Archive for » February, 2008 «

Photo Credit nukeit1′s photos
229766355_4ecd88e7de.jpgWords gets a lot of politicians in trouble, with some believing politicians are just blowing smoke.

Words are easy to say or write. The question becomes, do you stand behind your words? Do you walk your talk?

Whether you are in business or blogging, your words are a reflection of you.

Today’s Lesson

In the course of learning how to, and actually blogging, I have done tons of research, and read hundreds of thousands of words.

Search for one topic and you’ll get millions of hits.

Start reading the results, and you’ll get dozens of “opinions”.

My problem, with blogging, still remains, what can you believe?

For example:

Some big name bloggers will say, don’t monetize. Visit their blog, and it’s filled with ads

Some say, answer your comments. Read their comments, and the author rarely appears

Some say, write great content, Read their blogs, and some of their content is not so great.

Some say, get quality inbound links. Ask a big name blogger for one, but don’t hold your breath.

Some say, “sign up for my RSS feed”, but do you think they are signing up for yours? Probably not.

Some say, don’t worry about page rank. But when theirs takes a nose dive, hear them cry.

This is just a small sampling of what I’ve found.

So, what do you do?

Do what feels right for you. Stay true to yourself and to your readers.

It’s your blog, your home in cyberspace.

Just remember, the words you write should be words you stand behind. If not, you’ll soon be categorized as a blogger who’s just blowing smoke.

Today’s Assignment

Is what you write credible?

Do you tell your readers to do one thing, but your actions say the opposite?

Have you read blogs that “blog smoke”

Care to share?

Many bloggers are being careful not to monetize their blogs too soon. Why? Because a few big name bloggers said you should wait to monetize your blog until you build up a loyal readership. Yes, that makes sense. After all, we don’t want other bloggers to think we’re only in it for the money.But…are we only writing for other bloggers? Or are we writing for the masses?

Should we wait, and then when we have a big readership, totally change the look of our blog by adding some AdSense or a few banner ads? That doesn’t make sense. Our loyal readers may think they’re on the wrong site and leave.

I say, if you want to monetize your blog, do it from the beginning. Readers come to your site for the content. As long as the content isn’t overpowered by advertisements, I don’t see how they would be offended. Plus, they might click on an ad or two.

Emulate a favorite website, and monetize your blog from the beginning.

It is written, act like…..and become like…

Learn from those who came before you…

If a blogger wants to make a few coins, is that so wrong?

Photo Credit fdecomite’s photos
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Today’s Lesson

To prove this point, I went on some big name websites. Here’s what I found:

On Oprah’s website, she has ads on every page. including her home page. Click on a link, and there is a full banner ad on the top of the page, and a skyscraper ad (rotating ads) down the side. They actually don’t look bad.

NBC’s Today Show website, has two rectangular ads. One is a picture ad, the other is verbiage.

Fox News follows the same format with ads in their sidebar, as well as at the bottom of their home page.

The Washington Post website has ads

So does target=”_blank”CNBC The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch ,About.com, ,Lost the TV series, and CSI Miami, a CBS primetime series.

The Whitehouse website does not have ads, nor do other governmental websites I have visited. (Maybe they should)

On none of these sites am I “put off” by the ads. They blend in, and the ads do not take away from the content.

You may ask, why would these big name websites have ads? For the money, of course. Granted, some of websites are being paid big bucks to display these ads, but even with the AdSense ads, these webmasters know incorporating advertisements, will help to subsidize their website costs.

Should we be any different?

In this world of millions of people searching, and millions of searchers not knowing the difference between a website and a blog, do you think an ad will distract them. Apparently not. They’re seeing them where ever they go.

So, what are we waiting for?

Today’s Assignment

Do you monetize your blog, or are you waiting until you build up readership?

Do you have a problem when you see ads on other blogs?

Have you seen blogs that over do it with advertising?

Photo Credit iowa_spirit_walker’s photos
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Earlier I wrote about profanity in blogs, today, I’ll discuss language of another kind.

Today’s Lesson

Do you think visitors to your blog know what a “post” is? Unless your audience is other bloggers, chances are, you are confusing them.

Let’s look at a sentence that is commonly used.

“In tomorrow’s post, I will discuss this issue further”.

If I wasn’t a blogger, I would shake my head, and say “What ?!?” Then I would try to analyze what is meant by that statement, and assume I can maybe/possibly find more about this subject tomorrow. Unfortunately, others won’t have a clue, and won’t return tomorrow.

Blogging language has many words that are not typically understood by non-bloggers.

Plugins, addons, tags, HTML, CSS, theme, blogroll, bounce rate, SEO (search engine optimization), SERPs (search engine results pages), etc….

Using blogging language in a post that is intended to be read by non bloggers, will only confuse the reader.

Remember to consider you audience, and write in a language they will understand.

Today’s Assignment

Who are you writing for?

Would your audience understand blogging language?

Is it time to make some changes?

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