Content Writing & Copywriting Blog

Should you display your RSS feeds counter on your blog?

Mar 04, 2008 No Comments »

This is the question dosh dosh is pondering over on his blog (he has the feeds counter displayed on his blog by the way). Why do people put their RSS feeds counter on the blogs? Is it to show off how many RSS subscribers your blog has? I don’t see anything wrong in such kind of show off.

Maki (he publishes dosh dosh) argues that he doesn’t want people to subscribe to his RSS feeds just because he has high number of RSS subscribers. I think displaying your RSS feeds counter makes good sense because it shows your visitors, especially the new visitors, how many people trust the content on your blog. Even initially if they subscribe to your RSS feeds just because they’re impressed by the number they will end up reading your posts eventually and I think this is good, isn’t it? You’re not misleading them; you are just trying to make sure they don’t miss the updates on your blog.

Blogging, written, textual blogging, is all about readership. The more readers you have the more successful your blog becomes, and the more successful your blog becomes, the better content (ideally) you want to present on your blog, the better the content on your blog, the greater is your readership. So it all becomes a cycle, and displaying your RSS feeds counter is just a small part in this whole entire big affair. Whether we like it or not there are a few people who are driven by numbers. There is nothing wrong in prompting them to subscribe because if they don’t like your content they will simply unsubscribe. So there is no harm putting your RSS feeds counter on your blog. What do you think?

Side note: instead of leaving comments on other blogs I have decided to create short blog posts on my blog with links to the posts I intended to leave comment on. This way I will be able to generate more content for this blog as well as send trackbacks to other blogs. Also I feel freer expressing my thoughts on my own blog rather than posting one-liners on other blogs. I won’t be doing it all the time but most of the time I will. Some blogs don’t publish trackbacks but still personally this seems to be a better idea.

How seriously should you take comments on your blog and on other blogs?

Mar 03, 2008 6 Comments »

A person is suspected to have committed suicide (I read it here) after a few scathing blog posts and subsequent vitriolic comments on the ways of his functioning. This reminds me of various blog posts and comments I have encountered during my blogging experience of 5 years, on other blogs, and sometimes on my own blogs. In fact, even my content writing website sometimes becomes target of vicious commenters. There was this person who would write to me every morning, with a different name, that my English is so pathetic that I should be ashamed of providing content writing services and charging for them.

You expose yourself to open assault when you share your thoughts, skills and services on the Internet simply because it is so easy to attack you; one just needs a computer with Internet connection and a browser. You can be attacked through your comment section or through a blog post on another blog. The content of such comments and blog posts can range from snide remarks, sudden outbursts of disagreement, outright insulting and even racial slights.

You have some degree of control on your comment section but you cannot control blog posts and comments appearing on other blogs. Even people whose posts and links end up on various social bookmarking websites like Digg become targets of very rude and ruthless remarks on their abilities. So how do you handle the attack if you are the target?

Have confidence in yourself

You are less prone to get affected by negative reactions if you have confidence in yourself. For instance I never even for once took that person’s advice to my heart (the one who said I shouldn’t offer professional content writing services). I’m not saying that my English is perfect and flawless but I know one thing, most of my clients are happy with the sort of content I provide. This was enough for me to ignore that person’s harangues.

While exchanging comment on other blogs be sure of what you are saying. If you know what you’re talking about you won’t get hurt; you will simply think that either there is a difference of opinion or they don’t understand what you’re trying to say so you should try again. Similarly when you are writing for your blog accept the fact that some people are going to oppose your ideas out of conviction and some are going to do it just because they have nothing better to do and they have no idea what they’re doing.

Be humble and ready to learn

Learning is something that never stops; you’re always learning and de-learning. The sky is not going to fall if someone criticizes you. Not many people are tactful but it doesn’t mean that they are always out to hurt you or insult you or show you down. Before feeling crestfallen after reading a negative comment just try to study it a bit; what is the intention of the person leaving the comment? Some people simply want you to improve and they just don’t know how to put it in better words. So whenever you encounter an adverse comment on your blog or another blog just try to see what is the intention.

Be an authority

Bloggers who have attained an authority are hard to criticize just for the heck of it because then the person who needlessly criticizes himself or herself becomes the target of the other readers. An authority also gives you confidence and clarity; you know your facts, deep down your heart you know whether the person is wrong or write and whether you need to learn something new.

Develop a thick skin

You need, definitely, a thick skin to interact on the Internet. Today I came across some online Hindustani vocal music tutorials on YouTube presented by an American lady. Of course she didn’t sound like a melody queen but it wasn’t that bad. Still people had left such hurting comments that a sensitive person would immediately take down all the videos. Fortunately the singer isn’t overly sensitive.

The thing is you cannot stop people from behaving the way they do. You can’t preach to them, you can’t talk sense into them, they are bad because they simply want to be bad. Some are even proud of their badness. Therefore if you want to survive on the online world you need to develop a thick skin.

How to become an authority blogger

Feb 26, 2008 2 Comments »

Just read this interesting and comprehensive post on how to become an authority in your niche at Dosh dosh. Authority always commands respect and trust. When you have established your authority people believe in most of what you say. In order to become a successful blogger you have to become an authority in your field and only then your readers will come to your blog to seek advice repeatedly. For example check out Dosh dosh and Problogger, and even for that matter Copyblogger; people simply love what these people write because their advised can be immediately used and benefited from.

What benefit do you provide as an authority blogger?

"Benefit" is the central keyword of being an authority. You become an authority blogger when your advice helps many people improve themselves. Your advice should be straightforward and it should not contain abstract meaning. People should be able to implement your advice with minimum effort and derive maximum benefit from it.

Become an authority blogger gradually

I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t start blog unless you have become an authority because then you will get trapped in a vicious circle. You become an authority gradually. In the beginning you don’t even have to act like an authority. Just write about your experiences. For example, if you are an online copywriter then share with your readers all the experiences that you have while serving your clients and all the new things that you are learning. Also chronicle the mistakes that you make and what you learn from them. Sharing your mistakes and using them as your strengths commands lots of respect from your readers.

Talk like an authority blogger

Along with publishing your blog daily keep learning and improvising. This is another thing that makes an authority: talk like an authority. I don’t mean sound like a snob and show disrespect for your readers, but you get my point. You have to sound convincing because if you cannot convince you cannot have people trusting you. Keep improving your writing skills because they come handy when you have to express yourself. If you’re straining all the time trying to "write well" it shows through. This is also a skill that you acquire/learn gradually.

Verify your facts and then talk

An authority blogger knows what he or she is saying and you can only be sure of what you are saying if you know the facts and have the data to back them up. Do your research and make sure you don’t have to eat your words later on. The sky is not going to fall if you have to eat your words, say once or twice every six months — we all make mistakes — but don’t take such instances lightly and try to make sure their occurrences are minimized.

Be consistent and frequent

Consistency is also an important ingredient of success. If you’re not consistent then people soon forget about you, especially on the Internet where things happened so fast. If you write once a week, or once a month, then your readers will have read scores of blog posts, perhaps on the same topic, and by the time you write about it, it may already become an old news to them. Give them something everyday so that you become a part and parcel of their daily lives.

Authority comes with experience and knowledge, and with sharing. The more you share your knowledge, the more deep-rooted it becomes.

SEO your individual blog posts

Feb 19, 2008 1 Comment »

Optimizing individual blog posts for your human readers as well as the search engines is as important as optimizing your entire blog. In fact it is much more beneficial, and easier to search engine optimize individual blog posts rather than focusing on the entire blog, and this reasserts the importance of sticking to the quintessential theme of your blog.

Many blogs become famous not for their overall content but for the amount of attention some of their posts get from all over the Internet. That’s why more emphasis is given to the quality of individual posts because any post can turn you into a blogging superstar. I am not an SEO expert but my experience tells me that if you stick to the following guidelines you can search engine optimize your individual blog posts. Please keep in mind that you rankings depend on lots of other factors.

Make your title straightforward, compelling, and use your primary keywords in the title

Some SEO and blogging experts insist that your blog post title is the most important component of your blog post but I slightly disagree because I think the most important component of your blog post is the content of your blog post. Have a great title and mediocre content and in just a few moments your title is declared bogus.

The title does two things: it gives your blog post a unique identity and it conveys to the readers and the search engines what your blog post contains. In that sense it is very important; whenever somebody links to your blog post or whenever your blog post appears in the search engines result pages it is your title that grabs the attention of the reader. This is why the search engines take your blog post title so seriously. The keywords in your blog post title tell the search engines what your blog post deals in and then they rank your blog post accordingly.

The blog post title attains greater significance in the case of social bookmarking websites like Digg and del.icio.us where it’s mostly your title that decides how many clicks you’re going to get from there. Websites like popurls.com display just your blog post title and you can only get clicks if your blog post title is enticing enough. Please don’t mix enticing with misleading.

Organize your blog post content under headings, subheadings and lists

Since there is so much stuff to be read, heard, and watched on the Internet, everybody is in a perpetual rush. So it helps your readers and the search engine crawlers if you organize your content under well-defined headings and subheadings. Using your headings and subheadings they can quickly browse through your content without having to read the individual paragraphs although your effort should involve making them read more and more.

Since it is easier to read headings and subheadings the search engines crawlers go through them to understand what you’re trying to convey. Use your main keywords and key expressions in your headings and subheadings because they are used while calculating your rankings.

Lists too are a great way of highlighting your keywords. Whenever you can, express your main ideas in the bulleted lists.

Use interlinking wherever possible

Interlinking means linking to other blog posts from within your latest blog posts. This can drive traffic — both human and search engines — to less popular blog posts. This also creates a network of links, facilitating easier crawling in the process. Make sure to use the relevant keywords as anchor text when you are interlinking because this way the search engines can make out what sort of information the page is being linked to contains. It then helps boost their ranking too.

Keep the most important part at the top

This is because the most important part contains your keywords. Since the search engine crawlers are anyway not going to read your entire blog post it is better to present to them your main point as soon as they enter the blog post. Make it as interesting as possible because your initial paragraph more often than not decides whether people are going to read further or not.

Highlight your keywords without overdoing

I don’t know how much it really works but many say it does. Highlighting means making your words and primary expressions appear in bold. Don’t highlight every occurrence.

Create great content

Although this point appears in the end it is one of the most important ways of search engine optimizing your blog posts. When the content of your blog post is superb your blog post gets linked by other bloggers and webmasters and this helps you boost your search engine rankings significantly. This is how linkbaiting has evolved; people specifically write blog posts or get them written by expert bloggers so that they are linked by the others.

Every business should have a blog and can have a blog

Feb 13, 2008 No Comments »

Andy at BlogHerald recently commented that the businesses that are not able to run blogs should not run them and to a great degree I agree (and therefore, don’t). He has listed 5 reasons why most business blogs fail to take off

1. Lack of fresh content on a regular basis
2. Not enough RSS subscribers
3. Not enough comments
4. No contribution in terms of traffic to the main business website
5. No clue about promoting products and services through the business blog

These are valid reasons for the failure of a business blog. But it doesn’t mean that the businesses that cannot manage a blog should not have a blog. Your business blog can act as an invaluable tool whenever you decide to use it. You can even promote your products and services when your blog has kicked off. All the above 5 drawbacks can be easily countered by hiring capable people. For instance you can hire an experienced writer/blogger to generate regular quality blog posts and he or she may not even cost your business much if you simply outsource this portion (generating content) of your blogging activity. There are many individuals who can take over the complete management of your blog right from providing fresh content non-stop to interacting on other blogs on your behalf. I think some people are already doing this — providing this as a total turnkey solution.

I don’t provide the complete business blog management service but I do write blog content for many business blogs on weekly or monthly basis and those blogs are doing quite well in terms of all the 5 factors mentioned above. Having a blog doesn’t always mean doing everything on your own. If you decide to use your blog as a business-promotion tool then hiring someone who can manage your business blog any given day is a smart business investment.