Written on 1/23/2008 at 10:30 pm by

9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers

Filed Under: Blog Promotion, Blogging Tools and Services

Twitter-Benefits
I was a little slow getting onto Twitter last year (when so many other bloggers embraced it). To be honest I didn’t think it had much to offer me – I’m beginning to see how wrong I was.

In this post I want to explore how I’m using Twitter to:

  • improve the quality of my blogs
  • network with other bloggers
  • widen my readership
  • grow my profile
  • drive traffic to my blogs

Before I get into some of the benefits of Twitter – let me say that I’m still new to it as a medium. I’m in a phase of experimenting and finding my voice. So please treat this as a progress report rather than a complete and definitive one.

Also note that tomorrow I’ll share some of the more practical tips of how I’m finding Twitter to be most useful. Today is more the ‘benefits’ and tomorrow I’ll make some suggestions about how to use the tool more effectively. Subscribe to my feed to ensure you don’t miss that post.

The Benefits of Twitter (to me)

One of the main things that I’ve discovered about Twitter is that no two Twitter users are using it in the same way. Almost every Twitter user that I come across tells me that they have a different objective when it comes to using it and are benefiting from it differently.

As a result I won’t attempt to write a definitive list of the benefits of Twitter – but will share how I’ve found it to benefit me (feel free to add your own comments).

1. Research Tool

One of the things that I’ve come to enjoy about Twitter the most is the way that it can be used when you’re researching a post.

  • Stuck for inspiration? Twitter and idea and see what others add to it.
  • Need an example for a point you’re making? Twitter it and you might get some good ones.
  • Got a question that you’re stuck on? Ask it to your followers to see what they think.
  • Need to test a hypothesis? Do a straw poll on your followers.

The beauty of Twitter is that it’s quick, is used by a wide variety of types of people and because of the 140 character limit to messages it keeps interactions concise, manageable and productive (usually).

Example – Let me illustrate this with a ‘live’ example. Lets just say that I’m writing a post on RSS feed subscriptions and wanted to find out how many feeds people were following. I’d post a Tweet like this:

twitter-research.png

Now I actually posted that Tweet a few minutes ago and in the time that it took me to grab a screen shot of the tweet and made myself a coffee I’ve had the following responses:

twitter-research-2.png

What other medium can you gather that kind of data in 5 minutes? (actually by now – 10 minutes later there have been 30 responses and it’s the middle of the night for most of my followers).

2. Reinforce (and expand) Your Personal Brand

twitter-branding.pngI’ve written previously about how I’ve found interacting on multiple mediums can be important in building your personal brand. Whether it be social networking, blogging, bookmarking, real life interactions etc – all of these ‘straws’ when added together can go a long way to building your own brand. Twitter is another ‘straw’ in my personal brand (and that of my blogs).

What I’ve found is that I’m getting emails and messages from people saying things like:

  • ‘I used to read you at ProBlogger but had lost track until I found you on Twitter’
  • ‘I subscribe to your RSS feed on the blog but seeing your posts on Twitter reminds me to read them more’
  • ‘I was scanning through someone else’s Twitters yesterday and saw your face. I recognized it from your Facebook account so thought I’d check out you.’
  • ‘I saw your name mentioned the other day on Scott Karp’s Twitter feed. I hadn’t seen your blog for a while and it reminded me to resubscribe.’

This type of comment to me illustrates that Twitter is another useful tool in putting you as a blogger in front of readers and potential readers.

The other thing that I’ll say about branding and Twitter is that it can be used to expand your brand or to show a different side of you. Some of the people that I enjoy following the most on Twitter inject humor into their Twittering that I don’t see on their blogs. There’s also something a little more personal about many of the people I follow on Twitter (even if they Tweet on a ‘professional’ topic – their voice is often more personal than on their blogs).

Example – the wonderful thing about Twitter is that it’s actually others who brand you and not just you who does all the work. Look at the example above and you see that 30 people (it’s now up to 40) answered my question and each time they did they publicly used my blog’s name and linked to my Twitter account. Those 30 or 40 people are collectively being followed by thousands of others and by responding to my question they ‘sneezed’ the ProBlogger virus out to them (incidentally I’ve had 15 new followers join up since posting that question just minutes ago).

3. Promote Content

The first thing that people usually ask me when I say that I’m on Twitter is ‘how much traffic does it drive back to your blogs?’ I’ve purposely held off on writing about Twitter as a means to drive traffic until this point in this post because I don’t see it as the main benefit of the tool. Having said that – it can potentially promote content and drive traffic.

I’ve been using a tool called TwitterFeed for the last four weeks (31 days to be exact) to take the headlines and URLs from my blog’s feeds and to publish them in my Twitter account. In that time I’ve seen just over 1350 visitors come from Twitter to Problogger after something like this appears in my Twitter feed each time I post:

twitter-promote.png

That is not a massive amount considering I have over 1000 followers at the moment and considering that it’s .38% of the total traffic that the site has had in that time – however it’s not insignificant because I suspect that Twitter users are a fairly influential bunch of people and could potentially be spreading my URLs wider than just on Twitter (on their blogs etc).

Here’s how my traffic has grown since starting to use Twitter more seriously a month ago.

twitter-traffic.png

One surprising thing that I found when I started publishing my stories on Twitter was that some Twitter readers told me that they now read ProBlogger exclusively through Twitter – to the point that they didn’t check the feed any more. At first I was a little concerned by this – but then i realized that it was a good thing because those readers had found a way that fitted more with their own rhythm to read my content.

Twitter had become an alternative subscription method for them. Plus it actually caused these readers to read the blog on the blog rather just in their feed reader – creating increase page views/unique visitor counts.

4. Extend Audience – Find NEW Readers

One challenge that bloggers who’ve been around for a while in their niche can face is that they reach a saturation point. They sometimes feel like everyone who will hear about them has already heard about them and they can see a plateau in their stats. This often happens 6-12 months into a blog.

My encouragement to this type of blogger is to think about where potential readers might be gathering that they’re yet to tap into. I’ve found that this has happened for me with Twitter.

I’ve already touched on how this happens above in the ‘branding’ section – however a number of Twitter users have told me that they’ve just discovered my blogs through my Tweets (and the Tweets of others). There hasn’t been a flood of new readers from this – but my Google analytics says that 27% of of the visitors who have come to ProBlogger from Twitter are ‘new’ to my blogs. For me that’s about 15-20 new readers per day through Twitter – over a year that could definitely add up and those 5000 – 7000 new readers could have a significant impact upon a community.

5. Networking

twitter-network.pngAnother obvious benefit of Twitter is the ability that it gives you to network on a different level with other bloggers, readers and ‘others’. I’ve lost count of the direct messages and group conversations that I’ve had with people that I’d never have ‘met’ any other way.

Already this has opened up some fascinating opportunities to work together on promoting each other’s content, sharing advice etc. It’s also opened up 3-4 opportunities for me to find new guest bloggers for my blogs.

One more thing on a networking front – I find it difficult to put this one into words, but there’s a certain camaraderie that develops when you read what someone’s written every hour or so throughout a day (and know that they’re doing the same with you). For me it’s something like that feeling that you get after spending a couple of days with someone at a conference – you know each other on a whole other level. Difficult to explain and I’m not sure I’ve quite put my finger on what this is (anyone able to say it better?).

6. Previews

Last week on a couple of occasions I released exclusive little previews to Twitter followers of information that I hadn’t yet posted on my blogs. I did this in two ways.

1. Once I posted news that I was yet to break on ProBlogger (I think it was about AdSense retiring their AdSense referral program). I did this because it was important news and I hadn’t yet had time to write up a post. I included in the Tweet that I’d post about it shortly – this created a little anticipation among followers (to the point where a few started direct messaging me asking when my post would go up).

2. The other time I shared a link to a post on ProBlogger that was yet to go live (ie I’d published it as an advance post at a time that was yet to happen – this created a page but no one would have known it was there). I did this as an experiment to see what would happen. The result was that when the post did go live on the blog on the front page it already had comments and a good discussion. I also found that three people had already linked to it. It also helped some readers to feel a little special to get a Twitter exclusive (in fact I’m publishing the link to this post on Twitter 3 hours before it actually goes live on the the blog).

There’s one more thing that I’d like to try in terms of combining this idea of ‘preview’ and the ‘research’ point mentioned above – and that’s to create a private post on my blog that I reveal only to Twitter followers and to then post a draft there of a post I’m working on to get feedback on before publishing it publicly. This would be an interesting exercise and explore the idea of a more communal writing of a post.

7.Speedlinking

twitter-speedlinking.png
One of the things that I’ve been doing lately instead of posting so many ‘Speedlinks’ here on ProBlogger is to share these links on Twitter. I’m doing this largely from Google Reader using a Firefox add-on created by Bob Lee. While Speedlinking is something that has worked reasonably well here on ProBlogger (in posts like this for example) I’m actually finding the medium of Twitter to be well suited to it also.

Note: – if you’re not into Twitter but still want to follow my speedlinks I’m posting alot of them in my Shared Items feed via Google Reader.

8. Story Gathering

A number of times this past week I’ve heard of breaking news in my niches via the Tweets of others. I would have heard of these stories via my news aggregator and the RSS feeds of others eventually – but due to the immediacy of Twitter I heard them just minutes after they broke.

This can be the difference between breaking a story to readers and being second or third at it.

9. Find Out What People REALLY Think

Another observation that I’ve made in the last couple of weeks while on Twitter is that people have a certain level of honesty and rawness on Twitter that they sometimes mask or hide on their blogs. I’m not sure why this is – but perhaps when confronted with saying something in 140 characters they have to strip away some of the disclaimers and politically correct language and just say what they mean.

The good thing about this is that it gives you a sense of what people are really thinking on a topic. This helps you to get to know them on a new level but also helps you keep your finger on the needs and feelings of your potential readers.

So they are some of the benefits that I’ve found of using Twitter. I’d be fascinated to hear how others have found it to be useful. Don’t forget to look out for tomorrow’s post with suggestions on how to improve your blogging with Twitter.

PS: I wrote this post over a number of days. Since starting it Maki at DoshDosh put together his 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter post which has some good suggestions too.

Update – Read my next post with tips on How to Use Twitter and also read some of my Twitter Follower’s tips on using Twitter.

Written on 1/23/2008 at 4:28 pm by

ProBlogger T-Shirt Hits Italy

Filed Under: ProBlogger Site News

Davide “Tagliaerbe” Pozii from Italy just emailed me to let me know that he’s got his ProBlogger T-Shirt. He sent a picture too. Anyone else out there with a picture to share? I know there’s more Tshirts in circulation and would love to see people modeling them!

problogger-t-shirt.jpg

Written on 1/23/2008 at 5:51 am by

A Reality Check about Blogging for Money

Filed Under: Featured Posts, Miscellaneous Blog Tips

Reality Check

Last week’s article in the Wall Street Journal revealed that my blog earnings are in excess of $250,000 per year (a very ballpark figure).

The problem with these type of articles is that they report in a few words just one element of a story – in this case my earnings.

While it’s true that I have built my blogging to a point where I’m able to earn good money blogging there are many things that an article like the one in the WSJ didn’t (and couldn’t) mention about how I was able to build my blogging up to this point.

The impact of this missing ‘back story’ is that much of the reality of blogging for money goes unseen by those looking at blogging as a potential income stream – leading some to naively enter into blogging with false expectations.

Of course when these expectations are not met things can get ugly with disappointment and anger being a common reaction. What disappoints me as a blogger writing on this topic is that I regularly see other bloggers feeding their readers with hype and false hopes about how easy it is to make big money from blogging. This only adds to the distance between their reader’s expectations and the reality of blogging for money.

The Reality of Blogging for Money

So what is the reality of building up one’s blogging to a point where they can make a full time living blogging?

Here are five facts that I’d like to share about my own story to give a more realistic picture to those considering getting into blogging as a way to make a living.

1. It takes a concerted long term effort

I have been blogging for five years. The first year was not for money in any way (although I learned a lot about blogging in that year) and the next two I worked 2-3 jobs at a time (and was studying part time) while I built my blogging up from a hobby, to part time job to a full time venture (more on my story here).

I’m often asked things like – ‘I need to make $xxxx in the next few months – how would you do it with a new blog?’

The average age of blogs in the Technorati Top 100 was over 3 years when I last surveyed it – while the occasional blogger has a fast rise to frame they are the exception. Building a successful blog takes a long time (it takes time to build readership, to work out how to monetize it etc) so take a long term approach and pace yourself.

2. It takes luck

I won’t speak for other bloggers but in my case I was very fortunate on many fronts. I started blogging at a good time (it was a lot less crowded and competitive back then).

  • I stumbled on making money from blogs quite accidentally
  • I started my first money making blog on the spur of the moment and picked a topic (digital
  • photography) without knowing what I was doing – but for the time it was right)
  • I met the right people at the right time
  • Bigger bloggers discovered me at opportune times

The lucky list could go on – but I was very lucky. Of course some people ‘make their own luck’ and to some extent I agree with this – there are ways to increase your chances of being lucky – but some of it is outside your hands. Sometimes the luck comes and sometimes it doesn’t.

3. It takes a lot of work

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how blogging less can mean more from your blog (example 1 and example 2). While I agree with this – that doesn’t mean you can just come up with a few posts on a whim every few days and expect the traffic (and money) to come rolling in. Over the last 3 years I’ve consistently worked 40-60+ hour weeks on my blogging. At one point I was posting 20-30 posts per day (mainly news related posts back then). Most bloggers that make a full time living from blogging work corresponding hours on it.

4. Many don’t make much money blogging

I’ve often used the analogy of Professional sports people to highlight that in any ‘game’ there are many who play it – less who make a little money from the game, even less who are able to earn a living from it (just) and just a small group who make big money from it. The same is true for bloggers. I’ve run many polls here at ProBlogger on how much people are earning from the medium (eg) and on every single occasion they reveal that the vast majority of bloggers are making very little per month. While it is possible to make amazing money from blogging the sad reality is that most don’t make more than pocket money. Even some blogs who ‘deserve’ to make money blogging don’t.

5. It’s hard

One thing that I’ve found to be common with when I had small/new blogs and now having blogs that are doing reasonably well is that in both instances it can be really hard to keep them going. The pressure to keep coming up with fresh ideas, to respond to critique of others, to deal with jealousy when others do well and more can be difficult to deal with. On some levels it gets easier to deal with as your blog grows – but on other levels the demands that you face from a larger readership can at times be overwhelming. Most bloggers that I know (big and small) have at one point or another been close to giving up – I know I have.

Feeling Depressed?

I don’t want to put a downer on those of you wanting to take your blogs to a level where you could make good money from blogging – the fact is that it is possible and and increasing number of people are making a part time or full time living from the medium – but I do think it’s important to have a realistic picture before getting into blogging for money.

While some bloggers do talk about blogging as a way to make quick money I’ve not had that experience myself. Perhaps others do get rich quick from blogging – but I’ve not met any successful bloggers who’ve told me that yet.

Reality Check 2

Written on 1/23/2008 at 12:01 am by

Face to Face with the Matthew Effect: Making Yourself Heard

Filed Under: Writing Content

Guest Post: Muhammad Saleem is a social media consultant and a top-ranked community member on multiple social news sites.

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. (Matthew XXV:29, King James Version.)

What the passage is essentially saying is that the rich and influential will get richer and more influential. However, what the passage doesn’t tell you is what happens to the not-so-rich and not-so-influential in the process. Sociologist Robert Merton uses the phenomenon to explain (in science, for example) how if there are two scientist, one is prominent and one is largely unknown, and both of them independently do the same work, credit will end up going to the already famous scientist.

Now if you apply the same principle to the blogosphere, the problem you start having is that if there is a relatively young and insightful blogger who is going up against an already established blogger with an extensive audience, it’s incredibly difficult for the younger blogger to break through. As James Surowiecki makes the case in his book The Wisdom of Crowds, ‘ideas are meant to triumph not because who is (or who is not) advocating them but because of their inherent value…’ but in reality this is hard (though not impossible) to come by.

Making Yourself Heard
Image by Toddheft

So how do you fight the Mathew Effect? Here’s a start:

1. Work harder

From my personal experience, what I’ve seen is that as people’s influence grows, they tend to get lazy and put less work into their subsequent content. You can stand out by working harder. This doesn’t mean writing more (per post) but this means being consistent, not taking days off, and writing when others are not (weekends and holidays).

2. Differentiate

The ‘big boys and girls’ of blogging often get stuck in their ways. By approaching the same instances from a unique perspective, or focusing on niches that no one else is attending to, you can create a substantial audience for yourself (an audience that others are just ignoring). Only write when you have something fresh to say and do your best to stay out of regurgitation circles.

3. Collaborate

As you’re working from the bottom to the top, don’t forget that you are not alone. Not only are there hundreds of others in the same position as you, but there are also those who remember being in the same position as you. By collaborating with your peers (i.e. guest writing on their sites) you can instantly forge new relationships and reach much wider audience. Take my own experience for example, I have given some of my best work to copyblogger, readwriteweb, searchengineland, centernetworks, pickthebrain, and other sites. Not only have I made everlasting friendships with the owners of these sites, but my contributions helped a completely new and much larger audience appreciate my work and ultimately subscribe to my feed for more of the same.

4. Use your network

We don’t live on a ‘you build it and they’ll come’ web. Our attention spans are decreasing and we’re facing information overload. The onus lies on you to draw people in. This means utilizing your network as much as you can. If you’re on a microblogging platform (i.e. Twitter) share your content there, if you’re on a social network (i.e. Facebook) send your content to your friends, and if you’re on a social news/blookmarking site (i.e. Digg/Del.icio.us) try to get your content some attention there. start with the people closest to you (i.e. most likely to give you a chance and convert to long-term/loyal readers) and expand outwards. Don’t be afraid to reach out to anyone (people are more willing than you think).

5. Don’t get discouraged

There will be many instances where more influential people will write something incredibly similar to what you’ve written, and after you’ve written, and still manage to not only get all the attention, but also the credit. I remember this happening to me about 14 months ago (a story I had written was re-written by another blogger, probably not intentionally, 3 hours after me, and he got all the credit) and I was absolutely infuriated. I was mad, perhaps irrationally, at the other blogger, but more than that I was mad at the readers for flocking to that site instead of mine. Don’t let events like these let you down, rise above them.

By staying true to these five simple principles, and given some time, you too can break through the barrier and get people to listen to you when you speak.

Written on 1/22/2008 at 11:17 am by

My Search for the Perfect Cafe [And What it Taught Me about Blogging]

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Blog Tips

Warning – Tangent Ahead…

As I’ve been Twittering lately, I’m currently on a search for a good local cafe to blog from.

While there are plenty of cafes in the area we’ve moved to – this morning’s ‘cafe crawl’ showed me that it could be more of a challenge than one might think to find one to call ‘home’. I visited 4 (I’m buzzing on coffee now) and none of them really hit the mark.

Good Cafe Good Blog

As I went from one cafe to another I started to compare my search for a new cafe to blogging (as I tend to do). In particular I began to think of how it might compare to a reader finding a blog to read.

Here’s a few random thoughts on what I want in a cafe and what blog readers might be looking for in a blog:

I want a Cafe (Blog) With a Friendly Welcome

At the first cafe I visited this morning I was greeted by the waitress with a grunt. Not a good start and something that I couldn’t really get over despite other nice things about the establishment. First impressions matter in most aspects of life and whether it be a cafe or a blog, it’s owner needs to consider how those entering it feel. While a cafe can be a more personal space than a blog where readers stay a little more anonymous – some bloggers write in a much more friendly and personal style.

I want a Cafe (Blog) with Good Coffee (Content)

the primary thing that I go to a cafe for is my drug of choice – caffeine. While I’m no coffee snob, I do like a good latte and if I don’t find one I tend to move on. If a cafe can’t get it’s core business on the mark it might as well give up in my mind. A blog’s core business is it’s content and if it can’t get that right – well what’s the point? You can work on your blog’s aesthetics, SEO or other aspects as much as you like – but unless you deliver on the content front – you’ll never get anywhere.

I want a Cafe (Blog) with Consistency

when I visit a cafe I don’t want to have a good experience of the food, coffee and service one day and a poor one the next. I want to know when I go through that door that I’ll get a certain standard every time. A blog needs to establish a certain level of consistency also. This doesn’t mean it becomes ‘bland’ – but rather readers like to know what they’ll get when they visit both in terms of topic and quality. While creativity, the odd off topic post and a few surprises can add a little spice to a blog – the majority of blog readers do like consistency and will become frustrated with a blog that goes all over the place.

I want a Cafe (Blog) that is Affordable and Accessible

I don’t mind paying for a coffee, good service and a good atmosphere – but a cafe doesn’t need to be a fine dining experience and if it costs me too much I’ll find a more affordable option. Some blogs ‘cost’ their readers too much – they ask their readers to jump through too many hoops to participate in them. For example, one pet peeve of mine are blogs that require me to register to comment. While I understand the pressure of comment spam, putting this barrier in front of your readers will cause many of them to refrain from participating.

I want a Cafe (Blog) where my Needs are Met

in one cafe I visited today the owner greeted me in a friendly manner, gave me some personal attention and showed me to a table (good start). Unfortunately it went down hill from there. I asked if I could use the power point under my table to charge my laptop and he frowned and muttered something about how he doesn’t run a net cafe. I asked for a glass of water with my coffee and he told me that they only serve bottled water (I think that that’s illegal here). Later on I asked if they had a bathroom for customers – they didn’t (he told me frostily). My needs were not met – I won’t return. A blog needs to meet the needs of it’s readers also. While you can’t meet every need that every person has – you can go a long way to give readers value for the time they spend with you.

I want a Cafe (Blog) where I Don’t Feel Out of Place

I’ve been spoilt. Until last week I was living in a fairly inner city suburb where there were a lot of cafes that I felt at home in. People like me (whatever that is) sat on the tables around me. The music was the kind of stuff I listened to. The whole vibe was a lot more on my level. Today’s cafes were…. different. It’s the suburb we’ve moved to and no fault of the cafes really. We’ve moved to a middle suburb (in the East of Melbourne) where lots of older people and families live. The result is that the cafes serve an older type of customer, the music is ‘golden oldies’, the staff are coming from a different place. Now I’ll emphasize again that this isn’t the cafe’s fault (and I do like ‘older people’ – but it illustrates that people do like to find places to hang out that they feel at home in and where they have a perception of ‘fitting in’. A blog can’t appeal to every person – but there are ways of appealing to readers, being inclusive and highlighting that they are not alone. Create spaces on a blog for readers to interact and they’ll feel a sense of community that can convert them to be loyal readers.

Written on 1/22/2008 at 9:02 am by

How to Run a Blog Competition [CASE STUDY]

Filed Under: Case Studies

Blog-Competition-1-1Last week I wrote a couple of posts about how to run a successful blog competition. Today I thought I’d give you a little background information (case study) on how I’m currently running one.

The competition is over at DPS where I announced it about 12 hours ago with a post here at Win a Digital Camera! [Forum Competition] (feel free to enter if you’d like to).

Using some of the points in my recent post on running successful blog competitions here’s how I’m approaching this one:

Objective – to get new members, reconnect with inactive members and increase page views. My hope is that running a competition over 3 weeks will give members incentive to return to the forums over a longer period of time – they say that it only takes a few days of doing something to form a habit – my hope is that doing something for three weeks will do just that.

Prizes – Last year I ran a similar competition with the same objectives but put photography books up as prizes. My thought this year is that a great new camera would probably excite people a little more. While the last competition did have some great results this one is really creating much more buzz.

Having runners up prizes increases the chance of a win. While they are not as valuable I’ve gone for ‘relevant’ on all of the prizes yet am giving runners up some choice in which prize they win.

I’ve also opted for a self funded prize in this case. I’ve had sponsors on DPS offer prizes previously but this limited what I could offer in terms of relevancy. Doing it this way also means I can promote some Amazon affiliate links which will hopefully drive some sales and help me off set the cost of the prizes.

Rules – I’m attempting to keep this competition as simple as possible. All people have to do to enter is be an active member. Every post they make in the forum automatically adds to their chances to win. I’ve used this method before and it works well as it not only gets new members signed up – but it gets them using the forum.

There is a danger with people entering in spammy ways – but last time I did this I made it clear that that kind of behavior wouldn’t be tolerated and didn’t have any issues. I have a good moderation team who are onto any bad behavior pretty quickly so am not expecting any trouble.

Promotion – I’ve been promoting this competition in a few ways. Obviously there is a blog post, I’ve also posted an announcement in the forums that appears at the top of many pages as well as posting a post that announces it in the general chit chat section of the forum.

Later today I’ll also email all inactive forum members and on Friday the normal DPS newsletter will go out with a prominent promotion of the competition. All in all there’s some good buzz going on already.

Results (so far) - Since starting the competition 12 hours ago the forums have been particularly hot with 100+ new members, quite a few older members coming back to get active again and a marked increase in page views. There are around 4 times the normal visitor numbers on the blog at the moment.

It’s too early to tell what the results will be as I’m yet to complete the promotion of it – but the early signs are that it will be a worthwhile venture.

Written on 1/22/2008 at 6:19 am by

14% of Bloggers Prefer to Do It in Bed [POLL RESULTS]

Filed Under: Reader Questions

A couple of weeks ago I polled ProBlogger readers about their favorite place to blog. 1481 readers responded.

In many cases their choices were determined by where their computer was (it’s hard to take your desktop computer to bed) and so the ‘home office’ was the clear winner. But the other results were interesting.

Picture 6-2

Also interesting were some of the comments that the Poll’s post received with the ‘other’ section including people saying that they liked to blog from the bath, pool and beach.

My response was the Cafe – I’m spending around 10 hours a week now in cafes blogging – it’s good to get out of the house and get a different perspective (and the coffee doesn’t hurt either).

Written on 1/21/2008 at 4:41 pm by

Writing with Confidence or Risking Your Reputation?

Filed Under: Writing Content

A guest post over at John Chow’s blog today by Steven York titled Successful Blogging – 5 Tips for Writing With Confidence caught my attention today. The title was something that I was keen to read as I think that being confident as a blogger is important – however as I read it I found myself reacting against every point made.

The five points:

#1 – Don’t Ever Talk About Being Dugg/Reddited/Stumbled
#2 – Don’t Disclose Failure Unless It’s To Make a Point
#3 – Shout About Your Successes
#4 – Write with Authority
#5 – You Don’t Need To Tell The Truth All The Time

Now there is plenty of room for bloggers to blog in their own voice/style – but quite a bit of the advice in this post left me wondering what type of blog a blogger would build if they took all of the advice in it.

I was going to write a post on this topic – but ended up leaving it in a fairly raw form over on the post itself (I think my post is currently in moderation). I’ll repost my comment here in the hope that it’ll add to the conversation. I’ve added a few other thoughts to my original comments below (in italics).

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Steven – I respectfully disagree with most of your points:

1. Talking about being Dugg/Stumbled etc can actually be a good move strategically. By mentioning it you introduce your regular readers to social bookmarking. I did this a couple of months ago on my photography blog and mentioned that the day before I’d had a lot of new readers from StumbleUpon and Digg. What I found is that most of my loyal readers had never heard of StumbleUpon or Digg before but many signed up to them that day. The next day I had massive traffic as a result of loyal readers submitting posts from my archives. I didn’t tell them to do it and only mentioned social bookmarking in passing but it was enough to get a lot of new readers using the tools.

While I agree that you wouldn’t want to constantly go on about how your blog has been Dugg or Stumbled I do think that an occasional mention can actually help to build a culture on your blog where readers naturally use these tools – something that a blog could really benefit from.

2. Disclosing failure is something that I think is important on a blog for numerous reasons. It makes you more relatable, it gives you something to build on when you teach how things SHOULD be done and it can show real character and transparency to your readers. I find that when I talk of my weaknesses or failures that many readers email me and comment thanking me for showing that side of things.

Steven used the example of Shoemoney showing his big check instead of talking about his failures. I’d argue that while the check picture was crucial in his rise to fame that it was also his ability to talk about messing up. He’s written himself about this on numerous occasions. Check out his posts My Top 10 Worst Ideas to Make Money and My Advice to Connect with Your Readers.

3. Shouting about your Successes – I partly agree with you here but only to a point. If you don’t talk about your successes to some degree they might go unnoticed – but when you ’shout’ about them you can actually hurt your reputation. Constantly talking about how well you’ve done things can alienate readers who don’t achieve what you’ve achieved and it can come off as arrogant. I’ve seen numerous bloggers lose audience over being perceived in this way. I do agree with your words about using case studies to highlight your successes as this is a more helpful way to share them – but just be careful about doing it too often.

Again I’ll emphasize – that it’s not bad to highlight your successes – but do it in moderation and in a way that is relevant, relatable and on topic.

4. Authority - I agree with this point the most, although think that there is room for ambiguity on a blog. If you’re not sure about something – I wouldn’t recommend saying that you are or you could end up being caught out by readers. Authoritative statements that turn out to be wrong can hurt your reputation. It’s about being transparent – but also about covering your butt if you’re wrong.

Yes do blog with authority but only when you are an authority.

5. ‘You Don’t Need to Tell the Truth all the Time’ - Again I’m not so sure on this. While it is possible to write about something that you’ve never experienced I generally find that it’s more powerful to disclose your experience level on a topic. Again it’s about transparency – but also about connecting with your readers. Perhaps you’re different to me but I’d much rather read someone tell me how they’re trying something as a beginner than read something by someone who presents themselves as a know it all who obviously has little idea of what they’re saying.

Getting found out as a liar when you’re presenting yourself as an expert can have a lasting impact upon your reputation and blog’s profile.

I don’t mean to pick on your post – but what worries me about the style of blogging that you’re describing is that if people follow it they could end up hurting their reputation. While some bloggers might well get away with some of it – if you’re looking to build a blog with a long term profile in a niche and that is respected as a credible and authoritative source then I think a blogger needs to really consider the impact of taking this kind of advice.

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Perhaps I was being a little harsh or narrow minded with my comment. I do think that there is room for promoting your successes, being authoritative etc – but look at a lot of successful blogs and see people who are fairly humble and down to earth people. While there are certainly a few who follow the five points above and still get successful I’m not sure I’d be building a blog on these strategies.

To me blogging with confidence has more to do with knowing what you do know and knowing what you don’t. Blogging about your experience. Connecting with your readers. Building relationships based upon trust and blogging in a way that is true to your values. But that’s just me – what do you think?

Written on 1/21/2008 at 7:05 am by

Win a share in 5000 Entrecard Credits

Filed Under: ProBlogger Site News

A couple of weeks ago in my Interview with Entrecard’s Graham Langdon I said at the end that I was going to run a competition to give away my Entrecard credits to some lucky ProBlogger readers.

The time has come.

I have 5000 credits to give away and I’m going to give them to 5 readers (1000 each). 1000 credits could buy you some nice publicity on some great blogs who run the Entrecard widget on them.

You can enter in one of two ways (in fact you can enter in both of them to increase your chances). To be eligible to win the 1000 credits you need to be an Entrecard user so that I can gift the credits to you.

Here are the two ways you can enter (you may do both).

  1. Leave a comment on this post (one comment per person). Include the word ‘Entrecard’ in the comment to help stop them getting caught up in my spam filter.
  2. Leave a recommendation for ProBlogger on Entrecard – the link to leave a recommendation is at the top right hand side of my profile page (one recommendation per person).

I’ll pick two recommendations and three comments (all randomly) at the end of the week and each of them will win 1000 credits.

Good luck!