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How to ... blaze your blog

How to remove the blag from your blog

So you have something to say.Good for you. No better way to get your message out than to blog about it.

Setting up a blog is super-easy, but getting visitors takes a little more hard work and perseverance. A quick Google search on ‘blog promotion’ nets a dizzying array of advice.

Express yourself

A blog can be about anything, but it will be read if you write about something you care about. Ask yourself: Why am I blogging? Is it simply self-expression? A place to put half-formed thoughts for the world to see? That’s what my blog, Mad Young Thing, is about. It’s where I put my excess thoughts so they won’t take up room in my head.

Or perhaps you’re like Liz Lewis, a freelance journalist from Tauranga Christchurch who started her blog, My Year of Getting Published, on Halloween 2006 to make her writing more visible and network with other writers around the world.

By making herself accountable to “the public at large”, Liz is giving herself powerful motivation to meet her goals. “By announcing to the world—family, friends and cyberspace—that I plan on sending out at least one query letter a week and posting on my blog daily, I now have to honour that commitment,” she says. “Plus it makes me think, plan and write every day. So it’s a win-win situation.”

What’s in a name?

Nick Denton’s blogs have catchy, memorable, clever names, and that’s no accident. The publisher of advertising-funded blogs Defamer, Gizmodo, Wonkette and Gawker told PR man Steve Rubel (on Rubel’s blog, of course) that the site names are developed by himself and a team of writers and designers who spend “an extraordinary amount of time” coming up with each one. Once they’ve decided on the name, they create content and design that builds that brand personality.

A good blog name usually means a good web address or URL. For business bloggers, there’s an interesting debate here. American blogger Randfish says hosting your blog on a different domain from your primary site is one of the worst mistakes you can make. “By keeping the blog on a separate domain, you shoot yourself in the foot,” he says. At Blog Promotion, Netconcepts’ managing director Stephan Spencer disagrees. “I can think of numerous examples where the blog is more trusted, more buzzworthy, and more linkworthy because it’s at arm’s length from the company’s site.”

Have something to say

While Lewis has been blogging since October 2006, David Farrar has been running Kiwiblog for three-and-a-half years, dishing out pointed opinion on things political, things internet (Farrar is vice president of InternetNZ) and anything else.

Farrar says the most important factor in promoting your blog is what you blog about. “If you blog regularly on interesting topics, you will attract readers,” he says. “Content is king when it comes to blogs.”

That’s true not only for the people who read your blog, but also for the machines that read blogs. Yes, machines are watching your every move. Almost.

Search engines like Google look at the text of pages when they sort search results. Pages with a strong, consistent theme fare best in search results, because the same key words keep cropping up. If you’re writing consistently about begonia propagation, chances are you’ll come up high in the search results for begonia propagation.

Keep it fresh

But it’s not enough to just have a high-ranking page about begonia propagation. A blog is organic—a living, changing thing. Like the email newsletters of long ago, a blog can be a relationship-building tool with peers, constituents, customers or collaborators.

How often should you update your blog? It’s really a matter of personal taste, but whatever you choose, be consistent. Your blog is part of your readers’ media smorgasbord, their chosen sources of information around which they organise their habits. Help them by being a habitual poster to your blog.

Lewis posts daily, part of her promise to herself. The predictability of her posting schedule means readers know to expect something new every morning. Remember Pavlov’s dog?

Network

No blog—or blogger—is an island. Internet content is centred on the hyperlink, an impossible concept in any other medium. Take advantage of that by linking to other articles and adding your own intelligent two cents’ worth.

Go further: make comments on other people’s blogs. Again, aim for intelligent, insightful comment (it’s always in demand).

Melbourne-based professional blogger Darren Rowse suggests interviewing other bloggers as a way of creating unique content that already has a built-in audience—the other blogger’s audience.

Randfish suggests inviting guest bloggers to submit a brief post on their subject of expertise. “You not only flatter the person by acknowledging their celebrity,” says Randfish, “you nearly guarantee yourself a link or at least an association with a brand that can earn you readers.”

Back in New Zealand, Netconcepts’ Spencer goes even further and suggests recording an audio interview via phone or Skype and podcasting the result.

There are also bound to be a number of online forums and email discussion groups around your area of specialty. As in the offline world, it’s just a matter of getting involved, being open to learning from others and sharing your own wisdom.

Randfish recommends searching for authorities in your industry on technorati.com, which sorts search results by the number of other sites linked to each site. The top result will be the most linked to, and—in most cases—the most authoritative blogger on the topic.

It’s far better participating in the ecosystem of the industry you’re already in than trying to create a community from scratch.

Of course, the networking doesn’t have to be purely virtual. Cartoonist and marketing blogger Hugh Macleod suggests attending conferences (most are in the northern hemisphere, but not all). “I am 50 times more likely to link to you if I’ve already met you in real life,” he says.

Define yourself—if you can

Of course, this presupposes you know what industry you’re in. This is where I’ve tried two different approaches—running several blogs on niche subjects versus running an all-inclusive ‘my blog’.

The strategy seemed sound enough: I set up, for example, Sy’s DIY Filmschool to chronicle my journey as an aspiring screenwriter.

It worked when I was completely focused on film, but when other work intervened, the pace of all three blogs slackened. That’s why this year, I’ve decided to simplify my blogs into one, and try to find out what the industry or theme is along the way.

Blogging can be a great way of connecting to others, but it’s also a powerful tool for reflective thinking. It’s just finding a balance between self-expression, writing for your audience, and maintaining the joy of blogging. The last thing you want is the sense of having created yet another unpaid job for yourself!

Link in

Kiwiblog’s Farrar says that after content, incoming links are the next most important factor in blog promotion. The number-one way to get incoming links is to post something worth linking to. But how?

Rowse advises bloggers to get attention through breaking a news story, becoming a subject expert or publishing original research. “For example,” he says on ProBlogger, “for fun, I asked myself, how many of the top 30 Diggers actually blog?” (Diggers are the news junkies who collect and rank links to news stories on digg.com.) Rowse found not many do (they’re too busy posting to digg.com). Sure, that probably doesn’t meet The Washington Post’s definition of news, but in the blogosphere it does—and so does any discovery about an industry or community.

Use the new PR

Rowse also recommends sending out a press release, “particularly if you have something new, unique or particularly important to say”. In a New Zealand setting, this may not yield very exciting results. When I launched my blog Leadership Issues in early 2005, I sent out a press release touting this bold new international forum for creative thinking on leadership. The result? Nothing.

Denton doesn’t bother with traditional press releases any more. “All he does to get the buzz rolling is send an email heads up to a few select blogs that he feels are in line with the site’s audience demo,” reports Rubel. “He really spends zero time on proactively courting the press.” By focusing on the early-adopter types and building a buzz from there, the traditional media usually catch up some time later.

Make money

There’s Denton with his blogging publishing empire. There’s Rowse with his full-time blogging career. There’s Heather B Armstrong, the former graphic designer who now makes enough income from advertising on her blog, Dooce, to make her husband a kept man.

But these lucrative bloggers are the exception rather than the rule. Macleod indicates that there’s greater value to be found in the indirect results of blogging. “Blogging is a great way to make things happen indirectly,” he says. “Becoming an authority on something, and using said authority to enhance your already-existing business, is a far more pleasant, effective and likely way to succeed.”

Lastly … persist!

In January, Macleod posted 40 rules of blogging. The first rule? “Blogs don’t write themselves.” There is no shortcut to a successful blog without writing on topics people care about and writing often. So what’s on your mind at the moment? Tell the world.

3 comments

Liz

2007-03-21 06:21:31

Hi Simon,

I love being included with the likes of Darren Rowse, Hugh Macleod, and David Farrar. Blogging is great and anyone looking to express themselves or build a career platform should consider setting up a blog. It does pay dividends.

My writing career is starting to take off and I credit my blog for much of it. By the way, I'm from Christchurch, not Tauranga (never been there, though I hear it's a nice place to live).

Cheers, Liz Lewis
My Year of Getting Published [url]http://writetotravel.blogspot.com[/url]

Simon Young

2007-03-21 11:36:26

Thanks Liz, and kudos to you for keeping so consistent with your blogging. (I'm taking a leaf out of your book now!)

Sorry about Tauranga - don't know how that happened, but thanks to the wonder of the interweb, we're able to cross it out and correct it. Love it!

Just this morning I was speaking with an aspiring writer, and recommended blogging as a way to prime the pump. I'll pass on your comments to him as well!

Mary Emma Allen

2007-03-26 02:45:45

Hi Simon,
Great to see you mention Liz Lewis in your article and mention how she's progressed with her writing career in a little over a year. Liz recently joined me to blog on Alzheimer's disease at b5media's Alzheimer's Notes.

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