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The One Thing You Should Do Before You Start Blogging

Paul — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:51:02 +0000

Once again, apologies to the veterans, because chances are you already know what I’m about to say. But this is a tip for the new folks, a group we never want to ignore here at SlyVisions. Again, though, please do share your experiences down in the comments. It’d be very helpful.

That having been said, new guys and gals alike, listen good, because the veterans are being nice and forbearing right now so I can get you this tip.

The one thing you should absolutely do before you even SIGN UP on Blogger or Wordpress or wherever is BUILD A BACKLOG OF POSTS.

No matter what kind of update frequency you’re looking at, you should have your first month or more already written before you even start posting. Let’s face it, folks–life has a way of getting in the way. And you’re not going to want to have to tell your burgeoning readership (maybe all five of them when you first start) why you can’t update because Gramma Rose just took ill or the car broke down or anything like that. You need your posts ready to go, so the worst thing anyone can say is that you were a little late one day.

And really, that just looks petty. A schedule should be adhered to, as strictly as you can, but if anyone’s expecting your posts to show up the same hour of every day they’re expecting WAY too much.

This goes to establishing your credibility, AND your reliability, as a blogger. That’s something you don’t want to miss.

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Trying To Predict The Future May Help Your Blog

Paul — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:01:56 +0000

I know what you’re thinking–you’re a little bit skeptical on that score, aren’t you? If you had that kind of capability you probably wouldn’t be trying to improve your blog. You’d be making money at the race track.

But there’s a practice that might give your blog a little extra punch, and it’s called forecasting.

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, once described forecasting as being a great way to fill an empty mind. Because for most people, when their minds are empty, they’ll stick anything in there just to fill it up. No matter how many ifs are involved, people will take it as the truth. It’s also occasionally called futurism, and there’s actually a pretty good market involved in predicting the future without any mystical hooey but rather by analyzing current trends and making guesses based on those trends.

So all you need to do to harness this tendency is make some guesses about something. Predict a trend. Then you’ll also get a flurry of blog posts out of it as you gather evidence and write about that evidence. One of my personal favorite theories is that the movie theater as we know it is a dying media. So I can then take every hike in DVD sales or DVD rentals or streaming video and say, see? I told you, the theaters’ are dying off.

You’ll give your readers plenty to talk about, which in turn fuels repeat visits. Just be sure to not stick to your guns too hard and annoy people into leaving. Remember…you’re only forecasting.

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Today on some of our blogs:

Paul — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:04:01 +0000

Casio EX-G1 Rugged Camera Now Official
Blockbuster Digital Download Kiosks Get Tested
Star Wars Trench Run on the iPhone
Assassin’s Creed 2 review

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Act Like A Rock Star, People Will Think You Are One

Paul — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:45:51 +0000

I’m going to do something REALLY interesting for you today. I’m going to change the entire way you’ve been playing the blog game, and I’m going to do it by giving you just one simple statement:

“If you act like you’re a big deal, people will think you are one.”

See, this is one of the most awesome statements you’ll ever come across. And this is a great way to get a fire built under your blog, by acting like you’re a big deal. See, here’s the really awesome thing. You don’t have to be well known to convince people you’re famous.

Want proof? That’s easy to provide. The most watched show in the United States for the last five years is American Idol. In fact, about twenty nine million people watched the show last week. Sounds great, right? Sure it does…until you remember two very important facts.

1. There are over three hundred fifty million people in the United States.

2. There are over six billion people on the face of the earth.

Ninety percent of America didn’t watch American Idol last week. And on the world scale, a whopping 99.995 percent of the planet had something better to do.

You see how easy it is to be famous? On the grander scale, almost no one’s heard of American Idol, and if they have, only vaguely. You can take advantage of this same principle–if you act like you’re famous people will THINK you are. After all, who would act like they were famous if they weren’t?

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The Killer Article–Your Blog’s Flagship Work

Paul — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:53:11 +0000

There are certain things that most every journalist is known for. For instance, Woodward and Bernstein forever will be known as the guys that took out Nixon. Stephen Glass was the guy who made up his articles. Geraldo Rivera will always be remembered as the guy with the cheesy talk show who went after Al Capone’s vault.

It really doesn’t matter what else they do in life, and they’ve done plenty. Stephen Glass turned novelist. Geraldo tried to be a real journalist via Fox News and that still really isn’t working out for him. Woodward and Bernstein went on to be an associate editor of the Washington Post and a biographer, respectively.

What will you be known for? Chances are, if you’re a blogger, your big work is called the “killer article”. Like a “killer app” but for blogs, the killer article is the one thing that keeps new people coming in and old people coming back. It has the timeless quality we strive for, it’s not usually breaking news, but it takes several hours to concoct one of these and is usually three to four times longer than a normal blog post.

So if you want your blog to stake a claim in the blogosphere, then you’re going to need a few of these killer articles to catch some eyes.

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Three Reasons Your Blog Should Have Some Vlog Presence

Paul — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:54:54 +0000

It’s a question you should ask yourself–can my blog handle vlogs?

A vlog, simply put, is a Video bLOG. And if your blog is a Wordpress blog, as many of them are these days, it’s very, VERY, easy to slip a video in there. You might think that you don’t have the face for video, or the stage presence, or the equipment. But if you spent a half-hour or so on YouTube, you’ll discover that that doesn’t stop a lot of people. Even posting a video to YouTube isn’t difficult; many camcorders will come with a “one touch upload” button that automatically handles a lot of common YouTube issues.

Meanwhile, a video blog reaps at least three separate benefits you’ll love.

1. A video blog gets a whole new audience involved. People who’d never find your blog because they’re spending all their time on YouTube might well find what you have to say exciting.

2. A video blog gets you extra credibility at Google. If you’ve got a blog with keywords and such, you’ll get ahead when you have a separate video blog with keywords PLUS the blog posting of your video with keywords.

3. A video blog gives you access to a whole new field of endeavor. Maybe you’ve thought about collecting your blog posts into a book or even an e-book. But with video, you could release your own DVD. If your blog is particularly entertaining you could even try to get it to video stores or distributors. Or it could even get you on TV proper–hey, it worked for Lonelygirl15!

So when you add these together, the end result is that it may be a smart idea to consider doing a little video blogging alongside your regular turn of blogs.

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Is Your Blog’s Name Holding You Back?

Paul — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:00:27 +0000

Your blog’s name may actually be holding you back.

I know, that’s a horrible concept, isn’t it? But it’s entirely possible that your blog’s name may be entirely, well, misnamed. Your blog’s name needs to do three important things, and if it fails to do any one of them, it’s holding you back. What are those three things?

1. Your blog’s name needs to summarize your blog. If people can’t tell when they see your blog’s name what you’re going to be about, then they’re likely to not care. Oh, sure, you’ll get some people who are intrigued by your name who wonder what it is, but unless they’re also impressed by what they see they’re not going to stick around. Let’s say you’re going to start a video game blog: Which of these three sounds most like a video game blog to you: The Big Score, Arctic Thunder, A Blog In the Dark. Now, the second one is an actual video game name. The third is a parody of the video game title “Alone In The Dark” But the first one probably sounds most like a video game blog to you–the second could be about snowmobiles and the third could be a religion blog for all anyone knows.

2. Your blog’s name identifies it. When people talk about your blog–and you want them to–you want them to easily remember what your blog’s name is. Do you want them saying: “Dude, did you read Explosion-of-cherry-pants.com last week?” “No, I tried, but I couldn’t find it.” “Did you add the hyphens?” “Hyphens? Aw man, there’s HYPHENS in it? No wonder I couldn’t find it!” Fast, simple, memorable, easy to spell. That’s your blog name.

3. Your blog’s name establishes its image. If I start a video game blog and call it Bit Bites, and populate it entirely with long form posts, chances are people will be confused and hate me. Conversely, if I start the same kind and call it The Academy of Video Entertainment Studies, and populate it with short, punchy, expletive laden articles, chances are people will feel CHEATED, and hate me. The kind of name you give your blog lets people know, on a limited level, what they should expect from it.

So that’s why your blog’s name is so important. Take a look at the brand you’re projecting, and if you’re not getting the kind of results you want, maybe you should reconsider the name.

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Thank The Academy–Nominate Yourself (and others) For Blog Awards

Paul — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:55:45 +0000

You may or may not have know this, but there are awards out there that your blog can win.

No, seriously–your blog could be an award winner. That’s actually kind of cool when you think about it, but by like token, it’s also kind of creepy. I mean, this isn’t like the Oscars; who could even name a blog award that could be won in the first place?

But one thing that winning a blog award would do for you, however, is get you some credibility. It’s one thing to be a blogger–anybody with a computer and ten spare minutes to sign up on Blogger.com could handle it. But it’s entirely another to be an AWARD-WINNING BLOGGER.

Yeah, you can just about hear the caps in “award winning blogger”. I’d give you a list of the blog awards you could compete for, but searching for “blog awards” on Google turned in over seventy three million results. This means there’s likely a lot of room to play in.

Or, even better, you could nominate OTHER blogs for awards and tell them you did it. You might even get a link out of the deal, and that’s never a bad thing.

So if you’re looking for a way to get you a quick knock of credibility, a fast link, or even just a little ego gratification, try being an award winning blogger.

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The Three Questions To Ask About Raising Your Readership Numbers

Paul — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:56:56 +0000

I know, it’s amazing that you can distill the thought of building your readership down to just three simple questions, but that’s what we do every day here at SlyVisions–we do the amazing.

So what are those three questions?

1. Why? Yeah, that’s pretty simple. But it’s a good question, WHY do you want more readers? And no, “I wanna make more money” doesn’t count–you’ll have to be specific here. Do you want to sell more merchandise? Increase your advertising revenue? Or do you just want to be regarded as a pundit so you can get a foot in the door with publishers? Each approach requires a different strategy–know what yours is.

2. Who? Again, simple–but who are these readers that you want to come to your site? Are you looking for experts who’ll fire a community up with high-level chatter about the minutiae of your topic? Do you want to make something warm and welcoming for the noobs? Do you want ad-clickers, or stuff-buyers, or just more readers? Again, different strategy for each.

3. How? This is the grandest question of all. But once you’ve figured out the why and the who, then the how will be a lot smoother. If you want to get the stuff buyers, then offer discounts or new and interesting stuff. If you want the ad clickers, make sure your ads draw sufficient attention that they’ll be practically begging to click. And so on.

With these strategies in mind, you’re likely to put a serious fire under your readership numbers.

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A Perfectly Cromulent Word: Make Up Your Own Words

Paul — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:52:57 +0000

Okay, now I’ve probably convinced about half of you that I’ve just plain old lost my MIND, right? Complete Daffy Duck, woo-hoo! territory now. But I tell you this…making up words for your blog may well be the best thing you’ve ever done.

First, a clarification of terms: the word of the day is JARGON. Jargon, itself a made-up word not so long ago, means essentially “insider-speak”, or the language used to refer to concepts that are specific to an industry. For instance, no one uses “calendar” as a verb outside of the business community or Dilbert comics. But in there, it’s a valuable phrase that means, basically, “to schedule”, or “to add something to your calendar”.

You can take that power of jargon and try to make up your own words for things. For instance, here in the blogging realm, we’ve got a lot of very specific concepts that can apply almost nowhere else. Linkbaiting is one such concept, and means, to create a post designed specifically to be linked to elsewhere.

Perhaps you might like “tideriding”, or the process of setting up links in your post to keep a tide of traffic moving throughout your archives. Or perhaps an application of surprising your readership by forcing them to look at a concept in a completely different light, or “bent space”. Why, we even took an item of masonry not so long ago and defined it as “a short punchy intro sentence designed to attract attention”.

Remember the “brick”?

This is exactly the kind of thing you can do in your own blog to keep people interested–an occasional made up word or two gives you a little extra industry force.

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