Website publishing advice and writing tips from Chris Garrett to help you grow your authority, increase your traffic, and make more profit online.
Is blogging a good way to make money? It might surprise you, it might even disappoint you, but I don’t recommend it. A friend is looking to make some money fast. His business is slow and needs to make up the shortfall. He asked about blogging, and I told him that wasn’t the answer. I…
Blog Carnivals are a great way to meet other bloggers in your niche, get more exposure, links, comments and traffic.
Do you know what your blog is about? Strange question, but a serious one!
What YOU think your blog is about and what your audience thinks it is about might be two very different things …
A great discussion is happening over at the Authority Blogger Forum started by Khalid about leaving links in comments. Head over and leave your thoughts? Personally I agree with the excellent first answer by DazzlinDonna I would only leave a link in a comment if it was necessary – such as to prove a point,…
Just lately I have been the target of some pretty clumsy linkbait attempts. A couple of readers prompted me to look at one particular blog where the author on three separate occasions (that we know of) has goaded me to react. First of all this makes me super grateful for my loyal readers. Not only…
As you might already know, one of the ways I earn income is by blogging for other people. This practice is becoming more and more common as companies realise the benefit of having a blog but their staff do not have the time to keep up the content. Companies can choose to go with a…
I just got back from a trip to Budapest to see the Hungarian Forumula 1 Grand Prix. While we probably imbibed rather more booze than is advisable we had a great time exploring a fascinating city and of course the excitement of watching our boy Lewis do the business in the race itself. What struck…
I was discussing blogging with a couple of marketers the other day and the inevitable “aren’t blogs online diaries” comment surfaced. While I patiently explained the different types of blogs to those guys I realised many of us probably have some sort of cross-over between types and rarely consider what our dominant blogging style is….
What is the Summer Slump? The Summer Slump is a dip in attention and traffic. It affects many areas of life and business, not just blogging. Round about now our audience is thinking about vacations, slacking off, going to the beach, spending more time outside and less at their computers. The slump pretty much covers…
A couple of people asked recently how I send those automated emails that thank people for commenting. The answer is quite simple, it is a fantastic plugin called Comment Relish Comment relish is a Wordpress plugin developed to send an e-mail message to users who comment on your website who have never commented before. A…
It was my birthday yesterday, plus it is six months since I launched this blog, so I am in a reflective mood while nursing a massive hangover 🙂 Today I would like to talk about blogging goals and what we do to work towards them. Most people would agree that it is good to have…
Over at copyblogger I wrote a piece where I advised if you want to be a good writer you need to write every day. In this post I am going to tell you it might be better to not post every day. Whaaaat? You see there is a key word there, did you miss it?…
Just for today, how about trying this. Don’t just browse your favourite blogs, seek out some new blogs and Write a comment Send a supportive email Bookmark at Del.icio.us Stumble at Stumbleupon Write a post linking to what you have found Why? Don’t you think it would be a nice thing to do? … and…
In response to my post the other day about short term versus long term thinking, a reader, who wished to remain nameless for reasons you are about to discover, let me know about her experiences with a traffic report from an Internet Marketing “guru”. It seems this guru has recently discovered blogs. Actually, correction, has…
For the second time in the history of this blog I have deleted a post. While that is an hour of my life I am not getting back I feel better for doing it. Anyone who grabbed the RSS up to about ten minutes ago will still be able to read it, but I am…
This post started out quite different. I was just going to tell you what I thought a Blog Post was, my definition, but then I thought it would be more interesting to open it up to you. The thought was prompted by a thread in the forum about an article by Jakob Nielsen advising people…
Occasionally you will get people in comments or on their own blogs who disagree with you. I know from conversations with bloggers, especially people new to blogging, this is a cause of stress and upset. Particularly when the disagreement contains attacks or is forcefully put across. How do you deal with them? First of all…
One of the things people say about blogs they like is “personality”. What does this mean? There are actually a few specific things this might mean. They like the writing style, they find the humour funny, the stories are amusing. It could also be an “attitude” thing. The best example of a personality blogger I…
I was talking this morning with a clients team members. One is an SEO, the other a designer. My role on the project is to write, research and promote the blog. It struck me how many jobs a solo-blogger has. Do you ever think about how many hats you have to wear as a blogger?…
I was chatting to another blogger last night over Skype and he happened to mention something that was getting under his skin. Another blogger repeatedly referenced topics that first appeared on my friends blog but this other guy never credited him, not once. This can happen absolutely accidentally. We all pretty much read the same…
Getting links, finding guest bloggers, being introduced to business opportunities, it is all about networking and creating relationships. How do you find and connect with fellow bloggers? The best way to find and get to know bloggers is to talk to them or through their writing. You need to get a measure of them, make…
Are your doubts holding you back? Do you feel like a fraud? Talking to people just starting out I know these are common feelings. Here are some wise words from Bill Shakespeare, expert pro blogger of his time … Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Our…
Bit of an autobiographical feel to this post. Don’t worry if this is not to your taste, there will be more tips tomorrow! In my post about what memes are I invited anyone to tag me with a meme in return for a link and a free copy of my forthcoming ebook. Bonnie tagged me…
The other day I challenged you to come up with a good Meme. Get my attention and as well as links and a help in getting your meme some traction, you will also get a copy of my forthcoming (really!) ebook. First, because I am a sucker for charity, is … the Charity Link Meme!…
Blog Memes, what are they? I just got tagged with another Meme. Last time I mentioned Memes I got a bunch of emails asking what they were, so before answering this Meme let’s clear up what a blog meme is, shall we? In science, a Meme (pronounced to rhyme with “theme”) is a self-propagating unit…
Business and corporate blogs are powerfully effective and make up the “other” half of the professional blogging scene. Rather than showing adsense or banner ads, business and corporate blogs generate traffic, customer loyalty, leads and PR. Business blogs use indirect methods to turn a profit. Even if you don’t consider your blog a business, if…
Who is your blog for? What purpose does it serve? It’s good to have a goal when starting your blog. Knowing what you want to achieve helps keep you on track. Having an idea of where you are headed serves to guide your decisions. Focus on the prize, indeed, but not to the exclusion of…
More and more people are getting into blogging because they want to make money. To feed this desire more and more bloggers are writing about making money from blogs. I get asked how to go about monetizing blogs, and also why I don’t write more about the subject. This post will answer both questions. First…
If you ever get stuck for what to write about there is one place you can look that will provide post ideas that are Useful Original Valuable On-topic I have just been doing some much-needed housekeeping on this blog. Part of this process requires me to go through my comments. Wow, there is some good…
Yes, blog critique time again! It’s no secret than I am a fan of photography. For a couple of years now I have dabbled with my photography blog, been unhealthily addicted to Flickr and even have a couple of clients in photography and related industry. Portrait photographers are a special breed. While I have photographed…
What do most people do when they start a blog? They just start writing. This isn’t the wrong thing to do. Actually there is a lot to be said for just getting on and doing it. So what is the problem? You get whatever audience you attract. Lots of people are happy with any audience…
A bit of a different blog to critique this time. Unlike my other blog critiques this is a blog attached to a network management product e-commerce store. Anyone with a corporate blog of any variety will likely be familiar with the challenges involved. The OPENXTRA Blog was launched in November 2006 judging from the archives….
Today’s blog critique is the small business blog “Clever Start”.
“Diogenes” has asked me to respond to the following questions. Now, I don’t know who the questioner is but his or her questions are interesting enough that I thought I would answer them. What is a blog to you? Blogs are for me all about conversation. This is why I get so annoyed at fantastic…
Like most bloggers with a reasonable amount of readership I get some interesting comments. Most of my most … um … colourful come after a guest post or mention on anothers blog. One theme that seems to come up a lot is that I should “get a life” and related but subtly different, people earning…
Several people have pointed me to the Guardian piece about blogs by Victor Keegan. Sorry guys but you won’t find me getting hot under the collar, I don’t jump up and down defending blogs any more (I got that out of my system years ago). Here, since people asked, is my (hopefully calm) thoughts. If…
I have been going through my emails since arriving back in the UK, only 165 left. One of the messages prompted me to write this short post. The message included the phrase “I guess though he must be right, after all his blog is huge”. I realised reading this I might be partly to blame…
Todays critique is Garrett Albright’s Ray Gun Robot which has the tagline “Tech with Personality” – a good start! Right away I have a feel for what the blog will be about. Great stuff. I know the name of the blogger The domain and blog name is catchy “Tech” helps define a target audience, the…
First victim customer of my blog critiques is Not Just Cricket Initial Impressions Nice template. Tiny font. Does look pretty but people with not great eyesight would appreciate a larger font size? “Not Just Cricket” … sports blog? No “about”? No “Author” … no name listed that I could find … Looking down the categories,…
What is a trackback? What are trackbacks used for? Why should you care?