Darren's post 101 Ways to Run Out of Things to Blog About got me thinking about the dangers (or not) of running out of things to blog about.

‘I spent days putting together this great list. I wanted it to be big as a way of bringing new readers in and to show how much I comprehended of the topic...’

‘the results were amazing. I got on the front page of Digg and high on Reddit and Delicious...’

‘I had close to 30,000 visitors in 48 hours!.’

‘the next day I sat down to write my next post and realised that every topic I thought of to write about was covered in my mega list...’

Sure we've all been there. I mean, how many times have we blogged about content on Performancing? How can I possibly write another post about that!?

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In most topical niches, there is an "expertise range". Some bloggers will try to appeal to the masses by making just about every post "n00b-friendly" (e.g., ProBlogger does this well). Other blogs seem to be written for other experts (e.g., Signal vs. Noise).

The issue as I see it is this: writing for the low-end is going to have a much wider appeal and usually get you more traffic, simply because most people aren't experts. On the other hand, if you write for experts, you're more likely to get links, since other experts are more likely to have blogs in the niche; it's also usually better in terms of building your personal reputation and authority. Bloggers who try to do both (i.e., expert post today, n00b post tomorrow) will usually end up annoying both audience segments with the inconsitency.

Of course, the optimal kind of content is probably the type that appeals to both the masses and other experts; People like Copyblogger and Chartreuse seem to do the balancing act quite well.

Whom do you write for in your blog(s)? N00bs or experts? And why?

I stumbled across DiggBait 101: 8 Ways to Help You Get to Digg’s Front Page today. I appreciated both the helpful tips themselves, and also the picture-in-a-picture-ness of it all (How to get a blog post Dugg? Make it about Digg and include "8 Ways to..." in the title).

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Old media vs. new media. Us vs. them. The plucky, indepedent blogger out-scooping the major news agency.

Sound about right? We (bloggers) hain't get no respect.

Well, that paradigm is changing, if indeed it hasn't already changed. I'm not sure bloggers can claim underdog status indefinitely. A glance at BlogAds shows that some bloggers are charging tens of thousands of dollars a month for an ad slot -- and they're getting it.

What's more, prominent bloggers are gaining status as "media". No, I don't mean the 2-minute "let's check in with the blogosphere!" segments on MSNBC. The people who matter are actually giving bloggers respect.

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First off, if you aren't a regular reader of Guy Kawasaki, head on over. There's a reason why he rose to stardom in his first few months of blogging.

Now, Guy is sort of an outside/n00b in terms of webmastering, and he brings a fresh perspective on issues we old hats have beaten to death since 2001.

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Yes, you read the title correctly. A self-described Adsense junkie has decided to seek help. Step 1: Admitting you have a problem.

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Scrivs posted today that he was surprised by the amount of freelancers who don't blog to promote themselves. On the one hand, I agree. Blogging can be a great way to position yourself as an authority in your service market. On the other hand...

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Yahoo!, when you announced YPN, I, and a million other Adsensers, jumped for joy. With another "real" contextual ad solution, the rewards of publishing on obscure topics (potentially) go way up, while the risk goes way down (two baskets for your eggs).

You started slow, fine, no sweat. We were promised improvements, and we waited patiently.

But somehow, EIGHT months later, YPN is still a huge dissapointment for me. It just amazes me how terrible their offering is.

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I finally broke down (thanks to my partner Jimbo's pressuring), and took a bit of time to sort out my company's to-do list. ("Small business productivity") While I'll miss seeing the snazzy Notepad interface smiling up at me, the gains of using Ta-da list are already impressing me.

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We reported on the sale of the Blog Herald last month, quoting a 60-72k price range. Well it turns out that sale fell through, and the blog is on the block again (current high bid: 25K). I’m sure there are a few conclusions to draw, right?

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I'm usually all numbers and Adsense and affiliate links yada yada yada, if you haven't figured it out by now (and some people have) let me spell it out for you: I'm not very creative.

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Chris posted on the dangers of revealing personal info on your blog. I'd like to explore the issue of negativity a bit further: a surefire indicator that you've made your mark in the blogosphere is that you receive hate. What is it, why does it happen, what to do about it?

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Sometimes I wonder how I’ve managed to build some successful blogs when I spend 70% of my time, well, wasting time. Question: If I had spent all those hours building engaging content instead, how much further ahead could I be by now? In no particular order, my top 8 pro blogging time wasters:

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I think this post about page design is one that should have been made 3 years ago--many thanks to Graywolf for putting it out there. The problem most people have is that they don't do much thinking about ads until after they finish their design template.

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Sure, we were all happy when Yahoo! entered the contextual ad game with YPN. But it's a joke to say they're competing with Adsense right now. The question is, when do they plan to enter the big leagues?

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