B6S.net

Keeping a blog fresh with regular posts can be a challenge. At some point or another, we all feel we have simply run out of  stuff to write about. Some people call this “Writer’s Block” and there are as many ways to overcome this horrible condition as there are writers. Today, I’d like to share one surefire way that always works for me.

When I don’t have an idea for a new post, I take a break from writing, turn on my RSS reader and go out there reading other people’s blogs. As always, I take the time to leave comments on almost every post I read. Most comments are short – either a compliment to the writer, or a reference to some point in their post. Some are not.

As I type out my comments, if I find that a comment takes me more than a few sentences to express… I turn it into a post! On one of my own blogs of course.

I take care to address the original post, with a solid link back, of course.

I am always polite and respectful.

I take care to evolve my own reply into a post – not copy someone else’s post in my own words.

I go back to that blog and mention that I have a reply for that post in my own post. Alternatively, I post a quick comment on that blog explaining my view, noting that I plan on going into more details in a post on my blog.

It’s a win-win situation with several advantages:

1. I get to express an idea in a more elaborate way by the form of a dialogue.
2. I interact with another blogger on a more profound level and I acknowledge their contribution to online discourse in something deeper than a comment.
3. I get exposure to my own post and blog (be careful – whatever you do, you don’t want to create a sleazy traffic bait).
4. I get to keep my quality content on my blog (rather than writing a post-long comment on someone else’s page).
5. I get myself a brand new spiffy post – which is what I was after to begin with!

I started doing “this” back in 1997.

“This” means creating websites, promoting them and monetizing on the traffic (as opposed to creating websites for other people’s business need). It’s a pretty common business model for most of us.

The Age of Webmasters

Back then, we were called webmasters.

As a webmaster, you were expected to have a variety of skills, including:

1. Web Design
2. HTML coding
3. “Advanced” coding skills (or at least how to hack away at javascript)
4. Search engine optimization know-how (it was pretty basic back then)
5. Social media skills (at the time, it was participation in online forums mostly)

We were jacks of all trades. We had to know how to work with Photoshop, flash, HTML editors (or the code itself), run newsletters and much more.

Oh, and we had “websites” – remember those? Just good ole’ HTML web pages, where you had to change the HTML code and re-upload files via FTP to keep them up-to-date.

The Age of Bloggers

Things sure have changed!

Websites today are complexed dynamic creatures, relying on a variety of technologies to deliver unique customized pages to each visitor. They do a lot of clever things. One of them is that they allow users to interact and leave their own key-print.

What’s more, design standards have changed. You can no longer get away with cheesy web pages with animated gif’s for a background (thankfully, I may add!) Visitors expect a higher level of usability and an overall sleek look. To a great extent, design has become the realm of professional web designers and coding these smart sites has become the domain of professional coders.

These changes brought along the CMS’s, or Content Management Systems. And these beget Wordpress – a fully customizable and relatively easy-to-use CMS.

So, what’s left for us, content publishers? Well, mostly, but not only, creating content.

We write, we promote, we interact with the net. We have the ability to quickly and easily update our websites.

In fact, our websites are now called blogs, and we call ourselves bloggers.

So, How About You?

I still consider myself a webmaster first, and a blogger second. I still enjoy tweaking code and design and I still create static web pages too.

I think the title I prefer the most is a web publisher.

How about you? Are you a blogger? a webmaster? something else?

I won’t name any blogs, but I have seen this on several blogs. Every once in a while, either as a regular feature or just a once-in-a-while thing, they post what might be described as “sexy pictures”. Nothing explicit, nothing that would be illegal anywhere, but not exactly family-friendly either.

I am not a prude and personally I’m not offended by the imagery.  I’m definitely not about to tell any other blogger what they should or should not do on their blog. That said, I do want to share with you three reasons as to why I think posting “sexy stuff” on your blog may not a good idea -

Offending your visitors

I want to get this one out of the way. Maybe you couldn’t care less and that would be ok, but just keep in mind that you may be alienating some people. Even if your post or imagery are relatively benign, they may trigger some unwelcome responses, not to mention adult-oriented spam.

Consider also that some people may be browsing from their work place where standards may be stricter, or from home where younger family members may be about with the parent not expecting anything out of the ordinary when browsing for blogging advice.

Google Ads

If you run Google Adsense ads on your blog, you could be in trouble if you run them alongside anything that may be considered “adult stuff”. It can be a thin line between legitimate “sexy” and forbidden “adult”, so why risk your account? The same could apply to other advertisers – current or future ones.

Google Search Filters

Perhaps most importantly, saucy images and the accompanying comments could trigger Google’s search filters. That would mean searchers who have their settings to either moderate or strict search filters won’t be seeing your pages in the search results. Why get your site flagged like that? Is it really worth it?

I finally gave in to peer pressure and bought the Thesis theme for my blogs.

All the cool blogs seem to be running on Thesis nowadays, so I figured it’s worth a shot. Total disclosure moment: I honestly am not that enthusiastic about it on the get-go. There is a lot of hype on the thesis website and I’m more of an understatement kind of person. Sorry, but “check out the new awesomeness” is just the kind of phrase that makes me wary.

Still, I just paid $164 for this, so I’m going to give it a fair chance and hopefully be pleasantly surprised. I’m going to install it on some new blogs, while jump starting a few others with regular templates. Here’s what it looks like, fresh out of the box, on a new blog with just one post -

I wonder how much of a difference thesis is going to make in terms of traffic and specifically search engine traffic. One of their top claims is the SEO qualities of this theme. Personally, I believe off-page SEO is much more important than on-page optimization. With off-page promotion being roughly the same, let’s see if Thesis provides any unique traffic edge.

My expectations in the design department are even lower. With all due respect to the theme’s fabled design “customization”, I can ALWAYS tell a thesis design. Something about the navigation system, and often with the fonts, layout and overall feel to the site that gives it away.

So, I just installed the theme on a new blog (on an aged domain) and will start hacking away. This product is definitely not an “out of the box” solution. Just looking at the new page in front of me, it’s already offering an unrelated image on the main page, and the widget areas have text directed at the site owner. You can’t just activate this one – you need to prepare everything in advance, unless you want your users to see unrelated content on the blog.

Oh well, better get to work then. I’ll let you know how it’s going and reveal the result in a future post.

What about you? Are you using Thesis? Love it? Hate it?

I know many people are wondering how to actually make money from their blog or website. Hopefully me sharing my revenue sources may help some of you.

I’ve been a web publisher for over ten years now. During that time, I also gave birth to two wonderful boys, so I am also a full-time Mom. I don’t think you can say I got rich off web publishing, but it does generate a nice steady monthly income, and has been doing that for years.

I love that because -

1. I work from home, available to my kids when they’re here.
2. I work only 20-30 hours a week.
3. My work time is extremely flexible.
4. I still make much more than the average salary, and probably more than I could have made in almost any other career option (especially if you look at an hourly rate).

That I immensely enjoy what I do is definitely a nice bonus!

Where Does the Money Come From

First, let me state (the obvious?) – you need traffic to make the money. Whether that traffic is channeled through one mega site/blog, or divided among many is not the main issue. I have one “biggish” site (over a million pageviews a month) and a bunch of smaller ones. Here is how they make me money:

Direct Advertising Campaigns

I have several small-medium size companies that publish on my sites by buying campaigns directly. These are usually banner campaigns of various sizes, or upgraded listings on a directory that I have. They are always niche-specific.

Niche-specific Advertising Networks

I work with one good niche-specific network for my largest website. They deliver national campaigns with good rates and a nice check every month.

General CPM Advertising Networks

I use Casale Media as a filler for the rest of my inventory. The rates for non-specific campaigns are low, but it still adds up.

CPC Advertising

I use Google Adsense on most of my websites. Have been with Adsense since the very start and I’m happy with the results. There used to be a time when Adsense made up 70% of my income, but its relative share is now down to 30% or so.

On some sites, and in specific sections, I also throw Kontera into the mix. I am happy with Kontera’s revenue, but the contextual links can be confusing for users, so I prefer to avoid them on some pages.

CPA or Affiliate Marketing

I promote products both in blog posts (as the subject matter of a post) and in sidebars. Amazon is my main program, because of their good affiliate tools and good conversions. I also promote a few programs by ShareaSale (yes that’s an affiliate link)  and a few ebooks from Clickbank.

I can’t even tell you exactly how many blogs I own and manage right now. I personally write in about five of six blogs, and I manage close to a dozen others.

Running multiple blogs is different from focusing on a single one in a few ways. Today, I’m going to share a few tips,  focusing  on content management – knowing what you’re going to write when and where.

1. Prepare a list in a spreadsheet which includes the blogs and the frequency of posting that you want for each one. I have some blogs set up for several posts a week (such as this one here), some for weekly posts and some even for bi-weekly posts.
2. Have a concept in mind for the type of posts you want on each blog. I usually decide on a certain mix, depending on the niche and on what I want to achieve from the blog. It could look something like this:
   - 25% news and blog reviews.
   - 25% advice and personal stories.
   - 50% product promotion posts.
3. At the beginning of a week, make a list of posts to make. Check your spreadsheet for blogs to update and set up days in which to post on each one.
4. Always maintain a list of ideas for new posts. Keep it in your spreadsheet, on a piece of paper or in your head – whatever works for you.
5. Now, just stick to your weekly schedule and post away. Check your plans each day and post on the blog you’re supposed to, using your list of ideas.

A word about pre-scheduling posts. It can be done, but I try to avoid it, unless I absolutely have to. I just figure, if I have a post ready, why not go ahead and use it? If I have extra time,  I might as well add another post somewhere else, or better still, promote!

So, what about you? How many blogs do you have and how do you manage your writing schedule?

I’ve been contemplating starting my own web publishing blog for a while now. They tell us web readers like lists, right? so here’s mine:

Pros to starting a web publishing blog -

1. A place for me to jot down my thoughts about web publishing.
2. A place for my notes about stuff that I learn online.
3. A place for my impressions on various web services and products that I use as a webmaster (I’ll give you a fair warning whenever I use an affiliate link i.e. have an invested interest).
4. Hopefully, down the road, a way to brand myself as a webmaster (webmistress?) and, eventually, to leverage that into promoting my other websites.

Cons -

1. Another blog??? oh no, not another website that requires constant updating!
2. Another Wordpress blog? uh oh… add one more to the bi-weekly upgrade list…
3. Another Webmasters blog? don’t we have too many of these already?

So, you see, it’s 4 pros and only 3 cons, so I’m moving ahead with it! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you add me to your list of places to visit (and to your blogroll too!)