Look out, Big Apple. Search Engine Strategies is coming to town. As always, Bruce Clay, Inc. will be there with blue shirts and plenty of knowledge to share. We’ve got a bunch of ways to do that this year.

First up, on Monday, start the conference off right with SEO training. It’s an all-day class taught by Bruce and you get to take home a copy of the book I spent a year of my life on, SEO for Dummies All in One. Bring it with you to the rest of the conference and I’ll force my broken crippled hand to scribble something trite in it.

At the conference itself, you can visit our booth (#1217) or you can catch one of Bruce’s three speaking opportunities. I’m thinking the White Hat, Black Hat: Unconferenced session at the bar is going to be unmissable.

As for me? I’m liveblogging this time around and you’ll find my schedule below. Use it wisely to plan treats, bribes and icepacks for my hands.

So, to recap…

Training:

Mon. March 22 Search Engine Optimization Training

Bruce will be speaking at:

Tues. March 23, 4:00 – 4:20 p.m.: Theater Presentation in the Americas Hall 1 exhibit hall – “What to Look For in an SEO Vendor”

Wed. March 24, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.: SEO Super Tools

Wed. March 24, 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.: White Hat Black Hat: Unconferenced (This is a first-time, unique session, taking place in a bar.)

We’ll be in booth #1217 in the exhibit hall.

And I’ll be here:

Day 1: Tuesday, March 23

Day 2: Wednesday, March 24

Day 3: Thursday, March 25

SES New York 2010 Liveblog Coverage was originally published on BruceClay.com, an SEO tools provider.

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SES New York 2010 Liveblog Coverage

guest post by Kelly Diels

warning: there are lessons and even actionable advice in here, but it is buried inside a story. I write stories because I love you and don’t want to bore you and because if you laugh then chances are that you’ll remember the educational bit, too. There’s actual research that this works – it is not just because I am in love with bloviation but hey, tomato tahmahto.

I have big love for tech. You could not pry my dishwasher out of my house without bloodshed and death, most likely yours. And the internet? Don’t even get me started. I want to french-kiss the web. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s my job or at least my blog’s mission statement.

Still, I’m more of install (or pay someone to install) and hope-it-works kind of gal. I want the fuss without the muss.

And I have this theory about tech: some key pieces of hardware and software make a huge difference and everything after that amounts to tweaks and hacks. But the good tech, like a great love, (initially) inspires awe, affection, and respect and make your life much better on a daily basis. You think: how did I ever live without you, front-loading washer? We wasted so much time.

And then, after the infatuation fades, you get on with your happily functioning and newly-enhanced life and start taking your love, machines, shockingly-white-whites and programs for granted.

I like it like that. I like low-maintenance relationships (don’t tell anyone) and I LOVE that electricity just works and I don’t have to think about it. I like finding the right things, that work, and let them do that in the background. Nearly invisible function is hawt.

WordPress is one of those key pieces of tech that made a big difference in my life. It is like a long distance lover. I don’t quite understand it and I should probably spend more time with it but damn I like it a lot. It does me right, mostly virtually.

Actually, let’s be honest: I LOVE WORDPRESS. My blog is my boyfriend. I adore it. I spend all my time with it. Because of all the fabulous people who love me up in the comments, my blog sates my unabashed lust for attention – which, in turn, has started saving me from terrible IRL relationship decisions.

(Wordpress is saving the world from needy girlfriends. Someone call the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.)

So the thought of someone getting their sweaty, malicious hands on my boyfriend blog and doing dirty things to it makes me nauseous.

It happened to a friend of mine, Kelly Livesay. One of her blogs was hacked and posts and theme modifications deleted.  It happened to journalist Helen Mosher. If you Google her name, the first search result is now “Cheap Viagra Online”. This is not – perhaps obviously – what she intended for her blog. It happened to Robert Scoble, who lost two months of blog posts and gained a very serious sense of personal violation.

And that sense of violation is exactly the prompt for this post: the movie The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo completely FREAKED ME OUT (capitalization absolutely appropriate and required).

Do you know The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? It is the first of a trilogy of books by Swedish author Stieg Larsson who completed this epic series and then promptly dropped dead. It is a gripping book and it almost killed me, too. I read it in five hours.

And then I got my hot little hands on the movie. Lisbeth, the main character and dragon-wearer, is one tough chick. You don’t want to mess with her. She’ll hack you.

Because that’s what she does. Lisbeth is a freakishly talented hacker. She works as an investigator and conducts her investigations from the convenience of her laptop. She gets into your computer and reads your naughty e-mails, your work memos, your sexts, your bank statements, your browsing history, and then uses that information as she sees fit, for her clients, or herself.

And if you’re on her side – I mean, who doesn’t want her to catch the lady-killing villain? (the villain) – then you’re with her, all the way, as she uses her scary powers for good.

So: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Wrenching read, haunting movie. Great entertainment, especially if you’re looking for a new reason to become deeply paranoid about all the ways people can screw with you online.

Robert Scoble’s not kidding when he says that he feels his virtual house was burgled. Thanks to this paranoid movie, I now feel his paranoia pain and I’m deeply worried about my boyfriend blog.

Still, I don’t  understand the point of hacking blogs, so I asked my friend Dave Doolin (Website In A Weekend), who knows Serious Stuff about WordPress, code, programming and How Things Work.

Kelly Diels: What’s the point of hacking a blog? Why would someone want to break into a blog and make it say BUY VIAGRA! instead of just building a sex blog to sell Viagra?

Dave Doolin: Honestly, I’m not really sure, but I’ll hazard a guess: it’s cheaper to spray spam by the trillions than it is to create your own site and work at building traffic. It costs next to nothing to hire people to send a e-mails, so even a really tiny conversion rate generates profit.

Kelly Diels: So how do we keep hackers out of our blogs? On your site, you recommend that bloggers change “Admin” to something specific and then delete the Admin user, so I did that, and Amanda Farough told me to make a unwieldy, ridiculous password that is actually a sentence with random capitalization and characters.

Dave Doolin: Yeah, those two things are a good start. You do want a long, complicated password. The other thing that everyone should do is read the WordPress Development Blog and Other WordPress News. They’re both in your dashboard, and they’ll keep you up to date on the latest hacks and security threats.

(I studiously ignore those two boxes in my WordPress dashboard but now, as of right this minute, I’m going to pay attention.)

And, now that I’m paying attention, I checked in once again with Amanda Farough, who is my designer/developer/chief-cupcake-sharer/coder-extraordinaire. She takes care of my site, because, as I mentioned, I like my tech to work but I’m not really inclined to make it work myself.

Kelly Diels: So, Amanda, what are we doing to keep my site secure? And by “we”, I mean you. What advice do you have for bloggers to keep their blogs on the unhacked side?

Amanda: Here’s my security short list:

1. Change your .htcaccess to protect your database name and password by adding the following line of code: deny from all. In the event of someone hacking your blog, they won’t be able to determine where your tables are, protecting you from losing everything.
2. WP-DB-Backup is your new best friend. Get it emailed to you once a week or, if you’re really paranoid, once a day (note: Dave Doolin said we should do it once a day and I heart paranoia. That’s totally where I’m living right now. Thanks, Dragon Tattoo conspiracy). Don’t trust your server or your email server. Save copies of the database to your local drive as soon as you get the email. That way, you’ve got two copies: one on your email server and the other on your local drive.
3. Update Wordpress every single time you’re prompted to. These releases are the blogger’s equivalent to driver updates: they fix holes in security, functionality, and usability. If you’re running 2.8 when we’re on 2.9.2, then run that update. You’ll be glad you did.

And that – according to my friends in the know, because trust me, I didn’t know – is the short story of how to keep your blog safe and out of the sweaty, dragon-tattooed hands of malicious hackers itching to delete your hot copy and sell us sex aids in your name.

WordPress Security Summary:

• Get rid of your Admin user account
• have a long, complicated password
• keep up to date on WordPress tips and news by reading WordPress
  Development Blog and Other WordPress News
• BACK IT UP, baby
• Protect your database name and password
• UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

 __________________________

Join the Dragon Tattoo Blog HUNT - an internet wide scavenger hunt tied to the feature film launch of bestselling book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Win great prizes – free movie tickets, books, movie soundtrack, posters and more. To join the contest, start at the beginning of the HUNT by visiting www.dragontattoofilm.com/contest for full details and the first clue. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is in theaters near you starting March 19th.
THE NEXT CLUE:

This site explores everything Apple, but don’t tell Steve Jobs because this weblog is officially unofficial.

Kelly Diels writes for ProBlogger every week. She’s also a wildly hireable freelance writer and the creator of Cleavage, a blog about three things we all want more of: sex, money and meaning.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Blog Security: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Scares Me Into Taking It Seriously.

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Blog Security: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Scares Me Into Taking It Seriously.

If you’re like the majority of writers out there, you’re a self-doubting bundle of neuroses, determined to believe that your writing will never be good enough.

That’s the life of the tortured, misunderstood writer, right?

What’s that? You think you’re pretty good at writing and actually like some of your own work?

Don’t worry, it’s just a blip. With these 5 tips you’ll soon be joining the rest of the writing community in feeling crappy about your ability and so-called “talent.”

1. Make sure that it’s never finished

You don’t really think that piece of writing is done, do you? Come on, there’s always room to finesse something and you know full well that in a couple of days you’ll think of something new to add.

It might take a year to get it finished, but hey, it’s always good to get it absolutely perfect before showing it to the world. Best to keep it on the “unfinished” pile for now.

2. Ignore any past success

If you’ve been lucky enough to get something published, online or offline, it’s probably just a case of being in the right place at the right time. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you wrote something good, that you tapped into a rich, provocative subject, or that your words struck a chord.

Sometimes writers get lucky. The chance of it happening again is about the same as seeing Ernest Borgnine win “So You Think You Can Dance.” Nope, it’s back to square one for you.

3. Recognize that the idea you had isn’t good enough

You know that idea that came to you, the one you’re pretty excited about? You might have already started writing, fuelled by a burst of enthusiasm and a spurt of passion for what you’re saying.

Hang on though — just because you think it’s a good idea doesn’t make it a good idea. Who are you to say what other people will be interested in or what’s relevant to them?

One way to improve your “great” idea is to make sure you have every angle covered and to apply a generous wash of generalism over it to make sure it has as wide an appeal as possible.

Even better, just leave it on your “Possible Ideas” list.

4. Never trust your own voice

All of your writing comes from your own head and your own experience.

And let’s face facts, that means that anything you write is probably as far off-target as penguin pie at a Greenpeace picnic.

It’s good practice to doubt what you say and how you say it. That’s what all the really good writers do.

Constant self-doubt makes sure that you’re always on edge and, most important, that you never make any mistakes or write something strange or different.

5. Give up when you feel like it

Writing’s hard. You probably already knew that. Sometimes it’s incredibly frustrating, painful and awkward to get those darn words out onto the page, and while some people say that’s part of the process and it passes, feel free to take it as a sign to give up.

Not everything you write will work and you can’t be expected to keep sweating when it gets tough.

Always remember that you started writing for the joy of it, not because it’s hard. You’re a writer, not a wrestler, so the sooner you stop grappling with that sweaty, slippery and stubborn piece of writing the sooner you can go and write something easier.

What’s that you say?

Of course, I suppose it’s possible that you don’t want to feel crappy about your writing. If that’s the case, I guess you could try doing the reverse of these five pieces of advice.

Then again, that would probably never work. Forget I mentioned it.

About the Author: As a leading confidence coach with clients right around the world, Steve Errey has a reputation for talking sense and getting results. Get more from him at The Confidence Guy.

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5 Guaranteed Ways to Hate Your Own Writing

guest post by Kelly Diels

I have been blogging for almost ten months. I quit my job – a really, really good job – last week. Today, I made $10,600.

In one day.

(Okay, not really in one day, but today I collected two cheques for writing projects that I secured because the clients saw my pieces at ProBlogger and hired me. True story.)

How did I use my blog to launch a business?

1. I didn’t know anything about blogging except that I wanted to do it, so I googled “how to blog” and landed on ProBlogger. Thank goodness. So I learned how to blog on ProBlogger. I literally started with a piece from the archives about what to include in your first post.
2. I started reading the blogs of people who were commenting at ProBlogger. I wrote a couple of adoring e-mails. Josh Hanagarne might know what I’m talking about. He’s easily flattered.
3. Then, as I gained confidence – in part because I read the trial-and-error stories of other bloggers, here –  I started guest posting on ProBlogger. I sent Darren Rowse a whole whack of wacky pieces.
4. Darren said, and I quote very loosely because I’m pretty sure he used proper grammar, hey I like your stuff, wanna write weekly?
5. I said, umm, let me think about it. (Don’t believe that ostentatious lie. I didn’t say that. Instead, I said  ”YES!!!!” and I launched (unbeknownst to him) into The Happy Shimmy wherein one drops it like it is lukewarm. And my awkward-girl-dance still looked better than this one. Maybe. Probably not. Shout out to bloggers: that’s a challenge. Let’s see your dance moves.)
6. My blog traffic exploded. I didn’t mind this, at all.
7. People started asking me to write for them. They’re even paying me. Lots.
8. I have true, passionate friends – other bloggers – who are part of my heart, now, in real life (such a thing actually exists) whom I met because of ProBlogger (see #2). Either I saw their piece and stalked them until they relented and befriended me, or vice versa.
9. A white hot meta-entrepreneur, and one of the people I admire most in this world, asked me to co-author a book with her.
10. Yes, I am TOTALLY FREAKING OUT. ProBlogger, lots of love, some dancing and a little effort (ok, a LOT of effort) changed my life.

My quit-my-job-in-ten-months lessons:

• when you’re figuring it out, the guidelines and tips and case studies at ProBlogger and other how-to-blog sites make the blogging world less intimidating
• find your voice and write good stuff
• be yourself. There’s no competition for that.
• make friends
• try lots of different techniques to promote your blog. As soon as you figure one out, keep doing that, and add another. (Did you read Jade Craven’s post about landing pages? Or Josh Hanagarne’s advice abouttricking his friends having a contest to get people to buy advertising? These are live-action case studies and that’s just useful.)
• investigate – and try – lots of different models for making money: ads, products, affiliate deals, offline work.
• play nice
• prepare to be tired. Very tired. You may as well cut off your cable, now, because TV is no longer part of your daily regime. Unless you’re a TV blogger. In which case you’re just screwed.

So yep, I’ve got big love for ProBlogger (though my cable company may have other opinions) because what I learned here empowered me. I don’t mean that in just a fluffy, feel-good, girl-power kind of way; I mean, I have money in my hand. I mean, I now write for a living.  In just ten months, ProBlogger helped me change my life.

And I’m pretty sure that Darren Rowse would have offered me the weekly gig even if I hadn’t written this piece as bait.

I’m just kidding. Really. He made me the offer two months ago and unlike some people (me), he’s immune to flattery. Don’t even try it. Call me instead.

Better yet, let’s dance.

___________________________

Kelly Diels writes for ProBlogger every week. She’s also a wildly hireable freelance writer and the creator of Cleavage, a blog about three things we all want more of: sex, money and meaning.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How ProBlogger Changed My Life and I’m Not Saying That Just To Suck Up.

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How ProBlogger Changed My Life and I’m Not Saying That Just To Suck Up.

Hang around web writing circles for any length of time, and the inevitable “write for search engines or write for people” debate comes up. It’s a bit strange, really.

Last time I checked, it’s people who use search engines, not some other life form. So you’re always writing for people.

Obviously, the debate stems from the fact that search engines are powered by computer algorithms. But as search engines have gotten smarter, writing that pleases people and satisfies spiders is not that far apart, if at all.

Let’s look at four factors that work well for SEO and see how well they cater to the needs of people.

1. Compelling Content

As we saw in Does SEO Copywriting Still Matter?, link attraction is the biggest aspect of today’s practice of search engine optimization. Google looks at the links pointing at your domain, and those pointing at particular pages, as votes of legitimacy. Taking it a step further, Google also takes into account the words people use when linking to you (anchor text) as a trusted signal of keyword relevance.

While it’s still possible to buy links (just don’t get caught), there’s no way to “trick” someone into linking to you. People link because there’s something in it for them in some way, and because something about your content compels them to do it. The smartest SEOs create content that’s remarkable because it’s valuable, controversial, funny, opinionated, engaging, enlightened, etc.

Because Google has tons of information thanks to AdWords, AdSense, Analytics, Google Reader, Tool Bar and Website Optimizer, some see search algorithms moving away from links and more to site usage data (how people actually interact with content). Whether that’s the case or not, content that people find compelling will continue to constitute the biggest factor in search engine optimization.

• Good for SEO? – Check
• Good for People? – Check

2. Content landing pages

One smart strategy for content marketing and anyone building an authority site is to create valuable content resources related to the most important topics you discuss. I call this cornerstone content, because it’s the fundamental information your site is built on.

An example of this on Copyblogger is Copywriting 101. You’ll notice that instead of a single post, I did a 10-part tutorial series and aggregated it on what’s known as a content landing page that’s clearly focused on the keyword “copywriting.”

This is a strong SEO strategy because I’m aggregating a bunch of content on one search optimized page. This directs the majority of links to that page instead of the individual parts, allows for easy cross-linking in future content, and prompts social bookmarking and sharing due to the scope of the resource.

But the real reason it works is because it’s people friendly. Given the usual scattered backward chronological nature of a blog, the page is highly usable and useful as a resource for people new to copywriting.

• Good for SEO? – Check
• Good for People? – Check

3. Speaking the language of the audience

Whether Google ever moves to usage data over links remains to be seen. But one song remains the same – Google must match up what a page is about with what people are searching for. Which means your words must match up with the way the people you hope to reach most like to talk about it.

Keyword research and the use of keyword phrases within content is the one area where some web writers and bloggers seem to push back, and I’ve never understood it. Anyone who’s not interested in understanding and mirroring the language used by their intended audience is simply not interested in being an effective communicator, search engine traffic or not.

As I’ve said, telling search engines that what you’re talking about is the same as what people are looking for is what SEO really is. But even if search engines didn’t deliver traffic at all, the ability to know and mirror the language of the audience is an amazing gift we’ve been given thanks to search data. Why not use it when people respond well to it?

• Good for SEO? – Check
• Good for People? – Check

4. Enhanced readability

What? Good SEO makes content more readable? Surely I’ve lost it on this one.

It’s true. When you implement the whole range of SEO best practices, you rank well with exceptionally reader-friendly content (and that’s why it got links in the first place). Keyword stuffing is not what Google wants. And neither do people.

Let me make a confession. I used this new WordPress search optimization service to evaluate the content landing pages that matter most to me, and I was shocked by what I discovered.

I had gone a tad overboard with my keyword frequency. Not by much, but a tad. That’s right, Mister “write-for-people-first” had not been getting it completely right.

I’m not embarrassed to admit that mistake if it helps you. So there.

When you approach SEO copywriting in a logical, informed fashion, your content isn’t keyword stuffed. It’s natural, and compelling, and artful.

• Good for SEO? – Check
• Good for People? – Check

What’s that?

You want to know more about that WordPress SEO service I used?

Apparently, I can’t slip anything by you.

Well, I’ll be talking about that new service very soon. Of course, Internet Marketing for Smart People subscribers will find out first, which is what we’ve always promised.

Stay tuned.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Unglued Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

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Does Writing for People Work for SEO?

A Guest Post by David Turnbull of Adventures of a Barefoot Geek

After the initial excitement of launching a new blog fades most bloggers are a few steps away from being overwhelmed with the pressure of blogging to the point that they quit, losing the momentum they were building up and all the progress they’d made. This is an unfortunately common occurence.

Writing. Guest posting. Commenting. Responding to emails. Continuous learning. It’s a lot to take in and if you’re not adequately prepared to face challenges as they appear there’s a likelihood that one day you’ll choose not to publish another post and then you’re back to square one.

Recently, just a fornight ago in fact I became conscious of these feelings as my most recent blog was reaching the 6 month mark. I’d surpassed all the goals I’d set for myself but there was stilll that worry of being locked into my work instead of having control over it. I have no problem with hard work, but when it hits the point of dominating my life I prefer to step back and ask myself “How can I make this easier on myself?”

And that’s what I really want to share in this article. This is not about escaping the work of blogging (because I do honestly enjoy it, just not when it causes imbalance in my life) but to relieve yourself of the constant worry and uncertainty that blogging entails.

Set smaller goals

I’m an advocate of thinking big in most areas of life. If you’re dedicated and disciplined then ambition can often fuel creativity and drive. But blogging is different. There are so many interwoven components to blogging that a big goal often becomes an aimless goal, and an aimless goal is as bad as no goal.

Writing is the most important task for a blogger, so let’s use that as an example. One common belief held by many writers is that you should sit down in the morning at 9am and then not move until 5pm. The idea is that this forces you to write. Do this for 3 days in a row and you’ll lose whatever passion for blogging you ever had. The alternative is much more attractive.

When you sit down to write tell yourself this magical phrase: I’ll be satisified when I’ve written X words. Replace X with the smallest amount of words you can be realistically satisfied with. Once you’ve made this decision and are no longer constricted by outrageous word counts or time frames there’s no anxiety as you work and I expect you’ll find yourself greatly surpassing the “satisfactory metrics” you set for yourself.

Clarify and simplify

What do you want to get out of blogging? Answer that question at least once a month for as long as you own or write for a blog. I imagine most people will respond “to make money” and that’s fine, but there has to be a motivation higher than that, because blogging isn’t exactly the most effective approach to generating an income.

Once you understand with crystal clear clarity why you’re blogging you can eliminate a ton of the garbage that leads to blogging-based stress.

When I first started blogging I had the “make money” goal lodged in my brain, but over the past few weeks I’ve had a shift in my thinking, in that what I truly love is writing and making exciting (and sometimes weird) changes in my life. After I had clarified this I realized that my actions were inconsistent with what I wanted. Instead of writing I was spending most of my time leaving comments on blogs, posting in forums, and using other standard blog promotion tactics. Most of this was unfullfilling.

Now my approach to writing and building a readership is far simpler. These days I do 2 things:

• Write (for my own blog and guest posts such as this).
• Care (responding to tweets, emails, blog comments etc).

This has been enormous, so don’t underestimate it. Clarify exactly what you want out of blogging and shape your actions to accomodate for that. Sure, if I were to leave 20+ comments on blogs per day, or become an active member in lots of communities my readership would probably climb faster. But at the same time the very essence of what I love about blogging would be lost, and that’d be setting myself up for eventual failure. Classic example of short term sacrifice (a small boost in traffic) for long term gain (endless fulfillment).

Become a “what matters” blogger

Conventional blogging advice indicates that you should write 3-5 times per week without fail. Yes, in the early days of blogging (at least the first 5-6 months) consistency is crucial. You need to prove that you’ve got the chops and that you’re not going to abandon your readership. But, aside from news blogs and blogs that have multiple contributors, I’d suggest you lower the frequency significantly.

This is something I lifted from Tina of ThinkSimpleNow.com who is well known for taking multiple months away from her blog. I doubt everyone could be met with success using that approach, but the lesson still holds true: to ease the pressure of writing and heighten the respect from your readership only write and publish content that truly matters.

What “matters” is a subjective gauge of course, but at its core it’s your own highest inner standard that you must hold yourself too. Through this approach you will end up spending more time writing individual posts, but:

• Each post will provide you and your readers with lasting fulfillment.
• There’ll be less of a frantic rush to publish content.
• Freeing yourself from a strict deadline and schedule is incredibly liberating.

As a poll here on Problogger indicated, lowering your frequency is not what causes people to unsubscribe from your blog, it’s posting too much that readers dislike. Here’s a quote from Darren himself:

I’ve lost count of the number of bloggers who tell me that scaling back their posting frequency a little brings a new life to their blog…scaling back a little means that they are able to develop better quality posts, that they get more comments per post (the posts remain on the front page of the blog longer) and readers say that they appreciate it.

People don’t unsubscribe from blogs when every piece of content provides them with genuine value.

Successful blogging requires sustained effort over a long period of time. I don’t want to make it seem like you can eliminate hard work and the anxiety that comes with the process. But you can make it easier on yourself. Take action to ease the pressure of blogging and refocus on what you truly care about.

What strategies do you use to ease the pressure of blogging?

David Turnbull is a life-long geek who loves to write about life hacking, simplicity and technology at his blog Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How To Ease the Pressure of Blogging

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How To Ease the Pressure of Blogging

Hey, you want to do something that will make you feel better about yourself and help an earthquake ravished nation as well? Then donate $10 to Haiti and pass it on. Members on Facebook and Twitter are challenged to donate $10 or more through World Vision’s website. They’re also encouraged to invite friends to do the same through a status updates, tweets and emails. However, a blog post works just as well too! Together, we can make a difference and show the world the power of social media.

Vancouver Supports Haiti Benefit

If you live in Vancouver, or happen to be in the area, please join me this Wednesday for the Vancouver Support Haiti Benefit.

Date: Jan. 27, 2010
Event time: 7 to 10 pm (club is open till 2 a.m)
Set up time: 6 pm
Location: Ginger62 Lounge/Club 1219 Granville St and Davie.
Cost: $25 which include appetizers and one drink ticket
Ticket info: 604-809-6317 or 604-817-8005

To buy tickets online, make a donation of $25 (or more) to World Vision, then print out the confirmation number and exchange it for a ticket at the door.

When you think about it, this is a really great way to help. The $25 is tax deductible as World Vision will issue you a tax receipt. Then the Canadian Government will match the $25 donation to bring your total contribution to $50. On top of that, you get to go to a great event with free appetizers and a free drink. Be warned however, I’ll be giving a knock your socks off speech to try to get you to give more!

The Vancouver Supports Haiti events will include musical performances by local talent (Joanne Chiasson and Jason Buie) as well as a pause to light candles to recognize the fate of many and the millions of people affected by the life-devastating earthquake.

Proceeds from the evening will go directly to World Visions’ efforts to provide food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support to those affected. World Vision has to-date pledged $6 million in relief aid to the region. The Canadian Government has pledged to match donations to registered charities in aid of Haiti Earthquake relief dollar-for-dollar.

Whether you choose to join me this Wednesday at Ginger62 or pass it on, I thank you and the people of Haiti thank you. Today we are all Haitian.

Vancouver Supports Haiti | Donate Now and Pass It On

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In this post (a continuation of my Principles of Successful Blogs) series I explore the topic of being relational with readers.

Back in 2002 when I stumbled upon my first ever blog I was immediately inspired to start my own blog based on two things that I witnessed in that first blog.

1. It gave the blogger a voice and amplified that voice around the world
2. It gave the blogger the ability to build a community around what he was exploring and enabled him to have personal (yet public) interactions with many people to further explore his topics.

The community and relational aspect of that first blog was a big part of why I decided to start my own first blog. I’d not seen anything on the web that allowed a person to grow a community around their ideas before and wanted to experience it for myself.

So I started my first blog – a personal blog about life, spirituality and culture – and began to experiment with my voice but also with engaging with those who read what I was writing each day.

I quickly discovered the power of building a blog that not only had interesting content but which drew readers into a conversation.

In those early days I spent at least as much time building relationships with readers as I did writing posts (I’ll share some of what I did early in my blog below).

As I look back on the early days of my own blogging I’d attribute a significant part of the early growth of my blogs to this type of relational activity. Content might be King but community was its Queen for me.

Things have Changed…. But….

Of course the blogosphere and wider web has changed somewhat since those days in 2002.

• Twitter and Facebook have emerged to take over some of the community interactions that blogs once had
• Social media is also a space where much of the sharing of links we once did on blogs happens
• Blogging has become quite competitive and bloggers in niches don’t always work together

Things have changed – however…. a relational approach and community are still one central aspect of many successful blogs.

Note: I’m not just talking about building your blog into a community (we discussed community earlier in our series) – instead what I’m talking about in this post is being relational with your readers – the blogger/reader relationship and not necessarily relationships between your readers.

So how does a blogger grow relationships with their readers? I’d actually like to tackle this question by making some suggestions for newer/smaller blogs and then for more established blogs where the challenge of scaling a relational approach is a challenge.

How to Be a Relational Blogger – For New Blogs

When starting out with a new blog there are many tasks that will confront you. Creating great content is of course your primary concern, getting your blog looking attractive and inviting is also important, thinking about branding, networking with other blogs in your niche, setting up with some good SEO…. the list of things you could fill your time with goes on.

However putting some concerted effort into building relationship with those who do come to your blog is something well worth putting time into. If you can build a loyal group of regular readers in your early days you’re well on the way to growing a blog that is read by many. Each loyal reader you have has their own network that they can spread word of you to.

Following are some of the things I spent a lot of time doing in the early days of my own first blogs:

• Reading and responding to every comment left – particularly any with questions
• Visiting the blogs of those who were leaving comments and interacting with those bloggers on their own blogs
• Engaging on other blogs that were linking to mine
• Emailing new readers to thank them for commenting
• Linking to other blogs in my niche – promoting those who were reading my blog
• Responding to email queries

These types of activities are very basic yet they have an impact and will draw those who read your blog in the early days to take a second look and come back again.

Tips for Established Blogs Trying to Scale Rationality

The above basics for newer blogs do work – but when your blog starts to grow the challenge for bloggers is to how to stay relational in their approach without burning themselves out. You see responding to every comment left on your blog becomes incredibly challenging when you have hundreds of comments left each day. Personal and in depth responses to every email from a reader takes over your whole day when you have tens of thousands of readers…. Scaling relationally is definitely a challenge.

So what’s a blogger to do?

I actually grapple with this one on a daily basis and would love to hear how other bloggers approach the challenge however thought I’d jot down some starting points (it should also be noted that much of this can be put into practice by new blogs too):

1. Write in a Relational Voice

One of the things that can help is to simply write in a relational or conversational style. Tell your own story, share your experiences, write about your failures, be personal. While you might not be able to respond to every reader personally all of these things make you more relatable.

2. Invite Participation

One part of writing in a relational style is to invite interaction with readers. Asking questions of readers and giving spaces in posts for discussion and interaction may not be fully relational if you yourself don’t participate – but it at least opens up opportunities for readers to interact with one another and get a feeling of being heard and valued as a reader.

3. Set Up Opportunities for Intentional Interaction

Another strategy that I find a win/win for bloggers and their readers is to set up specific times and places for interaction between blogger and reader. Put aside time for this intentional community time, publicise them with readers and then make yourself available to interact.

For me one of the ways that I try to do this every now and again is by doing a live Ustreaming video session where I simply do Q&A with readers. I’m amazed at the response from readers who join these chats – while I do feel a little ‘odd’ sitting there talking to my laptop answering basic questions about blogging readers really do seem to value the times and feel much more involved.

Note: Another way that I try to give readers another avenue for interaction is by promoting Twitter as a place for conversation. The key is to name where and when you’re going to interact and then make sure you do.

4. Answer Reader Questions with Posts

A further technique I try to do is to try to answer questions from readers with posts rather than just in comments or via email. When I get a reader asking a question I could respond with an email or comment and help that particular reader – but to maximise the benefits across the full community I try to take some questions and turn my responses into a more public answer in a post – thereby answering the person but also hopefully sharing some solutions with others who might have the same question. I find that the added bonus of this is that you highlight a reader interaction publicly which shows that while I might not respond to everyone that you are attempting to be interactive.

5. Manage Expectations

Without going over the top and becoming boastful or arrogant – try to communicate with your readership what they can expect from you as a blogger. Readers all come with their own expectations of what they should and shouldn’t be able to expect from you as a blogger. The emails I get from readers at times illustrate that some readers come with pretty good expectations while others come with unrealistic ones.

Side Note: interestingly these unrealistic expectations can swing both ways. For example today I had one email from a reader demanding I answer a list of 20 questions for them while another reader emailed saying that they didn’t really expect I’d even read their email and didn’t expect any kind of acknowledgment of their problem. The reality is somewhere between the two emails – I can’t give readers hours of my attention each – but I do read emails and try to respond to as many as I can.

One way to manage expectations is to have a system in place around your contact form. Communicating what you’re able to help with, whether you are able to respond personally etc on a contact form helps readers to gauge what sort of response (if any) they’ll get. Some bloggers also put systems in place to send auto response emails back when contact is made to help with this.

6. Build Community

Another way to help readers get help from your blog is to set up systems and areas on your blog where people can help one another. This is one of the reasons that both ProBlogger and Digital Photography School have community areas. The hope is that while I can’t possibly respond to every reader that there is always someone in the wider community that does have the expertise and resources to help. I also find that in time as a blog grows that this reader interaction between readers extends naturally into a comments section – a larger blog tends to have readers who love to help one another.

7. Get Help – Outsource

One of the hardest things I’ve done in the last couple of years is to get help to manage this aspect of my blogging. Outsourcing community is not something I ever wanted to do but getting help from someone to assist in the moderation of comments was actually something that helped me to be more responsive to readers. If you do end up hiring someone to help with moderation try to get them to alert you to threads of conversations that need your attention rather than just hiring someone to delete spam.

How do You Do It?

As I say above – I’m no expert in being a relational blogger. It’s one aspect of what I do that I do grapple with and have good days and bad days with. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you approach being a relational blogger and what impact it’s had on your blogging.

PS: One last bonus tip – Stay True to Yourself and Your Personality

I say this because as people we all have different styles and personalities that will leave us able to interact with readers differently. I’ve been critiqued a few times over the years about not being interactive enough with readers but in the last 12 months or so have also come to realise that my approach in this area is not just about being too busy to interact but that it is partly about who I am as a person.

As a pretty extreme introvert I do enjoy personal interaction but also find that I’m not able to sustain as much of it as some others who are more extroverted and get energy from such interactions.

Those of you who’ve met me will know that I’m actually someone who tends to sit at the edge of groups watching and listening more than those who might enjoy being the life of the party. While I do enjoy conversation I’m someone who is a little slower paced and more laid back and who enjoys chiming in from time to time with my insights and thoughts – but who also enjoys listening.

On the flip side of this I know that one impact of being this type of person is that I can come across as being a little uninterested in those around me – it’s something I do have to work on (I could quite easily retreat to my introverts cave and never come out for weeks at a time). So for me it’s about being true to myself and not forcing myself to be the extrovert but also knowing that my introversion can also be an excuse and something that limits me.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Be a More Relational Blogger [Tips for New and Established Bloggers]

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How to Be a More Relational Blogger [Tips for New and Established Bloggers]

I’m in two minds whether this story should go on my personal blog or here on ProBlogger. The lessons are about life but in the second half this post I tie them to blogging. Apologies for the quality of the images in this post – they’re pictures of pictures – my scanner died today! Unfortunately I don’t have any excuses for the clothes I’m wearing in some of the shots!

On the spur of the moment on a cool September morning in 1993 a mate and I bundled some camping gear into the back of my 1986 Toyota Camry and left for a four week road to the red center of Australia.

It was a trip that changed my life in many ways and it all started with a hair cut.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here…. lets back things up a little….

To that point in my life (I was almost 21) I’d worked hard at fitting in.

I carefully watched what those around me in my social groups were doing and I always followed their lead.

I had the same hair cut as my friends, I wore the same types of clothes as them, I was interested in the same types of activities as them, I went where they went and acted the way they did.

As a result I was very…. normal…. a very average guy.

Actually – I’m probably being a little generous to myself…. in fact I was probably below average on many levels because despite my best efforts to imitate those around me I wasn’t really that good at it.

I’d only ever had one girl friend, I was failing my university degree, I couldn’t land a job, I wasn’t ever the life of the party and didn’t have many friends and I was pretty depressed about life.

I remember looking at myself in the mirror late one night and realising that it was really not going anywhere – and it was going there fast. Looking back I guess I had a mid life crisis of sorts (I’m hoping that doesn’t mean I only last til 42 years of age).

A mid-life crisis can lead to some pretty crazy things but in my case it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

On the spur of the moment a mate and I decided we were going to change things up and we were going to do it with a Road Trip! Neither of us had ever done anything like it before (we’d been playing it safe and doing what every else did after all) but we decided it might be a good way to get away and have some fun.

We quickly planned our trip and packed my 1986 Toyota Camry with enough camping gear for a party of 7.

The night before we left we decided to mark the occasion by shaving our heads. We didn’t shave them to the skin – but it was short, shorter than anything I’ve had before.

This head shaving ended up being a very symbolic moment for me – I didn’t know it at the time but it was a turning point.

At that time we didn’t know anyone in our friendship group with shaved heads but we figured that we were going to be gone for 4-5 weeks so it didn’t really matter – no one would see us and by the time we got home we’d have at least some hair!

I remember looking at myself in the mirror that night before our trip and hardly recognising myself. I also remember being quite glad that nobody that I knew would see me until at least some of my hair grew back!

Side Note: We also decided that night that until we got home we wouldn’t shave. This turned out to be less life changing and only helped me to realise that while I’m capable of growing hair on my chin and above my upper lip that I’m incapable of growing sideburns! This has little relevance to this story but I thought I’d share it for my fellow brothers who have an ability to grow sideburns – you’re not alone!

To cut a long (5 week) story short my mate and I took the trip of our lives.

We drove from Melbourne to Alice Springs (in the center of Australia). It took us a couple of weeks to get there – Australia is big.

Getting into the outback was the best thing I’d ever done to that point – I guess you could say that I found myself and had a spiritual awakening of sorts (another story for another time).

While the trip itself was an awakening where I came to many realisations about my life and what I’d bee trying (and failing) to achieve by imitating others – what happened on my return home opened my eyes to another important lesson.

I still remember nervously walking into a party the night after we returned home from our trip.

My hair had grown back a little from the ‘great shaving’ but it was still ’skin head (ish) short ‘and I’d trimmed my attempt at a beard to be a Goatee (don’t mock me, it was the 90s).

Walking into the party that night was the first time in my life (and probably the last) that I turned heads.

A ‘whooop’ went up from the guys around the BBQ and a ‘oooooh’ went up from the girls.

At first I thought the whooops were mocking and the ‘ooooohs’ were in sympathy – but I quickly realized that they were not. People were looking at me in a way that I’d never looked at before.

Actually I suspect that many people in the room were actually noticing me for the first time ever. It was the first time I did anything unique, noticeable or different and people responded so positively.

Life didn’t magically change and become perfect that night but it did change. Things changed in many ways but two of note were:

• A few days later a girl called me – the first time that had EVER happened.
• Two months later I was offered my dream job out of the blue (I didn’t even have to apply).

I don’t think all this happened just because I shaved my head (I think the change in my attitude and approach to life in the outback had more to do with it) but I do know for a fact that people started to treat me differently when I started to be myself, stopped pretending to be someone else and allowed myself to be a little unique.

And How Is This Related to Blogging?

OK – crazy story and not really related to blogging – but as I looked back on some photos of this trip today it struck me what a life changing time that was and how some of the lessons that I learned on and after that trip have been mirrored in the way that I’ve built my blogs over the last 7 years.

When I first started blogging I had no idea what I was doing. I’m still amazed that I managed to navigate the setup process on my first Blogspot blog – it was the most technologically advanced thing I’d ever done!

As I began to blog I based almost everything I did upon what I saw others doing. I didn’t copy their content – but I watched what was working for them and did emulate it. The type of posts that they wrote, the type of topics that they covered, the style of design that they used, the tools that they were using….. much of what I did in that first 6 months of blogging was imitation of others.

In some ways that was a good thing – I certainly learned a lot about blogging by watching other bloggers and trying out what they were doing in my own context. However there came a point where imitating others started to hold me back.

6 or so months into my first blog I realised that perhaps it was time to stop imitating other bloggers and to start finding myself as a blogger. In part this happened naturally as I found my groove – but there were a couple of moments when I realised that I was not being true to myself by blogging in the style of other people.

Again – I don’t think I was doing anything unethical by copying someone else’s content or ideas without credit – but I just wasn’t being myself on my blogs.

What I discovered about blogging is that the more real I was and the more true to myself I became as a blogger the more others seemed to connect with what I was doing. Blogging also became a lot more personally satisfying when I was blogging as me and not trying to be something that I was not.

The other thing that I ‘discovered’ through those early days was that the more I was myself the more unique my blog became. There’s nobody else like me in this world (just like there is nobody else like you) and the more I began to just be me the more unique my blog became. Uniqueness is of course a pretty important thing in blogging – there are millions of blogs out there, being unique sets you apart from the crowd.

Take Home Lessons

I’d like to finish this post with a slightly modified excerpt from an email that I wrote to a blogger named Lucas Mayeur recently (shared with permission). Lucas asked me asking for a little advice about getting his blog going as he found himself a little paralyzed by all the blogging advice he was reading. I hope that my response to him is relevant to readers here:

I think it really comes down to just trusting that you’ve probably absorbed a lot and now you just have to do it and trust that what you’ve learned will come out in your blogging.

You will make mistakes along the road and forget to do stuff – but you’ll learn from those mistakes and they’ll shape you as you move forward.

Back yourself, your experience, your wisdom, your style – do use what you’ve learned from blogging advice sites but don’t let having to get it all right slow you down. In fact if you do just emulate everything you read you’ll not create anything that is truly you.

Take the principles you’ve learned and let it marinate with who you are and then do something with it.

And a few thoughts from those much wiser than I (which is quite ironic given the topic of this post):

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” – e.e. cummings

“The hardest battle you’re ever going to fight is the battle to be just you.” – Leo Buscaglia

“If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.” – Billie Holiday

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Lessons about Blogging from a 90’s Road Trip

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Lessons about Blogging from a 90’s Road Trip