A Reader Asks Some Blogging Questions
I was recently asked some questions about blogging from one of my readers, Philip Cross. I’m fairly sure that others have similar questions so I offered to answer them on the blog rather than privately. Here is what Philip asked me:
Thanks again for the great blog and especially the ebook on Wordpress!! It helped me to setup a blog in only a day instead of a week!
Do I socially bookmark every single post? I am blogging about personal empowerment with the hopes of developing my own training products and ebooks in the near future. I would like to build up a loyal following while at the same time building up my knowledge of the lingo and improving my blog skills. Do I use PLR content? How do I write high-powered blog posts like you?
I’m not that good right now Caroline but with practice I can improve. I have also been offered some speaking engagements in the area that I have had to turn down - but I truly believe that I can use blogging and the social media to develop this business that I am truly ecstatic about! But first I need to know how to get this ball rolling. I’m a bit concerned about bookmarking these first few because I’ve seen how tough this internet crowd can be (like those who responded to your “Thanking Stumblers” post for example).
Any assistance you could offer me would be appreciated AS WELL AS FOLLOWED! You have inspired me to get out there and do it - so now my perspective is a bit different. I am going to do this!!
First of all to answer the question about social bookmarking - this is a question I have been asked before and the answer lies in making the distinction between social bookmarking sites compared to social news sites.
A bookmarking site allows you to store your own personal collection of bookmarks. Even though they can be viewed publically you are not forcing them upon anybody else so there is no restriction to what you can bookmark. You don’t need to worry about etiquette, spamming, matching content to target audience etc.
Compare that to social news sites such as Digg and Reddit - that’s a whole ‘nuther story because here you are thrusting your submissions upon the users and if you submit a piece of crap you’ll be crucified on the site.
The abuse I received with my post about Thanking Stumblers was different because when a post is Stumbled that post is literally thrown in the faces of other Stumble users so if they don’t like it they can give it the thumbs down. That does not apply to social bookmarking.
That was the long answer. The short answer is yes, go ahead and do as much bookmarking as you would like.
The second question, about the content is more difficult to answer. I would suggest that if you want to really grow the blog and develop a following with the view to developing your own products then you really need to blog in your own voice and as such I would advise against PLR content.
The only situation in which I would use PLR content is if I was just creating a small niche site and I wasn’t trying to establish myself as an authority. So of course, everything you read on this blog is written by me.
As for how to write ‘high powered’ posts, ermm well really I don’t know. I just write what I write, there’s no formula to it. However if you’re looking to improve your writing skills in general then I would suggest some of the many good blogs out there such as CopyBlogger.
One thing I’d like to finish with Philip is that you certainly seem to have a lot of enthusiasm and that has come across very well in your email to me. You seem to be very sincere and you write very well. If you blog like that I don’t think you’ll have any problems at all. I am a great believer in just being yourself when blogging.
Thanks for getting in touch with me and giving me the opportunity to reply using my blog.
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January 23, 2008
Caroline, if I could throw in my 2 cents - I would suggest that your reader creates the best content possible, make sure it’s structured well SEO wise and don’t worry about the traffic for now, they will come later. Traffic is queen and content is king. Perhaps what the reader meant by high powered posts are great content posts and I agree that you have a lot of great ones. I would also stay away from PLR and build original content, and focus on building a top 100 mailing list of the most influential bloggers, media people and journalists in that niche and sending (not spamming) them updates. They will send the traffic. Or write a few guest posts for some of those people.