Wordful» Blogging

Should Stupid People Not Blog?

Charles — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:39:15 +0000

No, they shouldn’t.

Of course there’s no way to determine who’s stupid—let alone the validity of stupid being a unit of measurement (or judgement)—but, yes, as a general rule of thumb, stupid people shouldn’t blog.

What I’m referring to here are some recent comments made by blogger and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis at ReadWriteWeb 2Way Summit NYC, namely:

“There are a lot of stupid people out there … and stupid people shouldn’t write.”

“There needs to be a better system for tuning down the stupid people and tuning up the smart people.”

Hearing stuff like that, in such blunt and unrefined fashion, will piss off most people. Yet I don’t see how anyone could disagree with the essential message: people who blog junk shouldn’t be blogging. They deserve to be penalized, not rewarded.

I’ve been quietly rallying about this for years here on Wordful. Anyone who has read my posts will detect a bit of frustration as I try to balance the truth with yet another evergreen “how to” post. And let’s not forget how many times I have to grit my teeth as another self-aggrandizing blogger profits from gaming the system.

But back to Calacanis. One cannot ignore the irony of comments like that coming from the guy who created Mahalo, the sad content farm that not only churned out —*ahem*— rubbish, but also in my opinion abused one of the most common words in the Hawaiian language (it means “thank you”).

No hard feelings, though. The Google Panda update wiped out a huge amount of Mahalo’s traffic and now Calacanis seems to have a new direction and more fortified attitude about the future of web content. So yeah — the real mahalo goes to Google.

His latter comment, however, is worth paying attention to. It should resonate very strongly with anyone who’s not stupid: ”There needs to be a better system for tuning down the stupid people and tuning up the smart people.”

Listen up, because there’s gold here: Calacanis’s “better system” suggests a massive opportunity—a call to arms for talented bloggers, editors and entrepreneurs to reconcile and refine the web into a lean, mean content machine.

Photo by mikebaird.

Should Stupid People Not Blog? is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

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Embrace naked blogging

Charles — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:21:14 +0000

Blogging isn’t easy unless you’re comfortable doing it.

There are brilliant bloggers who struggle writing catchy headlines and well-sculpted copy—they’re just not wired for it. Yet, they persist because that’s the winning formula. It attracts attention and delivers value, so they say.

But the result of forcing a writer into a copywriter’s shoes is painful. Needless hours (years!) are lost to hyping ideas with padded, ornate language. It’s like getting all dressed up to go to a clothing-optional beach.

Naked blogging is the way to go, though it’s not without sacrifice. For example—fewer people will click on the title of this post because it’s not hyped up enough. Google won’t know what to do with it, either.

But I can’t hide anymore, just like Seth Godin or Chris Brogan can’t. Neither should you.

This trek is inevitably longer and more hazardous, but you get to be true to yourself every step of the way.

You get to say what you want in the way that you want, and that brand of freedom is priceless.

Photo by Alaskan Dude.

Embrace naked blogging is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

Will Readers Embrace the Vook?

Why Blogging Might Be Killing You, And How to Fight Back

Charles — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 03:31:03 +0000

After blogging for the past two and a half years, I now know that if it’s not feeling natural to you then you’re pretty much killing yourself. I speak from experience, of course. I lately find myself trying a little too hard to conjure up that perfect post. It’s as if my mind refuses to cooperate with the powerful majority who insist on a catchy linkbait headline followed by a bunch of giddy, motivational advice, parables and clever analogy. Most times I just want to sit at the keyboard and speak exactly what’s on my mind. No more, no less. Just the truth. Do you ever feel this way?

If blogging is like kung-fu…

If you ever watch a Chinese kung-fu movie (dubbed, of course—it has to be dubbed to get the full effect of awesomeness) you’ll often notice that different fighters rigidly adapt different styles of fighting according to their natural talents and personalities. These kung-fu styles are usually centered around an animal, like a tiger or monkey or praying mantis. No one style is ever superior over another. It’s up to the talent and discipline of the fighter to kick the other guy’s ass while saving his. If fighter can’t master their style, they go down pretty quick. The same could be said with blogging—there are some very distinct styles. I can name at least 5:

Editorial: opinions, rants, observations, personal thoughts
Educational: how-to advice designed to solve problems
Newsy: late breaking news and gossip
Theoretical: connecting big ideas to real-world examples (like science)
Confessional: juicy personal gossip, often taboo

Do any of these resonate with you? Maybe more than one?

…then bloggers need to fight like kung-fu fighters

I sense that a lot of bloggers right now are getting frustrated because they’re being led to believe there’s only one way to blog “properly.” They look up to the bloggers who have done well for themselves and figure they need to duplicate their style in order to achieve the same successful results. It doesn’t quite work that way. Everyone has a different style that fits them best. It’s better to find out what you don’t like and move on to something else than to think what you’re doing is going to work just because someone else is doing it well (but you’re just not feeling it). When you discover your style, run with it. Better yet—go kick some ass. Hey, look: I just wrote another post with a catchy linkbait headline followed by a bunch of giddy, motivational advice, parables and clever analogy.

Why Blogging Might Be Killing You, And How to Fight Back is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

How to Fight Blog Plagiarism Guerrilla Style

How Did Eric Nagel Win ‘Best Blogger’ at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards?

Charles — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:00:25 +0000

Now I’m a real admirer of Lisa Barone’s savvy writing style, so it was of definite intrigue that she and two other bloggers got edged out by Eric Nagel for the Affiliate Summit 2011 Pinnacle Award for “Best Blogger.” So how did Eric—a PHP programmer running a default Thesis Theme blog with an erratic posting schedule—win such a coveted award? I was lucky enough to catch Eric in the blogger’s lounge on the last day of Affiliate Summit West as everyone was getting ready to jet home. Strangely enough, he didn’t have his trophy nearby because it looks like John Chow commandeered it. I congratulated Eric and asked him a few impromptu questions about his blogging. His answers revealed why he deserved the win:

He Claimed Authority on a Hot Topic

From a purely content-centric point of view, Eric absolutely crushed it with his 9-part series on how to build a data feed site. A data feed site is a “set it and forget it” niche affiliate site that pulls in content from a “data feed” supplied by the merchant—mostly product descriptions mixed with some sales copy. It’s your job to edit the content so it doesn’t show up as duplicate. Eric’s data feed series became hugely popular because it touched on a relatively new and trending topic in the affiliate space and offered actionable, tangible content. People knew what data feed sites were but didn’t know how to build them efficiently. Eric not only handheld his readers through the entire process but he also included downloadable PHP snippets which are needed to connect everything together on the back end.

His Content is 100% Value

In addition to the data feed and other PHP/programming-related content, Eric also provides prompt and thorough session recaps any Internet Marketing conferences he attends. Typically, Eric takes furious notes during a session and distills them into blog posts on his way home. He then spends the next week or so publishing the articles on his blog, where he further engages in the comments. The other type of posts Eric occasionally writes are advice posts, where he takes his ideas and turns them into motivational pieces. In Milk Your Cash Cow, for example, Eric urges us to keep making the most out of something if it works (aka don’t fix it if it ain’t broke). You might also want to check out Eric’s revealing panties debacle…

He’s an Unlikely But Deserving Blogger

Let’s face it—most programmers aren’t known for their generous and innovative blogging spirit. But Eric is the exception to the rule. He stands out because he’s not your typical pro-blogger or power blogger, or even industry blogger. He’s just a guy who loves what he’s doing, loves helping and inspiring others and wants people to be successful by taking action. Says Eric:

I love sharing my information — giving it all away. My goal is to inspire people, but not do the work for them. They have to do it themselves.

Obviously Eric didn’t plan on winning the honor and award of Best Blogger. He just took possession of topic that needed a lot of answers, wrote a post about it, then wrote eight more posts about it, continued to deliver value to others, and the rest is history.

Oh…it looks like the award showed up again:

How Did Eric Nagel Win ‘Best Blogger’ at the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards? is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

ASW11 Session Recap: Dominating Your Niche With Blogger Outreach

Charles — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:29:26 +0000

I just got over a nasty flu from Las Vegas and so this post is just a teeny bit late…but you should still read it! On Sunday, the opening day of Affiliate Summit West, I sat front and center in the “Dominating Your Niche with Blogger Outreach” session featuring Jonathan Volk, Eric Schechter, Greg Rollett, John Chow and Chris Brogan as panel chair. The topic had to do with best practices when outreaching to bloggers to promote your brand, service or product.

Everything Comes Down to Personal Connections

Everyone on the panel agreed on the absolute need for making a personal connection with your prospects. This means taking the extra step, the extra effort, to get to know someone (or at least something special about them) beyond what you’d see on their business card. Obviously the best way to do this is to get yourself out there and meet people in person. Shake their hand, talk to them, relate with them, learn about who they are and what they do. If you can’t do this, then at least do your research: read their blog, Google them, friend them, follow them…just don’t cross the creepy threshold. Making a personal connection isn’t obviously a new thing—relationships have been important since humans have been around. As far as I and everyone at Affiliate Summit West are concerned, there is no substitute for real life, in-person networking.

Then It Comes Down to Creative Customization

There’s the established way to send a pitch to someone: send them a generic email briefly introducing yourself, your offer and how they can follow up. That’s the blah way. Then there’s the cool way: customize every single pitch you send according to the person you’re sending it to. If it’s an email, talk to them about something you know that matters to them…like their kids or their cats or their city. Something off-topic. How about instead of an email you send them a care package? Or make a 30 second video just for them? If it’s banner ad on their site, why not customize it? Everyone agreed: skip the boring way to do things.

If You Need to Find the Right Prospects…

You need to look more at authority, audience and context than just numbers. A blogger with a small but hugely devoted group of readers can have more influence over a blogger with a bigger but less passionate reader base. You should also look at how many comments and retweets they get on their content as well. Sometimes a blogger might have a unique outreach that nobody else does. And if you don’t know where to start looking, you can always try Alltop.com. Just find your niche and narrow it down until you find your bloggers.

A Quote from Each Panelist

Eric Schechter:

Personal relationships with people make a HUGE difference. It’s people caring about people.

Greg Rollett

Think outside email, think outside twitter. Send them personalized goodies.

Jonathan Volk:

Keep your content score at +4.

[Meaning: for every "non-pitch" message you send out, give yourself +1 point. For every "pitch" (promotional) message you send out, give yourself -1 point. Keep your score at +4.] John Chow:

It comes down to getting yourself out there and meeting people to create real relationships.

Chris Brogan: “Be there before the sale.”

ASW11 Session Recap: Dominating Your Niche With Blogger Outreach is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

Scraping and Autoblogging: Why They Suck

Charles — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:57:11 +0000

Being such a lover of words and good writing, I thought I’d chime in on one of the filthier sides of blogging: scraper sites and autoblogging. The two terms are basically the same thing, but with a slight twist in semantics:

Scraping refers to automatically copying full articles from other blogs (or RSS feeds) for publishing on your own site.
Autoblogging just snatches the headline and excerpt for your site, and supposedly links back to the original article.

Some of the more sophisticated methods involve some sort of “magic bullet” software that does everything with a push of a button: you type in your keyword and the software just starts adding content to your blog from other sources. At this point it becomes a fully automated system.

Why Do This?

Scraping content is a quick and easy way to get free content into your website, where it could rank well in search engines for whatever keyword(s) you’re targeting. A good ranking can yield good traffic, which you can then monetize with Google Adsense. Get enough of these sites going and you’ll soon have that cherry red Ferarri and playboy mansion on the beach! Internet marketers who like to think of themselves as dignified (but actually aren’t) prefer the term autoblogging because—technically—they’re only using the headline and excerpt and then linking back to the original article. They argue that autoblogging is okay because all they’re doing is providing “articles of interest” to readers and searchers.

What’s Wrong With It?

It’s pretty obvious what wrong with this picture, but since I’m hot on the topic, listen to my reasons:

Scraping is stealing. There’s no other way to say this, really. Taking other people’s content without due respect to them is textbook plagiarism. Then to use it to game the search engines for traffic? Suffering succotash!
Scraping evaporates all professional credibility. I can’t see any sort of content scraper “movin’ on up” to a respectable blogging or editing gig. Seems to me that once you do it, you mark yourself for a life among spammers. Can you even repent something like this?
There is zero brand equity. Yeah, forget building a brand. Stealing content for the chance of making some quick cash is not going to build much of anything but a gang of angry bloggers. Forget building a business while you’re at it, too.
No value provided whatsoever. When you scrape content for your “autoblog,” you’re not only violating the author—you’re also insulting the reader by providing false value. You’re luring them in with the promise of something good, but not delivering.
It’s stealing. Yes I’m repeating that. It’s so bad I had to say it twice. #plagiarism.

Whether you call it black hat, gray hat, or even white hat, scraping and autoblogging are instant credibility breakers in my book. If you need to select content from other sources, do it manually and attribute accordingly. The whole point of blogging is that it’s a down to Earth and casual activity. You just can’t automate that. The best editors are human. Photo by *saxon*

Scraping and Autoblogging: Why They Suck is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

Does Your Writing Ever Suck? Then Read This

John Chow Schools Wordful On Live Blogging

Charles — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 00:28:29 +0000

As fate would have it, I’ve been hanging out with problogger John Chow here at Affiliate Dot Com Live in Las Vegas and he’s shown me why he’s one of the best live-bloggers in the world. Live blogging is covering blogging an event you’re attending as it happens. Here are some powerful live-blogging tactics from John Chow that will sure to make anyone a better live blogger:

Always be present.

I’m not trying to oversimplify this, but it’s priority number one that you fully participate and be present in the event. This means not doing things the night before that you know will ruin you the next day. John is one of the first people to be in the speaking room every morning. This gives him several advantages: he gets the best seat (front and center, of course), he allows plenty of time to set up his equipment and—best of all—he has time to relax. There’s nothing worse or more embarrassing than entering a room late when everyone is sitting down and listening to the speaker. Then there’s the irritating part of setting up your laptop, trying to catch the stuff you missed and basically looking like a jackass.

Publish often.

Call it guerrilla blogging. Covering a live event means you must write, edit and publish as fast as you possibly can. Live blogging is much different than regular blogging in that you have to be very fast — there’s not much time for deep thinking or philosophical ramblings. That’s stuff you can do after the event is over (which I recommend you do). Yesterday I watched John publish 6—make that 7—posts! I tried to keep up with him and just couldn’t…at least yet. And it wasn’t a matter of better equipment — we roughly had the same hardware (although I must admit his gadgets were much newer than mine).

Have the right equipment.

I didn’t say the best equipment, I said the right equipment. John and I were both armed with these live blogging essentials:

Laptop and charger
Video camera (I had a Flip Ultra HD and John has a Canon HFS100)
Digital still camera (both Canos)
iPhone (as backup camera or voice recording)

Our room didn’t have wireless, but of course John had already solved that problem. He brought a Virgin Mobile mifi mobile “personal wireless hot spot enabler” (he made up that term), which he features on his Dot Com Pho Affiliate Dot Com Live edition. With the proper tools you can actually enjoy live blogging instead of getting fumbled up over petty glitches.

Bonus Video

After lunch John went right back to work and edited his DotCom Pho movie, which he just shot minutes ago. I caught him in action and asked him about live blogging (raw video):

John Chow Schools Wordful On Live Blogging is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

The #1 Factor to a Successful Blog

Charles — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 07:40:49 +0000

It’s quality of writing, at least according to the results of this SEOMoz blog survey. I couldn’t agree more. While there so many factors to consider on a blog—such as topic, design, frequency, reputation, etc.—quality of writing represents “the heart of the matter.” Think of it this way: what makes a really great film? It’s not the length or the dazzling special effects, or even the good-looking actors (although that doesn’t hurt). It’s the writing, the story. And I don’t just mean copywriting—that’s what advertisers use when they want to sell the film. It’s basically the trailer, with that same familiar voiceover guy we’ve heard as long as we can remember. You know that voice, right? The one that always sounds a little edgy yet alluring, like you really better go see the film! That guy is great for getting butts in theater seats. That’s good marketing. But what happens once the film starts is really what matters to us. What we’re after is that gripping story, that deep connection. And that’s what good writing is all about—getting people hooked on your story, your content. UPDATE: Jon Morrow of Copyblogger contends that a successful blog is about making other people happy. That’s pretty hard to argue with, though I must say that if Copyblogger were poorly written, nobody would stick around. Photo by striatic.

The #1 Factor to a Successful Blog is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

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How to Improve Your Blogging Quickly and Drastically

Charles — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 02:22:09 +0000

If you’re really serious about improving your blogging skills, try what I just did: publish a post every day for one month. Monday through Friday is fine.

Here are few improvements you’ll be sure to make:

Your writing will get better

Much better, in fact. Having the discipline to write and publish everyday is just like exercise: you eventually get into shape. You start sounding more relaxed and the act of writing doesn’t hurt so much. The first week is especially tough, I will admit. It’s painful to force yourself to do something that can feel so uncomfortable and strained. Getting past the second week is pretty rough, too. But once you get to the third and fourth week you’ll start to hit a stride. After that, blogging every day doesn’t feel like such a task. It’s actually quite enjoyable

Perfection is no longer a constraint

Part of the reason I was such an infrequent blogger (one post per week, sometimes less) is because I really dragged and took my time to “handcraft” each post to what I felt was a state of perfection. We have to remember that blogging is not like book publishing where a team of editors refine our work until it’s ‘perfect’ (*ahem* there is no such thing as perfect). That’s the old way of doing things! Blogging is meant to be more rapid-paced and fluid. When you commit to doing it every day, it becomes “publish or perish.” So no matter what kind of day you’re having you know a new post has to be live before you go to bed. That kind of pressure forces you to ship your work by making snap, creative decisions.

You’ll start to find your voice

This is by far the biggest benefit to daily blogging. Like any novice, beginning bloggers tend to copy the styles of the more established bloggers because they haven’t yet discovered their voice. But when you write every day, you get more comfortable with yourself and your words until it starts to feel like…you. Your blog becomes you. Pretty soon your writing feels more natural, like speaking. Your personality starts to emerge, and people start to get comfortable around you. That personal connection is vital for making friends and attracting passionate readers.

If I can do it, so can you

Rapid fire blogging is a lot like boot camp: you learn what you’re made of. Today marks the the last successive day of my month of daily blogging (Monday through Friday). I just proved to myself that I am indeed capable of writing and publishing on a daily basis. I’m also happy to report that it feels great!! Despite that fact that the world doesn’t make it easy for you to write, why not drop the excuses and just give it a try? Photo by kevindooley.

How to Improve Your Blogging Quickly and Drastically is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.

Which Blogging Business Model is Right For You?

Charles — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:01:04 +0000

Today we look at two leading affiliate bloggers in the Internet Marketing space, Shoemoney and John Chow. Both bloggers publish seven days a week in the same niche. How do their blogs power their businesses?

John Chow: The Blog is the Business

John Chow’s blog is the home base of his business. This means his content is written for the purpose of attracting a high readership, which he hopes to convert to paying customers. The more traffic John gets, the more leverage he has over pricing his services like site reviews, banner ad space and sponsored tweets. The last time I checked, John charges $500 for a site review, between $250-1,000 for an ad and $117.65 for a sponsored tweet. Not too shabby. But that’s not really how JohnChow.com makes its money. The real profit is in the list, as they say. When you subscribe to receive John’s free Make Money Online ebook, you automatically start receiving his autoresponder email series. These carefully timed, automated emails detail how you can go from zero to $40,000 a month with your blog, just like John did. John makes money as an affiliate from the products he recommends in his autoresponder series and his blog. Some products have monthly recurring payouts, like Aweber, so John will continue to get paid as long as you’re subscribed to the service he recommends. The more content John puts out, the larger his influence spreads over the Internet Marketing space. More influence equals more readers, more readers means more income, and so on.

Shoemoney: The Blog Compliments the Business

Shoemoney’s blog is a bit different than John Chow’s. For one thing it’s not the entire structure of his business. He makes most of his money from successful internet marketing ventures in various niches as well as his Shoemoney System. Shoemoney’s posts are off-the-cuff but really insightful on how he’s done so well for himself. Where John is exclusively a blogger—and a good one at that—Shoemoney tends to speak his mind more assertively. He makes a lot of subjective observations about what’s going on in the Internet Marketing world and elsewhere. I believe Shoemoney makes some pretty good money with his blog as well. Aside from freely promoting his own products, he has the Shoemoney marketplace which allows advertisers to pitch their product once a week on his blog. He may also throw in the occasional affiliate offer in his posts.

Which model is better?

There’s no right answer to this, because each one works pretty well. It all depends on the path you want to pursue. There’s no right way and there are a million other ways as well. But if you want to make blogging your business, listen closely to John’s advice and read his book “Make Money Online” (I’ve reviewed that here). If blogging isn’t your main thing, check out Shoemoney’s “Shoemoney System.” In it he breaks down exactly how he makes his money, from eBay to Facebook to a dozen other creative approaches. (I’ve seen the system and it’s solid.) For what it’s worth, Shoemoney.com gets more traffic than JohnChow.com, according to Compete.com. There are some other stats on that page worth looking at as well. Personally, I prefer Shoemoney’s blogging agenda. He doesn’t have to worry so much about his blog making him money because his business is spread across other enterprises. John Chow too has other endeavors, like his book and blog training program, but I’m certain his main money maker is the blog. What do you think? Road photo by i_yudai, comic by Comictan. Disclosure: links to Aweber, Shoemoney System and Make Money Online book are affiliate links.

Which Blogging Business Model is Right For You? is written by Charles Bohannan for Wordful.com, a blog about digital publishing.