7 Incredibly Intelligent Ideas for Blogging More Efficiently

Filed Under Basics, Great Finds, Successful Blog, Writing | 29 Comments

Be a Power Blogger

This week, b5 business bloggers were discussing ways to bring more value to our readers. The question was barely asked when Eric Eggertson offered an answer on how to blog with power and more efficiently.

Eric Eggertson knows a bit about where he comes from. He’s been involved in corporate communications since 1987. He’s conceived and executed internal and external communication strategies for government agencies, non-profits and co-operatives in Saskatchewan. He blogs about public relations and has been doing so since January 2005 on the Common Sense PR blog for b5 media.

As soon as I read Eric’s email, I asked if I might use his email as a blog post. I thought what he had to say should be published. He graciously agreed.

“Be my guest, Liz!” is what Eric said.

So I give it to you raw and unplugged, like the value content that it is. By the way, Eric didn’t name this post I did. I think his ideas truly are incredibly intelligent and I’m hoping you’ll put them to use right away.

7 Incredibly Intelligent Ideas for Blogging More Efficiently

by Eric Eggertson

When there’s a lot of discussion in the comments of a post, or if there’s some critical info added in the comments, create a short post quoting the most relevant info and pointing people to the contents of the prior post. This isn’t cheating. It actually really helps people who subscribe via e-mail or RSS, as they may not be aware of what’s being said in the comments.

When someone writes about something you’ve posted, and their post adds something significant to understanding the issue, create a short post quoting briefly and pointing people to the other blogger’s post. This helps people who don’t see the Trackbacks and Pingbacks to your post (ie. RSS/e-mail subscribers).

Create a short post linking to the top posts for your blog, or the most controversial, or the ones you sweated over that everyone ignored, or links to all parts of a series.

When you write a guest post on another blog/site, create a short post linking to the post. Even if the item’s a bit off topic for your blog, this may be worth doing if you want people to get to know you a bit better.

Break bigger pieces into smaller ones and spread them out over a few days. Use the first one to introduce the topic and solicit responses, then post the others, including any reader feedback.

Ask readers for suggestions for further reading/best tools/best tips/weirdest news, etc., then post the results as link lists. You can do a separate post per topic. This isn’t cheating. Some of the best items on some blogs are short links to other sources, without a lengthy explanation of all the background about it.

When you see something that is striking, unusual, awful, humorous, etc., post a short item about it, without feeling you have to find a weighty rationale for pointing it out. Think of it as the equivalent of a little item tucked in the margin of a magazine or a book - 15-30 words about it.

Seven incredibly intelligent ideas to make your work worth more to your readers, and at the same time make your life easier. What more value could a blogger or a reader need for the holidays?

How many of these will you be using before the year is over?

Thanks Eric, for letting me share these with the folks who read Successful-Blog!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your writing, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

If you’re a new blogger, check out the New Blogger page.

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3 Easy Steps to Persuade a Quality Blogger to Link to You

Filed Under Basics, Links, Successful Blog | 18 Comments

Linking Relationships

The blogosphere is a web of connections made by links from blog to blog. The strongest relationships and the links that last longest are those that are made between bloggers.

If you want a link from a blogger you’ve not yet met, you’re really asking for a vote of trust. The link I give to your blog or your blog post means that I’ve tied my name to yours. Naturally any blogger would be more inclined to give your link a home, if you show it will be in the blogger’s best interest.

Who wouldn’t want to link to you if your link improved their readers’ experience in some meaningful way?

3 Easy Steps to Persuade a Quality Blogger to Link to You

Choose carefully when finding home for your links. Hopefully, you’re starting a long-term relationship. You want to be part of a network of quality people. Let’s imagine that the blogger you want to link to is me.

Here’s how you might persuade me in three easy steps.

Do Your Homework

Get to know me and my blog. Make a a project of finding out who I am and what I write about. Study my blog and my readers’ comments. In other words, do a little homework.

So many people peddle their blog posts from blog to blog without even bothering to read the front page. You’ll stand out if when you say, “I’ve been reading your blog . . .” and what follows that shows that you really have. Chances are, if you show a real interest in my blog and your idea is off, I might suggest a new idea for you to try.

Plan a Link that Adds Value

No one needs a link on their blogroll. No one needs a random blog post that’s unrelated to a blog’s readership. Find a reason that your post that ties well to one I wrote. Show how your post expands on a topic that my readers have an interest in. Explain how the subject your content compliments mine or offers a point of view my readers might enjoy.

Persuade an Individual (not sir or madam)

When you send that email, be personal and gently persuasive. Don’t talk about yourself; talk about what you are offering.

Please be simple and brief. Realize that I wasn’t waiting with nothing to do until your email came and that I probably still have plenty to get done. Doesn’t everyone these days? I want to see a compelling reason for your using your link. I can’t say “yes” to everyone, but it’s not fun to say “no” either. It’s real luck when a clear thinker comes along — someone who knew exactly what to offer that really does add value for my readers.

You lose nothing if I refuse. Make a good case, and a friendship could be starting. If you researched the blog you want to link, you’ve probably learned a few new things.

If your post goes up, you’ve made a connection to a quality blog. Hopefully that blog will grow into old age with yours, sharing many links along the way. We’ll all meet to discuss how the bloggers who come asking for links never seem to do their homework, don’t show how they’ll add value or personally offer a compelling reason why we might want to link.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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Drive a High Performance Blog and Watch Your Numbers Go Up

Filed Under Basics, Successful Blog, Writing | 23 Comments

High Performance Blogging

Most folks are blogging for some sort of visibility — making money makes visibility even more important. Like a great car, a great blog works best on the right fuel and the right fuel with the right driver can take a great blog to performance numbers that hit the top.

We have to use all we are and all our blog can be to hit peak performance. Still it’s worth it for the community and the response.

The Engine

The content is the engine. High performance content

is factual and accurate.
is original and adding value.
is well-expressed and well-structured.
is timeless and linkable.

Outstanding content is so engaging that we’re drawn into the experience or the story. We forget that we’re reading and move along from thought to thought.

The Handling

High performance design and presentation is

is simple and elegant
fast and intuitive in navigation.
enhances the written communication.
offers white space and visuals to support the text.

Top-notch presentation doesn’t call attention to itself. It underpins the content with a feeling that helps to define the experience.

The Driver

The high performance blogger makes the blog a beauty to watch. A high performance blogger

has a presence and a voice that readers respond to.
gets jazzed by readers’ ideas and what they say
isn’t afraid of the blog or a crash now and then
knows that performance is all about the fans

A high performance blog is fun to watch and even more fun to be part of. Make a high performance blog and watch your numbers go up! Remember to keep it and yourself tuned and fueled regularly.

In which areas is yours already a high performance blog?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.

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10 Bloggo-Fears That Go Bump in the Night and How to Make Them Worse

Filed Under Basics, Successful Blog, ZZZ-FUN | 42 Comments

Blogger Nightmare

It’s the middle of the night. The wind is blowing. The moon is high. Creaking noises are sounding. Memories of comments are running through your head, and you’re thinking of emails you sent that went unanswered.

You had such hope when you started blogging. It was daytime. You were always laughing then. Now you’re just shell of yourself in despair, dejected, and broken. Your bloggo-fears have taken over with the things that go bump in the night.

Not to worry. Wait, sorry. Indeed with just a little more worry, you have the power to take those concerns beyond the blogosphere. Go for it. . . . become a mess on the floor.

The Top 10 Bloggo-Fears and How to Make Them Worse

As you read, remember, the more you buy into these the better at crippling yourself you will be. Here’s your chance to prove you’re good at something besides misspelling words and looking like a fool.

If you’re faint of heart, read no further. Jumping without a parachute and shooting yourself in the foot requires a certain sort of dedication to being a . . . hopeless blogger.

10. Fear of Looking Like a Fool Don’t go near the comment box on any blog. If you make a remark or as question, folks might find out about you. If you find you’re having trouble in this area, translate the blog into a language you don’t understand. You need this fear in your repertoire — Fear the clueless, pest that everyone knows you are.

9. Fear of Blogs See how much better every other blog is. Count the ways that you’ll never be half that good. Write the reasons. Frame them. Put them on a wall in your line of vision. Feel the fear of an undisciplined wimp who is inept when you do your best work.

8. Fear of To-Do Lists Think up at least 50 urgent things you MUST do — blog tweaks, promotion spots, blogs to read and not comment on. Don’t stop until the list could only be done by 83.479 people. (Get the math right, not 84 or 83. Be precise.) You’ve moved up a level on the fear chart. Fear how lazy and shiftless you are. [What does shiftless mean?]

7. Fear of Code Tweak your template for hours to fix minute details. Then copy and paste back to the original stylesheet, throwing your own work away. The thought that you might change the code should fill you with fear that you are an egotistical and anal-retentive rat.

6. Fear of the Numbers Check your stats. Hit refresh every 30 seconds for an hour. If your page views don’t rise by 100,000 or more between clicks. Write three posts. Publish them. Then do the whole thing again. Fear being exposed as a woeful underachiever.

5. Fear of Ideas Hunt down the perfect idea — the one that will get you on the front page of every Social Networking site. (Great ideas have nothing to do with readers.) If you don’t find that perfect idea, you are ridiculously dimwitted and slow. Fear that everyone knows what an idiot you are.

4. Fear of Relationships Link out in every sentence of every post you write. Link to anyone who has ever said “hello.” Link to rocks, trees, and statues, if you can. It will take forever, but people will notice how desperate. If you don’t link promiscuously, fear that you’re a hermit, anti-social, and a prude.

3. Fear of Saying “No” Answer all email, including spam. Always do what folks ask — buy, do, subscribe. You’ll know that you’re needed. Fear that if you don’t, those you gently refuse will call you jerk. Fear that the world will know it’s true. Then fear even more that no one would know who you are or care.

2. Fear of the Written Word Get out your dictionary and Thesaurus. Be sure you have two grammar books near. Use words so large that you can’t say or spell them. Then you’ll sure that you write unintelligible mush. Fear that you’re not only a slacker, but also a bottom-of-the-barrel writer. See every teacher you ever had finding out how much you forgot.

1. Fear of Your Personal Worth If you can’t get those 9 above right, then what the heck could you possibly be good for? All of your fears come together here. This the crown jewel. You have made it to the consummate fear of all . . . you are a worm.

On this deep, dark, dastardly night, you no longer have to be a shell of yourself in despair, dejected, and broken. You can be crippled and hopeless blogger too — melted down into unrecoverable mess. Follow this Top Ten List, and you’ll show the world what fear is really for.

On the other hand, if you would rather get out of your funk and come back to us. . . .

Definitely, positively, and for sure, surround yourself with positive people, because positive people make positive thing happen. And frankly it’s looking like you could use a few Here are a few blogs you might check out.

Think Positive Blog

orbitnow!

Make It Great! with Phil Gerbyshak

The Chief Happiness Officer

Positive Communication

This post was part of the b5media business channel theme on fear. If you enjoyed it, would you give it stumble? Thanks!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Other b5 business bloggers talk about fear.

FEAR in Home Business - Find Every Available Resource
Investing Fear Factor: Know Your Risk Tolerance
Fear and Social Media
Freelance Writers and the Fear of Success and/or Money
FEAR and RISK - You donâ€™t know what you donâ€™t know.
Fear And Trembling
Symptoms of productivity phobia
Fear? Think This Is A Stretch Do You?
The four letter word that keeps us from success
Fearing the Taxman: When Not To Be Scared

More fun:
Desperado: The 7 Payoffs of Making Your Blogging Relationships Suck
65th Crayon Finds that Google Doesnâ€™t Use Search
Internet Slang Dictionary and Translator

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12 Detailed Checklists to Spit Shine and Promote Your Blog

Filed Under Basics, Checklists, Successful Blog | 11 Comments

In Case You Missed It

Vovo over at Business Traffic Ideas threw this idea to me. He caught it from Patrick Schaber at The Lonely Marketer who spotted the idea originated by Matt McGee over at Small Business SEM.

The thought is that so new subscribers in recent months might like to know about posts from times gone by.

12 Detailed Checklists to Spit Shine and Promote Your Blog

Every human is drawn to what we like and away from what we don’t. The beauty of a well-written checklist is that it checks for what we might have forgetten. The best blog promotion is quality — content, design, and linking. Use this dozen checklists to give your blog a spit shine and show it off.

Classic Revisited: The Blog Review Checklist

Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs

Editing for Quality and a Content Editor’s Checklist

Choosing for Our Readers: A 5-Point Pop Quiz

Blogs Arenâ€™t Books, But Revising Is Still Revising: 6 Gating Questions to Make Revising Easier

6+1: How-to Blogging — Stomp Out Swiss Cheese Knowledge

Eye-Deas 3-Photo Content Checklist

Editing for Quality and a Content Editor’s Checklist

A Blogger’s Personal Narrative Checklist

Checklist for Starting a Directory Listing

Blog Design Checklist

Taking care of the details, any designer will tell you is the killer app in the most elegant and well-cared for presentations. Any great writer will agree with that opinion. Yes, one after number 7 is missiong.