If you follow my other blogs, you know I’m actually on vacation right now. And preparing for it, blog wise, was a big deal. Sure, not every blog was worrying me. I knew some could go a week without content and be ok. But others I have obligations to: some are just starting, some are b5 blogs, some are paid, and some of my own are the key revenue earners. So, preparing to go on a blog vacation was a big deal.

How do you prepare your blogs for an extended absence? Well, there are several ways.

1. Guest bloggers - if you have a fairly well-read blog that thrives on new content, you would be best to invite bloggers to temp at your site. You can get one or a whole bunch. Darren Rowse did this when he went away for a few weeks.

2. Advance post - if your blog platform supports advanced posting (setting the publish date for one in the future) then you can write your daily quota of content beforehand. This works well with WordPress sites.

3. Write from the road - if you aren’t worried about a decrease in post volume, and you expect to have internet access while away, blog from the road.

4. Announce you are going away - if your absence is going to be noticeable, let people know you’re away. This is particularly important if you have a high volume of comments and won’t be able to moderate or respond in a timely manner.

I’m doing a little of the last 3 options. I wrote about 7 days’ worth of posts for my b5 blogs and a few in my own network (boy was that a lot of work), and I’ve written more timely posts whenever I’ve had access. Some blogs have not been getting content at all, and that’s just a fact I’ve had to deal with. Other blog platforms do not support advanced posting, which has turned out to be kind of sucky since many of the hotels we’ve stayed in have not had internet access.

Overall, however, it’s worked out well. Our income level has not changed noticeably, and the traffic levels are staying up in most cases. So, when you go on vacation, take care of your blog. It might be some extra work, but it’s peace of mind.

Ok, as you know we did a more thorough switch to the new column layout I wanted to test: content-sidebar-sidebar.

Well, first off it’s clear that design and layout are very much correlated. Our old design did not support the clear use of the new column design. So, with a stripped design, what are our results?

Well, preliminary results show a 5% increase in CTR for Blogaholics. This happened almost overnight. And has remained relatively stable.

That’s enough of a push for us to begin redesigning the rest of our blogs. With all designs in place, I will fiddle here and there with ad placement and colour, since the new design is amenable to my tinkering skills.

I think the main areas we are seeing improvement from are:

- the removal of images or lines between sidebar content items

- the use of a solid white background

- the upper sidebar column cap ad block

- matching font sizes better from category names, etc to ads

- replacing lines between posts with extra whitespace

Overall, the improvement is in the flow of the eye. With no extra graphics to stop the eye, the content and the ads read as one, and that is an improvement for us.

I will continue to let you know how things go with this test, and with our other blogs. But it is clear that this column layout is working, and that our design is much better for our advertising returns.

If you find yourself in a traffic spike - work it. Keep those readers intrigued, and keep them coming back for more.

First, you need to be aware that it’s happened. If you sit at your computer all day, then your notifications will keep you in the loop. But it doesn’t hurt to do a mid-day stats check.

If you see a big spike in your traffic, you want to make your blog sticky. Make it interesting enough to attract subscribers - and clicks.

So, as Darren suggested after I had the My Yahoo spike on Cooking Gadgets, I put up a welcome post for all my new readers. We put up a similar post here on Blogging Help after we were featured in a local paper. This welcome post did a few things:

- caught their attention

- gave me an opportunity to introduce the purpose of the blog

- let me link back to my best articles

- gave me a chance to introduce myself

Now, that was a large traffic spike. Something like 10,000. I wouldn’t expect anyone to do this every time a few hundred new visitors came in. However, you can do some things.

1. The most basic - WRITE MORE! Such an easy thing to do! Increase your output for a couple of days, then make sure not to slack for a week or two.

2. Get involved in your comments

3. Know your strengths - link back to your best pieces in a subtle way by perhaps taking a new angle on one so the link is a natural extension

4. Promote your other blogs, where appropriate (if you, like me, write on more than one)

5. Visit the blogs of people who have commented on your blog and get involved

6. Update any about pages that could better promote you

7. Ask for comments in new posts. Get people interacting.

Overall, be a generous linker, be a great comment attractor and have fun. :)

I’ve just come to the realization that affiliate programs are not just about making money, they are actually about improving my workflow.

Let me explain. I have a few product-based sites and have been recently using affiliate programs - Amazon and LinkShare - to look for products, review them, and insert information.

Rather than me going to Amazon, I’ll use a blog plugin to search the affiliate links directly. The pictures are enough to get me interested in a product or not. I can search quickly. Then, with minimal clicks, my blog post is ready with image and link, and in one step I have the product information to modify and review.

What does this save me? Well, it saves me time searching blogs for information. Saves me going directly to Amazon in another tab of my browser. Gives me that “new” information that is so valuable to traffic generation. And saves me worrying about looking for pictures - they’re given right to me!

What are the intangible benefits of affiliate programs:

- copy & paste product links
- copy & paste images
- no legal disputes on pictures
- quick search features for new products or promotions
- save me from uploading images to my server or to Flickr
- images are a very blog-friendly size

So, if your blog is about anything product related, I suggest seeking out the affiliate programs easiest to use to help you with your own workflow.

And, as an image tip, you can often find images for blogs on any topic through these affiliate programs - they may not be what the affiliate program was intended for, but they serve a good purpose.

Technorati Tags: traffic, pictures, licensing, money, affiliate, amazon

Jakob Nielsen has listed the top 10 design mistakes for blogs:

1. No Author Biographies - it’s all about trust & credentials

2. No Author Photo - good for press, credibility, recall factor

3. Nondescript Posting Titles - you likely have less than a second in scan time to grab attention

4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go - tell people where they are going, what to expect, and don’t use nicknames.

5. Classic Hits are Buried - make best articles direct navigation links, and link in other articles (good one!)

6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation - categories are key!

7. Irregular Publishing Frequency

8. Mixing Topics

“The more focused your content, the more focused your readers. That, again, makes you more influential within your niche. Specialized sites rule the Web, so aim tightly.”

9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss

10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service

Having a weblog address ending in blogspot.com, typepad.com, etc. will soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the mark of a naïve beginner who shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

Letting somebody else own your name means that they own your destiny on the Internet. They can degrade the service quality as much as they want. They can increase the price as much as they want. They can add atop your content as many pop-ups, blinking banners, or other user-repelling advertising techniques as they want. They can promote your competitor’s offers on your pages. Yes, you can walk, but at the cost of your loyal readers, links you’ve attracted from other sites, and your search engine ranking.

A very well rounded tip base. I think #5 is far too often overlooked - and makes me want to add more navigation tips to my own blogs. #8 hits home - simply start more blogs! and

#10 - ah, a pet peeve of mine. Just imaging what you would put on your business card and how much better it would look if you could match your email to your domain - oh, but if you don’t own that domain, you’re outta luck. There’s just too many restrictions associated with that route - and, for a simple $15 a year for a URL, free services like WordPress, and easy hosting solutions, why would you even consider a site whose domain you don’t own?

BTW - for those of you pro writers out there who follow this domain route, let it be know that people like myself often think twice before subscribing after wondering why you don’t own your URL, why you would bother with some annoying platform, and how seriously you take your future blogging efforts. :)

Via Boing Boing

Not too long ago, I had a spike in traffic on b5. And the other b5 bloggers wanted to know how to get the same spikes, and also to maintain a steady growth incline. So, I shared some tips, and I thought I should share them here too:

-Write 25-40% original content. For some blogs this will mean reading news feeds, as well as other blogs, to catch news first. You can also consider non-RSS content research to find items or to connect the dots between topics.

-Use pictures. They draw the eye. Look on Flickr or Google Images. Take what is Creative Commons, but be liberal with your link of thanks. Ask when unsure.

-Know your area bloggers and link to them. Make sure to comment too.

-Send emails to big blogs in your area. Pitch a story, write something interesting about your blog, and make that link prominent.

-Break up paragraphs and use text effects - bolding, underline, etc.

-Use comments to start new threads.

Have fun!

I’ve uploaded the second part to the blog survey being conducted at Qumana.

This series looks at RSS - how many blogs people read and which aggregator they use. I was really floored by the data. It was seriously amazing how fragmented the RSS reader market is - apparently none of us do a good enough job of giving people their blogs in a way they want to see them.

Anyway, stop over, view the results, and let me know what you think.

So, I’ve joined up with b5 and have a couple of new blogs to announce:

Cooking Gadgets - this one came out of a pattern I was noticing on Blogaholics. Looking through my archives, I found that the gadgets I was blogging every here and there were almost always cooking-related. So, it was a natural evolution of something I’m already interested it. It could be a dangerous blog for me, since I really do love lots of kitchen goodies. And I really wish I’d caught onto this blog earlier! Such a good topic!

She Knows Best - we can thank Jeremy for this one. We were brainstorming and he had this idea of a fashion/lifestyle-for-guys blog, and She Knows Best was born. It’s actually been a blast writing for. The comments - oh my! It’s obviously a blog that was needed! It’s so much fun to have that interaction, though. So far, I’ve been really surprised how much I can write about socks - and that guys appreciate the info! I have a few requests for haircut info, so I’ll be digging around for that soon. BTW - I have experience in high end menswear, so this one isn’t totally outside my realm of expertise.

So, why am I involved in b5?

Well, it’s a good question. I am not really a join-the-network kind of girl. After all, I have my own little projects and slowly growing list of blogs. I could have just started up these blogs on my own, right? Well, yes. Easily. However, working as a part of b5 has its merits. First, I love working with all three of these guys - Duncan, Jeremy, and Darren. Lots of fun. Granted, I would have loved to be invited in as more than just a blogger, but this is a good start!

Networks, in general, have many blogger benefits. First, they get a lot more attention collectively than a single blog does on its own. Plus, they have ongoing benefits of increased ranking from the interlinking. So, overall, they will make more money. Therefore, the fact that I’m not getting 100% of the revenue is less of a cut. Perhaps I’ll change my mind on this in a year or so when the blogs take off, but for now I’ll stick to that. Another network plus is not having to set up the blog, design it, or really manage all the tedious parts of it. I just get to do the writing, which is where I have no problem (if that wasn’t obvious already!)

I think, of any network to join, this is the one for me. The guys did a great job at launch time, and the attention has been great. It was fun for me to get back out there and have some visibility for doing something as well.

So, hope you go over and take a peek at the new blogs. And keep an eye on b5 - they have big plans!

Technorati Tags: b5, b5 media, blog network

Well, the exact figure is 16 (17 soon). Can you guess the whole list?

You’re sure to find them one way or another, but I bet you never thought it was so many! I am a Blogaholic, after all. Do I want to write on more? You betcha!

Give it a shot. Find them all. I dare ya!

Technorati Tags: blogging, arieanna, blogaholics.ca, blogaholics, problogger, professional blogging, professional blogger, blogger for hire

This is something I have been thinking. I wanted to know how people interact on the web, how people interact with blogs, and what types of blogging types I could derive from that.

From what I can tell, there are people ‘blogging’ in the following ways:

1. Readers

This type of person likes to read blogs and follow what they are doing, but does not interact or have their own blog. This is more of a “newspaper” like reader, or a reader of Web 1.0.

2. Interaction Mavens

This type of person may or may not have a blog of their own, but spends significant amounts of time reading and commenting on other blog posts. They are the type of person who love to interact and create bonds.

3. Linkers

This type of blogger likes to interact, but does so on their own blog. Rather than leaving comments, this blogger will write a post, long or short, linking to the original piece and letting that be their “comment” field.

4. Individualists

This type of blogger likes to break news first, or write something in their own line. They write a majority of original content, and therefore do not send out many links to other bloggers.

5. All Round Bloggers

This type of blogger likes to read and write on what other people have talked about, sometimes putting out original stuff, and sometimes commenting instead of writing.

6. Social Circle Bloggers

These bloggers fall into a heavily social blogging category - they write to share with personal friends and family. These bloggers are heavy Live Journal and Blogger users, and tend to work within the inner blogosphere circle of friendship, rather than looking outside it. They tend to subscribe to blogs of friends and very few others.

7. Comment Attractor

This type of blogger writes in such a way that comments are encouraged, and interacted with openly. This is more of a writing style than a type of blogger, and may mix more or less with other blogger types.

—

So, I am sure people don’t neatly fit into these categories, but it’s been something I’ve been watching for some time. I think I fall into more of the Linker or All Round Blogger types. I don’t comment much and do tend to reblog info rather than use a comment box - with so many blogs, the stuff that interests me usually has some home to go to :)

One of the primary reasons I looked into this was because I was trying to figure out why I was not a social bookmarker or a huge user of social tagging. For me, I find no value in social bookmarking because I do tend to blog most of what interests me. I tag mostly to attract readers to my content, which is a more selfish use of social tagging. I do search tags, but usually to built up my stock of blogs in a niche topic. Anyway, it all boiled down to the same idea - I don’t social bookmark because I don’t comment, and I don’t comment because I blog at such a high volume.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: bloggers, blogging, what blogger type are you

How many posts have you written? Are you near or above 1000? Well, if you are, consider that a milestone worth celebrating. One blogger, Shai Coggins, has even started up a running tally of those who have passed this mark and created a button for people to use on their blog.

What does hitting 1000 posts mean?

Well, that you’ve spent many hours sitting at your computer.

No, really, it’s actually a milestone for many things. For dedication. For perseverance. For ignoring nasty comments. For tolerating spam. For developing relationships with readers. For forging bonds with customers. For listening. For thinking, reviewing, and posting.

For all the ups, the downs, and the long hours, it means you’ve stuck it out, gained your stride, and really started to see why blogging can bring personal satisfaction and business excellence.

For those of you who have made it thus far, congrats. Consider the next milestone at 5000 ;)

Have I made it? Of course. Cumulatively for all blogs, I’ve posted about 1500 articles and average around 15-25 posts per day.

Via Blog Business World

Technorati Tags: 1000 posts, 1000, blogging, blogs, bloggers, professional blogging, professional blogger

I spoke today at the Future of Publishing. Was on a panel with people I both knew and did not know: Kris Krug, Ben Garfinkel, Janet Johnson, and Eric Karjaluoto.

I spoke about my path to professional blogging and what I am doing now. I talked on the changing dynamic in business communications and the role of blogging in dialogue. Of course, I believe strongly that being a part of the conversation in blogging is no longer a choice but a necessity. I spoke of the passion of self publishing that drives me to do what I do and to really enjoy it. I also gave a brief demo of Qumana, which some readers might have caught in the RSS feed before it was deleted.

As promised to many in the audience, here are my subscriptions. They are a good place for many to start in on a ton of topics - all organized into easy folders.

The Q/A period was really great. Was a change to chime in with the other speakers on a whole bunch of really great issues such as the role of blogs in publishing, what to do with massive amounts of content, how to manage negative commentary and more.

Thanks to all who came today and especially to those who posed some great questions. Would be happy to elaborate more on any topic, openly or via email. Leave comments and I’ll respond as well.

If you want to contact me to be on a panel or to speak at any conference, please email me.

Technorati Tags: conference, event, publishing, sfu, future of publishing

Good advice from Steve Rubel

Run a Conference, Then Invite Bloggers

If you run any kind of industry event, be sure to put bloggers on your invite list. It’s a no-brainer.

I’d go a step further: invite bloggers to help you advertise the conference. Right from the get go, months in advance.

Why?

Simple - increased exposure, varied audience background, increased interest in your topic, hype, sharing of knowledge and information, and dialogue between speakers and attendees. Need I say more? Get that event hyped, and get that internal, live dialogue that makes the conference just that much more valuable for those there.

Great value - probably the easiest and most inexpensive aspect of conference marketing.

Conference/event blogging is a great way to get known in your industry, and if you don’t do it, you may find your conference getting a bit stale. Or maybe it already is, but you haven’t noticed it.

Well, my advice: start up your blog and get bloggers in to work on it.

Technorati Tags: professional blogging, conferences, bloggers

Darren Rowse talks about what to go by when choosing a profitable blog. Before deciding you want to blog and make money, make sure you choose a topic also that will be enjoyable to write - unless you have content that has value, spirit and authority, you will find it more difficult to post and to make money (at least I think so).

So, here are the tips from Darren as well as some commentary of my own:

1. Topic Popularity - it’s the old supply and demand theorem. Choose a topic that is in demand by a lot of readers, and where you meet that demand because the supply of other blogs is either low or not well done for one reason or another.

2. Topic Competition and Narrow Niches - most topics you can think of already have blogs. Some, however, are underserved. Maybe they don’t post much, don’t add commentary, or simply leave something to be desired. You can also choose to make your blog more narrow - by decreasing the span of what you write on you can carve out your own very specific and informative niche. The more narrow you are, the likelihood is that it may take longer to gain profitability (decreased audience size).

3. Availability of Revenue Streams - some topics on Adsense or similar revenue programs simply don’t pay as well. More competition between advertising companies usually leads to higher click payouts. You need to balance this with point 2 above. You can also seek out different advertising revenue such as sponsorship or various affiliate programs.

4. Availability of Content - if you are going to write often, and in detail, on something, you’d like it to be as easy as possible to get right to it. You can write from knowledge for only so long - and research is time consuming. Services such as PubSub and Technorati let you subscribe to words or phrases - you can pull in information easier this way from many blogs, especially those whose topics are diverse and whom you may never read again. You can use other services such as Topix.net to pull in news information that may or may not be blog related.

5. Measure your Energy, Passion and Interest - motivation for money can only take you so far. You need to like what you are doing, as I noted in the preface.

6. Pull it all together - if you can meet some of these factors, go for it! The mixture of these will determine how much you make and how quickly - but it does not mean that you cannot be profitable. Most blogs can achieve a good level of revenue, but you’ll need many months of dedication to get there. At the same time, you may see an opportunity for a blog that may not last forever - Darren started an Athens Olympics Blog, for example. Great way to build a ton of traffic for a while, and then you can simply let it go after. Maybe leave it online just for passive revenue. But you’ll need to be well prepared for it!

Thanks Darren once again for some great advice. It’s something I’ll be taking to heart, along with some ideas of my own, as I start out on some new blogging ventures soon.

Technorati Tags: problogger, professional blogging, commercial blog, adsense

So, I just confirmed my trip down to Blogher. Quite excited to be going. Blogher has been buzzing around just as much as Gnomedex. I’m interested to see how the event goes off, what the vibe is, and all of that.

Will be event blogging the whole thing, of course. I think that has to be the most exciting aspect of blogging for me - being in the vibe, catching it. I think it’s a great opportunity to share not just the outline of what’s going on, but to really catch its value for others.

If you are going to Blogher and want to meet up, leave me a comment. I’m coming over on the 29th and arrive fairly decently at dinner time. Will be staying over till the afternoon of the 1st of August to mingle and enjoy the sunny weather.

Hope to see you there!

Thanks to Qumana for helping me go down. I’ll be promoting both Qumana and Lektora while I’m down there, and am looking forward to sharing some of the new features to come. Trust me, it’s exciting stuff.

Technorati Tags: blogher

Technorati Tags: http://www.technorati.com/tags/blogher