Blog News Watch

Blogging professionally appeals to a lot of folks. Some of those people may have unrealistic visions in mind - sitting around in their PJs all day, eating bonbons (seriously, what’s a bonbon anyway? Is it one of these? Or these?) … Well, there is some measure of relaxation that comes with the life of a pro blogger.

But don’t ever forget - it is work. And it’s not all writing work. There’s a lot of effort that goes into monitoring and publicizing a blog. There’s monitoring the comments; participating in other blogs’ comments; optimizing your blog for SEO purposes; monitoring your results in the search engines; cultivating relationships with other bloggers. And I haven’t even mentioned the work that goes into collecting resource material, investigating, researching, and the other tasks that go into actually writing the posts.

If all that still sounds wonderful, and you think you’re ready to make the leap into professional blogging, there are lots of resources available to help you do just that. Here are some links that you might want to bookmark and explore:

• Darren Rowse’s Problogger Interviews with Professional Bloggers
• Angela Booth’s Blogging for Dollars e-book
• Performancing.com’s Blogger Jobs forum

There are many more out there, and I’ll revisit those resources as well as new ones in this series over the coming weeks.

Technorati Tags: professional blogging

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Quick and dirty and short this week, bloggers - Sheryl’s got a massive work project hanging over her weary head:

Blog Herald: Yahoo!’s pay-per-click network is now offering publishers payment via Paypal….9:01AM: BBC launches video channel on YouTube - new vid source? … About Web Logs:should bloggers do paid reviews? Deb says “Why not?” - and I say “Dang skippy” … The Godmother of Blawgs (law related blogs), Denise Howell, interviews Mark Sigal of vSocial at ITConversations …. Blogger & Podcaster: new staff announcements … Blogging For Dollars: Angela talks about how blogs support your business … BloggingPro: How not to become a hermit at conferences … Copyblogger: Brian’s got the secrets to massive traffic and he’s spilling.

That’s it for this week - like I said, quick and dirty and short! 

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We’ve all struggled with it from time to time - that feeling that you’d rather clean the floors (with your toothbrush), get a cavity filled (without numbing medication), heck - anything! - rather than ______________ (fill in the blank with the project du jour). When it comes to blogging, it’s oh, so easy to let it slide. Maybe it’s one particular post. Maybe you’re trying to create your blog’s flagship content. Maybe it’s just blogging in general - hey, we all go through those times when we just aren’t feeling the bloggy love! It isn’t just you, I swear.

So, what’s a blogger to do? Angela Booth has some tips at her Writing Blog that are well worth a try.

See, the problem is this: procrastination is not just a productivity block. It’s that, but so much more. It’s the Titanic iceberg - one third visible but this mountain of nasty underneath, where you can’t see the danger lurking. And that subsurface two-thirds? Is emotional. Yes, I said the ‘e’-word!

There is one universal truth of all procrastinators - whether it’s your habit or something that just popped up with this particular project that’s giving you fits - and it’s this:

Now - are you really better off not doing It? Only you can tell for sure, but odds are - no. Odds are, this is a problem of perception and of emotional payoffs. If procrastination is becoming a regular occurrence for you, then before you try the tips and tricks to break through the wall, sit down in a quiet place with some paper and pen and write in a stream of consciousness style your response to these questions:

• What is my payoff for procrastinating about this project? What am I getting out of it?
• What am I afraid is going to happen if I undertake this project?

Once you have those answers, take a short break - get up, walk around, change your posture, do jumping jacks for a few minutes (it helps change your mental state), then sit back down and on a new sheet of paper, write your responses to these questions:

• What’s the worst thing - the absolute worst thing - that will happen to me if I don’t start and finish this project?
• What joy - what wonderful benefits - will I achieve when I do start and finish this project?

By starting with the current state of affairs, you end on a high note. By changing your mental state (using physical means) during the little break, you drum into your subconscious brain that this is a change - a new state of being. It’s signaling to your little internal secretary, “Hold the phone - new policy coming down from the top!” This exercise is really powerful and is a great way to get a handle on why you don’t want to do whatever it is you don’t want to do. And if it’s a must - or a hugely important want-to - it can help you get back on track and focus on the positive.

Do you have any other tips for breaking through the wall of procrastination? Leave them in the comments!

Technorati Tags: writing, procrastination, blogging, productivity

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Happy day, bloggerinos, when we get our very own version of Digg! Blogg-Buzz (and no, I don’t know why there’s an extra ‘g’ in there - truncation of “blogger” mebbe? Play on ‘Digg’?) says it’s a “blogger driven site, exclusively for bloggers like you, to share, discover and promote blog posts that you find interesting!” It really is very much like Digg for blogs - submit posts you find fascinating, tag ‘em, others “buzz” the post as well (or not), and the more buzzes, the higher it’s ranked, until the top buzz’d find themselves on the front page.

Pretty darn cool.

Technorati Tags: blogg-buzz, digg for blogs, blog marketing

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Welcome to Talk Back Fridays, where you talk back and possibly win my editing services for one blog post of your choice! First, some housekeeping - this is the next to last contest Friday, so if you want to win, start commenting! Next week will be our last contest day, although Talk Back Fridays itself will continue (we just won’t be announcing any winners). I’ll probably resurrect the contest at some point in the near future - but for now, you have two more chances!

How does it work? Easy peasy: I post about a topic, you post your thoughts, I choose a winner. That winner gets my editing services for one blog post of his or her choice (subject to my usual rules about no obscenity, no defamation, etc.). That’s it! Couldn’t be simpler.

Today’s Talk Back Topic: How important is design, anyway?

It’s an age-old debate - design versus content. One serves the other. No, it’s the other way around. Design doesn’t matter. No, it’s critical. (No one will deny that content is more critical, I hope.) But I look around and I see some of these blogs the kids are starting up these days - and I think, “Mercy. Who hit you with the ugly stick, you poor blog?”  I mean - really. Standard fresh out of the can templates? Boring blue and white, or green and white, or some other god-awful two-tone garbage that someone mistook for “clean and simple”?

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe design isn’t that important, if your goal is to bring in the readers and/or the bucks. Maybe looks don’t count.

Talk back to me!

Technorati Tags: talk back fridays, blog design, blog content

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It is not the job of Search Engine Optimization to make a pig fly. It is the job of the SEO to genetically re-engineer the web site so that it becomes an eagle.

This quote from Bruce Clay’s Search Engine Optimization primer page pretty much says it all. (Bruce Clay, Inc. is an international internet marketing firm with offices in the US, England, Australia, and Africa.) The page is an amazing bottom-line 411 on SEO for the nontechnically-oriented. A step-by-step “here’s what you do, and here are the tools with which to do it.” I bought some SEO books earlier this year - and I’m seriously wondering why, now, with this amazing free resource there for the taking and devouring.

Worthy of a bookmark and a few hours’ deep reading time. With notetaking.

SEO primer, bruce clay inc.

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Bloggers 4 Hire has some thoughts about what to do when you get behind in your posting schedule on one or more blogs. Although the post is aimed at professionals blogging for others - i.e., much as I do here on Blog News Watch for 451 Press - the subject is one worthy of consideration for anyone who’s falling behind.

First - you need to take your blogging seriously, if you’re in it for serious purposes. If you don’t give a fig about traffic, have no advertisers, and are blogging purely for a lark or creative self-expression purposes - and, again, don’t care about traffic - then who cares if you get behind, I suppose? Can you even get behind in such a case, given there’s no self- or other-imposed schedule? But for the rest of us, who have any purpose in blogging other than ego-stroking or journaling, then we need to pay attention to the calendar and post regularly. It’s hard to take that seriously if you don’t take the blog itself and the act of blogging seriously to begin with.

Second, if you haven’t already, consider implementing the “Blogging Day” approach. Rather than write in each blog daily, try setting aside one day or part of one day to all blogging for the week, or at least for several days. (Perhaps you’d rather try two “blogging mornings” or whatever time of day you’re most productive. Whatever - the point is to knock off more than one post in one sitting.)

Third: aim to create some back-up posts - timeless entries that are generally relevant to the blog’s topic, which can be posted in a jam when you don’t have time to put something together from scratch.

Finally, make sure you have a valid and viable (not to mention robust and easily accessible) capturing tool with which to jot down notes and ideas for future blog posts. I have some more thoughts on that subject, which I’ll share next week.

blogging and productivity, scheduling blog posts

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Fire up the campfire, boys and girls - it’s roundup time!

Copyblogger has big news - it’s its own Wordpress theme! Now you can share in the CB-goodness….

The Blog Herald has some tips about detecting plagiarism and content theft ….

Blogging Pro found a list of way-cool logo-design tutorials at E Logo Design …

Angela Booth’s Blogging for Dollars Blog has some tips on managing your own network of blogs all by yourself …

Blogger & Podcaster has the rundown on a Podcamp event (it’ll make sense in a moment)…

Blog-Op asks the not-so-musical question “How Big Do You Want To Be?” …

Want some CSS tips and tricks? Ben Bleikamp at The Blog Herald has just the ticket …

Deep Jive Interests has a little meta thing going on that DJI readers will enjoy… .

Dosh Dosh has an intro to niche blogging - follow the fun as Maki sets up seven niche blogs in seven days …

Freelance Switch runs down 34 places you can find some design inspiration …

Lifehacker’s got a handy list of Firefox extensions …

Simplicity is success for Technorati at Liz Strauss’s Successful Blog …

A new entry on our Roundup - Bad Language, which has a post about “blogging like a pro” …

Lorelle’s got a book out! Here’s the announcement …

I learned some things from Performancing’s “Reboot Your Own Blog” …

Problogger has some blogging lessons culled from Pick the Brain and Darren’s own comments - interesting take …

That’s it for this week’s roundup - take it easy, breezy, and as always, if you have a blog you’d like me to include in the roundup drop me a line at sheryl dot schelin at 451press dot net, or drop me a comment below.
 

Technorati Tags: wednesday roundup, problogger, lorelle on wordpress, pick the brain, performancing, bad language blog, lifehacker, firefox, technorati, freelance switch, deep jive interests, dosh dosh

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Tom Johnson makes BNW two days in a row with this cautionary tale about upgrading the Wordpress files you depend on for your bloggy livelihood.

I’m so not kidding about this, kids. Go read his blog post, then hightail it over to Podz’ Tamba2 Wordpress Tutorials page, as Tom suggests as well, to get the help you need to do this right.

See, the beauty of Wordpress lies in its hands-on manageability - the blogger can make it do whatever s/he wants, pretty much, just by tinkering.

But the ugly lies in its hands-on manageability - the blogger can make it do things s/he definitely DOESN’T want, if s/he doesn’t know what the Hades s/he’s doing.

Wordpress 2.2, upgrading wordpress

Here’s the debut of a new feature at Blog News Watch - “Flagship Content.” The idea is simple: every so often (not necessarily weekly, though I’ll strive for that if possible), I’ll feature a blog and spotlight what could be considered that blog’s “flagship content.” If you’re not familiar with the term flagship content, I’ll direct you to Chris Garrett’s blog with instructions to subscribe to the feed, and discover in said feed the link for the download “Killer Flagship Content.”

Today, we’re looking at I’d Rather Be Writing’s post from April of this year, “Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog - Condensed From Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences.” Let’s look at what Tom Johnson did write right here:

• The “lessons learned” approach. This is highly worthwhile - Tom’s creating value for his readers out of the battle stories from others’ experiences. The confidence factor is high; the reader knows these ideas have some merit right out of the gate, so s/he comes to the post with a sense of trust.
• Note how Tom builds on that trust by developing the ideas that follow and accompanying them with visual aids. Some of his readers will be visually oriented - meaning pretty pictures will help drive home the point. Others will be aurally oriented - those readers, I think, tend to “hear” the words spoken aloud in their minds as they read. By including words and pictures, Tom’s grabbing a wider audience.
• The scope of this post is broader - much broader - than I’d normally advise. But that’s completely appropriate for flagship content - that, in fact, is exactly what you want to do. Flagship posts are not about quick reads - they’re about creating a meatier entree, one that will sustain the reader past the point of consumption. Tom’s created a resource that will be bookmarked, referred back to, passed in email, shared via StumbleUpon, Dugg, and otherwise circulated.
• Note how Tom offers support for his assertions - the Technorati graph is brilliant.
• And the bonus “resource” list - it’s not promised in the headline so it strikes Tom’s readers as a gift. And we all love getting presents.
• Finally, Tom doesn’t just make points - he offers advice. He doesn’t simple tell his readers what’s wrong - he tells them how to fix it. He doesn’t just point out what’s right - he tells us how we can make our own blogs “right,” too. Note the specific referrals to particular plug-ins. This is another facet of making flagship content a significant resource, as opposed to just a quick read or “tip.”

Is there anything I’d change about this post to make it even more effective? Not much - Tom’s done an excellent job here. One thing that might have offered it a bit more organization would have been the inclusion of headers and grouping each suggestion in the appropriate group - for instance “Design Tips,” “Writing Tips,” and “Management Tips.” But twenty is a good number - not too numerous to make browsing straight through migraine-inducing, and enough to offer a satisfying roundup of instructional points.

flagship content for blogs, choosing blog content