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Archives for February 2008

Top Writing Tip: Learn from Wordsmiths

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I have just been reading some online material by two of my favorite bloggers and noticed a distinct impact on the way I express myself. So notable is this effect that I think it constitutes a “tip”.

Without wanting to puff up my discovery unduly, this is the best possible writing tip I can give anyone hoping to improve their skills. Seems simple enough, common sense even. But how many people actually do it? What is this tip? Read on, I will tell you.

Anyone who has read my past articles will note a departure from my usual style. More book-smart words than I ordinarily will manage. This is purely down to reading Stephen Fry’s blog. As the cliche goes, he has “a way with words”. His way rubs off on me. My phrasing changes after reading him or listening to his podcast.

Of course the tip is simple and obvious.

If you want to be a better writer then you have to be a reader.

The difference, and the insight that turns this from mere infuriatingly obvious into being a bony fido tip is the target of your reading. This is not just about reading the TV schedules and the sports results.

You have to seek out masters of the word wrangling art.

By no means do I include myself in this. My readers will often gleefully inform me of my grammatical buffoonery.

I had better go back to my usual voice before I strain my thesaurus muscles. Point is, try it. Seek out excellent and unusual writers then see if they have any influence on your style. Sure you risk writing like a git (as I might have done) but on the other hand it might well strengthen your writing.

Search Engine and Social Media Strategies: How Many Accounts Do You Have?

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How many social media accounts do you have? I lost track months ago – and that’s not including the seventeen niche voting sites that I convinced myself and other members of Hive that I was going to build. Last year. Fact is, I already have too many accounts to keep track of, let alone actually use. Nevertheless, my account list will still grow as my online friends explore new sites.

Earlier today, one of my colleagues AIMed me with a social voting link that he wanted me to vote up. I’m not a member of the site in question and I loathed the thought of signing up for yet another social voting site. However, part of my online functionality is to be “social”. That means having the basic accounts on the most popular sites, plus accounts on a few niche sites including a few that I co-own. But I find that the more sites I join, the less I use any of my existing social accounts. There seems to be a law of diminishing returns, and I’m afraid my social effectiveness might decline. I’m loathe to join more, but some of my fellow bloggers get offended when I won’t join the site they’ve just emailed me about.

Unfortunately, the fact is that being “social” is becoming an absolute necessity for online success for web workers, including pro bloggers. (Business Week has an extensive article on how social media will change your business, whether or not you’re using blogs. A lot of this article is an assessment of how certain large corporations or even formerly offline consultants/ marketers are faring using various types of social media.)

Still, there’s only so much time in the day to get all the other work done. Where do you draw the line? Personally, I believe it’s better to hire an SMM (Social Media Marketer) who can focus on the promotions side, and possibly use  your accounts as well. Except that this is of course frowned upon by some communities. Also, if you’re bootstrapping your online presence, you may not have the funds to hire someone. So you’re back to having to make lots of social friends and learning how to balance your work, your promoting, and the promotion of your online friends.

P.S. I joined the site that my colleague wanted me to vote at. I also “followed” about 30-40 members after spending about an hour. Several of the members I followed also added me in short order.

I joined the “new” site because Digg has now set the bar way too high and seemingly discounted the value of “friends”. I still prefer sites like Stumbleupon over anything else, though apparently Twitter can get you a lot of traffic if you use it properly. Something else I’ll have to explore.

What do social media sites do you prefer, both in terms of liking the functionality as well as effectiveness?

WordPress Tidbits: Pushing the Envelope of WP Functionality

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There are a number of interesting developments in WordPress and I wanted to share them here, in case you’ve missed them elsewhere.

Prologue: Twitter-Like Microblogging Theme

Twitter microblogging is a growing phenomenon, despite the fact that there are actually more robust alternatives such as jaiku, tumblr. But Twitter’s popularity has probably reached enough critical mass that more new users will gravitate there. In fact, I regularly get emails saying so and so is now following me, despite the fact that I almost never Twitter. (Too much inane Twittering for my liking, and I don’t really have much… er.. little to say.)

But if you like the general functionality, there’s a new alternative that lets you build your own Twitter-like clone in WordPress: the Prologue theme. It’s clean and crisp, and you can add messages/ posts right on the home page. (Only registered users can see the textarea for entering messages.)

Each post has its own permalink page, so comments can be added if someone chooses to. There are no 140-char limits, and you can embed media (images, video) as with any WordPress posts. One awkward issue is that if you want any text with a hyperlink, you do have to enter in the necessary HTML code in the textarea. (Another problem is that the only way to get author images displaying is for authors to have a registered gravatar. It’d be nice to be able to alternately upload an image through each user’s WP control panel.)

Prologue is great for Twitter-like blogs with multiple authors, or even for groups that need to communicate with each other through short messages rather than CC’d email messages. (However, if you need for Prologue posts to be visible to members only, you’d have to tweak the theme’s WP code to automatically set every new post to “private”. You’d also have to provide a single password to all members.)

This theme just goes to show how flexible WordPress is for building non-blog content management systems.

WordPress-Based Contact Manager

WordPress, like some other blogging platforms, has always had the potential as a full-blown CMS (Content Management System). That’s being proven more often these days, what with all the “magazine themes”, Twitter-clones like Prologue (above), Popurls clones, and now Design Canopy’s WP-based Contact Manager theme.

This Contact Manager isn’t a standalone theme per se. There are a couple of plugins that must be installed for it to function. However, these are included with the download. Check out the demo to get a feel for it.

Something like this is ideal for bloggers that are bootstrapping an online publishing business. You can keep track of colleagues as well as advertisers.

[via: Automattic WP Publisher Blog]

WordPress Image Rotator Plugin

If you want to add some visual impact to your blog theme, an image rotator might be the way. CNP_Studio built an Image Rotator plugin for Sony Computer Entertainment America but were given permission to share it with the WordPress community. I have not tried it but with a bit of tweaking, it might work as an ad rotator.

[via: Automattic WP Publisher Blog]

WordPress PodPress Podcasting Plugin

The PodPress plugin is by no means new. I used it in a couple of test sites either 2006 or possibly 2005 (my memory is hazy), and it’s a relatively easy plugin to use. But it was mentioned on the WP Publisher Blog, and with all the members of the Performancing Hive who have started podcasts, I thought I’d point out PodPress. I’ve used it showcase some of my instrumental compositions. It even has support for premium (paid) content and for playing in a popup window. (Note: the demos are for WP 1.5x and 2.1. I’ve only ever used this plugin with 1.5x.)

WordPress 2.5 Coming

Personally, I’ve disliked every version of WordPress since about 2.3 onwards. I go out of my way to avoid these versions on any of my sites, depending on how much time I have to manually install, say, 2.2. But many of the new plugins and themes require 2.3 and above. WP version 2.5 will be released soon and it’s supposedly packed with lots of new features. Whether or not you can easily upgrade from pre-2.2 versions up to 2.5 remains to be seen but I’m guessing not. If you’re the type to install the latest WP version as soon as it comes out, I suggest you make sure you realize what you’re getting into.

You can read more about WordPress 2.5 and WordPress goings on over at Blog Herald, on Lorelle’s WordPress Wednesdays posts.

Five Steps to Finding & Hiring a Part-time or Full-time Blogger with the Right Stuff

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There comes a time when you have to bite your lip and take a chance. Hiring someone to assist you with blogging is probably a worthy investment in the long run and offers the chance to expand further. Performancing’s very own Ryan Caldwell has hired bloggers to help get the work done. It is becoming more common these days, and eventually, you might need help too.

I constantly take notice of the Performancing Blogger Job Boards which are very popular. There are many opportunities for bloggers to take advantage of. This also means that employers are taking notice as well. It is a great place to search for a new blogger

Here are some ways to make sure that the process of finding and hiring that new blogger goes well:

Where to Look

With this wonderful thing we call the World Wide Web, it is easily possible to reach thousands of potential hired hands for your blog within days or even hours. There are forums, blogs, listings, and other forms of media to take advantage of.

Performancing’s Blogger Job forum is an excellent place to start out with. Every week there are thousands of people that are checking the forums for work opportunities. Best of all, it is completely free to post a job listing. Take advantage of this, as some other places go as far to charge money for posting job offers.

There are a vast amount of places you can post job listings, and here are a few to consider visiting:

The key thing is that while writing your description for the job, you should try to give as much information as you can for encouraging a reply from applicants (see below). I, personally, would not even bother considering a job offer if it didn’t have how much it would pay, the posting frequency, length of articles, the topics, and the website I would be writing for. I consider that to be the bare minimum.

Know What You Want

If you are going to be hiring someone, you should know what you want and expect before continuing on. You must take into consideration several aspects of your blog:

  • Posting quantity (one post per day or ten?)
  • Amount per article (300 words or 1000 words)
  • Topics to be written about
  • Types of posts (linkbait, news, reviews, etc.)

Once you know what you want, it will make finding and choosing the right blogger for the job an easier experience for both parties. Make sure you look out for other job postings to see if you can learn anything from them. Regardless, have all the information provided for those who are viewing your listing — it will allow people to make a good decision and not waste your time.

What to Watch For

Considering that you receive more than one applicant, how do you choose which is the better one for you? First, you should consider someone who put a lot of effort into their reply to your job offer. Next, you should talk to everyone who you feel could be worthy of a hire.

Experience should take priority when you are taking things into consideration. However, you must put everything to the side in order to realize that you want someone that is going to bring traffic — which in turn will make you money. Finding someone that can connect with your current readers and bring in new ones is no simple math equation. It just takes some getting used to.

Your blogger must not only inform, but entertain your audience as well. Anyone has the potential to shine if given the opportunity, but someone with experience is more likely to produce results and make an impact sooner. It should have the most weight when considering your final decision.

Compensation

There are many potential ways to compensate your blogger. Compensation based on performance is becoming popular. I have also seen compensation from five dollars per post to over a hundred dollars per post, and there have been revenue percentage payouts as well. Also, I have seen pay per word rates. However, it does not end there though; several other methods of compensation exist including hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly rates.

How do you determine how much to compensate? Well, it really is up to you, but the more you pay, the more quality you should be getting from your blogger. Pay your blogger fairly, and pay what he or she is worth. In all likelihood, you will get better efforts and a better articles at the end of the day.

Monitoring Progress

Evaluating how your blogger is performing is crucial. If you are hiring someone that is experienced, it is probably a better idea to just get that person started. However, if you are hiring someone that is new to the blogging scene, than you should consider giving the person a chance to post as a guest or reading over the content before it is posted to the blog. You must, obviously, protect your business.

Things should work out in the end, and your blogger will be bringing you in traffic. If this is the case, then you can pat yourself on the back, but don’t get to complacent. It is only time before you are managing many more blogs and have more employees to deal with. That is when it will really be getting interesting.

If the above isn’t the case, then maybe it is time to reconsider your decision. It will be time to try again.

Search Engine and Social Media Strategies: Feedburner Burns Itself?

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Breaking: Feedburner takes away all-time stats.

Breaking: Feedburner restores all-time stats.

Now that Feedburner all-time stats are back, you should go check how your remarkable content (e.g., pillar content, resource bait, traffic bait, linkbait, etc.) is doing. Is your linkbait failing on Digg? That’s a refrain I’ve been hearing from some bloggers lately, especially after Digg’s recent algorithm change. Someone I know had 220 votes on one submission and no home page (last I heard).

What to do you about failing on Digg, possibly because of your domain name being “tainted”? Cameron Olthuis suggests building mini-sites for posting the linkbait to.

But how does building and baiting mini-sites help the domain you’re NOT getting diggs on? Go read Cameron’s article. It’s brief and to the point. And while you’re over at Search Engine Land, check out Debra O. Mastaler’s roundup of link building tools. You’ll need these tools more than ever, thanks to more webmasters avoiding reciprocal links.

Another thing to possibly avoid: targeting a specific search engine. Though that doesn’t mean you should not follow the changes in search engine algorithms.

Keyword Research Is Key To SERP Domination

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Brian Clark over at Copyblogger beat me to the punch. He wrote the ultimate guide to doing keyword research for your niche. It’s long, but well worth the read.

So why would a blogger care about keyword research? Basically, by knowing what people are searching for, and by knowing how to attract new readers through search, your blog can have a much bigger impact, much more quickly.

Keyword research also helps you to create structure for your blog. If you know the most popular topics that people are interested within your own niche, you can focus most of your content in that direction.

Keyword research is all about giving your readers what they want, so make sure to read Brian’s article for a great introductory tutorial.

Encounter the Yahoo! del.icio.us blocking policy

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Follow-Up to Search Engine and Social Media Shenanigans: Yahoo! Blocks Other SEs From Spidering Del.icio.us?

OK, Yahoo! blocks spider from other search engines. Who cares?

How-To create your own copy of your del.icio.us bookmarks

It is as simple as creating a local copy of all your bookmarks stored at del.icio.us. Basically you have two pretty easy possibilities:

  1. Static del.icio.us copy via export
  2. Syncing your del.icio.us feed into an RSS feed aggregator

And maybe somebody has some cool ready made del.icio.us API solutions to offer (I don’t).

Let’s elaborate about the two mentioned possibilities…

Straight forward: Static del.icio.us copy

Del.icio.us offers an export function. Play around with it and create static pages in your webspace. Having static bookmark.html pages is not a bad choice.

  • Use keywords as filenames.
  • Take a look at this SEO relevant article: Matt Cutts About Subdomains And Subdirectories

Tip: There used to be some Firefox Add-Ons around which could sync your del.icio.us account with the local bookmarks. The right del.icio.us add-on could help a lot.

Tip II.: Define and subscribe to some del.icio.us add-on and/or tools search feeds. The link list in the article will Desktop Research: Trends 2008 (Bonus: OPML File) help.

Advanced: RSS aggregation of your del.icio.us feed(s)

It is only very little initial work necessary but with the help of a database, an RSS aggregation software and some reblogging tool you can create a synced copy of your future del.icio.us bookmarks.

The important thing is to find solutions which will keep your del.icio.us RSS feed items. A simple subscription tool will only show the actual feed content.

My del.icio.us RSS feed aggregation software tips

My latest Bookmarks (feel free to send me a beer for the great free resource 🙂

  • del.icio.us … aggregator software
  • del.icio.us RSS aggregation

The recommended software which I have tested

  • Gregarius – A Free, Web-based Feed Aggregator To-Do: Is republishing or reblogging possible? Is ist only a reader? … Gregarius is a web-based RSS/RDF/ATOM feed aggregator, designed to run on your web server, allowing you to access your news sources from wherever you want.
  • reBlog by Eyebeam R&D – RSS aggregation and reblogging software … To install your own reBlog, you will need a server with PHP, MySQL, and Perl CGI scripts.

I am using Gregarius with a pretty straightforward standard installation. Click on the link to see my personal syncronized del.icio.us repository realized via RSS feed import.

I have once installed reBlog once but they have a crazy security concept (if I remember right). It was something about having the admin directory above the user pages without additional login security. I did not get it to work with the standard html security options.

Combination of both or using the del.icio.us API

I can’t help you too much with the combination and esp. not how to bring both solutions together but maybe there are some del.icio.us API gurus around who will write a little program???

How To Make Your Previously Written Content Valuable Once Again

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Do you have hundreds or even thousands of articles hiding behind those “previous” buttons on the bottom of your page? I bet that many of you do. They, unfortunately, offer little or no value to your readers. Valuable page views are being lost if you fail to make an honest attempt to promote past content.

Your living in la-la land if you believe that the typical reader is going to take the time to click the previous button on your blog over two or three times. I was once shocked to notice someone go back four pages on my technology blog, but even then I think it was one of my friends. It just doesn’t seem right. I mean, after all, you invested so much time into those articles, and while your blog may be prospering with new readers that are reading what you write today, they are missing out on all your previous hard work. Something must be done about this!

Alright, So How Do We Fix It?

Understandably, if you are running a site that consists of time sensitive issues like current events, news, or even technology, it is not as important to highlight that five paragraph article on why the iPhone will rule the world. On the other hand, if you do have any content that you have written in the past that could be of value to your readers, then you should do your best to make it easy for them to find it. Perhaps, at the very least, your hard work from the past will generate more back links with your newer readers.

There was a good reason you assigned tags and categories to your content (hopefully), and now is the time to explain why. Whether you prefer using tags or categories, these two methods are the primary link to organizing your previous content. They also give you great ways to pull out content as well. Good categorization of your content is crucial. Even if it doesn’t appear that way now, it might come back to haunt you later.

Pages

Using multiple pages that focus on a single or multiple related categories is a relatively easy way to spread your content out. Instead of limiting your readers to the last 10 or so recent blog entries, you could have your site also display the last 10 or so items from a broad set of various categories. News, previews, and reviews pages could be a relatively simple start for adding more value to previous articles. Already your user has access to more content than they did before.

Accomplishing this in WordPress can be somewhat tricky. Maria’s Guides has a great tutorial on how to create category specific archive pages. This is probably the best option if you do not want to bother with the other methods available. Once this is set up, everything will be automated as long as you manage your categories correctly.

Lists

If you check out a site like ProBlogger, you will notice that, even on the very front page, the site manages to promote content from years ago with the “Best of Problogger” section. You might not need to be so fancy with how it is done, but if you do, try checking out jQuery if your looking to do something similar to the tabbed interface. It does have the advantage of making great use of little space.

It doesn’t have to be that complicated though. Something simple like listing 10 to 20 of your past favorite articles from a few categories would be better than nothing at all. It is a great way to give your readers something to do other than reading your most recent entries.

Plugins

Alex King has a great plugin called Popularity Contest. It will allow you to keep track of all the views on your content, and with a little bit of code, you can extract information about the most popular posts. This will allow you to generate lists that display your most popular content. Many sites tend to do this, and maybe you should too.

If you want to make displaying lists of previous content easier, you could also check out Alex King’s Articles plugin. Most of the functionality can be done without a plugin, but this could make the task much easier.

Examples

The best way to learn is by example, so here are a few blogs to take notes from:

  • ProBlogger – the homepage and archives page are excellent for showing off the site’s previous content. The ajax tabbed interface also allows much more content to be displayed in the same amount of space.
  • ArsTechnica – separates past content with tabs on top; the “Ars Journals” section on the right also helps to show off additional content.
  • Smashing Magazine – exactly what I was talking about before — the site properly highlights its best content from the past, even if in a simplistic manner.
  • TreeHugger – in addition to featuring an amazingly unique design, the sidebars of the site are full of quality content from the past.
  • A List Apart – while putting together an archive like this might be significantly more effort, it would unquestionably be worth it if you have that much valuable content.
  • Zen Habits – features excellent use of previously popular content on the bottom of the page.

If you can be consistent with featuring your previous content, it really adds value to site. Readers might be, for example, more inclined to visit the site instead of only reading via content feeds.

Hopefully some of those sites will inspire you to spend some time and feature your hard work. If you have an article that you spent hours on that maybe didn’t get enough appreciation, it should be on the front page. Most of us don’t do this, and I will raise my hand and admit that I am one of those people. Fortunately, after joining Performancing, I have been thinking of new ways to improve my blogs.

This is a step in the right direction.

If you have a unique way of displaying your previous content, please let us know in the comments section. I would also be glad to help anyone that needs an opinion on how to make their previous content useful; just fire me a private message.