Archive for October, 2008
Being A Famous Blogger Means…
Oct 22nd
So, I figured I’d take a twist on the generally serious posts and write a post on the lighter side. No, its not a b.s. post, its just a post that is a bit more comical than usual. When you meet me in person you’ll realize that I joke around quite a bit and make random comments. My friends say that the smile on my face never disappears and that I’m hilarious – it would seem like a good compliment only if they weren’t lying! Just kidding. But anyway, I wanted to check in with you about what being a famous blogger entails. I mean it can’t be easy not going to work and sitting in front of a computer (as you usually do on a Saturday night) and check emails and write posts and go for extravagant dinners. That job description sounds EXHAUSTING.
Either way, being a blogger is one thing and being a famous blogger is another thing. You’re recognizable, People look up to you and you’re invited to speak at conferences and have dinners and spread your wealth (of knowledge, not real cash since we all know how cheap bloggers are).
A famous bloggers life is definitely not as easy as it looks. Imagine sitting on your laptop or desktop and constantly responding to emails, addressing concerns, writing interesting posts, preparing powerpoints and speeches and presentations and actually presenting in front of hundreds of people? Its definitely not easy. People always tell me that “how hard can it be to sit on your butt all day and warm a chair?” Well, if you stop and think for a minute, it can be a lot of work depending on what you got on your plate.
Now I’ll have to say that the pay for being a famous blogger exceeds the pay that the average Joe (not Normal Joe.. Average Joe) makes. The idea of being a famous blogger sounds really great to a lot of people but theres work involved. Its not all about driving fast cars, owning a nice home and smoking a cigar all weekend long.
I’m a part-time blogger and my life is just as stressful (mainly because of school though) but what is your perception of famous bloggers? Do you think that its easier than it looks or harder than it looks? I always think that you can look at it either way but theres no doubt, quite a bit of work involved depending on how popular you are. For all those like myself who are on the quest to being famous, hopefully we can see ourselves at the top of the mountain one day.
Do You Inspire?
Oct 20th
Most of our blogs are meant to instill knowledge and pass on references and information but how many bloggers actually inspire you and influence you to do better things? To strive to achieve the unattainable? Not a lot that you can think of, are there?
While im in the process of adding my blogs to my new RSS reader, I decided that its time to talk about a little inspiration that comes from your fellow bloggers. I know that I was inspired by the likes of John Chow, ShoeMoney and Ms. Danielle to get started with my blog and its kind of hard to put a finger on what inspired me but I’ve come up with a list of most common reasons why people are inspired:
1) Money – Dont even deny this one, but its true. Some people think that bloggers are able to make a decent amount of full-time or part-time income and that helps inspire them into doing so.
2) Create An Online Persona – The idea that you can create an identity for yourself on the internet is very tempting to some people. They are inspired by the fact that Shoemoney is who he is online or Danielle comes off as being this fun loving friendly female blogger. Its about how you are able to present yourself through words and video online without much physical interaction.
3) Networking - Theres a lot of bloggers that have created links with other bloggers all over the globe and are able to leverage the power of their network to sell products, services and ideas. I get emails all the time to network and keep in touch with individuals who would like to do business with me later on. Its a good source of networking and creating relationships and you can be inspired to blog because of it.
4) Get Smart - Some people blog to get smart. By get smart I mean that when you blog you learn so much more that you may not have known before. I was always a webdesigner but by blogging I learned better grammar, better spelling and not only that I learned the ins and outs of blogging as well as the things that come with owning an active website like this one. Its a good way to learn and improve your existing skill set.
5) Inspire Others – This is the last point and its because you want to be the one to inspire other people. I know that I love receiving emails from readers who say that they have tried a method that I recommended or they tried a certain revenue generating program. Its good to hear that and I enjoy it and that can inspire some people to start a blog of their own.
Let me know what you think of my reasons behind it. What or who inspired you to get into blogging and what do you have to say about my reasons such as get smart and inspiring others. Do you think you learned anything and were able to inspire others? Lets hear it!
P/s – I’m adding you to my RSS readers so I’m watching my comments and I’ll be commenting as I add your blog!
Enkay’s Ebook Contest Results
Oct 19th
So this is the moment that you all have been waiting for. It was a month ago that I released my eBook and decided to give away a 4GB Silver iPod Nano to one lucky reader and here is the video with the results. I was sick in the video and maybe you can tell from my voice so I kind of look out of it so excuse that as you all know that I’m usually very well prepared in my videos. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email which was sent in the afternoon on Sunday. In the event that I don’t get a response, I’ve picked an alternate winner in the video as well. If you didn’t win then all you can do is hope that the winner doesn’t claim his/her prize soon enough!
As promised in the video, here is a link to the video that I had made for Save The Children, in the event that you missed it. Thanks to everyone for checking out my eBook and donating to this great organization. Stay tuned for tomorrows update and let me know what your thoughts were about linking the charity to the eBook, was it a good idea or a bad idea?
How Many Posts Is Enough?
Oct 17th
This topic is something I haven’t discussed before and I know that recently there are only a few blogs that have had to come to terms with the idea of how many posts a day or per week was enough. A lot of the top bloggers that blog full-time write a few posts every day but most of us who have our blogs as more of a part-time job or hobby only post once a day and some of us even 3-4 times a week.
The question that comes up is how many posts do I have to write per week? Well, there is no real answer but anybody will tell you that writing fewer and fewer posts every week won’t help you retain readers and you’ll soon disappear into the blogosphere dust.
Heres what happens if you write too many posts – If you’re the kind of person that puts out content more than once a day, you’re actually exhausting your content unless you’re a top blogger. The reason top bloggers are able to churn out more than one post a day is because they have a lot more time to do activities, have lunch and do things that would be interesting to read about or watch a video about.
If you’re not a top blogger then writing more than one or two posts a day could mean that you’re finishing up all your good ideas and resources way too quickly and that could lead to the demise of your blog much faster than you’d imagine.
Heres what happens if you blog too little – If you blog too little and you’re not a pro-blogger then you’re actually not able to retain your audience. Basically, if I began to blog once a week then my reading audience during the week itself would be very very low and you don’t want that as an aspiring top blogger.
On the other hand, if youre a popular blogger and you decide to slow down blogging for a SHORT PERIOD (notice, not forever, but for a short period) of time then you should do okay. You’ll still lose traffic but you’ll be able to regain it fast enough once you start back. The story is completely different for new and aspiring bloggers because you just won’t keep your readers engrossed enough.
What if you blog once daily? – This is the scenario that most of us “mid-bloggers” use. I consider myself a mid-blogger because I’m not like John Chow but I’m also not a new blogger. If you blog once daily, you’re able to keep your audience hooked with a new article or post every day and that means that your traffic is highly stable and you have lots of return visitors.
This has been the most favorable for me in order to maintain my blog. I’m sure that if I started to slowly climb the top blogger ladder that I would automatically raise the number of posts I did in a day from 1 to maybe 2-3 per day.
I realize that many of you blog 2-3 times a week or something in that range but this was mainly to focus on some of the more common ways that people go about blogging. I wonder what your thoughts are on this and whether you think blogging once a day is enough or does someone like me need to blog more? Let me know! Have a great weekend everyone. You’ll be seeing the contest results on video this weekend so Good Luck!
Is MMO A Good Niche?
Oct 16th
For starters, MMO means Make Money Online as in the niche of blogs focused on making money through their blogs. I notice that every time I blink my eyes, another blog thats in the MMO niche pops up and its really starting to feel kind of crowded. Considering the fact that most MMO blogs don’t make money, it seems a bit weird that theres so many of them.
This blog started off as a blog filled with random posts and then converted to a MMO blog and after realizing how crowded it felt, I moved onto the general blogging niche. Today, I talk about blogging tips, affiliate marketing and money but I really don’t miss being part of the MMO niche mainly because I don’t have fingers pointing at me saying “well, you’re not really making a lot of money”. The point of this discussion, you ask? Well, let me discuss a few points with you to help you understand what I mean.
1) Its not about Money, Its about readers – The big issue is that bloggers in the MMO field think that they need to focus on the idea of making money to actually make money but its not true. You need readers and traffic in order to make money. The idea is that more readers leads to higher ad revenue and more clicks and therefore more money so its really not all about money.
2) You don’t have to be MMO to make money – Heres a big one. Theres lots of car and technology and other niche blogs that make a really nice amount of money. You don’t have to focus on the MMO field to actually make money. I know a lot of bloggers that talk about blogging tips and make six figures so you need to realize that just because your MMO doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make money. Find a niche you’re comfortable in and then leverage your skills and knowledge in that niche to help you get to your goal.
3) More Ads Doesn’t Mean More Money – The fact that you have all the shapes, sizes and colors of ads doesn’t really mean that you can fool visitors and readers into clicking it. Oh, and don’t even try to hide it in the middle of your post, thats not sneaky, its just WRONG. Don’t do it! Most of us only have a few 125×125 ads, maybe Adsense or in-text ads. You don’t need all different banners and ad boxes in order to make money. Keep it simple and as time goes on your revenue will go up. Don’t start off looking like spam because it will turn people away.
So hopefully these suggestions make sense. I wonder how many bloggers consider themselves MMO. Do you think you’re in the MMO niche? Let me know. I know some of you are in technology and even poetry so being unique always helps. Thanks for hanging around till I got my groove back and my health back in order to blog again. Time to start stalking my favorite blogs, leave me your comments!
