The Future of Content Management Is Collaboration
Content management is becoming an increasingly popular part of technological advancement for the internet and for the people who will create, manage, and consume that content. Developers have long been exceeding in this area, but the future demands new collaboration features that have only recently been increasing with popularity.
Who Uses This Stuff?
Bloggers, designers, content producers, web surfers, and pretty much anyone who uses the internet will be constantly interacting with content management software. As developing countries catch up (China, for example), the need for these technologies to handle an increasing number of users is drastic.
Just as the website owners and administrators need better ways to handle this data, the consumers of this data also demand new ways to view, interact, share, and remix this content.
It is easy to imagine that a majority of the people between 18 – 30 will have blogs in the coming years.
Why Collaborate?
However, one interesting feature of the future is the ability to collaborate. The demand for collaboration services and software is outrageous with enterprises nowadays, and with time, small to medium sized businesses will demand this same functionality.
The ability to collaborate on documents is crucial to the development of online businesses. For bloggers, this means that bloggers will be able to create, edit, and share information with their fellow bloggers. This is possible today with the likes of Microsoft SharePoint Server and Alfresco, but it would be nice to see this same functionality integrated into solutions like WordPress, Movable Type, and Drupal.
Perhaps we will have this functionality in the future, but it will likely be awhile before developers realize the usefulness of this functionality. Granted, it would not be nearly half as useful as a blog with several hundred bloggers working together, but it could still find its uses. This could also promote more bloggers to join existing blogs.
It would be nice to simply assign articles to people, or add edits to article live while other users are editing, and even a check in/check out system would be quite useful. Create an open API that can interact with many existing text editors, then the world of collaboration will have just expanded greatly.
In the end, the world could benefit with these collaboration tools. Many tools already exist, and many bloggers could perhaps take advantage of these tools and integrate them into their workflow:
If you utilize any of these content management tools or have ideas for tools you would like to see, let us know in the comments section.
The Blogosphere’s Impact on Academic Studies and Writings
Authors, professors, entrepreneurs, experts, and journalists use blogs these days to communicate with the world. However, have you ever imagined a blog being an origination of academic research? Never before have I considered this a possibility, but now I believe differently.
Blogs & Information
Blogs have brought about a huge increase in information. Blogs are also being written by people of all professions. Even news organizations utilize them as methods to better communicate with their audiences. So, why shouldn’t blogs be a legitimate source for journalistic and academic material? Just because a blog isn’t necessarily held to the same standards as a book or a magazine article, doesn’t mean that a blog isn’t a place where original, reliable, and factual information can spawn from.
Information Is Information
If a student quotes plenty of financial facts from a get-rich-quick book, a professor should be fairly concerned of the source. This proves that books can be unreliable. This proves that any source can be unreliable, and that means that any source could potentially be reliable as well. In other words, information is information. It shouldn’t matter what the format/media is.
We are right in the middle of an information revolution. Professors and school teachers who treat blogs as a naturally unreliable source of information are teaching the wrong idea. A student should be able to source a particular point from various sources, and blogs should be allowed. It won’t be too long before blogs are looked upon as more reliable than news organizations—then again, some people already see it that way.
Tell us what you think about blogs in the classroom. Do you believe that blogs should be allowed to be cited by students? Do you think that blogs will make more of an impact in academic writing?
[Image Credit: "School's out for Summer!"—Conspirator | CC]
Dealing With Those Rowdy Commenters
So, I will be the first to admit that I can garner a temper when someone mindlessly bashes something I write. I could let it all slide, and let things be said about me and my writing, but, then again, I should have the right to defend myself when someone criticizes what I write. Well, it is a complex thing, and one must compose himself or herself in a correct manner to avoid ending up in a bad situation.
I tend to take everything head-on. Some of the stuff I have taken the time to write in the comments sections of some of my blog posts could be developed into full-fledged articles, but it is a thin line between defending myself and entertaining the haters. I will not hold back on anything I write about, and if someone or something is downright ridiculous, I will put my reputation on the line to state the facts. It is who I am, but I know that I have been in situations that I could have handled better.
Knowing that my fairly straightforward approach to taking on those who have less brain cells is generally uncalled for, I offer some of you advice that I only wish I could follow myself at the times when it is most needed. I’m sure that many of you are better than me in that regard.
A Few Tips for Dealing with Unruly Commenters
Come back later: Do you know that feeling you get when you say something you really regret, and you know that if you had just taken a few moments, things would have been better than they turned out? Well, I’ve had that experience countless times before. If you come to a situation that is going to have repercussions, step away from the computer screen. Come back later. You’ll be able to approach conflicts in an entirely different manner.
Ignore it: Having tough skin is a quality that many people desire. Most people take criticism in a negative way, but some can harness that into positive and encouraging material. I’m actually extremely happy to take on constructive criticism, but there is the destructive criticism that just does nobody any good. Ignore it if possible, but if you must react to something like this, make the other person look like a fool, instead of making yourself looking like one.
Admit when you’re wrong: Sometimes the contents of an article are going to be wrong. It is going to happen, and it happens much more often when considering that many bloggers don’t feel as obligated to get the facts right. (Journalists are far from perfect as well.) If you wrote something that was incorrect, tell your users that you were wrong either within the article, within the comments, or both. Avoid trying to justify being wrong, because it will just fuel the fire. Take your punishment and make it up with better content later on.
Moderation: Many times you will get those comments who will flock in from a social networking site, glance the article, and give you one of those typical “this article sucks” responses. I have absolutely no problem with removing these types of comments. They add nothing to the discussion, and the person probably is not going to bother responding anyways. Chances are high that these comments originate from young teens who don’t know any better. Unfortunately, the computer screen can make anyone feel invincible.
Reputation
Above all else, understand that you are part of the blogosphere. The blogosphere is a place of conversation, information, and, sometimes, confrontation. Reputations can be shattered after one wrong move, and this is even more important as you and your blog grows in popularity.
There will be a time when you will have to stand up and defend yourself. Conflict and controversy is always brewing. Just realize that people are going to take sides (it is how the world works), and how you present comments and responses might be far more important than the actual meaning. It’s a weird world that we live in.
In the meantime, fellow bloggers—share the love!
How do you deal with people who leave nasty, derogatory comments on your blog? I’d love to know about it. Leave a comment or two. (Hopefully not bad comments!)
[Image Credit: "Must love computers..."—Sierra Koch]
5 Great Tips for Optimizing Ad Revenue From PerformancingAds
Have you signed up for PerformancingAds? If so, you are placing yourself in a position to generate revenue for your blog, and why shouldn’t you? There are many networks, affiliate programs, and solutions to handle advertising, but PerformancingAds is truly special. This is an advertising network created by bloggers for bloggers. While you probably will not become a millionaire while blogging for a living, PerformancingAds can help you generate a consistent revenue stream, and this post is dedicated to giving you some ideas for maximizing that revenue.
If you want to make the most money possible from PerformancingAds, there are a few things you should consider doing:
1. Promotion
Promoting the fact that you are advertising is crucial to selling your inventory. This might sound out-of-this-world obvious, but so many people don’t actually do it!
You should begin by creating an “advertise here” page, which I previously discussed. Be sure to include several ways for a potential advertiser to get into contact with you, and provide links to your PerformancingAds account.
You could use this page to display the price of your inventory as well, but it is up to you on whether or not you wish to do that.
Regardless, be sure to designate where there advertisements will be displayed so there will no confusion.
If you are a publisher, you can also place your own advertisements on your available advertising spots. This could make it appear that you have sold more inventory. This could also be useful for advertising your own services. It really is up to your imagination, but if not, you could consider the Exchange Ads program (more on that later).
2. Placement
The placement of an advertisement is very important as well, so let me run down a few general rules of thumb (there are, of course, exceptions to these rules):
The higher place an advertisement on a webpage, the more valuable it probably is. This is true of most advertising in general (it will be more visible, after all), so the same applies here.
Also, the closer you place an advertisement towards the content, the more likely it is to be seen, clicked on, and, therefore, well-valued. This is very popular among AdSense users; however, this could be a turn-off for your readers if the advertisements become a distraction. In a majority of scenarios, I would suggest sticking to the sidebar as the advertising location of choice.
3. Traffic
Traffic is, hands down, the number one determining factor of any advertising medium. The more traffic, the more potential revenue to be made.
All I can suggest here is to utilize social networks, marketing, and social skills to spread the word about your blog. You could consider joining the Hive, a place where many well-known bloggers hang out and discuss topics just like this.
You could also use the Exchange Ads feature of PerformancingAds.
If you opt to use the Exchange Ads functionality within PerformancingAds, your own advertisements will be displayed on other websites for free. As time goes on, you will gain credits that will potentially drive more traffic to your blog. It is free traffic and marketing.
4. Inventory
The amount of advertising spaces you have up for sale will also weigh in on how much you should charge per advertisement. If, for example, you only have one advertisement region with a single 125 x 125 advertisement, that ad space would be much more valuable than two regions that both had four 125 x 125 advertisement spots.
If you are unable to sell all of your inventory, it might be a wise idea to consider displaying fewer advertising spots to keep prices higher. Then again, it could be beneficial to have more advertising spaces at cheaper prices (it could allow more parties to advertise on your site).
Regardless, selling all your available inventory should be a priority. Having inventory that isn’t sold is practically useless, unless you are participating in the Exchange Ads program.
5. Price
The pricing of your inventory will be determined by many factors; however, supply and demand (as with all prices) will be the most prominent. It doesn’t matter how awesome your blog looks, how great the content is, and how much you spend on advertising—there must be traffic if you want to make money.
One more general rule of thumb: if you are selling all your inventory, raise the price; and if you are selling too little inventory, lower the price. If you follow that general rule, you can’t go wrong.
The Rest
The rest simply consists of writing great content, marketing that content, socializing, and gaining more traffic. It will take time, but at least now you have a way to generate some money with PerformancingAds.
Big or small, PerformancingAds can be a great alternative to AdSense and AdBrite
If you have any suggestions on how to improve PerformancingAds or have any questions about PerformancingAds, contact us—we will be glad to help.
Movable Type 4.2 Is one of the ‘most significant and important releases in Movable Type’s history’
The folks over at SixApart have recently announced what might be some of the biggest changes in Movable Type’s history. It certainly is making noise throughout the blogosphere. This release marks a significant change to SixApart’s license agreement as well. This is another attempt to persuade WordPress users to make the switch, but the features are so good that even I am considering installing a new blog on Movable Type. The gap between the CMSs in terms of functionality and usage is quickly closing up.
Features
SixApart is talking a good game here:
Today is one of the most exciting days in the history of Movable Type. Our community’s hard work has yielded one of the most significant and important releases in Movable Type’s history: Movable Type 4.2. This new release is the fastest and most secure release of Movable Type ever.
The new primary features included in Movable Type 4.2 are pretty significant:
- Threaded comments
- An out-of-the-box solution for comment spam
- Live template previews
- Paginated search results and entry pagination for dynamically published blogs
- Redesigned template and widget management areas
- Simple, simple, simple templates for quick and easy site customization
Developers get to have some fun as well:
- Pluggable Search Backend – we have worked hard to make Movable Type’s search infrastructure faster, but we realize that some may want to swap it out with a home grown or more powerful search engine. MT 4.2 makes that possible.
- Extensible Search – by default Movable Type searches page and entries, but some users may want assets, comments, TrackBacks, users, or their own custom data types to appear in search results. MT 4.2 makes that possible through very simple, YAML-based plugins.
- OpenID 2.0 Support – Movable Type now fully supports OpenID 2.0, being among the only to support it right out of the box.
- Bundled OAuth Libraries – we recognize that open standards like OpenID and OAuth will become the underpinnings of technologies to comes, which is why we have bundled OAuth libraries into the core of Movable Type to make building plugins and applications that rely upon these technologies easier.
- Fully documented core template tags – a little overdue, we will be the first to admit, but all of the core template tags have been fully documented.
- Performance optimization tools – our performance logging framework can be used by developers to hone in on parts of their code that can be optimized.
Another announcement from SixApart is that they are releasing a Pro version of Movable Type called Movable Type Pro. It gives users full access to the platform: unlimited blogs, unlimited authors, unlimited community members, and “unlimited everything.”
The great thing about this is that the licenses are available for free to anyone who is “not running an official business.” I don’t really know how that truly translates to legal terms, but the blog has said that if you are attempting to make money with a blog, it is fine to use. Kudos to SixApart for making that clear.
Reactions
Within 24 hours of the Movable Type 4.2 release, The Movable Type team announced that the feedback has been “wonderful!”
Now, I know many of you will be thinking: “Hmm, hasn’t WordPress already had many of these features for awhile now?” Yes—in most cases—you would be correct. However, the point is that as Movable Type closes the gap, the competition heats up. This, in turn, causes more improvements to be made as developers try to out due the competition. In the end, the people who use these products benefit.
Anyways, it is nice to see Movable Type and SixApart bringing the competition to WordPress. I’m a strong believer that competition is good—there are many ways in which WordPress could be challenged to improve itself further. I am also glad to see Movable Type improving as well.
I am hoping that the install is a little bit easier this time around. (Movable Type does not like my VPS server for some reason that I can’t figure out.)
I might give Movable Type 4.2 an in-depth review in the near future—keep a look out for it.
For now, you can check it out Movable Type 4.2—for free—at Movable Type.org.
If you are using the Movable Type CMS, share your thoughts about the new release!
FriendFeed: The Blogger’s New Best Friend and Marketing Tool?
Twitter is great, don’t get me wrong, but FriendFeed is a whole new beast that has quickly established its importance to the blogosphere. My first reaction when playing around with FriendFeed was that it was a source of information overload to the extreme, and that was pretty much the case for the first few months, but after I got involved, again, and mastered the “hide” functionality, I was quickly able to view FriendFeed as a much more valuable tool than I had once given credit to. FriendFeed has helped my blog to grow more rapidly, but Twitter just hasn’t been nearly as effective in that regard.
Social networking has quickly become one of the more important factors of the blogosphere. It has brought upon much change, and it is vital that successful bloggers be more social. It almost goes hand in hand. Tools like Twitter and FriendFeed have made it easier than ever to be social from the comfort of your own domicile.
Previously, I have stated that Twitter was my favorite obsession, and for quite a time, that was absolutely true; however, FriendFeed has quickly become something that I appreciate even more than Twitter now, and therefore, it has rendered the previous statement as false. There are some very important reasons as to why things have changed.
Twitter vs. FriendFeed
Twitter’s focus is on micro blogging—it is all about what you are doing right now. It is focused on you and your activities. Twitter’s strengths lie with the fact that many third-party services can find ways to make use of Twitter’s data, and there are plenty of applications that interact with Twitter. It is a solid and efficient way to communicate, and, for the most part, it has replaced instant messaging, at least in my case. It is excellent for these purposes and a lot more.
I would sum it up as a life streaming service without the extra fluff. It is a valuable communication tool. Twitter can also be a great compliment to a blog, and I won’t argue that.
Regardless of what I believe of FriendFeed, Twitter’s value to me remains unchanged, but FriendFeed has a purpose that I believe is much more valuable to bloggers.
FriendFeed, on the other hand, makes both you and your content the primary focus. It allows you to aggregate your activity from various sites across the web. If there is a feed, FriendFeed, in most cases, can put it to good use.
People are free to comment and “like” the content, and this is where the true value of FriendFeed comes into play. It adds a new layer of communication, and the focus revolves around content itself, as opposed to what you ate for breakfast. I think of it as one of the best tools for communicating about events, stories, articles, pictures, videos, and other various types of content.
Used correctly—meaning that you participate in conversations and interact with friends)—FriendFeed can act as a great promotional tool for you and your content, and it is vastly more effective at getting input from any particular item than Twitter because each item holds its own mini forum-like discussion. Conversations about specific units of content can continue on without the fear of it becoming lost or confusing to outsiders who might have missed out on the initial conversation.
So, what does this mean to you and your blog? Good question!
Exposure
To put this into perspective, lets say we have a person who posts a picture—I think is absolutely phenomenal. Let’s assume that this person has only around 5 friends on FriendFeed while I have 100 friends on FriendFeed. If I “like” or comment on that item, my 100 friends will see that I have commented or “liked” that particular picture, and it will be displayed on their FriendFeed account.
I have instantly promoted that person’s picture, and exposed it at least 100 times. That is 100 potential views, subscribers, backlinks, and comments. This is only the beginning though.
An even more impressive thing to consider is the fact that one of the FriendFeed power users could, perhaps, leave a comment, and that picture might now have well over a thousand people seeing it. Not only will my friends see it, but their friends can see it as well if they happen to “like” or comment on that item as well. If I am friends with people who have a lot of friends, you should quickly realize where I am going with this.
Friends of friends would continually comment and, sooner or later, you have traffic that is as good if not better than StumbleUpon, Digg, or Reddit. It is the domino effect in action, but I believe that FriendFeed is an even easier method to spread the word about great content.
If something generates a lot of discussion, you can be sure that soon Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Chris Pirillo, Duncan Riley, and other web celebs will be commenting as well.
This is where being socially active can be extremely effective in garnering quality traffic to your blog.
Quality Readership
FriendFeed, as mentioned before, can generate an impressive amount of traffic for your blog, but it also has the added benefit of having genuinely interested people wanting to read the content in question as well. There is an incentive for that friends of friends to read content if any friend has commented. It promotes commenting, but to comment, many people will read the post. It is just a win-win situation.
These people might be inclined to subscribe to your blog as well. My friends on FriendFeed constantly influence the content that I read, and when I have someone tell me about this amazing blog, I am more inclined to read and subscribe than otherwise possible.
The fact of the matter is that FriendFeed is almost like an alternative to Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Delicious; FriendFeed, howerever, has the added benefit of having a community focus. It is much more personal, and it is constantly growing. While Twitter is something that many bloggers feel that they must have, I think FriendFeed is something that might not be that must-have material, but those who know how to use FriendFeed will certainly benefit from it.
Great Discussions
Finally, FriendFeed is a great place to learn about great content on the web. Twitter is definitely capable of this—I’m not taking anything away from Twitter in this regard— but FriendFeed takes it to a whole new dimension that has no competitive equivalent on such a personal level.
I have previously stated that I’ve used my feed reader less after discovering Twitter, but now I rarely need to bother with it as I know my friends are subscribed to similar content. They usually find it faster than I can.
It really is impressive to me, and I wrote an article on my personal blog that goes a little bit more in-depth with my feelings about FriendFeed.
Recap
FriendFeed will not replace feed readers, and I think feed reading technology is still in its infancy when considering what is possible in the future; however, I believe that FriendFeed is another level of filtering that allows me to find great content to write about and discuss with friends, and I believe that this is a step in the right direction.
What does this mean for me? Well, I will continue to use both Twitter and FriendFeed, but I will be using FriendFeed as a platform to communicate about content and Twitter as a platform to communicate about my life and with friends.
What does this mean for you? I would suggest that you spend some time using FriendFeed: add some friends to get the communication going, master the “hide” functionality so you only get relevant content (e.g. you can block all “tweets” from Twitter), and promote the content you create in a new way.
I can be found as JMowery on FriendFeed. If you have a FriendFeed account, let us know in the comments section. Also, let us know of any ways you utilize FriendFeed for blogging. Also, if you liked this post, consider subscribing to Performancing.
A Few Keys to a Successful (Blogging) Career
When you aim for success, you must commit yourself to reach it. Success means different things to each individual, but, in general, we have a good idea of what success can lead to. If you want to reach success, you must realize that a big portion of getting there is being mentally prepared.
Having Confidence
After repeatedly reading biographies and watching television programs about successful people, one clearly obvious thing that all these people share is confidence.
Today, many people commonly misconstrue confidence as cockiness, and while for the most part these people could be right, it certainly can help to keep someone pushing for progress.
A person’s worst enemy can be themselves, and someone who doesn’t believe that they can succeed, in nearly every case, won’t. Others who constantly bring you down, tell you that something can’t be done, or are negative in general can easily ruin your success. I try to surround myself with those who motivate me to try harder, and it really does help—especially when you experience one of those days you wish you could take back.
Accepting Failure
Do know those people who say that will never fail? Well, to be successful, one must learn to accept failure, which can be extremely difficult for many. It is obvious as to why people should learn to do this: what happens when the plan, concept, design, event, or idea isn’t working out? Will that person continue to push on with that failing idea? Maybe give it a few more tries, but you would hope that this person would move on, right?
Some of the greatest minds in history knew when to set pride aside and move on to bigger and better things.
Take the time to evaluate your situation, and if there are better opportunities elsewhere, at the very least, take some time to consider the alternatives. The next best thing might actually be the solution to your problem(s).
Having Realistic Expectations
Realistic expectations can really help guide you to success. Having too high expectations can result in much disappointment and stress. On the contrary, having too little expectations can result in less motivation and progress. You must balance it out to push yourself but be satisfied with the results.
A Brutal Evaluation of Oneself
Finally, one of the best things any person can do to make progress in life is to be honest with yourself. Several people have said that the best thing they have done with their career is to be “brutally honest” while evaluating themselves, and it makes perfect sense. If you are 7’5”, you might not be the smartest person due to the countless times you’ve hit your head on solid objects that got in your way, but you might be an excellent candidate for a professional volleyball or basketball player! That would be playing to your strengths.
Someone who can acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses can build for their strengths and improve or avoid their weaknesses—this is very important, and it is a shame how people don’t do this.
Do you have more suggestions? I am sure you do! Post them in the comments section and help your fellow bloggers to reach success. Also, if you enjoyed this article, consider subscribing to Performancing!
7 Simple Tips for Better Integration of Images Within Your Content
Images have become a common sight on blogs. This is because of the improvement of technology—mainly internet connections. Images, for many blogs, play an integral part of the content. Whether or not you use images on a regular basis is irrelevant, but when you do use them, it helps to have them looking smooth.
Standard Image Sizes
If you want to make your site more professional, you could start by making the images you integrate into your content a standard size. To begin, consider finding out the width of your content area (or the area that text is displayed). Make this the maximum image width for a large image. Make an image around half that width for a medium sized image. Make an image width a quarter or less of the maximum for a thumbnail image.
For example, let’s assume that your blog’s content area is 500 pixels wide. Try following this set of image sizes:
500 x 200—lead images for featured articles
500 x 500—large images for screen captures and image content being discussed
200 x 200—medium images aligned to the right for complimenting the content wrapped around it
100 x 75—small images aligned to the left used for company/service logos being discussed
If you do something like this, when people are searching through your archives, they know what to expect. It is a subtle change, but, in my opinion, it can make a blog look much more professional.
Great Color
I don’t want to blow your mind with color theory, as even I lack great understanding about this, but I will tell you that there are color combinations that work well together, obviously. Unless you are an artist, you might not know how it all works. I did find an interesting website that has a digital color wheel that could help. Play around with it, and try finding complimentary, analogous, triadic, monotonous, and other various color combinations.
Optionally, you could play around with the opacity and monotonous colors to add a unique and impressive effect to images. On my previous blog, I had considered adding a bluish monotone to all my images, but it is a lot of effort. If you are really into making your blog’s design look phenomenal, take care to be consistent.
Quality Images
It should be an obvious thing to use quality images, but even I am amazed at how horrible the quality of the images that people use on their blogs. Sometimes it is so bad that, at times, I wonder if even the picture was highly relevant, would it have been better if it was just not there.
There isn’t an incredibly negative impact if a great image goes unnoticed, but it is a very bad thing if a poor image draws all the attention to the readers. Image size is becoming less of a factor as connection speeds increase, so your images should be able to look great if scaled properly. To put this simply, use quality images or don’t use them at all.
Rounded Corners
Rounded corners are very popular in this day of web 2.0 flair, and rounded corners are a simple and relaxing way to add some elegance to your images. This requires some effort, and if you are tied for time, it might be easier to skip this suggestion. They do like nice though—the first site that comes to mind is Ars Technica.
Captivate with Captions
Captions are a great way to add information to your image that might not be obvious to your readers. With the inclusion of the caption functionality in WordPress 2.6, it is very easily done. Use them to give credit. Add a short description to answer any of the who, what, when, where and why questions. Just make sure to not abuse them. If you need several sentences to explain what is going on within the image, the image would probably be better left out.
Alignment
Image alignment is another thing that can really improve the look of your site. Aligning images to the left or right is a nice change. It is preferred to align the images to the right as it does not interrupt the reader as much as a left-aligned image. If you use alignment, be sure to use smaller images, as having only two to three words per line looks very odd. Some sites, like a few blogs owned by Gawker, have been guilty of displaying only one or two words beside a lead image. Take care to preview your content before publishing it.
Meaning
Finally, you want to ensure that all of your images have a meaning to the content that it compliments. Namely, the image should, in fact, compliment the image. If this image is there just for the sake of trying to add some production value to the post, the article might be better off without it.
For example, I am writing this article about images—it would be useful for me to add images that exemplify good alignment, colors, size, or what ever is relevant to the image discussion. But adding images to this post just for the sake of claiming that I have added an image is pointless and distracting. In other words, add images if they are relevant and/or help to break up the content. If not for either of those reasons, just don’t bother adding them.
Hopefully these suggestions about images will help you better integrate images into your posts. Take care to not overuse images. Some blogs manage to display several dozens of images displayed per post—Noupe comes to mind—but be sure to make them count on your blog.
If you have any tips for integrating images with content, please add them in the comments section. Also, if you liked this post, why not subscribe to Performancing!
Picking A Good Title For Your Great New Blog
Apparently a lot of people are interested in starting a new blog because “blog titles” and “blog names” are two of the most popular search queries that lead to Performancing. I previously wrote about creating [link to article] great blog post headlines, but you should have a good name to fall back on. However, you must realize that the name can only take you so far.
Qualities of a Great Blog Title/Name
Simple
The first thing that every new blog should have is a simple name. You don’t want something too complex that might turn off a reader. Try to avoid numeral combinations and random letters that contribute little to the name. In my opinion, they look very unprofessional, and that means that I have a bad taste in my mouth before I even look at the content. I don’t judge a book by its cover, but I can’t help but have lowered expectations, which—for what ever reason—might be something that the owner/author is going for. In most cases, use the KISS (keep it simple stupid) methodology.
Memorable
The most important aspect of any business logo or name is that it is easily memorized by people. Toys R Us (with the reversed ‘R’) was an instant hit because it was one of the first companies create a name like that. You don’t need something that complex, you just need it to easy enough to say and type. After all, if you are at some blogger conference, then Darren Rowse wants to check out your blog later, he shouldn’t need to write it down to remember it. If you must sacrifice length for simplicity, by all means do it.
Short
The rule of thumb here is that shorter is better. A short domain can more easily achieve the two qualities listed above. As long as it is simple enough for the reader to remember, it shouldn’t really matter what your domain name is. Combine all of the qualities listed so far, and you are in good shape.
Unique
I place a lot of emphasis of being unique within the blogosphere. Why create PoshPosh.com when we already have DoshDosh.com; TechLunch.com when we have TechCrunch.com; and NewChicken.com when we have Newegg.com. You get the idea. Be unique and creative. Give people something new and unexpected. On the Internet, everything seems to be continuously recycled—even domain names—but I love seeing something truly unique that gets me wondering why I didn’t think of that name.
Top-level Domains
Only recently have we had domain names that are spelled weird or utilize the extension to be part of the company name. Some think that this is silly while others just eat it up. If you can get a .com domain, that would be preferred, but if you can find a domain that achieves all of the above ideas, feel free to get a little creative; not too creative though. The .me and .us has a lot of potential!
The Content
While the importance of your brand is unquestionable, the content is even more important. I’ve previously stated that I have seen domain names that are just absolutely ridiculous, but they generate a ton of traffic. This just goes to show that the domain name won’t make you popular. It might help, but the content is what blogging is really about.
Keep these things in mind, and you should be fine when choosing the name of your newest blog.
If you’ve recently created a new blog, be sure to post a link in the comments section so we can check it out!
Three Bloggers Who You’d Love to Sit Down and Have Dinner With
The blogosphere has brought us some amazing bloggers who have been able to captivate readership that even some magazines and newspapers would be jealous of. There are your Scobles, Arringtons, Rileys, and Chows, but even more people are getting in on the action. People who were once nobodies are now some-bodies. The question is simple: who are the three bloggers that you would want to sit down and have dinner with?
My Picks
Louis Grey
Louis Gray is a name I only recently heard of through FriendFeed, and it quickly dawned on me that Louis is going to be a success. I don’t know what it is about him, but I just have that feeling that his social expertise and writing ability is something to watch out for, and I only wish I could figure out what it is that he is doing.
Sitting down for dinner with Louis Gray would prompt me to ask many questions about how he approaches the social aspect of blogging—how he is able to communicate so well with the blogosphere. This is an area that I am very poor at (that is a future article), but I would hope that with an hour or two with Louis, I could take a different and more bold approach to how I represent myself throughout the blogosphere.
John Gruber
John Gruber—this man has played a significant role in my writing, and what better way to improve that than to talk to him. Mr. Gruber is a technical writer who is the author of DaringFireball.net. He approaches his blog with a unique style that even I have been asked to replicate at another site. (When you have your own style, it must mean you are good!) No problem though, I already try my best to one up that style.
John seems like the kind of guy that would just hammer me with inspiration. I believe he has a unique work ethic. Considering that he is a success in the blogging world and technology industry is also a bonus.
Darren Rowse
The quintessential blogger—Darren Rowse is a name that every professional blogger should have already heard of. He is part of a success story that we all could hope to experience. Darren Rowse created ProBlogger.net, and that is where he experienced his success that forever changed his life and the lives of others.
Even 10 minutes of one-on-one conversation with this man could probably change my entire perspective of the blogosphere and how I represent myself within it. What else is there to say? It couldn’t get much better than that!
What About You?
If you could have dinner with any three bloggers, who would they be and why? Feel free to share your thoughts and link to their blog in the comments section so we can learn more about your influences.
