Why Don’t People Read?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 19, 2011
A common lament I see when it comes to bloggers looking at comments is that the responder seems to not have read any of the post. Many comments seem to be geared towards the title, which is fine in and of itself, but when the content goes a different way than the title then many comments look, well, idiotic, definitely spam-like.
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I’ve noticed this as well, but not only in commenting. I’ve talked about my finance blog, Top Finance Blog. It’s the only blog I have that actually makes any money.
Anyway, on that blog I have a written guest posting policy; it’s the only blog I have one of those on. I created it because I get lots of requests to write posts for that sucker, mainly from the UK, which I find really interesting since it’s obviously an American blog, but as long as they fulfill the qualifications as listed in the policy then it’s all good.
However, at least half the requests I get don’t fit the policy at all. I don’t mean articles; I mean how to contact me. See, I put one very specific thing in that guest posting policy to help me weed out people who could care less and people who might have something on the ball. It’s very simple; all the writer has to do is use my name, Mitch, in the email. That’s it; don’t call me “webmaster”, don’t just say “Hey”, but use my name.
Those that don’t use my name also ask me if I accept guest posts. Don’t ask me if I accept guest posts because the policy says I do. And something weird is happening lately. I’m not only getting requests to guest post on my blog, but there’s the line that says if I have content I’d like to post on their blog to let them know. Actually, that sounds kind of good on the surface, so let me post you the quote, which is coming from a lot of people word for word:
“If you happen to have some good articles or blogs posted elsewhere, provide a few links so the site owner can get a good feel for your writing style. Ask upfront if there are any requirements the blog owner is looking for such as specific word counts (500-1000 words) or post deadline dates.”
I mean, what is that? You’ve just visited my blog, supposedly, are asking if you can post on my blog, then you add this? Am I supposed to be flattered, encouraged, what, other than kind of irritated?
Anyway, I’d like your opinion on whether you feel very few people actually read what you have to say based on what you’re seeing on your blog. I know it’s not universal, but try to guess how many posts I’ve had to eliminate over the past few weeks that aren’t adhering to the very clearly written comment line just above the comment box regarding keywords.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
When Things Get Personal, Part Two
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 18, 2011
Last year I wrote a post titled When Things Get Personal On Blogs. That post was about a tete-a-tete I got into with some folks over the topic of Akismet and spam and such. It got a lot more responses than you’ll see if you visit the post because there were a lot of attack comments that came here based on that post that I simple deleted. I knew they were coming, and I knew I was going to delete them. I didn’t need that on my blog, I didn’t trust the people I knew were going to send them (whom I mention in the post), and, as I’ve always said, this is my space, I pay for it, and I get to decide what stays and what goes. Some might call it censorship; personally I don’t care. You behave in someone else’s space or deal with the consequences.
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as the last couple of months have been somewhat interesting around here. I’ve had some things going on in my personal life that made me not be as diligent as I should have been. I feel as though I allowed certain behavior to go unchecked around here, and I don’t like myself for that. It’s not behavior that I exhibited either; that’s probably the worst part.
Not that I’ve always been nice here. For the most part I am, but I will go after someone that goes after a friend of mine or someone that’s done something ice for me or others. Loyalty is one of my big things; I think I’ve said that before.
Last September I wrote a different kind of post titled De-Stressing Life By Not Commenting. On that post I indicated that when I felt I couldn’t comment on something without getting into an emotional firefight that I just wasn’t going to do it anymore. As I said, some people strive on attack mode; I don’t. I don’t thrive at all on negativity; never have. I don’t expect everything to be Andy Griffith, but I do expect a certain amount of decorum.
And I expect that here. That’s why I feel so bad that I’ve allowed a few people to be attacked in some fashion here over the past couple of months. And none of it was constructive; it was personal, and that just shouldn’t have been allowed. And none of it was specifically directed to me until last week; that makes what I allowed to happen become even worse, because I should have nipped it in the bud much earlier.
I can guarantee this won’t be a problem in the future. From actually last week, but since I’m writing today I’ll say today, I will not allow any more personal attacks in comments on this blog, or any other blog I write. If I feel the comment is personal, whether it’s towards me or anyone else, it’s gone, plain and simple. If you want to personally attack someone, take it to a newspaper site since they don’t ever seem to want to censor anyone. Behave or be gone; no one wants to deal with that mess.
Why am I doing this? I want to encourage people to comment here, and I want it to be a safe haven. We can disagree with each other, but we’re going to treat each other with respect. I can’t change the world, but I can certainly change things here. I pay for this, and thus my rules. In a weird way I was inspired to finally write this post after reading a post by Marcus Sheridan titled The Lie that is Online Transparency and ‘Being True to Self’, where he talks about people that cuss a lot saying they’re just being true to themselves and how he believes they’re lying to themselves. So do I, and this has always been a no-curse-words zone, since I don’t cuss (and yes, I did just interchange ‘cuss’ and ‘curse’); never have, never will.
So, for those of you that may have found certain posts here with comments that might have put you off, please know that I apologize for that and know that you will never have to worry again. For those of you who had to deal with a personal attack in the last couple of months, that being John, Ken and Chris, I’m sorry I didn’t step in earlier. I’m not putting up with it against me; I’m certainly not ever going to put up with it against anyone else again.
That is, unless it’s nice; if someone makes a love connection make sure to invite me to the wedding, as I love wedding cake. 
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
Guest Posts, Comments Or Interviews; Which Drives More Traffic To Your Site?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Sep 19, 2011
I don’t often talk about driving traffic to one’s blog unless it’s a little research project. That’s what this is, and since you see the title, you know what it’s about.
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In the last few months I’ve written one guest post that got a lot of attention, did an interview on another blog that did pretty well, and of course I’ve commented on lots of blogs as I often do. Last night I was sitting around thinking “I wonder which of these things drives more traffic to a blog.” Since this is the only one of my blogs that can address each of these criteria I have to use it for this test. The results are somewhat shocking, at least to me, and might be to you as well.
The study period is June 1st through August 31st. This actually works really well because I wrote the guest post on May 31st and the interview was posted on June 1st. Comments are of course an every day thing, and one might think this skews the results, which it would if I was taking all blogs as one. Instead I’m only taking one blog, that being Sire’s Wassup Blog. Why? You’ll see.
The source that brought me the most visitors in this time period was of course Sire’s blog, with 147 visitors coming from there. As a matter of fact, he’s #10 after all the search engines, where 5 different Google’s have sent the most traffic overall. I comment on Sire’s blog often, and we of course have banter here as well. I think that could have an effect since we’ve been doing it for years and I’m sure a lot of people have seen my name because his blog is popular.
Second is the guest blog post, which was on Ileane’s blog, with 89 visitors, and that link is sitting in 14th place. This obviously means the interview, which was on Christian Hollingsworth’s blog, comes in third with 53 referrals and sits in 18th place. That all 3 made the top 20 is pretty amazing in and of itself. Just for historical perspective Twitter sits in 11th place, a site called Business2Community, where I was quoted by Ari Herzog and left only one comment, was 15th, and a site I’ve never heard of and have no idea what they do called Gaia Online was 17th; all other referrers were search engines.
Now, I’d be irresponsible if I said that my results will be the same for everyone, but I have to say that based on what I’m seeing it seems that commenting really does drive traffic more than anything else. Maybe it’s because it’s something you do more often and thus always stays fresh. Maybe it’s because people get intrigued with what you have to say, or see a link via CommentLuv and decide to follow it back. I’m not really sure.
However, I hear some people saying “hey, what about that first month, June, when everything took place? What did things look like then?” Glad you asked. For just June Ileane’s blog ended up in 10th, Sire’s blog was 11th, and Christian’s was all the way down in 29th. Strangely enough, sitting at #20 was another blog I only comment on, Charles Gulotta’s Mostly Bright Ideas, another blog where I only comment, and at #8 was Facebook; that one I really can’t explain.
Yup, seems commenting is the best thing for me; what do your blog stats show?
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
I’m Not Registering, And Other Missives
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Sep 15, 2011
Y’all know I love social media. I love getting to meet people through all the different platforms. I use it for business as well, probably not as good as others but I get by. I’ve written a lot of posts about trying to find ways to encourage people to participate in the processes, retweeting, sharing your information with Facebook and LinkedIn, and commenting on blogs.
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Well, it seems things are starting to move in a different direction, and I’m not all that crazy about it. Seems that there’s going to be less effort in trying to convince people that maybe you have something worth sharing and more coercion to get them to participate. And I’m not playing the game; nope, just not doing it.
I’m not going to blame this on Andy Bailey, who I think is brilliant. I love CommentLuv, and I’ve been one of its biggest supporters. I know he made no money off that plugin, and probably makes nothing to very little off the GASP Antispybot plugin as well. I know he’s only delivering to the masses what they want. I’m just not going along with it.
Andy is about to release a new version of CommentLuv, a premium paid version that’s going to have a lot of features to it, as well as allow people to eliminate a bunch of plugins because it will contain what those plugins handle now. It’s purpose is to help those who buy it encourage others to share their information with other people to be allowed access to the best parts of CommentLuv on those particular blogs. I don’t have a problem with the first half of this; I do have a problem with the second part.
When the most drastic changes to CommentLuv came around, users had the ability to limit the number of previous posts someone had access to select from if they left comments on one’s blog. They could just up and select a number or do something like ask people to register so they had access to more posts to select from. I decided I was going to leave things alone; after all, I’ve always been open for access without people having to jump through hoops on this blog. I also remember back 4 years ago when it was recommended NOT to let people register on your blog because some of those people had the skills to actually break into your admin panel and cause you all kinds of grief. I guess that hole’s been plugged, though I’ve never heard a retraction of that statement.
Now those who buy the plugin will be able to hold you hostage (yeah, kind of strong) by making you share their content with one of the major social media sites. They can select one, or they can give you the option of selecting which site you want their post to go to. If you do that first, then you have access to your last 10 posts to choose from.
Trust me, I get it. All of us want our content out there as much as possible. All of us want our blogs and websites to grow. But I’m not one of those people that takes kindly to coercion. Y’all know I’m rebellious about participating on blogs that have Disqus, Livefyre, Intense Debate, or any of those other things. You know I’ve stopped participating with Typepad blogs. You know I’m not leaving comments if the comment system is Facebook only. In other words, if I have to go through an extra step just to leave a comment, I’m not doing it.
So, where does that leave me? It leaves me with only having my last post as the selection, and frankly, that’s good enough for me. What you, the blog owner, will lose is the possibility that maybe I’ve written something in my last 10 posts that’s pertinent to your topic on the day I visit your post. You and your readers will just have to deal with whatever I decided to say on my most recent post; that might be good enough for you.
Oh yeah, in this instance I will still comment on your blogs. I’m not dropping anyone I already like. Goodness, I comment on lots of blogs that don’t have CommentLuv. I don’t comment for the link; I comment because I like commenting. You know, one of those guys who’ll share an opinion or statement if I’m encouraged to do so. If the commenting system is still the one I like, I’m sticking around.
But I’m not registering, I’m not retweeting through any of these means that’ll open up my last 10 posts, and I’m not playing the game. I might still retweet, but I’ll do it my way. Yeah, I know most people aren’t going to agree with me on this one. I know the explanations are coming as to why this is good rather than bad.
But, as Wanda Sykes says, “I’m a be me.”
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
You Can’t Just Be “Comfortable”
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Aug 17, 2011
When I wrote my post asking Why Is Everyone Busting On A-Listers, it seems that many people kind of missed my point in a way. But that’s okay because some people thought I’d missed their point. I’m going to take that on first.
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I didn’t miss the point about A-listers and how many of them don’t respond to comments on their blogs anymore. I get it; I don’t like that either. No matter how big someone gets, I feel they should respond to at least some of the people who comment on their blogs. Maybe not everyone though, as I finally acquiesced to in Monday’s post.
However, almost everyone missed my point, and I’m going to say it’s my fault because I didn’t think I had to state it specifically. However, sometimes you have to go that extra step and tell people exactly what’s going on; that’s what this post is all about.
Not often are there only 2 ways to go about something. We can say there’s a right way and a wrong way but that’s not entirely truthful. That’s because everyone’s truthful isn’t the same as everyone else’s. If it was there wouldn’t be a need for political parties, or a need for different languages or countries. There wouldn’t be prisons to put criminals in, but there also wouldn’t be different degrees of heroes, from those that run into a burning building to save some children or those who called 9-1-1 on their cell phones for help.
However, when it comes to success, you either shoot for it or you don’t. This doesn’t necessarily mean you shoot to be the CEO or the person that cleans the toilets. What it means, however, is that there’s no way you or anyone else can shoot for the middle.
The middle moves, and it’s either on the low end or the high end. Many people think of the middle as being comfortable. But the reality is that no one is ever comfortable unless they have so much money that they have no worries in paying their bills.
So, let’s not go with that particular “C”-word. Let’s go with another one, which I’ll call “contentment.” I’m using that word because if I start talking about “content” you’ll think I’m talking about blogging again and that kind of content. But stay with me.
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My dad joined the military on his 17th birthday. He didn’t have a college degree obviously, but he also didn’t have a high school diploma; he had just started his senior year. This means that his military career would be limited. Still, he set his sights on the highest position possible for him at the time; master sergeant. He had to switch branches of the military to get there and it took some time, but 23 years after he’d enlisted he finally reached the highest rank possible.
Now, just so you know, sergeants don’t make a lot of money; you don’t get rich in the military. But he wasn’t content to be a staff sergeant or even a tech sergeant. He knew he’d never be an officer but he went for the best he could reach.
What did that do for him later on? He showed he was someone who wasn’t afraid to work to get as high as he possibly could. He never looked to be comfortable because comfortable for him would have been watching the evening news, having either a few beers or some bourbon over the weekend, and playing pinocle. That doesn’t take a lot of money, but to be truly content, you take care of your bills first, you set a living standard you want to enjoy, then you take your shot and go for it. You can’t aim at the middle because you never know what it’s going to be.
Dad didn’t do that. He retired from the military and got a job at a large corporation. They wanted to help him move up but he had to take care of some things first. So he got his high school diploma then went to college. He finished 2nd in his class with a double major in business management and psychology. And he moved up within the corporation he worked at to the point where they flew him all over the world to teach others what he’d developed. He left management and was basically a freelancer within the company. Now there’s true contentment because he got to do what he wanted to do with no encumbrances.
Now, think about your blogging for a minute. Do you write a post with the intention of it just being “good enough”? Are you just trying to put out whatever you can and move on to the next one? Do you really care that someone’s reading what you have to say and might be impressed with what you’re saying, enough to get them to leave a comment or share the post somewhere else?
Or are you just trying to be comfortable, going through the motions, not really caring if people comment or not because you know you’re not putting forth your best effort? What’s the middle of blog writing?
I see a lot of people who say they’re trying but we know they’re not. I visit a lot of blogs; I’ve seen a lot of bad writing. I’ve seen “make money” blogs that have no soul in the writing. I’ve seen a lot of blogs that basically rehash the same garbage over the over, giving nothing of themselves, ever. That’s comfortable; those are people who are trying to make money with no effort whatsoever.
Which one do you want to be? Do you want to try to be better, at least have something to say, put together posts that have some passion in them, something you hope someone else picks up on? Or do you want to be comfortable, writing bad posts and not really caring, trying to find the easy way without really working for it?
Take that point, add it to your life in general, then be truthful with yourself. Does being comfortable take on a different meaning now? Is that really all you want out of life?
Not me.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
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 something! ;)
