Speaking at Industry Events

Today I spoke at Affiliate Summit East 2010. As you are blogging one way to attract new readers and a larger audience is to speak at events. At events you have the ability to share your knowledge in a face to face way with people. There you can truly interact and get such real time feedback on your ideas. While at Affiliate Summit I spoke on a panel with Murray Newlands, Tim Jones, Eric Schechter and Kris Jones. Out topic: Increasing Engagement / Connecting with your Audience.

One nice thing for me, in writing these posts here on Blogging Tips is that I can interact with a whole different audience who if I write something well may be inclined to learn more about me and my personal blog. However, even if I don’t attract anyone to go read my blog it is still valuable to go and write somewhere else to hone those skills. But that aside, I’d love it if you checked out my blog. Another great thing about writing for this blog is that I can explore ideas that are not explored on my personal blog and by interacting with the comments on each post I learn as much if not more than I put out there for you to read. Blogging Tips has some really savvy and intelligent readers.

Our prior to our panel we sat down and discussed a few questions that we would ask in the session. These are just some of the questions that we talked about. I would love to hear your take on how you would Increase Engagement/Connect with Your Audience as you answer these questions below in the comments. I think we will find some fantastic ideas from the readers of Blogging Tips.

Advertisers seek bloggers that have a large and ENGAGED audience…

Q #1 – What are some tips for improving engagement and connecting with your blog readers?

Q #2 – How important is it to come off as personable and accessible with your readers? What are some tips for getting more personal with your readers?

Q #3 – What are some proven strategies for increasing the # of comments on any given post?

Q #4 – Should the audience focus exclusively on Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic and engagement to their blog…..or utilize other less popular social networks like Flickr, Ning, etc.

Q #5 – Can’t an overreliance on social networks be a bad thing for attracting advertisers since most of the engagement is taking place on the social networks and NOT your blog?

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The Blogosphere is Alive with the Sound of Marketers

While Twitter and Facebook are all the rage with your average internet user, blogs are still going strong in the corporate world.

According to a study by eMarketer, 34% of all US companies have a public blog and they project 45% by 2012. That’s up tremendously from 2007 which lands at only 16%.

“Studies have shown that marketers perceive blogs to have the highest value of any social media in driving site traffic, brand awareness, lead generation and sales—as well as improving customer service.”

The study suggests that there is a larger number of blogs devoted to smaller companies, where larger companies may be lagging due to legal and logistical issues. It’s a lot easier for George to upload an off-the-cuff blog post when he’s the CEO of a two man company than it is for a VP at Procter and Gamble to make his thoughts known.

One of the biggest benefits of blogging over micro-blogging is the evergreen nature. A blog post is searchable and indexable as long as blog site shall live. That means consumers can easily revisit the information a month from now or a year from now. Try doing that with a Facebook post or a Twitter message that’s more than a month old.

Ideally, a combination of social media messaging is the way to go. A Twitter tweet leads readers to the blog post which leads them on to the Facebook via a “like” button at the top of the post. Of course, for all of this to work as it should, you have to have something interesting to say and that’s the hardest part of blogging.

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How I Make Money Blogging: Income Split for July 2010

Over the last few months I’ve been sharing a monthly breakdown of where my income comes from in the hope of illustrating some of the methods bloggers might like to look at when making money from blogging (see previous months linked to below).
The month of July was the second month in a row where eBooks were the biggest money maker for me. Here’s a pie chart showing the percentage breakdowns.

Before I say much more let me show you how the different income streams have tracked over the last 4 months (note I’ve expanded ’speaking’ to be ’speaking and events’ to include the ProBlogger Training Day (which wasn’t a massive earner as we kept the price down – but because it’s something I’d like to try again). I have also added a ‘total’ line to this chart to track total income.

A few comments:

• Obviously there was a big eBook spike in June as we launched a photography eBook that month. July was down on the launch month but still very healthy – partly because of a few specials that I ran in July (I did a ‘Christmas in July’ special as well as offering a few communities a discount on the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook).
• AdSense was also pretty good last month – there’s no real explanation for this as traffic was steady. I can only guess that some advertisers were involved in a bit of a bidding war on Digital Photography School which drove prices up a little.
• Affiliate programs were quite down – that can be explained simply by me not doing as many promotions in July – mainly because there were not too many product launches in my niches (for some reason they always seem to come out at once).
• Direct Ad Sales are on the rise and you’ll see this continue to grow next month as I’ve been working with a direct ad sales rep who is now selling ads for my sites which has already led to some new clients.
• Over all it was a good month. While not as spectacular as July it was up on the previous two months significantly.

August is shaping up to be an interesting month. Later this week I’ll be launching a product here on ProBlogger (at a fairly inexpensive price point) which will be interesting to track. I’ve also participated in a couple of affiliate launches and have seen some interesting direct ad sales. I’m not quite sure whether it’ll be as good as July but am working toward it.
How was July for you?

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Convert WordPress to Classifieds with ClassiPress

WordPress is a very versatile content management system and that is why the platform can used for so much more than “just” blogging. People use WordPress for resource sites, company profiles, and so much more. With the right theme, you can do just about anything with this free CMS.

For instance, you could use ClassiPress by AppThemes to turn your WordPress blog “into a professional classified ads web site.” You don’t need to invest in expensive classifieds software; WordPress can handle it just fine.

How Does ClassiPress Work?

It is largely in your best interest to implement ClassiPress on a fresh WordPress installation on a fresh domain. This is because it will drastically alter the way that WordPress operates, away from being a “blogging platform” and into a full-fledged “classifieds site.”

You can put it on an existing domain with an existing WordPress blog, but you may run into some issues with formatting and the like. If you didn’t know any better, it can be really tough to tell that a ClassiPress-powered site is actually using WordPress as its backend software.

As you can see in the screenshot above, you can allow people to post classified ads in your various defined categories. Should you choose to do so, you can also charge people to post these ads on your site. Check out the main theme page to read about the other features that this theme has to offer, including multiple pricing models and multi-language support.

Looking at an Individual Classified Ad

Each posting published on your ClassiPress-based classified ads website comes with a number of features that you may not find with many other classified ads software.

For instance, instead of just showing a text address, the ad can integrate with Google Maps to show a map of the seller’s location. This can be very handy for buyers. As the site owner, you can define other fields for the sellers to use too, like expiry date, images, description, and city.

Each ad (here is an example from the demo site) also includes the ability to add post tags, printer-friendly versions, quick email links and social networking sharing links.

One other feature that I find interesting is the two ways that potential buyers can contact sellers. There is a contact form integrated into the ad (click on the tab above the map), as well as a blog commenting area toward the bottom. The former is private, of course, while the latter is public.

Customization and Usability

On the back end, after you install ClassiPress on your blog, you will find an additional ClassiPress section in the WordPress dashboard.

This further breaks down into the ClassiPress dashboard, settings, pricing, ad packs, gateways, form layouts, custom fields, transactions, and system info sub-sections. This makes it relatively easy to customize ClassiPress to suit your needs and preferences.

If you are comfortable dealing with the various settings and preferences pages within other areas of the WordPress dashboard, you should no trouble navigating through the ClassiPress dashboard as well.

How Much Does It Cost?

ClassiPress is available in four different packages. Choose from the $69 Personal Edition, $99 Small Business Edition, $159 Professional Edition, and $199 Ultimate Edition. They all come with lifetime updates.

Link: ClassiPress

* This was a Paid Review. If you are interested in having your site reviewed on Blogging Tips, please check out our Advertising Information Page.

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The Key to Successful Blogging: Do Something!

Over the last month several hundred bloggers in the SitsGirls and TheBlogFrog communities have come together to tackle 31 Days to Build a Better Blog together. The 31 days are coming to an end this week and I’ve been so excited to see how working through the workbook as a large group has helped so many bloggers.

Almost every day since the challenge started I’ve had participants tell me that their blogs have been growing as a result of participating.

I’ve chatted to a number of participants in the last few days to get their feedback on the workbook and to try to get to the bottom of why it has helped them (or how it could be better) and there has been one consistent piece of feedback that I think is so valuable that I just need to share it.

Image by sevenphonecalls

Here’s the thing:

Almost every person I’ve talked to has said most of the teaching and exercises in the workbook are things that they already knew that they should be doing. The problem was that while they knew it – they were not doing it.

For example – Day 5:

Day 5 of the challenge is to email one of your readers. The idea is to give someone a little unexpected personal attention, to get to know them and to help them in some way beyond what they might expect.

The principle is simple and the concept wouldn’t be foreign to any blogger. It’s something most of us know that would be a worthwhile experience but yet its something that so many bloggers would write off as not important enough to really do.

The reality is that if you did this once a day over a year that you’d have 365 readers (each with their own network) who you’ll have made an impression on.

The impact could be significant, particularly for a new blog, yet for some reason many bloggers are content just to have the knowledge that looking after readers and giving them some personal attention could help their blog – but never take action on it.

Example #2

This same theme came up as a result of the ProBlogger Training Day here in Melbourne two weeks back. Much of what we covered on the day was not particularly new or revolutionary (although for some it was). However this week I’ve had 3 emails from attendees saying talking about how they’ve already grown their blogging business (two doubled their readership and one told me that they’ve just started experimenting with affiliate marketing and are making over $150 a day!).

In each case I asked the blogger what it was that helped them and in every case they told me that they started doing something that they’d always said that they’d start doing.

This post is not a pseudo sales page for my workbook or training days (although sometimes when you pay for something you feel more accountable to take action) – the principle applies whether you use one of my products, read the free posts on ProBlogger or work on your blog alone. The key is to not be satisfied to KNOW how to improve your blog but to move beyond theory and do something.

What should you DO?

There are many things that help to grow a successful blog. In the 31 Days workbook I covered 31 of them but the list is almost endless.

One exercise that you might like to do today is to grab a notebook and pen and jot down as many things that you already know to do to improve a blog. Don’t go looking for ideas or reading more theory today – but make a list of things that you already know that could improve your blog and identify some that you will implement today.

For you it might be increasing your content creation (for those of you who’ve let your posting levels slip), for others it might be paying some more attention to current readers, for others it could be reaching out to other bloggers in your niche, for some it might be about developing that eBook that you’ve been saying you’ll do one day…. the key is to move beyond the theory and do something.

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Some Good Blogging Rules

One of the most effective ways to get people to notice your blog is to write well. More and more people are expressing their opinions with blogs on the Internet and that means more people are writing today, so there’s a need to revisit some good writing rules that make sure you can express yourself clearly in your blog.

Be Specific

A good writer will always be specific and that means they need to use the right details. Good writers are always asking themselves how something looks, sounds, feels, tastes and smells.

Here’s a good example of specific writing that gives off a great mental image:

Her long bony fingers with the bright red nail polish did not tremble as she picked up her glass.

It’s also a good idea to put the most interesting details in any story near the top. You’ll also want to choose words that illuminate. So you should write:

The accused kissed and hugged each other rather than,  The accused were overjoyed.

In case anyone’s wondering, I’m not making any of these rules up as I go along.  These are all some of the things that I’ve learned and been taught before. More than likely many of you will know about them already, but if you’re like me it’s good to hear them again so they stay fresh.

It’s also a good idea for you to be clear when you’re writing.  That means it’s important to organize a blog before you start it. And once you decide what the very beginning of the blog will be about, the rest of it should flow naturally from that. The beginning of any blog is like the beginning of a news story.  The reader should be able to understand from that first sentence or two what the subject matter is all about.

Remember that it’s always important to use the simple words.  It’s important that you prefer to use a plain word but you still need to make sure it’s the right word.  For example it’s always better to write wicked rather than nefarious and call it an elephant rather than a pachyderm.

It’s always a good idea to keep sentence is short and sweet.  In general you should avoid putting more than one thought in a sentence. Sometimes the content rather than the length make a sentence hard to understand.

You also need to be sure to write concisely.  Any professionals that you speak to on the matter will tell you that clutter chokes meaning and you should always be on the lookout to simplify what you’re writing about.

So, it’s enough and not sufficient, and try instead of attempt.

Finally you should always try and be imaginative no matter what you’re writing.  When you’re planning out your blog, you should always be looking for details that are worth mentioning that add life to it.

Remember to avoid overused phrases when you’re writing a blog as well. People will be more likely to read and enjoy the whole thing when they don’t see a bunch of clichés like breathing easy used.

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Repeat Visitors vs New Visitors – Which is Worth More to Your AdSense Earnings?

A few days back I shared a little analysis of my AdSense earnings as it related to sources of traffic and looked at how – for me – traffic from newsletters was actually the most valuable traffic that I get on my photography site.

This dispelled the myth that loyal readers to your site become blind to ads and are not likely to click them – but I wanted to dig down a little deeper to look at the difference between first time visitors and repeat visitors and how they interact with ads. Here’s what I found when I looked at the last 3 months.

On my photography site it is the case the new visitors click ads and earn more per 1000 visitors than repeat visitors.

In addition to those coming from newsletters repeat visitors on my site would include RSS readers, visitors from social media (facebook and Twitter).

This makes sense – those there for the first time are probably clicking around more, exploring and looking for things to click on. They’re also seeing ad units for the first time and are likely to click them.

However repeat visitors are not far behind. I’m not allowed to share the exact figures but the difference in CTR was tiny and the eCPM difference while noticeable was not huge. Repeat readers are still valuable – particularly as many of them are coming back on a daily basis so on a per visit basis they’re not earning as much but over a year they’re earning considerably more than a one time visitor.

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