Blogging and Writing

Website publishing advice and writing tips from Chris Garrett to help you grow your authority, increase your traffic, and make more profit online.

  • Bloggers Mean Business

    Here we go again. Another week, another “revolution”, another “rebel” stirrs things up. To paraphrase a line from a movie … “He’s not a rebel, he is a very naughty boy.” Ideas should be free, says the latest link-bait, attack-post, call-to-arms, etc. Whatever. It seems even in 2010 there are still people out there who…

  • Why Email Subscribers?

    A couple of people emailed me to ask why my big birthday competition was only open to email subscribers, why did I want email subscribers in particular?

    Well first of all I love all my subscribers :) There are just things you can do for email subscribers that you can not for RSS (currently).

    As many guessed, the first advantage of email over RSS is email subscribers are not anonymous. Being able to personalize and identify who you are talking to is very useful.

    The other advantages are:

    1. You can send attachments to email lists more easily. With RSS you post a download link and the link gets shared around (even now people are linking directly to my free PDF)
    2. It is possible to email subscriber-only alerts outside of your regular blog posting schedule
    3. Email lists can be segmented so you only communicate your message to people who want to hear it

    Now you know this you might be forming guesses as to what my special email subscriber treats are going to be, but you will only find out for sure if you subscribe by email :)

  • As If, Yeah Right

    When we write we are talking to our reader. While your reader is going through your content they will be responding. They might think “Interesting, I didn’t know that”, or they might think “So? What’s in it for me?” and they might think “So what?“. One response I don’t think many marketing copywriters are prepared…

  • Who SHOULD Blog?

    In my last post I took the unusual step of suggesting there are people who should avoid blogging. While I am complete card-carrying, t-shirt wearing, tattooed on my brain blogging advocate, even I realize there are people who would be best off being blog readers than blog writers. It just is not for everybody, and…

  • What a Difference a Break Makes

    As some of you knew, I am on vacation right now. Finding internet connectivity in this part of France has proven tough, but I have managed to locate a shaded, quiet corner with reasonable coffee and a free WIFI connection :)

    I should have brought business cards, it’s amazing the conversations you can strike up just by displaying the Apple symbol around an internet hotspot! (If you want free blogging advice, this is the time to catch me, but you will have to do it in person, heh)

    Unfortunately I didn’t get chance to complete my survey results before I left so they will have to wait while I get back.

    Being an internet addict this lack of connectivity drives me mad, but there is a positive aspect (in addition to managing my habit and spending more quality time with the family), it gets my brain working in all sorts of different ways.

    Perhaps it is the 40c weather or the relaxation but my imagination has been working over time. I guess it could be also giving myself something other than work to think about too. While I have been here I have already read a lot (non-business books too!), explored the place, it is all idea fuel. I’ve been inspired and re-energized for the challenges that face me when we get back.

    Walking around I have ideas for articles, such as “Why blogging is like running a restaurant”, “Why blogging is like running a fun fair”. I will probably not use them but it proves this time away has allowed my grey cells to unclench.

    Although it is unlikely I will get to the hardcore traveling that Lorelle gets up to, I am enjoying my small taste. I really do recommend switching off for a few days, even if you can’t get away very far.

    Now the question is, should I have just left the laptop at home? :)

  • Mobile Blogging: My Portable Blog Writing Kit

    Nokia n95Last week I put a message on Twitter that prompted a couple of people to ask for more details:

    On way to sunny Reading, fighting through traffic and rain to see a client, writing blog posts on the road and trying to not feel car sick

    Yes, I was literally “blogging on the road” and it seems other people would like to do the same, so here is how I do it.

    My setup is comprised:

    • Macbook
    • Nokia n95
    • 3G mobile internet tariff

    The Mac talks to the phone over bluetooth and uses the 3G connection for connectivity. In the UK data costs are pretty expensive so I have recently switched from o2 and now have 1gb of data and more calls than I need for much less. It pays to shop around. Even better, my n95 also has Skype loaded, which is completely free while I am in the UK due to a deal with my new phone plan provider, 3. Overseas I still pay through the nose, but luckily outside the British Isles most countries have heard of free wifi.

    While I have a spare battery for my laptop when flying, I also have a british plug to car power socket adapter that allows me to plug in pretty much any device and get power on the move. Sometimes I even remember to take it along.

    I have been blogging while on travels for a few years but my setup has changed a fair bit, as you can see from this old post at Performancing

    My equipment has a much more Microsoft flavour. My humble Samsung V25 laptop runs XP Pro, plus I have a O2 XDA Exec Pocket PC (a rebadged HTC running Windows Mobile 2005 for Pocket PC). For voice I have Skype both on my laptop (I use a $9 Skype earpiece/microphone, nothing so posh as Nicks headset) and also on my Pocket PC. The PDA is actually a phone, but I only use it for data and Skype as I have a Sony Ericsson K750i for normal cellular voice calls.

    The n95 is a great phone for bloggers, and with it even without the laptop I am pretty connected, just a shame it doesn’t have a full keyboard like my old PDA. When we were in Chicago for SOBCon, Twitter was the main way to stay in contact, so being able to get web access from anywhere (mobile or wifi) is a boon. Try the mobile interface or TinyTwitter. In addition, IM tools are becoming an essential part of work life, I have been trialling eBuddy for MSN, etc, but it doesn’t seem to like the ‘@’ in my AIM account screen name.

    I am looking at the new 3G iPhone quite closely, although I expect I might have to stick with the n95 as it sounds like Apple will still not allow you to hook the iPhone up to a computer to act as a modem which is pretty important for my use.

    While I haven’t got this mobile blogging thing down to a fine art like Lorelle, my setup does show it is possible to be pretty portable with your blogging.

    Do you blog while on your travels?

  • Writing Lessons from Obama and Hilary

    Obama and Hilary have been a dominant force in the news since they started campaigning. This is saying something, as I am not even American. Their long battle has taught me a couple of related lessons that I wanted to share with you.

    Attacks and Negativity Damage All

    While attacks are one way to get attention, and also serve to position yourself relative to your competitor,  in the end the damage is not localized and you end up soiling your own reputation.

    Think about it, what do we say about someone who campaigns this way?

    “They stooped to a new low”

    “She is fighting dirty”

    “Smearing the other candidate”

    “Sowing the seeds of discord and dissent”

    Is this the kind of thing candidates want to be associated with?

    What has this to do with writing?

    • How many blogs do you see that go on the attack, as a content strategy or as a means of self promotion?
    • When you see someone ragging on someone or something popular to make a point, how do you feel?
    • Do you see community leaders saying “you are with us or against us”? (eg. why shouldn’t an Apple fan respect Bill Gates? Why is it not OK for an open source advocate to recommend a piece of proprietary software if it’s the best for the job?)
    • The whole “we don’t like these people, we are better than them, because”, does that work with you or make you think the worst of the writer?

    Sometimes we do have to criticize to make a serious point, but that does not mean we should label the person. Always, if you must criticize, try to criticize behavior.

    Positivity and Solutions are Persuasive

    When I see two people argue like Obama and Hilary, I look for the person who is offering ideas and solutions, and I do the same in my reading and learning.

    It’s impossible to make a good decision long term based on fear-mongering and negative attacks. Hate and bashing only serves to remove choices, not help make the right one. Positivity and inventive solutions provide you something to get behind, something motivating and enabling.

    Ideas Bind, Attacks Divide

    When you write you can say what you don’t like or you can offer ideas for a better way. I try to do the latter, though of course being only human it doesn’t always come through like that. My idea of something better today is to try to spin a criticism into an offer of positive advice and see how different the reaction and results can be.

    Summary

    The main point is, what do you want to achieve with your piece of writing? If you want to make someone or a whole group feel bad, then go on the attack. If on the other hand you want to help, provide answers, then you are far better giving real advice and ideas. Offer something constructive, it is best all round.

    What do you think? Have I mis-read the situation, have I just alienated half my readers? Am I being unfair? Do you agree with me about my point of being positive and offering solutions? Please share your thoughts in the comments

  • Good Questions Make Great Content

    It’s OK to not have all the answers. Let’s face it, everything changes so fast, it’s hard to keep up with absolutely everything. Sometimes though we have burning questions that Google can’t solve. What should we do?

    Well, as bloggers, a great thing to do is to ask the question and publish the answers.

    If you don’t know the answer, it could well be lots of people want to know too. Plus, if you can’t find the answer in Google then you just might have an idea that will bring you regular search traffic if you implement it right. It’s always a good thing to get your audience thinking and involved. Even if their response is “I don’t know, but good question!” :)

    Sometimes there is no right or wrong answer, but opinions can create valuable discussions which are still attractive content, thought provoking, community building and good for entertainment and engagement. Just look at Liz’ Open Mike discussions.

    The question does not always have to be asked on your blog either. It might be that you know a forum or discussion list with topical experts on board, or it might be that you need to cast your net wide and get the biggest possible response by asking in multiple places.

    Here are five ways to get answers outside of comments that jump to mind: 

    1. Twitter – For my post about getting the most out of LinkedIn I asked for suggestions on Twitter. Twitter, after my blog, is my go-to place for getting quick answers as I know I will get a response. Of course you need a few followers first!
    2. LinkedIn – I have only asked one question on LinkedIn and just got the one response, but it was a good one. Others have far more success. LinkedIn is chock full of business people, and is probably more appropriate for those kinds of issues, but also those people have lives outside of business so might be worth a try.
    3. Yahoo! Answers – Same kind of deal as LinkedIn answers but wider in audience and more general purpose and more consumer oriented.
    4. A survey/poll – Rather than just ask a question and get responses in comments, surveys and polls can be useful for narrowing the answers for quantitative results as I have done in my blogging survey (still a chance to win a book or blog critique!)
    5. Email – If you know certain people will have the answers you need then email them. If you make it easy and quick to answer you might be surprised at the responses you get. I did this with my Cluetrain Social Media article and is something Jonathan Fields does routinely to great effect.

    Make sure you always credit the people who provide answers. Also try to give people credit even if you disagree with what they say, show all sides.

    Got any tips to share? Do you ask questions in your blogging? How? Or do you prefer blogs to be about answers? Please share in the comments …

  • Global Blogger and Blogging Survey

    How would you like the chance to win one of 10 copies of the ProBlogger Book AND get lots of interesting stats and facts about bloggers worldwide?

    If this sounds good, take the survey! :)

    Every 100 survey entries up to 1,000 I will pull an email address out at random to win a copy of the book, so all you have to do is enter the survey to be in with a chance of winning.

    All the details are optional, including the email address which is purely for the prize draw. I have tried to make the answers as easy to complete as possible, using free text fields rather than strict categories. While it does make it harder for me to compile the results, the whole point is to find out as much as I can.

    I hope to get 1,000 completed surveys so please do spread the word. The more entries received the more reliable the results will be and therefore more useful to draw conclusions from.

    Take the survey now then tell your friends :)

  • Building Your Online Brand With Social Media Tools

    Social Media tools have an enormous power to put you in contact with thousands of people. As I have said on numerous occasions though, attention on its own is useless, what are you going to do with that attention?

    If you want to build your online brand you have to know how all your activities work together. You need a consistency and congruency. Each part of the social media puzzle builds into a picture people have of you, how they imagine you to be relates to how you really are to the degree you get this stuff right.

    If you are approaching social media in a haphazard way, do not be surprised if things do not work out exactly as you hoped or imagined they would.

    You Choose Who You Are

    We are judged by what we say, how we say it and who we associate with. All choices we make, not things that happen to us by chance.

    If you are constantly being seen with the snarky, attacking, abusive people on Twitter, then you will be seen as in their gang. When your pictures often appear in the saucier flickr groups then that is the impression people will have of you, regardless of your PHD in nuclear physics.  We do not get the whole picture online, we see what is right in front of us, and that means we will jump to conclusions and you will be guilty until proven innocent.

    Since Michael wrote about what your social media activities say about you I have been thinking about this a lot. Having been online for a long time, there is not much I can do to claw back what is out there. I haven’t exactly played fast and loose with my online reputation, but then I have not been too sophisticated with it either.

    I have clients from all sorts of industries and walks of life. Who my clients are have been used to attack me in the past. Should I with this in mind be revealing my clients through StumbleUpon votes?

    Best to choose now who you are, what your values are, and where you draw the line between openness and TMI (too much information). Thankfully I clued up about 10 years ago some things I would never write about, but still there are aspects of my life I think really ought to have been kept private.

    Joining the Social Media Dots

    The best way to approach social media is to choose your venues and connect them in some way to your blog. Keep your blog as the main representation of “you” online. That is where you best stuff is going to be, your archive, portfolio or resume. If someone Googles you, this is what you want to appear, not your virtual facebook sheep or your drunken accidental flickr pics.

    Building your brand with social meda

    With a good core blog, you can further reinforce this positive brand. Have conversations on Twitter, share your pictures, guest post and comment. Participate in forums that relate to what you do and your audience. Above all where you want connections to be made, use a consistent avatar, nickname and style. Connect all the profiles back to your blog, and where appropriate link out to the social media sites.

    As you can see, I link to my Twitter account from here and occasionally will link to my Flickr through my pictures. While this helps grow my connections on those services it does mean that I have to use privacy settings on Flickr and on Twitter I need to be aware of what I am saying!

    Are you conscious about the brand you are building in social media sites or do you just try to be yourself and let people take away what they will? Do you connect your online activities or are they in silos? Please share your thoughts in the comments …

  • Blogging Freqency Thoughts

    One aspect of my presentation over the weekend that I have been giving some thought to is the value of fewer, more in depth articles versus many shorter posts.

    Traditionally people would look to the top blogs like BoingBoing and think to be successful in blogging you need to post many times a day. Recently though on the blogs I work on I have seen more benefit from scheduling planned, deep and promoted content.

    I wonder if services such as Twitter are taking the ground that the rapid fire posting blogs used to hold. Could it be that blogs will more be for the content that can’t be delivered in a few lines?

    This is all from the blogger perspective though, what of the reader? As a reader, which do you prefer? Please vote in the poll and say why in the comments?

    As a reader, what type of posting do you prefer?
    [Continued …]

  • Engaging Readers

    If you are blogging for a purpose it is not enough just to attract attention, we need things to happen as a consequence. That means at least providing the right content to the right people. As I have said many times before, while many people are looking for “traffic”, you can often be more successful…