Yay, another post with a video! I know, it’s been 6 days since my last post here and that’s rare for me. I did that on purpose though because I had a couple of posts in a row that I thought were important enough to allow visitors to have their say about before I pushed on. If you’ve missed them please go back and check them out after this one.
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As I said in the video, today the sun is shining in central New York and that’s an anomaly for is at this time of year. Actually it popped out for maybe 20 minutes in the evening a couple of days ago but that’s too late to call it a sunny day. So I’m feeling good and thus decided that it was time to have a post on this topic, which is about blogging of course.
Over the past 5 years I’ve given a lot of advice on blogging. So have a lot of other people, some whom I’ve quoted here, some who I visit whenever I can. I’m part of the newsletters sent out by my Hot Blog Tips Hangout crew, and of course we do 3 videos every Sunday. The advice is pretty good I must say but if you’ve ever watched some of our videos, you’ll notice that every once in awhile we argue about something. It’s a short argument, nothing where we’re going to slap each other around (logistically it can’t happen anyway), but it proves a point.
That point is that all of us think we’re right and we are. At the same time none of us ever believes we’re wrong and we are. Kind of a dichotomy, eh? I’ll explain quickly, but not to take anything away from the video.
We all love blogging, but we all have something different we’re hoping to get out of it. When you think about it that’s true of all of you as well. It’s great getting some lessons from others, something that you feel you want to try out for yourself. But you also hear some advice that your mind says “I’m not doing that”. I know you do because I do.
So, if all of us look at the same information yet don’t do everything that everyone says, doesn’t that say that there’s someone out there who thinks we’re right and someone who thinks we’re wrong? By the way, I’m working on the concept that says it’s okay to be wrong sometimes because one, no one’s perfect, and two, even being wrong can produce great results. Think record players and penicillin.
With that said, here’s the video. Please, like the video, comment on the video, comment here on this blog post. Yeah, I know, most of you won’t watch the video or like it, even if you tell me you did, but I have to ask. 🙁
I’ve always said that you should have a professional looking theme, especially if you’re to convey yourself as being a professional type of person. I also believe it should be easy to use so you can change the way it looks without tearing your hair out so that your blog stands out from the rest.
With all my blogs I have them looking the way they do because I like them. I know it won’t please everyone but I don’t care because I know that’s impossible. As long as I like it, that’s fine. Take my new header, that I designed all on my lonesome, with the help of a program I will be promoting, I love the way it looks but I know some people won’t but that’s OK because I get a nice feeling every time I see the page load. It’s sort of like the sum popping out 😀
Like your video Mitch and I’ll ‘LIKE” it to prove it. Enjoy the sunshine
Thanks Sire, and it’s funny that you’d asked me what I thought of your new header after I’d posted this. lol You know, it’s possible that the right move is to have a more professional theme, or pay someone to design something special. But is it necessary, and if one can’t afford all of that or likes whatever they come up with, is it so wrong? Like the advice about not monetizing one’s blog until they’ve started attracting traffic. What if you’ve written a book and the reason you start the blog is to help you promote it? You’re supposed to wait 6 months before promoting it? That’s all I’m saying.
The sunshine was glorious and unexpected because we woke this morning with new snow on the ground, and dense at that. But by 11AM… wonderful!
Personally I believe that a lot of little things helps people to succeed. They say that if you don’t capture a visitors attention in the first 8 seconds they will move off. A professional theme will help to captivate their attention for some of those vital seconds. After that it’s your heading and then your content.
I also believe that a professional theme helps your brand and perhaps even plants the seed that you’re a true professional and one whose advice should be followed 😉
You would Sire, since you’ve purchased what, 3 different theme packages by now? lol Still, would you admit that there are blogs without professional themes that do quite well, and blogs with professional themes that stink? That’s kind of my thought here; we make recommendations we believe are good, but there’s no guarantee that our recommendations will work for each person.
Nope, only two. The second one was perfect so I didn’t need to look any further. The first one was the Thesis theme and because I’m not one to waste money I thought it the perfect theme for my Load of BS site 😀
Yeah, I agree with that. The theme does not make for a good blog but I still think that it can help to garner that hard to get readership.
I think we’ll always differ on that one Sire. I doubt that anyone who’s overly concerned about what a blog looks like is a true reader anyway.
I do believe a good design is nice, but as you say people will not come back unless your content is adequate.
You do not have to be the best writer because people expect some errors. I have seen best selling books with errors.
You should at least proofread or make an effort to edit. If people get tired from reading your content, they will leave.
I got this comment from someone and I had no idea what he was saying. I am sure he wanted to say something meaningful.
Getting back to your point. It should be alright to make your blog the way you want, but do not cry when you are not seeing the results you expect.
Good stuff Michael and absolutely correct. There are things people should do to at least make their content viewable but after that, decide if the results you get are the results you want and go from there.
Maybe that sun has affected you, ;-). Here on the west coast the weather is also sort of strange especially when you visit
different parts of SF. I enjoy your writings, reading them has helped me become better (I think) in showcasing my expertise in selling RE. Thanks.
Andrew, we take what we can get out this way at this time of year.
We do disagree quite a bit, don’t we Mitch? Overall, it seems to work. It’s important to respect each other’s views and not say they’re wrong when it can only involve opinion. I think we do real well with that and the viewers are better off for it.
Sometimes I see a lot of humor in our videos when I play them back and a lot of that are during the “debates”. I bet some people think we rehearse that stuff but the truth is we can hardly get our general topics straight just minutes before we go live. lol
Maybe you; I always know what I’m going to say about my topic and I’ve learned how to not laugh just before I go on because you’re trying to get me to laugh. lol Still, I think what we do is a good example of how we’re right and wrong and yet it doesn’t matter overall unless we’re all in total and fervent agreement on something, such as spam and theft of content.