I have noticed a trend among some of the blogs I follow. Many of them seem to have taken a liking to video blogging. I have no idea whether this technique for blogging tends to grab more visitors or not. I do know that I don’t really care much for video entries.
Here’s why I prefer not to watch video blogging
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Blogging, Internet Marketing, and More
Video Blogging – A Poll
Thursday, May 20th, 2010 | 2 Comments
The Infopreneur – Motivated As Hell
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 | 2 Comments
James “the infopreneur” Richmond is motivated as hell. If you are a blogger and you don’t know who I’m talking about, well…you should. There is probably no one in the business who has put the kind of effort into making his blog a brand as James has. Starting from scratch only a few short months ago, he has created and promoted his way to the top echelons of the blogging world. Practically all the top bloggers have written about him.
What You Can Learn From Yaro Starak
Thursday, March 11th, 2010 | 7 Comments
If you blog, chances are you have heard of Yaro Starak. Not only is he well known within the internet marketing community, he has a cool name. A name that you don’t easily forget. But here’s the more important thing to know. His extremely successful site Entrepeneurs-Journey.com isn’t his first site. Yaro has a business timeline on his site. You should read it. It’s quite illuminating.
The Primary Lesson
The primary lesson you can take from Yaro is to never stop thinking. Think about your business if you have one. Think about how you can promote it. Think about how you can improve it. If you don’t yet have a business, then think about what interests you have that might be turned into a business.
Yaro Loves Business
Reading Yaro’s timeline you really start to understand just how much the guy loves business. And that’s another lesson you can learn from him. One of the reasons he has been so successful is that he really loves what he does. That love is what keeps him motivated. There is a reason that those of us who have or have had real jobs find that we need vacations. The constant focus on something that you really don’t love is tiring. Over time you find that your mind wants to wander. Your thoughts turn to what you would rather be doing. Yaro and those like him that work at what they love find that it isn’t work. Of course every now and then everyone needs some time away, but that need is diminished greatly when what you would rather be doing is exactly what you are doing.
Interests Change
Another lesson from Yaro is that as your interests change, so can your business. Yaro’s first online endeavor was his MTGParadise.com site. A site dedicated to his passion at the time, Magic The Gathering, a card game. Eventually he found that his passion for the game had diminished to the point that he no longer wanted to work on it. He found buyers and was ready to devote his time to other interests.
How To Learn From Yaro (and others)
There is a tremendous amount of information on Yaro’s blog. This article encompassed just Yaro Starak’s blog. There is a lesson in that too. The lesson is that time spent examining the sites of successful bloggers or internet marketers can be valuable. Take some time and spend it on the sites of people like Yaro Starak, or Darren Rowse, or any number of other successful internet personalities. Try to see what they are doing to be successful. Analyze the content of their articles. Analyze things like the colors they use in their design. The list is endless. The point is that you should examine everything that you can think of that might help them to be successful, and think about how you can make use of that information.
If you liked this article let some other people know about it.
As always, comments are encouraged.
Never Take Counsel Of Your Fears
Saturday, March 6th, 2010 | 10 Comments
photo credit: rvaphotodude
Okay. Back home from Phoenix. 
I love road trips. I didn’t post much in the last week. Which brings me to a question. How often does a blog need to have new content?
I have noticed that there is a very wide variety to the frequency of posting on some very popular bogs. Of course, the really big ones add content pretty much every day, and some of them several times a day. Others don’t necessarily add anything every day. Some add every few days. So to refine the question further I am asking, does the time between new additions to your blog really make a big difference to your readers?
On Problogger there is new content every day, yet I find that I don’t check it every day. Daily Blog Tips, the same thing. I don’t necessarily check it every day. I have many blogs in my reader and I don’t generally visit a blog unless I see from the title of an article something that interests me.
As an experiment I have not posted in several days. While I have continued to move up in the Alexa rankings, I have noticed that my bounce rate has been climbing. This can only mean one thing. I have readers coming to see what I have written and upon finding nothing new, they leave. I feel guilty, and I think I should apologize. I will henceforth go back to frequent new entries on this blog.
Having now promised to post frequently, there is something else I am going to start doing with more regularity too. Commenting on other blogs. I am going to start treating this more like a job. At the same time I am going to start some niche blogs and see what I can learn about internet marketing. I will be posting more on that subject soon. Quite a bit of my time lately has been spent trying to learn as much a I can about making money online, and just trying to work up the nerve to try.
I am reminded of a period a few years back when I had earned a real estate license and hooked up with a broker. It didn’t go well. I failed for a couple of reasons. But the main reason was a lack of confidence which frequently kept me in “getting ready” mode. “Getting ready” mode is deadly to any endeavor when it goes on too long. The truth is you are not really getting ready. You’re avoiding that which makes you uncomfortable, or causes you to feel fear. In my case, although I had passed the real estate licensing exam easily, I still didn’t feel like I really knew what I was doing. I told people that I quit real estate because I felt that it took a certain arrogance to tell people which house they would be best suited for. I had all sorts of reasons for failing. The truth was that I should have just plunged in and made my mistakes. There were plenty of experienced people at the brokerage who would have been more than happy to lend a hand if I floundered. But I didn’t even really try. I don’t want to make that mistake again with internet marketing.
That last paragraph was hard to write. It’s hard to bare your failures before the world. But there was an important lesson there too. That’s why I decided to share. As you progress along the blogging road, do not allow fear to play a part in your decisions. American Civil War General Stonewall Jackson said it well. “Never take counsel of your fears.”
As always, comments are encouraged.
What I Learned From The PGA Tour Today
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 | 6 Comments
photo credit: H Dickins
Tournament tempo
I spent my day at the Phoenix Open today. I was in heaven. I love golf, in case you were wondering. As I spent some time at the practice tee watching some of the best players in the world warm up, I was struck by a thought. What is the main difference between these guys and the rest of us hacks? The answer? Tempo. They all have great tempo. A smooth rhythm to their swings that you never see at your local driving range. Some may swing faster than others, but they are all smooth and unhurried in their delivery of the clubhead to the ball.
How does this connect with blogging? All blogs have a tempo too. A pattern to how often they post. A pattern to how often they answer comments. There is a rhythm to successful blogging, and in fact, to all successful endeavors.
Why is tempo critical?
Thinking out loud, what is it about rhythm that is so critical to success? I think that the prime benefit of a good smooth tempo is that it gives you time to react to input. You don’t rush into situations in such a way that you are committed only to find out that you committed to the wrong thing, whether it’s a business situation or a body position in the middle of a golf swing.
How do you get good rhythm and tempo? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall. Practice. Practice. Practice. But practicing the right things. Like a golfer you don’t want to waste your time practicing the wrong things. If you want to gain a good rhythm you can’t practice swinging a golf club as hard and as fast as you can. You have to practice swinging with good rhythm and tempo. The same applies to everything else. Don’t practice bad habits. Practice the good ones. Like posting to your blog regularly, and answering comments as quickly as you can. Do all the things you know are good business or blogging habits and they will become your normal swing.
As always, comments are encouraged.
Blogging From The Road
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 | 5 Comments
I missed posting yesterday. We were on the road. It’s about 300 miles from home to here. Where’s here? Phoenix, Arizona. Yesterday morning, I had an idea. I love golf. I love road trips. Well, really I should say,we love road trips. My beloved Rosey and I drive across the country about every other year. We visit my father in Asheville, North Carolina, and sometimes we make it up to the Washington, D.C. area where I used to live. As an aside, if you ever get a chance to visit Asheville…go. This trip, however is my birthday present to myself. We’re in Phoenix so I can go to the Phoenix Open. Today I’ll be watching some of the best golfers in the world. But that is not what this post is about.
The point of this post is the portability of blogging. It’s one of the reasons why blogging is such a special mode of communication. You can blog anywhere you can get an internet connection. In a larger sense this post is really about what is frequently referred to as the internet lifestyle. Since the source of my income is not yet from the internet, I guess this post is more about my thoughts on what I would like to get out of blogging and internet marketing. It’s about the steps I am taking to attain those dreams. They are baby steps to be sure at this point, but it is said that every journey begins with a single step. I know many others are on the same journey…journey…for some reason I hate it when I see that word used in this context. Maybe because it is so overused. How many blogs have you seen that talk about the blog being about “my journey to…fill in the blank.”
My dream of blogging has been from the beginning to learn how to make enough extra income so that Rosey and I can afford to take road trips. Lots of road trips. We both enjoy motel rooms and just driving through new places and seeing new things. About the motel rooms. It’s kind of a weird thing, but I sort of obsess on motel showers. I have no explanation for this interest, but I seem to judge which motels I like the best on how good the shower is.
I realize that this post is rambling a bit. Back to the post. As a first step I am focusing on getting my traffic higher. I could be working a lot harder on that, but I’m making steady progress. The next step at some point will be deciding how to monetize this blog. I am not sure what direction the monetization will go. I recently read a post on another blog telling me that I need to make detailed plans, and I gotta tell you, I agree. I don’t have those detailed plans yet. I am a newbie to having any internet presence. I am going to do some thinking about it though.
My guess is that a lot of the people reading this are in exactly the same boat. They know where they want to go, but aren’t really sure how to get there. God knows that there is no end to the sites and articles telling you how to make money online. And for the low, low, fee of x dollars, they’ll be happy to share the secrets to internet wealth with you. I have bought some of them, but I suspect that some clear thinking and some research would give me all that information for free.
I know there are many different methods of making money online too. There is no one right way. The virtual world, when it comes to business, is really no different from the real world. It’s a question of analyzing the situation and thinking clearly and logically. I am asking myself what would people find valuable enough to be willing tom pay for it? That’s really the basic question that needs to be answered.
I apologize for the rambling nature of this post. I am excited to be trying a sample of the internet lifestyle, and I’m heading out to the golf course shortly to watch some guys that really know how to hit the little white ball.
As always, comments are encouraged. This time especially if they suggest how this type of blog should be monetized.
How To #1 – Effective Writing
Friday, February 19th, 2010 | 7 Comments
This is the inaugural article of a new series of “how to” articles I am going to publish here. Since all bloggers have one thing in common, and that’s writing, this seemed like the perfect place to start. So, without further ado:
What’s the point?
What exactly is the purpose of your writing? Understand what you are trying to accomplish, and write toward that goal. Are you informing your readers about something new? Are you going to teach them? Have a clear goal in mind as you write, and lead your reader to your conclusion.
Choosing a topic
Keep in mind why your readers are there. You are writing for them. What do they care about? Don’t write about what your readers have shown they are not interested in. I have written in previous posts on my blog that I have decided to lay off the keyword articles. The readers have spoken (or rather they have not spoken) and I have listened. Fewer comments=lesser interest. Instead focus on what your readers have shown to be their interest. In my blog’s case, I have noticed interest in the articles I have written about the tools and mechanics of blogging. Thus, the birth of this new series of articles.
Get organized- A Little Secret
The ideas that you are conveying to your readers should flow in a logical order. Use an outline if that’s what it takes. I’ll let you in on a little secret. When I write these posts, the very first thing I do is list the points that I want to write about. Then it’s a fairly simple matter of expanding on each of the points that I have listed. After proofreading them it’s a simple matter to rearrange the order if necessary too. Just a little cut and paste. It makes writing simpler, and it’s a big help in staying on point.
Simplicity is a good thing
Simple, plain language works. Use it. Don’t practice using the biggest words you can find in the dictionary or thesaurus to impress your readers. You’ll impress them alright, but not in a good way. Readers want a simple clear message. They don’t need you to point out that they don’t have the largest vocabulary on the planet. Keep in mind that your are writing to convey information and not to impress.
This is the web
Remember that you’re writing for the web. I mentioned this for a reason. It’s unlike writing for any other media. This is the place where the reader can instantly go to another source of information with just the click of a mouse button if they get bored. You must be interesting. You must hold your reader’s interest or they can instantly leave your pearls of wisdom, thus turning them into pearls of… well…something else.
Look for more articles in my new “how to” series in the very near future
Blogging Lessons Learned
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 | 5 Comments
I have made great progress with this blog in the short time that it has been in existence. In 29 days, I have moved from an Alexa rank of over 17, 000,000 to being poised to go under 600,000. In all honesty I have not been doing the promotional tasks that I really should be. I have published 1 or 2 guest posts, commented here and there, but my efforts have been haphazard at best. I will try to do better in those areas in the coming months. I am also guilty of not posting as often as I did the first 3 weeks. That one I won’t apologize for though. I am developing some new sites, and that requires time. Having said that, I am compelled to point out that I am still averaging slightly more than 1 post per day.
I have learned some things that are a bit of a surprise in writing this blog. The most surprising fact is which articles have attracted the most comments. I had thought that posting articles about keywords and the things I am learning abut how to improve your ranking in the search engines would be of interest to the readers of this blog. I was wrong. The keyword articles were among the least commented on.
The single article that received the most comments was the article I wrote that was critical of Steve Pavlina. Following closely behind that one article were the articles I wrote about some of the tools I use in writing this blog. As tempting as it might be to write more posts that are critical of some of the well-known bloggers, that isn’t what I or this blog is about. That was a sort of a special case, and I gave credit where credit is due. Steve has written much that people have found helpful. Here’s a link for those who may be unfamiliar with said article. A Criticism of Steve Pavlina.
So where do I go from here? I shall continue to write articles on promotion, and the tools of blogging. Probably fewer SEO articles for now. Just in case…SEO is search engine optimization for those who may be new to all this blogging stuff. SEO is what gets your site ranked higher in the search engines (along with backlinks). I will start writing some articles on writing too. To sum up, fewer keyword articles, more articles on the tools of blogging, and some new articles on writing. And maybe some off the wall articles every now and then too. Thus endeth the lesson.
As always, comments are encouraged.
What Can You Learn About Blogging From Tiger Woods?
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 | 4 Comments
photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
What?!!! You ask what does Tiger Woods have to do with blogging? It’s sort of a morality lesson. Sort of.
Tiger was on top of the world. The world’s greatest golfer, and he’ll probably turn out to be the best of all time. And then came November 27th. The world watched as the slow motion crash and burn began. With each new revelation, people became more and more fascinated. In a bad way. Tiger wasn’t just guilty of adultery. He was guilty of it a lot. I’ve lost count. 16 or 18 times…well not times…partners. So where’s the lesson you ask. What does any of this have to do with blogging. Okay…here’s the lesson:
Be faithful to your blog. And what does that mean? I am referring to all the activities involved in being successful that you are ignoring…as Tiger ignored his marital vows. When you first created your blog didn’t you have some ideas of how successful you wanted it to become? Didn’t you make yourself some promises about how you would operate it? I’m guessing you read several other blogs and have encountered lists of what is required to blog successfully many times in the past. Lord knows there are enough of them out there.
So why aren’t you doing what you know you should be? Those promises I mentioned in the last paragraph are like vows. Just as you make promises to your spouse when you get married, you make promises to your blog when you create it. And like marriage there are temptations that must be resisted. You mustn’t let distractions lead you astray from the activities your blog expects from you.
Of course that’s if you want to have a successful blog. Or marriage. They both take work, and fidelity.
As always, comments are encouraged.
The Plan For Today
Today I am going to:
Post
I am going to post to this blog. That’s what this article is. ’nuff said.
Comment
I am going to comment at 20 other blogs. As has been said over and over, comments must be quality comments. I don’t know how many articles I will have to read to find 20 that inspire me to write some intelligent and useful comments.
Picture
This one is probably very different from anything you will read on anyone else’s blog today. One of the projects I referred to in my last post was building a site to offer a picture that my beloved, Roseann, made to help her teach her children about Jesus. Everyone who has ever seen it wants one. Consequently, we have decided to make it available to those who would like one. It will be our first online business.
Since it is our first, we are moving slowly. We don’t want to make any mistakes. Up until now we have been moving so slowly that our progress has been imperceptible. It’s time to start moving.
Tomorrow I will post on progress made today.
As always, comments are encouraged.