Blogs - easy, difficult or a waste of time?
- Thread starter Matt1959
- Start date
I've always assumed it's not a good idea to have the same content in multiple blogs for SEO reasons. I could be wrong though as I'm sure the experts will tell me!
Keeping one blog updated regularly is, as any long term blogger will tell you, enough of a demand on top of everything else you have to do. I now only maintain one main blog and I allocate one morning a week to write a new article. I also keep a couple of sketched out articles in draft for weeks when I'm really busy or away from the computer. (Away from the computer? What a ghastly thought.)
I think it's important to blog about things that are of general interest to your readers. imo you need to strike a balance between promoting your business and giving people interesting and entertaining information. Ideally blogs should aim at providing a resource to which readers return time and time again. For example as well as promoting my books, this morning I've written an article about the world famous Lego Mini-Mizer, software in which you build yourself online in Lego. I use this as a serious tool for self-analysis, and yesterday conducted an online interview with Chris Doyle, the inventor of Mini-Mizer. There's only a very small component of the article which promotes one of my books (a shot of a promo T-shirt which features a Mini-Mized me holding a protype copy of my book) - but I've tried to tie it all in to create something that is generally interesting. You can read the interview with Chris Doyle and find out more about Mini-Mizer here. Chris said it made his day
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Nowadays there are more variants of blog type and quality around than you could dream up. If you've rarely seen an interesting blog then tbh you're not looking in the right places. I've created blidgets for my favourite few blogs. The blidgets are like sidebar widgets that update automatically when someone makes a new post. So far I've made blidgets for a few blogs but these are my favourite blogs:
Reasonablyclever.com - Chris Doyle is the creator of the Lego Mini-Mizer (make yourself in online lego.) His site is fantastic but on his blog, every weekday he posts a new comic strip done entirely in Lego figures. He's a total legend.
Irk The Purists - Irk doesn't reveal his real identity on his blog, but he knows a lot of people in the industry, wink. He's incredibly knowledgable about music and his blog is clear and concise with some jaw-droppingly good links.
Brian Pike - Brian is a multi-media artist whose work I've only just discovered. I absolutely adore his stuff and he exhibits all over the UK.
Pixeloo - This guy is now becoming very well known. He has untooned Jessica Rabbit, Homer Simpson and Niko Bellic (GTA IV) By untooned I mean, he's spent hours and hours in Photoshop turning the toon into a person. Incredible work. Honestly Jimmi, if you find Pixeloo's blog boring there's summat amiss, the bloke is a genius.
BrianT - My OH Brian's blog. Mountain biking, rock climbing, music, natural science, astro-physics, marine biology, film, and ShAFF, the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival for which Bry is assistant film programmer (he's also just been appointed assistant film programmer for Kendal Mountain Film Festival as well.) He doesn't update it as much as he should because he's so busy but there's some great articles on there.
I was also reading through UKBF fm ServWise's blog today as well (servers, hosting, IT in general) and that was extremely well written and very interesting. In fact it was one of the things (as well as ServWise's excellent Live Chat help facility) that inspired me to use their company as the server for my new site.
If you can't navigate around any of them you probably wouldn't be able to find the checkout in Netto, luv
Hopefully you'll find something there to inspire you, anyway. As I always used to say to my kids "You're not bored, you're boring."Thanks, Hollow
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J
Jimmi
Nowadays there are more variants of blog type and quality around than you could dream up. If you've rarely seen an interesting blog then tbh you're not looking in the right places. I've created blidgets for my favourite few blogs. The blidgets are like sidebar widgets that update automatically when someone makes a new post. So far I've made blidgets for a few blogs but these are my favourite blogs:
Reasonablyclever.com - Chris Doyle is the creator of the Lego Mini-Mizer (make yourself in online lego.) His site is fantastic but on his blog, every weekday he posts a new comic strip done entirely in Lego figures. He's a total legend.
Irk The Purists - Irk doesn't reveal his real identity on his blog, but he knows a lot of people in the industry, wink. He's incredibly knowledgable about music and his blog is clear and concise with some jaw-droppingly good links.
Brian Pike - Brian is a multi-media artist whose work I've only just discovered. I absolutely adore his stuff and he exhibits all over the UK.
Pixeloo - This guy is now becoming very well known. He has untooned Jessica Rabbit, Homer Simpson and Niko Bellic (GTA IV) By untooned I mean, he's spent hours and hours in Photoshop turning the toon into a person. Incredible work. Honestly Jimmi, if you find Pixeloo's blog boring there's summat amiss, the bloke is a genius.
BrianT - My OH Brian's blog. Mountain biking, rock climbing, music, natural science, astro-physics, marine biology, film, and ShAFF, the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival for which Bry is assistant film programmer (he's also just been appointed assistant film programmer for Kendal Mountain Film Festival as well.) He doesn't update it as much as he should because he's so busy but there's some great articles on there.
I was also reading through UKBF fm ServWise's blog today as well (servers, hosting, IT in general) and that was extremely well written and very interesting. In fact it was one of the things (as well as ServWise's excellent Live Chat help facility) that inspired me to use their company as the server for my new site.
If you can't navigate around any of them you probably wouldn't be able to find the checkout in Netto, luv
Thanks, Hollow
Selling blogs?
I don't see experience a a right or wrong thing so my experience of rarely finding an interesting blog and finding them hard to navigate around (generally) is my experience.
"You're not bored, you're boring."
As an adult you can ignore someone else trying to tell you what your experience is but a child is more likely to take it seriously.
Can you see how that's a great way to destroy someones confidence?
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Eh? You've lost me there, Jimmi.
It depends how and when and with what tone of voice it's used, and accompanied by what body language blah blah blah. My children are very confident because they've been given constant love and reassurance. And I didn't mean what I said personally against you, either. I meant generally, that if people complain they find everything boring then usually it is they that are boring, not what is around them.
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Jimmi
Because your post seemed to be biased supporting blogs. I see that in here sometimes people have a vested interest mixed in with their "advice".
Body language and tone of voice are only a reflection of what's going on inside.
The idea that if you are constantly bored it means you're boring is skewed and no I didn't think it was directed at me. It's simply not true. All I mean is the kind of statement that denies someones experience.
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Ah, right. Yes, you're right. I'm totally biased. I'm in favour of blogs. If people aren't interested in blogging, that's their prerogative. I've written articles about a really dear friend of mine before on my blog and because he's one of the most curmudgeonly people I've ever met, he won't read them. He says "Jude, I've been telling you for years. I don't do blogs or forums." And that's fair enough, each to their own. I suspect he's had a peek though, the cheeky monkey.
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Jimmi
Ah, right. Yes, you're right. I'm totally biased. I'm in favour of blogs. If people aren't interested in blogging, that's their prerogative. I've written articles about a really dear friend of mine before on my blog and because he's one of the most curmudgeonly people I've ever met, he won't read them. He says "Jude, I've been telling you for years. I don't do blogs or forums." And that's fair enough, each to their own. I suspect he's had a peek though, the cheeky monkey.
Hmm you're a bit sneaky methinks I have a sudden urge to see your blog
Forums are a different thing I know some brilliant ones.
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I think they are excellent and are good themselves for SEO. If I do keyword research on a short term like CRM and can discover lots of long tail variations on that I then make those the subjects of my postings. Then do a blog-and-ping on a regular basis and I can get new sites some only 6-8 weeks old up the rankings in a very short term for certain phrases.
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If I put things about my gerbils (ruby eyed white mongolians by the way
This is the whole point of a web log AKA blog. It's for you to publish what you find interseting or to recall your thoughts for the day or the political situation or a picture of your holiday.
Blogging for SEO is ultimatlely self defeating since all you end up doing is writing endless posts on how good your site is.
I recall reading about the difference between artivcles and blog post. The first is permanent material - the sort of stuff that doesn't change too often. Blog post tend to be more newsy - the 'I found this today and want to tell you all about it' type thing. This is why google likes blog posts, it's because they are fresh and can generate a lot of quick traffic. The only problem is that once the buzz dies away so does the blog post.
It follows that blog posts are excellent for fast traffic and articles are better for long term SEO.
Google won't punish you for off topic blog posts as it's looking for interesting and informative content - what it won't do it is do much for your main site ranking.
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Hmm you're a bit sneaky methinks I have a sudden urge to see your blog
Like anyone else I have faults but sneaky isn't one of them.
I spent 3 years at the turn of the millenium practically hard-wired into a (then small, now 50k+ members) forum. I publicised the forum in mag articles and my experiences of bun-fights in the Wild West days of slackly modded forums inspired my first novel, MY ADVENTURES IN CYBERSPACE, which is due for publication Spring 2009. You can read about my bun-fights in an article for climbing mag On The Edge here. My flame war days are behind me, though. Now I just want to entertain people writing about them, and make money from them.
Interesting, fisicx. I tend to write articles for my blog which continually attract new readers who have only just discovered the article. For example, I get Sade fans returning time and again to read my Sade article about when I was hanging around with her band before they were famous, and I conduct interviews with people whose fame I instinctively know will grow, and I then get more and more people visiting my blog to read about that person as their fame does indeed grow. Gavin Clark, who writes many of the soundtracks for Bafta award winning director Shane Meadows (Dead Man's Shoes, This Is England and the forthcoming Somers Town,) is a perfect example. He said that my interview with him was his favourite interview to date, and people constantly read it.
I whole-heartedly agree with you. It's putting the horse before the carrot. I focus on the carrot.
I will bid you all adieu for today I have to proof edit some hot sex for typos.
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What are they doing, 4little1s?
Every decent large site now has a bloggers section. The blogging section of jamieoliver.com is absolutely brilliant and growing daily. I think large sites that are still desperately trying to control the site content with no user blogs, draconian forum moderation and frequent user bannings are starting to look tatty around the edges. Digital Spy is a good example, a forum I left quite a while ago due to the draconian modding.
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Web Design Company
[FONT="]We have an article page at our 2 month old site and have decided to stick to it instead of starting a blog. In the past few weeks, we have decided to post fresh content every 2 days. Hope that our site gets some Google love this way.
A blog, though, may come up at a later stage.
[/FONT]
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spinningdoc
I'm a freelance PR/copywriter currently going through one of my periodical 'shall I start a blog' musings. (Actually I've got a Wordpress one, just to make sure I nab my name, pretty much set up as a mini website...)
From both my own, freelance point of view, and from advising clients on blogging, I can't really make the pros and cons come to an obvious conclusion.
PROs
1. It's a quick and fairly easy way to get a dynamic, search engine friendly web presence.
2. It's free, apart from time.
3. As one man band, I'm selling my ability to be engaging almost as much as my skills, and a blog would deepen that ability.
3. It can be fun. I write for a living and this would be a bit off the leash, with no client to answer to. (Apart from myself, which is how we get to...)
CONS
1. Assuming I write a non-navel-gazing blog, there is (superficially anyhow) an inherent conflict between writing the kind of scurrilous, revelatory posts that get read, and keeping my clients.
2. I've never read a corporate blog that was interesting. Including the ones I've written.
3. Time consuming. I write for a living, so the posts have to be good.
4. Do I really have that much of interest to say?
Any thoughts?
From both my own, freelance point of view, and from advising clients on blogging, I can't really make the pros and cons come to an obvious conclusion.
PROs
1. It's a quick and fairly easy way to get a dynamic, search engine friendly web presence.
2. It's free, apart from time.
3. As one man band, I'm selling my ability to be engaging almost as much as my skills, and a blog would deepen that ability.
3. It can be fun. I write for a living and this would be a bit off the leash, with no client to answer to. (Apart from myself, which is how we get to...)
CONS
1. Assuming I write a non-navel-gazing blog, there is (superficially anyhow) an inherent conflict between writing the kind of scurrilous, revelatory posts that get read, and keeping my clients.
2. I've never read a corporate blog that was interesting. Including the ones I've written.
3. Time consuming. I write for a living, so the posts have to be good.
4. Do I really have that much of interest to say?
Any thoughts?
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That really is key in my view.
I enjoy blogging but I realise I have different audiences. Therefore I have 3 different blogs. One contains advice and tips for accountants in practice, one contains tax related insights and commentary and the third (and by far the most popular) contains Accountant jokes and fun.
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tcg
We are redesigning the website for a large organisation in the US. Part of the redesign is looking at the technology and social media elements they should include in the site. I have been profiling their users through telephone interviews to figure out which social media elements will be relevant to their users. These are US based people. One of the subjects discussed was peoples perceptions of blogs. There were several profile demographics but for simplicity I will break them down into B2B and B2C.
The B2B profile considered blogs as opinion pieces. They spoke about the danger of opinions taken as fact. Blogs are not discounted by the people profiled however the message was clear that bloggers need to be transparent, divulge any vested interests and recognise that blogs are more of a conversation or opinion piece. They should not be positioned as an authority paper.
The B2C profile subscribed to blogs more. Again they are seen as opinion pieces, however they like the fact that peoples personality come through more in a blog. An interesting quote was
"They dont have to be a great writer but they do need to be a good blogger." Which speaks to your concern about not being a writer.
To sum up, blogs can be useful tools if they are written with integrity and for the right reasons. Your blog should be a way of sharing your opinions and interests. It should be about sharing ideas and not to "sell" a product. This does not mean you cannot mention your products or services. By all means include them in your blog, however, make them relevant to the topic. They should add value to what you are saying rather than saying things to sell your product.
The B2B profile considered blogs as opinion pieces. They spoke about the danger of opinions taken as fact. Blogs are not discounted by the people profiled however the message was clear that bloggers need to be transparent, divulge any vested interests and recognise that blogs are more of a conversation or opinion piece. They should not be positioned as an authority paper.
The B2C profile subscribed to blogs more. Again they are seen as opinion pieces, however they like the fact that peoples personality come through more in a blog. An interesting quote was
"They dont have to be a great writer but they do need to be a good blogger." Which speaks to your concern about not being a writer.
To sum up, blogs can be useful tools if they are written with integrity and for the right reasons. Your blog should be a way of sharing your opinions and interests. It should be about sharing ideas and not to "sell" a product. This does not mean you cannot mention your products or services. By all means include them in your blog, however, make them relevant to the topic. They should add value to what you are saying rather than saying things to sell your product.
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cricket
I'm in two minds about blogging. I lean towards the notion that it allows the barrier between a business relationship and a personal informal relationship to disappear. I think you need a line between you and the customer and that while going live and bearing your soul in one respect might open up doors to get you noticed in one way, it also opens up doors on how you operate your business to people who may do you some damage.
A good business keeps a closed shop after opening hours. Just my view in todays highly dog eat dog world of business.
A good business keeps a closed shop after opening hours. Just my view in todays highly dog eat dog world of business.
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As a writer, what better way to evidence and promote your skills than through a blog?
Don't worry about how many people are reading your blog - unless you think they are all potential clients or you have a big ego.
You need to ensure the blog is a good ad for what people are willing to pay you for. If you want more work writing "scurrilous, revelatory" material then by all means write that stuff on your blog. If not, don't.
Don't worry about how many people are reading your blog - unless you think they are all potential clients or you have a big ego.
You need to ensure the blog is a good ad for what people are willing to pay you for. If you want more work writing "scurrilous, revelatory" material then by all means write that stuff on your blog. If not, don't.
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spinningdoc
I'm a freelance writer so guilty on both counts...
A friend of mine is in the same kind of line as me, and recently started a blog which (for my tastes) is tad too pompous and ponderous. He's had a couple of minor jobs from people reading it.
As you say - what better way for a writer to market him/herself. In theory. In practice, I'm doing ongoing product samples, so nothing can be below par. In fact it should all be the best I can do.
And there's another thing. I've got to market the bugger or there's no point in doing it. Which means spending yet more time monitoring and responding to other blogs....
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cricket
I have to ask this question? Who has an ego big enough to imagine that their customers are really going to be interested in the tittle tattle of their daily life and experiences? How much time do you think customers have? And if they have the time, they're obviously not earning. So where's the pay off in blogging or blabbing whichever it ends up?
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It is a very good idea. I think maybe someone has already said this but I hope you don't mind if I say it:
a) When blogging, share your expertise in the field you are in. It gives value to you and it's this that many want.
b) Value meaning - in each of your blog, make them brief, and with a wealth if knowledge that people can apply in their lives, business.
c) I have been doing this in a different forums and at first nothing happened but I believe in 'consistency' and after two months, I got a lot of contacts and many have been my clients. Only yesterday I got a client to do video tutorials for them.
d) use other places, forums, article writing platform websites and leave your signature to move to that blog, or website.
So I don't just blog on one website, I use other platforms and this has helped me a lot. But I also love writing. It's fun, but it's work too and one needs to be patiant.
Good luck to blogging!
a) When blogging, share your expertise in the field you are in. It gives value to you and it's this that many want.
b) Value meaning - in each of your blog, make them brief, and with a wealth if knowledge that people can apply in their lives, business.
c) I have been doing this in a different forums and at first nothing happened but I believe in 'consistency' and after two months, I got a lot of contacts and many have been my clients. Only yesterday I got a client to do video tutorials for them.
d) use other places, forums, article writing platform websites and leave your signature to move to that blog, or website.
So I don't just blog on one website, I use other platforms and this has helped me a lot. But I also love writing. It's fun, but it's work too and one needs to be patiant.
Good luck to blogging!
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spinningdoc
Customers, probably no, clients, quite possibly. Particularly if you're a freelance. But then you'd have to watch out they didn't recognise themselves in some amusing anecdote. And who wants to employ an indiscreet freelancer?
They're most ad and PR agencies, so lots. Goes under 'research' on their charging...
Apart from increasing your web presence and googlability for the cost of your labour, (and I'm not convinced) the argument is this:
'I've read this person's blog and they sound as they know what they're doing and like an engaging human being, I shall put work their way.'
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eMarketing Mark
Hi NT,
Pinging is just a way of letting the Blog Search Engines know that you have added some new content to your blog - it's a bit like tapping them on the shoulder and then calling them over to index the new posts.
This is one of the key differences in the way that search Engines index websites - the main Search Engines follow links and then index what they find there whereas the Blog Search Engines use pings so they can index new information almost instantly and hence much more efficiently. (With Google Blog Search and Google [main] Search so closely linked, that's how you can get new posts indexed in under half an hour!)
How to do it? Most blogs have the capability built in automatically although they call it "Update Services" which is less snappy but more descriptive than "pinging", I guess. Wordpress has it in the settings option and Wordpress.com and Typepad manage it centrally I think. You also have the option to use manual services like Pingomatic which will "ping" several main places for you.
You can find a bit more info at Posting and Pinging: BBB Bloggers Guide
All the best,
Mark
Pinging is just a way of letting the Blog Search Engines know that you have added some new content to your blog - it's a bit like tapping them on the shoulder and then calling them over to index the new posts.
This is one of the key differences in the way that search Engines index websites - the main Search Engines follow links and then index what they find there whereas the Blog Search Engines use pings so they can index new information almost instantly and hence much more efficiently. (With Google Blog Search and Google [main] Search so closely linked, that's how you can get new posts indexed in under half an hour!
)How to do it? Most blogs have the capability built in automatically although they call it "Update Services" which is less snappy but more descriptive than "pinging", I guess. Wordpress has it in the settings option and Wordpress.com and Typepad manage it centrally I think. You also have the option to use manual services like Pingomatic which will "ping" several main places for you.
You can find a bit more info at Posting and Pinging: BBB Bloggers Guide
All the best,
Mark
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simonr
Spinningdoc said...
And that's good.
By that I mean that prospective clients get to see our style and so on before they contact us, so the 'worth' of any given enquiry is generally higher because they're 'warmer'.
That's probably more important to us than a lot of people becuase what we do (presentation skills training etc.) is very dependent on a match of styles.
Simon
and that's true, I think but our blog works in the opposite direction; it actually puts people off!
And that's good.
By that I mean that prospective clients get to see our style and so on before they contact us, so the 'worth' of any given enquiry is generally higher because they're 'warmer'.
That's probably more important to us than a lot of people becuase what we do (presentation skills training etc.) is very dependent on a match of styles.
Simon
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- Original Poster
- #79
I completely agree with tcg and Simon. Sod the keywords, make it a tool to engage and gain empathy with the client so getting an order is almost a foregone conclusion as they already feel they know you and thus trust you. This is what I would using a Blog for when I get one on my site...
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