The WordPress people want to remind everyone about the importance of backing up your blog and they are calling the week of July 23 to July 30 a WordPress Backup Week. Backing up your blog, or any other important documents, is something that should be part of your routine. It is your insurance in case something goes wrong and things do go wrong occasionally, a few of our friends have had to learn the lesson the hard way. They’ve learned that a few minutes of their time every week can save them from a world of trouble.

So go look at the WordPress backup instructions and the backup restore instructions, just in case.

Keith of To-Done has an interesting list of how to be more productive as a blogger. I take a lot of these tips to heart, as I’ve found switching over to pro blogger mode has been chaotic at times. The article has been around for about a month now, but I got a little behind in some of my folders. That said, it is a great article so I kept it around for when I had more time to read it all. So, after reading through the whole list, I think the synthesis of tips I’d like to share are:

- write quickly

- have a set time to write every day

- write down all your ideas in a separate book. They are good “fodder,” as I like to say

- write when the passion hits - sometimes outside of your set time you just get bombarded with ideas. Take advantage of it!

- schedule “off” time. Daily. And take time out for a day or two here and there.

- look for new things to read about. More sites, new books.

- relax. be you. let your ideas flow out.

- IM or chat with other bloggers for creative zest

- look for new topics, familiar or not

I think this topic is very much akin to a recent podcast between Tris & myself on having a blogging voice. A lot of people struggle to find their voice, and this can slow things up a bit. Some of the same ideas that help you be productive can also help you establish your online presence.

For those of you following the start of our Canadian Professional Blogging series, thanks for turning in. We’ve really appreciated the feedback! Keep it coming!

To follow up with our last podcast on your blogging voice, Tris and I recorded this podcast with tangible tips on how you can go about developing your blogging voice. We go through a whole series of steps and discuss them in detail. We also posted our show notes up to our blogs - you can view them over on Blogaholics. They are good to follow along while you listen.

Series in snapshot:

podcast #1 - becoming a ProBlogger
podcast #2 - your blogging voice part 1 of 2
podcast #3 - your blogging voice part 2 of 2 (today’s release)

Technorati Tags: professional blogging, podcasting, podcasts

Blog taglines are important. I have read this and learned this over and over. But I was reminded also by a post by Darren to maybe rethink my own. I know he recently upgraded his from “ProBlogger” to “Blog Tips - ProBlogger”

Now taglines are important for many reasons. They tell readers what to expect, and they are highly looked at and considered in the whole SEO process. I also realized, upon Darren’s change, that it could also mean how soon you are read by your readers.

Ok, imagine this. Most people don’t organize their feeds into folders. They just drop them all into their Bloglines or NewsGator. So, when reading, most people go top to bottom. It’s the way we read. So, when Darren went from being at the “P” section to the “B” section, he was more likely to be read first.

What could being read first mean? Well, it could mean that you get readers before they are tired. More likely to comment. To reblog. And simply more likely to read and not just clear away.

So, maybe the first letter in your blog name should be important as well. I guess “Blogging Help…” is not doing so bad there.

Anyway, I thought I’d open up to discussion our own blog tag:

“blogging help - blog consulting by professional bloggers Arieanna & Ianiv”

I recently put that new tagline up there. I wanted the keyphrase of ‘blog consulting’ to be in there, as well as our names. Our names were coming up in our search logs, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt. As well, I wanted to use the term ‘professional blogger’ - this is where I came to a stumble. We are a plural group here: bloggerS. So, I chose to be grammatically correct rather than just putting in the keyphrase. Was this a good idea? Opinions?

Technorati Tags: blogging help, blogs, blogging, SEO, taglines

RSS = Really Simple Syndication

RSS is a way for any website, including blogs, to provide content out in a format that allows subscriptions. These subscriptions can come by email or by a news aggregator such as Bloglines.

A news aggregator or news reader, whatever you want to call it, lets you take those RSS files, often called “feeds,” and show them to you in a readable format.

RSS files are not really meant for you to see. They are meant for your computer to read. You simply choose the method most convenient for you. I don’t know of many who read it in the email format (I do know that Robert Scoble is one, however).

I personally use Bloglines. So, when I click on my Bloglines subscription button, manually add the feed, or use the lovely XML button on most weblogs to add the feed, Bloglines simply asks me where I want to put it. I choose the folder, or make a new one, to keep things organized.

So, what happens is this:

Bloglines periodically checks that RSS feed to see if the author of that blog/website has added new content (new posts or articles).

If yes, it will pull all that information over via RSS into a sequential listing of the posts, recentmost ones being at the top. Each post comes down the line separately, since each post has its own “permalink” - it’s own unique place in the Internet. This makes it easy to reference that article, since its place will never change. How cool is that?

From your perspective, when you go to Bloglines, it will bold the folder and the blog name and tell you how many new posts there are.

To read them, you simply click them.

Have any questions, let me know.

Darren Barefoot and Jeremy Wright of Inside Blogging just gave a presentation to the BCAMA here in Vancouver. Ianiv & I met with Jeremy Monday night for dinner and then went to The Whip to listen to a band managed by Kris Krug called The Black Torries. Absolutely fabulous band. Looking forward to hearing their CD release when it gets done professionally.

Here’s a link to the slides. Just filled with little nuggets of advice. If you missed the presentation (as I did), it might help to go look up some of the sites referenced in the presentation.

The level of blog knowledge is evidently spreading. Jeremy noted that there were a ton of people who knew the blogging “lingo” and everything. I’m glad to hear that marketing professionals are more than just curious about blogging - that they are willing, and maybe even eager, to take the step forward.

One important step to getting your blog listed in the search engines is to have it submitted. Now, you could do that manually, but it’s not fun. You could also wait it out for someone to notice you somehow and link to you - thus telling the bots to go to your site and look at it.

But there are easier ways. Tris at Larix Consulting pointed me to this great site that sumbits to all the engines at once. Don’t worry if you get errors - getting most is the important thing.

Thomas Korte: Submit your Feed to multiple sites

The Fun Money Blog writes a little piece about why it’s important to have original content. They are points I agree with quite wholeheartedly.

At the beginning of my blogging, I think I was in catch up mode trying to get a grasp on blogging, who was out there, and what people were saying. I wasn’t ready to write my own stuff right away. But once I did, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment: that I had written something of some importance, that my angle was fresh, or that I had shared my ideas so that others could take them further.

Here are the pointers from the Fun Money blog about why to write original content:

1. More Fun - First of all I have to admit, writing that post was a lot more fun than simply posting on a new news item from somewhere else…

2. More Traffic - For the 24 hours after the post, traffic was about double what it usually was… [from inbound links]

3. More Gratifying - It was just more gratifying to myself to have my post noted by other people. It’s nice to know that other people think you have something important to say. It just gives you a feeling of accomplishment to be linked to when writing an original post…

If you don’t know what to write about, start by talking about what others have said in your topic area. You’ll begin to get a handle on where you have opinions, and perhaps where there are gaps in the coverage. That is where you can fit.

Another tip is to dig through other things you’ve written in the past - old presentations, essays, research vriefs and so on. Perhaps there are little nuggets in there that others can benefit from - insight that never made it to the web.

Here’s a great Guide to Blogosphere Jargon that will get you clear on all of the terms thrown around in the blogging world. The list was compiled by Business Week, and includes definitions such as:

MOBLOGGING
Posting to a blog on the go, from a camera phone or handheld device. These postings can be random or tied to news, such as pictures of the iPod Shuffle when it was launched at Apple Computer’s MacWorld, or the birth of a baby.

VIDEO BLOGGING, OR VLOGGING
Video blogging, where individuals and companies post video diaries online, began to take off last year. The trend is spurring the revival of online video distribution, the use of vlogs to sell ads, and the designing of corporate blog sites. Microsoft’s Channel 9 video blog, set up in April, helps the company communicate directly with its all-important developer community.

PODCASTING
The nascent technology allows individuals to create their own radio shows and deliver them automatically over the Web. They can be played on computers or any mobile devices, such as the iPod (hence the name). Although they were created by bloggers and propagated by the blogosphere, the Establishment is jumping in. In April, Paris Hilton announced she would do podcasts promoting her new movie, House of Wax.

RSS
Really Simple Syndication is a snappy way to track blogs. Individuals sign up to have updates sent automatically to their computers, making it convenient to follow blogs. Around 6 million people, or 5% of the U.S. online audience, use RSS, according to a Pew survey. Companies such as Yahoo! and Associated Press are adopting RSS to keep audiences loyal and to attract new users.

FAKE BLOGS, SOMETIMES CALLED FLOGS
Fake blogs created by corporate marketing departments to promote a service, product, or brand. The flog’s writer often uses a fake name. Derided by bloggers, fake blogs are an increasing trend. McDonald’s created a flog to accompany its Super Bowl ad about the mock discovery of a french fry shaped like Lincoln, while Captain Morgan created a fake blog in March for its Rum drinks.

CREATIVE COMMONS
This nonprofit has devised a copyright system that allows creators to be more flexible in allowing others to use their works. This is important in the grassroots blogging world, since it encourages people to publish video, podcasts, and photos online that others can add to their blogs. Online photo service Flickr, co-founded by Caterina Fake, encourages subscribers to share photos using the Creative Commons licenses.

Link thanks to Kris Krug

Darren of ProBlogger gives some good advice on how to post with the sub-nice idea:

The way I look at is that each Blog should be focused on a niche - but that each post (page) within it should focus in on a sub-niche of the larger one.

Whilst there is a place for the larger post that is a little more general in topic - its can often be more effective to break such posts up into smaller ones (a series if you like) and make each part focus upon one element (keyword).

Your blog will perform better overall, and draw in more readers, if it focuses on one idea. However, within that idea are many different topics - many keywords. Your posts should revolve around as small a component of that larger picture as possible. That way, each post is rich in its own area, but adds also to defining the big picture of what you stand for.

Darren Rowse takes a look at the pros and cons of choosing a writing strategy based on either original content or syndication.

The discussion boils down to the following:

Original content
1. Takes more time: you must find links to comment on or come up with original material.
2. Will bring in more links, more traffic since you are the author of the opinion.
3. Requires depth, and therefore takes more time. You will post less, overall.
4. Generally creates more of a community of readers and more interaction
5. You need to write well - both grammatically, as well as in terms of engagement

Syndication
1. Time is only based upon finding links.
2. Generates few links.
3. Can post more, quickly. Gives you the opportunity to focus on bredth over depth.
4. Rarely creates a community around the blog - in some cases (especially those where disparate information is drawn in to the niche site), this will be the reverse
5. You don’t need to have the gift of gab, as my mother would say

You will need to weigh the options for yourself - you can mix it up in your blog, of course. I do this often myself.

In terms of generating revenue, there is much debate about which is best. Syndication allows you to post high volume, which attracts a lot of visitors. But those visitors may be less sticky.

Doc Searls’ keynote at Les Blogs 2005

Great powerpoint slides explaining what a blog is vs what it is not. Think of yourself as a journalist - as one out there to inform, to give opinion. Not to simply spew out information.

Great slide on authority as well. Need some convincing as to why you need to blog or about what a blog is? Look no further.

From Marketing Tom, we have another tidy list of blogging tips:

1. Improve your title tag
2. Read a bunch of blogs before you start
3. Write in a granular style
4. Demonstrate your passion & authority
5. Add comments
6. Make yourself accessible

These tips are originally from Robert Scoble and Shel Israel - all links to the above material can be found via Marketing Tom.

My suggestion - Understand the tips as they are - don’t get bogged down in pages of explanation as to why you should blog or why in a certain way. The tips are valid, but the main point is that you should begin blogging. Be honest, be interesting - your style and your audience will come to you. After you’ve started, learn to refine your strategy.

From a post over on Robin Good, we have Sharon Housley’s 10 great tips on how to write a successful blog

1. Stay on topic
2. Be informative
3. Old news is not news
4. Adhere to a schedule
5. Clarity and simplicity
6. Keyword-rich
7. Quantity matters
8. Frequency
9. Spell check and proof read
10. RSS

Read more here

I would also add:
11. Include photos
12. Use subheadings, bold etc where relevant
13. Cross-link/trackback
14. Balance quantity with quality
15. Link to your older posts
16. Talk to people via comments

There is so much more, but these are my top tips! Post a comment if you have other important ones you’d like to add.

I notice quite often that I scan blog posts quite quickly to pick up on one of two things: keywords in the title or pictures. One or the other has to catch my eye to stop my scroll down the page.

How important do you think pictures are to blog posts in general? Do we pass over potentially influential or interesting posts because of a lack of graphics or the lack of choice key phrases (two separate issues, granted).

I will look into the issue of both. My supposition is that both are important, but need to be used both consistently and well. I think that I am more strongly influenced by graphics, as I can process these faster. Can make assumptions at a more rapid pace.

What do you think?