“Community” is admittedly a buzz word, but it’s one we can’t avoid using in connection with building great blogs. It’s one of the essential elements of a total web presence for any person or organization.

The word community has to do with “sharing in common.” It’s a principle much older than the internet and dates back to the dawn of human civilization. Our work as bloggers and community managers isn’t to invent the concept of community, but to understand the social principles of community and apply them to our online villages.

Community isn’t as easy to understand as we might think. Human relationships are complex and often fragile, and building a successful online community requires more effort that many bloggers are willing to invest.

Here are seven myths about building online communities, and some correct alternative conclusions…

If You Build It, They Will Come

At one time, we operated under the assumption that an online community was built out of a good domain, hosting, and a sweet design. But there are plenty of well designed websites collecting dust because no one knows they exist. For a community to grow, it needs publicity, which comes in various forms. Our community can be found in organic search results. We can advertise and promote it. We can paste the url on billboards across the land, but as far as community is concerned, we need to realize the power of the invitation.

Inviting someone into a community is powerful. Facebook knows this and it’s why they want you to share everything you like with your friends. People long to belong and have an insatiable need for acceptance. Churches know this. So do gangs. And the sooner bloggers figure it out, the better. Invite people.

Great Content Is All You Need

I’ve said before that content is the currency of social media, and I stand by that truth. Content is the core of a great blog. It can be wrapped in a slick design and marketed via multiple channels, but if the content stinks, all incentive is lost for potential community members.

However, great content does not create community. Word on a page, no matter how eloquent, do not foster interpersonal connections between people. People do. Beyond content, a community demands and thrives on interaction. While interaction can be fostered by multiple mediums, it must be nurtured by a community manager. If you’re a blogger, that’s you. You’re not just a writer if you’re a blogger – you’re a people connector.

Offer Every Possible Feature

I grew up in a small community. We had a store, a fire station with a ballpark attached, and some churches. We didn’t have a mall or large supermarket. People who needed clothes and other essentials for life “went to town” to find them, but community happened there. That fire station became the location of an annual fair and everyone showed up. People stopped at the store to chat on their way home from work. It was a community without the bells and whistles.

Your blog or online community doesn’t need every possible feature. It may be that you add a discussion forum only to realize that your community would rather just comment on your posts. You might create a full-fledged social network only to realize your members would rather discuss your content on Twitter.

Just because features are possible doesn’t mean they are essential. Watch out for “feature creep.” Keep it simple. Think “relationships” instead of tools.

Comments Equal Community

Blogger Dave Lucas brought out an excellent point in his comment on the previous post about community:

Your post is dated June 8th… I’ve seen it displayed on other blogs and seen tweets about it… but you have two Lame comments (make that 3 with mine ;))… exactly what i come up against when I write “hit” posts!

Your “Community Theory” in real life on the net:

Yet I’ll see total BS crappily written posts get hundreds of comments! I won’t name any names, but after reading one of these I asked myself “what are these people smoking?” There were comments, links, kudos, tweets about a post written about getting blog traffic, a post so poorly-written that it bordered on idiocy! Yet it was tweeted and re-tweeted and blogged about by people who should know better! SOMETHING is wrong with this picture!

Your post here is well thought out and constructed. But it’s not attracting comments. I don’t understand why.

Dave highlights what I think is a growing trend of separation between comments and conversation. Blogs often reward commenters with backlinks, link love, and sometimes even “do follow” link juice. What inevitably happens is that people game the system for personal benefit. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. These features can be nice and it can create some reciprocal benefits. The side effect, however, is that real conversation gives way to quick bursts like “nice post.” That isn’t really community.

Should you drop commenting from your blog? Absolutely not. Comments allow a platform for conversation whether it genuinely happens or not. Comments extend the content and offer a chance for critical thinking and response. But don’t assume that the number of comments received equals the real size of a community.

Community Only Happens On Your Site

Our understanding of this concept is rapidly changing as social networking continues to explode in popularity. Essentially, a blogger needs to understand that the conversation surrounding a piece of content takes place all over the web. Backtype, along with other similar tools, will take a url and trace its impact around the web, even showing top influencers who spread the content to begin with.

This principle has enormous advantages. Your community is now a band of evangelists helping to spread your brand around on the web.

You’re In Control At All Times

We are, by nature, control addicts, but control and community are not such good friends. Communities have a tendency to take on lives of their own. As a blogger, you have the advantage of framing discussions with your content and facilitating connections as an administrator, but your readers will still determine your success or failure in reaction to what you say and do. You can’t control people, and when you try, you destroy community.

Everyone Will Be As Devoted As You

The inevitable result of assuming every member of your community will be as devoted as you is frustration. I’ve witnessed plenty of melt downs and rants by bloggers who attempt to guilt their community members into being more faithful adherents and promoters. It never works.

Your blog is your baby, and you should have an attitude of gratefulness for every contribution to it. I’d rather have someone’s casual readership than to not have them at all, even if they never speak up. There are exceptions. There are communities that need greater accountability, but specific to blogging is the principle that the blogger is chief brand evangelist, communicator, facilitator, and community manager.

Your passion will drive the success of your online community. Your face will be the strand that connects others in relationship with each other. Your words will set the tone for discussion. It’s your community, make the very best of it.

The bottom line is that community never happens on accident. You need to define the nature of the community you want to build and then implement strategies to see its success.

Comments, Fuel community?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

7 Myths About Building a Successful Online Community

1. SHOCK & DENIAL

The first time someone on your blog team blows off a deadline without so much as an apology, you’ll be shocked. The second time, you’ll convince yourself that they’re just having a bad run. The third time, you’ll realize that your blog team isn’t as perfect as you thought, some are going to need more motivation than you can provide, some will need more direction than you’ve given them, and some are very good at some aspects of blogging but utterly fail at others. The fun job of coordinating a loose team of peers to contribute to a mutually beneficial project has now turned into a job of managing overworked and underpaid employees for whom blogging has lost its romantic appeal. Good times!

2. PAIN & GUILT

Once the “blogging is fun!” fantasy is gone and the “blogging is a lot like my other work, only without all the pay” reality kicks in for you and your team, there will be an urge to assign blame. Most of this will fall on the person who sold the blog in the first place and is now responsible for it. If that’s you, get ready for a blame sandwich.

3. ANGER & BARGAINING

When you realize that your blogging team isn’t perfect and that your system could use some tweaking, you’ll try the easy route first. Maybe John just needs an extra day added to his deadline. Maybe Jane just needs some extra editing. Maybe Ali just needs some topic ideas. That may work for a bit. But it’s more likely that major changes will also have to take place. Maybe John just doesn’t have time for this? Maybe Jane just really can’t write? Maybe Ali doesn’t have anything interesting to say? Maybe your blog training was inadequate? Maybe your system doesn’t go far enough to help your bloggers with managing their assignments?

4. “DEPRESSION”, REFLECTION, LONELINESS

The basic assumptions you had when you started your blog will be questioned here: that your blog team would respect their responsibility once they’ve committed; that creativity would be the least of your worries; that the traffic you’d get would overwhelm your servers; that the job of managing the blog team would be a fun extracurricular diversion where the joy clearly outweighs the work involved. Oh, how we love our optimism. You may very well long for the days when you simply had to worry about the TPS reports.

5. THE UPWARD TURN

Once you dial back expectations on how often you can blog, how much work it takes to blog well, and the kind of traffic you can generate early, you’ll be able to achieve some consistency that will seem like nirvana.

6. RECONSTRUCTION & WORKING THROUGH

Good stuff happens when smart people do good work. It can be hard to predict what, exactly, will happen, and even harder to predict when, but it usually happens. In purging some of your less reliable teammates you can add ones who didn’t make the first cut. In finding out which parts of blogging present people with the most trouble, you can build out your system to account for those (picking topics, research, writing headlines, editing, online publishing, etc). As you achieve some consistency in publishing, you’ll be able to focus more on promotion, and your traffic, SEO, and leadgen will eventually start impressing people who depend on that stuff (sales, marketing, and management). More noticeable to you personally, however, will be how comfortable you’ll become with running a corporate blog team. You’ll realize that you could walk into any company and take on this role now. That’s saying something.

7. ACCEPTANCE & HOPE

The great thing about building a corporate blog machine is that you can continually improve it to the point where it runs “on rails”. As you fiddle with different parts of the program to see what works for you, you’ll also be looking for ways to automate those things so they don’t consume too much of your time. Spoiler alert: An underrated charm of your blog is that many of the benefits are “long tail”, so you won’t really get them until well after you’ve got the team and the process down. Search Engine Optimization, building a solid community, making the blog rolls of influential players in your industry; all of that takes a while no matter how good you are. If you get to that point, take a minute to appreciate what you’ve built. You certainly would have earned it.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

7 Stages of Grief: The Blog Team Leader’s Edition

Unless you’re blogging purely for fun, there’s likely to be some kind of financial or compensatory motivation behind the writing. And even if you are just writing for fun, you’ll probably have some interest in monitoring readership statistics as the blog grows and changes.

It’s something of a philosophical concern, but it’s worth asking: is my blog a product or a service? If it’s a limited-run sort of a thing, and you don’t intend on supporting any of the content or moderating comments, then you your blog could be considered a product. But if you intend to continue publishing into the foreseeable future, and maintain the content and the community that forms around it, then your blogging enterprise really revolves around a service.

Why does this matter? It matters because if you think of your blog as a product when it’s really a service, you may find yourself ill-equipped to deal with the ongoing costs of serving your user base.

Service-oriented blogging affects frequency

I do my best to be real. And what’s real to me is that many blogs fail because the owner/publisher in charge doesn’t fully account for the cost of maintaining the service. Here’s an illustration of what I mean:

Blogger Alex runs some self-analysis and decides that the best times to write are evenings on three weekdays, and on Sunday mornings. Alex estimates that keeping to a 4 posts-per-week schedule will be enough to keep readers interested, and drive up traffic whilst making the most of downtime when creative energy is high.

However. What Alex doesn’t realise is that although individual posts might be considered products destined for a market of attention, really what’s on offer is a comprehensive service. A service that involves thoughtful research, inspiration management, the discipline of sticking to a reliable formula, ensuring a great technical delivery, and the positive touch of a human presence.

Ultimately Alex’s initial estimate of the time involved falls short of reality because all these other items need to be taken care of. What’s likely to happen is that Alex will feel some obligation to hit the original scheduling target and start working on the blog outside the “optimum hours” originally determined by careful self-inventory of “up” times and surplus attention.

The goal is to survive

When faced with the prospect of not hitting a frequency or coverage goal, it’s important to look at the big picture. The absolute most important thing in pursuing a professional or hobbyist blogging career is persistence. I like to say “existence contains persistence”, and this is particularly true of working to maintain a viable service as writer-publisher.

In the fictitious case of Alex, the best course of action is to take stock of the situation as it is, and not as it could or should be, and realise that a 1 post-per-week goal is a better way to use one of the four overall work sessions. The other three can be shared between additional service elements like research, delivery maintenance, customer contact, and business development.

If all this sounds rather clinical, consider that the best blogs are the ones run by people who handle their responsibilities well. It’s advisable to foster one’s ability to switch modes from romantic to professional, and realise that blogging is a rewarding but also quite rigorous personal discipline.

I wish you all the very best of luck.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Is Your Blog a Product or a Service?

Instead of repeating the things you already know, we’re going to highlight some of the not-so-popular tips which every blogger should follow in order to be successful in the blogging world. But here is some advice – don’t just read these tips. Take the plunge and execute them.

Readership is More Important Than Content

You’ve no doubt heard that “content is king.” Create unique content and readers will start coming. This is only a partial truth (at least for me), especially, when there are millions of other blogs hosting similar content. Don’t wait for perfect content to get readers. Start promoting it once you’ve 3-4 foundation posts on your blog. Build readership first once you’ve created a workable blog and then create content on the basis of their feedback. Remember that your content is worthless if you are not ready to promote it because nobody will ever read it.

Don’t Do Everything On Your Own

Blogging is a full-time job which requires creativity, patience, hard work, consistency, etc. Unless you’re an alien, you can’t do everything on your own including the writing, the marketing, the monetizing, and the design. Outsource work if possible like developing content (only when you don’t have time), commenting on other blogs, bookmarking your stuff etc. This way you can dedicate yourself to only the creative aspects of blogging.

Multiple Blogs Vs a Single Blog

Every blogger has to answer this question. The answer depends on your objective, the goals you want to accomplish, and the kind of person you are. If you are blogging just for earning money then don’t stop after your first blog. Launch a wide range of blogs catering to various niches and outsource work to experts (remember point two).

Earning a decent amount from a single blog is a very tough job but it is not difficult if you combine the earnings of all of your small blogs. On the other hand, if you are blogging just for fun or for helping others or if you are a kind of person who wants perfection in everything then a single blog is an ideal option for you.

Visual Appearance IS Important

How much time a visitor is going to spend on your blog depends not only on the content you have but also on the visual design and usability of your blog. The visual design of your blog heavily influences the decision of your readers and creates an impression about you in their minds. Your design will play a major role in portraying your online identity.

Want to add more not so popular rules for effective blogging? Have a different take on the points? Perfect. Feel free to share your opinions, knowledge and anything else in the comments below.

photo credit: DanBrady

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Four Not-So-Popular Rules for Effective Blogging

I have a good number of blogs on my reader. In fact, I have an email address set up specifically for my Feedburner subscriptions as I subscribe to so many. But I definitely don’t subscribe to every single blog I read, by any stretch of the imagination and one pet peeve of mine will stop me subscribing in a heartbeat – comments being disabled. By the same token, if I am already subscribed to a blog and the blogger disables comments afterward, I will unsubscribe.

This might seem a little on the harsh side, but for me, one of the most appealing things about blogs and the blogosphere is the conversational element. In my opinion, a blogger should pretty much be able to say whatever he or she likes about any topic, providing they’re prepared to answer to their readers and accept their readers’ opinions on it afterwards. If you blog something on a public blog, you’re making those opinions public domain, surely? And in doing so, surely you then have a responsibility to hear what others think too?

Blogs with comments disabled remind me of clinical lecture halls where someone stands on a platform almost preaching lists of facts or opinions at a room full of half sleeping onlookers. If I wanted to be lectured to, that’s where I would go. For me, blogging is about more than just the blogger. It’s the community element of it and the most popular and well respected blogs around are those that have a loyal and wide readership and lots of comments. The main blog post on any given day should be a conversation starter – not the be all and end all of all discussion on the matter. There’s a certain arrogance to that.

Whenever I complain about this, someone almost invariably tells me that they’ve disabled comments because of spam… because of the hordes of people going by the name of some prescription medication filling in spam comments for a link back to some dodgy website. Or perhaps that they’ve disabled comments because it’s a family site and they don’t want to accept responsibility for moderating everything first, that moderating is too big a job.

I agree that moderating can become almost as time consuming as blogging if you’re subject to a lot of spam. But there are automated plugins that can take care of much of it for you and while they’re far from perfect and will still require some manual input, it’s part of the job of blogging. If you have to manually check every comment before it goes live, so be it. Closing comments altogether isn’t a realistic alternative if you really want a community around your blog. If there’s nowhere for your readers to express themselves on your blog then they’ll go elsewhere to have their say… and if they’re anything like me, probably won’t return.

What do you think?

photo credit: D’Arcy Norman

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Is This a Blog or a Lecture Hall?

A little over a year ago, I told a few friends that I wanted to start a blog. They looked at me in utter disbelief and said, “What are you going to write about?” They might as well have asked, “What in the world do YOU have to say?” Feeling a little defeated, I answered, “I’m not really sure, I just want to try it and see if I like it.”

Candidly, when I began blogging, I had no clue what I was going to write about it, or even if I could write. I certainly couldn’t tell you the difference between Wordpress and Blogger, Hosted and Self-Hosted, widgets and plug-ins. I didn’t know if I would have anyone that would be interested enough to read what I had to say. And I certainly didn’t know that my parents would be printing off posts and showing them to their friends (because I assure you if I knew that I would have never ever started).

So completely naive, I began to blog. And I must tell you I have loved every minute of it. Here are three reasons why:

I have a new community of friends supporting and encouraging me. Probably my favorite thing about blogging is the people I have connected with as a result. I love interacting with people from all over Tennessee, all over the country, all over the world. Geography becomes irrelevant.

Blogs bind us together by allowing us to focus on what we have in common, instead of our differences, instead of our distance. Blogging has helped me form meaningful relationships with people who get me, my questions and my struggles. Daily I find myself supported and encouraged by my readers friends.

I have learned so much about myself through the process of writing. Some days I sit down at my computer and have no idea what I am writing about until a post is published. Some days as I read back over I post, I wonder where the words came from.

As an extrovert, I am not always good about taking time alone to process. But blogging forces me into a quiet place to think. It forces me to think about how I feel, what I am afraid to say, and who I want to be. It forces me to craft my often-convoluted feelings into concise words or questions.

Blogging makes me want to be a better version of myself. Blogging has reminded me that I am drawn to people that are real, transparent, encouraging, and inspirational. It has reminded me that is the kind of person I am striving to be. So blogging serves as a gut-check. Am I being a person that other people want to be around? Am I being real? Am I staying true to myself regardless of my audience? Am I being inspirational? Am I being the person God created me to be?

Blogging has changed my life, because blogging has changed me.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Start. Launch. Go. Begin. Commence. BLOG!

• The technology is so easy.
• Everyone’s doing it.
• I mustn’t get left behind.
• Blogging is supposed to be casual.

Well, most of these points are true. And in a fast-paced environment like the web, it can seem even more important than usual to avoid delay. But here’s a wakeup call.

Most Blogs Fail

Remember that old saying about failing to plan, and planning to fail? It applies to blogging. Most articles that promote starting a blog emphasise points that I consider to be secondary like how often you’ll write and what about.

The primary concern you should have is whether you’ll write at all! Because statistically speaking, not many people do. And going from non-writer to persistent weekly or even daily writer (not to mention all the other tasks involved) represents a significant change in lifestyle and thinking habits.

Beyond All-or-nothing

Blogs tend to be setup as interminable soap operas, destined to stretch on into infinity. But actually it doesn’t need to be that way. Take a step back and look at blogging’s close cousin, podcasting. Blogs and podcasts both have something big in common, and that is RSS feeds. But while blogs are often infinite, podcasts can just as easily be limited to 10 episodes, or some other number.

My point is, consider alternate blogging scopes. Judging by the fact that many blogs fizzle out after a certain amount of time, it might be better to plan a few limited ones first as a step towards long-term commitment. Planning episodes in advance will also give you a taste of the discipline involved in maintaining an emotional and topical arc for your blog posts, even more important over the long term. And ending on purpose can turn a short blog into a permanent resource, instead of half-finished waste of time.

Some examples of shorter blog concepts would be: groups of related tutorials that combine to cover a specific knowledge area (eg Nanna’s lost recipes), or even just news coverage of a specific event.

Think Ahead

If you do embark on a long-term blogging project, it’ll pay to write as much material as you can about the subject matter ahead of time. For a few reasons. First, you’ll be able to identify any holes in your expertise or thesis. Second, you’ll have the opportunity to practice a unified style, pace and tone. And third, because the more source material you have lying around, the better equipped you’ll be to plan future instalments and ever cover downtime or vacations.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Don’t Blog Until You’re Ready

There are plenty of ways to make money online, and blogging is one of them. The problem is, only a few people actually succeed at making money blogging, and many of those who do so are simply people who make money at blogging by blogging about how people can make money at blogging. Nevertheless, every day more people jump on the bandwagon.

Here’s a challenging thought. It’s simplicity wrapped in profundity… Influence is better than money.

Can influence make you rich? Certainly. But if you focus on being rich, you probably won’t have much influence at the end of the day. A principle we are very passionate about at Fuel Your Blogging is the idea that blogging is bigger and better than simply a tool for getting clicks and sales. It’s a communication mechanism that affords us an increased exposure and an ever-expanding influence with people.

Influence Takes Time to Build

You can make money overnight, but it takes time to build your influence. Whether you want to call it a following, a fan club, or a tribe, connecting with people and building a community is a long term goal that requires consistent investment in others.

Influence Takes Time to Show Its Reward

Influence usually produces income – it’s the blessed side effect of all the hard work. But the rewards are even more diverse than this. The connections you make as your blog touches more people are far more valuable than the immediate payoff. And the payoff sometimes takes time to show itself.

Influence Requires Hard Work

Most blogs that fail to become successful suffer the same shortages of patience and hard work. These are two of the elements of success people tend to mask over when selling a “make money blogging” program. Hard work can’t be done on autopilot. One of my favorite quotes is from John Maxwell…

Success is 1% inspiration and 99% persperation.

Growing your influence requires elbow grease and midnight oil.

Influence Multiplies

The ultimate reason influence is better than immediate income is that influence multiplies. Blogging in the digital age demands that we understand the viral nature of good content. My five fans will share my good post with each of their five fans. Soon your influence is multiplying. Getting rich is all about adding – more subscribers and more dollars. Influence is about multiplying – more self-appointed brand (or blog) evangelists spreading your message.

Influence Is Truly Earned

Influence depends on authority, which is built on trust, which is earned over time. Money can be made without any of these ingredients, but only in the short run. So why not go for the short term gain? Not to wax too philosophical, but influence is fueled by purpose and passion. There’s a point to possessing influence, which isn’t always true of money alone.

There isn’t anything wrong with making money. Sell your stuff. Offer advertising options. Forge partnerships. But never forget that influence matters more. In short, never compromise what you can have in the long term for what you can grab today.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Blogging Is All About Money… Right?

Could my Christian blog really make it?

I’m sure SEO experts all around will surely sneer and turn their noses up at this one. Let them, it will only make those nose crumbs more visible. (Will someone please hand that guy a tissue already?)

When I started my Christian Blog eleven months ago, I did all the research I could and learned all I could learn about blogging and how to get readers and what not. I downloaded and read every ebook I could get my mouse to click on, and when I finally got to a point where the information became repetitive, I realized that I had a firm enough grasp to dive in, set up my blog and start writing.

I knew the rules, use your keywords, keywords, blah blah blah… but when I started writing I found the rules too constricting; too creativity sapping; too paralyzing. I didn’t feel like writing a post about the least competitve keywords with the highest search volume – so I didn’t. I tried, but it was so uninspiring. It made writing feel like a drag. Oh well, I guess the search engines wouldn’t be stopping by my spot.

Call it naivete, ignorance or flatout stupidity – whichever you like best (it won’t hurt my feelings, I promise), but this time last year, I couldn’t tell blogging from a whole in the ozone layer – but as I began to navigate through the blogosphere, I learned some very valuable lessons about blogging (and life).

Truthfully, what I’ve learned from blogging has far out weighed my feeble earnings. I’ve learned that persistence and perseverence pays off in the long run and I’ve learned a valuable life lesson – to make real connections with people, you’ve got to be willing to help and offer something of value. I learned that part the hard way – it really didn’t make any sense, that’s how things work in the offline world – why did I think it would be any different online?

That part of what I learned didn’t come from any of the hundreds of ebooks and reports I had read about blogging – it came from actual experience. It came from two very kind and loving people who decided to reach out to me and help me for no apparent reason. I didn’t have anything to give them in return, yet they went out of their way to Tweet my posts, to comment, to follow me on Twitter and become great inspirations to me.

Blogging also taught me to believe in my writing gift and utilize all the other talents God has given me to the fullest.

Blogging taught me that, while it does take a deep passion to undertake, the reward possiblities are infinite.

So I just decided to write the best content I could, in spite of the search engines – and somehow (Divine intervention, I believe), people from all corners of the world began to trickle on to my site. Even if Google wasn’t going to cooperate, there were infinite ways to get traffic.

This is what I did:

I started following and posting authentic comments on some high traffic/high ranking blogs.
I increased my following and began engaging others on Twitter.
I wrote guest posts.
I helped others by retweeting and promoting their blog posts.
I set some goals for everyday, and I don’t quit until I at least get close.
I wrote and wrote some more…every day, even if only a little.

But the greatest thing I did for my blog, was this: I began to allow others to see me in my writing. I often reluctantly reveal my flaws and share my unpleasant experiences with others so that they might benefit from what I’ve gone through.

Blogging has taught me to take what I learn and share it with others. I’ve come to realize that is my responsbility to do so. Just like you – I have countless of unique experiences that have taught me things that would benefit others to know as well. It makes those hard-learned lessons really mean something – I didn’t go through those trials for nothing – I went through them so that someone else might have an opportunity to change their life for the better. Use your unique experiences to your advantage to create valuable content.

That’s what valuable content is – content that makes life better for others in some way. It’s the kind that uplifts and encourages; that teaches and inspires; that provokes thoughts and shapes thinking. It’s the kind that can break through search engine barriers.

To wrap this up and to clarify things – I do take steps to optimize my site for search engines – I use the All-in-Seo plug-in for Wordpress – but optimization is what I do last – after I’ve already written my content. I use Google’s keyword tool, enter my title or potential tags, and then I search to find a keyword phrase that best fits with what I’ve already written. I look for keywords that have at least 500 Global Monthly Search Volume. If I find something that won’t ruin what I’m going for – I use it, if I don’t find anything, then I go with what I had originally. The point is, I write quality content first, then I go back and optimize whenever possible. SEO shouldn’t rule what I write – benefiting people should.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

I Threw SEO to the Wind

Remember when we used that term – web log? Of course, it was quickly shortened to weblog and then further to simply blog. It didn’t take long for blogging to become a verb. Soon after that, blogging became one of the world’s greatest tools for marketing and corporate communication.

In the beginning, however, blogging was pretty personal in nature. I just finished reading a good article by Patti Stafford about a noticeable trend among “professional” bloggers to give their blogging a more personal touch. I’ve noticed this as well, and I think it’s an indicator that people are drawn to that which is personal.

Many readers of Fuel Your Blogging are here to become more proficient in their trade, whether writing, marketing, or blogging professionally. But one of our goals is to inspire the creative spirit of blogging, and I wanted to offer some advice for those who still enjoy the art of the truly personal blog.

A real personal blog can be a part of a personal brand, but sometimes it’s more about letting sweet Aunt Suzie know what’s happening with the kids this Christmas. Some see the truly personal blog as a thing of the past with the advent of social networking platforms, but I still see huge advantages of owning your own domain and website. It may just be the scrapbook of the future. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for doing it well…

Be Careful, But Be Open and Authentic

Security is a major issue, especially for people who aren’t necessarily blogging in relation to any kind of profession. I see the need for some level of reservation when it comes to posting personal information on the web. At the same time, your personality will drive your blog even more than its design and content, so be yourself.

Use Your Blog to Mark Major Life Events

I have maintained my personal blog since the middle of 2004. Though I now write more for the leadership community at large, I can still look back over five years of blogging and catch a glimpse of what I was feeling in a particular moment of triumph or crisis.

Open a Window to Your World

With all the gadgets available at increasingly inexpensive prices, it’s now pretty easy to find ways to capture life’s neater moments in photography or video. Sharing those adds personality to every inch of your blog.

Be As Internet Savvy As Possible

Sadly, the internet is filled with a million people who would love to find a way to exploit you in some way. When you receive any kind of strange communication or feedback via your blog, filter it carefully and err on the side of caution. Remember that it’s ultimately your blog, so you’re the moderator and have absolute authority over what comments get published and what content gets passed along.

Network With Other Bloggers

One of the greatest advantages to blogging that I’ve experienced is the privilege of meeting interesting people from every walk of life, culture, and continent. As we get to know strangers, they become friends, and friends add something special to our lives, which only enriches the experience of blogging.

Remember, if you blog for the mere personal pleasure, you can do it with increasing excellence. It’s not just a personal blog, for a more personal blog is the goal of even the most professional of bloggers around.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Resurrecting the Personal Blog (aka, the Web Log)

I know many of you have read around the blogosphere that a secret to becoming an online celebrity is posting as many comments as you can. What if I told you that those articles were all wrong? You would want to know what’s right then. What is right, is that one of the secrets to becoming an online celebrity is to post few comments that count and do what you do best the rest of the time. Here is how.

Comment at the right place

1. Go to Technorati or Alexa who rank the most popular blog posts and websites online. Note that Technorati will help you look for blog posts while Alexa will help you look for websites.
2. Type in your field of interest (example: Home Improvement).
3. At Alexa, select one of your top 3 search results in terms of popularity.
4. At Technorati, select one of your top 3 search results in terms of number of comments and age (do not go for posts older than 4 days).

Comment the right way

In case you still ignored it, comments on articles are arranged from the oldest ones down. That is, the oldest comments appear immediately below the articles and the most recent ones are dumped far below in the comments section. Because some people do not have the habit of reading all the comments after posts, your comments need to appear early enough below articles to be seen by such people + the other type of readers = All the readers. Which brings us to the next step.

1. 1. When commenting, be yourself. It is because of your uniqueness that people will be drawn to you. If you had to speak with the same kind of people and get the same kind of answers all your life, it is long since you would have shot yourself.
2. Comment with a fresh point of view. Especially if some people have commented before you. We’re better noticed when separated from crowds than within them.
3. Dare. Girls love it. Readers more.
4. Set up a conversation. The best way to do that is by challenging the reader’s mind and pre-acquired knowledge. If the conversation gets going, it could end up being more interesting than the article itself and eventually arouse people’s curiosity towards you.

Always link your comment to your site/blog

Almost every blog allows you to insert a link to a website of your choice on your commenter’s name. For people who follow the “comment as much as you can” rule, it quickly gets boring to link all comments to their site.  But by decreasing the number of comments you make around the internet in an effort to make a few ones that really count, it becomes a lot easier to remember about comment-linking.

I have personally tested this and seen results, but I will keep that story for a future article. If there is something that you feel I omitted in these steps, please add it in the comments section below this article. Now… be the first to comment!

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

How To Maximize The Power Of A Single Blog Comment

Ages ago, when mankind first invented blogging, things were rather simple. Sign up for an account with some blogging service and write your heart out. Things have changed drastically.

If all you want to do is maintain a basic, personal blog, things remain fairly simple for you. Just grab an account with Wordpress.com, Blogger, TypePad or a host of others, and start writing. Tell your Mom and your co-workers and you’re all set.

But if you want to take blogging to the next level and generate buzz, stimulate discussion, build community, and drive traffic, then you’re going to have to think beyond the basics. To achieve success in the blogging realm requires us to have a fairly basic knowledge of some other related, and sometimes overlapping, disciplines, such as…

Graphic Design for the Web

I’m being careful with my terminology here, since semantics are rather important here. If your blog is going to have a unique aesthetic, you need to have a basic, working knowledge of the design side of the web. Is your site usable? By that I mean, do people know where to click, what to read, and how to respond to what you’re writing? A good design orders your information in such a way that people can navigate your site easily.

Understanding graphic design for the web also means people will find your site appealing. You need a good logo a nice layout for starters.

Writing

If I could summarize what I believe is the primary difference between mediocrity and excellence in blogging, it would be writing skills. Those well-known professional bloggers usually have this in common – they write persuasively.

Some write longer posts than others, but the common thread is quality, beginning with the opening sentence. Practice writing, and you’ll improve your blogging skills by default.

Social Networking

This wasn’t true just a few years ago, but if you want to grow a blog’s influence, you absolutely must have a grasp of the principles of social networking, or social media marketing.

When you have a grasp of social media marketing and its relationship to blogging, you begin to understand the power of reciprocal relationships. Help other bloggers out along the way and “what goes around comes around.” Essential networks include Twitter and Facebook, and there are scores of others to add to that list as time and attention span allow.

Marketing and Sales

I’m not cut out for sales. I could never sell an insurance policy or a vacuum cleaner door-to-door. It’s just not my thing. But online marketing brings some new dynamics to the table that level the playing field between sales-oriented people and we not-so-sales-oriented folks. The words “sales” and “marketing” may even put a bad taste in your mouth, but if you want to grow in the discipline of blogging, you’re going to need to understand the basics of online marketing.

Some sales tactics annoy a lot of people, but they work. Just because something works, however, doesn’t mean you need to do it, especially if it doesn’t fit with the longer term goal of expanding your influence. You must determine your target audience and decide what reaches them most effectively if you’re going to market something via your blog.

Search Engine Optimization

Some would argue that search engine optimization (SEO) may be fading away as a necessity while social media optimization slowly begins to replace it. If you’re going to be a successful blogger, you need a basic handle on both. At the very least, you should read up on the basics of search engine optimization.

Obviously there are other bordering disciplines, and more that can be said about each of these, which is why I’d love for you to weigh in with your own thoughts. What have you found helpful to know aside from the art of blogging itself?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

The Bordering Disciplines of Blogging

You’ll start to get more comments. This comment increase starts to happen fairly quickly, depending on how active your commentators are. Even ten loyal readers can keep you hopping.

What can they keep you hopping with? Let’s take a look at a few specific types of commentators:

The “Great!” Commenter

This guy shows up, writes something like, “Great post!” and then leaves. This guy is pretty exciting when you’re a newbie, but after you start getting comments that actually facilitate discussion, this guy is just sort of irritating. Imagine the following, if you will:

• Sarah: I love to trampoline too!
• Mike: You’re the last refuge of the writers. Keep on keeping on.
• George: Great post!

Now, when you’re talking to Sarah and Mike, you have something to riff off of. You can write back, “Trampolines are awesome!” Or you can reply,“I am getting a crown with ‘Last Refuge of the Writers’ on it in rubies and sapphires.”

But what the heck do you say to George?

There are usually two reasons for a comment from someone like George. One is that he’s a little shy and doesn’t know what to say, but he liked what you wrote and wants to say something. That’s awesome, and that means you can coax him out of his shell.

Your natural response to George will be “Thanks!” even though it’s awkward after all the banter you just had with Sarah and Mike.

If you want to get George out of his shell, though, try saying thanks and then saying, “What did you like about it?” Get him into the discussion. Let George know you’re interested in his feedback. That should encourage him to respond and discuss, or at least to give a more specific comment next time.

Soon you’ll be bantering back and forth like old pals.

The other reason for commentators like George is bloggers who just want to get any kind of comment in as many blogs as possible to get readers to look at THEIR blog. It’s just plain bad etiquette, and if you know that this is what the guy is doing, simply ignore him. He doesn’t really want to contribute, and he probably hasn’t read the article.

You’re not losing anything.

The Troll

A troll, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is someone who comes into a discussion purely to start or fuel a fight with someone else. Trolls have the intention to appear as offensive as possible and get off on having a raging argument – on your platform – for as long as both parties can stand it.

This guy gets no sympathy. Tell him once, nicely, politely, that you’re not looking kindly on anyone who comes around just to insult. Conversation and dissenting opinion is fine; insults are not.

If it continues, simply ban him. Don’t make a big deal out of it. Don’t drag the rest of your commentators into the feud. Have some class. Be above it. Just put the troll on the can’t-comment list in your blog and move on.

Then get away from the computer and go do something fun just for yourself to change your mind.

The Whiny Commenter

This guy shows up after every single post, even the most upbeat, happy post, and starts complaining about something. His whining or depressing woe-is-me is often semi-related to what you’ve been blogging about, but it’s not because he has an actual beef with your post.

He just likes to complain, and he’s using your platform to do it.

This guy is perhaps the hardest of all to deal with. The shy ones you can encourage and the mean ones you can discourage, but what do you do with a guy who’s just a whiner? You don’t want to be rude and tell him to keep his Eeyoring and complaining to himself, and he hasn’t really done anything that warrants being booted off your blog.

So what’s the solution?

Sometimes, gently pointing out the behavior is all it takes. Most people who whine aren’t really aware that they’re whining; it’s just their natural default state. They have no idea that they’re dragging everyone else on your blog down with their depressing comments, and they don’t know that it makes people not want to comment.

All they know is that it gets some attention to their problem.

Email the person, even if you don’t know him or her. Don’t call the person out on your blog or embarrass him. Ask if he’s okay. “Hey, it seems like you’ve been having a really rough time lately. Are you all right?” If he replies he’s fine and asks why you asked, then that gives you an opportunity to gently, without being mean about it, point out that for the last five comments (or whatever), this person has had some major complaint.

Ask them, in the same nice tone, if they’re aware that they’re dragging down the conversation on the blog. Explain that everyone else comes around to talk about whatever you blog about, and that you’ve had a few people tell you they feel very uncomfortable with all the personal complaints on that platform.

That should take care of it.

What’s the worst kind of commenter you’ve ever had?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Three Types of Commentators – And How to Deal with Them

Uninspired, tired, burn out and boring. Those are the words to describe the emotional blogger. What is an emotional blogger and how can you avoid becoming one?

What is an emotional blogger?

The term doesn’t apply to someone that lets their emotions and personality seep into their blog and its articles. We’ve learned that having a personality and letting it show, is a key to not only writing a successful article, but also having a successful blog.

The term applies, in contrast, to someone who doesn’t think or plan before starting a blog. This person reads blogs like this one and others and decides on a whim to start a blog of their own.

Now, we love the idea that you’re so inspired by our articles and others that you would like to start your own blog. In fact, it’s one of the reasons we’re here. The idea that we’ve helped you overcome your blogging fear makes us very happy. However, it would make us even happier if you do it right.

Blogging isn’t always easy. There are going to be days where you feel like the picture above. If you want to have a successful blog, you need to invest time and maybe even money. Even if you’re being paid for writing on a blog, it takes time to think of ideas and let them marinate.

However, how can you avoid being an emotional blogger? By planning well the launch of your blog.  How can you orchestrate a successful launch? The answer to that is coming soon.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

The Emotional Blogger

Running a series of posts requires a lot of planning and consistent hard work to see the results of greater connectivity. I’d like to offer some pointers for you to put into practice as you give this a shot on your own blog…

Hatch A Huge Idea

When I’ve developed series’ of posts, they usually flow out of a single idea that was too large for one article. This allowed me naturally to create one post outline, break it apart, and develop it into bite-sized portions. So I’d encourage you, as you brainstorm blogging ideas, to circle a few that might fit this description.

Perhaps you’ll do a series on how you utilize each major social network, and cover them one per post. Or perhaps you’ll do a large inspirational showcase and share it in three sections. You can imagine that if you would have had a large dose of traffic from the one post, breaking it into three nearly-as-valuable but smaller posts will increase your exposure that much more.

Collect and Categorize

When you’re going to put together a connected series of articles, it’s important to map things out in advance. Research is key, and good research means collecting and categorizing material that you’ll include or reference in your posts.

For me, I use delicious extensively for this purpose, not only because of how easy it is to bookmark material, but because of the use of tags, it’s all easy to thumb through.

Create Some Buzz

Since you aren’t going to write an entire series of posts on a whim (you’re going to plan this, remember?), you have the advantage of knowing that it’s coming. Therefore, you have the advantage of leading the series with some significant buzz.

If you have, for instance, a four-part series you’re going to write over a series of four consecutive Mondays, use the two Mondays and every day of the week preceding the first article to announce the series on your blog and via various social media outlets.

One of the great aspects of the blogging community is the willingness of bloggers to help one another, so lean on the power of a good social media conversation.

Tie It All Together

As you publish each article, keep referencing all of the other posts, past and future, as you go. At the top of your article, give links to the previous articles and at the bottom, foreshadow what’s coming in the next post.

With most blogging platforms you can use tags, labels, or even a special category for the purpose of being able to show all of the series’ posts collectively.

Squeeze the Juice Out Of It

Once your series is complete, you’ve only begun to see the benefits of writing your articles. Now you essentially have a mini-site, or an ebook, whichever way you choose to look at it. You could create a banner and link back to the series as a resource on your blog. You could turn the series into a workshop or ebook to release collectively. And of course, you can reference it for a long time to come.

You worked hard to produce an entire series of articles. It was a big idea, a heavy undertaking, and you were diligent to see it through, so squeeze the juice out of it – maximize its value for all it’s worth.

What kinds of series have you done? How have you seen it bring your community together? And what pointers would you add for others who might be considering the same task?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

How To Run a Successful Series of Articles