Blogging

How to Explain Blogging to the Old Folks

Last week, my mother’s two old aunts came over for lunch. The elder of them was so old; she walks by shuffling her feet forward like a Chinese granny with lotus feet and the younger of them lost all her teeth about a decade ago. I was in the middle of blogging when they arrived so I didn’t get to welcome them. I was summoned by my mother when it was time for lunch and I had to go through the perfunctory greetings between relatives — you know how it goes. My mom told them I was working as a writer and Lotus-feet Granny smiled widely and detailed about her stint as a journalist (way before World War II). She asked me what subjects I write and for what newspaper I was working for. I shared a look with my mother in knowledge that it will be a hard-time trying to explain blogging to my ancient grannies.

I stuttered a little and tried to think of a way to analogize blogging with something they could understand. And believe me; it took me more than just a couple of minutes to explain. When I told them I mainly work through the Internet, they both ogled at me in disbelief and proclaimed that the Internet is “evil” and it’s the “demon incarnate.” I almost choked on my fried chicken.

So, how do you explain blogging to the old folks who don’t have a clue? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Granny, It’s Sort of a Diary, Only More Modern

I think this is the easiest way to try and give them a visualization of what blogging is. I also started with this explanation for my mom who, unfortunately, used to be just as clueless about technology like my grannies. So, I told them it’s pretty much like a journal, except it’s accessible by anyone and everyone around the world. I saw my grannies gasp in unison and then they asked me why the hell I would want my journal read by pretty the much the rest of the world. When your oldies ask you the same question, tell them…

2. Granny, I Meet Friends From Around the World Because of It

Tell them blogging introduced you to many people from around the world who share the same interest. It might be hard explaining that not all blogs are akin to personal journals, but unless you’re willing to spend the next X number of hours explaining, then you better stick to the basics. My grannies, however, didn’t look pleased when I told them I met quite a number of people through blogging. In fact, they look scandalized. They think I ought not to associate myself with strangers from the Internet. Why in the world, they ask, would I want to meet people from other countries when I can make friends with people from my own? Well, since all else failed, I told them…

3. Granny, It Earns Me Money

This one got them. Just imagine their surprise when I told them that one could earn money off the Internet! I do think I went too fast. Thinking about it, I shouldn’t have introduced them to blogging and told them it’s a possible way to earn money all on the same day. Perhaps I should have just left the money part for latter visits. However, I was out of any more explanations and changing the subject won’t do any good since both grannies were onto me like vultures are onto carrion. So, out of explanations, I told them this…

4. Granny, Blogging is a New Media Pretty Much like a Magazine

I don’t think my grannies really understood what I meant. But I told them that it’s comparable to a magazine, only, of course, different. I told them that it’s the media for the new generation and that it’s fun. And the conversation ended with that. Though how much they really got from everything I’ve said — I have no idea.

Not all oldies, however, are tech-illiterate. I know someone who’s almost seventy who still writes fan fiction for the internet. If you, however, have old folks who don’t understand what you do, try the tips above to explain — but only if they ask. If not, then save yourself the headache.

If you’re just considering starting your own blog, you may be wondering which of the many blog services will offer the best blogging platform for your needs. If you’re new to blogging, are on a budget and/or are not tech-savvy, I recommend Blogger as the best blog platform for beginners. Here’s why:

It’s free, with no strings attached.

TypePad has some great features, but you’ll pay for them. Their most basic level starts at $4.95 per month (after a 14 day free trial). WordPress.com is free, until you want to do things like include Adsense ads or display your blog on your own domain name. Blogger is completely free.

It’s easy to use, even if you’re a tech-dummy.

Blogger, in my experience, has always been the best blog platform for the tech-challenged. However, their new version makes customizing templates and rearranging widgets easier than ever before. Their XML templates allow for dragging and dropping of widgets, which means you don’t have to know HTML (even a little bit) to make your blog look the way you want it.

You can show up in search results faster.

Because Blogger is now owned by Google, you’ll have a powerful spider on your side. In general, when you start a new website or blog it can take weeks for the search engines to crawl the site, which means you won’t appear in search engine results for a while. My Blogger-powered blogs have all shown up in search results the same day I post my first post. I have one client whose Blogger-powered blog ranks higher than his own website. I have another client whose newly created Blogger-powered blog out-ranked her already popular MySpace blog in less than a week. There is power in having Google on your side.

There are plenty of free templates available.

If you don’t like the classic templates offered by Blogger, you can choose a more attractive template fairly easily. There are many tech-savvy folks online who spend a lot of time creating new Blogger templates and/or converting free templates from other platforms to work for Blogger. If you want to browse your choices for more attractive Blogger-compatible templates, I recommend the layouts at FinalSense, Isnaini and GeckoFly. For more recommendations, check out the Top 5 Free Blogger Templates listing at About Weblogs. You can also Google “free blogger templates” and browse the results.

Of course, there are also some disadvantages of using Blogger, like not being able to file your posts in traditional categories and the inability to “drip” your posts to show up on future dates. For a new blogger on a budget, though, I wholeheartedly believe the advantages of Blogger outweigh the drawbacks. Especially if you’re as tech-challenged as I am, I don’t think you’ll regret giving Blogger a try. If you’re really worried about the decision, you might want to open free accounts both with Blogger.com and WordPress.com. Play around a little bit on both and decide for yourself which is the best blogging platform for you.

Whether you’re a new or seasoned blogger, I’d love to know your experience. Which platform did you use for your first blog? Any advantages or disadvantages? Which do you feel is the best blog platform for new bloggers?

Darren Rowse has an excellent video post where he talks about what kept him from quitting on one of his blogs. He started this new blog and had been blogging for a couple of months. He was discouraged because his income was low. He was only making a couple dollars a day.

However, he kept blogging because whenever he looked at the trend of his monthly earnings, he saw that he was experiencing at least 30% growth. So even though he was only making a couple dollars day, compared to the previous months he had increased his daily earnings by a big percentage.

He didn’t give his exact earnings, so let’s look at a hypothetical example to make things clearer. Let’s say after the first 30 days of blogging you make $1.00 a day. Then, the next month you make $2.00 a day. When you compare both months, you actually gained 100%. While $2.00 a day is not something to brag about, you’re doing well because your trending up.

Let’s look at a long term example. If you make $1.00 day in one month and you have 30% growth every month, in just two years, you’ll make over $400 a day. Not bad for two years work, right? $400 daily is $12,000 a month.

Here is a table the shows the power of exponential growth.

Darren advises that you should focus on your trends rather than your absolute income numbers. Is your income growing by a good percentage every month? If so, you’re on the right track.

To experience blogging success, write with the long term in mind. Don’t be discouraged with the low income of the early days. Give yourself time to succeed. If you have a good string of percentage growth for a couple months, keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t give up. In due time, exponential growth will flex its muscles and you’ll be making a much greater monthly income.

Further Reading

• Making A Long-Term Commitment To Blogging… Don’t Break The Chain
• Blogging Success is About The Long Haul
• For your blog to be successful you need to stick with it.
• Blogging for the Future

Mindmaps are known to stimulate both logical and creative sides of the brain. Use of them is often referred as radiant thinking, and they represent clusters of nodes connected by lines. I’ve been using mindmaps on and off since the late 1970s, after first encountering Tony Buzan‘s book – he who coined and trademarked the term “mind map”. I’ve used them for entrepreneurial activities, freelancing, software development, project management and writing – especially for blog posts.

Approach

If you’ve never come across mindmaps before, you may want to check out my mindmapping video tutorials over at Tubetorial. If you are familiar with mindmaps but have never used them to develop blog post ideas (or articles in general), take note of how I use them:

1. Record a list of undeveloped ideas. For example, blog post titles that come to mind.
2. Add subtopic nodes to general idea nodes when you think of them.
3. Accumulate sentence fragments attached to subtopic nodes as they come to mind.
4. Add URL references attached to map nodes so that you can click on them and view web pages in a browser.
5. Explore variations in article discussion flow by recording differing viewpoints. If one “speaks” to you more strongly, go with that.

Premise

Approaching blogging in this manner allows you to get a broader view of a topic. Mindmapping software lets you collapse and exapand nodes on a click, letting you see as much or as little detail as you want.

Regular use of mindmaps always sparks creativity in me, especially when combined with a supplementary writing technique such as freewriting – though I freewrite without printing anything.

As I’ve said elsewhere in the past, I have repeatedly woken up some mornings “seeing” an article in my mind. I’ll first accumulate my ideas for one ore more articles in a mindmap, search for some references, browse them, record the URL in a map node. And if I’ve done the proper preliminary activities, the article just might write itself while I sleep, or if I leave it to brew in my mind for a few hours during the day.

Example Mindmap

You can see a sample below of the mindmap that I used to develop this article. It’s not exactly the same, and it’s a bit more developed than most such maps. Normally, I’d use a bit more point form. I also applied hyperlinks differently.

If you’re interested in reading more about mindmaps, I am working on an article series for another blog about how to use them for productivity. The series is aimed at net professionals (aka web workers), and I’ll announce it here with a sample article.

Mindmapping Tools

My favorite mindmapping tool is Mindjet‘s MindManager Pro (desktop), which has a free 21 day trial. If you like mindmapping but do not want to spend $299 on MindManager, there’s Freemind ($0) for the desktop and Bubbl.us, Mindomo, Mindmeister and Comapping for the web – which have free licenses as well as monthly subscriptions. There are of course many more mindmapping applications, though not free. Following MindManager Pro as a close 2nd and 3rd favorite for the desktop are MindApp and ConceptDraw Mindmap.

I’ve been into professional blogging for the past two and a half years, and I’ve been through most “stages” of problogging, including being a corporate blogger, a network blogger and an independent problogger trying to earn my own income online through advertising and affiliate programmes. I know I haven’t exactly been earning riches from my blogging, but I do get a decent living–at least to my standards. However, I’ve been regularly reading blogs by the “Gurus” in problogging (you probably know who they are), and of course the very useful tips here on Performancing, and I thought I could probably earn more if I’m able to better optimize my blogging. Maybe if I followed certain formulas in my blogging work and business I can earn better.

Checking out bloggingtothebank.com, the site at first came to me as one of those standard get-rich quick schemes carried out via affiliate marketing. The home page starts with a promise that one can earn up to $34,244 per month from just a few hours’ work. Well, it’s not really a promise, but an example that author Rob Benwell makes of himself. He says that even “one dumb little blog can earn over $3,947 per month.”

So I thought maybe it’s worth checking out. There’s no harm in trying to learn more about my trade, and probably even earning more than I already am. Actually that’s the most difficult part of working any job or running any business–trying to unlearn and re-learn stuff with the hope of being better at what you do.

I did go on to reading more, and eventually downloading a copy of the Blogging to the Bank 2.0 ebook. I’ve actually read about “BTTB” before, and this one is a revised version, supposedly updated with more lessons and tips from Rob. I did realize that the point behind the ebook is that the author is sharing a success story, and would like to share his “formula” for that success in making money from blogging, so that other bloggers might follow suit.

I can’t exactly provide quotes and snippets of the ebook here, since that would be against the ebook’s copyright. But I will summarize some salient points that Rob Benwell’s ebook makes. Somehow, I think all this information is available online through various blogs (including Performancing, even), but the value added of Blogging to the Bank 2.0 is that it has these tips in one handy, convenient ebook. And Rob provides concrete examples.

BTTB 2.0 shares five “Blogging Commandments” and advises bloggers on how to conceptualize and run their blogs. In summary, BTTB 2.0 says a blog should be of good quality, and should add value to its readers. A blog should also be fresh (i.e., regularly and frequently updated) and well-marketed. BTTB 2.0 further advises against running those spammy blogs that I find quite common these days (those blogs that scrape content off other, legitimate sites, and even attempt to trackback with links from other blogs).

Then BTTB 2.0 shares a step-by-step “blueprint” for creating highly profitable niche blogs. This blueprint includes doing keyword research right, and how to use these with affiliate programmes. The blueprint also explains why it’s better for you to own your own blog, and even gives a few tips on where to host your blog (especially if you’re allergic to getting deep into server and database settings to install software). BTTB 2.0 recommends WordPress and gives some tips on WP Plugins that can be useful in optimizing one’s blog for profit.

As for content, BTTB 2.0 recommends various ways of generating good quality posts for your blogs, which include writing them yourself, outsourcing or free article directories. And then there are tips in optimizing one’s blogs in terms of search engine optimization (SEO), design and marketing. Some tips include submission to directories, social bookmarkers and even forums. The tips in BTTB 2.0 include both basic and advanced. For instance, the SEO tips can be your usual keyword optimization to “latent semantic indexing,” a concept that the book tries to explain in layman’s terms.

Lastly, bloggers can earn from the ebook itself, with the Blogging to the Bank affiliate programme which is done throught ClickBank.

I would think that BTTB 2.0 mostly targets beginning bloggers–those who would like to get into blogging as an occupation or business. As I earlier mentioned, many of the tips in BTTB 2.0 are available on various blogs about blogging (including Performancing itself!), the value added being a convenient summary and explanation contained in a single handy ebook. As for more experienced bloggers, the book lets one review and rethink their problogging activities, whether these are optimized and productive enough. The Blogging to the Bank 2.0 ebook’s intro disclaimer itself says that success from the use of the tips and information is solely in the hands of the reader. So it’s up to us readers how to act and how to use the tips effectively.

The above is a sponsored review requested for Blogging to the Bank 2.0.

We’ve already established that bloggers need SEO, and that it’s not PageRank or some other silly metric that you should be running after, it’s search referral volume.

Here’s a plug-n-play strategy for attracting (and profiting from) search engine traffic to your blog:

1. Build a website that is trusted by the search engines in that niche.

   You need links from authoritative blogs in your niche, deep links from authoritative blogs from other niches, quality directory links (dmoz, botw, yahoo plus 3-5 top niche directories). In addition, if you’re smart with your blogging, you can linkbait the hell out of your niche in your quest to build trust into your blog.

2. Track popular trends / news in your niche.

   This isn’t hard to do if you have a pulse on the latest news in your niche. Find upcoming events, breaking news, seasonal trends, etc, and prepare for them in advance. If you’re covering a news-related niche, this becomes very easy, otherwise you need to work hard on cracking the search tail in your niche.

3. Be one of the first to write an article on fresh trends and news (thus focusing on 3-5 word phrases) – and taking advantage of Google’s super-fast indexing, you can be on in the top 5 results for queries within 24 hours.

   Easier said than done, but in most cases the best edge you can find is to be first with the news.

4. Convert that traffic by giving them an incentive to return to your blog / bookmark it.

   With news items, you can improve your chances of attracting comments, links or rss subscriptions. With resource sites, you can work on rss subs and social media votes.

5. Alternatively, you could monetize this traffic using CPM ads, AdSense or any affiliate program.

Of course, this isn’t completely plug-n-play – you’ll have to adapt your methods for each niche and type of site (‘news’ sites will work differently from ‘resource’ sites, which in turn will work differently from ‘community’ sites). However, if you want to dominate the SERPS for your niche AND you think you should milk Google for what it’s worth while building a strong, independent brand, then this is the first step.

Are you suffering from that syndrome called copycat blogging, where you’re just regurgitating what other bloggers in your niche have already been saying? Note that there’s nothing wrong with discussing the same topics, but unless you’re adding something to the conversation, you’re just “polluting” the blogosphere with redundant content. I’ve done my share of this, but am actively trying not to. How do you get around this?

Copycat blogging is sometimes the result of not knowing what you really want to blog about, or even worse, knowing but denying yourself.

If instead you could present topics with some cohesiveness, you have a motivation for taking the time to produce better content. By scheduling themes or topics for specific weeks or even days, you can give your blog more structure – even if it’s just subtle and you only loosely follow your schedule.

This is what an editorial calendar can do for you. What is an editorial calendar? For print publications, it’s the actual schedule that writers, editors, ad sales personnel and even advertisers follow. Each upcoming edition is mapped out themewise, and content and advertising will reflect this. Because most print magazines will have a year’s worth of content scheduled – a necessity since personnel will often be working 3-4 months ahead – it makes planning much easier.

Unfortunately for blogs, it’s a little harder to schedule articles for given dates because they don’t work on a periodic basis. While there are a few websites that openly state that they’re “weekly”, they’re of course the exception, not the norm. Blogs in general are expected to be spontaneous.

Nevertheless, you can use some semblance of an editorial calendar and gain a number of benefits:

1. Schedule for article series.
2. Have a loose schedule for any future evergreen content, and a framework for topics.
3. Have a basis for “theme weeks”, so that you can still write spontaneous “news” content that integrates nicely with feature articles themes/ topics.

You don’t have to follow a blog editorial calendar to the tee. However, if you ever have a day where you don’t know what to write about, check that calendar. Use it as a backup for ideas, if you feel it’s too restrictive.

On the other hand, an editorial calendar can serve as a great reminder to you to cover seasonal topics – which you should write about weeks before an event or holiday, to give yourself a better chance of ranking in search engines.

If you want to know more about how editorial calendars can be used for a blog, see my article Better Websites: Use an Editorial Calendar for Better Articles.

Before I start this post, I have to make a disclaimer. If you want a blogging job, the best way to get the job is to have your own blog.

But what if you don’t have your own blog?

That’s the situation I was in a couple months ago. I wanted to get into freelance blogging. However, I didn’t have the discipline and patience to create and keep up my own blog. Instead, I did these things to get hired as a freelance blogger for two blogs.

Get Published Online

I wrote a couple articles for Performancing and Associated Content. Also, I wrote a short 7 page report that I gave away to my SEO clients. I showed these things to blog owners who were looking for freelance bloggers.

By getting published on reputable sites, you show blog owners that other webmasters like your content.

Know Your Stuff

I wanted to freelance blog for SEO and internet marketing blogs, because those are the niches I was passionate about. Also, I was knowledgeable about those niches. I’ve spent about 2 years reading many of the popular SEO and internet marketing blogs.

To get a blogging job, you need to know your niche well. Blog owners want to hire experts in their niche, so make sure and learn all you can about the niche.

I see too many people trying to get blogging jobs. However, they don’t have enough experience and knowledge about the niche.

When I applied to write for Net Business Blog, the blog owner asked each of the applicants to write a 200-400 word post. He wanted to see how his readers would react to the posts. Instead of writing a short post, I spent some time writing an informative 1100 word post. This post helped me get the job because it showed the blog owner and his readers that I knew what I was talking about.

Conclusion

If you want to get into problogging, but don’t have a blog, you could still get blogging jobs by getting published on reputable sites and demonstrating your knowledge and expertise.

Three months ago, I used these two principles to get these two problogging jobs.

1. Smart SEO Blog
I wrote for this blog during July and August. I quit because I was offered a more lucrative job with another company.

2. Net Business Blog
I still write for this blog. I was hired in July.

Note: Because of my posts from these two blogs, I was recently hired to write for Sea Waves and Eaton Web.