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Chris Garrett

Are You a Blog Snob?

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Reading Davids Blog Herald post made me think about some of the characters we meet around the world of blogging. His post is about how while some blogs are big enough that they do not need to promote, or might even think they are above such things, the rest of us need to promote our content in order for it to be seen.

Immediately I thought of the blogging snobs, but then I realized how easy it is to slip into that thinking. We always think our opinions are reasonable, it is “other” people who are snobs, right? Have a look to see if you have ever caught yourself thinking these snobby thoughts …

  • Selling links is below me
  • Asking for links is below me
  • Asking for Diggs is below me
  • Content is King, my content is good enough that I don’t need to promote it
  • My blog is that good, I don’t need to link out or comment
  • Blogger and WordPress.com are for noobs
  • Ugh, another MyBlogLog widget

For someone who spends their days telling other people how they should blog it might seem hypocritical 🙂 But really, who are we to judge how other people blog?

I am going to take my own advice and think carefully about if I am being snobby next time I spout off. Do you encounter blog snobbery? Please let us know with your comments ..

Blogging ROI Beyond Advertising

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Money money money. How can we make more? Why am I not making enough? My feeds today seemed to be full of the same questions. I can understand it, we have all been there.

I think the main reason bloggers struggle to find ROI is because most of the advice out there is about adsense, advertising and commissions.

Blogging does not have to be all about the banners, aff and selling reviews.

What else do you have to offer? What more is there to gain?

We have spoken here at great length how bloggers can become master networkers. Networking alone brings in terrific opportunities that vastly overshadow most blogs advertising potential.

Then consider people like Seth Godin and Joel Spolsky. Neither are concerned about direct income because their businesses grow because of their blogs.

Of course for many of us the joy of blogging is its own reward!

Where do you find ROI from your blog?

Blogging What You Know

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How true is it that you need to be an expert before you can write a blog?

Most of the time when we talk about people starting a blog we discuss the topic of passion and making sure you can stick with it for the long haul. Knowledge of the topic is not always given much weight.

Controversially I hold the opinion that you do NOT need necessarily to be an expert in what you are writing about. Shock! Heresy!

Keep with me, I shall explain.

Freelance writers often do not come to a topic they are expected to write about fully equipped with all the knowledge required. This is why research was invented. So there is a precedent.

Yes, you will have a far easier time of it if you already know your topic inside out. My friend Yoav who I blog with on the Codswallop blog routinely writes linkbait that would take me ages to put together, such as this 70+ strong Excel tips and resource list. That’s because he is an Excel expert, and you would expect him to be as his most popular product is a PDF to Excel converter! I by contrast am not by any means an expert on Excel so I blog about everything but. Mostly my opinions on all things tech.

I find if you really love a topic then passion and knowledge are often found together. If you have ever spent time with an obsessive sports geek you will understand how even the most otherwise dimwitted individuals can store an encyclopedias worth of stats, facts and history.

If you only stick to what you have already have done, what you absolutely know, when will you ever do something new? You can break new ground and share the new experience just as well as you can share past experiences if you are flexible in the way you do it.

It’s no different in business. There were many times in my career that I had to present to clients ideas that I had less than 100% confidence would work. My first ever email campaign was for Coca-Cola. You can imagine how nervous I was. The client and the agency I worked for were both banking on me knowing how to pull it off. Where I couldn’t point to past successes I would tell them so, but back up the strategy I was recommending with well researched rationale. You don’t always have to have done something before in order to be a success, you just have to alter your approach and be honest about what you are doing.

If you are not an expert then you can still write about a subject. What matters is how you deliver the topic. Do you go in and try to fake it, or do you honestly represent the information based on your own research and experience? It’s the difference between authenticity and fraud.

When you can not refer to past experience you can say “I just discovered this” or “This is what I am trying right now”. There is still useful information for readers, you are simply not trying to imply any expert status.

One of my favorite blogs about blogging is The Blogging Experiment. Rather than say “this is how it is done” the blog is like a journal of trials and tribulations of building a blog. Ben writes honestly, with a warts and all attitude. He shares what works and what does not so you can follow his progress.

Perhaps this is a model you could follow?

Is this the Secret to Success?

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In the introduction thread of my forum ever-vigilant moderator Jen pulled out a quote from new member Humor Blogging which instantly inspired me:

That’s why I started this site. Something I wanted to exist simply didn’t seem to exist. I couldn’t find it, so I created it.

Could this short quote hold the key to success?

Too many people seem to create solutions waiting for a problem, particularly techies. How many times do people invent something then try to find a market for it. How much easier is it to find an unserved need and fill it?

Do You Enjoy Your Blogs Company?

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I have been trying to figure out why some bloggers do not participate in their own comment area.

Today I posted over at Blog Herald saying one of the things I like about Performancing is the bloggers like and support each other. I think there may be something related between the two ideas, see what you think?

On the one hand, most people say it is about time. Yes, answering comments does take time. But consider this, we all do stuff that takes time but we make time because we get something out of it. Why is it ok to drop commenting but ok to spend the same time on Twitter?

I do post on other blogs other than my own that do not provide emails when someone comments so I get caught up and distracted with other business. For this I need a better system to remind me of where I have posted and what about so I can go back and check comments. If I make this mistake myself then I guess I really ought to forgive others 😉

On your own primary blog though I think there has to be an element that if you are not motivated to answer your own comments then there is a problem. Perhaps you are not interested in what your readers have to say? Is the topic becoming boring for you? Do you only see profit in blogging, nothing more?

If this is the case then there are a couple of solutions:
1) Make friends with your readers. If you see commenters as friends you are less likely to ignore them
2) Re-invigorate your interest in your niche, even if that means drifting your topic focus towards areas that still hold your fascination

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this. Am I off base here? Please do share your thoughts in the comments …

Feeding the Ad Click Machine

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Why am I so against Adsense? There are a few reasons, I risk getting into a rant if I list them all!

My main reason for disliking Adsense is that it changes people. There are strong publishers who resist the siren call, but in most cases there are two outcomes with Adsense monetization:

  1. Defeat – The publisher feels a failure because of the measly Adsense payment, if they even get any at all
  2. Submission – The publisher changes their whole approach to serve the needs of the Adsense block rather than their readers

Often in a last ditch attempt the blogger or webmaster will go from (1) to (2).

What do I mean by “submission”? Well have you noticed the hoops you have to jump through to get good Adsense earnings are mostly not reader-friendly?

  • Cloaking ads so they look like navigation
  • Blending colors and fonts so they don’t look like ads
  • Tuning content so better, higher earning ads display
  • Tweaking presentation to increase click-throughs
  • Attracting a higher percentage of first time visitors who are more likely to click
  • Using misleading headlines to generate search traffic that leaves via ads
  • etc etc

By all means make money with Adsense, just please do not get caught into the trap of subjigating your strategy to it or feeling like you are a failure if your blog does not earn the big bucks.

Personally, I go for loyal audience over adsense clicks any day 🙂

Why Community Matters

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Ryans message brought home to me just how important community is.

People make a site such as this work, not technology, and certainly not “page rank”, “traffic” or “search engine rankings”.

There have been numerous cases where I have been so grateful to people who have supported me through the many ups and downs of my blogging career. Some of which happened on this very site 😉

I can’t stress enough how important loyal readers are. If you are going to focus on one thing, serving your audience has to be it.

The real value is in loyalty. Traffic without engagement is meaningless. Forget about SEO tricks, gaming social media, community is where it is at.

That folks, is why I am still here, 2 years and 2 weeks later 🙂

Are You A Digg Traffic Junky?

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Everywhere I register online I am always me. My username is always a variation on “Chris”, “chrisg” or “Chris Garrett”. Right back to my BBS and Usenet days up to now. The only time I can think of where that has not been true has been Digg.

I have nothing against nicknames, people use them for a variety of reasons, not least because their real name is already taken. That said many people have pseudonyms on Digg because they want to stealth-promote their websites for the traffic boost. The idea is you can seem an impartial third party who just really finds the viagra-pr0n-ipod blog particularly fascinating. This is bad for any number of reasons but I realised it could be killing Digg by removing trust from the community. If you take trust out of any activity surely you are in danger of destroying the social fabric of that activity?

I think Bloggers especially are in danger of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. So many of us are hooked on the sweet sweet Digg traffic high that we are using Digg for what we can get out of it and the whole system is being subverted. We need to stop this Diggaddiction before we all become junkies.

An addiction in itself is not necessarily that damaging. It’s the side-effects of that addiction that trouble me, the ever-increasing desperate attempts to recreate the initial Digg-effect hit. The manic dependency on the high and the temptation to create an army of sock-puppet Digg accounts. The eventual Digg meltdown where half the “people” you meet on the site are fake.

From now on I am going to treat Digg no different to any other online community. I have registered as chrisgarrett (feel free to friend me). I will Digg up your stories if I find them interesting.

This is not me being all fluffy-bunny-blogger-transparent for the sake of it! Of course I am saying all this for completely selfish reasons. I enjoy Digg immensely and find it incredibly useful as a resource. Several times a day I check in with Digg to see what interesting new sites have been posted up and to take part in the discussions. The entertainment and research value of Digg would be incredibly damaged if the promotional aspect gets too much influence.

I just don’t want to see Digg full of spam.