hi Darren, I have be intrigued about how knowledgeable you are in blogging. I would like to ask where have you gain most knowledge from about blogging. Like fellow bloggers, the internet, books. And what would you suggest for other bloggers to gain knowledge to blog better.

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