Three times yesterday I gave the same advice. Two of those times were to consulting clients with absolutely brilliant ideas for blogs. I wish I could tell you what those ideas are, I just know a ton of you would sign up right away. What was the problem? What was my advice? The problem is…
In my last post I asked “Does Your Site Frighten Readers Away?“. When you think about websites that attract or distract, what do you think of? Imagine if your website or blog was as friendly as one of these … Take a good look at the picture above. What do you see? Consider what the…
I know you can’t get enough of me, right? Right? Well, OK, maybe you can 🙂 Anyways … I’ve just been listening to the ProBlogger Confidential call I had with Andy Wibbels and his listeners. I’m not too ashamed of how I sound. More “ums and ahs” than I would hope for but at least…
When someone arrives at your website, be it a corporate site, personal site, or blog, they have a couple of questions on their mind: Where am I? What is there to see/do? Why should I care? Many times a potential reader will have these additional thoughts: Woah, what is this guy talking about? This looks…
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…
There are still people who believe the “build it and they will come” idea. That all you need is great content. Unfortunately it is not true. Look at the examples they provide and you will see what I mean. I challenge anyone to come up with an example of content that required zero promotion. There…
Since my Blogging forum Announcement over 200 people have signed up! Thanks to everyone who has joined and taken part in the discussions 🙂 If you haven’t joined in yet, see what you are missing at the Authority Blogger Forum now!
After Darrens post revealing a “service” allowing unethical companies to buy Spam Comments Wendy Piersall has decided to put no-follow back on her links. I am considering doing the same. It’s a shame when legitimate comments will get the same link-condom as fake comments but sometimes when you get a lot of messages in your…
Every week I am asked how I put that download link in my RSS feed. Until to now I have had to explain that the solution requires a WordPress plugin that I hard coded. No longer! Damian, my WordPress hacking friend, has kindly released the plugin complete with an options screen. Now anyone can do…
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…
Branding, love it or hate it, try to ignore it, or embrace it, it’s there and we have to deal with it. Every part of our blogging, professional and personal lives is impacted by what we do, what people say about us, the brand we create. Below are some of the best links I was…
My friend Damian and I have just been moving DSLRBlog from Drupal 5 to WordPress 2 using instructions from D’Arcy Norman. While Drupal is a fantastic platform, I had problems maintaining it. It was getting me down particularly fighting the torrent of spam being thrown at it. Keeping on top of updates, bug fixes, security…
Thanks all for your Branding Posts. I am compiling the round-up now so please, to avoid disappointment, do not send me any more. The post will be going up in the morning, it looks like it should be good 🙂
What does an Authority Blogger do when he joins an existing blogging team on an already running blog? I guess we are all going to find out, today I started blogging at Crestock. As it is a stock image and photography company I will be focusing on the photography side, in particular how to be…
Adriaan Pienaar has posted his short interview with me. There are interesting questions covering topics from new media through to my opinion of blogging to position yourself as a niche expert. Check it out!
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?…
How do you know when your brand is successful? A successful brand comes in two parts: While those two properties are powerful, they are also imprecise enough to be frustrating for many people. How do you quantify feelings? How important is recognition? Recognition can be achieved simply enough. Repeated interactions with consistency. Just like Pavlovs…
Body Language, or Non-Verbal Communication, is the majority of communication. Never more so than online. OK, if you publish video or you are a podcaster you have more expressive possibilities. For the rest of us though we have to be more careful to put across what we mean, who we are, our brand. Your blog…
Branding is about being memorable. It’s about staking a claim to a specific part of your prospects brain and putting up a little white picket fence around it. In the last post of this series we looked at finding your uniqueness, in this one let’s look at a simple way you can stand out. Your…
Branding exists in the mind of your prospects and customers. It is not about what you say, it is what they experience and remember. Branding is how people feel. Brands make promises. Branding is what people think of when they hear, see, touch, smell. Your brand “means” what they think it means, not what you…
Online advertising should be your best bet in terms of confidence. There is little you don’t know about performance of internet advertising campaigns. No hoops to jump through here, everything you need to know should be automated and available. So why is it people waste their advertising budget on no-hoper campaigns that generate lots of…
Gary has written a post about his “Group Writing Project” WordPress plugin that should be interesting to anyone involved in Wordpress hacking and plugin development. Most interesting is his description of a poorly documented Wordpress function, wp_insert_post() that ought to be very useful. The most important thing about the plugin is the wp_insert_post() function that…
I am a big fan of observing others success and applying what you learn to your own strategy. Andy has given us an excellent analysis of Aaron Wall’s Playbook over on his blog … it pays to observe what other successful people have done and take some pointers. You won’t be able to copy them…
Midnight Sun at Kjerringøy Norway When I heard about the midnight sun I knew this trip was going to be special. Nothing could have prepared me for how special it would actually be. Kjerringøy is in the north of Norway, actually within the arctic circle. This means around this time of year the sun doesn’t…
Why have I selected Aweber as my newsletter software over the free service from FeedBurner or FeedBlitz? I have thought a fair bit about this before taking the plunge, particularly because making a choice between fee and free is never easy for someone with a tight budget! Perhaps my thinking might help someone else who…
This post was created and queued for later viewing. As I write this I have just quietly launched a small experiment. In a news roundup post I have slyly tucked away a link to an email newsletter signup form. Yes, you read correctly, I have launched an email newsletter. I have no way of knowing…
My good friend Damian has just released his first plugin and it’s a corker. It goes by the name WP_LinkIt and I think many bloggers will find it useful … WP_LinkIt as a free simple Wordpress plugin to automatically convert text from your posts and pages into links from your blogroll. This makes it easy…
This Week Just a quickie this morning as I am tidying up and preparing for my trip to Kjerringøy, Norway. I will be there with a client for the week telling them how great I am and how lucky they are to have me around. Or something. Posts will be pre-populated but I hope to…
I know I advise your blog should be all about your readers but it would be remiss of me to not inform you that Darren from blogged-out has interviewed me. You lucky people.
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…
Andy has a thought-provoking post over at his Tropical SEO blog The great entrepreneur-CEO is, at his/her core, smart and lazy. Could you be working too hard? Yes have commitment, energy, drive, ambition, but do not confuse those with “hard work”. Think of the old cliché “work smarter not harder”. Many of the best programmers…
Last night I had the rare treat of going out to a gig. I don’t go out much so that might have been treat enough but it was an especially enjoyable night because this was one of my favourite bands, Marillion. You might not have heard of them, especially if you are under a certain…
I just majorly goofed on my blog. While upgrading a bunch of blogs to Wordpress 2.2 I overwrote my theme before checking my backup. It seems my FTP had not managed to transfer my sidebar so when I had a look at my handy work I had the default staring back at me. Don’t do…
Authority blogs are not easy to create or grow, so why choose this way over seemingly easier types of websites and blogging?
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…
Since my limitations post yesterday I have had a couple of people ask me how they can blog about their work without breaking confidences or getting fired. Writing on your blog is not gossip. While you could get plenty of traffic from your industry by spreading juicy titbits about your competitors and colleagues you will…
People seem to have a magnified view of their own limitations. Recently I have been putting together a blogging course and coaching program which has put me in discussions with a lot of beginning bloggers. It has also put me in touch with a bunch of people who think they couldn’t blog no matter what…
The buy me a beer plugin is not the only plugin I have been trying out recently. Here are some other Wordpress plugins you might want to try out Dagon Design Sitemap Generator – sitemaps are not just useful for visitors but can help your posts get indexed also. This plugin makes creating a sitemap…
I have had this discussion before. You might remember it. Let me try again. “All you need is good content. Content is king. Write good stuff and the visitors will come” “Ugly sells” “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Yeah, right. We think we buy products but what do we actually buy? Packaging. Promotion….