Written on January 31st, 2008 at 05:01 am by Darren Rowse
Ask ProBlogger a Blogging Question
Over the next few months I’d like to base as many posts as possible here at ProBlogger on real life questions and problems of readers.
As a result I’m opening the ProBlogger ‘question box’.
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.
Anything related to blogging will have more chance of being answered – although you’re welcome to submit other questions that you think I might have anything to say on.
PS: 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.
126 Responses to “Ask ProBlogger a Blogging Question” - Add Yours
Glenn Wolsey
January 31st, 2008 5:57 am
How does the general flow of your day run? I remember you posted a couple of ’schedule’ posts a long time ago. Any chance of an updated one covering how your general day goes?
Dustin Brewer
January 31st, 2008 6:03 am
How do you work advertising on your site when it comes to the 125×125 banners? Do most of the advertisers just come to you and negotiate advertising or do you (or someone else) pro-actively go and find advertisers for this (and other) blogs?
How would you recommend getting more advertising such as this, is it advisable to “look” for advertisers or will they just come with the traffic?
Bitten
January 31st, 2008 6:04 am
Blogging is hard when you’re tired. How do you keep yourself brisk when you need to blog?
Guillermo
January 31st, 2008 6:07 am
OK… let’s see…
I’ve been writing in Blogger for three year. Last september I moved the weblog to my own domain, with WP and all the stuff… So since then I have a weblog with three years of pretty good content and counting, around 300 unique entries per day, around 500 pageviews a day, 50% of my readership comes from Google (so I think I’m doing something well in SEO), my subscribers count is at around 240+ readers now, authority 51 in Technorati, PR3… does not look bad, eh? But I’m kind of upset because I cannot make AdSense grow at the same pace.
So the question is: Is there any relationship between these variables and AdSense? Or is it just the niche (immigration to Canada for an spanish speaking audience.. which between 2002-2006 represented almost 200K people so I guess it’s not that small)
I hope you can answer… Gracias Darren!
Tanner Christensen
January 31st, 2008 6:15 am
Hi Darren, I have just a quick question for you: what is something – other than content – that can help set a new blog apart from the millions of other blogs already in existence?
It seems that there are blogs for almost everything, if someone wanted to create a blog on a niche that is already covered, are there any “pro” ways that they could quickly climb to the top of the ladder?
Thanks Darren.
Warren of Zen Problog
January 31st, 2008 6:21 am
I started a blog about Professional Lifestyle a little over a month ago. It already has gotten 16,000 visits, has almost 100 subscribers and has a google page rank of 4 (somehow).
I want to do two things but do not know if I should yet (or at all).
First, should I put up advertisements at this early stage? And second, would it be okay to add a Donate button on an entrepreneurship blog?
The latter has been a huge debate between me and a few of my entrepreneur friends. I haven’t decided either way.
gamermk
January 31st, 2008 6:27 am
What’s the best way to make an effective tag line for your blog’s niche?
Ken
January 31st, 2008 6:32 am
2 newbie questions-
Can you explain what a “trackback” is and if it’s something I should be concerned about?
and
If people subscribe to my blog via RSS or email, what’s the point of designing a cool looking blog if most people read your content in a feed reader? Should you drive people to your actual blog page instead? (sorry thats 3 questions….)
Thanks
Dan Schawbel
January 31st, 2008 6:33 am
What are your feelings about having a blog website and another website that is in a non-blog format?
Are you just about having a single source (1 blog) that does everything?
Cory Huff
January 31st, 2008 6:37 am
Both of my blogs are pretty niche specific (artist housing, and husband advice). I have decent readership so now I’m trying to figure out what the best advertising method is for small, niche market blogs. Do you have a recommended method?
Boring Market
January 31st, 2008 6:43 am
How do you find a loyal audience when a niche is so small?
Missy
January 31st, 2008 6:47 am
What is the protocol in 2008 for paid reviews and text link sales?
Leanne
January 31st, 2008 6:51 am
How is it that traffic and subscribers go up, but PR and Alexa ranking go down? How much weight do you put on those “rankings” to quantify your “success”?
That’s two questions, I know.
Lori
January 31st, 2008 6:56 am
What is the best way to determine advertising fees when setting up an “Advertise” page?
Jeff - buzzmyblog.com
January 31st, 2008 6:56 am
In general, what would you say has the potential to generate the most revenue for a blog?
Thanks!
Jeff
CurlyBrace
January 31st, 2008 7:01 am
Here’s my question:
What is the ratio of visitors/clicks/revenue between http://www.problogger.net and http://www.problogger.net/blog?
Also: Could you share with us a little info about how much percentage do you earn from your different ad programs? (For example: 125×125 ads: 25%, Adsense: 20%, etc.)
Thanks! :)
Vivienne
January 31st, 2008 7:02 am
Can poor writing skills overshadow good content? I made that contention in a recent post of mine listing the 10 most common writing mistakes that make bloggers look dumb. I’ve gotten interesting responses and would like to know how important you think proper writing skills are.
Thank you, Darren. This is a great feature for readers.
Dan Cole
January 31st, 2008 7:13 am
Creating a successful blog is a long and slow process, how can bloggers be sure they are on the right path and doing the things they need to be do? What are some tips as to what bloggers should look at when creating every piece the big picture. A lot of new bloggers see the answer as being technology. Meaning things like having the best layout, most widgets, and belonging every social site, as well as commenting every post they read with “Great Job.”
Nick | Put Things Off
January 31st, 2008 7:25 am
Have your partner, family and friends always accepted blogging as a serious full time profession?
What work are you doing to change peoples’ perceptions of your profession?
In 2008, is “problogger” an acceptable job title?
What do you call yourself on professional forms like mortgage applications etc?
If your kid/s told you they wanted to grow up to be probloggers just like Dad, what advice would you give them?
It seems to me that there’s a long way to go before blogging is accepted as a serious career path, so I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Anonymous Whining
January 31st, 2008 7:36 am
I am perplexed by my blog. Many would call it a success: mature blog (three years), loyal following of great readers and commenters (average somewhere around 20 or so); awards, even bloggie nominations; good Technorati rating; posts picked up by major services including big news sites and magazines; active participation in networks such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, other localized groups, writing carnivals, etc. I believe I present a generally quality site with good writing. That’s the feedback I get.
Unfortunately, my traffic stinks for what I think it should be. Some days I struggle to get 100 readers! I’ve read tips and tricks and tried those. I can get a mild surge (high for me is 300-400 readers per day) but can’t sustain it.
It’s a conundrum, and its costing me. I get paid by advertisers for views plus I’m afraid if my traffic remains this low I won’t get to remain in the network. I already had two applications denied.
What am I doing or not doing?
Thanks for offering to answer questions. I see interesting ones above I look forward to hearing more about, and hope maybe you have insight for me, too.
(I am being anonymous because I feel like such a nag complaining and don’t want to offend anyone. I ought to be happy about all I have! If you need more information let me know.)
Andrea
January 31st, 2008 7:40 am
How do you get into a good routine? How do you filter all theblogs you read? Do you write daily before reading?
Yung-Chin
January 31st, 2008 7:50 am
Hi,
this reminds me of an application I ran into on PaulStamatiou.com the other day: http://www.skribit.com – I haven’t tried it (I’m only just starting to blog more regularly) but as far as I understand it, it’s just what you’re looking for here.
Best wishes, YC
Frugal Dad
January 31st, 2008 8:15 am
If you make a mistake in an article on your blog (not a simple typo, rather a factual error such as a bad date or dollar figure) do you simply correct the mistake, or do you correct and make a note at the bottom of the post? Or, do you simply do nothing and leave the post in its original form?
Thanks for opening up the “question box.” Nice feature.
Ben
January 31st, 2008 8:16 am
If you change the layout of your blog posts, for example, you add a Stumble It or Add This button to your post, do you go back and change all your posts or do you just forget about it and move forward?
redwall_hp
January 31st, 2008 8:47 am
How much traffic/subscribers should you have before you consider selling 125×125s? How do you find advertisers, etc? This is a topic I’d like to learn a lot more about.
Sportaphile
January 31st, 2008 8:59 am
Since a great deal of your earnings come from your blogs, what measures have you taken in terms of security? What measures do you suggest your readers take to secure their blog from attacks and/or malicious parties?
Jana
January 31st, 2008 9:01 am
Where does a blogger draw the line between putting up free content versus releasing an eBook? I’m all about an informative blog with great articles…but an eBook seems to be a good revenue point. So, should an eBook have exclusive information in it that you don’t share on your blog? Or is the value of an eBook found in it being an edited and formatted compendium of your blog? This is in regards to a social media in music blog I am working on to launch. Looking for ways and means!
Wayne
January 31st, 2008 9:07 am
I have all of the above questions and more! If you don’t write on some, could you point us to posts where the anwser might be?
I’m blogging about programming topics with Visual Studio as I am a programmer. I am also blogging about news items that interest me in 6 different blogs on my site. I know you have at least one other blog (where you started from), but do you have others, and if so, how does your daily schedule ensure you hit every blog to provide consistently fresh content?
I’m off to learn more from your blog. Love it and thanks for the helpful posts!
Wayne
Diana
January 31st, 2008 9:07 am
Hello, My friend and I have joined forces to start a blog. I read several articles saying “content” or having a “theme” was key to a successful blog. My friend and I have different and similar interests, yet we enjoy making separate posts and maintaining the blog together. I guess our problem is there is no consistent theme (individually or together), and our content is random. To be quite honest, we like it that way – it is a surprise and you never know what to expect! The downfall? We have lost several readers, which I assume is from the randomness. How do we make this work? We have many different ideas and interests we want to express on this blog, and we want to stick to one blog. I guess we assumed we would find readers that had the same sense of humor and random interests – is that wrong? Please help – confused!
LiveCrunch
January 31st, 2008 9:11 am
Darren
Do you do anything else beside blogging?
Do you think you will ever stop blogging and if you do what would you like to do?
Tejvan Pettinger
January 31st, 2008 9:20 am
In a competitive niche, such as blogging, what do you think are the best strategies for finding a unique voice and being able to offer something different?
Ed O'Keeffe
January 31st, 2008 9:23 am
My blog is nearly three years old. In the last six months I post daily. 10,000 uniques a month, all good but why does my blog have less than 20 subscribers?
What am I doing wrong? I think I basically want advice about ways to get people to keep people coming back to the site and get new visitors to subscribe, maybe my website attracts an audience that doesn’t subscribe to blogs? Do I need hundreds and thousands of subscribes to be a successful blogger?
bestofmoney.info
January 31st, 2008 9:24 am
Do you care about reading your readers’ comments – apart from the ones of this thread – as you have so many ? my impression is no.
Marty Weil
January 31st, 2008 9:25 am
Is it a good idea to post photos from an existing photoblog on Flikr? If yes, why? If not, why not?
Kevin
January 31st, 2008 9:34 am
Darren,
Recently I have seen more and more publishers moving away from Adsense and focusing more on affiliate programs and selling advertising directly to generate income from their blogs.
Do you see shunning Adsense in favor of other advertising as a growing trend, and have you started to move away from Adsense yourself?
Lightening
January 31st, 2008 9:40 am
Do you know of any blogs in the “personal blog” niche that have had reasonable success earning an income via blogging?
Is problogging something really only reachable by those who right more “informational” style blogs?
Mike
January 31st, 2008 9:44 am
Darren, how do I attract readers? My blog’s traffic is rather erratic at the moment – granted it’s not very old, but still… Last week I had 200 visitors, this week, about 20.
Webkinz
January 31st, 2008 9:44 am
What is the best way to connect with other bloggers and build some dialogue? I frequent several blogs and regulary leave comments on subject.
Melinda Seckington
January 31st, 2008 9:56 am
I’m not sure if this is normal or not and haven’t been able to find anything on Google about it: why does Google Analytics and Feedburner report a different amount of site visitors? According to GA I get about 150 visitors every day and on FB it’s 250. Why the difference?
Omar Yesid Mariño
January 31st, 2008 9:57 am
Do you invest your money in things others than your business? I mean, real estate, stock market, etc?
John
January 31st, 2008 10:04 am
Guest Posts on a Blog
Darren –
You promote the Guest Post quite often on your blog and I see it on other highly successful blogs. My question is what is the best way to get a quality guest blogger to post for your site and how do you go about becoming a guest blogger on others?
Any good tips/tricks?
Thanks,
John
Hedge Fund Blogger
January 31st, 2008 10:05 am
I have a successful blog, now I’m trying to build it out into my own blog network. Have any guides on building a network of blogs or branding a network of blogs. I’m not sure how in-line with my original theme or niche I should be, weather each site should be branded completely differently or have some logo or tag name in common…I know this answer could be written as a book but do you have any resources I could look at?
Thank you very much.
- Richard
HedgeFundBlogger.com
Lily
January 31st, 2008 10:10 am
As someone above said, I am also interested in knowing more about how many unique visitors in a day/month I should have before offering advertising space? I think adsense in both my niches is unlikely to bring me very much more than pennies but can see that there is a lot of potential for private advertising. I’m not really sure how to go about it though. I’d love to hear your advice.
Many thanks.
marcus
January 31st, 2008 10:11 am
How important is, for a blog, have an exclusive layout? It’s an vital issue to fix the blog’s identity or if a take a free wordpress theme it’s just ok?
Linda R. Moore
January 31st, 2008 10:43 am
(1) You’ve mentioned blog networks before. What is a blog network, and how does it work?
(2) Where a blogger has several blogs, all distinct but related, what do you think to the concept of a central “hub” blog which can be promoted to all, along with the url of the niche blog to its specific audience?
Example: I have blogs for RVing, travel, motorcycling, and history. All cross-post to some extent. It’s hard, sometimes, to know which url to leave in a comment. For bikers, RVers and travelers it’s truly obvious; for more general blogs, would it be a reasonable idea to leave a link to a hub which showcases all the different niche blogs instead?
Delia
January 31st, 2008 10:50 am
hi darren. i’m a non-us blogger. i was wondering what tips do you have for nos-us bloggers that have a blog in their own country and own language.
My concern is that countries like France, Germany or Romania where i’m from, or Japan and other, that have their own language, don’t “speak” to such a large public like the us blogs do, or let’s say english written blogs.
What should you do when your possible audience isn’t that big? What advertising methods should you use if the blogosphere in your country isn’t as developed as the us one?
What would you do if you found yourself in a country where the blogosphere is still at start-up point?
Bennie
January 31st, 2008 10:53 am
Since a lot of people are earning good money by blogging, did you see in some time that this will be a regular proffesion like any other? maybe when asking a kid “What do you want to be when you grow?” the kids will answer “Well I want to be a blogger!”
I really believe it will happen therefore not everybody is diciplined enough to be a profesional blogger. But thats my opinion whats yours?
Harold
January 31st, 2008 11:00 am
It seems there are so many different systems or models of blogging how do you navigate through all of that. For someone just starting it’s a little overwhelming. Most of us can’t ante up for the secret handshake over and over till we find the right one for our niche. Make sense or is it just me?….
Rick
January 31st, 2008 11:01 am
Hello, thanks for the chance to ask a pro about blogging…we are just getting started, and would like to know how to link…how to publisize our blog, something that would help us get out there….we will be putting images on it, as we know this is helpful…thanks for any info, we appreciate it…I have RSS feed of ProBlogger on my home page…thanks….Rick
Brian Purkiss
January 31st, 2008 11:39 am
I am starting to write an eBook.
It shall be on web design as opposed to blogging, but some tips on writing and/or publishing and/or getting the word out on an eBook would be most appreciated.
I don’t plan on publishing it any time soon, but aid would be nice.
:-)
Terry Rayburn
January 31st, 2008 11:41 am
Darren,
What would be the best way to monetize an otherwise non-commercial Christian blog? (Adsense or similar contextual vehicles don’t work, because keywords attract ads that are antithetical to the message of the blog, e.g., cults, atheism, etc.).
Thanks,
Terry Rayburn
http://www.graceforlife.com
Greg
January 31st, 2008 11:42 am
IS networking really that important?
Martin
January 31st, 2008 11:45 am
Hi Darren,
You’ve certainly got some fantastic stuff here, I’m rather new to the whole blogging thing, although have been around affiliate marketing and stuff for some time – just got my first ‘real’ blog up a few days ago (I’ve dabbled before, mostly to just play with Wordpress) and this site of yours has been a godsend (I’m a 100% converted blogger now, lol).
Anyway, my question relates to business systems – what kind of systems do you have in place to make your daily blogging easier? I’m not talking about talking short cuts, I’m interested in things you do to make your life as a blogger easier, especially relating to what you would do if starting a new blog.
For instance, you’ve talked plenty on writing a week’s worth of posts in a day and setting to auto publish them during the week – that’s the kind of stuff I want to know more of. Maybe things like – ‘what software do you use to write your posts – or do you just enter them straight into the Wordpress editor?’, ‘how do you manage your RSS feeds to keep an eye on what’s happening with your niche’… do you have hundreds running in your RSS reader? do you only follow a few main sites? do you mash everything together using Yahoo Pipes and try and filter things down?
How do you manage your systems so that you can maximise the time you spend on writing content?
Max
January 31st, 2008 12:36 pm
How do your get people to contact your business through your small business blog?
Dzelque
January 31st, 2008 12:49 pm
Blogging has grown from nothingness into what it is now (a pretty obvious phenomenon to say the least). What would you say the future of blogging would be like, or how would the direction changes (or remain the same)?
Do you think blogging would ever come to be something more substantial and permanent (say, turned into taught courses at colleges or developed into proper modules to be learned step by step) or will just continue to be something that’s left to be learned individually because there’s no need to have it wrapped into something too-academic. Or that it’s just too fluidic (changes in the greatest way possible all the time) that no single effort can really capture its real essence – simply because it has none.
Sorry, too mouthful I guess. I just want to get it out anyway. Who knows, maybe you have some insight into this or spin it sideways to become worthy of new post ideas.
Mar Joseph
January 31st, 2008 12:52 pm
Darren,
I love your site and look to it for advise as I try to develop my first blog, http://www.youngarchitect.net.
My question is simple. I would like to have my site professionally designed as my lack of code knowledge is really holding me back. What are the best avenues to find designers?
P.S. I am looking for a designer in the Southern California area. Thanks
Ms.Missive
January 31st, 2008 12:54 pm
How do you explain to people what you do for a living and what is their general reaction?
Missy
January 31st, 2008 1:21 pm
Greg:
I’ll take a stab at your question. Let me put it this way, if i did NOT do any networking, my blog would receive very few visitors and even fewer comments than it now does. (and what about future growth)
Why? Because blogging is like the real world, in that you need to network to get a decent job, to find that hot real estate deal, to sell more, to meet that special someone, etc.
Is it absolutely necessary, maybe not. Its not about whether it is necessary or not, its about the level of growth one wants. “No man is an island” applies to blogging as well.
The more you network and the better you are at it, the more people you will meet who will either become loyal visitors, readers, commenters, guest-writers, referral sources, etc.
It only helps. Why not do it?
maheshexp
January 31st, 2008 1:40 pm
Darren, Is the DIgg, del.icio.us, Technorati are really Useful? How did you make that as a useful tool. Apart from writing quality content what the extra that you do in your blog?
Chris Shouse
January 31st, 2008 1:48 pm
Reading all of these wonderful questions, I think most of mine have been asked. I hope Darren that you can answer most of them and in doing so I will be much clearer on my new niche blog I am researching now. Thanks for all you do.
Chris Shouse
SimplyWebtastic
January 31st, 2008 1:53 pm
Great idea creating a Question Box!
Now that you’ve been a successful blogger for many years, what advice can you give to newbie bloggers, like myself, trying to get their blogs noticed?
I keep reading about quality, original content as the key to success. That’s great, but no matter how good the content is, if nobody knows about it, it’s useless.
What practices did you use early on to get your blog noticed and read by lots of readers?
Vienne
January 31st, 2008 1:59 pm
Geez, why are people asking long lists of questions? Why not keep it at one question each before this feature becomes unreasonable?
Chetan
January 31st, 2008 2:19 pm
Hi Darren,
I have a couple questions -
What basic steps would you advice for a new blog to get some great readership and increase RSS subscribers to my blog? It is not totally new, but 2 months old, and has got very less traffic.
I love blogs and reading them, and really want to get inspired by some of the best bloggers like you.. Can you share how you get the interest to blog all the time? Everytime i start writing something i just get fed up within a few minutes and dont feel like writing the post. How do i get some interest and inspiration to blog?
Manish
January 31st, 2008 2:29 pm
In your posts you have talked about how you use different social networking platforms, bookmarking websites etc to keep promoting your blogs. Can we have a list of websites you actually participate on a regular basis? Also, how do you administer this task of participating/posting your work on all these platform? For example, do you use any tool that helps you post on multiple websites at once or each one is done individually? Finally how much time do you spend in actually writing on your blog and how much on being active on the various websites?
Thanks,
Manish
James
January 31st, 2008 3:09 pm
What are 3 to 5 topics that need more bloggers? Topics that are under-blogged?
Amanda - The Mom Crowd
January 31st, 2008 3:31 pm
What is your opinion of ad networks such as blogads, Federated Media, and Blogher?
I think you have said that you can get more when you sell your own ads, but how many visitors do you need before you can sell your own ads. Right now I only get about a 100 visitors a day.
993C4S
January 31st, 2008 4:52 pm
Darren,
Thanks so much for the opportunity for a direct connection and feedback. I’ve learned much from reading your posts and hope the trend continues.
In keeping with some of your earlier advise, I started a “niche” blog around a specific car brand or Marque. In my niche there seems to be very few quality sites that cover the same topic.
I enjoy writing my posts and have yet to experience any type of writers block or lack of topics for posting. As a result, my blog is updated frequently with fresh and hopefully relevant and interesting content (for those in my niche).
In the past two month I have seen my daily visitors grow from a handful of friends and family to more than 250 unique and new vistiors today. However, I’m not converting them to subscribers (be either email or feed). In addition, I can’t seem to get any type of iterative posting (comments) to take place no matter how I set-up my post.
I know you’ve covered these topics in the past (i’ve read them here at Problogger). Just wondering if you have any new insight to help me “get over the hump”.
Kind Regards,
John
Chetan
January 31st, 2008 5:05 pm
And Darren, how do i expect answers for my questions?
Will you be posting about that later or would you be sharing some related resources as the answers?
Shaun
January 31st, 2008 6:49 pm
What can bloggers do to defend themselves from the coming bubble pop?
What are three non-computer lifestyle tips that bloggers often ignore or don’t think of?
Thanks,
Shaun
Darren Rowse
January 31st, 2008 8:48 pm
Thanks to everyone for the questions. Keep them coming.
Just to let you know that I’m hoping to tackle a few of these in video posts, others will be in posts tackling one question each and others will be answered in posts with a few questions together by a guest blogger who has offered to help out.
I hope we can get as many of them answered as possible!
Dave (scoobyphotos.com)
January 31st, 2008 9:23 pm
Darren,
What do you tell friends and family about your work – I assume you have friends who are perhaps not web-savvy, and still see the internet, and especially making money from it, as a sort of illigitamate means of generating an income (or maybe thats just the impression I get from talking to some of my friends).
Do you feel the internet and making money from it as a full time career has been fully accepted by the masses, especially in terms of those bloggers who are not physically selling a product? Maybe this is just a UK issue?
From a personal point of view, blogging and the websites I run generate a smallish second income to my main job, but trying to explain how it works, and that its not some form of rip-off/con to people who are not particularly within the whole blogging scene can be difficult.
Louis
January 31st, 2008 10:11 pm
Is there much commercial value in targeting bloggers as customers? In other words, if one has a site dedicated to bloggers (e.g. blogcatalog), would advertising and affiliate marketing good be revenue models? If so, which specific affiliate programs would you recommend?
Sangesh
January 31st, 2008 10:46 pm
Humm… now what should I be asking ?…
1) What is the best time you get down to write your blog?
2) How do you get guest to write a blog for you?
3) How do you do Research and Development for yourself and for Problogger?
4) How do you write more than one post most of the days?
5) How do you manage these all: a) your life (personal/business), b) problogger c) other businesses
Opps… did I ask too many question? :)
Darren, do answer whatever or whichever question you feel comfortable.
Cheers.
Sangesh
January 31st, 2008 10:47 pm
Humm… now what should I be asking ?…
1) What is the best time you get down to write your blog?
2) How do you get guest to write a blog for you?
3) How do you do Research and Development for yourself and for Problogger?
Cheers.
Hyder
February 1st, 2008 12:05 am
Do you regret writing any of your posts when you go through your archives?
Ben
February 1st, 2008 12:08 am
2 quick questions.
Is Technorati still a relevant thing or has social bookmarking made it obsolete?
Are Technorati tags worth the effort?
Guardian Angel
February 1st, 2008 12:34 am
Hi, Darren. I am not sure if this is relevant but your opinion will definitely make sense. I made a post on my parenting tips blog entitled “Why You Should Allow your Children to Blog” and it had many negative comments more than the positive ones. This is even I added some useful tips on how to protect their child when they are on line.
Now I want to ask you: Should you allow children to blog? Thank you.
Les Scammell
February 1st, 2008 12:51 am
Hi Darren
I am not sure if you would want to cover these.
Given the technology that Google has and their ability to create very complex algorithms to determine page rank, why are they not able to do the following:
1) separate clicks on your own page – some ads are worth following – Google could still collect from the advertiser as they are getting the traffic – the publisher would not of course
2) if they can determine who is writing PPP, why not just discount the links when determining PR, and
3) why do they smart price your whole account and not just your poor performing sites
It seem to me that Google is smart – only when it suits them – any comments.
Stephen Hopson/Adversity University
February 1st, 2008 1:00 am
When I learned of “Ask Problogger a Question,” I got excited because I finally saw my chance to ask you something I’ve tried to ask in the past but didn’t get a reply. Imagine my surprise when you already got 77 replies from those who beat me to the punch!
Well, here goes. Hopefully we’ll get an article on how you do a video blog. What equipment and software do you use? How do you download a video (step by step)?
I’m a deaf blogger with excellent speaking capabilities, in fact, I am a motivational speaker by profession. Ever since you started video blogging, I’ve been intrigued by the possibility of doing some video posts at my blog to surprise my readers and make things a bit more interesting.
How do you do it?
I am one of those technological neophytes, terrified of the prospect of buying the wrong camera, not knowing how to download properly and so forth. Hopefully you can help us with this.
Hope to hear from you – somehow.
Welcome to Paradise
February 1st, 2008 1:11 am
hello darren,
the thing that i would like to ask you is, how can we use social networking and bookmarking sites to publicize our blog or websites?
Anna (Green Talk)
February 1st, 2008 1:58 am
Hi Darren,
I was recently reviewed by a Wiki unbeknownst to me. This particular Wiki provided good and bad points of the websites they reveiw. They were right on the money about my good points.
However, since my website is a blog, it was not deemed to be as credible as a more established online magazine or website, or an established writer. They did not knock my content. It was just a general comment on blogs. This bothered me because I make a point to footnote my sources etc. So, how does a one person blog gain credibility?
Since my niche (green living content) has so many online magazines and multi-authored websites, how can a little blog get noticed? I am constantly posting on these websites but I really don’t get much traffic from them.
Everyone’s questions are amazing!
Darren, you have enough questions to last you a year. Thanks for opening up this forum.
FC
February 1st, 2008 2:12 am
Hey Darren..
How does a blogger take his success to the outside world? For instance, many people outside the Internet world might not what it is to be a successful blogger online.. I am in a way asking how do you take your blogging success offline and make a bigger business out of it? Is it possible?
Ryan
February 1st, 2008 2:43 am
I’m stuck in “General” blog writing. I have a wide range of interests and each post is like a whole new blog. I love the variety but find it hard to target an audience.
What advice can you give for the “potpourri” blogger for attracting readers, and keeping them.
Deelip K
February 1st, 2008 3:05 am
Do you think promoting a personal blog is really hard since a personal blog covers all most everything or don’t have any special topic or niche or anything?
Paolo Amoroso
February 1st, 2008 3:23 am
In the early days of blogging, the conventional wisdom was to make blogs look more like regular web sites because users were not familiar with the new medium. Now that blogging is mainstream and there is more awareness of blogs and RSS feeds, does it still make sense to blur the distinction between blogs and web sites? Should blogs be recognizable as such?
abby Ives
February 1st, 2008 3:43 am
I am a soon-to-be-blogger, as my site is almost ready for prime time, and I have the technical expertise of a tomato. My question is very simple; aside from reading ProBlogger religiously, can you tell me/us what you consider to be good resources for learning more about blogging, what to do/not do, or how to learn about the technology, etc. As a newbie’s newbie, there seems to be a tremendous amount to learn and I’m trying to figure out the best way to go about it.
Lipton of Starfeeder
February 1st, 2008 4:32 am
I have plans on creating a blog network centered around competitive gaming communities.
My question deals with finding startup capitol for a Blogger with big plans. :)
Where are the best places, and best practices to go about seeking funding for additional paid Bloggers, legal, programmers etc.. ?
Karl
February 1st, 2008 5:15 am
I have long wondered what process to go through to choose/narrow down to a niche for a blog. What tools to use? What would the process look like?
Obviously it would be different for each person, but there must be some thing(s) that would be common threads (or at least good suggestions).
I am looking for ways to hone the many ideas I have for blogs into one (or a couple of separate) concrete niche-subject to blog about.
Sly from Slyvisions.com
February 1st, 2008 5:26 am
I’ve been blogging for over 6 months now and I think that I have already reached a lot of my goals. From getting an Alexa ranking below 80,000 to getting a few hundreds visitors a day, it would be typical for other bloggers to say that I am “on my way up there”. But I don’t think so.
What am I missing? I’ve already done everything there is to know in the book and doing it perfectly right. But everything just dies off after the next few days. Should I start advertising on other blogs now? (Which I have never done yet.)
Sly from Slyvisions dot Com
The Freelance Writer's Blog
February 1st, 2008 5:42 am
Darren,
Any advice on when to do a blog redesign. When you got yours redesigned, what prompted the decision (eg, lack/growth of sales, reader input, personal dissatisfaction, growth of blog to the point where you needed something different, etc.)?
My blog/freelance writing business is growing, and I’m kinda stuck on making a decision if I should redesign it now, or wait until something “forces” me to do it.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
And, as always, thanks for being so willing to share.
Sincerely,
Yuwanda
Roni
February 1st, 2008 7:00 am
OK, 2… here goes….
1.) Hosting. My blogs are going strong, I run a vibrant community hosting other’s blogs, a message board and I’m still on a shared hosting plan. When is it time to move to dedicated/managed? How hard is the move? Who hosts your site? I would appreciate any advice!
2.) Advertising. I am earning “so-so” in the advertising area but I noticed most blog advertising options seem skewed towards the “techie” blogs. I may be missing them but what options are out there for the lifestyle type blogs, food, weight loss, health, womens issues and so on?
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to ask!
Eric
February 1st, 2008 7:27 am
What is your feeling on bloggers not using their real name? When I started blogging I thought I could be anonymous, but that is obviously not the case. Just wondering what your thoughts are.
OPENGIGA TECH
February 1st, 2008 7:38 am
hi,
have a look please http://www.opengiga.com
would you please tell me something, how i can get some regular reader of my sites?
or am i have to be more specific in any others part of my site?
thanks
Derek
February 1st, 2008 8:00 am
When you author multiple blogs that cover a variety of topics, should you make an effort to build an overall brand or business identity that can encompass all of your blogs? Or is it better to keep each blog as a separate entity/company with its own brand?
Ali from TheOfficeDiet
February 1st, 2008 9:49 am
How do you find readers in the very early days (first few weeks or months) of a new blog?
Giada
February 1st, 2008 11:57 am
Hi Darren! Thanks for this opportunity!
I’m also thinking about starting a blognetwork but geared towards women. I hear that a lot of blognetworks use drupal. I was thinking about using blogger for my first website but now I’m hesitating.
What are the main differences between drupal and blogger? Is it easy to switch from blogger to drupal?
And is drupal user friendly?
Muilkorfje
February 1st, 2008 11:58 am
Hi Darren! Thanks for this opportunity!
I’m also thinking about starting a blognetwork but geared towards women. I hear that a lot of blognetworks use drupal. I was thinking about using blogger for my first website but now I’m hesitating.
What are the main differences between drupal and blogger? Is it easy to switch from blogger to drupal?
And is drupal user friendly?
Anonymous
February 1st, 2008 1:48 pm
I’ve got a couple of logistics question. I’m a solo blogger on a blog that’s really growing much more than I expected over the past 13 months (it crested 520,000 pageviews and over 300,000 uniques for January). In January ‘07, I had just over 300 page views.
First, I’m spread thin with content creation (I’ve got a ton of backlogged ideas/drafts) and backend site management. I’m not a designer or very proficient at writing code. I learn just enough to accomplish what I need to do for the give task.
Second, I’m looking at going to a tradeshow in several months that’s related to the industry that I blog on. I’ve never done this before.
What are your ideas on managing these two items. I’d love to have some guest posters that are knowledgeable in my topic area. In fact, I’ve asked for it – in a couple of posts and on my site’s about page. No takers. I’ve thought about paying someone; however, I don’t know what the right price should be or if that’s something I really should do. It’s a very personal involvement for me – having created it all.
If it’s backend that I need the help on – how/who do I choose? I’ve been thinking hard about hiring someone to help with a site overhaul. It would be worth a few hundred bucks to accomplish what I want. I’m using Wordpress and would like to continue to do so. I’ve browsed around at some of the creators of WP themes that I like, but I would like a little something deeper than a basic “blog” theme. Additionally, I haven’t really found a designer that’s got the quality in their portfolio that I’m looking for. I also need the ability to implement pages with a little more flexibility and variety than what I see in the typical WP theme.
On the trade show issue. How do I handle the logistics on my own? Live blogging? Photos of displays? Getting the good stuff out at the right time of day? Have you done something like that? Do you carry your laptop and update every couple of hours or so, or blog in the evening after hours? How do the big blogs like engadget or gizmodo do those things?
Ok, I said “a couple” but I also want to throw this one in. Given the audience that I’m reaching now, I would also like to implement a forum feature on my site within the next year. What’s the best way to do this? I’d like to hear your thoughts on both the tech side and the marketing/introduction side.
Oh yeah, and I’ve got a full time day job that I can’t quit.
What are your thoughts?
Edward
February 1st, 2008 4:11 pm
Hi Darren,
I remember you said you have started blogging when you were still a student, were there anyone who have said some DE-motivational things like “You should study harder & not wasting time on blogging” or “Blogging shouldn’t be counted as a job”? I am still studying now & I keep listening to these kind of things from friends & relatives, what should I do to keep myself motivated? & how do you keep yourself motivated? Really hope that you can answer my question
Regards,
Edward
pravesh tyagi
February 1st, 2008 6:26 pm
sir, how to the add own image in google images search……….reply me…….
silvino
February 1st, 2008 9:53 pm
any tips for non-english bloggers?
the basic may be the same. but practical details can be dramatically different. from SEO to advertising, or even copywriting techniques.
System Crasher
February 2nd, 2008 12:28 am
Hi Darren! :-)
I’m a “new” blogger and I’d like to receive some suggestions and help in order to make my blog better. I speak about information technology and similar topics, but I have few readers and even less comments: many posts are without comments.
Could you “review” my blog? Perhaps you can use Inforum (my blog) as a “case study” for a blog post… :-)
What do you think?
netvalar
February 2nd, 2008 1:40 am
I want to know how effective your video blog posts are and if it is something worth looking into doing for myself? What equipment I would need?
Now off to look at Jana’s blog as it is in my niche sounds like.
Chi Meng
February 2nd, 2008 3:25 am
I’ve been reading several articles of people starting a new blog and they share their stories of success and failures. The articles gives many valuable advice about blog startups and dos and don’ts, what and how to write a blog, goals, mission … etc.
But what about the technical side of building the site?
For someone “out of the blue” who decides – I want to have a profit-driven blog – how can they begin if they don’t want to use avenues such as blogspot and such. If they can’t afford to hire a webdesigner/developer to build the initial site – and certainly they are not IT specialists, how in the world do they start?
They either need to personally know a web designer or go back to school and learn web development.
There is an initial cost involved to build a blog.
Website firms charges minimum of $1000 to build a dynamic CMS site for new Blogs. I received an initial quote for $15,000 to build a CMS backbone for a Blog.
It cost money to build this backbone – and if you have no clue how to do the scripting backend – you have to pay more money to hire someone to troubleshoot.
So starting a blog – one would need to fork out $$$ to build the actual site. Unless you are fortunate to be related/or know a web developer (but still there is some cost involved for the time and energy spent).
Can you shed some light as to the cost initiatives for someone with no IT background and how they would go about building the initial site?
What are the drawbacks? Troubleshooting costs?
David Lano
February 2nd, 2008 3:38 am
Darren, thanks for this awesome opportunity! I’m fairly new to the blogosphere and just started a new blog a few weeks ago.
I am curious to hear what your thoughts are, on where blogging will go in the next few years. Do you see any particular trends or patterns developing in how content is being shared or differences in the way conversations take place?
Thanks!
-David Lano
Aseem Kishore
February 2nd, 2008 3:57 am
Throwing my question in a little late, but where the heck do you find really really good blog designers!?!?! I need one badly and can’t seem to get one who can design a very Web 2.0 style blog! Thanks!
Andrea
February 2nd, 2008 6:20 am
Thought of some more – how do you handle negative criticism and/or incorrect assumptions about you?
Andrea
February 2nd, 2008 6:30 am
@Roni – look into Blogads and the BlogHer Ad network. :)
Giada
February 2nd, 2008 1:49 pm
Oops, sorry for the double post. Thought it hadn’t registered my comment..
Brian Auer
February 2nd, 2008 4:56 pm
Making money with programs like AdSense or Chitika is depressing and frustrating at best. At some point, I feel that blogs can outgrow their dependency on these services and shoot for “real advertisers” as a means of making money through blogging. I’ve been struggling with this one for months now, and I can’t seem to find any good resources that address it directly.
At what point is it feasible to approach those “real advertisers”? Is there an approximate readership that may be useful as a guideline?
How do we find those advertisers? Are there any good places to start looking, or is it a game of guess and check?
HOW should those advertisers be approached? Should they be given a brochure? Do we talk about our stats, readership demographics, the site content?
What about pricing? Are there any good ballpark price structures? What do we base rates on?
And how should all of this be managed? What’s the best way to manage the accounts and the actual ads?
I’m sure these bits and pieces are out there somewhere, but like I said, I haven’t seen them covered very well and in a coherent flow. I think a lot of people would be interested to learn about these same things.
By the way, I’m open to being used as a supporting case study for an article or series in the event that you choose to write on these topics. ;)
Nick
February 2nd, 2008 9:56 pm
Can you talk about advertising some? Do you actively seek advertisers? I assume that you might already recieve enough responses because of the popularity of your blog without having to go get advertisers. But is there a good way to find advertisers that will post ads and what should the rate for different types of ads be based on stats such as unique visitors and page views and such?
thanks,
nick
Dexter : Techathand.net
February 3rd, 2008 1:57 am
Could you give some points about an effective landing page for any advertising that you are working outside your niche or blog
Missy
February 3rd, 2008 7:42 am
I’m a new blogger, hope this question isn’t too basic. I’ve seen a lot of emphasis placed on getting RSS subscribers. What’s the difference between subscribing via RSS and just adding a blog to your reader? I personally read about 30 blogs via my reader but don’t “subscribe” to any of them, and I’m not sure how that’s different. I’ve enjoyed perusing your site in recent weeks; it’s a great service — thanks.
Armaan
February 9th, 2008 5:19 am
Like sponsoredreview , can i get the direct market place where i can bid sponsored directly to give me the offer?
Gab "SEO ROI" Goldenberg
February 12th, 2008 11:38 am
What do you think of premium content? What are the requirements to be succesful there?
Dennis
February 14th, 2008 5:25 am
What is your level of expertise in the following:
1. (x)HTML
2. CSS
3. SEO
4. JavaScript
5. PHP
6. WordPress customization
7. PhotoShop (or other graphic editor)
thanks
Dennis
February 14th, 2008 5:43 am
8. usability
9. accessability
10. principles of graphic design
Dennis
February 14th, 2008 5:54 am
11. web security
12. Mysql (or other server query language)
13. 3d animation
Gary Kelly
February 14th, 2008 11:53 am
I asked a question earlier re baby boomers but the comment was not approved. I’m sorry if the questions was too site specific and I apologize.
I’m truly interested in hearing your response to my question however.
How about if I ask the question this way?
I have a (hypothetical) website where I focus on widgets and I’m wondering about keywords.
The term widget returns 2.2 million google results and the term widgets returns 5.2 million google results.
I know I should use both keywords but which one should I focus on? widget or widgets?
Where do you think my chances would be best? Assuming ceteris paribus?
Thanks.
Brett Montana
February 15th, 2008 3:53 am
Darren/Skellie,
Hello, I have a few fairly brief questions I believe many of us would like to know.
1) Is it too late in the game to become a blogger?
I understand there are many hundreds of niches, but it seems every niche now has a “big-boy” website within it. Unless you find something truly unique.
2) A website in 90 days or less?
A while back I heard rumors of a guy who can grab a domain name, and in any niche can have that site brining in $100 a week in Adsense. I have used adsense, and have been lukcy to get $1-$3 in 90 days a week..
3) The Long run -
I saw a while back you stated that 6% of global advertising was done on the WWW, and even more projected for the future. I can understand how having a big site, this would pay off for you, but us over here in the little pond who get maybe 100 visitors a day on a good day, doesn’t leave much room.
4) Computer literate
More and more people are becoming computer literate. People are learning not to click on the AdSense links, as they see them as just that, ads. I understand positioning and what not has a great deal of influence on these matters, and you can mask your affiliate link (why people think it’s funny to go through the link you provide but delete your code beats the heck out of me..). My question is, as the world becomes more and more pc literate, do you think there is going to be a type of advertisement that will keep up with it?
Thanks guys!!!
Lin
February 15th, 2008 1:57 pm
Darren, I’ve been carefully reading through your series of articles on Guest Blogging. Your most recent one, “How To Recruit High Quality Guest Bloggers” leads me to the question:
How to write a “Write For Us” page?
Your guest blogger mentioned the importance of having a Write For Us page, but neglected to give any details as to what things to include in the page in order to make it clear that guest blogging is a win-win for both.
Perhaps you can address that in an upcoming post. I’ll keep watching as I always do.
JoLynn Braley
February 24th, 2008 4:55 am
Hi Darren,
On the topic of social media -
Using SU for an example – I noticed in your profile that you have only listed your interests in the area of blogging. So my main question is… do you have a strategy in mind when you set up your profile, not only on SU but on other social sites?
1 – are you limiting your interests to blogging because you only want that profile associated with problogger? (do you have another profile for your digital media blog?)
2 – do you only accept fans as friends if they blog about blogging or only submit articles on blogging?
3 – do you only give the thumbs up or submit articles about blogging?
4 – if yes to any of the above, are you doing this because it strengthens your SU ranking? Should we be doing the same….if our niche is sky diving, should we only be about sky diving and nothing else?
Finally, If you do have a strategy on your profiles limited to blogging, do you suggest that we should limit our (using SU again as example) submits only to our niche area? and… if we have another blog in a different niche, should we set up a separate profile for each of our blogs?
Exactly what % of your workday do you spend on social media Darren?? (seems like we could spend a large chunk each day on this)
Thanks a lot Darren. I really appreciate all of the valuable information that you pass along to us.
Josh Nelson
February 25th, 2008 4:51 pm
How much of your day is devoted to marketing/promotion and how much to blogging? What is the split?
Have you been able to generate significant traffic from social news sites other than digg, reddit and stumbleupon? Specifically, I’m wondering about mixx and propeller. Any experiences?
Thanks Darren!
JoLynn Braley
March 14th, 2008 10:54 am
Hi Darren, are you still taking questions?
Here’s one that I’ve been bouncing around and now that I’ve seen it more than once I’m running it by you –
I’ve come across 3 blogs to date that are new, have few comments (2 of the blogs have almost 0 comments, one has some comments), but they display the feedburner chicklet with what appears to be an inflated count. (blog one – 30,000+, blog two – 40,000+, blog three – 500+).
I’m really curious if this is a new trend in an attempt to attract subscribers? I think it’s fairly obvious when you land on a blog that shows over 30,000 subscribers yet has 0 comments and also displays a copyright of 2005-2008 when the url was registered 2 days ago that something is up, but not everyone is going to investigate like I did.
What do you think about this and how can it be so easy to game the feedburner chicklet count? Does this make you question a new blog that you come across, wondering if it really does have the subscribers that it displays in the feed widget?
Thanks Darren!
Glottrotter
March 27th, 2008 6:39 pm
When a blog dies…
Hi Darren,
I started two blogs last year, now I’ve realised I just have time for one. What should I do with the other one? On the one hand I hate dead blogs, and I think I should delete it forever, on the other I think it might be still useful to somebody and it would make more sense to leave it there.
Thanks
promosyon şapka
July 31st, 2008 1:23 am
In general, what would you say has the potential to generate the most revenue for a blog?
Thanks!
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