How Important is the Design of Your Blog?

I’ve been thinking a lot about blog design because in the last couple of days, I’ve gotten some compliments out of blue on one of my blog’s designs.  This was surprising because I don’t think the design is exceptional.  The design is based on a popular premium theme, which I modified with my limited coding skills.  I changed the colors, resized the columns, and moved and deleted some of the visual elements.  Also, I hired a designer to create a custom header.  These changes made my design look very different from the original look.

Make It Unique

One key is standing out from the crowd.  No one will talk about your blog design or even take note of it if it looks too similar to other blogs.

Many of the blogs in my niche were using popular free Wordpress themes, so they looked like other blogs.   While there are many great free Wordpress themes, if you use them, you’ll often find many blogs that look just like yours.  Therefore, you’re not standing out from the crowd and your design doesn’t make a lasting impression.

Takeaway: If you do use a popular Wordpress theme (whether free or paid), make sure to modify it enough so it has a fresh look and doesn’t remind your readers of other blogs with the same theme.

Cut Out The Clutter

My design may not win any awards, but one thing I kept hearing in the compliments was the simplicity of the design.  A clean, uncluttered design goes a long way to improving the usability of your blog.

Many blogs have too much going on.  Whether it’s five different ads above the fold or ten widgets on the sidebar, a cluttered design can frustrate and confuse your readers.

Takeaway: If you give your readers too many things to look at, they may miss out on the most important part of your blog, your posts.  Keep your design simple and you’ll highlight your content.

Content Vs. Design

One of the blogs in my niche has uses the Wordpress default theme so the blog feels very boring and bland.  However, I look forward to visiting the blog because it’s regularly updated and has high quality content.  The blog has grown quickly and is starting to become one of the most popular blogs in my niche.

This just goes to prove that content is by far more important than design.  Still, that blog could get a big boost from a fresh design.  A custom design will cause it to stand out even more from other blogs.  It will make the reading experience more enjoyable, generate buzz within the industry, and improve the blog’s brand.

Takeaway: Focus first on the quality and quantity of your content, but once you’ve got that down, a custom design will take your blog to the next level.

Performancing offers custom blog designs with our blog launch service.

Do you still rename your images for SEO purposes?

It has been an age old SEO trick to apply the same article tagging principles to images. This is done by simply renaming an image file from the default IMGxxx.JPG or DSCxxx.JPG, depending on what camera we’re importing from.

Although photo uploading services allow you to insert tags, there’s nothing like good old search juice from Google’s image search feature. A question — how meticulous are you with renaming images you upload to your blog’s hosting? Do you rename the entire file, go as far as the alt="" description? Do you do this all the time, to all your posts, with no exception?

A personal practice is renaming images only when I feel that I have a scoop. Say, if I covered a product launch for my technology blog, that’s the only time when I rename all the photos I took and batch export them from iPhoto through sequential exporting so that the images are automatically tagged with the desired name plus a corresponding number (i.e. Nokia_phone_1.jpg, Nokia_phone_2.jpg and so on).

5 Ways to Quickly Generate Blog Posts

All of us have deadlines, post quotas, and traffic targets to meet. Whether self-imposed or an employer’s requirement, these goals all rely on producing content on a regular basis. Here are five ways to keep the content coming, specifically catered for use during limited time or dry idea spells. [Read more]

Blogging through a power cut: plan ahead to minimise downtime

Just as some computer users (not you of course) don’t do regular backups, it’s easy to take for granted everything we require to do our job as bloggers and so not plan for problems.

If blogging is your business, you’ll want to think about what to do when the lights go out.

Some basic things you’ll want to consider are:

1. Computer equipment
2. Internet connection
3. Communication with others
4. Maximizing productivity
5. Use the cloud and keep it local
6. Power restored

1. Computer Equipment

Are you prepared for what happens when your computer shuts down unexpectedly due to power loss?

Though modern software and hardware is generally very good at recovering after a power cut (there’s even an option on most operating systems to restart automatically after power failure) it’s still wise to prepare.

If you’re using a desktop computer, you’ll lose power instantly unless you’ve invested in a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). These vary in cost depending on how long you want them to supply power to equipment, and to how many items, but a small investment could at least give you time to save work and shut down the computer safely before all power is lost.

If you’re using a laptop computer, even directly powered from the mains, then you should be able to work from the battery pack, though you may notice a reduction in performance depending on your power settings.

Consider how much equipment you need to protect, what your budget is, and plan accordingly. If your area is prone to power loss, even momentary, then investing in this way will save you from hardware failure and software/data problems in the long run.

Don’t forget external hard drives and other devices that don’t like to have power cut when in operation.

2. Internet Connection

If you’re on any type of broadband connection and use a router or cable modem to access the Net, it’s likely you’ll lose use of that as well, even if you can still work from your laptop.

Most broadband users don’t have a dial-up account any more (you may not even have an internal modem on your laptop) but if you do it may be worth having an “emergency” number you can use to access important services (albeit much more slowly) if your main Net connection dies.

Alternatively, make sure you know how to access Internet and email services from your mobile phone. You should still have basic network coverage (HSDPA / 3G or even EDGE).

Consider installing and setting up a blogging application, or at least bookmarking the web address of your blog’s control panel, ahead of time so that you’re not trying to recall them from memory when you need them.

If the power loss is localized, consider visiting a friend, a library or an Internet café so that you can continue to work either from your own machine or elsewhere.

3. Communication With Others

If you work on a collaborative blog, or have other people you need to let know that you won’t be blogging (at full speed), ensure you have contact numbers / email addresses / Twitter access so that you can get the word out.

It may be obvious to you why you’re not posting, but not everyone will know what’s happened even if you tweet about it.

Don’t forget good old-fashioned means of communication — your telephone probably still works.

4. Maximizing Productivity

It can be frustrating not to be connected to the Internet 24/7, or to have access to your computer, but don’t forget that blogging is much more than that.

If you have limited or mobile access to the Net, do some basic housekeeping like cleaning and replying to comments or sending an email to another blogger.

If you have computer access but no Net access, brainstorm post ideas, write article drafts, create graphics and photos for articles, or brush up on your editorial calendar.

If you have no web or PC access, use a notepad and pen to brainstorm ideas, go for a walk and take some photos, or use the time to simply relax a little.

You may even find that the loss of power offers you some inspiration for a future blog post!

5. Use the Cloud and Keep it Local

Having data stored locally is great when you have use of your primary computer but no Net access.

Having data stored in the Cloud is great when you can gain access to the Net but don’t have use of your home computer.

If you work collaboratively, data stored online is great if you need someone to take work from you.

Find a balance between what you store online and what you store locally so that you can continue to work on something, or have someone else do it.

6. Power Restored

Once the power is restored you may well find that you need to do a few housekeeping tasks before you can get fully back to speed.

Your Internet connection may take a little while to fully function after a power cut. The router may need to run some diagnostic tests, or you may have to reset it.

You may find that your PC also has to run diagnostic tests, possibly repairing files damaged because they were being accessed as the power went out.

A lot of software (Word, for example) will try to restore the most recent automated backups but you may still experience some data loss.

Other software and data may have been corrupted — email folders, for example. Some software automatically repairs damage, whereas other problems may require manual assistance. Make sure you know how to diagnose and repair common software faults.

In severe cases, you may have to restore parts of the system or files from backup. You do keep regular backups, right?

Conclusions

There’s no doubt that losing electricity is a pain when you’re trying to blog, but it doesn’t have to be a disaster.

Plan ahead, and maximize your time during the event, and your blogging shouldn’t suffer.

The 9rules Nostalgia and Building Community

There’s been a blanket of nostalgia lately on the Internet. For those of you who may remember the good ‘ol days of blogging circa 2004 to about early 2006, this was a time when community was much smaller, and it was easy to spot the “A-listers” and blog networks. Amidst the typical blog networks that would hire and pay writers a fixed rate or revenue share, 9rules was different. It went against the grain of the “production house” blogging (not that this was bad in itself) and focused on quality content. 9rules had, well, 9 rules:

9rules is a place where members and readers can connect, build relationships, and learn new things. 9rules started in 2003 with a set of 9 rules:

1. Love what you do.
2. Never stop learning.
3. Form works with function.
4. Simple is beautiful.
5. Work hard, play hard.
6. You get what you pay for.
7. When you talk, we listen.
8. Must constantly improve.
9. Respect your inspiration.

Lots of other networks have adopted similar principles, but basically 9rules was a pioneer when it came to building a passionate community.

Today, Splashpress Media has acquired 9rules, (of which Performancing is part of the SPM network). From their blog, written by Paul Scrivens:

Why Splashpress? Because not only do they have the people that have a passion for publishing online content, but they also have the resources to make things happen without being too large as to forget the core of what makes 9rules special, the community. Much of the Splashpress team have been fans of 9rules for years so this will only make the transition easier as they understand the purpose of 9rules and why it is important to continue to push quality content to the forefront of the web.

The thing with the Internet is that the tides ebb to and fro too fast, and yesterday’s web is so much more different. In the past 2 years, big corporations have planted their blogging seeds through acquisition, while some argue that blogs were not what they once were with the rise of Twitter and Facebook. Tomorrow will be different.

The take away from all of this is that communities are bound to change. But change can be a good thing, and rebuilding a new community doesn’t mean the end of the world.

5 Social Media Tips and Tricks That Work

Since social media is such a powerful tool for increasing the traffic to your blog, I’ve tried many different social media tips.  Here are five of the best tips that have worked for my sites and our clients’ sites.

1. Befriend power users.

Power users are the users that exert the most influence on social media sites.  These users regularly submit content that gets popular and they have many people that follow them.

Check out the popular content in your niche and see who is submitting them.  You’ll often find a select group of people who submit the bulk of the popular content.

Vote for their stuff, send them interesting links, link to their site if they have one, guest post on their blog, interview them.  Basically, do whatever you can to help them and get on their radar without being overbearing or obnoxious.

Once you’re developed a relationship with them, you can send them your best stuff and ask them to submit it if they like it.

2. Create more comprehensive content.

One of the things I started realizing is that much of the content that does well in social media is pretty comprehensive.  The content was longer than your average post and it covered a subject with depth.

Therefore, I started creating longer posts filled with a lot of value and I’ve done better on social media sites as a result.  Now each of your blog posts doesn’t have to be 1,500 words, but it’s a good idea to regularly publish longer, in-depth posts that stand out from the crowd of your typical 2oo-5oo word posts.

3. Add images and video to your best content.

Another thing that has worked out well has been adding multimedia to content.  This is another thing  I noticed about viral content. Much of this content is highlighted by images and video.

It only takes a little bit of  time to go to sxc.hu or flickr.com and find relevant images that will improve your content.

And I think video is the next big thing in blogging.  I know many people have made the same prediction that it seems cliche but it’s definitely true.  More and more people are making web video a part of their routine.   Many of us are already chronic TV watchers so it will only take time before we get used to watching videos on the web.

Therefore, if you have any video skills, use them!  Also, the cost and learning barrier for producing videos has come down with discount equipment, software, and training courses.  I’m actually trying an experiment of shifting one of my blogs to mostly video instead of text and seeing how that works.

4. Try niche social media sites.

Most bloggers just focus on the big general subject sites like Digg and StumbleUpon but there is a lot of opportunity in niche social media sites.  Here’s a great list of these type of sites.  These sites won’t send as much as traffic as the big general subject sites, but the quality of their traffic is often much higher.  You’ll get a higher percentage of repeat visitors, a lower bounce rate, and more time spent on your site because of the more targeted traffic.

Also, it’s easier to network with the power users because of the smaller user base.

5. Use social media widgets at the end of each post.

Widgets are a great way to encourage your visitors to submit your content to social media sites.  Visitors may like a post but without the prompting of a submission button, they won’t think to submit your content.

We added a StumbleUpon button on one blog and we’ve seen a big increase in submissions and traffic from StumbleUpon.

Performancing offers social media marketing services if you need help in this area.

Why invest in a premium theme for your blog?

There are a whole host of very good free themes for most blogging platforms, which can often be used “as is” or customized just a little to create something a bit different, but is it time you invested some money in a premium theme to really push your site forward?

It’s true that content is very important, but the way that it’s presented is not to be ignored, particularly when you consider that first impressions count a lot, people will initially judge your site on what it looks like, and it takes just a second or two to click on the “back” button.

If you have the time, knowledge and dedication to work out a theme from scratch, or rip out the guts and replace swathes of code on a free theme, then good for you. I know there’s satisfaction in creating your own design that’s completely yours. I also know, now, that I’d rather spend that time creating content than designing from scratch.

How to get a premium theme

There are two routes to getting a premium theme.

The first is to find a designer that sells premium themes. Generally you’ll want to look for designs that are highly and easily customizable, have a degree of support (whether that be direct with the designer or via a forum), offer upgrades/updates to fix bugs or add new features, and offer more than “run of the mill” features you could easily find in a free theme.

The second is to hire a designer to create a unique blog template to your exact specifications. You’ll want to take a look at their portfolio to ensure that they’re creating bespoke sites, and maybe talk to some of their previous clients to see how the process went.

The first option is cheaper and quicker but you still may not own a completely unique theme.

The second option is more expensive and takes longer to implement, but you’ll hopefully get a design that’s truly your own.

Advantages

Look and Feel

Whether you’ve had your blog template designed for you, or you’ve customized a premium theme, the way it looks and operates will be unique and tailored to your blog.

Ease of use

If you’ve picked a good theme or designer, it should be really easy to add new elements without breaking the template or having to get bogged down in the code. This means you have more time for creating content and building community than wrestling with how things work.

Pride

I found that after I’d invested some money in a premium theme, I took more pride in my blog. Though I didn’t spend much on the theme, it was enough to change my mindset and take my site more seriously. Not only did the theme present content much more attractively but it looked more professional and encouraged me to work harder at building it.

This might not work for everyone, but I find that if I’ve invested money (beyond basic hosting and domain name costs that everyone incurs) I’m more likely to stick with a project.

Long term view

Linked to the pride factor, I’ve taken a much longer term view of my blog design, and am more likely to let it evolve over time rather than completely redesign it.

When I was running free themes, I found myself tweaking or even replacing the design more often. After I invested in a premium theme, I left the foundations alone and added things that created more worth.

That’s not to say that I’ll never revamp the design in the future, but I’m far less likely to do so on a whim.

Conclusions

It’s possible to run a successful blog off the back of a free theme, but moving to a premium theme definitely has its advantages.

If you’ve not considered it before, why not take a look at some of the options available. You don’t have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to get something a bit different that could set your blog apart from the crowd.

What do you think? Do you use premium themes and how has it changed your view of your blog? Or do you think free themes are fine?

Blogging Tricks Will Only Bring You Part of the Way

Recently, I was working with someone that considers themselves an expert in social media marketing, SEO, and other popular terms these days for promoting a site and getting it some traffic. The person ran their ideas past me, and there were two things I quickly noticed.

The first was that they had probably read some blogs that told them to do various things to increase their SEO, things like bolding keywords, stuffing meta tags with keywords, and changing out H2 tags for H1 tags all in the hopes of beating their competitors.

The second was that they were focused on various tricks relating to creating landing pages, buying links, and other marketing methods.

All of the information this person passed by me was older information, most of which was nearly useless today as well as short sighted, with possible results that would end in disaster.

Imagine if you will, owning a blog for years, slowly building it up, trying to get to the next level in traffic, revenue and whatnot, hiring an “SEO expert” and having that person create, via tricks, some serious traffic.

You pay the person, thinking they’ve done a great job, and three months down the road, your site starts dropping in rankings, traffic dries up, and various other things happen that puts your site lower than it was before the “SEO expert” came along.

This is a far too common occurrence in blogging. Even the bloggers managing their sites make mistakes in SEO, marketing and social media in hopes of creating a hugely successful, viral, high positioned page that they can leverage in terms of making huge amounts of money or popularity that they can leverage in other ways.

People have to stop and realize that blogging tricks will only get you part of the way to your goals, and if done incorrectly they can actually cause huge setbacks.

Too much optimization, too overt in your self-promotion, and you’ll end up wishing you could undo your hard work.

The best advice I can give someone looking to do better with their blog would be to research as much as you can before you act in any way to effect your blog in any important way.

Don’t just leap into action after reading one person’s experience, and always check the age of the information because all the search engines are working hard at providing the best natural, gaming free search results.

The Two Core Principles to Building Quality Links

I like to keep things simple when it comes to building quality links. If you make link building too complicated, you can often over analyze and overthink things that you don’t get much done.

Most of my quality links have come from applying these two simple principles.

Connecting

I like what Aaron Wall at SEO Book said about link building. He said you should think of links in terms of social connections. The better connected you are to influential webmasters, the more quality links you’ll build.

Therefore, you should be connecting regularly with the webmasters of the quality sites in your niche.

Too many bloggers have the mindset of “build it and they will come”. In most cases though, it doesn’t matter how awesome your blog, you need to let others know about it because there are so many websites on the net. How will anyone find out about your blog unless you tell others about it? But if you get the attention of other webmasters, they will often promote your blog if you have content that adds a lot of value to the industry.

Moreover, many webmasters with quality sites are busy and don’t have time to keep up with all content in the niche.  Therefore, you’ll need to contact them directly to get their attention.

Especially in the beginning of your blog, you’ll need to make yourself known by connecting with other bloggers. Here are some ideas to consider:

• Introduce yourself to other bloggers and tell them about your blog. If you have good content, many of them will add you to their RSS reader and they may link to you in the future.
• Send them a guest post.
• Create something really good.  Content that is unique and comprehensive is the best.  Then, contact bloggers and ask them to link to it if they like it.  Don’t be shy. Most bloggers don’t mind a little bit of self promotion as long as you have quality content and don’t overdo the promotion.

Content

It’s not enough to have the right connections, you also need to provide something to attract the link. This is usually content.

There are many ways to do this – from in-depth resources on your sites to interesting guest posts on other blogs – but the main thing to keep in mind is to keep the quality very high.

Consider guest posts. Many of my guest posts used to get ignored until I started putting more into each guest post. My motto now is that every guest post should be better than the posts on my blog.  Leo Babauta of Zen Habits has excellent content on his blog of over 100,000 RSS subscribers, but I think his guest posts are actually higher quality.

Quality sites have quality content so you will need the same kind of content for them to link to you or for them to publish your guest post.

By connecting with other webmasters and producing high quality content, you should be able to build quality links.  Now while these two principles are simple to understand, they do take hard work to apply in real life.  But just stay consistent and focused with your link building efforts.  In time, you’ll enjoy top rankings and huge increases in traffic.

If you don’t have time to apply either of these principles, consider our link building service.

Blogging and the Underground Economy

Recently, I’ve written a couple of articles relating to blogging and finance. Here on Performancing, I thought about how bloggers prove their income or revenue streams when banks and other entities require these. On the Blog Herald, I tried to compute for the monthly cost of my blogging activities, which supposedly accounts for electricity expenses, software, hardware, and other related costs.

I write about these as a blogger and also as an economist. With the popularity of blogging, writing, blog design, and other online-based freelance work and businesses, I sometimes wonder what percentage of the online workforce and industry are part of the informal sector. In other words, I wonder how many online professionals actually pay taxes. Being part of the informal sector essentially means you’re working underground, and under the taxman’s radar.

I tried to bring up the question of blogging and taxation in an earlier post here on Performancing, and it seems most take care of their tax payments in some way or another. Most of us probably pay taxes as professionals, self-employed individuals or small business proprietors. In some places, the informal sector is actually seen as a big part of the economy’s workforce, which actually bolsters economic activity in the light of the global financial crunch (although these studies focus more on micro-businesses and less on the technology worker aspect of the underground economy). Perhaps with better figures about how much bloggers, designers, and freelance writers are earning, we can figure out how much we are contributing to the economy, and how much we are supporting our respective governments in terms of internal revenue collection.

In the end, I would agree with the adage that only two things are sure in life: death and taxes. Whether you pay direct taxes or not, you still pay duties in the form of indirect taxes, such as sales taxes, value added taxes, and the like. So if you earn from your online activities, but don’t declare these as part of your income, you still pay part of your online expenditures as taxes.

Do you pay direct taxes as an online professional? I’m interested to know. If so, what percentage of your blogging (or other) income do you pay? And how do you declare your income source and your status as a taxpayer?

And if you don’t pay your taxes directly, what would convince you to do so? Better benefits and protection from your government? Recognition as a professional in your field?

Don’t worry, if you’d rather not disclose your identity, you can always comment anonymously.