Website publishing advice and writing tips from Chris Garrett to help you grow your authority, increase your traffic, and make more profit online.
Why do I answer every single comment made here? A couple of people have asked why I did my Reader Appreciation post. Some have even implied that I have a big enough audience to not need to do this. What is it about comments I am so obsessed about? There are three critical aspects that…
Some people actually do ignore their readers. It amazes me how many blogs leave comments unanswered. But sometimes you can ignore your readers unintentionally as Brian found out. Read his post “My Contact Form Has Been Broken For Months“. A timely reminder to test your contact form and ensure any contact details you publish are…
Another week, another Killer Flagship Content ebook review roundup! Don Campbell There are no cheap tricks here, only guidelines on creating quality content that your readers want and need. Nathan Briggs the first time I’ve seen all the information in one cohesive well presented package. Definitely a useful file to have on your hard-drive “Colbs”…
A commenter called John asked why I “censor” comments. I was taken aback. Obviously the implication is I pick and choose what appears on my blog. Of course I do, but not based on if the commenter agrees with me or not. I thought I would take a moment to explain how I go about…
Andrew Ferguson has posted up a great post on where to find Great Free Photos for Your Blog Knowing where to look is just as important as what you find. I know most people’s first instinct is “Google Images!” Ignore that instinct. Google Images is useful for some things, but not really for this. There’s…
This week I was pulled up on my comment links having the default “no-follow” attribute. This led to me installing the Wordpress “do-follow” plugin and also to questions about if no-followed links have any value. First of all let me explain what “no-follow” means. The idea was hatched to prevent spammers profiting from carpet-bombing blogs…
Since my post on the benefits of commenting I have been asked this question a few times so I thought it must be something bloggers puzzle over. Here is the question as asked by “Haacked” in the original thread: Sometimes I find I am writing a loooong comment in response. So I abandon the comment…
Remember last week I asked you to try commenting more? Please try this. For the next week make an effort to comment on more blogs. Each day post more comments than the last, on more blogs. Comment well, not just “ditto”. Add something of value, your own thoughts. So what was all that about? I…
A reader asked me about my monetization plan for chrisg.com and was surprised that I didn’t feature Adsense. My answer? Adsense is too fragile for me. Then I read Darrens Speedlinking post Shoemoney posts an email from someone trying to extort money from him as an AdSense publisher by threatening to close down his AdSense…
Threadwatch.org reports on a Ad Age study researching blog reader habits. It showed they are loyal, reading the same blogs regularly, and judge them based on quality of writing. A specific topic focus is also valued highly. Most interesting to me was the confirmation of how people find new blogs 67.3% of the respondents follow…
Two tips I always advise when someone asks about starting a blog Read lots of blogs Comment often and well Before even considering setting up a blog I think you should do those things, and when you have started blogging you should do them even more. I imagine most of you already do read blogs….
As a strange hybrid of Internet Marketer and Blogger (amongst other things) I noted with interest Darrens worry about Talking to Internet Marketers about Blogging The —˜daunting’ feelings don’t come from being afraid of public speaking (I’ve been doing that for years) but more because to this point I’ve always found internet marketing —˜types’ to…
Garrett French learned the hard way how to approach forums for content and traffic One key difference is that I opened a forum thread to DISTRIBUTE content rather than to ask a question and start to GENERATE content. I did ask a question at the end of the thread, but my intention was partly to…
Guest writing on blogs can help you reach a new audience, build a better profile, network and perhaps grab a powerful link or two. While it is a great opportunity you have to do it right. It’s a topic that has been on my mind recently after being invited by a couple of bloggers to…
I have just read Seth Godins post on Name tags and I think some of his thoughts apply equally to blogs if you don’t know someone’s name, you are hesitant to talk to them. if you don’t talk to them, you never get to know them and you both lose. if you are wearing a…
A reader of my digital photography blog asked me how I find new blogs to subscribe to. At first I was surprised at the question, I add new blogs to my feed reader all the time. In fact I really ought to trim it down. It is an important issue after thinking about it. Thinking…
Reading over at ZDNet.com, Dave Winer has been blogging ten years. In April, Dave will have been blogging for ten years. He can be considered the proto-blogger and developer of the proto-blogging software. Today, about 70 million blogs have been created—“tens of thousands per day sprout up. Most of them don’t get much sunlight or…
I’m not sure I have said this before. Scott Adams is my favourite blogger. Of course I have other favourite bloggers (don’t worry I am not going to list them, I like links but I am not that desperate, heh). Before I let you in on why I think Scott is one of the best…
Since reading the FeedBurner report Aaron has been thinking about how to change his approach towards RSS metrics I wonder, really, how our strategies will change as assumptions fly in the face of reality. I also wonder how many people cater to their RSS audience and encourage engagement from those readers. I personally have taken…
Nick over on his new ClickInfluence blog has a post up about Sending Gifts to Influencers Sending gifts to bloggers, in the hope they’ll write about them may seem a potentially dangerous move. If it backfired it could certainly cause some nasty negative PR, but provided some caution, and a good helping of common sense…
Over the weekend I received a MyBlogLog phishing email asking me to add someone I have never heard of as a co-author. While I deleted the email right away it seems the idea has worked. The spammer has attached their website to a lot of popular bloggers communities. More from John Chow This morning, while…
Buying and selling blogs is a growth area of professional blogging. People have bought and sold websites since the commercial web began but like a lot of things internet, bloggers are coming to this fresh and new. The main difference between the web sales of now and then is before the main assets of a…
Philip at ihelpyoublog has put together a Complete Blogging Resource List For The Pro-Blogger I’ve decided to start by creating a massive list of posts, articles and resources all designed to be a go-to reference for the pro-blogger. This will be a work in progress and I’ll be updating the list frequently. His list will…
Snark, criticism, attack-bait, poking wasps nests, call it what you want, while it might be an effective “link bait” strategy, it’s not one I would recommend. This is the path to the dark side. First let’s look at why someone might be tempted to use this tactic. It’s quick and easy It works Takes little…
Jeremy Zawodny has gotten his dislike of JavaScript Badges and Widgets off his chest With all the talk of how the web has “become writable” with advent of blogs and self-publishing tools, you’d think that we’d have a better way of getting third party content on to our sites. Given that an overwhelming number of…
Congratulations to Henry Abbott of True Hoop. His news? Henrys blog is Becoming Part of ESPN. Here are some choice quotes from his announcement I just signed a contract with ESPN. They now own the name TrueHoop, and I am a full-time ESPN employee … To be honest, I wasn’t looking to sell TrueHoop, and…
Do you find yourself Googling up words, phrases and especially jargon, when reading blog posts? I do. It happened to me about ten minutes ago. One of my current projects requires getting elbow-deep in Drupals innards. Drupal is a fantastic blog/community/content management platform. It has a vibrant community, that is very helpful. Quite often though…
John Chow has posted up a list of popular blogging mistakes. Here they are without his commentary, do read his full post but before you do I will add my thoughts after the list: Not Updating Blogging Only For Money Rushing a Post Not Being Personal Being a Copycat Not Replying To Comments Not Giving…
I don’t like Blogrolls. While they do serve a fine purpose, allowing visitors to see other blogs they might like, and sharing the link-love is always good, I don’t do them. My reason will be clear in a second, first let’s read about the stink happening in the political blog world from The Galloping Beaver…
People are starting to provide me with some excellent feedback on my free Killer Flagship Content ebook. One of the requests is for me to provide more examples. Funnily enough I was just reading Aarons (excellent) blog and saw his short video entitled “What is a Self Reinforcing Authority“. As well as examples that illustrate…
Lorelle over at The Blog Herald is asking about bloggers success criteria What is your definition of blogging success and popularity? What do you use to measure it? I think it is important when starting to blog to at least spend a moment to think about why you are doing it, what you will get…
Interesting thought from Darren Barefoot today We’re rapidly eliminating the technical barriers from web publishing. Publishing text to a website is already about as easy as writing an email. The customization (“make my website pink with scalloped edges”) and intregation (“show my knitting photos and upcoming S&M events on my website”) work isn’t as simple…
With more and more companies getting on board the blogging and social media thing you would have thought the point had already tipped for the Cluetrain. Then along comes another dumb company to give us a kick in the reality box. According to Consumerist blogging and comments will get you fired at Sprint/Nextel Sprint/Nextel employees…
The Flagship Content ebook helps you to create, package, and promote compelling resources that attract more attention to your blog