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Everyone Should Try This Experiment At Least Once

In Deb’s recent article, she implores us to Never Underestimate the Power of a List. Her main point is that informative, thoughtful and well-done lists can draw a lot of attention to your blog.

I want to take her idea regarding “lists” a little further and suggest an experiment that everyone who is serious about becoming an authority blogger should try. Hard work? Sure. But hard work is necessary if you wanna play with the big boys. And to play with the big boys, you’ve gotta move away from fast-twitch blogging and towards long-term value blogging.

So here’s the suggestion:

Create a resource in your niche that you can feel proud about placing as an external link in Wikipedia.

That’s it. That’s all I’m asking you to do. Create something in your niche that is original, valuable, and which *deserves* to be linked from a Wikipedia resource in your niche. If possible, try to develop the resource so that it will still be relevant 5 years from now.

That’s your project for this week. Cut back on fast-twitch blogging. Stop reposting news that’s on about fifty other blogs. Spend two hours each day to develop a unique resource and within a week you might just have something great.

If the experiment works, then create a “Resource” section on your blog and plan to create at least one killer Wikipedia-worthy resource per month.

Never Underestimate the Power of a List

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.

Blogging Partnerships – Are You Ready?

Collaboration between bloggers is very important when it comes to building blog networks or maintaining large, content-rich sites such like Blog Herald and Performancing. Not only do you get the benefit of sharing the load of blogging, but you have two (or more) different social and blog networks within which to promote your joint venture, which can only help your blog’s promotion efforts.

For single blogs, partnering up with other bloggers (as long as you can resolve your differences, if any) can bring you plenty of benefits, especially if your skill sets differ.

For example, I’m involved in several blogs where my role is that of advisor and manager – I advise, help monetize and promote the blog and manage the design, while the other blogger does what they know best – write about what they love. As blogging partnerships go this arrangement is one of the best ones to have (most, if not all, blog networks work this way).

In one of the early posts on Performancing Chris Garrett wrote an excellent article on Co-blogging, which I highly recommend you read. In essence, the idea is that by sharing your blogging responsibilities, you take a lot of the pressure off you that goes with blogging by yourself.

The big question before you get into a blogging partnership, however, is whether you are ready for it or not.

Undoubtedly there needs to be a match between the team – the bloggers must be able to trust each other and respect the quality of their work – but above that there is a mindset issue, where most people are just not willing to give up control on their blogs.

Several bloggers I know are extremely passionate about their work and are quite good at what they do. However, they find it hard to ‘share’ their blog – even in the rare case when they allow others to write on their blog, that person never has editing access.

It sounds trivial but the mindset behind this is one of a fear of losing control, and having co-blogged on several blogs myself, I can assure you that it is a genuine fear. BUT, if you are working with the right people, if the roles are clearly defined and if the terms are fair and agreed upon from the start, there are rarely any problems that cannot be resolved.

Blogging Partnerships can help you scale your business, make your blog bigger and better and as a result, help you make more money.

The only question is whether you are willing to take the step forward and open up your mind to the possibility of sharing your blog.

If you are apprehensive, I’d advise that you break it down into smaller parts or projects and take them one at a time. Start with a small one to see how you both go, to see how you get along and to learn how to work with one another.

What do you think? How have your experiences with blogger collaboration worked out?

The Role of Money in Blogging

For a lot of people, blogging is more than just about the money. It’s about community and sharing and making a difference in peoples’ lives.

At the end of the day though, unless your bed is made of 100-dollar bills, money plays a key role in your blog’s existence.

In a previous post we’ve already talked about how you should know ‘your purpose / motivation’ for your blog before you start – however since financial considerations are always there or thereabouts whether you have a commercial venture or not, it’s crucial to understand the role money plays in your blog’s fortunes.

1. Don’t make your blog about the money

Focus your blog on people – your readers, on conversations, on building relationships, on sharing ideas and most of all, on positioning your blog at the center of the conversations in your niche (it’s a topic for a whole different discussion, but in short, talk about what matters to people in your niche now, not yesterday or tomorrow.

The money will come, as a direct outcome of your site being successful, as long as you monetize it properly.

If you are fretting about ‘making money’ from your blog then you might have things the other way around. After a certain point ‘optimizing your revenue streams’ stops improving the bottom line. You just have to make your site the most popular site in your niche (or close enough) – that’s when the big advertising dollars come in and that’s where you want to me.

Provide value to your readers and work hard at making your site popular – the money comes as a by-product.

2. If your blog makes money, treat it like a business

Lorelle preaches this in her book Blogging Tips and I assure you, this is as useful a principle to hold on to as it is simple and obvious.

For starters, you should learn the basics of making money through blogging – the different options available to you (advertising, affiliate products, direct sales) and how to evaluate what works best in a particular niche.

Then, you should master one form of revenue generation – let’s say contextual advertising – and once you optimized your blog to the hilt, it’s time to move on to the next revenue source. Optimize, then diversify.

3. Learn to pay yourself first

You need to be compensated for your time at the very least, and you deserve a good second income, so treat your blog seriously, as a business, even if it’s something you’re doing ‘on the side’.

4. More Money needs Business Growth, which needs a Scalable Business Model

A business cannot scale without more people and investment, and it certainly cannot expand if you don’t spend time working on its expansion.

In short, take your blog seriously, cover your bases and it will reward you handsomely in the future. If you take your eye off the ball in the start (or worse, right when you hit a purple patch), your blog will hog your time and not give you back the revenues you expect.

Blog less, Administrate more.

Blogging can be a drug and it’s hard to get yourself out of the cycle of blog, blog, blog when you’re the sole person managing everything on your blog from writing to design to promotion (which is why blogging partnerships, when done properly, rock). If you want to make money though, you’ll have to wean yourself off from your heavy blogging and take time out to promote and manage your design and revenue optimization. At the risk of repeating myself, outsource as much of your non-essential tasks as possible, whether to your readers (volunteers) or employees (paid).

Brainstorm, set goals, devise a plan and execute it.

It’s easy to say that you want to earn $3,000 per month from your blog by the end of the year, and it’s also easy to create a plan that ‘theoretically’ makes it work. What’s difficult is the execution, because that takes a lot of time, commitment and the need to reduce your blogging frequency.

This balance between the now (blogging and writing) and the future (promotion, monetization, managing assets and resources) is one that you’ll need to address constantly through the life of the blog. It gets easier when you can outsource the blogging, the promotion, and the design to someone else, but you still have to balance your time between writing and running your ‘business’.

To wrap things up, unless you are blogging for just for fun, you should make sure that your blog is geared to earn you money. However, at the end of the day, remember that money is a function of how well-known your site is, so focus on providing value to your readers and you will automatically make more money.

Am I just wasting my time?

Ryan’s Note: This is an important post, loaded with important, deep-level questions. We all need to take gut checks from time to time. And I for one have found myself asking the same questions and dealing with the same issues.

The question should be an obvious one. If I am to continue with my blog, it would need to be significantly reworked with a proportionate investment of my time and effort.

I pondered if this should be a question for the forum but I couldn’t think of an appropriate place. It also appeals to my sense of humour that my first post on my Performancing blog is one that questions whether I should be bothering at all.

I have been a casual reader of Performancing for well over a year now, largely via the main feed. I’m not a pro-blogger (actual or aspiring) but I have found many interesting tips here that have, at various times, improved my blog (to my eyes at least).

My problem is that my free time is becoming more and more of a rare commodity between working, being a father and husband and studying part-time. Researching subjects and writing used to be fun but it is now less so. Sometimes it even seems like a chore.

It started off as fun. I never aspired for greatness or huge traffic, which is a good thing because I’ve got neither. In just over a year I have a blog that only has 150+ posts, traffic that struggles to maintain double-digit visitors, no community (so few comments I wonder if having comments turned on makes a negative impression) and, according to feedburner, I have between 5 and 10 subscribers (although sometimes that spikes up to 30 for a day or two for no reason I can see).

The more news feeds I subscribe to, the less inspired I feel. There are so many good writers out there with better leads and information that can analyse and report on issues that interest me much better than I can. It’s depressing for a (very) small time blogger like myself.

I know there are many things wrong with my blog: standard Blogger template, too broad a focus, no linkbait, no time to market it or do the comment thing on other people’s blogs. I’m sure there is much, much more that could be dissected and analysed.

I thought about submitting for a reboot but I don’t think there’s enough to work with to make it worth anyone’s time. Therefore, I’m not looking for a reboot here. I’m just looking for honest opinions. Is there anything in my writing that would indicate that reworking and relaunching my blog would be worthwhile? Is there some sort of spark, something buried deep or am I just wasting my time? Should I just write it off as a fun experiment and let it go?

There are no ads so I’m not trying to drive traffic or increase revenue with this. I just need an opinion from people who do this sort of thing for a living.

Pixelated Dreams – http://www.pixelated-dreams.info/ – the current first page is an accurate reflection of the malaise that has struck me in recent weeks. There’s probably better stuff buried a bit further in but I no longer feel like I’m in a position to judge.

The Sitemeter stats are publically accessible so feel free to poke around through the sitemeter link at the bottom as well if you so desire.

All comments are welcome, positive or negative. If anyone does stop by to take a look and share a thought or two, your time is greatly appreciated.

Shane

Review of DEV3 Application Development Services

[Note: This is a paid review from ReviewMe. All attempts have been made to be constructive in the comments.] One of the problems I’ve found with blogging all week is that I never have a lot of time left over to develop all the “great” web application ideas floating around in my head. And that’s true despite my programming background.

I’ve considered outsourcing development, but for an experienced programmer like myself, it’s an alien idea. But there are firms like DEV3 who have experience in their offering of various development services. This includes website development, e-commerce solutions, custom web applications, database design and more.

Now while DEV3 does have a list of clients that include Fortune 500 companies, it’s not clear what custom web applications they’ve built, nor what coding platforms they use. So my advice to them is to list that. (Ruby on Rails, for example, is very hot right now for web apps, though I’d rather have PHP or Perl, for example, because I can get in there a tweak things if necessary.)

So if you use them, do remember to ask about their platforms. Whether you use DEV3 or some other partner, however, there are at least a few things you should expect of an application developer:

Is willing to provide proof of portfolio work.
Sticks to the agreed upon delivery schedule.
Manages to stay on budget.
Recommends a suitable development platform because it’s the best for your proejct, not because that’s the only one they know.
Understands what scalable application means.
Isn’t afraid to say that some feature or other cannot be done with in your budget.
Won’t steal your idea and use it themselves.
Is willing to do upgrades (for an additional cost, of course).
Supplies all final code.

Did I miss anything? Of course, you also have to do your part in being a good client:

Don’t have an expanding scope.
Don’t change your mind every other day.
Know and convey upfront what you need functionally, even in near-future versions.
Know and convey which features will be released in which phase.
Be willing to pay on time, as agreed in your contract.

Motivation and Blogging

It’s 2am in the morning, you’re tired and you can’t even look at your blog lest you find something else wrong with it. You give up and go to bed, only to find out that you can’t sleep because sleeping over it isn’t going to make things better – the problems will still be there tomorrow morning.

So you trudge back to your laptop and get down to work, except that you’re chatting on IM instead of working – and then someone tells you how cool your blog is, and it dawns on you: You have been too harsh on yourself and your blog, and instead of finding positive solutions and working on them, all you’ve been doing is focusing on what’s wrong and letting that eat you up inside.

Moral of the story: Whenever your blog or your blogging hits a dip (whether it’s a drop in motivation or traffic), don’t go Postal on your blog and everything that you’ve worked so hard to build up. Find out the reason why you’ve spent thousands of hours working on your blog, and why you got started in the first place. And then make sure you talk to the people who regularly read your blog and get their opinion on what they think of it.

Chances are, all you need is a supporting shoulder when you’re down, and nothing works better than your own readers telling you that your blog rocks and that you shouldn’t give up.

Thank you, dear reader 🙂

What do bloggers’ want in an ad nework?

Here’s a quick poll that I’d like everyone to fill out in the comments. Is that cool? Would you do just this one favor for me?

Ok. So Performancing is about helping bloggers succeed. Whatever that means, right? Well, for most of us, success amounts to a combination of factors including 1) building a community 2) having created something good 3) making money for our efforts

This poll is designed to help with 3 (which we hope you’ll use to leverage for 1) and 2) !!!

Three Questions:

Would you use an ad program that guaranteed a minimum monthly payout? If so, what would that minimum monthly payout have to be to catch your attention?
What’s most important to you: A) making more money from less ads B) being paired with highly relevant advertisers C) having a new way to make money that doesn’t overlap with your current ads?
Have you had any success with affiliate ads? Would you be interested in an affiliate program that guaranteed monthly payments?

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