Who or What is your blog for?

So, have you decided why you want a blog? Do you want to share information? Make money? Have a place where distant relatives can keep track of you? Post funny jokes and links?

Before you start blogging, you should decide why you're blogging. That will help you decide where to blog (which type of host) and how to name your blog. An example is Wordpress.com; no advertising so no money. Also, if you're blogging for relatives, the name doesn't matter but if you plan to monetize, you need a name the is related to your blog topic.

In addition to name, the reason you blog will also affect things like frequency and topic. Again, if this a personal blog, no big decisions need to be made. Same with a blog designed to just share information; call it whatever, and post whenever, you like.

If you want regular traffic though, you need to be on topic and at least somewhat consistent. I consider this blog a tips blog (as in sharing info, not holding out my hand. ;-) ), not a money blog. I try to be consistent for my regular readers but I don't beat myself up if I'm not. I stay pretty consistently on the topic of blogging and the name of the blog is pretty much dead on for the topic I've chosen.

If I wanted to make money, I think the topic is a decent one although the blogosphere is pretty crowded for a blogging blogs. I think the title of the blog is winner. I named it well. Blogger isn't a bad choice for hosts as it has integrated Adsense and I can put any other advertising or banners that I want to. I would need to do something about my frequency though, I think.

If you want to make money with blogging, you need to build a traffic stream and the stream has to be interested in your blog topic (which is why I don't understand why there are so many spam blogs). To build traffic you need to post daily (at least in the beginning) and you need a lot of content.

When people show up, you want them to stick around for a while. That means plenty of articles. The faster you generate that content (multiple posts per day), the faster you will build traffic.

Right now, the vast majority of the traffic to this blog is from Google. I'm ok with that. My goal is to provide what tips I can. If people are finding me via google, and getting some use out of this blog, then I am succeeding.

Why are you blogging? What do you look for in a blog like this?

LewisC

P.S. This entry ended up being one of those that started at one place and ended up in another.

Technorati : blogging, writing

Sometimes, Everything I Write Sucks!

Yesterday I wrote about persistence paying off for bloggers. Brad made some good comments:

I come up with idea's for blogs and internally shoot them down as "not worth writing about" or "everyone knows this already, why write about it".

Oooh, I hate that. This is such a good point and is something I think every blogger runs into now and then. I call it my internal editor. If you read writing books, that is a major topic. Most of those books give the same advice: Write! Write! Write! Ignore the internal editor and go for broke.

It's not always advice I want to hear, that's for sure. I have to admit though, that it is true. When I wrote my book, I got up everyday, 7 days a week and wrote. During the work week, I did a couple of hours, usually starting at 4am, before getting ready for work. I'd do another couple of hours at night before bed. On the weekends, I would do a full day. 120,000 words in 4.5 months. And I maintained a blog at the same time.

I wasn't always motivated (for the book or the blog) but once I sat down and started putting words on paper, it usually started flowing. The same is true for blogging. Just type something. Even stupid ideas are a start. Many times, I start writing on a topic and I either spontaneously generate ideas for future posts, or I change direction and write a different post than I intended.

When it comes to "not worth writing about", you never know. One man's garbage is another man's gold. If nothing else, it might be entertaining.

On the topic of "everyone knows this already, why write about it". You might be an expert but not all of your readers will be. Sometimes something very basic will help someone else tremendously.

Every entry you write helps give life to your blog. Not every book is war and peace and not every blog entry will be a front page digg item. But that's ok. I don't want to read war and peace every time I open a book. Sometimes, I just want to be entertained or have some downtime.

So, my tip of the day is Write! Even when you don't want to. I'll try to do as I say, too.

LewisC

Technorati : blogging, persistence, writing

AnswerTips Are Enabled

I'm trying an experiment. I have enabled Answers.com's AnswerTips. Do you have a question about a word on this blog? Just double click the word and see what happens.




You should get a pop up like the image to the left. You can click on any word on the blog (any word at all) and get a definition and some information about that word.




Is this something you find useful? The goal of something like this is to keep your readers on your site as long as possible. If someone can get information without ever leaving the site, you meet your goal.




The downside to a tool like this, and it's not really a downside per se, is that if people don't know it's available, they aren't likely to try double clicking on random blogs.




But, if it does become popular, you'll be supporting a neat feature. I call this an experiment because I am seeing if it slows my page down at all. If it doesn't, I would have to call it a winner.

blog blogging

The Ultimate List of Freebies on the Web

If you haven't heard of Mashable, here is the blurb from the site:

With in excess of 5 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the world's largest blog on social networking.




What does that mean? It means sites like MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, hi5, Piczo, Bebo and YouTube.




If you're launching a new social network, or a tool that plugs into MySpace and the rest, Mashable wants to know!




Mashable is written by Pete Cashmore, a new media expert. It ranks among the Top 100 blogs worldwide.

Anyway, beyond that, it is a site that makes lists. The top 40 this, the top 10 that, etc. Today I stopped by for a look and I got the ultimate time waster, 5000+ Resources to Do Just About Anything Online. There goes the rest of the weekend.




This post has just about everything you can imagine. Keeping in the spirit of this blog, here are a few of the topics covered:

• 6 Key Ways to Measure Your Blog's Success


• 30+ AJAX-Powered WordPress Plugins


• 50+ Ways to Track Website Traffic


• 120+ Resources for Bloggers


• 40+ Firefox Add-ons for High Speed Blogging


• 40+ Free Blog Hosts


• 70+ Podcasting Tools and Resources


• 50 Great Widgets For Your Blog


• 120+ RSS Resources


• 30+ Tools For Working With Wordpress Posts


• 30+ 1-Column WordPress Themes


• 30+ WordPress 2-Column Themes


• 30+ WordPress 3-Column Themes


• 50+ Tools For The WordPress Admin


• 50+ WordPress Plugins for Multimedia


• 30+ WordPress Plugins To Get More Blog Readers


• 30+ Tools to Turn WordPress into a Personal Hub


• 17 WordPress Plugins For AdSense


• 30+ WordPress Plugins for Statistics

And that's just the first section. It also has sections for Communications tools, photo & video editing, productivity tools, web browsing and development, search and bookmarking. Come to think of it, this post at mashable has just about put me out of business. I guess I'll have to do some hard thinking to come up with topics that haven't already been covered.




Thanks Mashable.




LewisC

blog blogging

What is your blogging routine?

I am curious as to when you prefer to blog and what motivates you to blog regularly. I like to blog as soon as I get up in the morning. Due to my work schedule, I tend to do a lot of my blogging on weekends and at night but my preferred time is as soon as I wake up and am fresh.




I don't need silence when I work. I tend to be very focused when writing and can close out most sounds. My wife and son have a knack for interrupting me though so at times I put on the headphones and play some quiet jams.




I am motivated by news stories and blogs I read. I read a lot of magazines and news papers and have subscribed, via RSS, to several press release sites that relate to my interests.




I used write the About New Orleans blog, and I wrote an entry there 5 days a week. I usually wrote most of those on sunday morning before the rest of the family was awake. I do the rest of my blogs whenever I get the chance.




So what is your schedule? What is your routine? What do you do that helps you stick to that schedule?




Thanks,




LewisC

blog blogging routine schedule tips advice