(Advice: have a blog in your website)

Although most bloggers / webmasters are concerned how they are perceived online and will ask fellow bloggers what they think of, or how they can improve their sites, some people REALLY don’t want to know. Some bloggers especially like their site just the way it is.

And that’s okay.

Today’s focus.

I’ll admit, my job is to enhance the positives and uncover the areas that need improvement.

So, if you asked me what I think of your blog / website, I’d find something I like about it and pay you a compliment. And, to be honest this is not just to please you.

I believe that your site is a representation of YOU and it needs to be a place where you feel comfortable to express what ever you want to express.

Much like your home, I wouldn’t come in and say “You need more indoor Foliage, or that picture would be more inviting if you move it.”, If you want my input and insights you’ll hire me. I don’t feel it’s my place to tell you how to design your own online space.

After all, your site is a reflection of YOU.

Now I’d like to share what I like to see on blogs.

What is the blog about?
More often than not, the name of a site does not give light to what the site is about. Whether it is in the title, typography or a tagline this simple direction will let readers know what our blog is about and what they can expect from your site.

Recent/favorite and/or random posts
When I first come to a blog I’m not familiar with, I like to read a few articles to dig into what the site has to offer. I may want to read something other than the current article that brought me to the site. When I can’t find older posts, categories, tags, I leave. I don’t have time to explore for them, nor will I use the “previous” or “next.” Make it simple for a visitor of any page to dive deeper into your site.

Where’s the “about me” page?
Every site creator has a story and the the “about” page is where you can share that story. The “about” page doesn’t have to be long widen timeline of your life, we now have the new Facebook timeline for that. At the very least I like knowing a little about the blog author(s). Need ideas about writing one? Visit my about page maybe it will help act as a guide. “About me”

Voila, three things I look for when I land on a blog. These are basic necessities.

What about you?

Here is your homework and make sure to write your answers in the comments below.

What are somethings you look for when you first land on a blog?

Would you want feedback from users on how to improve your blog?

Care to share?

BTW. These descriptions may not apply to some business/Executive blogs which are designed with certain kind of professionalism and branding of the company they represent.

Also, I’m not saying my blogs are perfect, rather the sites are like me, always evolving.

We see many people start their journey in blogging with the hopes of making big money Fast!

They’ve seen the book titles, blog posts and “testimonies” online where bloggers are living from the income they’re making from their six-figure blog so they think, “why not me?”

Honestly, it is true. It can be you.

All it takes is hours. More hours than you know.

Important lesson

Author Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, attributes the success of many to 10,000 hours of practice. He found that 10,000 hours appears to be the magic number needed in order to reach our full potential.

It’s easy to believe the more time we spend practicing and “doing” anything should lead to us getting better at it.

So how will we associate this method to blogging?

So, after 10,000 hours I will become a blogging Sensation?

Understanding what 10,000 hours looks like will help us understand exactly what it will take. Working 40 hours a week for an entire year totals 2,080 hours. It will take about 5 years to the 10,000 hour mark.

If 10,000 hours is the key to success, it should be the same for blogging right?

Personally, success in blogging depends on how we spend our time blogging and how we define success.

If we have a plan, focus on valuable quality content, know how to drive traffic to our site and have a willingness to experiment and learn as our blogging life rolls on we’ll be closer to success sooner than later.

Also, if we’re told that success comes after 10,000 hours we are setting ourselves up to give up before we start. Not only that, if we’re told we won’t see success until we’ve banked 10,000 hours, we’re apt to give up before we start. (I have blogs and have seen other blogs gain momentum and income in less than a year)

What do you think?

What about you:
How long have you been blogging?
How many hours would you say you’ve blogged thus far?
Please share your thoughts in the comments.

I may be biased but I believe there is magic in writing. Picture sitting with an author or song writer and they tell you in detail how to write a best-selling novel or a hit song.

The truth is that most everything creative boils down to a process. Creativity isn’t knowing what it will look like in the end. There is a lot of secret ingredients needed to complete creative work. It’s difficult to explain why one item of writing outperforms another. I’m often asked how I write, what I use to write and what triggers my ideas for content. (similar questions: how do I decide where this content should go? Blog? Article? Client idea? etc….) I respect the process and here are the key elements that culminates in my final output of writing…

1. The Tools.

The tools I use to write are as follows:

MacBook Pro (Or my custom made monster Office desktop).
Google Docs for newspaper and magazine articles.
Windows Live Writer for Blog post writing. (Adding your Blog to Live Writer makes it easy)
Scrivener for book and book proposal writing.
Evernote and iPhone Camera is where I keep all notes and ideas.
When I write notes out by hand, not often, I use white copy paper, etc…
I use Google Bookmarks to save all Web-based content.

2. The Tactics.

The ideas for content come from the following areas:

Google Reader: I use Google Reader and subscribe to many Blogs, news websites, and social networks on topics as far-reaching as marketing, public relations, branded content, technology, finance, economic development, psychology, art, music, travel, photography, fashion, innovation, etc… (I complement this with news apps, etc… on my iPhone and iPad).
Twitter: I follow interesting people and what they’re linking to in spaces like Twitter, Google +, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flipboard, etc…
I try to read a few books (iPad and Paper) every month on various topics from business and marketing to creativity and innovation (I almost never read fiction).
I still read (scan) the daily local newspaper and I try to grab the national & International newspapers a few times a week.
Magazines are packed with creativity. Everything from Wired and Fast Company to The Week and The Economist. (Also Photography and Travel)
I consume and study a lot of art (carving, modelling, assemblage and construction) architecture, printmaking, electronic media such as computer and digital graphics, ceramics, Visual Design, Graphic Design, collage, photography and Post Modern appropriation and recontextualisation).

3. The Techniques.

These tools and tactics alone won’t create words. It takes sitting down and working though the details and just writing. Much like my company writing is all about the process. I ask myself questions about topics that inspire me and trying to use critical thinking  to narrow down a thought or idea. Personally, I like sharing stories and relating them to others to create context and value. I also tend to generate large amounts of content in one sitting and revist the content before publishing. This allows the content to bounce around inside of me to the point where I must publish it.

How do you write? What works best for you?

There’s no excuse not to blog – even if you’re not able to put much effort into writing posts. Google acknowledges that web results will give relevant and up-to-date information as search results. A blog allows you to provide the updated content in an effective and easy way.

I stress the necessity of personal brands often (Personal Branding in a 2.5 world) and if your like the many who work tirelessly to build a strong personal brand to empower your business or generate opportunities I say with conviction, you need a blog!

Frequently associating your name with blog content will allow your name to rank high in searches for your name, even when the blog is updated only a few times a month. If you already have hosting this effort shouldn’t cost you more than the domain, under $20USD a year. A minor investment to help your online persona and secure your personal brand.

This is the tip of the iceberg, and shows there’s even a minor reward with minimal effort. I am not condoning little effort – the more you put in, the more you get out. A blog is powerful and can accelerate your personal brand in many ways:

• Blog about your industry to establish you  as an expert/authority.
• Readers and subscribers can recommend or become potential customers.
• Building a community of readers will allow you to leverage loyalty to support non-blogging activities, products or services.
• Blogging helps create notoriety which shows your premium value and thus allows you to charge premium prices.
• Blogging can lead to network opportunities with other influential bloggers that can open great cross-promotional opportunities.
• Popular bloggers often get interviewed, which provides an opportunity to promote your personal brand to a new audience.
• Successful blogs can lead to other publishing opportunities, book deals, and potential lucrative activities.
• A blog may also serve as your portfolio. If you’re a freelance writer/blogger, you will need to own and run your own blog to be successful. If you’re a web developer/designer, a well designed blog will help sell your services to potential customers. Blog posts should demonstrate your skills and expertise in your field.

-Peter

For more Social Media coverage, follow Peter Lang on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook

The world of social media is invading the web at a speed that we cannot even imagine. It ‘a revolution, the social media revolution, social networking, the new way of conceiving the web, media, sharing. It ‘a revolution before our very eyes, of which we are all a part of and can no longer control. No one could have imagined, even a few years ago, that this would have happened. Read and watch these stunning statistics on social media:

Gary Hayes has collected some statistics and has made a counter that shows the numbers in real time: ‘Gary’s Social Media Count’: Which I have included below.

• 20 hours of video are uploaded on Youtube every minute!
• 600,000 new members each day on Facebook
• 700 million photos and 4 million videos on Facebook per day
• 18 million new users per day on Twitter and tweets sent 4 million per day
• 900,000 new items on blogs a DAY!
  
• 1 billion videos viewed on Youtube DAILY!
• 250,000 virtual goods in Second Life each day, and 1250 messages per second!
• 73 million visitors and 700 million Flickr photo uploaded a month!
• More than 2.3 trillion SMS messages were sent in 2008 alone! Here is it written out  to make it clearer 2,300,000,000,000,000,000 SMS!

via (web.splesh.net)

Thank you noltha.

The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas

Plugin

When beginning a blog one of the first things to come to mind are plugins. Great example- web.splesh.net.

The 10 “Get First” WordPress plugins when starting WordPress Blog.

1. All In One SEO Pack – It’s top on the list for a reason because it is essential for all bloggers!!! All In One SEO Pack allows tweaking Meta Titles, Descriptions and Tags of your blog without changing the content.

2. Comment Luv – Comment Luv enables you to show some love as soon as a comment has been posted by including a titled link to their last blog post or tweet at the end of their comment. This plugin drastically increases user interaction on your blog through increased exposure.

3. Popularity Contest – A great plugin because it shows which posts are the most popular by evaluating views, comments, impressions, etc. You will be able to create a side bar widget showing the most popular by the date style of your choosing. (year, month, week)

4. TweetMeMe – The Easy ReTweet Button. Using TweetMeMe will increase the likilyhood of your posts being tweeted. So much easier, a must.

5. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – YARPP provides a list of posts and/or pages related or similar to the current post/page introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site. This will imporove click through rates because it gives the reader more of what they like.

6. WP Super Cache – WP Super Cache makes your blog load faster. What is there to say other then that? Get it.

7. Smart Update Pinger – Plugin protects your blog from over pinging by pinging only when you publish a new post – not when editing. Great for security.

8. Redirection – Bad SEO is often caused by broken links. Redirection enables you to prevent Google Bots and Yahoo Spiders from getting stuck in a loop. Redirection is a WordPress plugin to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This is particularly useful if you are migrating pages from an old website, or are changing the directory of your WordPress installation.

9. Contact Form 7 – Every major blog has a contact form. They used this plugin to create it. Visit mine on the Contact tab above.

10. Sexy Bookmarks – A great way to share in the sexiest way possible. The best looking sharing plugin you can get. Sure, there are plenty of alternatives and some of them are probably much better than Sexy Bookmarks, but unlike any other, this plugin actually makes you WANT to share.