Blog
How To Get Noticed – Commenting
Oct 14th
So, I will have a second post coming up really soon because my contest ends on the 15th but I wanted to talk to you today about what I will be doing to help my blog get noticed. I know I’ve been slacking but thats because my brain cannot remember as many URL’s as it once used to be able to. I’ve always said that the best way to get noticed is by commenting and I have realized that the way for me to read all the posts and comment cannot be accomplished as easily anymore. Lets take a look as to why:
1) Remember Favorite Blogs - Yes, thats true. I remember the URLs to my favorite blogs but thats becoming a problem. I’m running out of room or simply, I just can’t remember the URLs anymore because theres so many blogs that I like reading. The problem this creates is that I really don’t know which blogs I’ve read and which ones I haven’t, so I start to get confused and thats why I decided to try something else.
2) RSS Email Subscription – As much as I like promoting RSS Email Subscriptions, I personally have a lot of email coming in on a daily basis (100-200) and for me to find the RSS Emails, becomes a little hard to manage. Not to say that I’m lazy but I hate missing a good post because I didn’t catch the email in time. Plus, considering that some bloggers write more than others, I may get a few emails and it all gets messy so I figured that theres only one more alternative left.
3) RSS Reader - Thats right. I am switching to a new RSS Reader. I’ve used one associated with one of my Gmail Accounts but now I’m setting up a new one and adding the blogs I currently read to that RSS Account. The problem the old account isn’t any good is because theres lots of RSS links to websites that are not part of the blogosphere or there are rss links to blogs that just don’t exist anymore. So, I figure that as long as I create a new one and add all the active blogs that I read, that I’ll be good.
What does this mean for me? Well, this means that even if I check my RSS reader every few days, I won’t miss out on good posts, I’ll still be able to comment and help myself get noticed as well as gain more knowledge now instead of missing out. To be honest, this is going to be a big overhaul just because I have a lot of blogs that I read and visit but I’m excited and I wonder what your preferred method is for keeping up with blogs and commenting?
Timestamping Is Your Friend
Oct 9th
After reading the comments on yesterday’s post I realized that many of us are on a tight schedule whether its school, work or our online endeavors and come to think about it, if it wasn’t for the time stamp feature in WordPress, I’d be completely lost. Let me talk a little about what timestamping can do for you.
When Do I Use Timestamps?
I usually use timestamps when I want a post released at a time when i think that the most readers will be able to see it. If you notice most of my posts are released between 10pm and 2am central time because I feel that the most people will have access to it during that time.
How Does It Work?
The way timestamping works, for those of you who dont know, is that you can actually pick a day, month, time and even year (for the extremely lazy) when you want to publish a post. This allows bloggers like myself to write a post and schedule it for a certain day and time. Most of the times though, the post you see is the one I’ve written early on in the day and not something from a few days ago. My material is FRESH but frozen until a certain time when its defrosted and served.
I wonder though, how many of you really use timestamp to schedule posts days ahead of time? I wonder if its really as effective, I mean if its a general post, it makes sense because your readers may not know but what if you write a “This Week In Blog” type post and you timestamp it, does it make a difference?
If you’re wondering what kinds of posts you can timestamp, then here is a little guide:
1) Timeless posts - This covers pretty much all types of posts that you may have whether its advice or tips but these don’t include posts such as case studies or anything of that sort which may not be as interesting if its timestamped for too long.
2) Reviews – A lot of us write reviews and I have a review being published in a week but a review can be timestamped if a certain date has been decided for it. If you haven’t picked a date as yet then you cannot timestamp it since the advertiser may want you to mention some things that have a time limit on it.
Posts you cannot time stamp:
1) Contest posts – you want to get these out as soon as possible. This is when you blog about someone else’s contest. Holding off until the last minute to post makes it a bit suspicious specially if youre a regular reader. If you’re a new reader then its okay but don’t timestamp your contest posts because it can make you look bad unless you post it quite a bit in advance of the contest ending.
2) Special Offers – Sometimes advertisers (paid reviews) or good deals come around that have a time limit such as the first 100 people to sign up or until a certain date and time stamping those posts until a later day could result in the deal expiring. This could make the advertiser very unhappy or your readers unhappy for not being timely in letting them know about a good deal. Make sure that your timestamp isn’t cutting it really close with these.
Theres lots of other types of posts that you can and cannot timestamp but going back to my question. Who really uses timestamp beyond one or two days? I wonder if that demographic is larger than I think. Let me know! Have a good weekend guys!
Do You Care About Your Blog?
Oct 8th
So I’ve been dwindling in my post count lately but thats been due to exams and the fact that I wasn’t well so I really couldnt help it but, I really missed blogging. I saw a post over at Joe’s blog that talked about schedules and I wonder what your schedule looks like. I know that my schedule is very erratic and just depends on what I really need to get done. Lets take a look at a day in my life:
1) 5:30 am – Wake up
2) 6:30 am – Leave the house only to sit in traffic for an hour
3) 7:45 am – Arrive at school and do a little bit of studying
4) 8:30 am – First set of classes begin
5) 4:00 pm – Classes end
Thats where the schedule changes, from 4pm to 8pm I usually stay at school and get my home work or projects or studying done. After that it continues on.
6) 8pm to 9pm – Take a break and eat dinner, watch some news/tv
7) 9pm to 1am/2am – Study, Projects, Blogging, Phone, etc.
So basically if you add all that up, I come around to be pretty busy when you look at my daily schedule. Whats worse is that if you notice, I get like 5 hours of sleep on average when I don’t have exams but that can drastically be reduced if I have school work to do.
What I realized while I was away was that I really missed blogging because its become like going to the gym for me. If I don’t do it, not only do I feel guilty but I feel incomplete. Its like I missed a step in my day. I try to make time for it every day but some days its just not possible.
I also realize that even if I don’t write a post, I’m still checking my emails, responding and even approving comments on a daily basis. I’m addicted but its more than that, I’m just really attached to the blog. I don’t even consider it a “job” or “work” anymore.
I wonder what you guys think about your blogs and if you feel somewhat “protective” about it because I know that this is my personal domain and that I can express myself when I feel the need to. Are you as big a fanatic as I am? Is it the same for you guys? Lets hear it!
This Week In Blog
Oct 7th
So, I’m finally back. Aside from all the things that have been going on lately there have been some positive things that have been happening. I may have some really interesting announcements to make soon but lets get to what I want to talk about today.
Before I get into my favorite links, I want to say a special welcome back to Nick from RomanDock who has always provided Enkay Blog with some great comments so its good to see him back. Also, my buddy Joe over at ImWithJoe mentioned me in his video and I really appreciate that. You should check him out.
1) Freddie Taylor – Freddie has some great Quotes of the week and in his most recent post he had a very inspirational quote that I think is important for every struggling or new blogger to understand. Its very inspirational and motivating to a certain extent so please check it out.
2) Linkers Blog – Danny has discussed an important topic which is whether Technorati is a good measure of popularity. We all know that to a certain extent we believe in Alexa and Technorati but he talks about whether or not, Technorati is a good measure of link popularity and its an interesting post.
3) Balkhis – Syed posted a nice tutorial about how you can get your feedburner subscriber count to show up as text instead of the little ticker. This could be useful if you want to integrate it more into your design and match the color scheme of your blog. Such posts really shows off his knowledge about the subject and is very appreciated by a lot of people
4) The Net Fool - The Net Fool posted his income report which I really like because its inspirational to many bloggers to have them try harder. I know exactly how he feels with juggling school and the blog and so I wanted to link back to him. Look at his numbers, you’ll be impressed!
5) Aff Boom – Wayne is a new reader to the blog but his most recent post about no cost affiliate tools really got my attention. I am new to affiliate marketing and so I think this can be helpful to those who are looking to learn a bit more without too much of an investment. I know many of us rather have no investment at all but still, this is a very informative post.
So, hopefully you guys are doing well. I plan on doing some link love in a good number of my posts from now on so if you’ve come across a post that you like, let me know, even if its your own! Hope you guys have a great rest of the week!
Are Top Bloggers Cheap?
Oct 2nd
Think about it, do we all get rich just because we save more than others do? Its a true fact and I think that some of us do get rich because we just manage our money better or is it because we don’t really pay full price for everything?
Let me give you an example, recently John Chow mentioned that he asked and received a free Macbook Air. He even stole a $100 after losing the Market Leverage cashinator challenge because he didn’t want to pay out of his pocket. I mean, don’t you think a blogger making close to $400k-$500k a year can afford that? Sure he can, but why do you have to spend your money when others are willing to give it to you or better yet, you can save a ton of money when you buy something.
Recently a post by Balkhis got my attention where he talks about how he saves money and gave us situations in which he gets free stuff or a lot of discounts and its funny to picture bloggers who make a good amount of income to be even doing that but then again, we all do it.
Consider me for example. I know that I get my way with a lot of things such as free drinks, free food, it just happens. I never even ask for it. I recently saved 40% on a laptop just because I asked around. I saved 25% when I bought my car. I even saved 50% on books that I bought for school that usually never go on sale. After doing a little bit of thinking, I wonder if others do that we do.
Aside from all that, its a known fact that Balkhis and I have asked Market Leverage for more shirts because we love them. Sometimes John is right, you ask and you receive and that even comes down to the advertising on this website when I talk to advertisers and even negotiate CPM rates.
First of all, do you think that saving money by being cheap can help you become rich? By cheap, I don’t mean that you ask for free food or that you don’t do good things once in a while but I mean that if you are able to stay away from the cost, you would. Secondly, do you really believe that top bloggers are cheap?
I dont know but I do think so. I think being cheap to a certain extent is not bad as long as you don’t start pinching pennies. I wonder if you guys deal with such things and attempt to pay lower prices for whatever you can.
