Archive for » January, 2010 «

31
Jan
Unveiling The Results Of My Facelift

Many people go under the knife to take years off of their face. Nips and tucks are made, injections are administered and when the bandages come off and the bruising goes down, years have been taken off of their looks and they appear to have gone back in time.

That’s kind of what has happened with my theme.

Today’s Lesson

As mentioned in the “Inquiring Minds Want To Know” post, when I started blogging, the birth of this blog’s name first appeared in written form, in my notebook.

Over the past three years, I’ve tried to replicate that “feeling” with a theme for this blog, however no theme I found suited me, so I stuck with a more generic look.

When I recently spotted this theme,  I knew this was “it”.

Hence, the process began, and after weeks of tweaking,  it’s time to unveil my new look.

Although many bloggers use premium themes, I’ve stuck with free ones I find online. Granted, links are often required to be left in the footer, but for the work the theme author has put into creating these works of art, I feel it’s a small price for their contribution to blogosphere.

As I was working behind the scenes on my new look, I wondered why bloggers choose the themes they do.

So, now it’s your turn,

Today’s Assigment

Why did you choose the theme you use for your blog?

Is it a free theme? Or did you buy it?

Either way, did you also customize it to fit your needs?

signature for blog post.

P.S. I still have a few more tweaks to make to this theme, however in the meantime, if you find any links that aren’t working or spot other problems, please let me know.

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Themes  118 Comments
27
Jan
Advantages of Guest Posting Outside Your Niche

Good Day, Class,

Although it’s been awhile since we had a substitute teacher (guest writer) here, today that’s changing.

Some of you may have heard of him. Some not.

Please join me in welcoming fellow blogger Bamboo Forest, from the fabulous blog, Pun Intended.

Bamboo has chosen a topic we haven’t discussed before; “guest posting”.

On that note, I’ll grab a seat and join you in listening to this great lesson.

The floor is yours, Bamboo.

Hello Class!

As you’re reading this you may recognize that I’m guest posting on a blog about blogging even though my blog is definitely not in this niche; it’s a blog about humor and inspiration.

Is it foolish to guest post on a blog outside of your niche, putting all your energy into drafting a post that will be published on a blog that covers a subject different from your own?

My answer is no and I’d even go a step further: There are definite advantages to guest posting outside of your niche.

For starters, our ideas are finite. Don’t get me wrong, there are some beasts who can churn out good posts like an overly enthusiastic factory worker. That being said, our ideas still reach a finite number. Further, not all our ideas are equal.

Today’s Lesson

Every time we guest post on a blog within our niche we’re giving away some of our finest ideas and some of our best posts. Once this is done, your loyal readers won’t see that material on your blog. So by posting outside of your niche you lose nothing and gain a great deal.

Another strategy to maintain great content for your blog, even while guest posting within your niche is to share material that simply wouldn’t fit well on your blog. In fact, I’ve done this. I’ve written personal development posts that though could pass on my blog, really fit better somewhere else. This is a great way to guest post within your niche while not really losing out for your blog.

The obvious criticism of guest posting outside of your niche is that people who click through to check your blog out are less likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

While I agree this is true to an extent, I don’t believe it’s enough of a factor to render guest posting outside of your niche a waste of time. Far from it.

For example, my blog is about humor and inspiration. Who among us doesn’t like to laugh and be inspired? Many interested in blogs about blogging will, nevertheless, find a blog on humor and inspiration to be a real winner and worthy of subscription–hopefully. Will you please prove my theory correct, you know you wanna. ;-)

Guest posting outside of your niche can create traffic, gain subscribers and raise your profile all while taking nothing away from your own posts on your own blog.

That’s quite the deal, no?

Today’s Assignment

Ever guest posted outside your niche?

What were the pros and cons?

Considering guest posting outside your niche?

Why or why not?

Bamboo Forest writes for Pun Intended, a blog that blends humor with inspiration. To ensure you never miss a good hearty laugh or a good dose of inspiration, subscribe here.

Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Increase Traffic, Posting  61 Comments
24
Jan
Numbers – A Love Hate Relationship

I love numbers.

In fact, my real job is all about numbers.

Whether I’m bidding a job, pulling measurements off of blue prints, balancing check registers, costing out jobs, billing customers, preparing payroll or compiling governmental reports, I’m surrounded by numbers.

I’m in my glory.

Today’s Lesson

When I started blogging, one of the first things I noticed was how numbers play such a big part in blogging.

With the ability to sign up for numerous statistical programs, we not only get to observe the growth of our blog, but we can also learn and improve our blogs based on the numbers.

Statistics can tell us:

  1. How many visitors we have each day/week/year
  2. How long someone stays on our site
  3. How many pages a visitor clicks on
  4. If our advertising campaigns are working and making us money
  5. The time of day our posts generate the most traffic
  6. How many subscribers our blog has
  7. How many visitors we get from different countries
  8. How many comments our blog posts generate
  9. How popular our blog is with Google (page rank)
  10. How many posts we’ve published
  11. How we’re doing in comparison to previous days or months
  12. The number of inbound links we have
  13. How many comments our spam filter has caught
  14. How we rate on Alexa
  15. Plus much more

As much numbers can be beneficial in our real lives and in blogging, they can also play havoc on our emotions.

Whether it’s the fact we gained a pound in real life or lost subscribers to our blog, numbers can easily make a good day bad.

Although I try not to over analyze nor let my blogging numbers affect my mood, when I check my stats, I can’t help but think I could do better.

What about you?

Today’s Assignment

If you look at any of your blogging numbers and they’re not meeting your expectations, what’s your first reaction?

How do you keep your blogging statistics in the proper perspective?

Care to share?

signature for blog post.

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Category: Archives, Blogging, Blogging Lessons, Stats  70 Comments
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