Website publishing advice and writing tips from Chris Garrett to help you grow your authority, increase your traffic, and make more profit online.
A common frustration from bloggers is they get to a certain level of momentum then stall. It’s like there is a ceiling that they can not break through. Rather than steaming ahead toward your goal, do you feel like you are going round in circles? How can we keep driving our growth? I often see…
A bookmark is the standard compliment for online writers. We applaud singers, we laugh at comedians jokes, and we bookmark articles we find on the web. Bookmarks and links fuel your blogs success. What can we do to get more bookmarks? Why then do some get bookmarked while others get largely ignored? It’s not just…
If you don’t decide on a goal before writing, don’t be surprised if you end up with a random outcome. How to choose a goal for your post.
Before you start a blog, you need to understand why your blog will exist. Before you sit down to write, what exactly do you want your audience to do when they have done reading?
Someone on Twitter remarked that they were sick of all the “Why blogging is like …” posts. To be honest I like them, and I will continue to write posts like that, but I am not surprised this particular person is sick of them. It is like top ten lists and all the other formula…
Have you ever visited a tourist location then browsed Flickr only to find everyone seems to have taken the same photograph? One of the principal techniques of better photography is to move around, look at the scene in different ways, approach from new angles. The same is true for writing. While the direct approach, the…
In the previous post I recommended that you should find your own stories or develop a unique take on the news. Basically implying that repeating was bad. Here’s the funny thing … repeating yourself can be good … Now don’t get me wrong, I do not for a minute suggest that you simply drone on…
Where are ewe?, originally uploaded by foxypar4. Several bloggers have complained to me about the number of feeds they find lately that simply echo the same old information. Think about your blog … have you fallen into this trap? It’s an easy habit to get into. Fear of not having something to say, or fear…
Lately I haven’t watched a lot of television, for a couple of years actually now I think about it. But, thanks to my handy satellite dish and DVR (Sky+ for the locals) I do keep up with some of the latest geek viewing. This is lucky because Ben over at Blogging Experiment has got a…
In normal, polite conversation, people tell us that we should stay away from the topics of politics and religion. Does the same go for social media and blog discussions? There are probably other topics just as controversial, but I think in most cases these topics come under the heading of politics or beliefs for shorthand….
Is your blog Reader-Centric? Yuk, I know, horrible buzz word, but stay with me! What I am asking is important to your blog success; how well do you cater for your reader when working on your blog? In the programming world people talk about “user centric” where the users needs are elevated and in customer…
You can be charismatic or be innovative, if you had to choose, which would you prefer? I asked on Twitter and got overwhelmingly “Innovative!” as a response. This is pretty much what I hoped and expected to hear. While most people would say they value innovation more highly than charisma, I look around and I…
It is no coincidence that I am writing this at the end of the year. Traditionally at the end of one year we look ahead to the next. I’m trying to make 2008 much more organized than 2007! I am often paid to manage projects, it is something I am good at and enjoy, so…
Mind Maps are a useful technique to learn for brainstorming, note taking, in fact any time you want to get thoughts down on paper. To show you how to use them I have created my first ever full length video/sketchcast. Man did I find this difficult, it is a lot harder than I thought to…
Being stuck for a blog post topic isn’t always a case of sitting down and your brain going blank. That was the problem we hopefully had solutions for in the previous post of this series. There are times when you know in advance the overall subject you need to cover but somehow you still need…
One of the most challenging aspects of blogging is thinking up what to write about. It is something that impacts all of us at one time or another. While it is true the more you write the better you get at it, you can still sit at the computer one day absolutely blank. When that…
Do your readers have a clear idea of where you stand? Does any philosophy or approach come through your writing? Making your blog opinionated could be a way you can make your blog stand out and gather an audience. Gather Your Community Around an Idea Consider what a community is. Would you agree that a…
What have bloggers got as an advantage that other webmasters do not? I would argue “conversation”. Have a think about which sites you feel a part of, or where you feel a connection to the site and its owners. What are the common elements? Liz has turned blog conversation into an art form and a…
Interesting thought here from David Peralty I think that writing on numerous blogs can be detrimental, but as Chris Garrett has proven, it can also be very helpful, as everywhere I turn around his name pops up Do you think I’m getting over-exposed? As David says, part of my personal branding has been from writing…
Have you seen Jon’s “Drunk on Your Own Words” post at Copyblogger? It’s a good piece, go read it if you haven’t already. After reading it I realized blogging has some things in common with drinking the booze: Inhibitions – For some of us blogging can strip away inhibitions. This could be in the way…
Over at the Authority Blogger Forum my friend and super forum moderator, Jen has started a great thread about freelance blogging rates. What would you charge for freelance blogging? As she says, while there is a lot of information out there about freelance blogging, the one thing people rarely talk about is how much you…
Would you believe I have a blogger doppelgänger out there? Yes, it’s true, and cruelly he is both younger and better looking. Not only that, he is a skilled designer. Luckily for me I can redress the balance somewhat by trashing his new blog. But no! That last piece of evil revenge has also been…
One of the Twitter personalities I have been following is Sam Freedom who found one day his account had been suspended. It turns out from support there are several reasons this happens, mainly: you’ve followed a large number of people in a short amount of time there is a small number of followers compared to…
I think bloggers might be the most self-critical people I have ever met. In some cases monitoring our own progress can be a great thing, I expect we have all worked with people who we wish would have cared more about their own performance! But when we routinely beat ourselves up, something has to change….
I am by no means a wealthy man but I do enjoy living well, given the opportunity. Vezeo is a blog especially for people who have a passion for the finer things; international travel, food, restaurants, and resorts, and either have the means or the aspirations to match. The blog is off to a good…
It’s funny but whatever you do, there will always be people who misunderstand you. The more public you make yourself the more you will be misunderstood. In many ways it is our own fault, in different scenarios we wear masks to shield part of ourselves so we feel less vulnerable. Our “work mask”, the persona…
Digg users are famously hostile. In fact you could say the internet in general has long had a reputation for being hostile. What can we do to avoid the worst? What can be done? This post will probably kiss away any chance of me getting on the Digg homepage again but such is life. I’m…
So was Blog Action Day a success? I feel like it was. My post got a warm response and there was a lot of buzz around the intarwebs. It seems though my comment about the topic getting folks hot under the collar was spot on. I had the worst day for unsubscribes ever! I have…
In the first part of “Buying and Selling Blogs” we looked at ways to see value over and above the traditional income and value of the domain. The next step after looking to see what value is there, is to see what value you can add. It’s just like in the real world of real…
Selling blogs is a growth area of professional blogging. Having said that it’s not just people who want to buy or sell blogs that want to know how to value them. Bloggers often want to compare their progress against others. This is a very difficult question because often you are comparing apples and oranges, plus…
A blog critique for Adii, a designer from South Africa.
You already know how effective guest posting can be for building your profile as a blogger and also driving more visitors to your blogs. There are opportunities for guest posting and then there are also paid blogging gigs out there if you know where to find them. Over the weekend I discovered a third type…
Dear FeedBurner, Let me start by saying I love your service. Of course I have no choice. There are no alternatives. But really, I do love your service. I find it looks nice, is easy to use, and mostly gives me what I need. The main issues I have are in the area of your…
I just did my first ever Sketchcast over at Codswallop and I found the experience quite strange. For years my teaching method was to speak while I write and doodle on a whiteboard. That felt natural and fun. For some reason recording my voice while trying to draw didn’t really work for me. Perhaps with…
I was asked last night how I think up topics for posts when I am writing freelance or guest posts. It can be tricky but I did come up with an analogy that I think works to explain how I deal with it. Think of each place you post articles to as a different friend….
A common challenge with writing is putting forth your opinion while knowing you are going to upset, annoy or lose a portion of your audience. How can you explain your position when you know it is not going to be 100% popular? Some of the best stand-out articles are when someone actually has an opinion…
In my post about web community building and participation I mentioned making friends and contacts. I think this is an important and much overlooked factor. For people who work online, usually from home, it can be a terribly solitary and lonely existence. Over the years I have had the good fortune to meet some great…
Useful and interesting content is not all you should be creating for your blog. At the same time you need to be building your blog in other ways. Your content can attract new visitors, can help retain the visitors you have, and can bring you in links. Here are some tactics you can use: Flagship…
One of the question themes I get asked about most is making money with blogs. While this isn’t a “make money online” blog like Darrens or Johns, it is still something I know many of you care about. While I never talk about how much I earn it is no secret that my money is…
I love ice cream. You could say I am an ice cream fan. One of the wonderful things about ice cream is the huge variety of styles and flavours. Something for everyone, right? Remind you of anything? From the title of this post you can guess I think blogs are a lot like ice cream….