BloggersWalk

An integral part of the blogosphere is the comments. I honestly cannot imagine a blog without comments. It is what develops the original article, publicizes the commentators to the blogosphere, and bonds the bloggers even more. However, more recently, with so many contests related to comment making and so many plugins promoting commenting, I’ve noticed a drop in what I would consider quality comments.

As a still unknown blogger in the blogosphere, I have tried immensely to make thoughtful comments. Consequently, on a few occasions, I even got a personal email from the person running the blogger, thanking me for an excellent contribution. These are the moments when I really felt that my one comment was and always could be better than a post or a tutorial on my blogs.

So, how do you make quality comments that will dazzle the blogger and make other commentators look like they are spamming?

Develop the Original Post
These days, I see a lot of “Thanks for the information!” and “Wow, a great post!” type of comments flying around. Those comments are warming and motivating for the blogger, but wouldn’t a blogger absolutely love it if one of the commentators stood up and wrote a lengthy comment further developing the original post? If it was me, first, I’d be amazed at the commentator’s knowledge, and second, wish that this commentator made more comments to my posts.

Most of the bloggers encourage comments by leaving their blog posts slightly open. I’ve personally posted about how these incomplete posts (of course, not to the point that you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about) stimulate the commentators from posting. Bloggers want and like commentators who thank them, but they also like those who develop their posts. It’s not at all an offense for pointing out and developing an incomplete corner of the post. Bloggers love it!

Follow-up Your Comments
While comments are awesome, it is important to follow-up on comments too. One of my pet peeves is those who vanish after they make a certain claim or say that they are going to do something. A follow-up to such actions are necessary. With commenting, it is similar. You want to follow-up on the comments that are posted on your blog AND the comments to your comments that you posted on another blog.

This shows that you are both dedicated and professional with what you are doing. Even if you don’t have anything much to say to follow-up, in such a situation, you don’t need a beautiful, dazzling comment. A simple “I see your point” or a “Thanks for your input” ensures that professionalism that you want to maintain in the blogosphere.

Sound Encouraging and Euphemize
I’ve seen a few hater comments flying around recently and in my opinion, they really don’t do much. If you don’t have anything nice or worth saying, why say it? You might ask, “But Static, what if it is really bad!”

Euphemism. Indirectly point out what is wrong, but say it in a more mild way or an encouraging way. If you have been blogging for a while, you probably know that most bloggers will accept constructive criticism. Blogging is all about saying your opinion, so a constructive criticism is always healthy. I personally love it when my readers point out a mistake I made or have a different opinion than me. It just makes me a little bit better. Make sure that your comments sound nice and even if its real meaning may not be all that good, say it in a way that would help the blogger.

Conclusion
There are just three tips that can really make your comments look and sound better. However, there are really more. For example, learning to put a certain emotion into your comments is another way of bettering the overall quality of your comments. My personal view is that you should treat comments as another branch of your blog. As a blogger, you want to sound smart and professional. You may look like that on your blog, but if you make really bad and spammy comments on others’ blogs, you may be hurting your blog.

Do you have any tips regarding making good comments? Did you learn a tip or two from this post? I’d really love to hear your feedback! Feel free to make a comment with your thought on this!

If you manage websites or are any online guru, especially a blogger, you probably know that you don’t really have working days and weekends. You’re the boss so you’re really in control of everything. So, to the real question now.

As a blogger, how do you spend your weekend? Are your weekends the same as weekdays? Do you take more time off than usual? Below are just some of the things that I focus on especially on weekends, as I really like Saturdays and Sundays, although Friday nights are my favorite. Anyways…

Promoting MORE Than Usual
Well, firstly, I don’t make any posts on my blogs on the weekends, unless it’s a breaking news that I must post about. So, I use that extra few hours that I have from not having to craft my posts into the promotion of all my blogs. Unfortunately, this promotion does not have huge immediate results because I have to promote so many of my blogs. However, I have noticed that steady wins the race, as looking at the promotion I have done from a more distant perspective, it has really paid off.

Following Up
Again, with the extra free time I have on weekends, I make sure that I follow up on the comments, emails, and some blogs that I was not able to get to. My personal belief is that you never know when you’ll find a gem, so you need to constantly follow up, even if you may be a few thousand emails behind. Oh yeah, I’m staying true one one of the posts I made at ahnternet.

Reaching Out and Socializing
I put some extra effort into getting new contacts and strengthening my relationship with those who I already know. Whether it be through a casual email, a chat over MSN, or a match of StarCraft, I make sure that I stay in touch. It may seem pointless, considering time is money. However, I believe that some of these people can eventually help me in some sort of way.

Imagining the Next
I dedicate a lot of my weekend scheduling/planning my week. I do this both for my online and my offline life. Pertaining to this blog, I start on and draft a few posts which I can develop over the course of the week and publish on Tuesday and Friday. I also set myself some short term goals that can be achieved in the following week (thus, very realistic goals), such as making sure that I make at least 10 comments a day on other bloggers’ blogs.

This is just a snapshot of what the blogger behind BloggersWalk does on weekends for the success of this blog. Of course, everyone has their own routines.

As a blogger, how do you spend your weekends? Do you completely stay away from the computer? Do you have a special routine that you go through? Share it with the rest of the community! Also, commenting at BloggersWalk got a lot better, as we recently added the CommentLuv plugin to our dear blog!

Blogging is definitely a growing hobby these days. However, some people might wonder what the point of blogging is. After all, it is quite time consuming to be an active blogger, as it blogging is not all about publishing new posts on your blog. As (already) the first half of my summer vacation is over, I’m starting to worry about the amount of time I will be able to invest in my other blogs, as I’m sure that most of my time will be spent for BloggersWalk.

I am really beginning to think about whether keeping my other blogs alive will be worthwhile (again, don’t worry, BloggersWalk will be constantly updated no matter what), which led me to writing this post… I figured that some of you may be wondering the same thing, as many people these days live very busy lives. So, what do you get out of blogging? In no particular order…

Voicing Your Thoughts
Isn’t this one of the more popular reasons behind blogging? Blogging gives your an opportunity to say what you wish. Now, the size of your audience may be unknown, but at least it is a place where you can deliver your voice. Had a fight with someone? Don’t like a certain political move? Did you get a 4.0 GPA in the hardest class but don’t want to brag about it in front of others? Well, a blog is your space!

Metacognition: Thinking About Thinking
One of the most important things about blogging is proofreading. This is to avoid flaws such as spelling mistakes, punctuations errors, and of course, illogical thinking. By looking over your work once more, you are thinking about what you wrote. This helps in increasing your level of thinking. Note that this also happens when you are commenting, as you want to look over what your wrote in the comment box.

Your Writing Gets Better
I’ve said this so many times, but I’ll say it again. The core of blogging is writing. I mean, that’s what blogging is! You can’t blog without writing. So, the more your blog, the more you are writing. Consequently, your writing can only get better. Practice makes perfect. Personally, I believe that such things like writing can’t be perfected. However, constant blogging (writing) can help you reach perfection.

A Window to Knowledge
Unless you’re a splogger (SPAM blogger), you’re learning something while you blog. Wait… Maybe you can learn to SPAM… Anyways, whether it is a niche specific blog or a general blog, you are bound to learn something while you blog. With BloggersWalk I’m learning about the blogosphere and making money blogging. With my other niche blogs I am learning new things. You really can’t avoid consuming new knowledge if you are a blogger.

You Develop an Online Identity
The Internet is a big part of our world today and having a presence on it is a fantastic thing. It is different from those Facebook profiles and an MSN/AIM/YIM account. As a blogger, you are establishing yourself as a potential Internet celebrity. Your thoughts and ideas are widely accessible around the globe. You are not only known in your local community, but you may also be known by someone on the other side of the world.

Your Network Grows
An integral part of blogging is commenting on others’ blogs. What is interesting about blogs is that more blogs are run by one person rather than a group (although group blogs are popular). However, the success of a blog is not dependent on the author, but dependent on other bloggers. It’s like social networking while working by yourself. Through commenting on others’ blogs, you meet new people and expand your network. Man is considered a social animal by nature for a reason!

You COULD Make Money
A blog has the potential to earn quite a bit of money. Search engines like blogs because of the new and unique content. With a good ranking for even a decent keyword, there is a potential for some massive search engine traffic. Not to forget, a blog can also receive traffic through link exchanges and various advertisements. This traffic can then be monetized to earn quite a bit of money. Some people even make a living through blogs. Note that nearly everyone, with some effort, can get some extra pocket money through their blogs too.

You Learn to Look Back
A “web log” (the extended term of “blog”) is a log. Weeks later, months later, and even years later the content you wrote will still be there assuming that your data is not deleted. If you currently run a blog, see the very first post you made ever or the very first post you made for your blog. After you’ve done that check out your current posts. See a slight change? As time goes on, everyone grows in their own ways. A blog grows with the author(s). You can reflect on the mistakes you made or relive the moments that were wonderful. A blog post is like taking a snapshot without any expensive equipments!

These are eight benefits to blogging. There are more and the list can go on and on. I only took a few from quite a long list that I made while on a bus ride. The benefits are really huge if you think about it! Anyways, I don’t want the spotlight to only be one me!

What benefits do you see in blogging?

WordPress recently released WordPress 2.6. Many people already updated the system and this morning, I updated BloggersWalk to 2.6 too. However, one of the blogs that I write for, but do not own, still runs the old WordPress 2.1. A few people have also asked me if the update to the latest release is actually worth it. To update or not to update, that is the question…

New Features!
Usually these major updates have new features in them. In the case of WordPress 2.6, I’m really enjoying the plugin manager. Those who are new to WordPress will not know this, but those who did use any of the versions before this release knows the pain of having to activate the plugins one by one. Now, it can be done in bulk. Also, although very minor, I really like the little word count feature added with this release. These updates often bring a collection of great updates. While some may be of no use to you, note that some can be of use to you.

Security Concerns
Okay, most of the time, if there is a security issue, a minor patch is done. An example would be an update from 2.5 to 2.5.1. However, most of the time, major udpates also have significantly improved security systems. A blog is a big thing with a lot of information on it. Losing all the data would be horrible. You should backup frequently anyways to prevent any disasters. However, if you have a good secure system in place you won’t even need to get to the point of needing to restore because of a hacker or a corruption. Usually major releases have these security updates. Personally I upgrade for this reason than for the new (but often not useful) features.

Plugins & Theme Compatibility
Plugins take your site to a whole new level. It quickly adds new and interesting features to make your blogs look and/or function better. However, often with updates, plugins can be a problem. With WordPress 2.6, this is not a big issue as nothing much changed on the plugin side. Nonetheless, this isn’t guaranteed with 2.7, 2.8, and so on. Again, with themes, nothing much changed with WordPress 2.6. However, with the later versions, compatibility issues can come up, such as not being able to fully use the new features. So, you have to decide, are the updates worth more than a few plugins and/or themes you may not be able to use? Or vice-versa?

A Bigger Hassle?
Upgrading your blog to the latest release might be a bigger hassle. It might sound easy, but if everything does not work out as planned, the two options are to stick with the bunch of errors or downgrade. Downgrading at times might not be possible, and even if it was possible, it would be a major hassle to do it most of the time. Is it worth the risk?

Conclusion
Am I confusing you by any chance on whether to upgrade/update or not? The decision is really up to you. Jason seemed to be against upgrading so early and I too am (except for this release). So you’re probably wondering what you have to do then. With every upgrade, the first thing I do is backing up. I back up everything just incase of a disastrous failure. In the case of such an unfortunate event, all you need to do is download a release archive and install it with your old database.

Did you upgrade to the recently released WordPress 2.6? If so, are you liking it? Did you face any difficulties? If you didn’t, why didn’t you upgrade yet?

BloggersWalk didn’t start with a big bang or anything. Still, I’m getting some feedback via email, messenger, and PMs on various forums. One of the things that many of these people said was, “Wow, is it working? Do you think I can do that too?”

The first time I read that type of a PM, I was about to make a quick reply saying, “Sure. All it takes is setting one up.” But then, I halted and thought a bit further. Instead, I sent a reply asking a question, “I don’t know, but do you think you’ll love blogging?”

Let me be straightforward now, since I rambled around already. Blogging is not for everyone. Now, don’t take this as an offense, as it isn’t. It’s the same thing as how soccer is not for everyone, how math is not for everyone, and how playing the piano is not for everyone. Each individual has different talents and blogging is one of them. Blogging is a form of writing. Thus, before setting a blog up, you need to first ask yourself if blogging is really your thing.

Do you like writing?
The very basic of blogging is writing. There’s no way to get by it. You certainly don’t need to be a Tolkien or a Rowling and you don’t need to absolutely love writing that your future dream is an author, a journalist, or a reporter. However, you can’t hate writing. If you don’t like writing, blogging probably isn’t your thing. Maybe vlogging might be your thing.

Can you meet deadlines?
If you want a successful blog, you need to meet deadlines without a boss behind your back. There are some professional bloggers out there who do this for a living. In fact, I hope that I become just as professional as them, as that is my goal with BloggersWalk. However, at this stage of BloggersWalk and myself, blogging is really a hobby. Nonetheless, I have publicly stated that I’m going to at least make two posts a week on Tuesday and Friday. I haven’t missed it yet. You can always do more, but you shouldn’t do less when there is a deadline. With blogging, deadlines are crucial as that is when your subscribers will come and check out your blog. If you can’t meet it, I won’t say don’t blog, but it might be kind of hard to get your opinion out.

Can you reach out?
This may not be so big to you, but in my opinion, it is. I blogged about how a big portion of blogging is about creating a community and getting people to comment on your views. But to do that, you need to take the initiative. Can you invest your time in trying to connect with other bloggers? Can you put effort into really getting to know your visitors? A healthy and an active blog is one where the bond between the blogger(s) and the visitor(s) are evidently strong. If that is too much, or your not the type that likes taking the initiative, maybe you could rethink about the idea of blogging.

Can you be different?
This is one of the biggest questions you should ask. Can you stand out from the rest? Can you be the one stepping left when everyone is stepping right? Take note that people like Darren Rowse and Jeremy Schoemaker could only be who they are right now because they were different. What’s the biggest part of being different? Showing yourself. It’s as simple as that. I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers “imitating” successful posts and tactics. Okay, I believe that “imitating” is a way to get started as you really don’t know a thing at the beginning. Even with subjects like math, you first see an example of how a problem is solved, and then you solve a problem that is nearly identical (except for numbers) with the example that you just solved. Eventually, you start solving variations and applicable questions. Blogging is like that. You can start out following a couple or a few, but eventually, you need to be original. You need to be different. The best way is being real and being yourself. So what if John Chow thinks that his dinner he had last night was the best dish in the world. If you think it stinks, say it!

Can you keep it up?
This one is for those looking to make money through blogging. You’ve probably heard it before, but you’ll hear it again. A lot of bloggers start to pump out a lot of content at the beginning. However, soon, they lose the gas and you start to see a very promising blog fade away. If you’re looking to earn money from blogging, you may be able to earn $2 USD from a quick link sale, but you won’t earn a lot unless you’re willing to stay alive. Even if you’re writing the most beautiful content ever, if you’re in this thing for money, you need to be consistent and persistent. Small money can follow cheap tactics, but big money follows reputation. There’s a reason why big companies like Nike and adidas in the sports equipment industry make way more than some of the smaller ones.

Note that I am not discouraging anyone from blogging. Blogging is really an awesome way to improve in many ways. In fact, a few days ago I was really happy by the fact that my book-addict and movie-addict brother started a blog about books and movies. It’s a rewarding activity and everyone should certainly give it a try. Nonetheless, as much as I enjoy seeing people jump into blogging, I also feel slightly sad when a blog is abandoned, especially some promising ones.

Also, not to forget, maybe you’ll begin to like blogging as your blog more and more. I’m one of those types who didn’t like it at first, but as I forced myself more and more into it, now I can’t wait to publish my next post. I’ve also seen it happen with quite a few people on various blog forums that I participate/visit/lurk in. This could be your scenario too.

Again, you may prove me wrong and still go at full throttle with your blog even if it may not be your thing. However, these are just a few questions to think about if you’re on that line of whether you should start a blog or not.

This is actually a question that I thought over for a very long time before I began BloggersWalk. I believe that quite a few people thinking about starting a blog might have the same debate going on in their head. Which way to go?

Today, there are a lot of blogs that deal with topics like the blogger’s life, make money online, blogging, and SEO. Also, all these topics are focused on one blog. Then, there are those blogs that deal with a very specific niche like soccer shoes, mp3 players, and cell phones. The do-it-all blog concept has its strengths and weaknesses, and the every niche a blog concept also has its strengths and weaknesses.

Personally, I believe it comes down to preferences. I decided to go with the Every Niche a Blog concept. Consequently, BloggersWalk only talks about blogging while I have a few blogs lined up right now that are very niche specific. Anyways, let’s get on and analyze some points to see which one fits you.

Do-it-all Blogs
Strengths

• Your visitors could be concentrated all into this one blog, increasing the possibility of success.
• As you’re not so niche specific, there are more opportunities to update your blog. (eg. Something Blogger John ate for dinner on some day.)
• Especially if many of the topics you are dealing with are similar, there is a greater chance for your visitors to return as your blog can be the place to get all their updates.
• You only have one blog that you have to put all your monetizing efforts into.
• If you’re short on money, you don’t have to invest as much to promote one blog compared to promoting 10.

Weaknesses

• Equally, you might lose a few visitors that could have potentially been loyal visitors, because you talk about so many other topics that are irrelevant to them.
• Again, equally, as you only have one blog to monetize it could mean a potential loss.
• You can’t really sell the blog if such a time ever comes, because what are the chances of the buyer being interested in blogging about the topics that you used to blog about? Also, you’re pretty much left with nothing after selling it off.

Every Niche a Blog
Strengths

• There are a lot of opportunities to monetize your blogs and a chance of a higher pay too as your blog is very niche specific.
• There is a greater chance that you will rack up loyal returning visitors as people like seeing blogs that talk about what they are interested in.
• You can guesstimate about how many people will read your blog post if you post it. (eg. A blog with an average of 1000 UV a day will most likely have about 1000 people reading the first post. On the other hand, with a do-it-all blog, where it is likely that a good portion of the 1000 will not be interested in the first post.)
• You can effectively link your blogs together to develop your blogs’ backlinks. This would especially be powerful if all the blogs are on different servers and are all quite popular with a good ranking.
• If you ever want to see your blog(s), you can do so without losing so much.

Weaknesses

• You need to regularly think up original topics to write about for each blog you have.
• It is also time and money consuming in the part that you will need to separately promote each and every blog.
• Your traffic will be split among your blogs most of the time, which could lead to one of them possibly failing.

In the end, it really is up to the blogger on which way is the right way to go. Again, my personal preference is the Every Niche a Blog approach, as in my opinion, it really gives me more freedom. Sure, it may take a bit more time and a bit more effort, but I feel that if you enjoy blogging, the difference pertaining to time and effort isn’t huge between a Do-it-all Blog approach and an Every Niche a Blog approach.

If you feel that I missed a strength or a weakness with any of the two approaches, feel free to drop a comment and I’ll add it in!

P.S. You probably noticed this, but there are five strengths and three weaknesses per approach. Why? I personally believe that the art of blogging as way more strengths than weaknesses, hence the difference in the number of points.

Starting today, I’m planning on giving a review on the various blogging platforms currently in the market. Although I did have quite a bit of blogging experience in the past with WordPress, I was still unsure whether WordPress was the platform to go with for BloggersWalk. This certainly isn’t because WordPress is a bad platform or anything. It simply was because of the avalibility of so many quality platforms, each and everyone had its strengths and weaknesses.

Over the next few weeks, I plan on testing an ample amount of blogging platforms on my local hard drive. Everything from famous platforms to some that may not be well known, I really do hope to cover.

If any of you know of any blogging platforms that you would like me to do a review on, please feel free to leave a comment and I’ll be sure to check it out. Thanks!

Below is the list of all the bloggnig platforms I’m planning on covering. This will be updated as I go along.

• WordPress
• Blogger
• Live Journal
• TextCube