What Will You Go Out Of Your Way To Do For Your Blog?
Posted by Mitch on Mar 15, 2010
First, I’d like to mention that I had my final guest posting article on DeAnna Troupe’s blog post last week, titled You Can’t do It All When You Work For Yourself, a small business topic many folks need to learn as soon as they can. I hope you check it out, and I thank DeAnna for asking me to write it for her.
You know, ever since I wrote my post on guest posting, it seems I’ve been coming across many other posts about the subject as well. One of those posts I commented on, and it’s created an interesting exchange that has prompted me to write this post. It’s from a blog called We Build Your Blog, and the post was titled Guest Blogging – Why don’t you do it?. Andrew is the guy who writes it, and he had recently commented on my post above, which is what prompted my return visit. By the way, that’s the great thing about CommentLuv; thought I’d plug that while I was at it.
Anyway, his response here left me wondering what he might be getting at, because, well, truthfully, my mindset wasn’t geared towards how he responded. When I went to read what he had to say, my mind cleared up and I knew where he was coming from. And it’s something that, personally, I won’t do and never have done, and never even thought about doing, yet something he recommends. First, I hope you go read his post and comment; it was nicely written.
It’s this concept of actively seeking out blogs to write guest posts for to help spread the word, get backlinks, and help PR, which in this case, I assume, is page rank, though I could be wrong on that. He talks about asking some of the big boys if they would accept guest posts, and how sometimes they accept it and other times they turn it down for whatever reasons they have.
As I said, the concept of asking someone else if they’d accept a guest post of mine has never flickered in my mind, but while reading his post, it reminded me of an old post that Dennis wrote when he alluded to the thing about if I wanted to write a gust post for his blog to just ask him, and in my mind “why would I ask someone if I could write for them, for free, instead of just putting it on my own blog and moving on with life?” Not sure if you remember that exchange, Dennis, but it remains clear in my mind.
Once again, I’m left wondering whether this is a generational thing or a cultural thing in why, to me, such a thing as asking someone else to accept a guest post of mine is anathema to my way of thinking. Maybe it’s couched in some way in some of my history of others claiming my work as their own and not getting credit for it. Maybe it’s tied in with the fact that I never asked out first any of the women I ended up having any sort of relationship with. Or maybe my mind sees it as a favor to me to ask people here and there to guest post here. I do see it as a compliment, I must admit, whenever someone asks if they can guest post here, but I know that not everyone sees things that way.
It’s probably the same reason I think the way I do about posting to article directories. I see that as someone else getting the benefit out of what I write rather than my getting much benefit out of it. That point can easily be argued both ways, but the way I see it, when I get those monthly stats showing me how many people looked at an article I’ve written, it’s not much higher than when I post articles to my own sites.
By the way, on Andrew’s blog, I responded that, because of my own pride, I have never asked anyone if I can guest post for them, and probably wouldn’t, that I don’t care about page rank, since this blog has no page rank anyway (but my Alexa rank is now around 115,000, and getting better weekly), and that at this point going for more backlinks probably isn’t going to do much more for this blog, though I welcome them when they come.
So, I put the question out there; how far will you go to promote your blog? I don’t mind guest posting, and I don’t mind people asking me if they can guest post; I want to make that clear. I just don’t do it, and can’t see myself doing it. What say you?
Tips For Guest Posting
Posted by Mitch on Mar 8, 2010
One of my goals for this year was to write more guest posts for other blogs. To that end, I’ve written some for my friend DeAnna Troupe, two of which have been posted, and one other that we’re still waiting for.
It occurs to me that there are both people who’ve never written guest posts for anyone else, as well as a lot of posts I’ve seen talking about the benefits of writing guest posts. There are few articles that give tips to writing guest posts, though I’ve seen a few. Here are my tips, some which I’ve seen mentioned before, others that I’ve never seen.
1. Try to write your guest post based on the topic of the person’s blog you’re writing for. If you write about digging clams and someone asks you to write on their blog about dog grooming, it’s probably best to turn that down unless you know something about grooming dogs. Someone else might like your writing style, but neither of you are going to get any benefit out of it. Take some time looking at the blog you might be guest writing for to see the topics they write on, then write something on that topic. I did that when I wrote a post for Connie Baum in January on internet marketing scams on her Healthy and Wealthy You blog.
2. Make sure you revisit your post at least the first couple of days to respond to any comments your article might have received. This one varies only slightly depending on how active a particular blog you write for might be. For instance, if you get to guest post on a blog that usually has lots of comments, it’s best to get back early to see what might be there and then address those comments. The reason why addresses tip number three.
3. Whether a blog gets lots of visits or not, leave some kind of comment at least within a couple of days. If a blog doesn’t get a lot of comments, you might miss if someone eventually does comment on a blog, and thus waste an opportunity to engage with someone new. Leaving and subscribing to comments gives you that opportunity. I always make sure to leave a comment whether there’s been anything or not.
4. Make sure you link back to your guest posts on another blog in some fashion on your blog. A great way to do it is what I’m about to do now, which I did last time, by writing something about it on your blog. For DeAnna’s blog, called Learn Small Business, the two posts that are there so far are Is There A Good Way To Market Your Business and Why A Business Blog. Go check them out; I’m sure she’d love the love, and I’d love the commentary.
One of these days I’m going to be asked to write a guest post on one of those blogs that gets tons of visitors. I’m not going to know what to do with myself on that day, but at least I know I’ll be writing on the proper topic.
Thinking About Quitting Blogging; The Thought Process
Posted by Mitch on Mar 4, 2010
That headline is no lie; I have really been thinking about giving up blogging over the past week or so.
I love blogging; at least I have. I have lots to talk about, so it’s definitely not that.
I like comments, and I’ve met a lot of people I’d have never met otherwise, so it’s not that.
I’ve been wondering whether I’m making a difference or not. I’ve been wondering if I’m channeling myself into efforts that not that many people really care about. A couple of comments on yesterday’s post about people not wanting to read long posts and therefore visiting less often is a part of that as well.
I’m not really into catering to anyone else’s beliefs or thoughts on what it is I do. However, the last thing I want to do is waste my time or anyone else’s time.
It looks and sounds like a pity party, but it’s not. Blogging isn’t the only thing I’ve been thinking about giving up lately. I write two newsletters, and I’ve been writing them for about 7 years now. I’ve never reached a mass audience; my main newsletter still has less than 200 subscribers after all these years. I’ve got enough material to write a couple of books if I want to take the time to edit them; I just might do that.
I’m tired. I’m tired physically, and I’m tired mentally. In just over 2 years I’ve written 653 posts on this blog, and, as you see the stats to the right, I have 131 subscribers; that’s depressing. True, it’s not always about how many subscribers, but I’m remembering a blog post I read the other day about continuing to do things that aren’t living up to expectations. I bet almost no one remembers that last January I made a serious push to increase the numbers of subscribers for this blog; colossal flop.
If I decide to stop blogging, I shut everything down. No sales, no just leaving it up. I’d kill this blog and the others and go about my business. I don’t think I’d be missed longer than a week or so, if that long. And maybe I’d get some other things done. After all, even if I quit my blogs and newsletters, I’m still writing them for other people right now, getting paid for it.
Maybe that’s it; maybe it’s the overkill of writing and coming up with ideas on topics I’ve had to learn to know fairly well that’s killing some enthusiasm for this; I’m not sure.
To keep this short for those who hate more than 500 words, I’ll end with this. I’ll continue writing for now until I come to a real decision, and when I do, I’ll bring this up again. For now, less than 470 words, I’m done with this post.
Commentary On A Comments Post
Posted by Mitch on Mar 3, 2010
I was reading a guest post on Problogger titled 8 Reasons You Might Not Be Getting Many Comments, and as I read it, I identified with a couple of them, and found that I kind of disagreed with the other points. I figured I’d comment here rather than there, mainly because there are already 111 comments on that post, and I applaud the writer of the post, Charlie Gilkey, on responding to comments on his post, something you don’t often see guest bloggers going back to do (y’all need to be cautious of that).
If we set the bar at 500 words for what’s long and what’s short, I’d have to say that, based on my own blog, it depends on what someone is talking about. For instance, over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had a few posts that were longer than that, and most of them got a pretty good response. I’ve also written a few short posts, and one of those only got a couple of comments.
I believe as long as you’re not droning over one thing without adding something new to it here and there, long posts are just fine. People tend to gravitate towards one or two lines they really like anyway if you haven’t bored them. And, the post Charlie wrote on this topic was pretty long, and it got 111 comments; case closed.
This one is interesting. If I asked at the end of every post “please comment”, I’d sound desperate. Actually, every once in awhile I do ask people what their opinion is, and I think that’s actually his point here. If you’re writing something pretty technical, you won’t get many comments, but if you offer an opinion, like I do here and there on this blog (kind of like this post), then asking people what they think makes sense.
This one seems obvious, and in this case there’s really not much to comment on because there’s nothing you can do to encourage those people to comment.
This is where we talk technical. One of my posts from awhile ago was talking about how to get Google Desktop to index Thunderbird. This is still one of my most popular posts, and it still gets comments. It never got the amount of comments close to how many people have read it, but it got some, and I know it helped a lot of people. I guess this is just something you have to deal with if you’re going to try to help people from time to time.
Here he’s talking about internal linking, saying that people will go off and follow your internal links to other posts without commenting on the original post. Do those people comment on the old posts if they follow it? I think this is an acceptable risk, because we all would like some of our older comment to be read, it’s great for SEO, and I think people who care will make sure to comment on one or both or multiples as they see fit.
This is an intriguing idea, and I’m not quite sure I believe this one. I doubt there’s a single person who follows my blog and me on either Twitter or Facebook who doesn’t comment. What I have seen, though, are people who subscribe to the email not commenting, instead writing me directly. I’m not sure I believe this one at all.
Hello! He’s speaking to, and for, the choir, or at least me on this one. How many times have I written about making it easy to comment on your blog? How many times have I castigated Disqus and Intense Debate and the like for wanting me to subscribe so I can see responses to a comment I’ve written? Heck, sometimes it’s hard to find the link that allows you to comment. And there’s a new trend where a few bloggers have some posts they’ll allow you to comment on, and others where they turn it off because they don’t want to hear your opinion on their opinion. Not sure where I stand on that one in general, but I know those are usually the posts I want to comment on, so I just don’t subscribe to those blogs because it’s irritating to me.
Once again, I have decided to take this one with a grain of salt. I have experimented this concept of posting at different times, and what I’ve realized is that it just doesn’t matter. It seems the email feed goes out late in the afternoon or evening anyway, and Twitter has folks on it 24/7, so there’s always an audience that’s seeing your post when you’re not around. Maybe 4 years ago time made a big difference, but not anymore.
And that’s that. Be sure to read Charlie’s post entirely, and of course I’d love to hear your thoughts on my commentary on that post. See, I’ve asked you to contribute! 
Why Do You Revisit Some Blogs And Not Others?
Posted by Mitch on Feb 24, 2010
This is a relatively short post, especially coming from me. It’s a simple question; why do you revisit some blogs and not others?
I’ll answer this one first, though I know few people do what I do. I subscribe to around 200 blogs. I’ve been eliminating some over the past month or so because either they weren’t giving me what I needed anymore or their frequency was getting on my nerves. When I talk frequency, I mean posting once every month or longer; I’d already gotten rid of blogs that had 5 to 10 posts a day, as I realized that wasn’t just one person doing all the writing, and there was just no way to keep up with that kind of input.
I’ve also been deleting more blogs that use Disque or Intense Debate, as well as more Blogger blogs. If I’m not going to comment, and your content isn’t compelling enough to keep me reading where I want to comment, it’s time for you to go.
And yet, I’m still around 200. So, what keeps me going to them consistently? Each one of these blogs writes about something that interests me. Each one of these blogs has writers who are giving me something new and different and compelling and educational. They make me feel good, or they make me think, or they give me information I can use. I want that info, and I want to make sure I know where to go so I can receive it. So, I subscribe, and I enjoy.
No one hits a home run every time out; heck, I know I have some posts that get almost no one looking at it. Sometimes I wonder why, but other times I figure I’m just going to continue going for it because, after all, it’s all about writing and sharing and asking questions for me. And I truly am thankful to those of you who come back and check out what I have to say from time to time. I even appreciate those of you who pop in once then leave; at least you gave me a shot.
So, what keeps you going back to certain blogs for more?
Wordpress 2.9.2; An Update You Can Probably Skip
Posted by Mitch on Feb 16, 2010
If you have a Wordpress blog, by now you probably have noticed that there’s another update, this time to 2.9.2. Unlike previous updates, this one corrects a minor security flaw that most of us really don’t have to worry about, so you can probably skip it. However, since I’ve mentioned that, I might as well gripe about it at the same time.
The security fix has to do with this new thing they added with 2.9 where, instead of just deleting certain messages, you can move them to the trash and then delete them from there. It seems that if you have people who log into your blog to do whatever, they can look at any messages that you have trashed. The concern is that if you trashed something because it was sensitive, you might not want anyone else in there.
Of course, I’ve kind of railed against having to sign into blogs to comment anyway, so in a way this penalizes those folks who have made people log in to comment; tough being you. As for what move to trash, the only things I move to trash on any of my blogs are when there’s a trackback and it’s coming from me from another blog I’ve linked to. I figure those don’t need to be there, and I’ve already taken care of not sending trackbacks to the blog I’m writing on because of the No Self Pings plugin I wrote about back in November.
My minor rant is against this “trash” thing to begin with. I’d like to know how many people have been going around deleting things from their own blogs, then suddenly saying “oops, I wish I hadn’t deleted that?” Frankly, it’s an extra step I hate having to do when I do it on those trackbacks. However, since they did that, why couldn’t they have added the one more option in their drop down menu to allow those of us who feel sure about what we’re getting rid of to delete at that point?
And one more thing. Have you noticed when you check your spam filter than if there’s something in there that’s really not spam, if you select Not Spam it moves it to your comments, but you still have to approve it? At least here the drop down menu does give you the option to approve the comment so you don’t have to touch it twice. Consistency can be our friend sometimes.
Anyway, skip this update if you don’t have people logging into your blog, or if you don’t ever plan on having anything sensitive that you don’t want anyone else to see in your trash.
by Paul Myers; check it out!
It Takes Guts To Have An Opinion
Posted by Mitch on Feb 11, 2010
It’s hard to get mad at people who take the safe route and withhold their true feelings, in their own names, online. After all, sometimes people will say something that others don’t agree with, and no one wants to be derided for their feelings. Often, it seems the people who fear this the least are those with true hate in their hearts, those who could care less about everyone, only themselves and those like them. Those are the folks who believe it’s always better to be your ugliest self up front, then apologize later and say people took what you had to say out of context.
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I believe one can have an opinion and give an opinion without being too brusque or hateful. Sure, every once in awhile we all get a little heated in our passion, but that’s to be expected if you have a point of view. It’s how you express your point of view that determines the outcome of responses. For instance, if I boldly say I hate Rush Limbaugh (by the way, I do hate Rush Limbaugh), it opens me up to that bunch of wild eyed hooligans who believe every piece of trash that comes out of his mouth without question to write something here supporting him or castigating me.
If I feared that, I’d be inclined to keep my opinion to myself and never utter another statement; lucky for me, when these folks come out of the woodwork, the rest of us know where they are and how to deal with them, especially since, at least here, I don’t allow hidden or anonymous comments. Anyone who comments here has to give a legitimate email address, otherwise their comments are bounced. That’s one of the best reasons to have a comment policy, so no one can say they didn’t understand the rules of coming into space I’ve paid for.
However, if were to try to be a bit more genial in my description of Rush, and I were writing something other than this post, I might state instead “I totally disagree with every single point of view Rush Limbaugh has” and leave it at that. In that manner, I’ve expressed the same thing as hating him, but only in a nicer way. In that way, it’s less about him and more about my beliefs and thoughts.
And really, if you’re blogging, that’s what it’s supposed to be about, your beliefs and thoughts. There are two folks who frequent here that I see putting themselves out there all the time. Rose has taken on some subjects that others might find controversial, and has put her opinion out there on some things that not everyone agrees with, but at least she’s got the guts to do it, and I applaud her for it. Sire also does it on one of his blogs that most of you probably don’t know about, which I won’t write in full because, where we differ on the subject, is that I believe one of his terms is easily considered as controversial in America, a word I’ve never used and still won’t use, but where he’s from probably doesn’t connote the same feelings or meanings, that being his Load of BS blog.
Playing it safe has its places. My business blog is a lot less controversial at all times than this one, but I will take on racism on that blog because part of my business is talking about diversity issues. I also give a lot of opinions on that blog as it relates to business relationships, but my language is such that it’s more of an educational thing than a ‘fussing at someone’ thing.
I remember meeting a guy maybe 2 or 3 years ago in another city. I went down with a friend of mine who was part of a small panel on blogging. I was talking to him afterwards and asked him if the discussion was going to lead to him writing his own blog. He said no, because he didn’t want to hate people hate him if he said something wrong. To me, unless your opinion is a direct condemnation of others based on factors they can’t change, there’s no such thing as a wrong opinion. I thought it was too bad because this was a guy who seemed to have a lot of knowledge, and I think if he’d felt more free to write about things his blog would have done well.
One final thing. If you’re writing your blog now and continue to do it, great for you; keep on doing it. But if you’re writing about, well, nothing, get out of the water and take a stand on something, at least once. Yeah, controversy sells, but it’s more important to break out of your shell and actually show who you are every once in awhile, even if you know one or some of your readers might have a different point of view. It makes you imminently more interesting, and I think you’ll start to see your visitors and subscribers increase as well.
At least it’s worked so far for me. By the way, did you remember that Valentines Day is Sunday?
I'm Just Sharing is where I share my thoughts on internet marketing, writing, blogging and many other things. You never know what I'll be posting on. So keep coming back, read, enjoy, and buy! ;)
