Idea

This post is part of a series of posts called Water Cooler Monday. Every Monday from here on out, I’ll be publishing thoughts and topics of discussion throughout the day. If you have a topic or post idea to discuss around the water cooler, be sure to get in contact with us.,

One day, as I was sitting outside in my chair enjoying the weather, I began to think about what success meant to me. Thoughts of what might be considered a success started to wander through my mind such as: Would my blog be a success if it reached the Digg front page? What if my blog receives double digit comments on every post? As I started to figure out what would qualify as a success, I began to realize that what I thought was a success could be seen as a failure in someone else’s eyes. Thus, there may be a definition for the word in the dictionary, but it’s true meaning is different for every blogger.

Photo taken by aloshbennett under the Creative Comments License 2.0

In my mind, until I can create a vibrant community around a blog whether it be my own or someone else’s, I will consider myself a failure. Only when I am making a living from blogging while maintaining an active community will I ever deem myself or the site a success. Those are my goals and anything less is considered a failure.

So here at the Performancing water cooler, tell us what you define as success.

Over the past few days, I’ve been busy Googling away, trying to figure out all of the various methods of migrating content from a Drupal installation into WordPress. The results are few and far between. I did find a MySQL script here and there to migrate bits and pieces of one version of Drupal to one version of WordPress but there are no tools available to make the process simple, manageable, or effective on the first try. I’ve looked all over the modules section of the Drupal website, along with the forums for help but I have come up empty. Drupal does not contain any way to export your data which makes me wonder why they prefer to have people locked into their open source software. When I say locked in, in this case I mean, not easily being able to leave their platform. This isn’t so much of a problem with WordPress.

Let me give you the summary of the problem in which you as a blogger must think about before publishing that first post. Performancing has been running on Drupal since 2005. This site contains thousands of registered users, thousands of comments, thousands of posts ect. At it’s current stage, Drupal no longer satisfies the needs of the site and the purpose along with the direction of the site has changed. Because of the enormous backlog of content, we have been facing a critical decision. Do we stay with Drupal, upgrade the software, redesign it and deal with it? Or, do we pay a freelancer or an established company to migrate the important data off of Drupal and into WordPress. This is a task which is by no means cheap. (I’ve come up with yet another idea but a little more research is warranted before I can claim that it’s doable.)

To bring things back full circle. If you are a beginning blogger, make sure that you plan ahead a year or so with whatever platform you decide to use. Before using that publishing system, check to see how portable your data is. Will you be able to easily take your data out of the publishing system and transfer it somewhere else? Check around on forums as well as the web to see how people have faired in transferring content from one platform to the one you are interested in using. Check to see if plugins, tools, or scripts are available to make the process easier. If none of these options are present, I highly suggest not using that software no matter how great it is. You don’t want to end up in a position where you are stuck, indefinitely with a publishing system.

Those of you who are established bloggers, (The ones who have been around the block a few times) have you come across these same crossroads? Perhaps you found yourself in a similar situation. If so, I’d love to hear your experience in how you solved the problem. Some bloggers start from scratch while others simply deal with the issues at hand until they have no choice but to do something about it.

Ever hear that saying, “The choices you make today help shape your tomorrow”. This rings true, even in the world of blogging.

Out of all of the blogs I read concerning tips for blogging, I’ve found at least one tip that is consistent among all of the others, and that is ‘abiding by a post schedule‘. The tip usually goes a little something like this:

Create a posting schedule and abide by it so your readers get a sense of consistency and they are not left wondering what’s next.

In this day in age, is a posting schedule really necessary? Sure, a posting schedule would let readers know when to expect something to be posted on the blog. But, with the advent of RSS, readers can be notified when you update your blog with new content, which means they will see it, whenever you decide to publish it. Unlike most other bloggers, I only seem to be able to blog and publish in the same session, rather than writing posts for future dates. I might have one post today, three tomorrow, none the next day and one the day after. But with RSS, people will always be up to date without having to constantly visit the website to look for new content.

I do have an argument in mind that one could use in relation to a posting schedule, but I’ll see if one of you bring it up first in the comments. So, with that being said, how many of you have actually created a posting schedule and then followed it to a T?

As a follow up, what would that posting schedule be? For example, do you publish a post once a day, once a week or once a month?

When a person visits your blog, they can be overwhelmed by the amount of content that is on display. It becomes even worse when you consider the fact that some blogs manage to push out several 500+ word posts on a daily basis. For all that content to end up on your homepage, it can just be far too much. The use of excerpts can be a simple and effective way to control information overload.

Truth be told, a simple reverse chronological order of the entire contents of a blog are just unappealing to me—who reads past the first page? I don’t have time for that. It is just more unnecessary effort required by the users.

This is why I believe that many of today’s blogs are going to—slowly but eventually—transition to magazine-/newspaper-like designs in the future. And why not? They look just as good and allow more links to content on your blog. It gives the blog an opportunity to display their best content while organizing it for the reader. The problem with the typical blog these days is that it is just content from all types of categories mashed into one linear listing, and if your blog covers a wide variety of subjects, you could imagine how much more complicated things can get for the reader.

Excerpts

Excerpts can be just as effective as full content listings, and if you can take the opportunity to display more content in the same amount of space (or even less) than you should do so. Your subscribers don’t really care (they end up directly on your content’s page anyways), and those that end up coming to your site via search engines are probably an impatient bunch too. Those that want to find the good stuff on your site in a glance can’t do so because they have to scroll down an endless amount of text and images to find something they like, and that is just a waste of time.

If you visit a site like Wired.com, you are presented with 20 stories in the same space it takes for one blog entry to be completely displayed on the typical blog. It is just too much to bother with reading. Who could argue with displaying more content? Granted, Wired has a pretty amazing site design, but it’s blogging component is the same as that of a magazine article; it can be done with WordPress as newer themes are developed for it.

A Worthy Change?

Now I don’t expect any of you to go out and transform your blog drastically, but I do believe that bloggers benefit from posting excerpts instead of full content on their website. It is a teaser, and it is a paragraph or two that convinces those users that they must read this article.

I also would love to point out the fact that by using excerpts you should be able to generate a significant amount of more views by people that visit your site directly, and that means more advertising opportunities. This is even more true with smaller blogs that are in dire need of views to make a few bucks.

Future Designs

I am certain that future designs will make further use of excerpted content—it is less overwhelming to a user who finds their way to your blog’s homepage. The more active your blog is, the easier it is for your other (and maybe even better) content to be lost in an endless glob of text.

Agree? Disagree? Do you use excerpts? Let everyone know! Keep the conversation going in the comments section.

Yesterday I talked about how bloggers should be more generous; how they should learn to give more instead of just asking for favors.

Before you can be all ‘giving’ though, you need to know exactly what you’re going to ‘give’. Doing favors blindly doesn’t make any practical sense – ideally you want to make a meaningful contribution to someone else’s life, and to figure out what matters to people in your social circle, you have to listen first.

As bloggers our job is to talk – we talk to our readers, we talk to advertisers, we talk to our employees, we talk smack with competitors – it’s pretty much a full-time talking job, blogging.

However, in all this talking we need to find the time to shut up and listen to the people around us – to learn what they want, to learn from their suggestions, criticisms and support, and to spot ideas in what they do and say. Listening to others (and more importantly, to the right people) gives you the kind of knowledge few people can hope to attain, and with that comes the ability to do make a genuine difference in your own life and that of others.

So who should you listen to? Here are a few ideas:

Your Readers: Blogging is about relationships (we keep saying this over and over again), and if you’re not in tune with what your readers want, you won’t be able to serve them properly and you will, sooner or later, end up loosing them.

This is a tricky place because there are many people who, on the surface, lead their audiences instead of their readers leading them. This is an illusion, I assure you. While the person may be headstrong, seemingly independent or just plain controversial, the reality is that bloggers are successful BECAUSE they provide what people want, and to know what they want you have to listen to them.

When it comes to listening to your readers, pull out all the stops. Do your keyword and niche research, monitor industry trends, read all comments, take onboard all suggestions and most of all, discuss issues in public and get input from your community. You don’t have to listen to them – you probably shouldn’t allow mob voting to make your decisions anyway – but taking their views onboard gives you a chance to listen to all sides and it also integrates readers more into the community.

Your Advertisers: The next time you have someone contact you to advertise on your blog, watch how they approach you, what they offer, how they continue negotiations, etc. Everything they say or do is a clue that can help you make more money from your site, so you’d better be listening.

One of the key things I’ve learned from listening to advertisers is to make as much information as possible available on the site in a prominent position so that advertisers can get a clue quickly (you’d be surprised at how many bloggers do their ‘advertise here’ pages wrong). Another thing I’ve learned is to reduce the number of options available to advertisers – too many options confuse them and reduce their chances of making a buying decision on the spot. Yet another thing I’ve learned is that while US based advertisers are comfortable working over email, UK based advertisers prefer using the phone (or Skype) before concluding a deal. It’s a minor detail (and possibly an inaccurate interpretation) but it’s an example of the hundreds of little things you can learn about advertising, about what your blog is doing right / wrong, about your niche, etc.

Your Employees: If you’ve hired people to work for you, pay attention to their suggestions and more importantly give them the right nurturing environment to grow and network for themselves. It boils down to the principle of giving – the more you help the people that work for you, the better it will be for you in the long run.

Yes, there will be some people who will only look to take advantage of you. Weed these characters out in the beginning and move forward.

Your writers, your designer / programmer / marketer – anyone you hire could be the source of the next idea that could double your blog’s income. Underestimate the benefits at your own peril.

Your Competition: In a competitive environment the players find different ways to gain an edge on their peers. As an observer, you can learn a lot by simply examining what makes your competitors successful and adapting that to your benefit.

90% of your competition is too proud, too lazy or just too anal to learn from listening. Be the 10% that break the mold and observe their environment. Combined with what we talked about yesterday in ‘Going for Broke’, intelligent observations (or just listening) can be your ticket to blogging success.

Network with your competition, as much as possible. The relationships you build here will be invaluable in the long run.

Your Mentors: Your mentor may be someone you turn to for guidance in times of need, or it may be someone whose work you follow regularly or a one-on-one relationship with someone who is guiding you in your business. You may have one mentor or several, you may change mentors or stick with one person for a long time.

Whatever your case, listen from your mentor(s), learn and for the love of whatever you believe in, apply it in your life.

Takeaway: Schedule some time out today to listen to your readers, to the people around you. Schedule some time in your daily routine to just listen, observe and learn.

Bottom line – in a career where it’s mostly one-way traffic, it pays to take a break from time to time and let the traffic flow the other way for a change.

List posts are an awesome way to generate buzz and drive traffic to your blog. Most blog readers appreciate lists more than traditional text. They’re easy to read and contain small bits of information per item, allowing us to take in some quick knowledge before moving on to the next entry. Most web readers scan rather than get involved in a full fledged read and lists are great for shorter attention spans. I’m also learning most people find list posts to be fun, and very link worthy.

Case in Point: Thursday I wrote a post for Simply Thrifty called 100 Things You Can Make Yourself. For the first time ever, a Simply Thrifty post received more than a few Diggs – almost 50 at last count. It was also picked up by Lifehacker, The Consumerist and several dozen other blogs, the traffic surge was huge. (It’s also one of my most copied posts, many a lazy blogger are taking credit for the piece.) This has been the case with my last few list posts as well, though they didn’t receive the thousands and thousands of visits and page views this last list received.

I submit that almost every blog out there is worthy of a few lists. I don’t care how narrow your topic, even if you can’t think of something off the top of your head, you have lists. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• List posts don’t have to have hundreds of items. They can have 3 items, a dozen or even a thousand. It doesn’t matter as long as they make sense.
• You don’t have to say much in a list post, unless you feel the need to explain. My above-mentioned post contained a link for each item rather than a full-fledged explanation.
• Lists are a great way to get over blogger’s block. As mentioned above, you don’t have to blog much about each specific item.
• After you post your list, be prepared to defend it. There are always people who will debate certain points of your list or wonder why you didn’t include a specific item.<.li>

Lists can be a lot of work. A lot of work. The lists I wrote for Simply Thrifty took a couple of hours each to compile. You don’t have to spend as much time on your lists, but be prepared for lots of work if you’re creating something elaborate.

If you’re just starting out (and even if you’re not) and want to create some buzz, try a list post. If you have a really good list, Stumble it, Digg it and send it to places like Lifehacker. You’ll be amazed at the power of the list.

As funny as it seems, one of my poorly performing sites was getting a click-through rate of less than 1% so I asked myself “ok, what’s not working right on this site.”

Clearly, the font size was too small. So I upped the font size from size 10 to 14 and whamo, my CTR is hovering between 2-3% – still not great, but much better than before.

Sure the difference could be related to content, or something else, but the only noticeable change I’ve made is to font size. And the CTR spike happened almost immediately.

My recommendation: if you have a poor CTR, ask yourself what’s distracting your readers from taking the ads seriously. In my case, it was a simple matter of helping them not have to squint at the content!

For a long time now, I’ve championed the idea that the single most important key to success on the web is persistence. I think that a large majority of the “players” who try out the pro blogging scene want to see instant results and when they don’t, they give up.

Take for example my friend who works from home as a spiritual counselor and Yoga instructor. I offered to set him up with a blog, to handle design and promotion, and to split profits 50/50. He was excited.

I told him several times that you should not expect any major results for at least 3 months. I emphasized that perseverance would be needed at the beginning; that he’d need to stare the “great abyss of trickling traffic” directly in the face for a while, and not give up. I told him that the real payoff comes from establishing yourself as an expert over the long term.

One month into posting, he stopped, cold turkey. He didn’t have the motivation to persist.

I still think that persistence and perseverance are the key obstacles to online success. I also think that the need for these qualities provides greater opportunity for those who have them, because not just anyone can succeed at this game. It takes work and it takes long term vision. Success does not come overnight.

So I’m really big on the persistence thing and how the people who are thinking 3 years down the road have an advantage because most people on the web seem to be thinking 3 months down the road. Someone needs cash quickly? Awesome. I can get a great deal on a blog sale.

Yet, I’m now starting to realize that persistence needs to be selective. You also need to know when to give something up. As a friend once said to me “You’re not a quitter if you stop digging a hole to China.” In other words, some things just aren’t worth doing anymore. The trick is figuring out what to stick with and what to give up.

So what do you think? How does the new blogger figure out when its time to give up? What sort of feedback (from visitors, income levels, etc.) should a blogger be looking towards. How long should a blogger wait before doing an honest assessment of the state of his blogs?