1.Login to your dashboard–> layout- ->Page Elements
2.Click on ‘Add a Gadget’.
3.Select ‘HTML/Javascript’ and add the code given below and click save.
<script style=”text/javascript” src=”http://dreamydonkey.googlepages.com/scrolling_blogger_posts.js”> </script><script style=”text/javascript”> var nMaxPosts = 15; var sBgColor; var nWidth; var nScrollDelay = 175; var sDirection=”left”; var sOpenLinkLocation=”N”; var sBulletChar=”•”; </script> <script style=”text/javascript” src=”http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=RecentPostsScrollerv2″> </script>
Note : Remember to replaceYOURBLOG with your real blog name.Also you can change below values.
No. of posts to be displayed nMaxPosts = your value
Scroll delay nScrollDelay = your value
Direction of scroll sDirection=”left” or “right”
Character after each post passing sBulletChar=”Any character”
Open link in new window sOpenLinkLocation=”N” or “Y”
In Today’s world, large number of working professionals belong to IT profession and bloggers too come in this category regardless of their part time or full time blogging.
There are numerous health problems faced by those people and the main reasons for their unhealthy conditions are:
» Carelessness on their own health
» No time to take care of themselves
» Long hours work
» Mental strain or stress
I would like to help you with some very simple and useful tips. And I hope that it will help you all in living better and longer with good health.
1. Back pain, neck pain and hand pain :
These problems can be solved by stretching your neck before starting your work and do some simple exercises for your hand, wrist and fingers. Posture is important and you must maintain straight posture. Take breaks in between your work if you are working for long hours.
2. Eye problems:
Eye problems are very common. For this you have to avoid sitting long hours before computer or laptop screens. Drink more water to avoid puffiness. Do some eye exercises (refer some exercises related to eyes). You can use anti-glare glasses to avoid strain on eyes.
3. Obesity and weight gain:
These problems are due to sedentary life style. The only solution for this is to exercise and exercise. Do daily morning exercises for at least 30 minutes or if you have no time you can do it in your working place or office before starting your work. AVOID JUNK FOODS.
4. Stress and depression:
To solve these problems you must have positive attitude. Have enough sleep and relax your mind by practicing meditation and yoga.
5. Bad addictions ( alcohol and smoking):
This is a very important which must be seriously looked into. People living in this tech world are very easily get carried away by the addictions which are very bad for the health and wealth as well. Learn tips that can help you in avoiding those addictions. Consult your doctor and take counseling.
Hope the above mentioned tips will help you to lead a very happy and healthy life.
In this post I’d like to give an update of the different sites that I work on, how they’re going and what I’m working on with them.
3 questions that I get a lot are:
You seem to do a lot of ’stuff’ - can you give me a quick overview?
I know you from (insert blog/social network name here) but today discovered you also are at (insert blog/network here) - what else do you do?
How is your business going - you used to give us income updates - can you give us another update?
As a result today I want to create a post that attempts to summarize all of the activities that I’m actively involved with these days (ie it doesn’t include about 30 blogs that I have previously owned or blogged on which today are dormant).
I’m not going to give an income update as such except to say that revenue from my blogging related activities remains well into the Six Figure bracket (annually) and that each year since I’ve started blogging as an income source has seen it grow in healthy increases.
I hope that what follows is of use to those who’re interested:
My Blogs
These days I own three active blogs. They are visited collectively by around 2.8 million people per month, subscribed to via RSS and email by around 480,000 subscribers and have social media network between them of around 110,000 people. Let me break it down from largest to smallest:
DPS has enjoyed continued growth over the last 12 months. While finding advertisers has been a little difficult in this climate (although we did run a very successful campaign with Lenovo earlier in the year) I’ve seen increases in income as a result of more effort in affiliate promotions but also AdSense and Chitika.
I have seen a bit of an increase in expenses though as we’ve hired a number of writers as well as a community manager for the forum area.
Redesigning the site, adding new areas for cameras and post production tips and getting onto Twitter have all helped to grow DPS. The future looks really bright for this community - I’m particularly looking forward to the release of the communities first products (two ebooks) later in the year.
Monthly Traffic - 1,960,612 Visitors viewing 6,571,151 pages (based upon the last 30 days - Data from Google Analytics)
Subscribers - 311,813 (made up of 200,000 newsletter subscribers and 111,000 RSS subscribers)
The Job boards have also continued to grow both in terms of ads being listed and also traffic/subscriber numbers. It’s certainly not my biggest earner but it’s a daily income that has risen and that is quite passive.
The main income streams from ProBlogger have been direct ad sales (we’ve been sold out for a long time although I’m told we have one slot open at the moment) and healthy affiliate promotions (I’m lucky that there are so many quality products related to this blog).
In the coming weeks ProBlogger will expand with the launch of ProBlogger.Community.
My newest blog and seeing a steady growth. Written mainly by a group of guest posts TwiTip has done fairly well. I’m about to launch a redesign of the site which will give it a more professional look but also add some great new features.
Income has been a little tougher on this one - mainly due to my lack of time to actually go after advertisers. Having said that - I’ve run a couple of affiliate programs that have done pretty well (still room for improvement though on the ad front).
Traffic - 256,430 Visitors viewing 326,484 pages
Subscribers - 21,512 RSS subscribers
Other Interests
I try to be active on a number of social media sites, networks and maintain an interest in a variety of other projects including:
Speaking/Training/Media - I’ve had a real increase in the number of invitations to speak and teach at a variety of conferences and do media appearances (interviews/write columns etc). Due to me being in Australia I am not able to do many of them but it’s something I’ve been enjoying when I can do them locally (or occasionally overseas).
Looking Forward
In the next few months there are a number of new things that will add to this list (because I have so much spare time):
Two new ebooks for Digital Photography School (I’m working on two which will hopefully be released before the end of the year)
Possibly another ebook for ProBlogger - working with another blogger on this
A New Site with ebook - I can’t say too much about this but I’m looking forward to collaborating with another blogger on a new site that will relate to both ProBlogger and TwiTip.
One more Bigger Secret Collaboration with a couple of other bloggers - Hopefully with an October launch
All in all I’m fairly busy. While there are opportunities arising every day or two that I could do more on if I had the time (or if I decided to hire a staff) I’m attempting to keep things relatively contained (you might not think so from the above list but it’s the tip of the iceberg of what I get asked to do).
All in all it’s a fun business to be in, a profitable way to make a living and it does still give me flexibility to spend time with my family, friends and community groups that I belong to - doing the things that are important to me.
Lately there’s been a lot of talk about Trust here on ProBlogger. Over the weekend we published a post on how to develop bulletproof Trust - last week I talked about Trust as an essential part of good affiliate marketing - the week before we linked to a great book coauthored by Chris Brogan on being a Trust Agent - in fact as I look back on my archives form the last two months I see I’ve talked about Trust inadvertently 10 times in posts.
Today I received an email from a guy who I trust a lot - (I’m not alone in trusting him).
Many of you already know him - he’s built a great name for himself over the last few years and who has walked the fine line as someone who makes money online yet doesn’t sell out. While many bloggers go for the quick dollars with little regard for their readers - this guy has consistently delivered value over the years while also building a very successful business.
The email that this blogger illustrated perfectly the way that Trust and Credibility do pay off when building online businesses.
You see he’s about to relaunch an amazing membership site and has begun to talk about it on his blog and offer a few great free bonuses for signing up to the early notification list.
The site is supposed to launch in the coming week but based upon numbers of those on the pre-launch list it looks like the site’s going to be a sellout before they even open it up to the public. This is the power of Trust.
The blogger is Brian Clark of CopyBlogger - the site is TeachingSells.
Chris Brogan, Brian Clark and Myself - Image bytechnotheory
Brian has worked his butt off over the years to build value for his readers and it’s about to pay off big time with the sell out of TeachingSells. But it’s not happened by accident and it’s not happened over night.
Brian has offered valuable content, free reports, he’s spoken at conferences, he’s networked and he’s promoted others for little or no return. Yes he can write copy like few others and has one of the best marketing brains going around - but watching the relaunch of TeachingSells and seeing the results he’s getting - there’s something much deeper going on here than Clever Copywriting or Marketing.
Underlying them is Trust, Credibility and Authority. It’s no wonder people are scrambling to get involved in the things that he does.
Note: TeachingSells (a course on how to build an online business through teaching others) launches later this week but is likely to sell out before it goes to a public launch.
To ensure you get the opportunity to join (and to get some of the best free reports, interviews and videos that I’ve seen) you need to signup to the pre-launch list. As mentioned - this gives you access to some great free content that I’m seeing a lot of people utilizing already with real effect. I personally am really getting a lot out of the case studies Brian uses - there’s so much food for thought that I’m seeing great ways to extend my own blogs that I’d not considered before.
It’s normal to have a bad day, right? Well sure. But what if you have a bad week or a bad month?
I’ve been blogging for just over a year. And if there is one thing that I’ve learned is that you’ve got to be consistent. You’ve got to be consistently putting in an effort to build your blog. It won’t build itself.
So what about those bad days?
I’ve had them and they’re no good. You want to bounce back quickly. Get out of that rut. The quicker the better. So you can get back to blogging, life and other things.
And it all begins with the proper mindset. Here are 3 Mind Power Techniques to Become a Better Blogger:
Mind Power Technique #1: Overcome Writers Block With A Physical Change
When you’re writing and you get stuck, do this. Get up, walk around and sit in a different spot. See your screen from a different point of view. Sit in a different location and gain a new perspective.
Sound to hokey?
You see one thing that’s true for anyone is that a change in your mindset will change your physiology - your body posture, facial expressions, etc. When you think new thoughts, the chemicals in your brain change. But what many people don’t know is that the opposite is also true. A change in your physiology will also change the chemistry in your mind.
This the same reason why some writers will use exercise as a way to gain new insights and spark their creativity. A change in there physical state creates a change in their internal state. Body movement is an effective brain stimulator.
So get your body moving. Get up and go for a walk, get some exercise or just change locations to trigger that inner change - the place where you get all of those great ideas.
Mind Power Technique #2: Track Your Progress
I think over the past 3 months, 70% of the blog carnivals I submit to have either quit or stopped publishing. Which tells me one thing, that more than 7 out of 10 people will quit blogging within 3 months of starting. Don’t let that be you.
Keep your momentum going by using this mind power technique #2: track your progress.
Let me explain.
Recently, I spoke to a sales representative from iperceptions - a survey company that provides statistics and data for websites. What they do is survey people who navigate your website or blog. As part of their surveying process they tested different methods and found something really interesting.
What they did was add a status bar at the bottom of each survey page. That way users could see their progress as they went through the survey. When they did this, the survey completion rates increased by an astounding 67%!
Basically, this is what happened. When users new how well they were doing, they kept going. But if they didn’t have any signs of progress, they quit the survey altogether.
How can you use this technique with your blog?
Start tracking the traffic of your blog by creating a blog traffic diary. I learned this technique from Yaro Starak @ Entrepreneurs-Journey.com.
A blog diary is basically a way to track the unique visitors and pageviews for your blog. I thought it would be a good idea to track my Newsletter subscribers as well. Here’s a snap shot of my traffic and newsletter subscribers each month from November 08 to May 09.
What I found from following this process is that I instinctively became more proactive. I started to think ahead about how I could improve my traffic. If I saw that my unique visitors were down one month, then I would brainstorm ways to improve my performance: either by creating better content or putting more effort into my marketing.
I’ve been pretty active with my blog diary. I still keep it up to date because it’s such a great tool. I’ve pretty much shared what has worked for me and what has not worked over the past year. You can see my blog traffic diary here.
Mind Power Technique #3: Use Comparison To Give Yourself A Boost
Here’s a mistake I made from the very beginning. When I was surfing and commenting on other blogs I would compare myself to those A-List Bloggers:
ProBlogger, StevePavlina, Zenhabits and a few others.
This seemed harmless in the beginning. It started with subtle comments to myself like:
“Oh, he has more RSS subscribers than me,”
“She has third party ads on her site and I don’t,”
“He writes way better than I do!”
Then after a while this self-talk started to grow like weeds in my mind. As time went by I found more and more weeds taking up the space in my head. Which put me in a real bad mood, to the point where I didn’t feel like doing anything anymore - not even blogging.
The important thing here is to catch this internal dialogue quickly. You never want to compare yourself to someone who is better than you (unless you’re looking for ways to improve).
If you’re going to compare, then compare yourself to someone who is worse than you. You can always find someone who is down a notch from your current position.
As you start to compare yourself to someone who is worse off, you’ll start to realize how good things are. You’ll start to feel better about yourself and your position. You’ll start to feel more confident. And when you feel more confident, you’ll start to take action.
If you’re going to compare, compare yourself against someone who is worse than you. At least that way you can bounce back quickly and get back to what you do best.
Steve is a Mind Power Coach and the creator of Freedom Education - Mind Power for Your Personal Growth. He is also the author of the ebook, The Genius Within YOU. You can download his ebook here.
When I was a second-year cadet journalist on an Australian newspaper, my chief-of-staff gave me a coveted assignment. ‘I need you to interview Australian cricket captain Allan Border for a story about daylight savings,’ he said.
I grabbed my pen and notebook (both sporting L-plates) and reached for the phone, but in my heart I knew the esteemed Allan Border would never speak to a cub reporter about daylight savings.
I made a few phone calls anyway and discovered he was playing in the Sheffield Match in South Australia at the time. I was convinced now; there was no way he was going to interrupt a cricket match to talk to me.
Like a dog with a month-old bone, however, I called the Adelaide Oval and was put through to a young guy in the change-rooms. ‘Sure, you can talk to Allan. Here he comes now, he’s just finished batting,’ he said.
Picking myself up off the floor and stifling a swear word I promised my Grade 10 teacher I would never repeat, I racked my brain for what to say. You see, I had been so convinced I wouldn’t get to speak to Allan Border that I hadn’t done a scrap of research, nor prepared a single question.
Had I done the research I would have known that he was 3-1/2 years into what would be a four-year Test century drought for him, and I would never, ever, ever have said what I said next. (In my defence, though, I could never have known he had literally, 30 seconds prior to taking my call, got out for a duck.)
Before I had time to collect my thoughts he was on the other end of the phone, ‘Hello, Allan speaking.’ My brain went numb. I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Ummmmm, how’s your batting going?”
The silence was spine-chilling. Finally he said, “Are you taking the p&%* out of me?” So, I had committed an atrocious faux pas and had offended the esteemed Allan Border. But he was so gracious and, in the end, I got the page three lead anyway.
But in that moment when one of the world’s greatest all-time cricketers swore at me, I resolved to change my work ethic and my attitude. (But let’s face it, I don’t regret it; it gave me a darn good story that I intend to repeat to anyone who’ll listen until my dying day.)
From that one exchange I learned the true value of preparation and planning. These days, as a writer and very eager blogger, I strictly follow the formula touted in the popular business mantra, The Five Ps. There are a number of versions of this mantra, but I like the one that says Preparation, Planning and Practice = Perfect Performance. (I also chuck in a sixth p - passion.)
We cannot hope to succeed in any new venture that we attempt if we are don’t plan, prepare and put in the effort to practice our new-found skills. When I first started the WriteSmart blog I was very tempted to just begin scratching away at my computer keyboard on some half-baked post idea. But Allan Border’s dismayed question popped into my head and I took a step back. I began searching respected blog sites; I read for hours about the keys to writing compelling blog content; and I trawled through successful blogs to see how those authors did it.
I had been a journalist for 18 years, but I wrote for newspapers, magazines and online news sites. Blogs were a whole new genre with a completely new readership. So I munched on a slice of humble pie and sought the advice and experience of those who had helped blogging evolve into a respected genre all of its own.
To that end, these are the top P tips I employ in my endeavours as a blogger:
1. Prepare
If you are new to blogging, don’t start sprinting until you have learned how to crawl, toddle and walk-without-falling-down first. Learn all that you can about how to blog well by those who are doing it successfully. You will save yourself a lot of time and, ultimately, create a better quality product from the outset. With respect to writing posts, research the topic if you are not already an expert. Google, go to a library, interview the experts.
2. Plan
Who are you blogging for? Who is your target audience? What sort of posts do you intend to write? If you don’t plan, you may soon discover there is no central theme connecting your posts. Without a central theme, your posts may be relevant to your readers only some of the time. You want your posts to be relevant to your readers all of the time so that they don’t tune out.
3. Practice
Write, write, write. It is no secret that with practice, everyone’s skills improve. As a blogger, your main tool (yes, besides YouTube) is your ability to succinctly string words together to form engaging, creative, funny, informative sentences. So, start writing, keep writing, practice writing.
Passion
If you take to the computer like a kid takes to brussel sprouts, something has to change. You need to inject into your blogging whatever it is that you do love. Perhaps you have started a blog that centres on a topic you don’t particularly like. If so, don’t chuck it in, just change it to something that will excite and engage you. Consider changing the look of your blog to a design that is more appealing to you. Set some goals you can aim for as motivators. You have got to enjoy what you are doing. If you don’t, think about ways to change it so you do.
So, when you next sit down to write your blog think ‘Preparation, Planning, Practice and Passion = Perfect Performance’. If you do, you greatly reduce the risk of world-class sportsmen uttering obscenities at you.
Darren’s recent poll on How Long Have You Been Blogging suggests that over half ProBlogger’s readers have been blogging for under a year (and of those, a sizeable proportion have yet to launch their blog).
It’s a difficult stage to be at – and I know, because I’m there with a new blog at the moment. Checking stats daily (or hourly), getting over-excited about every comment, wondering how on earth to figure out what your readers want when you don’t have many of them … and that’s if you even manage to overcome your desire for perfectionism, or your nerves, long enough to get your blog off the ground!
So what can new bloggers do to make the early stages a bit easier? Three things that can help are:
1. Looking at the experiences and early posts of current big names in the blogosphere
2. Making a checklist of what really needs to be done before your launch, your revamp or your big promotional push
3. Slowly turning the focus of your blog from “me the blogger” to “you the reader”
Even Big Names Started Out Small
In blogging, very few people start off with a ready-made audience or with the financial backing to make an instant splash (socialites like Arianna Huffington excepted). The majority of bloggers on the “A list” today started off with zero readers, and grew gradually.
Perhaps one of the best-known examples is Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. Leo’s first post was in February 2007; he now has 125,000 subscribers, and has just released an ebook about Zen Habits’ success. In the ebook, he admits that in the early days, “I asked a few friends to leave some comments, just so that the blog wouldn’t look so empty.”
However amazing the bloggers you look up to are now, there was a point in time when none of them had ever written a blog post – or even heard of a blog. So if you had some blogging mis-steps to begin with, take heart: Yaro Starak, of Entrepreneur’s Journey writes in part five of his business timeline about how “although I had installed a blog on BetterEdit.com as early as November 2004 I had rarely made new posts.”
Your Voice Develops With Time
I often feel that I lack a strong “blogging voice” – partly because I write for several different blogs as a freelancer, so tend to adapt my style a lot to the needs of various audiences. There are many bloggers whose voice I admire, and even feel a bit intimidated by; it seems to come so easily to them.
It was only when I started digging right back into some great blog-writers’ archives that I realised everyone starts out sounding a bit stilted. Here’s a quote from a very early post by James Chartland, of Men with Pens fame:
Tell potential clients what you will do. Be exact and concise. Cover everything and provide all the details.
Ask a question about the project. Show interest and that you have paid attention to what the client needs.
There’s nothing wrong with the language used there (James is a copywriter, after all), but it’s … a bit bland and ordinary. Frankly, if you’re a current Men with Pens reader, you probably wouldn’t recognise it as James – just compare it with this:
The train trip there was great. I love trains. The city was great, too. (Though I was heard to often mumble, “There’s a lot of people,” throughout the week.) The hotel was okay (I’ve seen better), the sights were amazing and the attractions were fun. Oh, and I went shoe shopping with Naomi. (For sneakers. Please.)
This shows several hallmarks of James’ style: use of dialogue, chatty but zingy language, and a certain willingness to bend the rules of grammar (“For sneakers. Please.” probably aren’t sentences that your crusty English teacher would approve of.) Even the title of the post is much more engaging and personable.
So don’t spend hours writing posts and deleting them – just start getting content out there. The more you write, and the more you share your writing with an audience, the closer you’ll come to finding your true blogging voice.
What Actions Do You REALLY Need to Take?
If you’re currently planning a blog, or waiting to relaunch or restart an existing one, don’t keep waiting for the perfect moment. You’ll always wish you had more time, more knowledge, and more support, and frankly the only way you’re likely to get them is by getting started! In his ebook on the Zen Habits story, Leo talks about his situation when he started out:
Maybe you think you haven’t got what it takes? That’s what I thought when I first started Zen Habits. In fact, I started off without goals, without money, and with no time. Now Zen Habits (http://zenhabits.net) has more than 100,000 subscribers—and a thousand more are joining each week.
And even those who have made it know there’ll never be a perfect moment: here are Darren’s words about the launch of TwiTip:
“Late last week I realized that if I was waiting to ‘have time’ to start it that I never would - so I bit the bullet and got it going.”
Try making a check list of the absolute essentials that you need to get done before the next step. Can those design tweaks wait? Is anyone really going to notice if the font isn’t perfect? Focus on:
Any major usability issues (eg. your RSS feed not working!)
Getting the word out about your blog – using social media sites and contacts
You could also take a goal-focused approach, and concentrate on trying to meet some small, immediate goals, rather than day-dreaming of your future fame and fortune (not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s what keeps me going too…)
Don’t worry if you have the feeling that you’re writing into a vacuum. It can seem like a chicken-and-egg situation to begin with: you want to create content that readers will love, but until you actually have enough readers to give you some feedback, you won’t know what they want. Just keep going – once you start getting traffic, you’ll start learning what people want to read. It worked pretty darn well for Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz fame:
“I managed to get my hands on a boatload of traffic and asked them what they wanted in a small business and marketing blog. Because they were nice, they told me.”
Once you begin to build up your readership, you might need to start changing your focus. Many bloggers start out by writing about their own struggles or goals. For example, Leo started Zen Habits as a way to keep himself accountable and to write about his own self improvement (as well as to share his experiences).
Another good example is Trent Hamm, who started The Simple Dollar to work through his own financial difficulties, and again to share what he learnt. You can see this in his early posts, where his focus is primarily on lessons drawn from his own personal story:
“It was very intimidating to look at my finances in this way, and it made it clear to me that I needed to make some major changes in my spending and saving habits.”
As Trent’s readership grew, he began focusing much more on readers’ questions and problems, and this is reflected in the voice of more recent posts – notice how he uses “you” and “your” here:
As long as you’re subscribing to the overall principle of spending less than you earn - and either way you choose, you’re not spending much money here - either choice is healthy because it expands on your existing non-financial values. Frugality or career-building both trump idleness.
If you’re trying to develop a blog from the early stages, consider shifting the focus onto “you” the audience: see what people are asking about in comments, or read other blogs in your area for ideas. Keep your personal touch, but make sure the content is relevant, valuable and useful to the reader.
You don’t have to rule out a personal blog altogether, though: it might not shoot you into the Technorati Top 100, but it could be a valuable outlet. There can be a bit of a gulf in the blogging world between would-be ProBloggers and diarist bloggers, but Darren has a personal blog, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t too.
The Take-Home Message
Don’t worry about writing the “perfect” next post: just start writing. Don’t fret about your blog’s design being perfect. Don’t feel depressed because your subscribers haven’t even reached three figures. You’ll develop your voice and style, and your audience, as you go along.
With its focus on stats and instant feedback, blogging can bring out the perfectionist in all of us. Remember that everyone started somewhere – and the success stories of 2009 and 2010 are still waiting to be written.
About the Author: Ali Hale has recently launched Aliventures, a blog that explores how to get more from life. She’s also a professional writer and blogger, and has written a guide to making money from freelance blogging.
One of the things I’m proudest of at Zen Habits is not that I’ve grown a large readership for my blog, but that I’ve developed a very rewarding relationship with many of my readers.
It’s nothing you might call inappropriate (or illegal), mind you, but it’s vastly rewarding.
Because of this relationship, writing for Zen Habits is an amazingly positive experience, because my readers are so encouraging. Even more importantly, they contribute to my blog with their thoughtful comments, their criticism, their experiences, in ways I never could have imagined. They make my blog what it is.
And from a blogger’s perspective, there’s no better thing. Having such a genuine, engaging relationship with my readers means that they want to help me, in any way they can — they’re willing to buy and read my books, they want to follow my updates on Twitter, they want to talk to me and ask me questions, and that leads to all kinds of interesting things. I never planned for this to happen, but now that it has, I recommend it to all bloggers.
I think it can be consciously cultivated, just like any relationship. I did it less-than-consciously, just because I enjoyed conversing with my readers and trying to be of use, and I’m a naturally positive person. But you can do it consciously if you like, and I believe if you do it genuinely, it’ll be a genuine relationship.
That’s an important point to remember: you can’t fake this stuff. If you are just pretending to care about your readers, if you don’t really want to talk to them, they’ll feel that. They’re smarter than many people give them credit for.
Here are my suggestions for building a genuine relationship with your readers, based on my experiences:
1. A genuine relationship starts with you — you have to take responsibility for it. You can’t expect your readers to automatically be encouraging, supportive, kind, positive, loyal, helpful, and generous … just because you’re the awesome person you are. So start with a positive mindset, and be willing to work on the relationship, be open to what emerges.
2. Make your posts as helpful and useful as you can. Your posts shouldn’t just be about you, and how great you are (as true as that may be), but about your readers and their problems, and how you can help them solve them. Really try to help your readers in some way in every post. They will appreciate it.
3. Be helpful and positive in all interactions. In every comment you respond to, in every email with a reader, in every interaction on forums and Twitter and other social networks, you should try to be positive, try to be helpful, and try to build your relationship in some way. It’s the same when you build a friendship or working relationship with a co-worker, isn’t it? Being online doesn’t change how relationships are built — if you are always critical, defensive, offensive, attacking, sarcastic … well, that’s the kind of relationship you’ll have. If you’re just trying to sell stuff to people all the time, it won’t be a genuine relationship.
4. Encourage discussion in comments. You aren’t the only person who has good ideas or knowledge, so ask your readers to contribute their thoughts, to share their experiences, to add tips of their own. I like to do that at the end of a post, but even if I don’t, readers understand that I want this stuff by now. When readers give comments, thank them, respond to their questions and thoughts, interact. Sometimes, it’s good to get discussions going by asking reader questions in an “Ask the Readers” post — just pose a question and ask them to respond in the comments.
5. Accept criticism with grace. Bloggers have to have a thick skin, because inevitably we will be criticized. It’s the nature of the Internet, or any discussion of ideas actually — there is always criticism, and sometimes it’s harsh. And it can hurt. You get angry, or defensive, and when you respond to criticism in this way it’s not a good thing: 1) you look immature and defensive; 2) it discourages an open and frank discussion; and 3) you harm your relationship with your readers. Instead, thank your readers for their criticism, respond positively, and sometimes, acknowledge that they may be right. Because a lot of the time, they are, but our egos are too wounded for us to admit it to ourselves. Read more: How to accept criticism with grace and appreciation.
6. Build relationships in other channels. Having discussions in blog comments is great, but there are other ways to build relationships — through email, on Twitter, on Facebook, in forums (maybe even your own forums). While I can’t possibly respond to all the email I get now, I certainly did when my blog first started out, even when I had 10K subscribers — I tried to answer every question or thank them for every kind email. I miss that level of personal interaction, but I still try to connect with readers on Twitter and in comments. It’s a great way to take the relationship to another level.
7. Give back on other blogs. Many times, readers and commenters on your site will be fellow bloggers — which is actually how blogs emerged when they went beyond a log of interesting web links: they became a way to have a larger discussion on the web, as bloggers linked to each other and commented on each other’s posts. And so as other bloggers comment on and link to your posts, do the same for them. Go to their blogs, comment on their posts, link to them now and then if it’ll be useful to your readers. Write guest posts for them and invite them to do the same. Share their posts on Twitter if you like them. Building relationships with other bloggers is a great way to become immersed in the wonderful community of bloggers, and to build a relationship with some of your most active readers.
This afternoon I came across the results of an interesting study called the Ruder Finn Intent Index which I think makes useful reading for bloggers.
In essence it surveys those going online on the reasons that they go online. Here’s a screen grab of the results (although it’s well worth visiting the site because this chart is dynamic and you can drill down further by clicking on different areas of it).
Overall they classify people’s reasons for going online into 7 broad categories:
Learn
Have Fun
Socialize
Express Yourself
Advocate
Do Business
Shop
Interestingly the order they’re listed above is the order from highest to lowest that they found people go online for.
Within the categories ‘pass time’ was the most responded to result with 100% of people saying that they go online for this reason.
You can also look at the results based upon gender and age. For example
Men go online to do business, be informed of news and be entertained more than women
Women are more likely to go online to socialize and express themselves than men)
Youth go online more for socializing, advocating and self expression than seniors
Both Youth and Seniors are going online to have fun
Other highly rated areas (80% of responses or more) included:
Educate Self (96%)
Connect with Others (92%)
Research (89%)
Share (86%)
Be Entertained (82%)
As I read through the categories and sub categories I realized that this list of reasons for people to go online is gold for bloggers looking to improve their blog (or particularly for those starting out and wanting to choose a topic that has every chance of being successful).
I’m constantly talking about how a blog needs to be useful or needs to be fulfilling a need that a potential reader has. Here’s 20+ such needs that people have that a blog can help fulfill. Which one is your blog positioned to connect with.
In this post Robb Sutton - author of the ebook Ramped Reviews. A very helpful ebook that I’ve just read that has some great ideas on how to get products to review on your blog, how to write profitable reviews and much more. It’s a great read on a topic that I think a lot of bloggers will find helpful.
As you take a look at your blogging habits in your quest to become a top blogger, you need to ask yourself several questions that will determine how you need to shape your blog for the future.
Are you going to pursue direct advertising on your blog?
Are you going to attempt to generate revenue through affiliate promotions?
Are you going to open the doors to review product from companies in your niche?
Do you want your blog to become a sustainable source of income and someday…just maybe…support you and your family?
If you answered “yes” to any of the questions above, you need to look at your blog seriously and start treating it like a business. Each of those questions directly correlates to a function that takes you out of the pleasure blogging world and into running a secure business that generates profits. As we continue on this path to creating a source of cash revenues, what do we need to look at specifically to treat our blogs more like a business and less like a hobby?
How to treat your blog like a business
Planning
Every successful business has a laid out plan of attack and blogging as a business is no different. You need to have an idea of where you want your blog to go in the future and the steps you are going to take to get to that goal. Plans change and adapt with the times, but the end result is often one in the same.
Are you trying to build a successful review blog on fishing equipment? You have to lay out the steps required to get to the top of your niche. What products are you going to need to review? Which interviews do you need line up? Which companies and blogs do you need to work with to create more traffic and subscribers? Are you going to hold contests and giveaways with some of the industries latest gear? These are all types of questions that you need to answer for yourself and create action steps to carry out as you continue to grow.
This long term planning and focused goals are what sets the successful blogs apart from the vast wasteland of un-updated waste that plagues the web. Each of these blogs had grand plans of making it big, but by not having a defined plan that required action…they become unsuccessful and ignored in pursuit of the next big thing. By creating these action steps that lead towards goals, you are developing a business plan for the future of your blog. These actions steps need to be written down on a whiteboard, digital checklist or any mind mapping generator you feel comfortable with to keep the goals at the forefront of your thoughts. Cross the goals off as they are achieved and create new goals for the future.
Organization
For your blog to be taken seriously as a business entity, there needs to be a defined organization to the content. By having clearly defined categories, archives and design layout, you are insuring that your content will be absorbed in the most efficient means possible by your readers. This organization in your blogging also bolsters confidence with potential investors, product companies, advertisers and future partners. When it comes down to it, the more serious you take the outward appearance of your blog, the more it pays off when you venture into outside business relationships.
Branding
It today’s marketplace, branding makes or breaks a business. With the thousands of blogs that are started with each fleeting thought of creating content, it is becoming more important to set yourself apart from the pack. If you are really going to take blogging serious as a business, your own domain name is going to be a must. Your cute setup on Blogger is not going to instill long lasting confidence in your blog from an outside perspective. If you are not willing to throw down the pennies it takes to self host your site, then you are not willing to make the investments needed to create a successful business in the eyes of potential business partners.
Create a brand around your blog url and have a defined logo. This logo will be used in the future for business cards and letterheads, but more importantly…it brands your business in the eyes of your readers and potential business partners. Successful logos are often simple, so there is no need to get extremely ellaborate. If you can not come up with any ideas, enlist the help of others.
Building Credibility
As you continue to treat your blog as a business, you are going to start building up your credibility as a serious pro blogger. Credibility is something that can be won and lost in seconds as you continue to build something that you can call your own. To keep your street cred high, you need to consistently pump out positive results. Get in the habit of under promising and over delivering as you take on more affiliate promotions and advertisers. You need to continue to churn out quality content on a regular basis that consistently adheres to some sort of schedule. As you continue to build upon your credibility, more doors will be opened with even more avenues of revenue generation. You will start to see the snow ball effect take place as your readers and partners continue to be drawn to your success and quality content.
Create A Business
Turning your blog into an actual business entity is a crucial step. While creating a business to house your internet ventures has obvious tax and protection benefits, there are some non-legal aspects that you need to consider as well. By creating a business, you are now protected your own personal information. You no longer have to give out your personal and sensitive information to advertisers and affiliate programs as all they need is your tax ID to generate payouts. The outward appearance of your blogging is also secured through advertisers and affiliates as they are now dealing with a business and not a blogger. Again, you are strengthening your brand in the eyes of the businesses that you are going to rely on to generate income.
I would also recommend setting up a business checking and paypal account to handle the money transfers. This keeps your blog revenue separate from personal accounts and creates a lot easier organization during tax time.
A Completely Different Mindset
When you are just blogging for fun (which there is nothing wrong with by the way…just a different goal), you have a completely different mindset than when you are blogging as a business that creates income. You are stepping into a completely different world as you are now managing, running and producing in your own small business environment. Even the hugely successful personal blogs on the net are run like a successful business on the back end. You now have to take your future seriously and continue to take the steps to see success.
Like any business, you are going to see your share of failures, but a successful business will analyze these failures and learn from them for the next round. Bloggers and business owners that learn more from their failures than their successes will enjoy the fruits of their learning through increased success.
As you go to publish that next blog article, are you keeping your goals close or are you just putting up another article as you go through the motions of pumping out more content?
A question that hits my inbox or is sent to me on Twitter from time to time is - ‘Should I Add a Donation Button to My Blog?‘
When I first started blogging 7 years back it was not uncommon to see bloggers attempting to add an income stream to their blog with some kind of a donation button or invitation on their blog. Often these buttons were tied to a PayPal account that enabled the readers of the blog to send the blogger a little money as a thank you and/or as an encouragement to keep blogging.
Many bloggers tried the reader donation model as a way to make money from blogging but few made it work.
Example of Someone Who Made it Work (For a While)
One of the few who was able to sustain himself completely via donations was Jason Kottke who in 2005 famously quit his job to focus upon his blog solely funded by the generosity of his readers (see his supporter list for 2005 as an example of the large numbers of gifts he received).
His model was simple and worked to at least some level - one month a year he called for people to become micropatrons - he limited these calls for donations to a week long campaign so as not to overdo it with readers over a full year. You can read some reflections on how it went in the first year here - he actually did make enough from the donations to keep his income to a level he could live off but in his reflections admitted that it might not be a feasible model in the long term.
Jason proved that it was possible to make a living from your blog solely on the back of reader gifts - but it is worth noting that these days he has sold advertising on his blog (via the Deck) since 2006 and in his RSS feed.
I’m not completely sure of the reason that Jason switched his model to an ad based one back in 2006 but in chatting to quite a few other bloggers who went down the donation model route I suspect it was a pretty difficult model to sustain - even for a blog with large traffic like Kottke.
Can Donation Buttons Work?
So in answering this question of whether donations ‘can’ work on a blog I guess we’d have to answer with a ‘yes’ - at least in theory. However the reality is that they are not likely to work on the vast majority of blogs.
If they were to work I suspect the blog would have to have some or all of these factors:
a very large readership - a small % will always be willing to donate but to get enough to live off you’d need a large readership
a very loyal readership - obsessed readers who simply couldn’t live without the blog who were willing to dip into their own pockets to keep it running. Of course to get this high loyalty you need to provide readers with something that they can’t live without whether that be some kind of service or fulfillment of a need of some kind.
no other forms of income - I think sites with lots of other income streams (advertising, affiliate programs) would be likely to see a decreased chance of readers contributing as there would be a perception that the blog was already making money
Donations as a supplementary Income
So making a living solely from donations is not likely unless you have a lot of raving fans - but this doesn’t mean it is a model with no merit at all. I do know of a couple of bloggers who are using it as a secondary income source. They know they’ll not make a lot of money from it but are still able to supplement their other non blogging income streams with the donations that their blog brings in.
One of those bloggers just uses a PayPal donations button and another uses a ‘Buy me a Beer’ WordPress plugin under their posts. Neither sees big money but both are happy to let this help earn them some extra dollars instead of running advertising on their blogs.
Adding Value to Supporters
Let me finish by saying that one way that I think donations could work for some bloggers is if they gave extra value to those who made donations. Whether this be by giving away a free ebook with donations, allowing donators to be listed somewhere, giving them larger avatars and a signature in their comments….. etc. This is a model that I’ve seen quite a few forums use successfully. It’s not purely a donation in that the person paying gets something in return but it is a low cost way for those using the site to give something back but also get something to acknowledge their gift.
Have you Ever Asked for or Received Donations on your Blog?
Got some experience to share on this topic? I’d love to hear your story of asking for and/or getting donations on your blog in comments below.
There are four main questions that readers want answered on your About Me page:
who you are…
your expertise and how it addresses…
their problem or goal, and how they can…
contact you
Here is a sample “About Me” page that answers these questions:
Hi, I’m Jane Smith and I write TransitionMomBlog (who Jane is) to help women make the transition from full-time mom to successful entrepreneur (the reader’s problem or goal). I started TransitionMomBlog in 2004 (Jane’s expertise – shows she has been blogging for two years) to help other women deal with the sometimes overwhelming prospect of starting a new business while still running a household (how Jane helps them overcome their problem or achieve their goal). Prior to raising my family, I spent over ten years as a teacher, corporate trainer and workshop leader (Jane’s expertise, both as a mom and a business person). To contact me, please email XXX (how to contact Jane).
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[UPDATE] September 11, 2008
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[UPDATE] September 11, 2008
If you find my articles useful, please consider making a donation. Thank you!
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If you decide to contribute, please donate at least $5.00. (PayPal charges me for the transaction.)
[UPDATE] September 11, 2008
DPS has enjoyed continued growth over the last 12 months. While finding advertisers has been a little difficult in this climate (although we did run a very successful campaign with Lenovo earlier in the year) I’ve seen increases in income as a result of more effort in affiliate promotions but also AdSense and 
In this post Robb Sutton - author of the ebook 
A question that hits my inbox or is sent to me on Twitter from time to time is - ‘Should I Add a Donation Button to My Blog?‘
