Blogger

If you ever see a job opening for Chief Blogger, you might want to run far away. Kodak appointed a Chief Blogger position to a long-time employee, but the job description stinks of non-blogging tasks. Kodak is spindoctoring the announcement by saying that few companies have Chief Bloggers, and fewer still have female Chief Bloggers. So what? “Chief Blogger” hardly seems in the spirit of blogging, and ensures that I’ll NOT be visiting company blogs who have such positions.

This recalls to my mind numerous corporate jobs in the mid- to late 90s – when the Internet was the next big thing – that used to be titled Webmaster but were really just PR (Public Relations) jobs. Such jobs often involved immense amounts of company politics while the people doing the real work (the real Webmasters) were scapegoated by executives for anything that didn’t go right. (I happened to have been one, and have seen others go through it. It’s not a pretty thing.)

Let’s hope that this doesn’t happen to blogging. I fear, though, that it will. Things to fear: when that executive in the corner office comes asking, “Why isn’t the blogsite pulling in a million visitors a day yet? It launched a week ago. How long is it going to take, and how much money will we make from the blog?”

Am I overreacting? What do you think?

Time is valuable to all of us, and for a part-time or full-time blogger, it might seem there are just not enough hours in the day. While none of us (as far as I know) have the ability to manipulate time, there are things we all can do to keep on top of things. Time management is a skill that anyone can take advantage of, and here are some tips to make the best use of the little time we are given.

Plan Ahead

A calendar is a blogger’s best friend. I use it to plan out all my upcoming articles. It can also be used to create reminders or other important events for your blogging schedule. Regardless of whether you use your calendar for planning out articles or keeping track of what you have going on in life, it is important to stay ahead of the game. Also, it is better to be able to jump right into the creative process instead of spending time thinking of what to write about. Google Calendar is something I urge all of you to get familiar with.

Create Goals & Challenges

It is motivation and rising to the challenge that gets things done. A goal is a source of motivation — it is something to aim for. It is probably the best sources of motivation for a freelancer. For example: create a goal to reach a certain number of subscribers or daily visitors. Challenge yourself — getting things done lead to better time management. Some of you might not need to create motivation for yourself, but many of you probably do, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Use Reminders & Deadlines

On the line of goals, there is something similar, but much more serious — a deadline. Get into the habit of creating and completing deadlines. It is something that will help you in life. This is even more true when you are left to work for yourself, as the temptation to become lazy constantly lingers. You might not make every deadline, but at least you have a point to measure progress, and that is a very good thing for proper time management (and possibly clients as well).

Take it to the Max

There are certain days where I just feel unstoppable while I am writing. The words just seem to flow perfectly, and it is a great feeling to have. Unfortunately, those days don’t happen every day, but when they do happen, I know to take advantage of them. Get stuff done! I also use this time to write backup articles incase it just happens to be one of those days where I need some downtime. I also use these times to come up with new article ideas for the future. It would be almost insane to not take advantage of golden opportunities, and if you are in the zone, it is time to step up to the plate and swing for the home run.

These tips will serve as a starting point, but there comes a time when you simply need to shift into high gear and get things done. Remember, knowing where you are is pretty useless if you don’t know where you need to be. Think about it.

Do you come prepared? Interestingly enough, many professional bloggers are not prepared for professional work. One single simple gadget can help in a myriad of ways, but unfortunately, people seem to under-estimate its use. When you have that killer idea, interview opportunity, or chance to become a live reporter, you must be prepared.

Digital Voice Recorder

Right now, you should invest in a digital voice recorder. It does exactly what its name implies — it records voice and sound. You might have seen old school voice recorders with cassette tapes, but today this type of technology is becoming quite impressive and reliable. Some might think this is a waste of money, but I strongly disagree. It is a tool that could potentially be one of the greatest investments to a professional blogging career.

You might think it is easier to remember or write down information, but even if you have superhuman memory or pen and paper, there are certain things you can’t do in a reasonable and timely manner. A digital voice recorder can.

Interviews

A digital voice recorder is the ultimate gadget to have when an interview needs to be done. You might, for example, bump into someone of important interest while being out and about. Let’s say you are at a blogger’s convention and have a few moments to talk to Darren Rowse of ProBlogger — wouldn’t it be a wasted opportunity if you couldn’t record an interview with him? Your readers might appreciate something like that. Depending on the type of blogs you write for, that missed opportunity could be very painful.

Ideas

You and I know that we have both forgotten some great ideas in the past. There have been several times previously when I was laying in bed thinking about article ideas and would have forgotten them the next day. Realistically, how many of us are going to go through the effort to turn on a light, grab a pen, and jot down those ideas? Not many of us would. A digital voice recorder by your side could result in this never happening again. The first night I was hired for Performancing, I had recorded over 70 article ideas. This article was one of them.

Live Reporting

Another great use would be to report a developing or live event. You know those people that take their video cameras with them everywhere to find great news? You could think of a digital voice recorder as the same thing. Who knows when something like just being able to record and report a live event could turn out to be one of the greatest moments in your life.

Other Uses

• Reminders
• Goals
• Dictating blogs/articles

I have an old school cassette based digital voice recorder/player. I also have the ability to record unlimited audio on my cell phone. I have used these features many times when I simply have an amazing idea. There are plenty digital audio recorders available. Some are more fancier than others, but pick up one that is good for you.

Now, sure, you could take a pen and notebook everywhere you go, but this is the 21st century. It is a fast and impatient world. Things are forgotten and opportunities are missed on a daily basis. Don’t let it happen to you. Those that are prepared and take their job seriously are those that succeed. Remember that.

In my previous article, I shared the horror of data loss with you. However, my willingness to backup my data has saved me. I hope that none of you have to experience that, but if you do, this will have been a worthy read. This article is dedicated to helping you keep your blog safe. The stories of data loss are growing in numbers. If things go wrong, you will be prepared, and you will be able to brag that you saved your data from extinction.

I will be discussing manual and automated solutions for accomplishing the task of backing up your blog. A manual solution has a much higher chance of being a perfect one-to-one copy if done correctly, and as a result, it should be performed regardless of whether or not you have an automated solution in place. The automated solutions are much easier and require little to no maintenance, but are not guaranteed to work correctly.

Manual Backup — The Safest Way (If Done Correctly)

There are two critical parts of most blogs: on the one hand there are the site files and folders that usually hold information about your site’s plugins, styles, and functionality, but on the other hand you have the database which stores most, if not all, of the user generated data. Both are crucial, but the database — in most cases — will be the most valuable part of your site that needs to be backed up.

FTP

Chances are great — unless you are self hosting your blog — that you will have access to FTP. The purpose of having an FTP connection is to transfer files between your site through the internet. As you can already imagine, it will be used for downloading your files from the web server for backup purposes. Some of you might have never used an FTP application, but it is worth understanding how they work.

Here are some free FTP applications for the Microsoft Windows operating system:

• FileZilla
• SmartFTP
• FireFTP

For the Mac operating system:

• FileZilla
• Cyberduck

It is as simple as drag and drop with the aforementioned programs. You might have to ask your web host for the login credentials, but they will be glad to help you out in most cases. Most hosts will also be glad to walk you through properly operating your FTP application as well.

Once you have accessed your site via FTP, you want to locate where you installed WordPress. This might be the root of your site, or it might be in a directory such as /blog. You should notice see various files that begin with “wp-” as the prefix. Once you locate these files, you know you are ready to copy all these files and directories to your local hard drive.

Once the download has been completed, you have successfully done half the work to completely backing up your blog. Time now to move forward with the more difficult task of obtaining your data within the database.

PhpMyAdmin

All respectable hosts offer phpMyAdmin as a method to accessing and managing databases. As said before, almost every content management system stores user content within a database. Unfortunately, backing up the most important data of most websites is not the easiest task for someone new to this kind of stuff.

Most shared hosts provide you with a control panel that will give you direct access to phpMyAdmin. In cPanel, a popular control panel used by shared hosting subscribers, you can find phpMyAdmin under the database management sections of the interface. Other control panels will likely have it listed in a similar location. If not, your host should provide you with a URL in an email that will give you a location to access phpMyAdmin directly after you have signed up. If your shared hosting provider doesn’t provide this or a suitable alternative, it is really time to consider switching.

Once you find phpMyAdmin, you will notice several databases listed on the left sidebar. Most default and automated installs of WordPress have a database named similar to “wrdp_1” or “wp_1.” Click on the drop-down menu and locate your WordPress database. If you have actually created the database required to install WordPress, then click on the name of your created database. If you can’t locate it, send me a message and I’ll assist you in any way I can.

From there, it is just a few steps until your finished:

• Click on the Export tab
• IMPORTANT–click the “Add DROP TABLE / DROP VIEW” check box under the “Structure” section
• IMPORTANT–Ensure that the “Complete inserts” check box is enabled.
• IMPORTANT–Check the “Save as file” box located near the bottom of the page.
• Select “None” for compression if your database is not that large. If it is, select a compression format like “zipped.”
• Select the location to save your file.
• Store it in a proper and safe location

I must insist that you read the official WordPress guide to backing up your data. It goes into everything I just listed with extreme detail. My instructions will get you to the same point.

Make This A Habit

I would strongly recommend you make it a habit to manually backup your system at least once a month. The more often, the better. The reasoning behind this is that automated solutions can fail. From personal experience, they have failed. You never truly know until it is time to restore the data. That is not to down the available automated systems, but it is also better to be safe than sorry.

Automated Backup — The Easier, Riskier Method

Some of us are busy, some of us have multiple blogs to deal with, and some of us are just plain lazy — as a result, we like to have the computer do the work for us. I can respect most of the reasons for wanting an automated system in place, but you must accept the fact that there are risks to doing this. While it might be the easy way, there is no guarantee that everything will go as planned once you hit the restore button. Keep that in mind.

Plugins

There are not that many reliable plugins for the job, but these two will help keep everything in working order. Unfortunately, I have seen many problems reported with the use of both plugins. I will leave the decision up to you on how heavy you want to rely on them, but even the WordPress Database Backup plugin failed for me.

• WordPress Database Backup
• BackUpWordPress

The WordPress Database Backup plugin seems to be a standard when being discussed on the internet. It is a highly recommended plugin. BackUpWordPress, however, is a plugin that I have only recently heard of, and I have seen many issues reported with it. Regardless, when using an automated system, you should test to make sure that you can properly restore your blog.

Scripts

Scripts are files that automatically execute commands within a web server. Utilizing the cron service is an excellent example of this. It is very useful service for automating what would be repetitive tasks. Although, before using any of these scripts, I strongly suggest that you understand exactly what the script is doing. I also must warn you that there is no guarantee that the script will run. Also, please note that these scripts will not download your site’s files — only the database files (your site‘s content) will be backed up.

Scripts that will help you automate the backup of your WordPress MySQL database:

• AutoMySQLBackup
• Tamba2 Script

Again, you should take the time to investigate each script and understand what it does. You should also regularly check that the tasks are being performed.

Keeping Your Backups Organized

You have hopefully saved your WordPress database and files. Now you should properly store them in an organized manner. I have a folder called “Backups” on my drive. Then I have the following folders in a descending hierarchal structure: Backups, 2008 (year), 02 (month), 25 (day), Tech In Demand (site/blog). The site files and database file will be placed within that folder structure. This assists with easily locating previous backups as they will be organized properly by alphanumeric order and separated by site/blog.

If you have storage space online, I would suggest storing the files there as well. Also, a service like Mozy — which is free for up to 2 GB of storage — is great for the purpose of backing up your blog. I would also consider storing your backups on a portable USB hard drive as well.

In the end, the more redundant you are with blog‘s data, the safer your data will be; plain and simple. If you have any additional tips for backing up a blog, please feel free to add them in the comments section. Even I am willing to learn of new ways to keep my data safe.

Hopefully, one day there will be an incredibly reliable automated solution, but for now, exercise caution.

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:

• Performancing’s Blogger Job Forum
• Blogger Jobs site
• ProBlogger Job boards
• Freelance Writing Jobs site

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.

This weekend I interviewed THE ProBlogger, Darren Rowse. We talked about:

• Becoming a 7-figure blogger – by mistake
• Pre-Teen Glamor Photography Vendor
• Starting a million dollar empire on a credit card – The b5media story
• Tips for beginner ProBloggers
• Darren’s big news
• And more

Listen to the interview after the jump!

Darren Rowse Interview

If you want to put it on your Mp3 player or burn it you can download it here

With Microsoft recently making a bid of nearly US$46B to buy rival Yahoo, I was hesitant to start a new series for Performancing that I’ve been planning around Yahoo Pipes. Hopefully Microsoft will not “bury” Pipes – which is about a year old now – like they have with other useful software I’ve used in the past and which they bought up. With that in mind, here’s a quick “why use it” introduction to Yahoo Pipes.

Yahoo Pipes is essentially a handy way to take data in various formats (XML, RSS/XML, CSV, etc.) from the web and filter and manipulate it. It’s really that simple, in terms of functionality. But even that in itself is what makes Pipes so powerful. Here is a very short list of what Pipes can be used for:

1. Custom search engines for collecting information related to a set of keywords.
2. RSS filters for customizing web feeds.
3. RSS radars for researchers or online bargain-hunting shoppers.
4. Dynamic web maps.
5. Custom multimedia content streams (images, video, audio).
6. Producing source data for custom HTML badges, even a “recent posts” badge for a blog network.
7. Monitor for top blogs in a niche.

This hardly begins to describe what you can do with Yahoo Pipes on its own. If you marry Pipes with custom code and/or other web services that are RSS-based, you have the raw building blocks for creating a new generation of web application prototypes. What’s more, the interface is visually-based, so you do not need to know how to write code to use Pipes.

The drawback is that Yahoo Pipes is still in beta and as such, modules are often deprecated and replaced with new ones that are not 100% identical in functionality. Nevertheless, learning the basic functionality of Pipes modules and how to integrate a Pipe with other web services can lead you to add custom features to your blog – without having to hire someone to code. You become more of a conductor than a musician.

So that’s what the rest of this series will do: teach you how to use Yahoo Pipes with hard examples. While I do have a fairly lengthy list of examples coming up, if there’s anything you really want to see done with RSS/XML data, please feel free to comment here. I’m taking requests, and I will build a working Pipe for what you need, if it’s possible and reasonable. If there’s custom code needed, I’ll do what I can on the Pipe side and offer an algorithm for the rest of the code.

Be unique.

Differentiate yourself.

Stand out from the crowd.

Create a purple cow.

Don’t be like everyone else.

If you’ve been reading up on blogging tips for a while, you’ve probably heard at least one of the above sayings.

No matter how you say it being unique can help you succeed. More people are jumping on the internet and trying to make money online. The internet is get more and more crowded. Niches that used to have low competition are now saturated with many sites vying for the same eyeballs and dollars.

Also, getting people’s attention is will only get more difficult as webmasters get more savvy with marketing and monetization strategies. By being unique, you can avoid being unnoticed.

Yet many blogs are simply clones of the most popular blogs in their niche. Think of the many TMZ clones out there. How many bloggers are trying to copy John Chow or Darren Rowse? I’m not too familiar with the tech blogosphere, but I bet there are many Engadget clones.

Here is the huge problem with clones. Why would someone go to a clone blog over the popular blog? If I’m a tech fan, why would I go to an Engadget clone blog if I can go to Engadget. There’s no point in me going to clone blog if I can get the same information on Engadget.

Now that we’ve established the importance of being unique, here is a simple method to help you avoid being a copycat blogger.

Create A “Buck The Trends” List

It’s a simple two-step process.

First, think of the trends and practices in your niche. Then, consider ways you can do things differently from those trends and practices. Also, make sure your actions will add value to your niche.

I did this simple exercise for a new blog that I’m starting in a couple of days. It’s in a gaming niche. Here are four trends in my niche and the things I plan to do to make my blog different.

1. Lower The Post Length

Current Trend
The average post length is 2000 to 4000 words.

How I’ll Buck The Trend
Write shorter posts – around 300 to 700 words. With short posts, I can reach the casual gamers as well as the gamers with short attention spans.

2. Use Video To Cover Subtopics

Current Trend
Video is not widely used. I only know of two regularly updated video blogs. One is a variety show with mostly news and interviews but not much strategy tips. The other one is filled with screencasts of actual games. There are two formats, or ways to play the game. The second video blog only covers second format.

How I’ll Buck The Trend
Create at least two videos a month. By using video, I’ll stand out from most of the sites. Plus, my niche demographic visits YouTube often, so there is definitely an untapped audience. I’ll differentiate myself from the other video blogs by focusing on strategy tips rather than news and by producing screencasts with actual games from the first format instead of the second format.

3. Link Out Liberally

Current Trend
Links don’t flow freely at all. Most of the sites in my niche are old static sites. They are operating under the old assumption that you should not link to your competitors. However, it’s better to make your competitors your friends and share traffic by linking to each other. The blogs seem to be copying the old static sites by not linking out.

How I’ll Buck The Trend
Link out like a loose lemon. Linking out is a good tactic for many reasons. People can save time by just going to my blog to find out important information from other sites. Also, I’ll be able to network more effectively because I’m helping other webmasters.

4. Create And Market An Email Newsletter

Current Trend
There are only a few email newsletters. They are run by the ecommerce sites so they’re filled with product pitches. None of them are marketed well. For example, the newsletters don’t have prominent places on the main pages of the sites. They’re on the sidebar or footer with a bunch of other links.

How I’ll Buck The Trend
Build a list. Also, mention it in my blog posts and link to it on a prominent place on my static home page. I won’t be selling anything for a couple of months so my newsletter will not have product pitches for a while. A big email list is one of the best long term assets any online business can have. If someone gives you their email address, you’ve got their attention long term. You can inform and sell to them over and over again.

Your Turn

Ok, so you’ve seen my list of unique actions. Why don’t you do exercise to see if you really have a unique blog or just a clone? If you create a “Buck The Trends” list and post it on your blog, send me a private message (you have to be logged in; click here to register if you don’t have an account) and I’ll link to your list from this post.

Please write at least 300 words and make sure to have at least 3 trends and unique actions on your list.