Enkay Blog

Whats In A Title? I’m Sorry WHAT?

What is in a title? I mean does it really even matter? I’ve started picking out topics that I feel are a bit more interesting to discuss lately and I think the response has been good in terms of comments and link backs but what is in a title? What makes a title worthy? So I pondered about this for a good part of today and instead of doing a list I figured I’d just talk about it.

I personally think that the more eye catching a title is or the more controversial it is, the more people are likely to read it. I mean Syed had a recently post on Balkhis with the title “9 Tips To Be Successful Online” and to me thats just more interesting than saying. A few tips on being successful. It isn’t by accident that you have a good title you really have to work for it.

One of the things is the word choice. Picking one word over another makes a big difference specially with adjectives. You can say “Unhappy With X Advertising Company” or you can say “Absolutely Frustrated with X Advertising Company”. Its not about embellishing anything, its just about saying or writing something in a manner that makes it more interesting.

You could also go into the whole aspect of how to phrase the title. Whether you write it as a sentence or a question. Usually questions result in more comments mainly because you connect to your readers. Lets take a look at Jim’s post which I’ve talked about before, its titled “Google Pagerank Update - Does Pagerank Accurately Judge Website Popularity?” Phrasing it as a question instead of saying “Pagerank Inccurately Judges Popularity” is just more interesting. That question automatically brings up an answer in my mind and so thats another example.

The basic point is that the title has to be attention grabbing. You can do so by making it informative such as a review of a highly anticipated product (ex. iPhone 3G Detailed Review) or controversial (ex. Are You Faking Your RSS Subscribers? Some People Are). You have to realize that although being controversial can be a good thing, you shouldn’t necessarily blatantly point fingers at anyone unless you know the entire truth. Controversial topics are a bit risky but can be highly rewarding.

So, I personally think that I’d be more likely to read a post if I find it more interesting and that can depend from person to person but usually you tend to strike a chord with everyone by using some of the tips above. I’ve had some great titles and if you look at my earlier posts, some not so very good ones. Overall, your title should get the point across in an eye catching manner! Let me know your thoughts, Are you more likely to read a post if the title is interesting?

Does The Way You Look Affect Your Blog?

Its something that hasn’t been really talked about but do readers really care about how you look? I mean, think about it, there are some bloggers that use a picture of an attractive female as their MyBlogLog avatar and I wonder if it affects them. The following question is directed first to the males in my reading audience. Be honest, which one of these avatars would you most likely click on if you saw them on your blog:

Girl 1     Girl 2

What about my female audience, which one of the following avatars would you click on if you saw them?

Guy 1     Guy 2

Well, its not that bloggers are shallow individuals but its just human nature that we are more tempted to click on a bloggers avatar if they are good looking. The idea of this post is that there are good looking bloggers out there and maybe they’re getting attention because of their looks. I’m trying not to be critical or anything but there was talk about Jane May not really being a real person since that was the only picture we saw of her. I’m not disagreeing that she had great content but do you think she would be as popular if she wasn’t easy on the eyes? I’m not saying that looks is all that matters, and I’m sure that great content is also a reason why some of them are successful but if you think about it, wouldn’t you feel a bit short changed if you found out that your favorite blogger was really someone else? I guess I would.

Truth to be told though, the males are more affected by this than the females are. We may be more tempted to click on an avatar in a long list of threaded comments just because the picture appeals to us. Its not that we’re shallow, its just the way it is. There are some bloggers who have realized that this happens and have changed their avatar images to include an attractive female and I wonder if it really brings in more traffic.

The Low Down: What it all boils down to is that how you portray your blog or your avatar, can really affect your traffic. This means anything from your logo to your Technorati, Twitter or MyBlogLog avatar. It doesn’t even have to be someone attractive of the opposite sex. It could just be a really interesting logo or ad that says “I made $245,535 in 2 days” and that could be more tempting than the ad that says “The Lazy Blogger” or something of that sort.

I just wanted to get your viewpoint on this as it is something that I have not seen mentioned before. Its really not about how successful your image makes you but how tempted you might be to actually check it out. I’d also like to see your response to the image choices given up above. Those images are made small for a reason and that reason is to replicate MyBlogLog avatars! Anyway, waiting to see your responses! Happy Blogging!

What Makes You Different?

Everyone enters the world of blogging with a dream. A dream to be entirely different than the last person who promised the same thing. So why is it that today we see all these new bloggers arrive in the blogosphere with a bang….and leave just as quickly. The whole idea about being successful in the blogosphere is not only promising or attempting to be different, but BEING different and this can be achieved in many ways.

1) Be Yourself - Probably the single most important point that I bring up many times. Its not about who you can replicate or what style of writing posts you can emulate but its about writing the post as if you were making conversation. Don’t make it hard on yourself. The simpler and more natural a post sounds, the better it is for your uniqueness. Be yourself and that automatically makes you different.

2) Dont Copy, Be Inspired - If you read a blog post on some other blog, dont think about blatantly talking about the same topic but be inspired by it. Take it a step further or branch off of it. Nobody likes to go around the blogosphere and see bloggers talking about the same thing. When you are inspired, you tend to write brilliant posts. Oh, and please give credit to those who inspire you!

3) Dont Show & Tell - Everyone reads posts about how much money you made but talk about how you made that money. Let me rephrase, how you really made that money. Meaning, give out tips that really helped you be where you’re at. I’m not knocking anyone but there are some people who talk about their monthly checks but then they say “well, I really can’t say what I did”. I understand that some things are “tricks of the trade” but then why even mention the check. Dont be boastful, he honest.

4) Unique Presentation - I’ve already talked about being yourself when writing a post but you can always write a post in a manner that sets you off differently. You can use lists, graphics, graphs or even nice cartoonic images to help communicate your point using a different type of visual. Make it interesting for you and your readers.

5) Be Revolutionary - Well, not necessarily revolutionary but be controversial if you have to and if you strongly believe in something. Dont stand casually when you really feel you should be acting upon something. If there is something that you feel you need to talk about, bring up or shed some light on then, do it without hesitation. Everyone likes to see someone taking a stand and you should do it if you have to.

Well, I hope you enjoyed another post that can help you stand out from the crowd. Hopefully these tips can help you stand out from the crowd and if you have any more tips that you can think of, I’d like to hear them. Do you think the blogosphere has too many blogs that talk about the same thing?

The Weekly Blog Roundup - July 28th

Heres another one of the weekly roundup posts but this time I’m going to mix in some competitions while we’re at it too. So lets take a look:

Derek Semmler - Derek has contributed greatly to this blog and recently when I was looking over his blog, I saw a post that said that I was listed at #5 in the Top 10 Websites that send him the most traffic. Aside from that fact, Derek has an AMAZING contest going on. If you’re a blogger then attending the BlogWorldExpo is like reaching utopia but then again, those things aren’t free. They cost $300 but Derek is going to give away a free pass to BlogWorldExpo if you write a post about why you should be a speaker at BlogWorld and he will pick one winner, based on the how good the response was. This contest ends August 6th and if you’ve been wanting to go and the $300 price tag was slowing you down, you should definitely give this a shot.

John Chow - has a contest along with Bic Pens that ends really soon at the end of this month and I hope to score another one of those Flip Cameras because I know it will come in handy

TheNetFool - Jim has a really great post asking whether Page Rank does a good job in accurately judging a websites popularity. He includes an extensive list (which has always been a +1 for me) of blogs and their PR and his opinion as to whether they are overvalued, appropriate or undervalued. Its a great post that you should check out.

Balkhis - Syed’s most recent post about his day long trip wearing his Market Leverage strikes a familiar chord. I’ve been wearing the golf shirt Market Leverage sent me and I really like it even if its a little bit on the large side. I think its obvious that Syed and I really appreciate the shirts considering people ask us about it all the time. Aside from that, Syed’s ebook “How To Make A Magazine Style Theme In Wordpress” has been downloaded over 2000 times already so you should check it out if you haven’t already.

Market Leverage Walks - Debby Phillips and Jen Fluker from Market Leverage are walking 60 miles for breast cancer together with the Affiliate Marketers Give Back group. They have a goal to raise $45,000 and are currently at a little over $29,100. Market Leverage is matching every dollar that is donated towards this great cause. If you would like to show them some support, please consider donating by using Debby’s Donation Link or Jen’s Donation Link.

So that wraps up this week’s blog roundup and I hope to see many more articles come up in the following days so that I can enjoy them and blog about it so that my readers can check them out also. Thanks again for stopping by! Remember, my Market Leverage contest ends within a week so sign up if you haven’t!

Page Rank Updated

So Enkay Blog’s Page Rank has been updated and as you all know Google loves us very much so we have been awarded a page rank of 0 considering we were PR 3 before. Not really sure what the reason it but even with the old URL we were given a PR 4 during the last rounds of updates and within the day or two after that update we were penalized to 0.

I notice that many of you have new PR rankings and I congratulate you. To join me in this boat of PR 0 is my friend Mattaw from MoneyBites.com so I’m sure he is as disappointed about this as I am. I am pretty sure that I was supposed to atleast be at 3 or move up to 4. Either way, its the way things turn out and I’ll try to get it resolved but if things dont work then its time to wait for the next round of updates. Lets take a look at the PR for some of the blogs on my radar:

RomanDock - 2
TheNetFool - 4
Balkhis - 4
Life Is Colourful - 3
JohnChow - 3
ShoeMoney - 6
Liz Strauss - 4
Ms Danielle - 2
Michael Kwan - 2
Ed Lau - 3
Stephen Fung - 4
Ian Fernando - 4
The University Kid - 4
Stand Out Blogger -2
Rajaie Talks - 3
Angad Sodhi - 3

As you can expect, I’m a little disappointed but I want to know what you guys think of your new PR (if your PR changed). Are you content? Do you think you’re undervalued? Either way, I just want to know your thoughts about this because I’m sure that many of us have been waiting for these updates to take place.