Showing posts with label TechCrunch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TechCrunch. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 29

How do you blog, Blogger?

Unique Blog Contest: Register and win April 2008"How do you blog" would be a good way to greet a blogger visiting another blog. It would be an in-road into the visitor's mind and blogging practices. My guess is that there are as many blogging styles as there are bloggers and that variety is what makes blogging so much fun because humans love variety.

There are several styles of blogging and I will discuss a few today.

1. Blogging on the fly!
This I believe is about the oldest style. It originated from the good old early days when pioneer bloggers simply created web logs of their lives. Most were of their daily activities and programming breakthroughs. The blogger then did not think anyone was indeed really reading the blog. As we expect only us to read our diary, so was the expectation. This has been carried forward and in today's blogosphere, we see rants and raves. This is more common in the personal blogs. A few bloggers from time to time do this also and I have done it in many of my posts. It helps one put a personal touch to the blog, even though it may be a niche that one is blogging in.

2. Blogging as the Press.
As blogging has developed, so has readership widened and many blogs boast of readerships that eclipse my neighborhood newspaper's numbers. Major examples include Google's blogs for its gmail, and google itself and online resources like Lifehacker, Techcrunch (802K RSS subscribers. I hope they have a 401K), The Huffington Post and Mashable. These blogs/websites have editorial teams and the output is really something else. The corporate blogs seem to be a somewhat unofficial source of official information. Press releases serve their role, but also, releasing the information in a sub-formal way via blogs seems to be the way to reach more customers. The challenge faced by the everyday blogger is to measure up to such standards. Well, I wish you luck.

3. Blogging to the top in your niche.
This by far is both the easiest and the most popular. The blogger simply tries to be the best in that little niche that he/she blogs in. Usually the style is a mash-up of the first two styles. Guest bloggers post interesting articles, professionally written and edited a thousand times. Blog owner recruits readers from as many social circles as possible including link exchanges, Digg, Stumbleupon, Blogcatalog and Mcneri's! The Blogger also occasionally produces timeless articles that would measure up to the big fish and have a chance at front page on Digg. It is easy to be in this category because you simply are just trying to get ahead and non-committal to any particular style. You are a Maverick Blogger. Soon you become A-listed and as your readership grows, you have to choose a conventional style, otherwise you will fall back to oblivion where you came from.

I will advice that bloggers keep an eye on thier style and know when to start conforming to a particular style. Know when you need more professional copywriters, when you need to go on that writing course, and when you need to re-define your niche or start another blog.

What is your blogging style, How do you blog?

Monday, April 14

22 Must have Firefox add-ons for Bloggers (Blogging tip 2 of 22)


Mozilla FirefoxImage via Wikipedia
#2 Zemanta add-on for Firefox

This is an awesome Firefox add-on that beats me. I only recently started using it and all I can say is that it is great. According to the Zemanta homepage, the tool lets you

"Have your browser understand what you are blogging about and suggest pictures, links, articles and tags to make your posts more vibrant. We are making blogging fun again."
It is an impressive tool, as it eases off the having to flip between tabs to get content to make your blog relevant in the blogosphere. Zemanta goes and fetches the most relevant content from blogs around the web. More importantly, it fetches content that is recent and from higly ranked pages. That way, when you reference these posts, you are more likely to get references from the trackbacks. That is how to become a powerblogger, becoming more relevant in the blogosphere over time, as your blogging gets more references.

Wordpress 2.5 was recently released and that brought up a challenge for the Zemanta team, however within a few short days, the team came up with a fix. At the moment, the tool is compatible and works with all versions of Wordpress including the recently released 2.5 version. It also works with Blogger and Typepad.



In one of the earlier reviews was from Techcrunch's Mike Butcher entitled 'A content suggestion engine for blogging ?That could work...'. Other earlier reviews include this more extensive one on wordplayblog.com
This suggestion tool that also fetches images is really a blogger's dream. It is still an alpha release and the founders are a start-up, however the tool is likely to get popular real soon. The strongest potential I see is that of being referenced by subsequent blogs on the topic since you would be one of the most recent bloggers about that topic using Zemanta!

If you were to use Zemanta to blog this moment about say.....Zemanta, the tool will fetch relevant keywords, tags, blogs and images for you. Most of the images come from Wikipedia. Below your rich text editor, it keeps suggesting links and keywords which you may decide to take some , all or none. Beside the editor window also, you have the Zemified option of selecting related articles and letting them appear at the bottom of your post. In like manner, other blogs will see you at the side if they are using the add-on.

This tool is new and I do not know how robust its engine is, but there are indications that it is really smart. I will like to hear from you, how useful this one has been and any hiccups you may have experienced using it. It is a must have for bloggers, even though there are some skeptics who are worried about sploggers. What I do not know is when an IE plugin will be available (still beta testing). Or are we all going to FIREFOX?

The video below is from Zemanta. Enjoy!







Sunday, April 6

The best kept secrets about blog traffic building

In this 3 post series, I will outline certain principles that should guide you if you want to build a blog from the scratch. I will also explain why many blogs fall by the wayside and why blogs are the future of mankind.

In the begining:

I started my wordpress blog and approximately 30 days later, we recieved our 1500th unique visitor. By some standards, that is mediocre, while with others that is very impressive. Personally I am impressed. I am sure some readers are guessing that this is my umpteenth blog, no no no. My first blog.

Start

If you want to build blog traffic from the scratch, you have to start. Go to wordpress dot com and get a free blog. It is easier than getting an email address. Other alternatives include blogger, typepad and a zillion others out there. There are differences between the various platforms and wordpress dot com seems to be very advanced and user-friendly, especially with their continuous upgrades. The down side is that you are limited in terms of flexibility and if you hope to make money from blogging with advertisements, then this is not the free platform for you. Blogger dot com allows free users to insert adverts, so go there if you are keen on that.

Looking for content

Many advisers and bloggers will always tell you: "create your own niche", "be an expert in your niche" etc etc etc. While that is a valid fact, how many experts will there be? If I like techy stuff, how will I keep up with Techcrunch, Gizmodo and Lifehacker? There are editorial teams blogging about everything and anything on the web. I decided to blog so I have to start with what I have. Simply, you have to blog about the things that interest you online. With time, it will take shape and you will morph your blogging technique into what you really are best at. For some other topics, it may be a struggle. Do not stop. Let your target be at least 200 words, 500 would be better.

Many bloggers want to read as many blogs as possible within a short time and who has time for a 3000 word essay. Go straight to the "money". If you have a picture or a video, include it to give your blog some color. Even after writing, review your essay and correct any typos identified. If you run out of ideas, find out what the top blogs are blogging about and spin a variant of that. Let your personality reflect in what you write. I do not think one can get it wrong, being one's self.

Looking for readers

The best blog posts are just ones and zeros on some remote computer in a room being cooled by giant cooling systems in some high-rise building, somewhere out there. If theses numbers are not accessed by the blogger, they do not become blogs and are never read. Just like the customer, the most important person in the blog equation is the reader. Go and get them.

I looked for them in several ways for my Mcneri Wordpress Blog. I first sought to use the best background colors I could find:white. The most successful websites have white or almost white backgrounds, so I waded through wordpress themes until I got to journalist theme and stopped.

I activated my Feedburner for RSS. There is also an email subscription box available. I joined BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. I submitted my posts to Digg. I signed up with Technorati. I also included my link in a couple of forums that I belong to. I also submitted my posts to Google submit url the moment I finished posting it.

Starting the buzz

Your blog has to give something to the blogosphere, if you are expecting anything in return....naturally. I have initiated a complimentary service where I will highlight one website per week as site of the week. We have recieved a few entries and soon our first site will be show-cased. The how to become a world class section is also a new addition that guides readers on aspects of their career.

The traffic has not been fantastic, but has steadily increased. I did not spend any money on adverts, backlinks or link exchanges. I have attempted exchanges, but it has not yielded much and I am not keen anyway.

I have also commented on several blogs and some pay me a visit in return, while others do not even allow a link back to my poor little blog. We learn everyday. I have also tried to respond to any comments on my blog. Not too many for now so I have managed well. I guess, anyone with more than 200 comments in a day will have a real difficulty responding. However if you are small fry like me, make sure you respond to the visitors, promptly.

Monetizing the blog

This is an important aspect of blogging and I believe that since Google and Microsoft are making money, everyone that contributes to the web should. How do I do that? Juggling a full time and a half job leaves me very little time after family to blog, so I am taking it easy. Now I have started this blog on blogger. We have Google Adsense and Amazon Associates ads there. I may even be able to add Text Link Ads. I will then be positioned to monetize my blog. that is why there are very few links out of this blog post.

To be continued

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