Successful Blog

Ever Been on a Blog That Was Laid Out Like Las Vegas

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A Navigational Crap Shoot

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I’m leaving today for BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas. The convention is a treat of Blog and New Media conversations, exhibits, and information. I look forward to catching up with old friends, getting some work done, and making some new things happen.

What dread is what it takes to navigate that city.

In Las Vegas, the shortest distance between two points is never a straight line. They’ve purposefully made it that way. I’m frustrated, beat up, and lose time whenever I try to find anyone or anything that isn’t the nearest casino. A round trip from the front desk to a hotel room easily can steal about 20 minutes.

Las Vegas is like a blog filled with shiny things that distract and divert people. Ever been on a blog or website like that?

Las Vegas doesn’t want me to be in my hotel room.
Some blogs don’t want me to read them.

  • When I arrive and have to close an ad before I can see anything, that blog doesn’t really want me to read it.
  • When I click to a new page and I’m asked to subscribe or buy, that blog doesn’t really want me to read it.
  • When the header or sidebar is filled with flash to pull my eyes away from the text, that blog doesn’t want me to read it.
  • When the colors vibrate with a hot red on a bright blue background, that blog doesn’t want me to read it.
  • When the fonts scream at me like a carnival barker, that blog doesn’t want me to read it.
  • When I can’t find the search box to get where I want to go, I really know then that …
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When we have all of the time in the world to get where we’re going diversions can be interesting and wonderful. But it’s not often that the luxury of time is with us. Make it easy for folks to find what they came for and they’re like to come back again to find the next thing.

Unless you want them to be lost in your casino.

Ever been on a blog like Las Vegas?

Hope to see you at BlogWorldExpo!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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How to Be a Successful Blogger . . . Without a Blog

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A Guest Post by Ali Hale

The Living Web

“Can you be a successful blogger without a blog?” It sounds like a trick question, doesn’t it? The sort of thing you might ask on Twitter when you’re bored and wanting some funny responses.

But I’m here to tell you that it is possible. I’ll explain how, but first, you might want to think about what being a “successful blogger” means to you. Here are a few possibilities:

  • Making a living from blogging (many bloggers have this goal)
  • Having thousands, or tens of thousands, of readers
  • Getting your name known around the blogosphere
  • Enjoying writing about topics that really interest you
  • Receiving emails from readers who say you’ve brightened their day

We all have different definitions of success, but chances are, one of the above will resonate with you. They’re all ways in which I’d judge my own success as a blogger – and I achieved them all without my own blog.

Guest Blogging

Most bloggers – even most people who read blogs but don’t write them – know that it’s possible to get a guest post onto another blog. Some bloggers have never attempted this, but for me, it was the first step in achieving blogging success.

(If you want proof that you don’t need a blog to be a guest blogger, check out Scott McIntyre’s excellent guest series from a non-blogger’s perspective.)

Having just one post published on a big blog can win you dozens of appreciative comments and emails from readers. If you can get a regular guest-posting slot, you can take this even further: you’ll have a chance to write about topics that interest you, and you’ll have a ready-made audience of thousands.

The one drawback to guest blogging is that it’s unlikely to give you the financial success that you might be after. So…

Paid Blogging

The next step up from regular guest blogging is to get a regular and paid slot on a blog: what I call “staff blogging”, as you become a “staff writer” for the blog.

Many bloggers aren’t even aware that this is possible – or if they are, they dismiss it as not being for them. This might be because their concept of what “blogging success” constitutes is a little limited. Maybe they’re fixated on getting our own blog into the Technorati Top 100, or winning a certain number of RSS subscribers.

If your goals are financial, though – if you want to earn a living from blogging – the easiest and quickest way to do it is to write for other blogs. This is exactly how I’ve been paying my rent and bills for the last eleven months, so I’m proof that it works! Unlike the more traditional model of blogging, where you start from scratch on your own blog and slowly build up an audience and various revenue streams, staff blogging will earn you good money from day one.

Plus, as well as the financial side, I enjoy all the other successes I listed above: big audiences, appreciative feedback, and the chance to write on numerous topics for several different blogs.

So how do you go about finding yourself a staff position on a blog? You could trawl through online jobs boards, or places like elance and Craigslist – but you might well find that it’s a frustrating and time-consuming process. I outline four methods of finding paid jobs in my Staff Blogging Course, but the one that’s worked best for me is to contact editors directly.

Don’t just start writing to all the blogs which you read, asking for a job, though. You need an action plan – and here it is:

Step 1: Check the blog uses paid writers
Many blogs, even quite large ones, are one-man bands: Darren Rowse at ProBlogger doesn’t use paid bloggers, for instance, so you’d be wasting your time by trying to butter him up for a job!

How can you find out if a blog does have regular paid writers? A couple of big clues are:

  • Multiple authors appearing each week on the blog, without the words “guest post” or similar
  • A page about contributions that mentions payment (like this page on Dumb Little Man)

Step 2: Send the editor a guest post

How can you convince a blog editor who’s never heard of you that you’d be a great addition to his/her team? Simple: send a guest post. Check the blog for any guest posting guidelines, and if you can’t find these, carefully read a few posts and make yours a similar length and style.

Write a short, polite email to go along with your guest post, and send it off to the editor.

When your guest post is published (and if you did your research and took the time to write it well, it will be!) make sure you email the editor to say “thanks”. Keep an eye on comments and respond to any that come up.

Step 3: Ask for a job

This is the scary step! Assuming your guest post went down well, write to the editor again. Say how much you enjoyed guest posting, mention that you’re a freelance blogger, and ask if there are any vacancies on the blog.

In some cases, you’ll be told that the blog has a full contingent of writers – but that there might be a slot coming up in a month or two. I’ve found that patience, and the occasional polite follow-up email, works well in these situations.

This three-step method is how I landed several of my blogging gigs (and twice, I just sent a guest post and was offered a job without even asking). The last two blogs I’ve started working for headhunted me, having seen my work on other blogs.

So there you have it: proof that you can be a successful blogger without a blog. Even better, if you do decide to launch your own blog (I launched mine just a few weeks ago), you’ll be able to bypass the frustrating first few months of having almost no readers – you’ve already got name-recognition in the blogosphere, and there’ll be plenty of readers keen to come and see what you have to say when you’re on your own ground.

Could you branch out by guest posting or writing for pay on blogs other than your own? Why not shake up your definition of being a “successful blogger”?

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Ali Hale is a freelance blogger and part-time post-grad student of creative writing. She’s the author of the Staff Blogging Course, a complete guide to becoming a well-paid, successful blogger. She’s recently launched her own blog, Aliventures, where she writes about getting more from life.
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Awesome, Ali!
Great connecting with you. You’re a blogger to me. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

How Do You Keep Negative Comments from Turning You Around?

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Sometimes It’s Semantics …

Who hasn’t had the joyous experience of a negative comment? We overhear them around the corner, confront them in conversation, and find them written boldly on our blogs. It helps to remember that they’re often more about the person talking … what that person heard, misheard, or never listened to from the start.

It helps a lot if we don’t make such things about ourselves.

A friend asked me once how I handled negative comments on my blog. My first sentence was, “Well I’m a saloonkeeper’s daughter and I used to teach first grade …” I had no idea how that sounded until she laughed out loud.

How do you keep negative words from turning you around?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your web presence!!

For Your Ears Only

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Why Blogging and Guitar Playing Spell Double Trouble
a Guest Post by Alex Beattie

There are many parallels with ‘blogging’ as a craft and ‘guitar playing’ as a craft.

Both the ‘blog’ and the ‘guitar’ are similar in many ways. However, it is important to point out that the ‘blog,’ in the sense of ‘advertisement’ posts or splogs are not the type of blogs I am referring to. The same holds true for the guitar. A guitar you got a for Christmas, and is still in the case is not the ‘guitar playing’ I am referring to – or if you simply happen to own a guitar.

For the Connection

I am pointing out that these 2 crafts (as I see them) are only comparable, inasmuch as the person (and I stress person) works, cultivates, nurtures, hones, errs, loves, promotes the blog and / or the guitar.

Take Seth Godin, for example. He has a blog and has written over 2500 posts (in a row!!!) and has a well-maintained, beautifully written, insightful, and quite an enjoyable blog – let’s not forget he also has an enormous readership.

Then take the band Widespread Panic. They have been playing music together and in front of audiences since 1986, and have amassed a cult-like, Grateful Dead-esque following. They have never, by choice, had a hit single or a number one hit – by choice. They even turned down a gig opening for the Rolling Stones because they (the band) felt that it wouldn’t be fair to their fans. Fans of Widespread Panic enjoy long jams and 3 hour shows.

One most first be drawn to the crafts for the right reasons – one of them is not money. In order to blog successfully (which could mean many different things), one must do it for the right reasons. (i.e. something to say, a cause, a message, a desire to connect to people and to connect people, or maybe just because one likes to write).

The first comparison I would allude to would be neither offer what the ‘knowledge workers’ understand to be a direct path to monetization.

For the Understanding, Appreciation, Motion

The second comparison I would draw is both require a tremendous amount of studying other blogger’s or guitarist’s works. This doesn’t mean plagiarism or blatantly ripping off licks and melodies, but it does require a deeper understanding of composition – whether it is in the form of melodies, notes and rhythms, or HTML code, paragraph structures and the assembling of jpegs, gifs, png files in a 3 column layout composite.

The third comparison would be that both have enormous rewards when another (especially people of the same ilk) appreciates the sound or the blog. If someone attending a show I played approached me after a show and I was playing for beer money and gas, that made it all worth it. All the years practicing was worth it at that moment.

The same holds true with a blog. Nobody read my first post, maybe nobody reads it still, but a few people have stumbled across something I posted and said, “Hey, that was great work, it really made my day.” Or, “That was insightful, Alex, thank you so much.”

The fourth is that they are both a manner of record. While not all passionate guitarists record or want to record, most do at some point. Both the blog and the guitar are public record which gives them some sense of levity or motion. Listen to The Beatles’ earliest stuff like A Hard Days Night and compare it to Tomorrow Never Knows. The Beatles evolved in real time and it was recorded. The same is true with a blog. It is constantly in motion. This is part of what makes them attractive to passionate people.

There are certainly more comparisons here, but at the risk being too creative, I will stop.

For Your Ears Only

A blog is only worth reading if you can tell that someone (the author or authors) really cares, or really wants to transfer an emotion through your viewport. Music and guitars are only worth hearing and listening to if when you hear it, something stirs about you and brings forth something you didn’t have access to until – Voilá ! – the end of Stevie Ray Vaughan‘s Life Without You comes and on you find yourself teeming with heartache, joy, and happiness which once was recorded by someone who felt the same thing, as if it were meant for your ears only.

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Alex Beattie writes about music and life at the Hound Dog Blog. His twitter name is @rubybluesox

Brilliant, Alex! Thank you!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Great Headlines on the Web Always Win … Except When They Don't

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how to blog series

Got Traffic? Want Traffic?
Why Do the Clickers Come?

If you’ve been studying How to Get Literally Everyone’s Attention on the Internet, you probably know that headlines count.

An attention-grabbing headline is everything. Whether it is something completely original and novel, ultra-specific and geared towards a niche, or just incredibly compelling, good headlines on the Web always win.

They always win, except when they don’t.

A great headline will get traffic and attention, but what sticks? What turns a click into a subscriber? Strong businesses are built on strong relationships. What transforms a clicker into someone who hangs around?

It starts with with the reason the clickers came. People come to a website for information, entertainment, and communication / engagement. When they click through on that headline they’re looking for one or more of those three.

Our greatest achievement in building a Web site is helping a person achieve his or her goal. During our research our biggest discovery proved to be that navigation and content work best when they are wed tightly together. “It seems that you can t really separate content and navigation” says Jarod Spool, “without losing something important in the process.” How to make your Web site fast and usable

If folks who click find something that delivers on that promise in that headline they stay and possibly return. If not, they feel thwarted and leave. Here are five things you can do to make it more likely they get what they came for.

Five Ways to Deliver to the Clickers Who Follow a Headline to Your Blog …

  1. Deliver what your headline promises.
  2. Deliver it in short paragraphs using subheads surrounded by lots of white space so that people have room to think and breathe.
  3. Deliver it without making folks jump over ads or through hoops to get to the prize that the headline promises.
  4. Deliver it by recognizing the people who take time to comment.
  5. Deliver it by making it easy for folks to stay..

The most important thing is deliver — do what we say we’re going to do.

It’s not the click that doesn’t come that’s a loss. It’s the click that comes to find that we’re not what we suggested we would be. A great headline followed by something less doesn’t win. It doesn’t even finish.

Great headline, lame blog post — you’ve been there. What’s your response when you end up on one of those?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

7 Ways to Check … Is Blogging Your Dream?

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A Guest Post by Lisa Newton

For me, the answer to this question is a total, unabashed YES. I live, sleep, and breathe my blog, Travelin’ Local.

1-3 Do You Live, Sleep, Breathe Your Blog?

Live. I live in California, and became a resident two years ago; but I’ve fallen in love with it, the people, its beaches, the cities, the mountains—and so much, much more. However, being in California is only part of what I live for. I also live for my other passion which is photography. Many years ago, I played with a 35mm camera, but four kids, a family, and work interrupted my love of photography. A few months ago, thanks to a Christmas gift, my passion for photography was reactivated.

So what better way to express my two passions than creating my own blog where I am able to feature my deeply personal interpretation of my local neighborhoods, with photos, prose and stories, and research about “all things” California? Thus, Travelin’ Local was born.

Sleep. How does one sleep with their blog? Because I’m thinking about it as soon as I wake up, and right before I go to bed, and even (although it’s only happened twice), when I wake up in the middle of the night—burning with an idea, or thought, which I quickly wrote down on my notebook next to the nightstand, before going back to sleep.

Breathe. I breathe life into my blog, and it gives life back to me. Like yesterday. After working for 10 hours at my “day” job, I arriving home, glanced at the sky, and knew right there right then, that I had to go right back out. I happened to see the one of the most beautiful and stunning sunsets I’ve seen in many, many years. So grabbed my camera and started shooting photo after photo, before the sun quickly set—with one of the pictures featured here. Like a bricklayer who uses bricks to build a wall, I choose words as a wordsmith, instead, to construct a story about the sights and sounds of what I see and experience. And because blogging is an instantaneous and spontaneous endeavor, I immediately wrote this to share my story.

4 – 7 Is Blogging Passion, Connections, Dedication and Goals?

Passion. Don’t confuse passion with unrealistic dreams of grandeur. With our newly wired world, it’s easy to get caught up with things that aren’t realistic. On the other hand from the gems of ideas, do spring captains of finance, information technology, publishing, arts, science, and writing. I have a great family, wonderful friends, and feel good about where I’m at. But my love of blogging has taken me to the next level, just as blogging itself fuels my passion.

Meaningful Connections. Another very important reason my blog is important to me is that it affords me with the ability to meet interesting and inspiring people every day. Lance is a tremendous talent and great person who writes about life with uncanny depth and persuasion of conviction. And with her divine photography; Diane C. takes me right into her “home” with her photo blog of the intricacies and fascinating Arizona desert and habitats; and Henie creates art every day, sharing it with her readers. These are just three examples of the wonderful and talented people that I’ve made friends with at my Travelin’ Local community.

Dedication. Even before I started my blog, I spent quite a bit of time doing my homework by reading other blogs, blogs about blogging, joining communities, fastidiously responding to other’s comments, and enjoying countless hours looking at the huge amount of photography on the Internet. I learned about writing, reading, design, and life.

Setting Goals. I created Travelin’ Local because it’s my passion and inspiration. I did so with a very specific creative and publishing model in mind—I wanted to show and share with the world California; but from my own perspective. But along the way, I literally stumbled upon a “name your dream” contest for photographers and photojournalists, to name their dream job—so for me the decision to participate in it was instantaneous. My dream job is to keep doing what I was already doing—which was Travelin’ Local–but taking it to the next level with more and more content and photojournalistic stories. The chance to win $50,000 didn’t hurt my want for the assignment, either.

I looked at it, and of course — California Dreamin’ was my submission. I entered the contest, aware that I don’t yet know as many people online as I want to, but both in degree and kind requesting votes isn’t considered spam. (Yes, I do read Chris Brogan ……………………….:)

Is Blogging Your Dream? I’ve told you all a lot about myself, along with the where’s, why’s, and when’s of what drives me. So back to the original question posed in the title. My blog is my dream which I made a reality, because I live for it, and it in turn inspires me and others, which, in turn, inspires others and others, creating something that will hopefully be passed on to future generations. If you’re so inclined, please take a look at my contest entry, California Dreamin’. It only takes a few minutes to register. To be considered for the next stage of judging, California Dreamin’ needs to be in the top 20 of all entries. I’d love to get a little blogger help, and I know that Liz’s community would totally understand how to help my dream turn into a reality.

What about you? Do you dream your blog? Is your blog a dream? Do you Dream Big?

Lisa Newton writes content and talks about social media at Travelin’ Local . Her twitter name is @LisaNewton

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A Goal with Action Is a Wish!

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