Writing

Those of you who have been blogging for a while have learned a thing or two about the visual aspects of blog writing. Then there’s the issue of picking the right “voice” to write in. New bloggers, on the other hand, may not have learned this yet – even when they’ve already written for print.

The problem, it appears, is that as online readers, we seem to have less patience for reading large amounts of text, especially if it’s hard to read. That covers a few aspects, including wording, grammar, sentence structure and visual density. Here are a few suggestions to get past these problems.

1. Watch the run-on sentences. Unless you’re describing dense subjects or explaining processes, long sentences are not welcome on a blog. I have a tough time describing a run-on sentence in print, but they seem so common in the blogosphere that I wonder if English teachers stopped teaching sentence structure in high school.

   I don’t want to get into a discussion about sentence fragments and such. That’s not my style or forte. If you suspect you have a run-on sentence, read it aloud. If you can’t do so without taking many breaths, you might have a run-on sentence. Then ask a friend with better grammar skills than yourself. Most blog visitors will not tell you.

2. Use visual variety. No one is going to stick around and read your blog if your paragraphs are 20 or 30 sentences long. Online text does not lend itself well to speed reading because most of it is sans serif. Unfortunately, serif fonts do not look very inviting on a computer screen. My eyes go buggy reading screens of text every day, and gigantic paragraphs don’t help.

   Make your writing visually inviting by using a variety paragraph lengths, line breaks and bullet lists. Add <h2>, <h3>, etc., headings and embolden or italicize keywords. If you use bullet lists and say “here are five reasons,” then you better number your bullets. If you don’t mention a count, plain unnumbered bullets are fine.

3. Write accessibly.
   Your level of language may be at the post-graduate level, but this is generally not a good idea for most blogs. Be inviting. Don’t force your average reader to check a dictionary every few seconds. Unless that’s what your blog is about.
4. Write cohesively.
   This is especially important for very long posts. It’s easy to meander, topically. The best way to approach a post you feel is going to be long is to start with an outline, even with a mindmap. Expand from there. Because you start with cohesion (an outline or a mindmap), you will very likely end with cohesion.
5. Use varying post lengths.
   If you post more than once per day, vary the word count of posts. Three to five giant articles daily isn’t going to gain you a lot of subscribers, unless you are providing must-have information not available elsewhere. Especially if you’re violating some of the above rules.
6. Edit ruthlessly.
   If you’ve only started writing as a blogger, and never in print, you very likely don’t even understand the editing process. If you want your writing to have impact, to reach people, edit yourself. Go back over what you wrote. Does it say what you really want it to say? Do you have variety in your sentence lengths?

   Edit both short and long posts. It’s not easy when you’re rushed for time, and I’m as guilty as anyone, but it’s a must, long-term, if you want to gain credibility for your writing.

7. Set it aside.
   We all make mistakes in our writing, but what separates the good writers from the bad is that the former revise their work from time to time. This is the reason I prefer not to post something on the same day that I wrote it. When time permits, I’ll write my next day’s posts today, or at least wait a few hours before posting.

I don’t want to give the impression that I have 100% perfect English grammar because I don’t. (I also sometimes like to violate some grammar rules for impact because that’s my fiction/ storytelling style and it’s creeped into my non-fiction writing.) Having grown up speaking in multiple languages, I find that grammar from other languages will sometimes assert itself on my English writing, no matter how hard I try. But for that very reason, I’ve always made a concerted effort to edit my writing, in hopes of improving it. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t semi-illiterate bloggers doing very well, however. So ultimately, you’ll have to decide how important the above suggestions are to you.

May 2007 is behind us and the time has come to payout for our pMetrics referrals and front page articles. We were excited to see that several pMetrics affiliates got to our payout levels in just the first full month of the program! Great job. Keep the great work.

Until we come up with a better tracking system, I’m going to request that all members who had articles promoted to the front page in May send me an invoice via private message. Please include 1) article title and 2) article link in the private message.

Thanks again, and I hope that we get to pay even more of our members next month!

When I bought my 5th blog a few years ago, it became clear that I could no longer write and manage all my blogs on my own. Running a single blog well takes a lot of work (writing, promotion, ad management, etc). But running multiple blogs *well*, on your own, is borderline impossible.

The fact is that to run a good network of successful blogs, you’ve really got to work with other people. But finding the right people to work with isn’t nearly as easy as it seems. Below I list the qualities that I look for in online partners:

1. Timely and Reliable (your blog can’t sit around for weeks, unattended)
2. Long term commitment (you can’t be in the business of finding new writers every month)
3. Capable and Productive (lots of people will show interest, but it’s the rare person who can actually make it happen)
4. Passionate and Invested (find people who know their stuff, love their stuff, and enjoy telling other people about their stuff)

So that’s what I look for. But how do I find people who meet these criteria? Well, there’s really no panacea, but there are a few things you can do to find the best fit for your needs.

If you’re looking to get a blog started, and care more about the first three items on the list (as well as cost-effectiveness) then I’ve found no better solution than WordContent. They are eerily precise with the timing and reliability of their posting (reliability is priceless in the online world). And they are always there, ready to work when you call on them. The only thing you are really missing with WordContent is number 4 on the list. My strategy has been to use WordContent to build about 50 blog posts, and then to turn the blog over to someone with a genuine interest in the topic.

Here I should put in the disclaimer that WordContent is owned by Splashpress Media, the same owners of Performancing. However, I should also note that I was happily using WordContent long before I had any other relationship with Splashpress whatsoever. Right now, WordContent is putting the basic infrastructure in place for my latest Poker Blog.

So based on experience, I find that you are best off going for reliability and consistency at the beginning when you’re just starting up a blog. But pretty soon (3-6 months), you’ll want to find a real expert to take over your blog. How do you find a real expert whose still reliable and consistent? That’s a problem I struggled with for months until I hit up on the ultimate solution.

This is what you do. Post an ad on Craigslist describing the blogging position and the terms, along with a request that applicants email you with a simple cover letter explaining why they should get the position. I usually get about 30-50 applicants per Craigslist posting. You might also consider posting your position in the Performancing Blogger jobs forum.

Once you’ve gotten your 30-50 applicants who actually took the time to write a cover letter, email them back with a link to a 5-10 question application form carefully designed to weed out the half-hearted and the posers (see the link above for an example).

Of the 30-50 initial inquiries, you’ll probably get about 60% of them to fill out the application. But this is good because it filters out the lazy people from your applicant pool. Read through the applications and sort them into three folders: 1) definitely not 2) maybe and 3) definitely.

If you’re lucky, you’ll only have 5 or so applicants in the “definitely” folder. If that’s the case, you can move on to the next step. If not, you need to identify about 5 “finalists.”

This is where things get fun. With the five finalists, you offer them each $25 to participate in a one week competition where they each get to post “live” on the blog. This lets you get to see them actually doing the job, and proves to be invaluable in selecting your blogger. I’ve run this competition about 5 times now, and without fail, each time, there’s one blogger who sticks out from the rest.

I know that it seems like a long, convoluted process, but in the end, I’ve found that it’s the best way to find a blogger who’s dedicated and passionate while bringing a level of expertise and personality to the blog.

Text Link Ads have been on my mind ever since The Link Nazi made it public that Google would be cracking down on sold links.

Many individual bloggers make the majority of their income from Text Link Ads. But I want to talk about another virtue of Text Link Ads: they can generate the revenue that publishers need to hire better writers.

If you’re like me and you own a large number of blogs and websites, then you also know all about the economy of content creation. For those of you who don’t know, let me educate you.

The fact of the matter is that search engines have yet to create the algorithm that can distinguish keyword rich crap from literary greatness. Since AdSense has been the main driver of content monetization, and since traffic is the key AdSense monetization, website owners have often resorted to buying lots of keyword loaded crap in preference to a few high-quality articles written by professional writers.

For $100 you can buy 1 or 2 excellent 500-1000 word articles or for $100 you can buy about 30 pieces of just legible English written by not quite fluent non-English speakers (not to offend any of our not quite fluent non-English readers). That’s just a fact and the explosion of crap content on the web is directly attributable to the economy that Google AdSense has created. It is Google’s monster. There’s no doubt about it.

Enter Text Link Ads. The TLA economy doesn’t directly depend on traffic, and so doesn’t depend on squeezing pennies out of the long tail. There is far more pressure from AdSense to create lots of crap content then from TLA. In fact, I’d argue that TLA creates an environment in which owners of blog networks, or multiple sites are freed up to migrate from content churning to actually being proud of the content they commission.

In my own case this is certainly true. TLA has finally gotten me to a place where I have the luxury of paying a premium for the content I commission. Rather than pursuing bulk content, I’m pursuing quality content. Worshiping the long-tail, in the name of almighty AdSense is no longer a priority. Creating good literary content is.

Because of TLA I now feel like a legitimate publisher, whereas before I had to wash my hands of AdSense blood each night before I went to sleep (well, not really, but you get the point).

Hello everybody. I’m Phillip, Performancing.com’s new resident writer. I have been a Performancing user for nearly a year now, so when I was approached to regularly write blog posts for the site, I couldn’t have been a happier man.

I’ve been blogging for more than two years now, and problogging for nearly a year. Needless to say, I love blogging, and being able to earn something from it inspires me to further hone the art (yes, it’s an art, not merely a trade!).

Hopefully, my experiences in blogging and writing in general will be of help to fellow bloggers, especially those who are just starting to dip their toes into the water. The water might feel frigid at first, but trust me, once you’re wading neck-deep in it (neck-deep in a backlog of blog posts and hopefully volumes of traffic, that is!), it will be far from frigid.

You’ll see more of my posts in the coming days, but for now, let me leave you with a pseudo-appetizer — some of the pseudo-rules I observe in blogging.

• Blog content is king. Words are king. Oft-mentioned to the point of being cliché, but sometimes forgotten by bloggers. I’m guilty of that, too; several times I fell into the trap of spending too much time on blog layout, ad placements, traffic generation, and the like while forgetting about the content.
• Blogging is not just about earning money. You can go into blogging with dollar signs imprinted on your eyes, but don’t feel disheartened when the dreams don’t turn into reality. There are other things you can get from blogging. More on this in a future post.
• While words are the pillars of blogs, don’t forget the images. Think of your blogs as magazines rather than academic publications. Heck, the latter even have diagrams to break the text.

Are you planning on writing some lengthier articles/ blog posts than you’re used to, such as flagship content, link bait, or viral /strategic content? A large writing project can be daunting, and many good writers get intimidated. One thing that my 30 years of computer programming taught me is that you can pretty much write any program if you (1) know the tools and (2) know the functionality you want to achieve, then using a technique called “top-down design”.

What is Top-Down Design?

Top-down design was a buzzphrase in coding circles during the 80s and early 90s. It amounts to breaking a large project down into manageable bites, all the while giving you the feeling that you’re in control and that the project is achievable. Using that technique, I could write up to a thousand lines of code in a day or three, including editing/ testing. You can apply a similar methodology for writing larger blog articles, tutorial series, e-books, etc.

1. Scope out your project.
   Break it down into stages: know your goal, produce an outline (for bigger projects) and task list, do your research, etc.

2. Know your writing goals.
   What are you planning to say? Start with a bullet point list or mindmap of topics you’d like to cover in the article. Go with what you are comfortable. Sometimes I use mindmaps, sometimes bullet lists, or both. It depends on what “feels” right for a particular project. Similarly, I sometimes use paper and sometimes I type my objectives.

3. Have a task list.
   Don’t think this is important? Something small will be forgotten, if you’re a busy blogger. You’ll want to utilize your fave search engine. I typically use Google and Technorati (blog-specific sources). I’ve also been putting together a few custom Yahoo Pipes (tutorials to come).

4. Build an outline and pad it out.
   Here is where the real top-down design begins. You want to maintain the feeling of knowing where you are at each stage. I’ve adapted principles from my coding experience:
   1. Write a preliminary outline of your article.
   2. Add section headings and apply whatever HTML formatting you want (h2, h3, bold/ strong).
   3. In each section, create a bullet list of subtopics.

   This all gives a feeling of partial completeness. You’ll have a better feeling of what you’re trying to accomplish.

How Do You Use It?

There you go. You’re done. Well, sort of. But go through those steps. Don’t you feel like you accomplished something? I’ll emphasize that you cannot have done this on paper. The point is to progress towards your end goal (a finished, formatted web article) in stages.

You now have the start of your article. All you have to do is fill in the blanks 🙂

1. Start writing by filling in sections or bullet lists wherever you can.
2. Research what you don’t know and refine the article.
3. Rinse and repeat until you have a rough draft.
4. Add hyperlinks externally and into your archives. (Some bloggers prefer to do this as they write, others like to wait. Do what’s comfortable.)
5. Edit for content (grammar, spelling) and length.

That’s it. Follow this methodology and you can tackle big writing projects. Obviously, I’m leaving bits out, but I’d like to hear from other bloggers who have written large posts/ series/ linkbait. How do you go about completing a big writing project?

It’s pretty much well documented that I am a Microsoft fan. I owe a substantial portion of my career to their software. Got to say though I had mixed feelings about them developing a blogging tool. More and more of Microsoft is getting a clue about blogging but that doesn’t necessarily mean they get bloggers quite yet. Also for obvious reasons, we are known in part for our own (brilliant) blogging tool.

My expectations going in were that it would be

• slick
• easy to install
• huge
• filled with proprietary “stuff”, from markup to interpretation of feeds
• possibly slow

Well it is easy to install, not particularly huge (5mb?) though on a slow connection you might not agree. Standards aren’t stretched so as I would notice, someone with more XHTML knowledge will have to correct me if I am way off mark here. Seemed fairly nippy on my machine, nothing too taxing. The experience overall is quite familiar to Office users which I am sure was the intent.

It’s not politically correct but I don’t care that they don’t support Macs. I really don’t get the whining about that. Microsoft isn’t a charity, they don’t have to support a platform if they don’t want to, especially one that takes away custom from their own products. They don’t support Linux, Beos, Amiga, Vic20 or my toaster either funnily enough.

PFF has established a basic feature list now that any blogging tool has to have, natively or through extension. Even with the ever-growing list of features our users keep coming back with some great ideas for new ones. It is not enough now to release a tool that only has wysiwyg blogging capability, it needs to do a fair amount more. This package meets those criteria without getting carried away. The only feature I have found so far that had me shaking my head was the ability to add maps – a niche feature I imagine!

Installation consists of downloading and running the install package, it sets up an icon in your programs list and you are ready for business. I already have more blogs than I know what to do with so I elected to setup the program with one of my test blogs. The good news is the detection process works smoothly, even my Drupal test blog, unfortunately not to the extent of being able to retrieve my categories or loading my old posts.

Image handling is particularly nicely done, allowing alignment, resizing, drag and drop insert and upload using the newMediaObject API. If your blog doesn’t support image uploads you can also add FTP accounts. Wierd thing is, although it did upload my picture it added a link rather than an img tag – strange! I’m not sure if that is down to my blog or the software.

The important consideration is would I swap PFF for this? Unsurprisingly the answer is no, but not out of bias; I find the ability to blog the current page too valuable, I like having my blog editing right in my browser. Until Microsoft integrates their new tool with IE (which I am sure they have thought about) I will keep using Firefox and Performancing for my posting needs.