John Wesley did up a web comic on his blog, Pick the Brain, on ‘Ways to Get Attention Online’

This was a very cunning way to generate traffic. The topic is one a lot of people are interested in, but he makes fun of it in a way. The comic did not need to be well done artistically, as its merit lay in its creativity of idea.

Such outside-the-box thinking always leads to success online.

Tags: generating traffic, creativity

Seth Godin’s taken on a great post by Joel on Software about the Windows Vista UI. He takes what is a great post and breaks it down - why is it a great post?

Seth’s advice to others:

1. Use an appropriate image/illustration
2. Make the topic useful and easily broad to a number of people
3. Use simple clear language, no jargon
4. Make it not too long
5. Focus on areas previously taken for granted that causes the "light bulb" emotional response
6. Cause the reader to think

I think the last two are optional. Depending on audience. I would say an emotional response is crucial, but not all posts should require "thinking" as the end result. The result may be pleasure, humor, or maybe the urge to shop. I suppose all are thoughtful responses, but not all are thought-intensive.

Good advice for good blog posts.

Tags: writing, blog posts, blogging, writing tips

Lee Odden gives some excellent suggestions for ways to mine your own content to improve your ranking. This advice is for business blogs who think, incorrectly, that they have nothing to write about.

Here are the suggestions:

* Archive your newsletters

* Archive and syndicate your own press releases and media coverage

* Add syndicated news

* Add press releases content syndicated from other sources

* Use articles open for re-use from article directories

* Use Yahoo Creative Commons search to find available content

* Publish a glossary

* Publish client testimonials

* Publish product/service demos

* Publish a Q & A and/or FAQ

All great suggestions. Once you get in the flow of it, you’d be amazed how much more you have to say than you think you did. As Lee so correctly mentions, creating a content strategy is more than just a short term SEO approach. It is an approach that optimizes you for the long-term.

Technorati Tags: blogging, seo, business, writing, content

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.

What is the role of the professional blogger? To predigest the news. To put it all in one place. To amass the opinions.

So, what does this all mean? That we, as professional bloggers, have a role greater than just syndicating material - greater than just taking others’ work and linking to it with a sentence or two. We should contextualize the information, link to it, and find other relevant information to link to.

Doesn’t all that linking kind of eliminate the whole predigested thing? I don’t think so. I think we have a reseponsibility to review the information within the post, but offer ways for others who are interested to read more.

Inspired by a post on Recruiting.com

Cross Posted from Bloggeropoly.

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

The second podcast is out for the the Canadian Professional Blogging series - your blogging voice. This is part 1 of 2 on the same topic which Tris and I recorded a couple of days ago.

Part one examines what Tris and myself think of our own professional voices and our struggles toward making these realizations. Part 2 in this mini “voice” series will examine some more tangible things you can do to find your blogging voice and to keep it evolving. Tune in to Blogaholics for all the info.

Series in snapshot:

Series podcast #1 - becoming a ProBlogger

Technorati Tags: professional blogging, podcasting, podcasts

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.

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.

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.

Penmachine.com: Links for SFU editing students | Derek K. Miller has put together a great section of links to “the” posts on his site about editing basics. Everything from bad example sites to blog promotion to SEO to how to become an editor. Great stuff. Highly recommended.

From Search Engine Optimization Tips is a post that highlights the most important aspect of SEO: keywords.

I really agree with this, as you’ve seen in my previous post. I simply don’t “catch” those posts that go under my radar.

The key, noted in the post, behind SEO is knowing what those keywords are. “What are you selling?”

This is probably the most important business question you will ever ask yourself. Unfortunately, it’s also often one of the most complex to analyze and the most difficult to answer. Historically, business owners have been warned that there are two different levels to the question, both of pretty obvious importance. Harley Davidson sells motorcycles, and that’s one level, what one might call the surface level. When you’re building factories or contracting with suppliers, it’s an important level to understand.

Beyond that, however, Harley doesn’t really sell vehicles. It sells prestige and status…
The Web, however, adds a third level to the question.

This third level exists where the line between the other two levels becomes blurry. It exists because, on the Internet, people have to FIND YOU before they can buy from you.[Virtual Promote]

When the Internet comes into play, you find that search terms are a combination of point one and two. Such as “fast motorcycle” or some such.

At one end of the spectrum are the keywords that are so highly competitive as to often be useless to you. Go to Google and search for “travel.” Notice all the sponsored links? There might be a few government or educational sites (.gov or .edu), but you’ll probably notice that most of the results are extremely well known, very long established web sites. Unless you have a few million dollars in the bank, I wouldn’t recommended trying to compete with Microsoft or Travelocity for this particular keyword.

This side of our bell curve is filled by the words and phrases that are the most searched on the Internet. They include travel, mp3, jobs, sex (of course), music, food and many more. Millions of people enter these words into a search engine every single day. And thousands of web sites are trying to capture that very big audience. It’s a bit like the lottery. The rewards for winning seem gargantuan, but your chances are abysmally slim. You compete for these keywords at your own risk!…

At the other end of our bell curve are keywords that are so highly targeted that John Q. Public will never think to use them when searching. The keyword “peregrination” may be a delightful synonym for travel, but it won’t bring you a lot of visitors.

In the middle of our bell curve lies the bull’s eye. These are the words and phrases people actually will USE when searching for products or services. And that brings us to another, albeit slightly different, way of looking at the same thing.
[Virtual Promote]

The middle is the best ground. Not too specific to lose out on many customers, but not too broad to have a hard time competing with other offerings. You don’t want to waste your time and money attracting visitors who in the end won’t be customers, so how do you pick the “right words”?

Well, it’s a lot of work, granted. And too much work for one post. I suggest to continue reading this article, which is quite long, and to stay tuned. We will touch this topic again in the future.

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?