Blogging tips to make you a better blogger

My recent post on 12 Wordpress Editors that you can choose over the default WYSIWYG editor was one of the posts that took me the longest to write, simply because it involved quite a bit of research. I would have to thank Monika for recommending Windows Live Writer to me, that got me wondering if there were other editors too - which culminated in the post. It all began with Maki submitting the post to Sphinn. The rest, as they say, is history.

How it Happened

When the post went live, it was barely noticed - I was quite surprised that it didn’t elicit a single comment even from my “Active Readers”. Admittedly, I was disappointed since the post had taken the longest time and most effort to come up with and to see it looking forlorn made me wonder if the post was not written effectively enough. I was tempted to submit the post to StumbleUpon, note that I’m fairly new to StumbleUpon and have only stumbled a modest number of sites. In keeping with that, my stumble brought in only a trickle of visitors that didn’t help much in increasing the activity.

I almost let it go the next day and was brain-storming for my next post when I noticed a link in my Dashboard from Sphinn. I was pleasantly surprised since trying out Sphinn was something I had been putting on the backburner for quite sometime now. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw not one, but ten Sphinns for the same post I had almost given up on - almost. I needed no further encouragement to sign up and thank those who had Sphunn the story, and especially to Maki, who had submitted it. How he came across the post is beyond me, I do hope he’s reading this post from his RSS reader!

What followed is what Steven describes as a Domino Effect of Traffic. He explains how second tier social media sites like DZone, CSS Globe and Sphinn can be used as stepping stones for succeeding with bigger sites like Digg, Del.icio.us and Stumbleupon. In my case, what happened was, when Maki submitted the post to Sphinn, it brought along a few targeted visitors who also happened to have a power profile on StumbleUpon. Thus, when members from Sphinn found the post useful, they Sphunn it and Stumbled it. This set the domino effect into motion.

When the post hit the front page of Sphinn, it brought in a handful of unique visitors, some of who also Stumbled the post, which eventually resulted in a huge traffic from StumbleUpon - the post is still listed on the StumbleUpon Buzz page.

Digg killed my traffic

After the first day of traffic from StumbleUpon, I decided to experiment with a Digg button to encourage visitors to Digg the post and in turn, increase the traffic further. Without a lot of fan-fare, I stuck a Digg button to the post and sat back, expecting visitors from Digg to kill my server. What happened in reality though, both surprised and intrigued me - the traffic from StumbleUpon started drying up! Visitors from StumbleUpon were no longer thumbing up the post which meant that the rate at which newer visitors would come, was reduced.

I wondered if it was because the StumbleUpon effect wasn’t big enough and it was dying out after a day in a natural process. Since there wasn’t a lot of traffic anymore, I also removed the Digg button since the post had only received a grand total of 4 Diggs. I let it stay this way for a while and was pleasantly surprised to find that the post started attracting traffic again, the very same day! I attributed this to the wide vagaries of the Blogosphere and reckoned that it was just a one-off incident.

A few hours before removing the Digg button, I’d sent a few shouts to my friends on Digg to which Karen and Edgewhere kindly obliged, bringing the total to 6 Diggs. Karen also left a nice comment saying that she’d Dugg the article. On a whim, I put the Digg button back and waited yet again for the “dreaded” Digg effect - in vain. Instead, my StumbleUpon traffic began to dwindle. It didn’t take me long to put one slump in traffic and another slump in traffic together to realize that the Digg button was actually what was killing my traffic.

What could have happened was, when the visitors from StumbleUpon arrived, they saw a prominent Digg button displaying a total of 6 Diggs for the article, which is rather abysmal by any standards, effectively, impressing upon them that this was an article that hadn’t received many votes and may not be of interest to them. Thus, they would just Stumble away. This is purely hypothetical of course, but it seems to best explain the “W” in the graph. So much for the Digg effect. What you could do better, after learning from my experience of losing four days of traffic could be to use a Digg It! button that doesn’t show the Digg count, until it is up to a respectable number. I had to learn the hard way that perception is very much the reality - hopefully you’ve had it easy.

Recipe for Success

1. Do a bit of market research and determine what other people in your niche are looking for. I addressed a concern that a lot of people had - Monika was the first to suggest it to me, I soon realized that there were a few other bloggers who were also using third-party editors and many more who weren’t aware of it, like me. This created the perfect situation for the post.
2. Try to make the list as comprehensive as possible. Most people are busy and would like to see concise descriptions of all available options. Of course, it may not be possible to cover them all, but if you account for the majority, it will certainly help. A list with many items seems to do the best with Social Media - its just too irresistible to see all the resources on one page and will tempt them to bookmark/promote it.
3. Social Media helps a lot in bringing in traffic - its one medium that doesn’t distinguish between an established blog and a newer one. Bring it on your side by displaying appropriate buttons prominently that entice readers to click. Hiding the Digg/Del.icio.us count initially, until it reaches a respectable number seems to help as seen from my experience.
4. Use second tier social media sites effectively. Submit your post to as many of the smaller sites as you can at the same time - Digg, Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon all factor in the time that an article becomes popular.
5. Its natural that a percentage of readers would spill over and click through to other posts on your blog - help them find your best articles by listing them right below the post. The articles listed just under my post marked as “You may also like reading” which are effectively from the Related Posts plugin, received the most hits. Unfortunately for me, not all of them were my best ones. I’m sure I would have got a better response had I placed similar articles that are also my best ones. Don’t rely on the plugin to do it for you - hand-pick them yourself for the best results.
6. Don’t kill the effect by displaying ads that are more prominent than the article itself - it reflects badly on the blog and personally, I’d just move on. Although you may be tempted to make a quick buck, hold onto the temptation and you are sure to reap better benefits later.
7. If you think your post is really good and that it could use just the slightest bit of promotion, you could ask your closest friends to help you out. But be careful not to spam them with posts everyday - that just reduces your chances when you’ve really got a best-selling post. It really is a no-brainer, but be sure to return the favour if they need some help too.
8. Remember to thank those who promote your article by sending a mail or adding them as a friend or anything else that you’re comfortable doing - so long as they know you appreciate their gesture.

The Result

The post has already got almost five times the traffic that the whole blog got in the past month. More importantly, the subscriber count has doubled in as many days and I’m still counting. (If you were one of the people who Stumbled/Bookmarked on Del.icio.us/Sphunn the post and are reading this one by RSS, this is to say - thank you!)

I’d recently participated in both Monika’s and Courtney Tuttle’s group writing projects with my post on how to upgrade your theme to use Wordpress 2.3’s tagging features. As always, the projects were received well and attracted quite a few entries. Today being the last day to submit the picks, I wanted to share my favourites with you.

• Sarah, who has gained considerable experience in her stint of 3 months in the Blogosphere, shares her tips on how to attract comments on your blog. The mere fact that this post has attracted over 40 comments as of writing this, is testimony to the fact that these are tips you don’t want to miss.
• HackWordpress.com is very good at providing quick hacks to improve your blogging experience if you are a Wordpress user. They’d submitted their article on how to add edit buttons to wordpress themes and in keeping with their reputation, its a well-written article. I had followed the same steps earlier for my own theme and I’m sure its something I don’t want to do without.
• Although this one’s a bit off-topic, it makes for some very good reading and since we all go on vacation at some point of time, I’m sure you could use a few tips on planning your vacation online.

In appreciation to all those who participated, here’s the full list:

Click here to continue reading →

Are you among the majority that are frustrated with the default editor that comes along with Wordpress? Although Wordpress is the best blogging platform invented by man yet, it leaves much to be desired when it comes to the default WYSIWYG editor. Luckily for us, there are a handful of third party editors available. Click here to continue reading →

This post has been long in coming, I’ve been held up moving this blog over to Liquidweb the past few days, needless to say, moving hosts is an elaborate process (sometimes harrowing!) if you have a moderately big website or a fairly large portfolio of domains.

To lighten myself up after the ordeal, I read up on Caroline’s post on “If Making Money Online Was a 9-5 Job” which did a good job to cheer me up. Humour always helps in getting you out of the dumps.

John leverages his 10+ years of experience online to make some very interesting observations on a few successful strategies to make money online and discusses their possible scope today, in case you would want to take some inspiration from them.

If there’s anything that I detract from the wonderful software that Wordpress is, its the fact that sometimes when I write a post, it looks like its “ready-to-go” in the Editor, but once its published, the layout looks completely skewed and not at all the way I’d meant it to look. This is particularly so when you try to publish a step-by-step tutorial such as mine on how to upgrade your theme to be compatible with Wordpress 2.3. Believe it or not, the toughest part in writing the tutorial was to get the alignment right! (I do believe it still needs some work though). Therefore, it was little wonder that I’ve decided to take Monika’s advice and give the Windows Live Writer a try. I’ll write a post about it once I’ve tried it myself.

MyBlogLog is growing in popularity each day with more and more blogs using the widget to display their readers, including myself - Ryan has made us all a very Web 2.0 looking badge that you could use in case you don’t want to display your readers’ faces.

If you’ve ever wanted to have a go at editing files of your Wordpress installation, but were too intimidated to do so for the fear of breaking your blog, Sumesh shows you how to install Wordpress on your computer so you can easily make changes and at the same time, be sure that you won’t ruin your actual blog.

When you’ve edited the files to your liking and made them look exactly like how you’ve wanted them, why don’t you show them off to others by writing great content, without making any spelling errors and submitting them to the Top 11 Digg-like Sites For Bloggers, Designers, And Web Developers?

When the visitors do come, which I’m sure they will, here are 69 Tools to Monitor, Measure, and Track Your Website from Steven.

Today marks the inauguration of Blog Action Day, an annual event that unites bloggers to write about a cause. This year’s topic is the environment and this post is my contribution to the cause.

In Your Home – Conserve Energy

1. Clean or replace air filters on your air conditioning unit at least once a month.
2. If you have central air conditioning, do not close vents in unused rooms.
3. Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120.
4. Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket.
5. Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods.
6. Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time.
7. Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5 .
8. When using an oven, minimize door opening while it is in use; it reduces oven temperature by 25 to 30 every time you open the door.
9. Clean the lint filter in your dryer after every load so that it uses less energy.
10. Unplug seldom used appliances.
11. Use a microwave when- ever you can instead of a conventional oven or stove.
12. Wash clothes with warm or cold water instead of hot.
13. Reverse your indoor ceiling fans for summer and winter operations as recommended.
14. Turn off lights, computers and other appliances when not in use.
15. Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refridgerators, for example, use up to 50 more electricity than newer models.
16. Only use electric appliances when you need them.
17. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and energy.
18. Keep your thermostat at 68 in winter and 78 in summer.
19. Keep your thermostat higher in summer and lower in winter when you are away
20. Insulate your home as best as you can.
21. Install weather stripping around all doors and windows.
22. Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
23. Plant trees to shade your home.
24. Shade outside air conditioning units by trees or other means.
25. Replace old windows with energy efficient ones.
26. Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible.
27. Connect your outdoor lights to a timer.
28. Buy green electricity - electricity produced by low - or even zero-pollution facilities (NC Greenpower for North Carolina - www.ncgreenpower.org). In your home-reduce toxicity.

In Your Home – Reduce Toxicity

29. Eliminate mercury from your home by purchasing items without mercury, and dispose of items containing mercury at an appropriate drop-off facility when necessary (e.g. old thermometers).
30. Learn about alternatives to household cleaning items that do not use hazardous chemicals.
31. Buy the right amount of paint for the job.
32. Review labels of household cleaners you use. Consider alternatives like baking soda, scouring pads, water or a little more elbow grease.
33. When no good alternatives exist to a toxic item, find the least amount required for an effective, sanitary result.
34. If you have an older home, have paint in your home tested for lead. If you have lead-based paint, cover it with wall paper or other material instead of sanding it or burning it off.
35. Use traps instead of rat and mouse poisons and insect killers.
36. Have your home tested for radon.
37. Use cedar chips or aromatic herbs instead of mothballs.

In Your Yard

38. Avoid using leaf blowers and other dust-producing equipment.
39. Use an electric lawn- mower instead of a gas-powered one.
40. Leave grass clippings on the yard-they decompose and return nutrients to the soil.
41. Use recycled wood chips as mulch to keep weeds down, retain moisture and prevent erosion.
42. Use only the required amount of fertilizer.
43. Minimize pesticide use.
44. Create a wildlife habitat in your yard.
45. Water grass early in the morning.
46. Rent or borrow items like ladders, chain saws, party decorations and others that are seldom used.
47. Take actions that use non hazardous components (e.g., to ward off pests, plant marigolds in a garden instead of using pesticide).
48. Put leaves in a compost heap instead of burning them or throwing them away. Yard debris too large for your compost bin should be taken to a yard-debris recycler.

In Your Office

49. Copy and print on both sides of paper.
50. Reuse items like envelopes, folders and paper clips.
51. Use mailer sheets for interoffice mail instead of an envelope.Use mailer sheets for interoffice mail instead of an envelope.
52. Set up a bulletin board for memos instead of sending a copy to each employee.
53. Use e-mail instead of paper correspondence.
54. Use recycled paper.
55. Use discarded paper for scrap paper.
56. Encourage your school and/or company to print documents with soy-based inks, which are less toxic.
57. Use a ceramic coffee mug instead of a disposable cup.

Ways To Protect Our Air

58. Ask your employer to consider flexible work schedules or telecommuting.
59. Recycle printer cartridges.
60. Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
61. Report smoking vehicles to your local air agency.
62. Don’t use your wood stove or fireplace when air quality is poor.
63. Avoid slow-burning, smoldering fires. They produce the largest amount of pollution.
64. Burn seasoned wood - it burns cleaner than green wood.
65. Use solar power for home and water heating.
66. Use low-VOC or water-based paints, stains, finishes and paint strippers.
67. Purchase radial tires and keep them properly inflated for your vehicle.
68. Paint with brushes or rollers instead of using spray paints to minimize harmful emissions.
69. Ignite charcoal barbecues with an electric probe or other alternative to lighter fluid.
70. If you use a wood stove, use one sold after 1990. They are required to meet federal emissions standards and are more efficient and cleaner burning.
71. Walk or ride your bike instead of driving, whenever possible.
72. Join a carpool or vanpool to get to work.

Ways to Use Less Water

73. Check and fix any water leaks.
74. Install water-saving devices on your faucets and toilets.
75. Don’t wash dishes with the water running continuously.
76. Wash and dry only full loads of laundry and dishes.
77. Follow your community’s water use restrictions or guidelines.
78. Install a low-flow shower head.
79. Replace old toilets with new ones that use a lot less water.
80. Turn off washing machine’s water supply to prevent leaks.

Ways to Protect Our Water

81. Revegetate or mulch disturbed soil as soon as possible.
82. Never dump anything down a storm drain.
83. Have your septic tank pumped and system inspected regularly.
84. Check your car for oil or other leaks, and recycle motor oil.
85. Take your car to a car wash instead of washing it in the driveway.
86. Learn about your watershed.

Create Less Trash

87. Buy items in bulk from loose bins when possible to reduce the packaging wasted.
88. Avoid products with several layers of packaging when only one is sufficient. About 33 of what we throw away is packaging.
89. Buy products that you can reuse.
90. Maintain and repair durable products instead of buying new ones.
91. Check reports for products that are easily repaired and have low breakdown rates.
92. Reuse items like bags and containers when possible.
93. Use cloth napkins instead of paper ones.
94. Use reusable plates and utensils instead of disposable ones.
95. Use reusable containers to store food instead of aluminum foil and cling wrap.
96. Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags.
97. Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently.
98. Reuse packaging cartons and shipping materials. Old newspapers make great packaging material.
99. Compost your vegetable scraps.
100. Buy used furniture - there is a surplus of it, and it is much cheaper than new furniture.

Miscellaneous

101. Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time
102. Once your cell phone is charged, unplug it from the charger!
103. Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5
104. When using an oven, minimize door opening while it is in use; it reduces oven temperature by 25 to 30 every time you open the door
105. Unplug seldom used appliances
106. Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refrigerators, for example, use significant more energy than newer models
107. Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods
108. Use electric appliances only when you need them
109. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and energy.
110. Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work
111. Replace old windows with energy efficient ones
112. Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible
113. Buy green electricity - electricity produced by low - or even zero-pollution facilities
114. Eliminate mercury from your home by purchasing items without mercury, and dispose of items containing mercury at an appropriate drop-off facility when necessary (e.g. old thermometers)
115. Learn about alternatives to household cleaning items that do not use hazardous chemicals
116. Review labels of household cleaners you use. Consider alternatives like baking soda, scouring pads, water
117. Use traps instead of rat and mouse poisons and insect killers
118. Have your home tested for radon
119. Minimize pesticide use
120. Turn off computers and other appliances when not in use
121. Copy and print on both sides of paper
122. Reuse items like envelopes, folders and paper clips
123. Use e-mail instead of paper correspondence
124. Use recycled paper
125. Use discarded paper for scrap paper
126. Encourage your school and/or company to print documents with soy-based inks, which are less toxic
127. Telecommute!
128. Purchase radial tires and keep them properly inflated for your vehicle
129. Walk or ride your bike instead of driving, whenever possible
130. Join a carpool to get to work
131. Check and fix any water leaks
132. Install water-saving devices on your faucets and toilets
133. Don’t wash dishes with the water running continuously
134. Install a low-flow shower head
135. Replace old toilets with new ones that use a lot less water
136. Avoid products with several layers of packaging when only one is sufficient (about 33 of what we throw away is packaging)
137. Use reusable plates and utensils instead of disposable ones
138. Use reusable containers to store food instead of aluminum foil and wrap
139. Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags
140. Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently

Don’t miss Tree Hugger’s “How to go green” series for the final 32 tips - they cover a wide-range of topics from gardening to outdoor sports.

The Sources