Written on May 13th, 2009 at 12:05 am by Darren Rowse

How Not to Promote Your Blog: Top 10 Broken Blog Promotion Strategies

This is a guest post by Kevin Geary from This is Broken Blog, a blog exposing important things in our daily lives that are broken and need to be fixed. It’s entertainment and education. Come visit us to see more of what’s broken (and even submit your own ideas).

For every great blog promotion strategy, there are five that suck. Really suck. They suck so bad that using them can get you blacklisted by real bloggers, ignored by annoyed readers, unfollowed on Twitter, and possibly placed on the terrorist watch list.

Being successful is not just about doing the right things. Avoiding the wrong things is just as important. Nobody wants to take two steps forward and three steps back; especially in blogging where success is few and far between, often takes a long time to become successful, and has a gigantic Dip.

If you’re to have any chance at success, you need to protect your blog from yourself. Protect it from your lust for quick success, your desire to become a ProBlogger in six months, and your general blogging ignorance (if you’re new).

10 Blog Promotion Strategies to Avoid at all Costs

1. Leaving “great post” comments on other blogs.

One of the best ways to get readers to your blog early on is to leave comments on other blogs. Of course, there’s a right and wrong way to go about this. Here is an example of a good and bad comment, using ProBlogger’s comment section as an example.

Patrick O’Keefe recently wrote a guest post on ProBlogger titled “Enhance and Grow Your Online Community Through Appreciation“. Here are two comments from that post:

Shane wrote:

Very good post, thank you for writing it.

Baker Wrote:

I saw this first hand, but really I stumbled into it unintentionally. I put up a bumbling video of myself thanking everyone for allowing me to have over 6400+ visits in my first full month blogging. The video wasn’t great quality or presentation, but people realized it was very genuine and I received several comments and e-mails. Again, I wasn’t out to really benefit like this, but I realized a side benefit from my regular reader’s really connecting with the video. Thanks again for 31DBBB, it helped me so much in having a great start!

Shane, you’re comment is broken. Obviously, you got one of the top 3 spots (which drives a lot of traffic on a successful blog like ProBlogger). But where’s the sincerity? Where’s the realness? It’s a fake comment meant to do one thing, drive traffic. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and it’s a big no no.

Baker did it right.

When you leave comments on other blogs, remember these three things: sincere, relevant, and valuable.

2. Emailing random blog authors and asking them to link to one of your posts.

I made this mistake early in my blogging career. Needless to say, I got a lot of hate mail in return.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. If your first impression is a spam-looking (no matter how good your intentions are) email to a random blog author trying to get them to link to your posts, you’re not going to make any friends.

Instead, find a way to add value to their blog and engage them with that in mind. They call it “link love” for a reason. Very few time-tested bloggers have sex on the first date. Build relationships slowly over time and you’re in like Flynn.

3. Asking random blog authors for a link exchange.

This goes along with number 2. Usually new bloggers will write to other bloggers and try to get them to place a link to their site in their blogroll in exchange for a link back. It’s a good way to build pagerank and get recognition, especially if you’re in the blogroll of a highly trafficked site.

But what’s a blogroll for? It’s to help readers find other quality sites on the same topic. Insincere link swapping devalues the goal of a blogroll.

Again, build that relationship. Add value. You get rewarded for being genuine, not for being hyperfocused on getting traffic.

4. Making Twitter all about you and your blog.

Twitter is a great way to drive traffic to your site. Darren recognized that early and started TwiTip, a site that gives you tips on using Twitter effectively. Unfortunately, as Twitter gets more mainstream it’s going to lose value. That’s just the nature of free networking and exposure.

Twitter is my third highest source of traffic and I don’t have all that many followers. What I do have is important followers. Relevant followers. And I only follow relevant people who I actually care to hear from. That’s what Twitter was designed for. That’s what makes Twitter effective.

The people who are breaking Twitter (yes, it’s being torn down in terms of value as we speak) are the ones who use it to promote only themselves and only their blog. They’ll throw a retweet out there every once in a while and join in on a #followfriday session, but that’s about it. Their main goal is to drive traffic without adding any value. And who can blame them? It’s free and easy.

Let me give you a tip. Free and easy asks for abuse. Abuse is a great short term strategy. So is eating donuts for energy. But what happens when you get a big sugar spike? Crash. If you abuse Twitter and Facebook and others you’re going to crash as soon as people catch on to your antics. Shamless self-promotion on Twitter and social networking sites is a horrible long term strategy.

5. Joining forums simply for promotion.

See point number 4.

Forums are a great way to drive traffic to your site if you do it right. Don’t be a broken forum user. Put a tasteful link to your site in your signature and then make it your mission to interact the way the forum was designed. Be on the forum for the benefit of others and to further your own education, not to promote your blog. If you add value (see the trend), you’ll get the traffic.

6. Submitting all your posts to social media sites.

Are you a social media spammer? Do you have 70 social media buttons below your posts? Do you submit every post to most of them? It’s cheesy. Again, things that are free and easy get abused. It’s your job not to abuse them. Write great content and you’ll get recognized in time. If you force it, you’ll get recognized as the spammer you are and you can kiss success bye bye.

Instead, join the three most relevant social media sites and work to build value. Promote 10 times as much of other people’s material as you do your own. And don’t forget: sincere, relevant, and valuable.

7. Writing for search engines.

I want you to achieve the top spot on Google. Really, I do. But as a reader, I’m hungry for good content that’s sincere, smooth, and easily ingestible. Your keyword soup gives me the runs, in like, I run far away very fast.

If you write for the search engines and not for your readers, you’re going to get the top spot in Google. You’re going to get a lot of traffic and your adsense revenue is going to be great. But you’ll never have a great blog. You’ll never have a dedicated tribe of readers. You’ll never be a respected resource.

Search engine spiders aren’t going to give you good word of mouth. Neither are the strangers that find you on google who visit you once, hate your content, and leave.

Good content can and should be keyword dense. The trick is to do it without making my head spin. Copyblogger will teach you how it’s done.

8. Loading your site up with badges to all the social media communities you joined overnight.

Have you ever been to a blog that has a sidebar full of social media and social networking profile links? They’re on just about everything. On top of that, they throw in a big mybloglog widget and an entrecard widget.

You can be a jack of all social media sites, but you’ll end up being a master of none. Besides that, it’s just a bunch of clutter to your readers. Google beat out Yahoo because Google was simple and Yahoo was hectic. Do you want your readers to focus on the content or to focus on everything BUT the content?

Zen Habits is the master of simple. You have no choice but to read his content because there’s nothing else to do. And look at his subscriber count. Take a hint. There’s no way you can add value to a hundred social media profiles. Be selective and go for clean.

9. Copying someone else’s style or idea.

The easiest way to look creative is to not be creative at all. There’s enough creative out there that you can just copy and paste and people will probably never be the wiser.

And I’m not talking about lifting content from other blogs. That should be an obvious no-no. What I’m talking about is finding a successful blog and copying their overall style and even parts of their design. If I look like them, I’ll have their success. No, you won’t. You can never be more original than the original. Think about how that affects readers…

If they like the original, they’ll stick with the original. If they don’t like the original, they’re not going to go for a copy cat. You lose both ways. When you copy what your competitors are doing, you ensure that you’ll never pick up any market share.

If you want to be the best, you have to stand out. Figure out what everyone in your niche is doing and do the opposite.

10. Using search engine auto-submitters.

Have you seen these things? Get your site indexed on 50000000000000 search engines instantly!

This isn’t particularly bad, it’s just a waste of time and money. It’s not necessary. The only search enginge you need to target is Google and getting your site indexed is free and easy.

Use Google’s Webmaster Tools, get a sitemap plugin, write great titles and great content, and get “link love” by building relationships and adding value to other people’s projects. That’s all you have to do to own Google search. Throw the gimmicks out the window and focus on sincere, relevant, and valuable.

I know there are more broken strategies out there. I had fun talking about the top 10. Now I want you to expose more of them in the comments section. Let’s see how many we can come up with. Go.

What next?

226 Responses to “How Not to Promote Your Blog: Top 10 Broken Blog Promotion Strategies” - Add Yours

Taco John

May 13th, 2009 12:11 am

Another bad commenting strategy is to attempt to tie everything back to your blog.
“That was a fantastic post on the War of the Roses. I had similar thoughts on building shelving units here at http://www.irrelevant.com/wasteoftime“
Miranda

May 13th, 2009 12:15 am

I think taking without giving back is a broken strategy. There are those who are happy when they are noticed, but do not go out and notice others. Sometimes, it’s all about the karma…
Angela Giles Klocke

May 13th, 2009 12:22 am

When it comes to a place like Facebook, where it’s about friendships (for me, anyway), where do you think the line should be drawn? I do a lot of interacting with my friends and such, but I also will link to my latest blog entry on my wall. Would you think it’s better to only do this once a week or so, not every entry? I tend to blog just once a day anyway. I’m not sure where the right balance comes in.

I left Twitter because so much of it was “see my blog, see my blog!” It was harder for me to interact there.

I have to agree that I find it annoying when I get a “Shane” comment because it doesn’t feel real. Uh, especially when it doesn’t seem to pertain at all to what I’ve posted. ;)
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 13th, 2009 12:29 am

@Miranda,

Yeah, basically anything that has to do with sitting in your easy chair and making it big, right? Too many people do it and then they whine about how they’re not going anywhere.
Joe

May 13th, 2009 12:37 am

“Do you have 70 social media buttons below your posts? Do you submit every post to most of them?” – Regretfully, I was guilty of this very thing when I first started a little over a year ago. Since then, though, I have come to realize, through both experience and educational blogs like yours, that “less is more” with regards to recognition and content sharing.

I submit only the most highly relevant posts to outside networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc), and leave the rest up to my actual, credible audience to decide what gets floated around. And so far, I am quite pleased with the results.

Not coming off as “spam” or blatant solicitation is a key factor in establishing a trustworthy presence to current and potential audience members. Letting my actual readers decide what is “good enough” to get passed around is also a nice way to figure out what sorts of posts or content the audience prefers, as well.

So, in short, “Very good post, thank you for writing it.”

Just kidding. :)
BlogSEOExpert - SEO for Blogs

May 13th, 2009 12:40 am

Great post :-)

No, seriously, this is an excellent post! Most bloggers that are just starting out do not understand the importance of doing things right, instead of doing things just for the sake of it!

People don’t realize that if another blogger or social media user thinks that you are doing things just to divert traffic, it would be really difficult to change that view later. So, its best to do things right from the beginning!

Very good pointers, and all in all, a great post.

This is what I loved the most – “Abuse is a great short term strategy”. So true!!
Tony Teegarden

May 13th, 2009 12:43 am

I agree with the concept that there are no short cuts at the table of success. It’s so interesting to me that blogging and social media are so obviously similar to off line relationship development.

We wouldn’t think of doing things like 1-10 to people in person but yet it’s so easily done by so many people on line because they are looking for the “short cut to success.”

Blogging & social media will either promote you or expose you and far to many people get exposed.

Connect with like minded people, provide value unconditionally and the rewards will come back to you. Even if it’s through another medium you didn’t expect.

You’ve hit it on the head about “Bad Blog Karma.” I actually touch base on this a lot about the development of human relationships via social media & blogging and real world experiences.

Thank you for the actual “how to’s” of bad blog karma!
Alex

May 13th, 2009 12:43 am

You’ve mentioned, on several occasions, that social media badges and buttons are bad. I tend to disagree. On my web-site they serve two purposes. First it allows me, myself, easily add bookmarks to my own posts – those the largest and the most interesting, promoting them. But more importantly, it allows the visitor to bookmark my post. They are convenient tool for the visitor and are important to have.
As for abusing social media badges (tip 8), I must say that this arguments works for just everything. It doesn’t matter what you abuse. This can be anything from flash menus, overuse of red color to ads. Any type of such abuse will scare the visitor away. It is important to know when to stop with such things, no matter what it is.
Jason

May 13th, 2009 12:45 am

One thing I have tried is offering to swap pieces for other related blogs. They write for mine, so I get more content for my blog. They take my articles and publish them on their blog, getting me more exposure. The reverse are true for the people I swap with:

Examples of a guest post on my blog:
http://blog.curvine.com/wordpress/2009/04/24/guest-post-build-it-and-they-will-come-%e2%80%93-naught/

Example of a post I had published on another blog:
http://www.mainstreetmediasavvy.com/make-sense-of-diy-publicity-results-with-google-analytics-part-1
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 13th, 2009 12:46 am

@ Angela,

What you’re doing is fine. I can tell you’re sincere about what you’re doing because you’re worried about it. As long as you keep that sincerity, you’re good to go.

I would recommend that you get back on Twitter and try again. You’re getting the “me me me” tweets because you’re following the wrong people. Don’t ignore Twitter because some people abuse it, it’s too powerful a tool.

When in doubt, add value. If you don’t think your actions are adding value, stop what you’re doing and go back to the drawing board.
businessethos

May 13th, 2009 12:47 am

Guilty as charged!

I am sure I’ve done the “great post” thing before… sincerely speaking.

The great thing is overtime bloggers can overcome this type of error ;0

you’ve raisied some valid points here-

@businessethos
Yum Yucky

May 13th, 2009 12:49 am

Uh oh. I just added one of those dang social media widgets about an hour ago….but it’ll be down in about 2 seconds!

I never saw if from that perspective. Excellent point. Now off to make that edit!
Bud Hennekes

May 13th, 2009 12:58 am

It will be interesting to see how many of these comments are sincere ;)

I’m glad to know that I am not doing any of the 10 ways NOT to promote a blog.

Blogging is all about being personal and sharing value. If you do those two things you will eventually succeed.

I liked number 4: about Twitter.. That’s the quickest way to get me to unfollow someone.

I also really liked number 9. So true.

Great post!
Guillermo

May 13th, 2009 12:59 am

I will “starred” this post in my GReader. Not because of me, I’ve already learned this lessons, but for the many new bloggers that every week show up in my niche. I;ve noticed them copying content, asking for link swaps with almost no content in their places, misusing twitter… almost everything.

Every time I see a new blog in my street, I will send them this link.

Have a great day,
Christiaanh

May 13th, 2009 1:04 am

A very interesting post, and you (well, the problogger site at least) know I’ve done a few of these things in the beginning of my blog (I’m in my third month of blogging now and learning fast), Yes it was easy traffic but it wasn’t honest traffic. the 31DBBB challenge ended and my visitor numbers dropped significantly.

But now they are on a slow rise again, I’ve found the places that will bring me traffic and am making an honest contribution there. Twitter remains an easy way but there’s nothing better (to me) than getting thanks from others who I retweet.

No more shameless selfpromotion, in time, readers will find your blog and as long as you’re honest and write things people want to read they will find you. I’d take 100 honest pageviews over 1000 views through some shameless selfpromotion scam any time.

I like your reference to Zenhabits in particular. One of the early inspirations for me to start blogging. In the end it’s all about content and Leo has got that one down to an art form. Simplicity is the way to go I think. There will always be people who like the crowded blogs with lots of images and things happening all over the place (Reminds me of the “Magazine” assignment.) but most of the serious blogs I follow show a simplifying trend.
HazardousPaste

May 13th, 2009 1:04 am

As a long time forum member over at macrumors, it’s extremely irritating when people join and in their first post start linking back to articles they wrote that only apply in the loosest sense.
Steven-Sanders

May 13th, 2009 1:04 am

It amazes me how so many people still don’t get social media. Even big companies use it the wrong way – to market their stuff.

Rather than use it as a way to connect with others, and build a stronger relationship, which drives traffic way better than simply talking about your stuff all the time, they continue to spam others.

Is it any wonder why the majority of Twitter users don’t have any more than 100 or so followers?
Vanderbilt Wife

May 13th, 2009 1:06 am

Can we add bad grammar/spelling to this list? For example, using “you’re” instead of “your”? Sorry, snarky…but it drives me crazy.

In “mommy blogger” land, what drives me crazy is every other post being a paid post or review. If you are blogging to make money, fine, but I probably am not going to read it. Something heartfelt and useful is what will make me come back.
Greg

May 13th, 2009 1:09 am

I have gotten comments on my blog that include a link to a product/service that doesn’t even pertain to my topic. The more amazing part of that is that they did it twice with two separate names on two separate posts.

All that does is frustrate people…why bother.
Cole

May 13th, 2009 1:12 am

Thanks Darren! As a relative new-comer to blogging these have actually put me at ease. Others have told me to contact other blogs for help, but I have been wary of doing so as I would rather take the time and gain users through quality content and not just links. Sure, I may get 100 visitors instead of 20, but are they really going to read my posts? Probably not.

I guess that being shy has prevented me from becoming a self-promotional prick. I have been standing firm with the whole providing “consistent and quality content” will drive visitors who will then become REPEAT visitors as new posts appear.
smartfathers

May 13th, 2009 1:13 am

Hmm. I was rather nervous to read this post at first but once I got into it I found that I’m not really breaking any of those. I have a few badges but mostly mine are for feedburner, google reader, those kinds of things. I really only use twitter as an extension of my blog. I do have a FB account too but I really don’t use it or promote it much. There are some GREAT tips here and I will make sure I don’t break any “rules”. :) Thanks! Very helpful as usual.
Worm Farms

May 13th, 2009 1:15 am

Great post. Its better to just do things right the first time around; rather have to clean up the mess you make. Thanks!
Michelle

May 13th, 2009 1:16 am

Kevin, I really enjoyed your entry, especially as I am just getting started in the blogosphere. I am actually a student interning for a company where I am their Community Manager, and I was wondering if you can provide some tips on how to balance between being personable and not going too far, especially when you are not necessarily blogging or Tweeting for yourself but for your company. I think it is an issue that few people have adressed so far and would be interested to hear what you have to say about it.
One of the difficulties, for example, has been the desire not to push the corporate agenda too much, but I was still hired to push it! Thanks for any advice and I look forward to reading your blog.
Kate Tracton

May 13th, 2009 1:16 am

Thank you for these tips. I’ve had a year of active blogging, and after spending time to build the relationships you suggest, I find it a rewarding way to spend my time.

I appreciate all the points you outline here, and will work even harder in my second year to implement them.

Kate
Catherina

May 13th, 2009 1:16 am

In regards to blog posting, I don’t see why people have to write long drawn out comments just to make it look like they’re not trying to get backlinks. It’s just a well known fact that most people comment on other people’s blog for this reason. Sometimes, I really can’t stand all the b.s. ‘rules’ with social blogging!

As for Twitter…well, majority of people don’t follow others because they are really interested in what they have to say, it’s just become another way for people to spam each other! I’m trying to like Twitter but so far, it’s become just another site to submit blog feeds to.
Theresa Rose

May 13th, 2009 1:19 am

This is an excellent post! I’ve made a couple of these mistakes, but thankfully not too many. It’s great to know I’m doing a few things right.Most of the above information I came across in bits and pieces, here and there. I’m glad I found you (via Twitter) because now I don’t have to wander around on the internet. I can start right here.
Sudeep

May 13th, 2009 1:21 am

Hello ,
I have seen a post were it was just full of links to different post in that blog .I do not think so it was blog reference post , but every single word was linked to some other article .
Yes you can drive traffic to your pages , but cannot just let every word be inter linked .What do you think , am i right or not
Regards
Sudeep
Nick Stamoulis

May 13th, 2009 1:22 am

I agree with the blog post comment. If you are going to leave a comment make sure it adds and compliments to the blog post.
Carroll

May 13th, 2009 1:24 am

I genuinely appreciated this article. I am new to online marketing and I have read all the tips and things an online marketer should do and I wonder how long it takes for somethings to come about. I sincerely want to offer to people value but it seems hard to do so when so many are abusing the system. How can a individuals create traffic for themselves when, because of abuse, so many just brush off links and suggestions as “selling tactics”? I have something of value to offer but it is certainly proving challenging because of what appears to me to be abuse…just as was mentioned here. I welcome any suggestions from others. Thanks for allowing me leave a comment.
BizMind

May 13th, 2009 1:32 am

As a newbie in blogging, I want to increase my feedburner subscribers. I tried to get people’s email address especially gmail accounts and entered them into my blog’s feedburner subscriber form. But it didn’t help me in increasing my subscribers stats. Thanks for writing this post. This is a great eye-opener for me.
Blog Expert

May 13th, 2009 1:37 am

It still astonishes me that people would waste their time and comment on a Blog with only one sentence. It’s like, what are you trying to do? It actually looks more like Spam than anything else. It gets annoying for people who read the comments to try and even get more out of the article.

And for the people that do not think that you need to add to an article with your comments, stay away from this promotion. You’ll only begin to annoy people.
Suzanne Gallegos

May 13th, 2009 1:40 am

That was a great post, thank you for writing it

OK, OK, I just couldn’t resist….seriously Darren, this is my first visit to your blog. I followed a link from Facebook and I’m glad I did. There are so many great points here.

I am no expert on this but I think those who are offenders of the blogging “rules” don’t realize how transparent they are….many times to the point of embarassament! I especially agree with your take on the keyword soup issue, and the violation of copying content/style! Hate that – and I HAVE seen it!
John

May 13th, 2009 1:41 am

Being new to blogging, there are tons of articles on what to do, but rarely any on what NOT to do. Great post and thanks for the direction.
Jeremiah Bell (Digital Trainer)

May 13th, 2009 1:42 am

I agree with Taco John, unless it is useful. If I remember an article (whether it be mine or not) I like to link it back. But only if it is relevant. This gives interested readers another perspective on a similar topic.

Great post Kevin!
doctor S

May 13th, 2009 1:43 am

Every forum I have signed up for I have noticed the relentless self promotion occuring, it was a short stay with those forums when I saw such activities.

Maybe people violate these blogging sins because they just do not trust that their work will produce the results. People are always looking for the quick fix or a short cut. Its probably more of a mental thing for the constant offenders more than anything else.
Suzanne

May 13th, 2009 1:48 am

Great post, thank you for writing it.

OK, OK, I just couldn’t resist…..seriously Darren, this is the first time I have visited your blog. I followed a link from Facebook and I’m glad I did.

You make so many valuable points here. I am no expert but I think the offenders of the blogging “rules” have no idea how transparent they are, many times to the point of embarassment! I especially agree with your comments on keyword soup, and on the point of copying content/style…and I HAVE seen it done!
Asswass

May 13th, 2009 1:52 am

I just wrote a post about how to specifically write for Search Engines (7) lol. But amateur bloggers surely will like it.
Mainak Jas

May 13th, 2009 1:58 am

Nice selection – though I must say that some are very obvious. For example, I would never try emailing random blog authors and ask them to link to my posts. It amounts to ‘ bad manners’. And it decreases credibility.

What is difficult though, is to avoid getting too keyword focussed. For instance, a title like ‘How Not to Promote Your Blog: Top 10 Broken Blog Promotion Strategies’ is likely to get more traffic than a simple ‘How Not to Promote Your Blog’. Adding ‘Top 10′, ‘7 ways’ shoots the post in search engine rankings.

One has to strike a balance between ‘readability’ and ’searchability’.
Tabitha "Tabz" Smith

May 13th, 2009 2:11 am

Here here! It’s about time someone said these are bogus. The number one rule of marketing is make relationships – with your readers, your Twitteer followers, your fellow bloggers. That is the #1 way to win at this social media game.
Baker @ ManVsDebt

May 13th, 2009 2:14 am

Wow, Kevin, Thanks for the mention in the article. With as many mistakes as I’ve made it’s awesome to see someone catch one of my bright moments! :-)

The truth is I’m really just a genuine fan. It’s easy to be sincere, relevant, and valuable when you are really passionate about the topics you comment. When I find myself stretching to comment on something I’m not really passionate about, I head for the big red X in the top right corner!

Thanks again!
Paritosh

May 13th, 2009 2:16 am

@Asswass Dont get me wrong but sometimes intentionally or unintentionally bloggers like us promote such activites !
And regarding point 1 there are times when people write comments just for the sake of doing so without having any knowledge of the post which is being talked about !
Coree Silvera

May 13th, 2009 2:19 am

Hey Kevin, thank you for this…I think you have confirmed what I have been thinking in the back of my head for a few weeks now. I am (gulp) one of those people that joined every social network out there overnight when I first started my blog, thinking it’s what was supposed to be done. But, the only one I really use are Twitter, Facebook & if you consider it a network..Blog Catalog. Yet, I have been using Ping.fm to submit my new blog posts to all of them at once.

I am like you, in that I despise fake comments that are all about just getting a backlink, and I don’t won’t even follow people that spam the crap out of the networks I belong to without adding any other value. But I just realized when I use Ping to send out my blog post to networks that I never go to and form relationships on, I have become that person I despise! Bleh…

So, thanks…I know what I need to do. Good job on getting cutting straight to the chase!
Jeremie

May 13th, 2009 2:22 am

I understand why emailing more successful bloggers for a link would be annoying. What do you think about emailing successful bloggers to get them to answer some questions for a short interview to put on your site?

What would be the non-annoying way to approach this?
Prince of Thrift

May 13th, 2009 2:29 am

wow! I can see some of the same mistakes I made, when I first started. The same mistakes, I now hate when I see others trying to do the same thing.

Mistakes like asking other bloggers to a link exchange on their blog roll. How dumb could I have been, in thinking that was a good idea. But, that was 3 years ago, and now I am a bit smarter, but still learning. I still make promotional mistakes, but believe I am getting better. For example, am I misusing twitter and facebook in my promotion of my blog. I’m not sure, but that is a question I keep asking myself everyday. So maybe I am doing something right there. Thanks for the post. I will be rereading it several times, to make sure I learn all I can from it.
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 13th, 2009 2:33 am

@Bizmind,

Yeah, definitely not the way to go about it. Lol.

@ Coree,

No problem, I’m glad you found it useful. The auto ping is fine if it’s to a place you frequent often and consistently add value to. People WANT to know about your new stuff as long as that’s not all they are told about.
Paritosh

May 13th, 2009 2:33 am

I dont see any harm in joining blog networks ( i my self have joined 5 of them ) provided you remain active in all of those.
Its all about promoting your blog to the extent that it does not look spam !
Serenity J. Knutson

May 13th, 2009 2:45 am

The social media realm is, in large part, a self-policing community, and figuring out what works (and where) is a process of trial and error. If you dive in to Twitter and start hemorrhaging followers faster than you can RT, then you learn you need to try something different. If you join a forum and notice that every post other than yours garners enthusiastic discussion from the community, then you learn you need to try something different. There is no wrong way to learn how to do social media right; intentionally doing it wrong is what gets you banned, blocked, and blacklisted.
Nicole/Bankrolling TV Shows

May 13th, 2009 2:47 am

After reading this post, it’s great to know that many of them may not apply to me, which tells me that I promote my blog in non-broken ways. That’s good to know. One of the items mentioned in your post about sending everything to many social media websites is something that I used to do but learned that it wastes a lot of time and is not very effective because every website is different and all blog posts may not be relevant to readers on sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc.

In reference to your request that commenters “expose more” broken blog promotion strategies, these are what I can come up with at the moment:

1. Emailing random bloggers asking them to subscribe to your blog.
(This is just as bad as asking for random links, one of the items mentioned in this Problogger post).

2. Leaving links in your comments on other blogs.
(Many bloggers have already written about this, so I always wonder why it hasn’t really sunk in to some bloggers who still do this. Many blogs have those separate “website” or “URL” forms that will produce a link, so there is no reason to add them in your comments as well. It looks spammy).
Dru

May 13th, 2009 2:49 am

Given the bevy of content that exists out there, it is nice to come across something so concise and well written. I believe appropriately commenting is giving recognition where recognition is deserved. All the other “link love” is icing on the cake.

One of my qualms with the evolution of Social Media and Web 2.0 is this opportunitistic approach people seem to be taking. In that, “I will post your link, if you post mine.” Can you really only do something for something in return? I suppose to maintain the status quo, but why not just link to a post simply because it affected you in some way?

Same goes for twitter and facebook. You follow, I follow. You friend, I’ll confirm. It’s a give and take that is slowly getting out of hand and diluting the social media landscape.

I really appreciate you writing this piece. I look forward to passing the knowledge along to fellow bloggers and revisiting it when I seem to have lost site of what my purpose in the blogosphere/twitterverse really is. Cheers!
Dharma

May 13th, 2009 2:54 am

A person friended me on facebook (he was a friend of an friend) so I accepted his friend request.

Little did I know, every “what are you doing now post” was about his blog, his blog, his blog, and “how about all you people give me a shout out this morning?”

I found it incredibly annoying and, to be honest, really narcassistic. I refused to even look at his blog because of it.

I actually unfriended him today.

I have a link to my blog on my facebook, but I never promote it… my friends will read my blog if they feel like it and I’m not going to shove it in their face.
Dharma

May 13th, 2009 2:56 am

* I mean narcissistic . :)
Taco John

May 13th, 2009 2:57 am

@Tony Teegarden

I disagree. I think most of the “bad” things people do are things they would and in fact still do to people in person. Before we had people with Twitter accounts with a stream of “New Blog Post!” updates we had telemarketing, door-to-door sales people, aggressive signature gathers for a petition, etc. etc.

All this stuff (social media, blogging, etc.) is just a new tool for people who are insufferable, greedy, self-centered, or looking for a quick buck to be that way to a new (and larger) group of people.
D. Travis North

May 13th, 2009 3:05 am

Great Post, thank you. (Kidding, of course).

On a serious note, I’m on the fence about point #4 – using Twitter as a promotions tool. I am of course following some tweeters strictly because they’re keeping me updated on their blog posts. But these streams are promoted that way, so I guess I’m not bothered. However, I have been following a few photographers as of late that seem to be spamming my twitter feed with odd-and-end thoughts…it’s a little much.

I find myself spending more time tweeting about random ideas, responding to other tweets and maybe forwarding links I’ve come across. Occasionally I’ll link a higher profile article from my blog – but it hasn’t been my focus. I don’t think I’m getting a ton of visits from Twitter, but my goal is really not to over-saturate my followers.

Of course, my perspective may be a little different. I’m not a hard-core blogger. So I guess my promotions tend to be more like afterthoughts.
Sylvio from Brazil

May 13th, 2009 3:15 am

Great post.

I’m kidding. The problem is: my english isn’t good enough. But I’d like to say thanks for the tips and that you have (at least) one good reader from Brazil. (yeah, that’s me and probably you have hundreds more.)
Asswass

May 13th, 2009 3:17 am

@ Joe
I really don’t agree with # 8. I don’t have 10 social bookmarks beneath my posts, but beacuse I think It doesn’t make my blog look good.
But I don’t believe this is SPAM. The guys who own Digg, Stumble, etc… want you to use their site so what’s the big deal?
Sam G. Daniel

May 13th, 2009 3:19 am

Kevin, very insightful. Many new bloggers fall into the trap of adding comments to blogs and forums with little value, myself included.

I would also add, not having good content or not having patience. Both when starting off is a must have. Especially if you want to build a good relationship with other bloggers or exchange links.
infmom

May 13th, 2009 3:20 am

I have a social media widget, but it never once occurred to me that I could use it to submit my own posts. I ask other people to submit them if they think it’s worth it.

Is this a double whammy?
Enemy of Debt

May 13th, 2009 3:23 am

Well right out of the gate I have to admit that I am guilty of #4. Not intentionally, but more because of time and just not knowing how Twitter works. I have started to see the importance of connecting with others by sharing more than just my blog with them.

I have also done number one but never thought it was because of my need to bring visitors to my site. I just wanted to recognize the great job that the author did, but I do plan to be more mindful of how I can add value to the comments section of other blogs.

Thanks for posting this, because I may have never known I was doing it all wrong. :)
Andrew Price

May 13th, 2009 3:32 am

It’s posts like this that make me glad I’m subscribed. Couldn’t have come at a better time. I was getting overwelmed by all the social media-ness of the blogging world lately, so I’m glad you brought it back down to basics.

Question:
Can anyone recommend a “sitemap plugin” for wordpress? I’ve heard heaps of bloggers talk about them, but I’ve yet to hear of a good one.

Thanks!
kosmo @ The Casual Observer

May 13th, 2009 3:35 am

I have a social media button below my posts (the “addthis” widget). I think I submitted one of my own posts exactly once – just to see how it worked, since I was unfamiliar with how it worked.

I’ve been blessed with great comments on my web magazine, although Akismet does a great job of wedding out the obvious ones and marking them spam.

Keywords are the absolute last thing on my mind when I write. I just sit down and write my article. If it has relevant keywords, great … but I’m not going to sprinkle in a bunch of keywords just for the sake of search engines.

I’ll add:
#11: Being pushy about favors

I’ve asked a few folks (bloggers and “normal” people) to write guest article for The Casual Observer, typically in the “a day in the life” vein. I have loose agreements from several.

I try not to follow up more than once a month – with something like “let me know if you have any questions about the article” and I’m also very loose with deadlines – meaning that I don’t have any. I’m asking someone to write content for my web magazine; can I really afford to be pushy?

Will I get articles from most of these people eventually? Yeah, probably – and I’ll also build good relationships. On the flip side, if I was sending a reminder 3 times a week, they’d probably tell me to go fly a kite.
balaji

May 13th, 2009 3:43 am

Before i read this article i didnt much know about social media site, but now fully aware but is want do, what is not, thank u for problogger developers giving such an oppurtunity to read this article in problogger, thank u very much.
Emily Cullen

May 13th, 2009 3:48 am

A great article! Helpful for newbies like me who are just getting their own blogs off the ground, but also for seasoned bloggers who either need reminders or who just never knew these points!

Thanks for writing this, it is something I am certainly going to be mindful of as I begin my own new blogging journey!
mari

May 13th, 2009 3:49 am

Somewhat off topic, but I LOVE the image – that’s what drew me in to read the post. With so many posts in my reader each day I don’t click through on many of them, but I’m glad I did on this one for the ideas. Thanks!
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 13th, 2009 3:54 am

@infmom,

No, your social media widget is just fine. It’s how you use it that matters.

If it’s for your readers, that’s great. If you’re submitting all your new posts to each of them, it’s not great.

Tools are not inherently evil; it’s the application of the tool that makes something good or bad.
Hélène

May 13th, 2009 4:16 am

To tell you the truth I don’t want people to write a book when they leave comments on my blog. I’m happy to have someone leave a line instead of reading my post and not commenting at all.

Something else that annoys me it’s when someone has a blog, you do leave comments on their blogs and they never comment on yours. It’s all about them. Some of them are really popular, they get lot’s of comments but I wonder why it’s not both ways.
My Little Norway

May 13th, 2009 4:21 am

When I first began blogging I tried to do all these ten things (in the good way) because that is what I read on Problogger…lol. The good thing about it was I got to know what these things were all about very quickly. But once I found my ‘groove’ I understood what worked for my site and what didn’t.

Now I don’t do any of these ten things to promote my blog – because it doesn’t suit my niche. I’ve realised that the best thing for my blog is good content – to write about what people want to know. It seems for my blog that ‘time’ is my greatest asset. The longer I blog the more people find it ;)

(I haven’t actually commented on this site for a while because readers here are not particularly interested in my niche…lol. But I’m commenting now because I have something to say and I want to contribute ;)
Waldorf Wallace

May 13th, 2009 4:25 am

Ouch, this one hurt. I found myself dong a bunch of this stuff without even thinking about it. I’ve found the blunder of my ways and am grateful for this article. *smacks himself on hand* I’ll never spam again.
Wendy @ Aspire to Plan

May 13th, 2009 4:39 am

You broke it down so it will forever be broke! It’s all about “keeping it real”, right? When I first started blogging, I tried to mimic all the wrong bloggers…the ones doing all of the things you just described. It didn’t “feel” right, but I could’nt figure out why. I thought that’s what I had to do in order to have a successful blog. Thanks for putting into words, what that uneasy feeling was!
AronSora

May 13th, 2009 4:51 am

Hey, I’m a little confused. You said that twitter was mean to have it’s users selectively choose followers, but I heard all the time that it is good etiquette to follow all my followers. I have a automatic program that follows back people set up for this purpose. Would you consider this an abuse of twitter or am I correct in following people back?

Just a tip I’ve learned over the months, allows click notify me of future comments vie e-mail, it helped me engage in the blog’s community more.

Thank you!
Leia

May 13th, 2009 4:53 am

I really don’t like it when bloggers force you to listen to their music when you are reading their blogs. I often listen to the news while I am going through blogs, and to be blasted all of a sudden by loud, unpleasant music is really a put-off. If I ever come across this, I close the page immediately without even reading the rest of the post. It’s fine for bloggers to want to share their music, but they should allow for the option of switching it on, rather than forcing readers to frantically search for the “off” button.
Pradeep Singh

May 13th, 2009 5:14 am

I really agree with the points you have stated above. What i think unusual talking among them is “Writing for Search Engines”. Most bloggers would indeed ask to do that and why i like that is because no matter how great content you write, you need readers for it and the best source of readers in Search engines. May be some good blogs like this one already have a trade mark and so may not depend on search engines but for new bloggers like us, readers are really essential and to get readers we need to target the search Engines.
Anyway i like your explanation that we cant have a great blog even if we get tons of traffic and do not write for the readers of the blog.
Well With that, i think now i can say you have a “Great post”.
EH

May 13th, 2009 5:26 am

Sadly, as a newer blogger I had to learn many of those things out the hard way!
However, the biggest thing I’ve found is the content. If you want people to come to your blog, write excellent content. Not only will it keep them interested in finishing the article they clicked in the first place, but it will have them coming back to check subsequent posts. I like that you mentioned Copyblogger because they really offer quality advice on writing better.
so

May 13th, 2009 5:53 am

GENEROSITY is the name of the game to me. At least on the internet :)
I really enjoyed this post, I have good habits but I can improve others. Love the name of your site, BTW “This is broken blog”
Build Muscle

May 13th, 2009 6:18 am

I was guilty of about 75% of these during my initial attempts at blogging. I’ve cut down on the spam at this point, but my site is now blacklisted by Akismet and I can’t seem to get it removed. Now I try to focus on writing valuable or entertaining content, and I submit my posts to around 5 or 6 bookmark sites just to get it out there. I’m also in the process of cleaning useless buttons and widgets off the sidebar. This is a mandatory post for newbies and an excellent refresher for experienced bloggers too.
Cas Summers

May 13th, 2009 6:25 am

I’m a new blogger… There I said it! I really appreciate posts on “What Not To Do”, I’m reading a lot more than I write at this point – Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 13th, 2009 6:50 am

@ So,

Thanks. It’s brand new so I haven’t gotten much feedback on it. Glad to hear you like it.
Chris | Martial Development

May 13th, 2009 7:00 am

Shane, you’re comment is broken. Obviously, you got one of the top 3 spots (which drives a lot of traffic on a successful blog like ProBlogger). But where’s the sincerity? Where’s the realness? It’s a fake comment meant to do one thing, drive traffic. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and it’s a big no no.

Kevin, you read a lot more than he wrote, unfairly.

If your boss said “good job”, just because he wanted you to feel good and do more good work, would that remark constitute a waste of everyone’s time?

I rarely post a “great job” comment–but when I do, it is because the author really did a great job, and I have nothing else to add. Expressing a simple appreciation does not make one insincere. Quite the contrary…pretending interest in a blog discussion when one’s true motive is self-promotion seems a bit insincere.
myddnetwork

May 13th, 2009 9:07 am

I agree with “Chris | Martial Development”. A “great job” comment is not necessarily a fake comment. You don’t need to “add” value all the time. Sometimes you only want to send a congratulation.

Of course, if you put a “great job” in every single post, then it is a signal that you only want promotion but there is not anything wrong with sending a short comment without substantial content from time to time.
Bonnie Landau

May 13th, 2009 9:22 am

Thank you, thank you, Darren! I get design clients who are so eager to make a splash they want to do it all… before they even have a site with worthwhile content. And they get frustrated when I tell them to focus on one or two things and keep it simple. Being everywhere is not only time-consuming, but it won’t get you the traffic if you have no content! Thanks for another great article!
needmoney.com

May 13th, 2009 9:33 am

Is “you’re comment is broken.” intentional or unintentional humor?
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 13th, 2009 9:57 am

@ Aron,

You heard wrong. Stop the auto-following.

@ Chris at Martial Development,

To make points, we all have to speak in generalities. That’s what I was doing. I understand that some people are sincere in their “great post” comments. I also understand that MOST people who leave “great post” comments do so simply for the promotion of their own site.

Darren is a “ProBlogger”. He has a page rank of 6. He doesn’t really need the “great post” comments anymore. Since he’s making a couple hundred grand a year he knows his content is great. I think it would be best to reserve “great post” comments for new or up and coming bloggers.

Again, I’m speaking in generalities (which is necessary to make a point). Most people use “great post” for self-promotion so that’s why it got included.

@ Need Money

Unintentional humor. I HATE people that screw up “you’re” vs “your” and I did it writing this post. Not because I don’t know the difference but because I was doing too many things at once and didn’t catch my error. Thanks for pointing it out. Obviously, I’m broken sometimes too!
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 13th, 2009 10:01 am

@ Andrew Price

Google XML Sitemaps

@ Asswass

I didn’t say it was bad to have them, especially if they are all installed in a single widget like “sharethis”. I said it’s bad to list them all and try to use them all and submit all your posts to them.
philipturpin

May 13th, 2009 10:04 am

Guilty as charged on at least 2 items. I have some defence in that i’m still ‘wet behind the ears’ regarding blogging.

I did the mistake of commenting & dropping my own, topical, link into it. Must admit it felt a bit off doing that. I have seen the errors of my ways though :-)

The only thing i would question about what you said was regarding the number of Social Media icons listed. I totally understand what you say about less is more but in my chosen direction in would like to be able to understand many to be able to recommend few. An example would be: i believe i can tell that Digg is more Technology focussed whereas Mixx is more general / entertainment focussed. Therefore depending on who i was talking to depends on which one i’d recommend. Just because you might see 11 Social Media icons on my blog it doesn’t mean i’m “Jack of all” (although i admit it is rather time consuming so may rethink the strategy at some point! Lol).

I know it’s (now) a cliche but i did like this article because it was informative & provided value i didn’t even know i was looking for. The best type :-)
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 13th, 2009 10:08 am

@ Michelle,

I think you need to really sit down and think about exactly how your product helps others. If it doesn’t genuinely help others, leave and stop promoting it.

If it does help others, figure out why. How exactly does it help them? Then mind map articles, tips, and information around that to offer people free. Become a resource for information on how to solve a problem and quietly lead people to a specific solution (your product).

It’s very difficult to explain without being able to see your site or know what your product is, but if you’d like to talk further just email me personally:

kgeary83 [at] gmail [dot] com
Ramiro

May 13th, 2009 10:35 am

Great post I agree with you except the part of:

“Figure out what everyone in your niche is doing and do the opposite”.

I don’t think is best to do the opposite in some things, especially considering the usability, it’s like reinventing the wheel. Maybe I would add doing the opposite, improve it or change its context.
David Eedle

May 13th, 2009 10:38 am

Kevin, this is a good summary of good etiquette. I’ve just got back into the business of promoting a blog after a while out of the game. I’ve always had a personal blog but never bother promoting, tends to more a way of remembering things for myself as old age sets in!

But we’ve just released an eBook, and an accompanying blog and I’ve been carefully looking at the various strategies of spreading the word.

And of course one technique is to make sure I’m properly and appropriately participating in relevant debates via comments and other interactions with blogs in my space.

We ran an online subscription content business for 6 years, it gave us a deep insight into how content is created, distributed and promoted across the net. Sometimes I feel dismayed at the way the net’s been hijacked by the money grubbers.

However, then I remember all the really great work from so many people including Darren and ProBlogger, and I hope, our various endeavours, and my heart lifts.

It’s about not giving into the dark side. As this post points out, play the game honestly and ethically and you will be rewarded. It probably won’t happen overnight – it took 6 years for our million dollar exit – but it will happen.

Cheers…David
Paramendra Bhagat

May 13th, 2009 11:50 am

You are stating the obvious. But perhaps, in this case, the obvious has to be stated.
The Broad Brush

May 13th, 2009 12:01 pm

Definitely made most of those mistakes myself. The one I most abused was #1, the broken comment. Sadly I’m still guilty.

The key to leaving a great comment is to focus on why you liked it, not just that you did. Obviously if you left a comment you cared. By gosh, tell us why.

Alternately, tell us why you hate it, disagree, why the formatting sucks, just about anything. I’m not encouraging you to attack the blogger, but feel free to critique the post.

Heck. I’d welcome that over no comments on my blog.

Get in there and share a relevant experience as per the example above is a winner. But but but, don’t try to one up the blog poster. They’ll not appreciate it, nor likely will the other readers.

I’m just overtalking now, but as I said, count me guilty on most of these.

Oh yeah, link love gets you noticed.
hondagrrl

May 13th, 2009 12:33 pm

Darren, thanks for the education and reinforcement. The most important thing I try to teach my clients about Twitter is that it is a conversation, not just a way to stand on a soapbox and talk about yourself or your product. I review everybody who follows me (sometimes i get a little behind, but I do look at everyone before I decide to follow back) and I won’t follow people who recycle the same dozen tweets over and over, or only appear to be posting a periodic twitterfeed site scrape of most recently posted headlines.
Dawn Pedersen

May 13th, 2009 12:35 pm

I think Aron heard right, but was listening to the wrong advisers. I’ve seen a couple of “experts” recommend that you follow everyone who follows you on Twitter. But this way leads to madness. I have avoided following accounts such as “Namecheap Coupons” or “ezpcjobs” because their content is 95% spam. Or “atlgirl420″ because she is a teen obsessed with smoking pot. If a twitter follow does not enhance my online experience, I will not follow.

By the way, everyone, please DO keep your social “add to” links for people like me. When I find stuff I love and want to link to at the end of the week in a “link roundup” on my blog, I Digg it. Then I check out my little repository on Digg when I’m ready to blog.

As for this article, consider it Dugg and retweeted.
Jeanne

May 13th, 2009 12:44 pm

As a rookie (OK – virgin) to the world of blogging, twitter and this social networking business, this was a very helpful post. In fact I may have innocently re-tweeted with a shameless plug at the end and have since deleted. In fact, this is my first comment to be left for a blog post. While it is my intent to write with passion and be resourceful… I’ve have lots to learn! Thank you.
yickit

May 13th, 2009 12:44 pm

Forgot to add the /snark code to my previous comment currently hanging out in limbo.

Promoting 10 times more of other people’s work is good in theory, but seems a bit steep to me. But I guess I assume that most people who “promote” a link don’t actually comment on that link, but just pass on the link. As a commenter and a writer I think I’d prefer the one good comment to someone else promoting my work.

Auto DM’s on Twitter that promote your blog/website/company might be the most annoying promotion tool ever.
Jeanne

May 13th, 2009 12:48 pm

Oops – I have lots to learn (As in double checking before hitting submit!)
Toya

May 13th, 2009 12:49 pm

All I can say is that I am so glad that I got a chance to read this early on. As a newbie it is frustrating to have basically little to no traffic. But I have gained it the hard way: I earned it. I was at the point of thinking maybe the things mentioned in this blog were how it was done. That you had to be spammy to get readers. Thank you so much for enlightening me.
Elena

May 13th, 2009 1:01 pm

This is very valuable information. A year ago, I never even heard of Twitter nor did I ever imagine myself doing a blog but times change very quickly. Twitter has become one of the main places I visit each day. I announce posts that I’m excited about, but I’m still working on other aspects of my twitter profile such as design, film and technology.

It is a fine line where you can cross into overpromotion. However, when you blog because you want to and not because you have to, you are going to put quality into your posts and that’s what will bring the readers who identify with your topics in for return visits. People who truly love blogging about a certain topic (mine is about dogs) are going to be in it for the long haul. Promotion for me is just a way to get the word out, but it excessively so is taxing for the same people you are trying to get your message across to.

I’ve written great posts on more than one occasion but the reason more often than not because the blogger has echoed so many of my sentiments, I am pretty much in 99% agreement and can’t add anything enlightening or original. Still, I think it’s good to let the blogger know you liked what they had to say.

The people who overdo self-promotion lose sight of what’s important in communicating. I think as long as you are in touch with your passion, and keep things in perspective, you will not alienate the readers you have worked so hard to bring to your blog in the first place.
The Poker Jerk

May 13th, 2009 1:02 pm

This is a great post! No really, I mean it!
Bill Bennett

May 13th, 2009 1:41 pm

On point number 6.

From about a month ago I got a little carried away posting my stories to Reddit. The site was generating a huge amount of traffic for me — perhaps two or three times what I had previously seen. And it kept on getting better. I was excited.

Then a few days ago, I posted another piece to Reddit. One of the commenters looked up my recent posting record and noticed I had submitted 25 self-posts in a row. I was accused of self-whoring and a number of other things. Pretty soon the Reddit traffic dried up.

So, now it’s back to square one — actually not square one — but the traffic has plateaued at a significantly lower level than it reached.
Liss

May 13th, 2009 1:46 pm

I particularly agree with number 3. I hate when I get emails from bloggers pretending like they’ve read my blog for ages and asking if they can be added to my blogroll. What is worse is when I visit their blog and Im not even in their blogroll. I laugh and think “why do that and how many other people did you email this too??”

But something that I do really like is if someone goes to the effort to determine that my name is Liss and not Lily. Anyone who I receive an email from addressed to Lily gets deleted.
LEon

May 13th, 2009 1:50 pm

The first point regarding comment really close to my heart. Although I am not guilty in committing that but I know of people who does that in my blogs. One fine example the person comment without reading the entry and asking question which answer can be found in my entry and it was not his first time… I felt bad and thus I didn’t tell him off. What would you do in situation like this? Delete his comments?
Denise

May 13th, 2009 1:51 pm

This was an informative post for me, as I’m fairly new in the blogosphere. Because I did wonder about a few of your points, like your advice regarding social media, search engines and Google’s webmaster tools, this post will serve as a valuable reference for me.
Brandi Starr

May 13th, 2009 2:03 pm

#5 is my biggest pet peeve. I recently joined a handful of ning groups, some are serving their purpose and I’m sharing information and networking but a couple of the groups are just non stop self-promotion. Literally minutes after joining I had comments on my profile that didn’t even include “hello” just straight for the sales pitch.
Dane

May 13th, 2009 2:10 pm

This article inspired me to (once again) take a look at my own blog with fresh eyes. And, I realized something: in the end, when all is said and done, the most effective way for me to be helpful to others with my blog is….first to create a blog that I, myself, would enjoy visiting. Period.

~Dane
Joseph Francis

May 13th, 2009 2:11 pm

The weird thing about #4 is Twitter is SUPPOSED to be all about me. It’s supposed to answer one question: What am I doing?

It’s equally weird to never tweet about yourself, as if you are some kind of news provider I should tune into because you can repost from digg faster than I can just visit digg for myself.
David Eedle

May 13th, 2009 2:25 pm

Re Dawn’s comment and not following everyone on Twitter. I fell into that trap – interestingly the 2,000 cap on following (until you get your followers up past, I think , 1800) has been a good brake on that for me. Because I keep finding people I really do want to follow, I’ve been forced to inventory the people I’m already following and question whether they add value to my life.

I’ve been steadily trying to pare away the timewasters (constant sales pitch promo links etc) in order to free up space for Tweeters I want to to follow.

David
Matan

May 13th, 2009 2:25 pm

I really don’t think people need to think so much about their blogging. As a blogger I believe that making those mistakes by yourself and learning from them is the best way for being a good blogger.
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 13th, 2009 2:30 pm

@ Ramiro,

I don’t mean do everything differently. It was a general statement about standing out and being remarkable. The average person is average. If you look like an average person, you’ll always be average, just like them. To stand out, you have to do things differently. That’s what I’m suggesting.
Coralie

May 13th, 2009 3:27 pm

As someone who is currently trying to increase readership to my blog(s), I actually don’t mind a few Shane comments.

I’d *prefer* Baker comments, but I imagine that there are many who read and think the same as what Shane writes, who never comment for fear of simply saying, ‘I agree’. I’d prefer to have a share of those comments than for those people to remain silent and simply nod their heads in agreement. I can’t see the nodding.
Connie Crosby

May 13th, 2009 3:45 pm

When I see a comment that says just “great post” from someone I don’t know on one of my blogs, especially with a link to a website unrelated to the blog or post topic, I assume it is spam and delete it. Comments should refer to something in the post at least.

This was a nice breakdown of “don’ts”. Thank you!

Connie
Lynda

May 13th, 2009 6:37 pm

Hi Kevin, a fantastic and enlightening post. the really interesting thing for me is that this is the 2nd blog post I have read today that has queried the use/abuse of Twitter whereas previously I thought I was the odd one out after having spent 2 weeks on Twitter before Qwitting! Amazing isn’t it – any you have hit the nail on the head by saying it’s because it’s free – that it always has to boil down to the lowest common denominator! Maybe your opinion and the opinion of others will change the behaviour of those abusing this service – or maybe it will just die a natural death….
All the best – Lynda.
Siktus Harson

May 13th, 2009 7:14 pm

Excellent posting.

I had some tendencies in the beginning of my blogging that you have mentioned. bad indeed, but you are hitting my head not to do it.

thanks for taking your time to give all the details.
Zaigham

May 13th, 2009 7:33 pm

Some small points with big impact. “Lust of quick success”.

Nice read. Recommended to all new bloggers starting to dive into the blogging.
Leonie Marks

May 13th, 2009 7:36 pm

Thanks Kevin,

As a newbie at social networking blogs like this are refreshing and valuable. I’d been thinking that twitter wasn’t for me, but I’m feeling inspired to tweet-on, link up a blog and contribute more. (this is my first comment on a blog) – probably unleashed a monster! Broken is behaving with less integrity on the net than when face to face – very unattractive no matter how you try to disguise it.
Aleem

May 13th, 2009 7:39 pm

Now this is a very great post for everyone. I’ve made those mistakes and the impact to my blog is very hurtful.

Anyway, #4 is the biggest thing I can see now… And I agree. Twitter will be torn down by people who shamelessly promotes themselves. I almost quit twitter the first time I signed up but then I found out there’re also many people who uses twitter for a good cause just like Darren!

P/S: How I’d hope this post was written earlier last year.
Kev Jaques

May 13th, 2009 9:01 pm

I always find it surprising the comments done in the broken way, why do people still do that, disregard the traffic aspect, it just makes them look like a muppet. Sincerity is exactly what it’s about, blogging, micro blogging and getting to know people across the other side of the world is getting popular big time. of course I’m also comparing the past 5 years or so where the social media aspect was not so apparent.

If you want people to take you seriously and to connect then a broken comment just won’t cut it. People are demanding more, searching for more and generally trying to increase their knowledge.

A lot of Comments on some good posts can really help people to learn, some comments posted are sometimes better than the actual post as it encourages discussion/debate etc…
Keep it real and you can never be broken!
Steve - Make Money Online

May 13th, 2009 10:08 pm

Great post …. too many people are posting for the sake of it instead of adding genuine, sincere content.

We all want to be on Google’s front page but in the long term you will only get there by supplying rich content that visitors want and the rest will take care of itself as Google recognizes the buzz around your site.
kim

May 13th, 2009 10:44 pm

Thank you for this post, I really needed to read it. I have a frugal blog and weekly I do advertisements for Walgreens, Walmart, and my local grocery stores. Last week I had another blogger leave a comment on my Walgreens post saying, “Great list, I have found more check it out at …” I was frustrated and then wondered if I should be. I guess my frustration really was because it takes me about 5 hours to do the advertisement in the first place and instead of sending me an e-mail where I could link the extra values to their blog- one I have never even seen before- they just tried to have my visitors see the comment and visit. It definetely wasn’t a comment for me it was a comment for my visitors. I still don’t know if I should have been so upset but really it wasn’t a very polite thing to do and gave me a bad first impression of the blogger. Maybe I’m wrong for feeling that way I still wonder if I am but I never would have done that to someone else.

Thanks!
Colorado Springs Real Estate by Kathy Torline

May 13th, 2009 11:08 pm

Great information, glad to see I’m doing most things right. But I realized that I don’t promote other people’s material as much as i do my own. Gave me some good things to think about and to start implementing.
Michelle Minch

May 13th, 2009 11:19 pm

Darren: I agree with all you have said here. #4 Making Twitter All About You and Your Blog struck a cord with me. I am on Twitter regularly and I see this abuse all the time.I’ve gotten very selective about whom I will follow or follow back. I actually look at their most recent tweets to see if they will add value to my twitter experience. If all they are tweeting about is their web site, blog posts, or some product they are shilling, I don’t follow. Yes, its OK to tweet about the above, but I don’t want to see the same tweet 45 times. I have no problem unfollowing if someone is abusive and carpet bombs their tweets.

Twitter is a wonderful tool for learning, making friends and promoting your business. I’ve gotten several clients through interaction on Twitter and gotten help to solve a technical problem I was having with my blog. I’ve helped people I only know through Twitter with interior design and home staging questions and I’ve been asked to be a guest blogger based upon my tweets. I try to add value when I can.

Thanks for all the effort you put into your posts here and DPS. I’m a big fan.

By the way, if you want to follow me on Twitter I’m @HomeStagingPro (http://www.twitter.com/homestagingpro) :o))
Seamus Anthony

May 13th, 2009 11:20 pm

With all due respect, and because you asked for more broken stuff, I think the tone of this article is bit broken really. I find it patronizing and little unnecessarily aggressive. Maybe it’s one example where it might have been better not to direct the article at the reader (eg. “are you a spammer?”) but rather at a common enemy out there somewhere. The best bloggers like Rowse and Clark always sound like your soft spoken best mate who’s on your side.

Then again, it made me look dirty chook, so maybe it’s not so broken after all ;-)
Mark Essel

May 13th, 2009 11:21 pm

A controversial post on how you think people should be allowed to use social media, and crowd sourcing sites.

I couldn’t DISAGREE with you more. If you don’t take the time to do some self marketing in the flood of new content being generated every day, you have NO chance of competing with existing attention grabbers.

How can folks decide if they like your message, if they are never given the chance to experience it? Niche blogs, or focused messages will only appeal to a small subset of all the folks that are interacting online any given day. If you want to have any hope of connecting with this subset you’re going to have to become active in social media, internet crowd sourcing/organizing sites, and not be afraid to toot your own horn to get a few people looking.

Attention doesn’t go from zero to the market group you are looking for without putting out virtual landing pages everywhere a potential reader may look.

The beauty of our modern social web, is that each of us can connect to a huge audience in a realistic amount of time ( a few months of writing and getting noticed). Hiding and hoping is NOT a solution.
ochuko

May 13th, 2009 11:22 pm

When I started blogging in January ‘09, I was extremely lucky to have the following blogs as one of the first blogs I ever read: Seth Godin’s Blog, Rajesh Setty’s Life beyond code, Ramit Sethi’s I will teach you to be rich, and Darren’s digital photography blog (and they are permanently on my blogroll).
The major words that come to mind about these blogs are: ’sincerity’, ‘adding value’, ‘positive’, ‘to affect lives’ and ‘the spirit of giving’!! In my honest opinion, without these traits, there’s no way a blog will see the limelight. The key word is GIVING. “What can your blog bring to the table?”
Just my thoughts.
Mark Essel

May 13th, 2009 11:24 pm

Just to clarify, I’m strong opposed to 6 and some of 8 Kevin.

Putting up badges to social crowd sites allows readers to easily give a helping hand to a starting blog/site.
Jim

May 13th, 2009 11:34 pm

This is very good material. My reason for posting a comment is for Item #3. It’s said by Darren and others that you should build relationships with bloggers in the same niche your blog is in. I would like to hear if my strategy is wrong or right. It gives me about a 50% return on links.

I have found various sites related to being unemployed or laid off, and so I take a look at their site. If it’s professional or corporate, there is no value in me emailing them because I’ll get no real relationships.

However I look at the ones that are blogs ran by real people and have good subject matter and send them a short but two paragraph email introducing myself, my job status, my work history, and my blog URL along with comments.

Before I send this out, I have put their URL on my Blogroll already. Then I tell them that my purpose is to reach out to others in the same situation, and I find their site interesting. I do NOT send a ‘form letter’! I make it specific to their site by commenting on their latest or most popular post.

Then I tell them their URL is already on my blogroll. I ask them if they would, review my site and if they find value in it, would they add my site to their blogroll. I have two link catagories on my site – Blogroll and “Friends of LOG (laidoffguy)”. When I get a reply from someone, their site goes from Blogroll to Friends.

Again, I have met some very nice people this way with good social replies. The responses have been about 50% by reaching out this way.

I’d like to hear comments on this method. It seems to work well without commercializing the site.

Jim
http://iwaslaidoff.info
Rob Freeze

May 13th, 2009 11:37 pm

Kevin, reading your post made me realize I have a lot to learn. I am new to the blogging world and am trying to learn how to do the whole thing. I was happy to learn that there are some things I have not done yet…I haven’t yet learned all the bad habits of blogging. I don’t want to break my blog so thank you.
Naomi Trower

May 13th, 2009 11:48 pm

One of the things that makes me run away from blogs is a lot of spelling mistakes. I think to myself, “Wow they couldn’t even take the time to proofread their stuff prior to posting? They must not be that serious about providing great content.” I wouldn’t say that is necessarily a blog promotion strategy but your list is so comprehensive that I couldn’t think of anything else. :) I’ve been guilty of items on this list and it’s good to review this to make sure I stay away from them. The main motto is “Give and you shall receive”
Naomi Trower

May 13th, 2009 11:55 pm

Oh I forgot to add that since I’ve been providing tops news content for my favorite areas on Twitter (fitness, real estate and social media), I have received so many more genuine followers and RT’s. I have been having a great time meeting so many new people on Twitter. I even plan to meet up with some local Tweeps soon. They also see that I genuinely care and don’t just send out tweets to promote myself.
Juscelino M. Acevedo

May 13th, 2009 11:57 pm

This has to be the best blog promotion article that I have read so far simply because I finally know some of the things NOT to do. It can get a bit confusing when, for example, you read about commenting on forums, however, not knowing that you are overdoing it in some way. Or, thinking that submitting all of your posts to all of the social networks is great, but not realizing that people may get annoyed by your submissions.

This should be part of some type of 10 Commandments for bloggers. Great work.
Mark Essel

May 14th, 2009 12:10 am

I jumped the gun after quickly scanning the post, I pretty much am in full agreement with ya on all 10. My only addition is that the rules of the game are always changing.

As media creators, authors, video producers, musicians we have spend considerable time acclimating ourselves to the latest standards of the ever growing social web.

Sorry for skipping the most important part of # 6) above, the second paragraph!
alone

May 14th, 2009 12:11 am

The most annoying thing that I ever faced is the overrapid twits on Twitter. I love the one that gives benefits, but there are some bloggers who twit the links to their blogs for nothing.

I always do the first mistake. And now I realized it’s a big mistake leaving “great comments” in other blogs. Comment section should be a place for discussion, not driving traffic to your site.

One thing that we have to be aware is when we submitting our posts. Subscribers will receive notification upon our submission so please check your entry before posting. If you keep editing and submitting your post, your subscribers’ email will full of notification for your blog. You’ll be a “ping spammer”

Well, sometimes the badges of the social bookmarking helps the readers to spread the words but make sure your content is valuable to be spreaded.
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 14th, 2009 12:35 am

@ Jim,

I think you’re walking a fine line there. I’d keep it to introducing yourself. No asking for links. When you introduce yourself and include a link to your site, the person will naturally visit and look around.

But no respectable blogger is going to add your site to their blogroll on day one. They’re going to want to watch your content and see if you’re going to last through the excruciating “dip” that occurs with blogging that consumes most blogs and fizzles them out.

When they add you, it’s like they’re telling their readers, “this site is great”. They don’t want to do that until they really know you’re great.

On my other blog, The Money Hawk (www.themoneyhawk.com), I have a blogroll in the footer. I added those sites because I believe they are valuable to my readers. None of those sites on my blogroll have a link back to my site (that I know of). And I’ve only spoken to one or two of the authors. It’s there to add value, not to benefit me in any way.

@ Rob,

You have to start somewhere. If you want any free personalized help, shoot me an email.

kgeary83 [at] gmail [dot] com
Bill Cammack

May 14th, 2009 12:43 am

Great Post! :D
.
.
.
j/k haha Those were a lot of good and spot-on points. Basically, the more people that join a site or app, the more differing ways they’re going to bring to the table to use/misuse it.

It’ll be up to the people who have been there for years to figure out a new way to communicate efficently or move on to the next app.
Stacy

May 14th, 2009 1:01 am

Hey great post. Kidding. I’m new to blogging and have been reading everything I can to learn how to promote my blog. There are so many strategies it seems and everyone has different opinions about the best ways to promote. This article really broke it down for me – it seems to me the more focus on the content and the VALUE you can provide readers, the better off you’ll be.
Another Way To Earn Money

May 14th, 2009 1:10 am

So, this kind of comment is bad? Ok, I’l do my best to give a good comment.
venkat

May 14th, 2009 1:16 am

Well I agree with some broken stratergies that are common in bloggers these days promoting their blogs through forums and twitter .Comemnts shopuld compliment blog author.
Megan Bucher

May 14th, 2009 2:15 am

As a new blogger, I knew that I had better get an education quickly before I made people mad, but I didn’t know I was already such a terrible offender! I immediately went through and blocked a bunch of senseless followers on my Twitter.

Patience is what I was lacking.

I like the updates that I get by following some bigger companies, but I definitely am on the lookout for spammers now. I couldn’t believe how many were already following me, trying to sell me things.

Someone asked in a reply post what the line is on sites like Facebook. I think that if you create a genuine page for a fan base to collect, it’s an awesome way for your cusotmers to relate to each other. It should never be a place to try to shove a product or service down someone’s throat. I’m developing a fan base of customers that have already purchased from our company. It’s a site where they can talk about things they have in common due to their purchase…and that’s it.

I waited a long time before jumping into this scene, because I was so scared of offending someone. My advice would be to keep getting educated, and when you learn of your shortcomings correct them immediately. Don’t be too scared of making a mistake that you don’t get involved at all. Posts like this one are here to help those who do have a sincere purpose at heart.
mike

May 14th, 2009 2:18 am

Sometimes I have written “Very good post” or something similar. It is just to show that you liked what they wrote. Some do spam by writing short things like that. Others do write it to show they appreciated the post.
Tess The Bold Life

May 14th, 2009 2:23 am

What great information for new bloggers. My blog is 6 months old and I was completely clueless on most of this until about two months ago.

I’m just getting into Twitter and this helped me there as well. You blog is truly a goldmine for newbies in it for the long run.
Thanks!
Karen Martin Sampson

May 14th, 2009 2:28 am

Thank you for this advice! I have just started to blog in the past couple of weeks and have wondered about all of those issues you mention. I want to be authentic and hold the interest of anyone who comes to my blog; turning them off is not my intent! I am taking it slow and easy while I learn and find my own “style” of blogging. With so many other artists blogging now I don’t really expect to be
“discovered” but finding some like minded friends is a
great reward – anything else is icing on the cake. Cheers.
Tim Smith

May 14th, 2009 2:37 am

This post was great! I just started my blog and thankfully I haven’t done any of these. Also, thanks for the tip on meaningful comments. I definitely need to work on that. Thanks again for the post!
Deb Frawley

May 14th, 2009 3:00 am

So many rules to keep track of with blogging and social media. How do you keep track of it all? And they seem to change on a daily basis!. That’s why I’m glad there are blogs like yours to keep us all straight! And seriously I do mean that, I’ve learned alot from this blog in the past few months especially in participating in 31DBBB.

I agree that to much promotion is boring, people just get tired of seeing it. I question myself daily on if I’m doing enough or doing to much. How often do you think it’s appropriate to actually promote your own blog, website or other social media sites you can be found on?
Deborah Bifulco

May 14th, 2009 3:28 am

Okay, at the risk of being trite, may I just say that this really IS a great post. As I read it last night (in bed, on my blackberry, I’m ashamed to admit) I found myself examining my own blog strategy. I’ve struggled with the structure of it and have come dangerously close to taking the easy road of copying some other successful blog in terms of style and layout. I am glad that you have validated my hesitation in doing that – now I know that I just need to find my own voice and create my own unique style.The people who like it will come back and those who don’t, won’t – and that’s perfectly okay!
Thanks!
Jeremy Martin

May 14th, 2009 4:48 am

I really enjoyed this post. It is just what I have been looking for. I really like the last point in particular about contributing to others projects and giving “sincere, relevant, and valuable” content and/or feedback.

I agree 100% with that. It is kind of like blog karma. You get what you put in, you get back what you give. Plus you earn a few followers and friends in the process.

Good stuff!
Make Money Online

May 14th, 2009 5:54 am

This post really emphasised on KISS, super stuff by the guest writer. Many people do all this and more.
Loukia

May 14th, 2009 6:08 am

Very good post. Thank you for writing it.

KIDDING. But in all seriousness – great post. I did love reading this! ;) I have been blogging for 2 years now and I love it and I try to keep it real. And honest. I can’t keep up with most of what’s going on out there – I do tweet a lot, (not only about new posts) and I do have a new post up almost daily, because I love to write. Other than that, I’m not blogging for success. I’m doing it because I love it.
Dean Saliba

May 14th, 2009 6:09 am

I enjoyed this post. So much so that I’m thinking about posting a link to it on my blog as I think others oculd learn from the tips.

The first tip is very good. I try to leave more than a “good post” when I leave comments. And I do leave a lot of comments!
James Hofheins

May 14th, 2009 7:28 am

Wow – there are some things here I really need to consider and change. I think my sidebar is cluttered, for one thing.

I’ve also made some of the mistakes mentioned, including writing for google, and joining forums for the wrong reason.

Clean, simple and well written – that’s what I’m aiming for now. I really appreciate this post!

James Hofheins
Seattle Website Design

May 14th, 2009 8:50 am

Excellent list of what not to do. Especially liked, “Making Twitter all about you and your blog”.
Audrey Chernoff

May 14th, 2009 10:41 am

This article is so timely for me. I just started blogging a week and a half ago and you have saved me from going overboard, I hope. I have done a few of these things a little bit, like saying great post because I didn’t have the time to say much more.

Thanks.
Rocket Resaler

May 14th, 2009 1:05 pm

I am not even sure where to start there is so much great info here. Definitely don’t want to be broken blogger (I consider it spam content and a waste of time for me and the blog owner).

Another thing you mentioned which I couldn’t agree with more are those blogs with sidebars full of advertising for social media/networking and other miscellaneous garbage. Sometimes I get so distracted I lose my train of though of what I just read in the blog.

Great info, appreciate you taking the time to put it out there and hopefully those “”offenders”" will rethink their strategies.
Solomon

May 14th, 2009 2:17 pm

Hi Kevin,

Now, I restrained myself writing a great post! :-) I learnt a lot in my 5 month blogging experience how tricky it is. of course, you amply reflected all the mistakes committed by newbies like me. I’m guilty of placing a good post… come and visit my blog….stuff.
Later I found if I do my part sincerely as you said writing good content things will fall in place.
You’ve rightly said, when Darren writes a post, or any noted blog author writes… it’s better to say: “thanks for the wonderful information” rather than saying a “great post”. The author doesn’t our authentication. But, for a newbie, it’ll do.
Thanks for the great insights! :-)
Solomon
Tumblemoose

May 14th, 2009 2:36 pm

Kevin,

You are the rockinest!

This is a great list for noobs and old hands alike. I seriously considered how many of things things I might be doing – thank goodness I’m batting 1000.

Heading over to your blog to subscribe, ’cause I need more of this!

Cheers

George
Eric Roth

May 14th, 2009 3:24 pm

As somebody who has made a number of those “good mistakes” – what I prefer to call common mistakes, I read your post with interest and bemusement. Context, as so often, seems critical here.

How do you judge success? Getting over 150 comments on your blog posting certainly confirms some degree of success here. You’ve hit upon a common paradox – great content will draw traffic, but only if it is picked up by Google – and perhaps Yahoo in Asia. So how does one get noticed? Ah, there’s the rub.

Personally, I like the social media buttons because they make genuine communication between like-minded folks much easier. I’ve joined in conversations, discovered new links, and become more aware. In fact, I discovered your blog post via social media. So let’s not go overboard in criticizing those social media buttons.

Or at least that’s my perspective.
tashfeen

May 14th, 2009 4:36 pm

This post has touched on one of my ancient sins: being laconic. When I’m awed by a blog post, I generally can’t go beyond the “great post, thanks” comment. I guess that habit has to go – thanks, genuinely!

I disagree with you on the Twitter part though. I think Twitter will grow bigger.. and bigger.. and will be made more ‘civilized’ somewhere along the way (when they finally find a way to monetize it). That’s when tweet spam will receive a hefty blow, too. Twitter is the Facebook of the future, make no mistake.
Tommy (NoMeNot)

May 14th, 2009 5:04 pm

“Very good post, thank you for writing it”…….. Oh wait, duh, just caught myself doing exactly what you said not to do. I actually have done a few of the things you have listed. My biggest thing I need to work on is the section about the social media sites.

My site is still young and I am still very new to this blogging stuff. I guess I was starting to let my lack of patience effect the way my blog may be perceived by some visitors. I just want traffic, and I want it now!!! Thanks for the eye-opener.
Tine Steiss

May 14th, 2009 6:13 pm

So don’t we need a “like” button on our blogs?
Sometimes I just want to say “great post, thanks” not to get ppl to my blog but to say that I appreciate your work.
Having had this thought here reading your post, I’ll write a post about it. Thanks!
Rajeev Kumar Singh

May 14th, 2009 8:40 pm

I always wondered wheteher one should submit all his posts to social media stes or be slective.. well I guess I have my asnwer, but then there has to be some way in which we get to our audience faster. I have just started out and was using Digg,r reditt extensively.. wont do it now . Was wondering how else can I get the traffic to zoom.
jim

May 14th, 2009 9:21 pm

@Kevin @ This is Broken

Thanks, and point well taken. I’ll revisit my strategy and look at adding more value rather than links at this point. It’s only been 4 months since this site has been up.

Jim
LetrOdectUS

May 14th, 2009 9:51 pm

great tips! I especially enjoyed the one about commenting as I do tent to leave comments like that. Oh well, its never too late to learn. thanks!
Julien

May 14th, 2009 10:05 pm

Ok, this has really made me think of how to usefully promote http://powermywordpress.com . I guess I need to really look at the long term and realize I won’t get immediate success with it. I need to keep writing articles and perhaps offer my services for free to a few people, who hopefully will spread the word. If anyone is interested in a Free Wordpress install, with plugins, themes, transfer of old posts to new blog with Free Hosting, write me through the site above. Anyway, thanks Darren, I’m going to rethink how I’m getting this service out there!
Naren

May 14th, 2009 10:51 pm

Ya I was doing all these things when I was new to blogging.When I turned back after a long ride as an unsuccessful blogger I found my ideas were absolutely wrong.Now I started doing thins well and I have more than 1000 pagevisits everyday.Thank you pb (:
dotcalm

May 15th, 2009 12:11 am

I agree with #8 as there are some many networks you can’t possibly do them all justice… but, what do you think about claiming your name on as many of them as possible? I have done that on a lot of sites just so no one else grabs my moniker – but then I don’t revisit many of them. I’m always amazed when someone finds me on one of them and starts following me there and then finds the other ones I’m regularly on and follows there too.
I only post 3-4 badges on my sites as I too think it’s overkill to put them all, and only my Facebook and Twitter are linked so I’m not saying the same things in 15 different places.
Good points for newbies especially! I asked for a link/blogroll listing too early and luckily was met with gentle encouragement to “really get rolling and after a few months I’ll add you” – which was much appreciated!
V-
DigitalPsyche

May 15th, 2009 12:23 am

Just in time!, I was thinking of submitting my posts on all social media, wont do it now. Thanks. btw how good is it to submit to free directories?
Nash Dadameah

May 15th, 2009 1:27 am

Hi Kevin, thanks for the great article.

2 questions to ponder:

1. You mentioned about social media – which social media should we focus on? Everyone goes on technorati, for example, but with too many blogs there, you wont be getting much referal unless u’re already at your top.

2. Can bots detect no-index in the comments? I noticed that when I don’t tick on no-index, that’s when I get lotsa spam comments
Ben Mapp

May 15th, 2009 2:49 am

Very helpful post.

I can see I’ve been guilty of at least two … ok, three … of these. And it now makes sense why they’re broken strategies. (Uh, no, I’m not going to say which ones. :-) )

And, thanks to this post, I’m *not* going to be guilty of at least three more because you’ve confirmed my assessments on: search engine submission auto-submitters, link exchanges, link requests to other bloggers, and submitting all posts to social media sites. (Though I do have an RSS feed to my FB Page…does that mean my blog promo strat’s broken???)

Thanks,
Ben
Christian

May 15th, 2009 3:30 am

Thanks for this thoughtful post. And thanks for referring me to Zen Habits. I didn’t know about this site til right now. I love it. You rock!
nh

May 15th, 2009 4:08 am

good post.

(hahahaha.. sorry. i had to do it :-p )

as a new-ish blogger, this is really informative. :)
i think that with the seemingly overnight success of Perez Hilton’s blog, everyone wants to be the next big blogger. That’s when people get hungry for blog attention, and start over-promoting their blogs.

I think i have two followers on my blog. two friends from highschool, and they almost never write in theirs, and I rarely write in mine. It’s on my facebook, and the odd person will go on once in a blue moon, but I see no point in making it some life focus, especially since I have a day job. It’s so much to keep up with (blogs).

Either way, they’re fun to read and write in :)

One more mistake that people make, is leaving it where anyone can leave a comment without it being moderated. there’s some rude people out there. There has to be a *bit* of censorship.
Grammar Glitch Central

May 15th, 2009 6:42 am

Okay, I have found a way to add value to your (NOT you’re) blog and engage you with that in mind. I just copied your sentence–Shane, you’re comment is broken.–to use in the next post on my blog, which is all about grammar glitches. Check out my post headlined, “Please Keep YOU, YOUR, and YOU’RE Straight!” on May 8, 2009 to see more about the problem in “You’re comment is broken.”

I did enjoy the ten tips, and I am just learning to put things like that to use.
Holly - The Work at Home Woman

May 15th, 2009 6:55 am

Nice tips – I really think being a successful blogger takes A LOT of patience and persistence. Yes, we all want to be the next Heather Armstrong, but even she didn’t see over-night success.

The real key is to respect other bloggers and blogs the way that you want your blog to be respected and treated.
Ragnar

May 15th, 2009 8:39 am

Actually according to research performed by some company I know managed to forgot yahoo has about 20% of the SE market vs google’s almost 60%, so in my opinion you should keep up to date on your yahoo rankings as well.

Other than that very informative post, theres something about the 10 this 10 that 5 this 5 that blog post format that annoys me but you made up for it in content, almost anyway :p (Can’t be too nice or I’ll lose all my readers and visitors.)
Philip Turpin

May 15th, 2009 8:45 am

So, if we can’t self-promote (and personally I don’t like reading others self promotion) how do we get recognition? I read this as: the only option, as a newbie blogger, is to go the SEO route? Because until you do get some form of recognition who’s going to promote it?

I must admit (I think I may have mentioned this in an earlier comment) that I have self promoted on Mixx, Digg & Twitter but only for certain posts that I thought provided value and not just simply for your average post. Although I was quite undecided about doing it.

I’d really appreciate it if someone could give the heads up to us newbie bloggers (myself being 1 of) as to how to get recognition without self promotion.

Tips, tricks, posts, books, links – I’m not fussy (or lazy but this post seems to be attracting the right mindset of people who may be able to help)

Thanks in advance to anyone who does respond. :)
العاب شمس الدين

May 15th, 2009 9:26 am

Thank you for this great post . the last about really interested me because i have wasted a lot of time trying to get my blog submitted to every known SE and directory . It is not worth it :(
Jeremy

May 15th, 2009 12:12 pm

Great post. It’s great to know not only the strategies that work and are successful but also the one’s to avoid and that definitely don’t work. I recently wrote an article on my website about a new service that Amazon is offering where blog authors can sell a subscription to their blogs on the Kindle Store. The blog articles are sent directly to the Kindle, so the service can not only expand your reader base but also make you a bit of money on the side. Again very useful post Darren! You can read the article about Amazon Kindle publishing for blogs here http://www.abiztechnews.com/?p=371
Abhishek

May 15th, 2009 9:14 pm

My blog is one month old.I used to commit no. of the mistakes you mentioned out here. I can’t tell you how helpful these tips will be for me especially the bad commenting one and twitter one. From now on, it won’t happen again….Thank you so much…
C A Johnson

May 16th, 2009 1:45 am

This was a very helpful article. I do admit that I have been guilty of leaving a “Shane” remark too in the past. I have learned to manage my time wisely so I can really get a chance to absorb what I am reading so that I can leave more feedback for the writer. I have also had people leave “Shane” remarks for my articles too and it helped me realize that everyone deserves for their work to be appreciated. I think that your article was really helpful and I think it will make us all become better at leaving comments and promoting our work.
Troy

May 16th, 2009 3:39 am

What I like most about this blog is that it takes humanity back to computing. Of course there is a web savvy to acquire, of course there is a long way to go, but basically, on the other side of the wire there is always a human being like me, who wants amusement, relations and not being cheated. Thank you Darren. Posts like this make things much less frightening.
David I.

May 16th, 2009 5:18 am

I have been doing online marketing for about 9 months. Before I used to just submit my site’s pages to all the social bookmarking sites. I’d see a ton of links come up on google the next day. Then, wait 6 weeks – all GONE! I strongly agree that with good quality text articles Google will instantly fall in love with your blog and you won’t have to waste time spamming the social bookmarking sites. Thanks for putting up this list. -David
Kristina Summers

May 16th, 2009 7:11 am

I am sure I have been guilty of all of the things you mentioned, at least a few times, especially in my early days of blogging. I think what is important is that we learn from our mistakes. When I first started blogging, it was for a school assignment and I really didn’t take it seriously, that is until it started getting noticed. Then I think I tried to hard and maybe made a few mistakes with look, feel and yes, even content. (www.everydaypublicrelations.com if interested) I am working hard now to clean up and grow as a blogger and I appreciate posts like this one since they allow a blogger to do just that. I do have the Problogger book and am slowly working towards having a great blog someday. I know I love to write, and want to share so I figure that with continued hard work and effort (and reading posts like yours) that all good things will come in time. I really did enjoy this post so thanks.
Julie - Inspired to Write

May 16th, 2009 9:47 am

Great tips. I do agree that Google is a great search engine and the main one to target, but I do not think that “the only search engine you need to target is Google”….other search engines produce results that Google may not. I think we should care about ALL search engines…but, most definitely with GOOD content not keyword diarrhea.
Romer

May 16th, 2009 4:33 pm

That’s a good list you have there for budding bloggers like me and full-time bloggers alike. I’ve just started reading posts here in problogger and I think I’m getting somewhere far from blogging failure. Cheers for a great post.
jones

May 16th, 2009 7:09 pm

That was a great post, thank you for writing it
i just couldn’t resist….seriously Darren, this is my first visit to your blog. I followed a link from Facebook and I’m glad I did. There are so many great points here.

I am no expert on this but I think those who are offenders of the blogging “rules” don’t realize how transparent they are….many times to the point of embarassament! I especially agree with your take on the keyword soup issue, and the violation of copying content/style! Hate that – and I HAVE seen it!
Lorraine Ball

May 16th, 2009 10:15 pm

Would you change the list if you were talking to a retail company or service company who is using their blog as a way of keeping their site fresh, driving traffic, but not necessarily making a living from their blog specifically?
Ikenna

May 17th, 2009 12:38 am

You just hit the nail on the head. In as much as we talk about the
‘what to do to succeed’, it’s even more important to talk about the
‘what not to do’. I make some of these mistakes, but i’m always
cautious of them. I subscribed to this blog feed that floods my mail
inbox with more than 14 feeds every week. I got irritated at a point
with the repetition of contents with rebranded topics, I recieve. I know
a lot of bloggers want to keep their blogs updated for search engines but
it should be done with regards for your subscribers. I also write
about blogging and developing your writing skill.
Shyam

May 18th, 2009 12:03 am

That was wonderful ! you have given great tips about promoting my blog. I had been using many techniques of promoting by blog. Majority of the traffic comes from google.
Aronsora

May 18th, 2009 12:32 am

Thank you

Kevin @ This is Broken and Dawn Pedersen, I’m going to unfollow some people who don’t add much value. Thank you for the advice
Best European Cruises

May 18th, 2009 7:46 pm

I just cant stop leaving a post here saying great post lol

but i wont i think if you leave some relevance to the post you are doing better as you enjoy leaving comments because they are meaningful then just spamming by leaving two liners
Charles @ Big Idea Blogger

May 19th, 2009 4:31 am

I agree on many of your points and have learned something. But on point #9: copying someone else’s style or idea, I don’t quite get you. Are you saying we should have original content but copy people’s styles?

If that’s the case, then I don’t agree with you. I think everyone should have their own style because style is connected to personality, and since everyone’s personality is unique and different in some way, having your own personal style is a critical factor for you to stand out.

What we should copy are things like the topics that people are talking about in the blogosphere. The content should not be plagarized and should be original, but we can and should search for ideas for our content from fellow bloggers in our niche.

Another thing is I don’t regard other bloggers in my niche as competitors, but friends! Blogging is all about building relationships, and we should be helping one another grow our respective blogs.

Sorry for picking this one point out of the ten, but one of the best ways I find that contributes to a conversation is to state a different opinion.

Other than that… great post. (LOL! I couldn’t resist!)
Rocky

May 19th, 2009 5:03 am

This is one of the helpful articles that I’m reading in building my own blog. Now I know that using google webmaster’s tool is enough to promote your blog. What important is your content, as well as your readers than to have the top spot in google.
Kevin @ This is Broken

May 19th, 2009 12:57 pm

Philip,

Recognition comes from adding value to people’s lives free, gaining their trust, and doing something exceptional that makes them want to talk about you.

I know it’s harder than spamming everyone but it’s better in the long run.

Lorraine,

It’s more complicated than that. If you’d like to discuss further, email me at kgeary83 [at] gmail [dot] com.
Mauro - Staff "Il Bloggatore"

May 20th, 2009 12:33 am

I want to say a thing about point 7.

There are many bloggers that write for search engine. I agree with you: This is a mistake! It is an error!

And search engines programmers are developing better software, to recognize also semantic means of our web contents!

So, that bloggers risk to get penalities from Google and others!

Sorry for my English!
Great Post (he he! This is not SPAM! ;)
Mauro.
Ann Heitland

May 20th, 2009 1:06 am

I’m desparately trying to learn how to “retweet” — tweet someone else’s tweet? Is that even possible. Or should I just be tweeting other people’s posts (I kind of already do that…) I’ve got a note into my tech guru and hope to get a response today….
Chris Healey

May 21st, 2009 1:56 am

I blog with several “identities” everyday – the main ones being for a business to business marketing blog and a then a personal, art-based blog. The rationale and audience for each is very different of course but these 10 rules apply in a general sense to all of them.

However (!) – the marketing blog is driven by twitter and announcing articles as you produce them and watching for the same thing is expected and very useful. It’s all about the headlines and I enjoy glancing at the tweets in the bottom left of my screen as I work. There are lots of schlocky spam accounts in the marketing twitter scene of course, but it is pretty easy to tell which ones those are…As well, being found on all social platforms is a no-brainer.

Taking that approach into my art blog though makes no sense and would end up being the mistake you are warning me about. I would be a spammer and nothing turns people off respecting you (and your blog) than a sense of desperation.

Your rules do seem to apply more to blogs that start off as personal opinions and niche writing and end up being successful businesses than businesses starting a blog and hoping it will be successful because of it’s opinions.

Hope that makes sense!
Kirk

May 21st, 2009 9:43 am

Cool article.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to write it. I’m just starting out and am struggling with the business aspects of blogging versus the altruistic aspects. I think that ultimately its about being honest and having valid, interesting content to share. Just like this post.

Cheers.
Mikes

May 21st, 2009 11:21 am

LOL! I’m guilty of trying to submit to all social medias available. alright I learned my lesson. tsk tsk tsk. I agree with forums and leaving comments professionally and sincerely not spammy. building good relationships in the blogosphere is also really good becaus after all the usual readers are bloggers themselves. Thanks for sharing (sincerely)
OSG

May 22nd, 2009 4:38 am

I appreciate you writing this blog. I’m trying to get started and obviously have much to learn as I need to search some of the terms used! Thanks
WebAir

May 23rd, 2009 2:48 pm

(…)”Unfortunately, as Twitter gets more mainstream it’s going to lose value.”

Who says so? Only your opinion or some news from twitter or influential people?

Thanks
irrelevant

May 26th, 2009 10:35 pm

twitter is supposed to be personalised, and aimed at your audience, so i twitter about what i did or what i think, your saying thats wrong? lol
Fred G

May 27th, 2009 5:51 am

Nice post, thanks for writing…..just kidding…..I’ve broken just about every commandment on this article. I intend to change my ways and add value where I can. What about asking people to view your site? Is this a major no-no?
Briana

May 30th, 2009 1:19 am

A must read for new bloggers. I’m sure I was guilty of several of these infractions when I first started blogging.
Luis

May 30th, 2009 12:21 pm

Your tips made me reconsider some of my last thoughts to increase my pagerank. I’ll even give up some of the old ones. To be honest I’ve had already reached the conclusion that, for example, addthis.com was pretty useless. Thanks.
Alicia Vilas

May 31st, 2009 2:24 pm

Thanks for the ideas. I just recently joined twitter and started a blog; I love to learn what to do and not do to build relationships. I may have to check #8 on my blog. I do not want to get carried away. Thanks again for your tips.
A.T.H. Webber

June 2nd, 2009 11:06 pm

I don’t even know now how I got referred here, but I bookmarked it a while ago while getting down to the business of beginnng my Blog…

…It’s my first attempt and, frankly, I would be naive if I thought I wasn’t going to make any mistakes!

I am just grateful that I can use this as a guide for the sort of mistakes I almost fell into due to sheer “noob-ness”.

Have more time now, looking forward to reading throught the rest of the site.

I figure that if I can learn from this first attempt, then future projects will beging on a reasonable foundation.
(yeah yeah.. in a perfect world LOL the NEXT project will be perfect, and I’ll sit around in my undies all day watching the adsense ticker roll on ROFL.. NOT!)

Thanks.. really.

Drew :-)
Ashish Kalmegh

June 2nd, 2009 11:33 pm

Unknowingly I was commenting on others blogs . I was unaware of the fact that I am getting a a link from thOSE blog :D
Steph.

June 7th, 2009 9:45 am

I’m guilty of probably all of these, expect for #2 and #3. However, I have corrected them over the last couple of weeks. After reading them though, boy do they sound bad. Yikes! I’m glad I rectified the error of my ways, before I killed all hopes of a good blog. I’m still learning though. Every day.

My main focus right now is improving my grammar and punctuation. I know I know, what is a girl with horrible grammar and spelling doing as a blogger!?! However, I really do think it has improved both. Its one of the top 5 reason why I blog. English is not my first language so my grammar can get a bit screwed. Even after proof reading over and over again. Any suggestions?

Anyways, thanks again for your help. I’m a twitter follower as well. Your blog is really helpful and I like your honest and to the point opinions. No too harsh, but with no extra sugar. Love it!

Thanks again Darren.

Steph.
Laid Off Diary

June 16th, 2009 2:17 pm

Nice post. thanks for writing it.

Just kidding. Yeah, I would think it would be annoying for people to just ask for a link exchange and I have, on my blog, gotten people who write lame things like “nice blog. keep it up!” when they obviously haven’t read my post or care to read it. i find it annoying and a bit offensive.
A.T.H. Webber

June 16th, 2009 5:07 pm

…. just on that point…

What is the accepted etiquette for moderation?

My blog is in it’s infancy, so is hardly inundated with comments – but to resolve the blog-backs mentioned above, can moderation resolve that? rather than auto-accept?

If a commenter is obviously not invested in a blog, I don’t see the benefit of having their comment plug up the page.

OR is this a little naive and inviting the blogging gremlins to come and smite me where I stand?

:-)
A.T.H. Webber

June 16th, 2009 5:34 pm

…. just on that point…

What is the accepted etiquette for moderation?

My blog is in it’s infancy, so is hardly inundated with comments – but to resolve the blog-backs mentioned above, can moderation resolve that? rather than auto-accept?

If a commenter is obviously not invested in a blog, I don’t see the benefit of having their comment plug up the page.

OR is this a little too simplified and inviting the blogging gremlins to come and smite me where I stand?

:-)
Nash | nil2million.com

June 17th, 2009 1:02 am

I would normally allow such comments to be posted in my website – the generic comment like “nice posting, great job” etc.

It’s always better to have some comments rather than no comments at all as it improve the social conformity of your website (the more people comment, the more new traffic will want to look to your website.

Of course, real spam comments is to be avoided as it will downgrade your website.

When you reach a level like Problogger, you dont need to worry about this anymore :)

Nash
Eemz

June 18th, 2009 1:16 pm

Thanks for the tips. Actually I was leave my simple comments to others blog. But I think you are right, some people will look like a spam. So, is google read it as spams for simple comments?
Sean Davis

June 21st, 2009 8:05 pm

This is a great post. I’m not even going to lie, I have done quite a few things mentioned in this post before. I don’t think I ever had bad or cheap intentions, though.

The one that breaks my heart the most is copying someone else’s style. I hate to say it but I really paid attention to the site of this site when I was designing my site. I felt that this site looked like what a quality content site should look like… so I went with it.

Problogger and my site, SuccessOnMyMind.com, are not in the same niche by any means. How negative of an effect do you all think this will have on my site? I am very creative and none of my other sites are copies. I just really wanted the same feel for this particular blog,

Go or no go?
Baby Cruiser

June 22nd, 2009 7:01 pm

You say right that this kind of comment doeasn’t work at all: “Very good post, thank you for writing it. ”

But if your post is really a great post, how can we say only thank you for this great info?

By the way these 10 tips you wrote are interesting and useful…. so thanks for the great post.

BabyC
Polarimetric

June 23rd, 2009 8:42 am

Hmm. I appreciate this post, since it’s enlightened me quite a bit. (Sorry, I sound a bit like Shane…) I’m definitely a newcomer to blogging at the moment, even though it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now.

I generally agree with every point you made, but my most recent strategy for promotion (my blog has only really been up for about 2 months so I’m in the experimentation stage…) contradicts point #4 and point #6. I do tend to submit every link to Twitter, and I’ve just recently started experimenting with StumbleUpon and Digg. I know it’s sinful, and it feels that way when I’m doing it, but I must say that I’m honestly confused about exactly how you get the link out there without using these strategies early on. Considering that my blog (sorry, I’m talking about my blog a lot but this is a relevant question, I swear!) is 100% politics and economics, I’ve definitely had some trouble finding other bloggers to connect with, unless I want to hit up CNN. (Somehow I doubt that they’d have much interest in a no-namer like me.)

So I guess my question would be, how should I start off? If I shouldn’t be submitting to social networking sites and Twitter, what should I be doing instead?
Chris Beaman

June 24th, 2009 3:11 pm

That’s so funny, I am a total newbie when it comes to promoting my blog. Thanks for showing me where I went wrong. Take it easy
Vince

June 26th, 2009 5:50 am

Hey Darren, this is a really great top ten list. I hope you will respond to my comment, I am trying to find ways to let people know that they can post their own top ten list to my site http://www.toptentopten.com/. I am always sincere in my comments and read people’s lists and don’t want to come across spammy. I don’t think it is because we never asks for links back to our site and in fact we let people know that they can post their list on our site and reference their site for the original source, which gives them a one way link. So again, just really trying to make sure my message doesn’t fall into some of the pitfalls that you point out here.
sonakshi

June 30th, 2009 12:34 am

that was really helpful!
your post left me feeling so stupid!
i’d done about six of those broken things :-( to promote my blog……and still it wasn’t really giving me any traffic….i realize i’d better stop all this!

thanks a ton
off to better blogging…
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July 1st, 2009 12:55 am

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james oh

July 1st, 2009 10:43 am

I too have tried is helping to promote for other related blogs. In that sense , I get more content for my blog.

Occasionally, they take my articles and publish them on their blog, getting me more exposure.

Count me in if you are keen for such exchanges.
Ronny

July 4th, 2009 1:30 am

Darren, great post as usual. What I think after reading this blog post is most of the blogging world knows these to ’some’ extent. But they still make the same mistakes again n again just to cover up the mistakes they are doing by not posting good contents (or I should say not spending much time in research).
Nick

July 11th, 2009 5:23 pm

Thanks for writing this, It’s all about common sense I guess and not abusing the amazing free networking tools that are out there. We’re just getting into twitter and already we have some random people starting to follow us – I can’t see why on earth they would be interested in what we’re talking about, I guess some are just looking for a follow back. Hopefully as some of these social networking sites mature these bad practices will become more exposed and frowned upon, people will get wise to it and they will become ineffective, so the technology stays meaningful and useful for everyone. Hurrah!

Notice you already have some comments from people blatantly ignoring your advice! :)
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Kirit

July 24th, 2009 11:44 pm

Great content!!! I really in search of these types of blogger strategies. This will help me to get traffic towards my blog.
Thank you very much!!!!!!!!
tiffany co

July 27th, 2009 11:47 am

This is one of the helpful articles that I’m reading in building my own blog. Now I know that using google webmaster’s tool is enough to promote your blog. What important is your content, as well as your readers than to have the top spot in google
The Briny

July 28th, 2009 5:23 am

I have heard of most of these, and they are definitely to be observed! But what about link swapping? If you organically swap links with another blog, via mutual interest, does that impact your PR positively or negatively? I am not talking about the “pay me $10 and I’ll post your site link on 100 sites” type of links either.
Abhishek Gupta

July 31st, 2009 8:12 pm

This is really a fantastic strategies to get the website top ranked on all the major search engines….in this post you have given everything which I want and searching on Google or may be other Search engines…..If you have any other post so please send me the link on my Email ID

Thanks
Abhishek Gupta
Abhishek Gupta

July 31st, 2009 8:20 pm

I really love this post because you have mentioned each and everything for getting the website top ranked and can you tell, how can we use forum sites and what are FFA (Free For All) Sites. If you have any other information which I want so please let me know through Email which I have mentioned in this Post

Thanks
Abhishek
Richard Matthews

August 4th, 2009 7:47 am

Mine is a question. I have a spiritual blog on Blogger. To the side I have widgets to Ezinearticles.com and HubPages.com which I also write for. At the bottom, I list what I consider interesting sites that are related to my topic. Do you all think that is OK or too much?

Many thanks.
Samuel

August 10th, 2009 8:04 am

First off I need to say this, WOW. This blog is one of the most complete ones I have seen online, I am learning alot of stuff from reading your posts that I never though about at all.

Keep the tips coming, I want to learn more =)

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