BloggersWalk

Okay, so first off, let me say that I’m a guy that likes to make lists and stuff that you can remember easily. Why? I’m just a typical guy, and while I may be majoring in engineering, quantum physics is just as challenging to you as it is to me. So, I like to learn and remember stuff in my own way. I’m sure you do. So, just like those 5W1H writing techniques, let me introduce to you, my 5 R’s to a successful blogging career.

Before I go on any further though, these R’s are just a five that I feel are important to a blogger. Obviously blogging is a bit arduous and requires a certain degree of expertise, and thus, I believe there are more to blogging that these five R’s. However, remember how I said I like to make all these funky lists to help me remember stuff? Well, this is just another one of them which I’m sure you’ll find easy to remember and recall during your blogging career.

Revelation
Before I go and explain this one, let me say that no, we’re not talking about The Holy Bible here. Revelation here indicates that you want to be different—a unique and a one of a kind blogger. As a blogger, to gain the maximum exposure, you want to voice something unique. If you don’t write something different and just replicate the other hundred blogs in your niche, there is NO REASON for a visitor to visit your blog.

So how can you be different? How can you be a revelation in the blogosphere? How can you take the blogosphere by a storm? There are actually quite a few ways in my opinion. One of them is developing current existing information with your personal color and research. However, this is a bit more challenging as you need to know the line between plagiarizing and not. You could also be the first to announce a new discovery or some release in the niche your blog is in. This is bound to bring some traffic to you and heighten your authority in the blogosphere, but again, this is a bit challenging. What I have found to be the easiest is just being yourself and supplying the information that is in demand. By supplying here, I’m talking about giving your personal take on a certain popular incident. Usually this works pretty well, as everyone has their own view on a topic.

Reputation
I’ve said quite a few times in my blog that a blog is, in a way, a resume. Well, since there are words that employers these days are even looking at potential employees’ Facebook profiles, I don’t see why a blog should be any different. Thus, a clean record and a good reputation within the blogosphere are important. So how do you create or maintain this reputation? It’s all about being diligent. Working hard in producing great posts, not forgetting to market your blog correctly, doing business legitimately, and always making new connections are just a few ways to get your reputation up. Remember, it’s a resume that you have here that you are composing.

Reciprocation
Blogging is often a two way relationship, thus the name of this section, reciprocation. The connection is either between you, the blogger, and a reader, or you the blogger, and another blogger. Without this relationship, I don’t think you can say that you are having the best blogging experience. If you were the only one who wrote and read the posts, isn’t that more like a secret diary online? To really experience the connections bloggers can make with others, you need blog as if you are talking to someone beside you, just that with blogs, you are doing it in words.

Also, I talk quite often about reciprocating, or replying, between bloggers. An essential part of a successful blogging experience and career is networking with other bloggers within your niche. To do this, take some initiative and make some connections going. Once you have established a decent relationship, maintain that relationship by commenting on that blogger’s posts, giving link love, and just thanking the other blogger for even small things like a casual comment. Social networking is crucial and through your first initiative and then a follow-up, a connection is created. This connection can only turn out to have positive outcomes in the future.

Rejuvenation/Revitalization
Blogging can be quite hard and taxing. I’m sure that even the likes of Darren Rowse from ProBlogger gets tired of blogging from time to time. It’s just inevitable and you’re bound to burn out sooner or later. Unfortunately, you are the only one who can fix that problem, but this is how I overcome it. It could work for you, but it also might not.

Anyways, what I do to revitalize myself is I look over some goals that I set at the early stages of the blog and try to revive the enthusiasm that I had when I was just starting out. Remembering all these goals and also remembering the times that I reached some of these goals just motivates me and gives me the energy that I need to keep blogging. Knowing the feeling of achieving something just makes me keep on wanting to go forward with blogging. Of course, this is all just me, but it could be you too, so try to remember those early days in your blogging career. If you’re just starting out, just often remind yourself how blogging is like a marathon and you should always keep your goal in mind and not be distracted by any outside factors that may discourage you or stop you from blogging.

Reflection
Throughout my years of blogging, I have learned quite a lot about blogging and just the general web. I have earned quite a bit of money, but have also lost just as much due to poor decisions. I have gained a lot of friends, partners, and contacts, but I have also fell apart with a few individuals, although I did make it up to them now. Now that I think about it, these experiences helped me quite a bit as I was able to grow as a blogger and grow as a responsible individual.

If you are quite an experienced blogger, try re-reading some of your old posts. I’m sure you agree with me that some of them are pretty bad. Maybe you solved those issues already, but most of the time, you probably didn’t. Grab these chances and see how you can change and grow as a blogger. Did you use a lot of informal language? Well, it’s an indication that you should be more careful on your word choice if you’re looking to be famous. Were you only focused on growing your blog and not contributing to others’ blogs? Again, it’s an opportunity for you to realize this and go on to make a few comments or even write guest posts on other blogs. I’ve found reflection as a great way to grow in anything. Of course, reflecting as a blogger helps in growing too.

Conclusion
Revelation. Reputation. Reciprocation. Rejuvenation/Revitalization. Reflection. These are definitely five aspects of blogging which I feel can play an important role in your success as a blogger. Yeah, the “5 R’s to a Successful Blogging Career” is just a fancy way of putting all this, but if it sticks in you this way, why not?

Obviously there are more than these five that you need to be aware of to be successful. In fact, there are so many that I never would be able to write up a one complete post just on it. I doubt anyone would be able to write a book on it. After all, success can be attained in so many ways.

However, if you have any tips beyond these five that you used or kept in mind to be somewhat successful in the blogosphere, please feel free to share your account via the comments. Remember, success is relative and thus, all comments are welcome. If a post per day is a success story to you, by all means share it with us. If making a nine figure is a success to hear, I’d love to hear that too. Cheers.

As a blogger, there are so many things that you have to do. Without realizing, you may be busily making your 10th twitter update of the day or just be reading and reading blog post after blog post. Then, all of a sudden, you realize that you really didn’t get a whole lot done for your own blog. You just wasted a whole lot of time, which in a way, is money.

Blogging is an enjoyable activity, but it can also be an exacting one. If you don’t manage your time well and be efficient, you can run out of things to blog about, make your blog go idle, or at worst, lose interest and throw your blog (and potential money) away. Efficiency is what can help you, as a blogger, keep your blog rolling with minimal effort, while producing quality articles. That’s what I’m going to be talking about today.

Begin by Setting a Goal
I fail to do this on a daily basis, but whenever I do remember, I try to set a goal for the day. It varies from day to day. To give a few examples, these goals range from planning on writing a few posts within a certain time frame to making a certain amount of comments in other bloggers’ blogs. Note that there is no pressure for you to achieve these goals. However, you should still make an effort to reach them. At first, this is one of the harder parts to becoming an efficient blogger. Once you catch the rhythm though, it’ll get easier and easier.

Make Notes Often
A good portion of blogging is writing about something. Finding these unique topics to write about can be quite demanding. Thus, instead of thinking about what to blog about while staring at your monitor, try to make a habit of making notes every time you see or hear about something interesting that you could blog about. In addition, when you do use one of your ideas, be sure to not throw away the other ideas. Keep them in a Word document or save them as drafts for future use. I personally have over 50 drafts just for BloggersWalk. Most of these drafts only have a title and a simple sentence so that when I open up one of my drafts later on, I can quickly remember the incident and develop the post.

Bookmark Aggressively Using Your Browser
If the above was making notes in your daily life, this one is making notes while you browse the web. Most browsers nowadays have a pretty good bookmarking feature where you can organize your bookmarks anyway you want. Whenever you see something awesome, bookmark it! Note that these bookmarks can be used for various things. They can be used in ways such as for research or to link to for further reference. However, keep in mind that bookmarks should not be used to steal ideas or to plagiarize in some sort of way. That’s not the point of bookmarking. As a blogger, you should bookmark to go back on good information.

Give Yourself Space and Time
To deliver quality content, you need to focus. At least for me, it is really hard to write up a decent post while listening to music and chatting on MSN. Maybe I’m just a really bad at multitasking. However, I honestly believe that even if you are a great multitasker, you will be able to work much better if you give yourself some space and time, and devote your whole self into writing the post. Don’t let other things distract you from working on your post, as you want to be efficient. You don’t want to be spending five hours writing two sentences.

Are you an efficient blogger? Personally, I’m not that efficient and have often caught myself wasting too much time on one blog that I don’t have enough time for my other blogs. Thus, I did a little bit of research to find some ways to be a bit more efficient. I’ve only implemented this “technique” for about a month or so, but have found it to be great, as I now have quite a bit of extra time in my hands.

If you are an efficient blogger and thinks that these tips are a joke, please do share with me your techniques on how you stay efficient. Maybe you don’t think it’s a joke, but have other routines to keep yourself efficient. Why don’t you share it with the rest of the community through a simple comment? I’d really appreciate it and I’m sure many others would too. Thanks!

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!

Yesterday on ahnternet, I wrote a post about how an artist that I’ve been waiting for finally released her second album after nearly over a year of hiatus. The moment I got my album in my hand, it was one of the most happiest moments of this year! I’m serious!

Then yesterday, while listening to the album, I was also thinking about what would be a good post to put up on BloggersWalk today. Instantly I knew that this was the post that I had to make. Popular blogs already have hundreds and thousands of subscribers anxiously waiting for the next post. However, that is a bit different with beginning blogs and bloggers. So, I decided to see what type of posts could attract visitors when you’re just starting out. Note that even if you are a long time blogger, you could still use these to attract even more readers.

Write a Series Post
Series posts are great at attracting the crowd. One of the most famous examples in the blogosphere is WPDesigner’s series post on creating a WordPress theme from scratch. As a reader these series posts are like a TV show or an anime series. The desire to know what will be next can be quite huge. Even if you spaced your series posts every other day, there is a great chance that your readers will visit your blog everyday secretly hoping that the next series post is out a day earlier.

Case Studies are Interesting!
Blogs are an informative website (most of the time), so case studies are a great thing to try out. However, as it takes a lot of work, I’ve noticed many bloggers including myself staying away from case studies. Nonetheless, like series posts, interesting case studies spread out over a few posts can have some great positive effects.

Comment Contests Rock
Competitions always attract a crowd, but comment competitions especially can get some people anxious to come and check out your latest post. A live example is Shoemoney’s comment contest where he randomly picks a commenter from that day and gives out a Shoemoney t-shirt. I genuinely like Shoemoney and what he writes, which is why I frequently comment on his posts. However, I’m sure that there are some comment freaks there too commenting for the t-shirt. Whether a genuine interest or not, these contests can definitely give you some nice exposure and some anxious readers.

Give a Short Preview!
You know how some series books have a little preview at the very end of the book as a little teaser? You know how movie trailers make you want to watch that movie even more? Same concept. If you know what you’re going to write about the next time you post, a little catchy preview at the very end of your post can go a long way. This has its ups and downs, but it certainly is a trick that you could use.

Try these tips out and tell me how it works out for you. If you have any tricks that you do to get readers to visit your blog on a daily basis, feel free to share them by commenting on this post!

I bet that all of you bloggers want to boost your RSS feed count and want more people to read your posts. I’ve been blogging for quite a while and I’ve felt the same desire. So I thought and thought again to see if there is anything I can do to increase my “fan base” if you could call it that way.

If I was a surfer/visitor…
The two things that you should keep in mind when viewing your blog in a visitor’s perspective is quality and keywords. Are the stuff that you’re writing informative? Is it really worth a read? You visit your blog everyday because it’s yours and you have to manage it, but visitors visit to gain something. They’re not going to come for no reason. Also, think about how your visitors are going to get to your blog. Keywords. It’s big! If you’re using WordPress as your blogging platform, utilize all those SEO plugins and make some nice titles using the keywords your audience will probably search for!

Be an Opinionated Blogger
There are always new debates and arguments going on in the blogosphere. Whether it is in the form of a thoughtful comment or a full blown blogpost, usually stating your opinion will get you some publicity. Play the villain or the hero that solves the debate; it is sure to give you some exposure.

Link for Further Reference
Usually those who are selfish won’t get the “fan base” that they crave for. You know how Wikipedia links to its own articles whenever possible? By them doing this, they can keep the visitor within their site. However, from a visitor’s perspective, you know that when you go to a Wikipedia information page, you will gain more than enough information. By linking out to other bloggers, first you form a relationship with them, but you also build this reputation among your readers. Your readers will know that your blog is one that is quality and is one that will offer more than enough information. You want more, not less.

Readers > Advertisements
BloggersWalk has very little advertisement. I’m personally not a fan of so many advertisements, but at one time, I had Google AdSense up. Personally, I thought it was slightly ugly, but a few of my designing friends told me that it was really distracting and made the page look very ugly. Some even said that they’d rather NOT visit the blog! That was like a wake-up call to me. I’d rather make a thousand less and have a hundred more subscribers.

Spice Up Your Posts!
Do you remember the time when your English teacher told you to use the bold, italics, and the underlines sparingly? This is because they really are powerful. As a blogger, you should be utilizing them anyways. However, that’s not what I wanted to say for this post. Your English class probably was a Times New Roman, 12 pt, with a black font. When you’re blogging, the restrictions are quite the same. Who said your words can be in a different color? Put some makeup on those posts to make your post look a little bit dazzling!

I’m sure there are a lot more tips to increasing your loyal reader count/RSS subscriber count. Care to share your tips? These are just a few that I thought of, but I’m sure that you probably have some under your sleeve too. If you don’t mind, make a comment and share it with the BloggersWalk community!

I’m constantly starting new blogs with my random domains and from time to time on Blogger too. With blogs, the initial launch is a great opportunity to form some relationships and make some buzz. To do that, you need posts. However, I have always believed (and still do) that the first post should be a brief introduction post. Nonetheless, some people seem to think otherwise, so I’ve tried to compile some pros and cons with what seems to be the rule of thumb in the blogosphere these days: launch your blog when you have 10 posts.

Pros of Launching with 10+ Posts

• A good first impression. The last thing that you want is a newcomer to your blog thinking that your blog is not worthy of reading and subscribing.
• Your blog seems consistent. Especially if you space out the 10 posts on a certain time interval such as daily or every other day.
• You can start promoting your individual posts right away! While this is do-able with a blog that launches with only the “Hello world!” post, it is a lot easier with a blog that already has quite a bit of content.
• You aren’t pressured to keep up with a blog schedule. If you have a blog setup, you better get posting regularly if you want some visitors. However, if you haven’t even launched it, you can take some time to write up your posts.

Cons of Launching with 10+ Posts

• The 10+ posts before starting does not guarantee anything. It is more of a gamble.
• It is likely that these posts, regardless of their quality, will be pushed back quickly anyways as you update your blog.
• It can be tiring and you COULD suffer from a burnout before even starting your blog, as you would, at the back of your mind, know that you are writing up posts that are not going to be displayed today or tomorrow or any day until the launch.
• When do you know that it is enough posts? Is 10 enough? Or is 15 enough? How about 25? Obviously the guy that prepares 50 will have a better chance at achieving a successful blog launch, right?

Conclusion
In my opinion, it really comes down to your preferences. Personally, I like to give a new blog a start with no posts. I like to see it develop into a successful blog right from 0. However, that is merely my opinion and others could pursue a different tactic when launching a blog. I have met more bloggers who like to launch their blogs with 10+ posts. That’s not me, but that could be you.

So I’m asking all you bloggers out there. When you started your blog how did you start out? Did you start from 0 posts or did you write a few posts before the launch? Whichever one you go with, care to share with the rest of the community why you choose to do it that way?

Every blogger will, sometime in their blogging career, hit a writer’s block. There simply will be a time when you think, “I want to update my blog, but what do I write about?” I’ve compiled a few tips that has helped me get my ideas going again. See if they help you. Also, don’t forget, but if you have anything to add to the points below, feel free to add a comment with it and I’ll edit this post!

See Other Blogs in Your Niche
Many times a question will stimulate another question. A great thing about being a blogger is that you can answer these questions that are flowing in nonstop. See other bloggers in your niche and see what questions they are addressing. See what the blogosphere and the readers are curious about. This could really get you going as you will soon find out that as the world is rapidly changing, there are a lot of things to talk about.

Link Out to Quality Posts
I’ve seen quite a few bloggers do this on a designated day every week. If you read an awesome post in some other blog within your niche, don’t just close it, but save those links. Then, on that one day, link out to these quality posts! I know that you want to keep your visitors in your blog, but linking out to a few quality posts can also show that you are really interested and knowledgeable in your niche. Also, when you link to another blogger’s post, a trackback will be left. This forms a new relationship between you and that other blogger. There is a chance that this blogger may link to one of your posts sometime in the future.

Let the Burden of Quality Posts Go
All bloggers want to post these super quality posts that would be contenders for the first page on Digg. However, that is simply not possible with every single post. Are you one of these bloggers? If so, you may find yourself concerned more with the quality than getting your thoughts down. Now, I’m not saying make some crappy posts, but just don’t think like a super quality post is a must thing for every single one of your posts. It certainly won’t hurt it, but when you’re in a writer’s block, it can be a problem.

Forget Your Niche Once
Although the majority of your posts should be related to your niche, not every single one of them have to. For example, you could go to Yahoo! News or CNN and see if a topic interests you. It would be great if the topic was at least a bit similar to your niche, but if not, that’s okay too. Why not put up a random blog post stating your opinions on that topic? Chances are, as long as you don’t do this too often, your visitors won’t mind too much. Heck, maybe some of them might be interested in that topic too!

Take a Break!
Okay, maybe it is just not your day. Take a break that day. Don’t sit in front of your computer all day doing nothing. It’s probably more productive to go outside and shop or meet your friends. Maybe some of these experiences from here might get your head flowing again for another post!

These are just a few tips you could reference. While I was writing this post, I thought, “Well, maybe you can just write up a lot on one day when you’re ideas are flying, and you could use those drafts.” While that is true, this is for those who really have no drafts and nothing to post on a certain day. Personally, I’ve hit days when there was nothing to blog about and I believe that it is a common thing with all bloggers.

If you have any more ideas to add, feel free to make a comment!