Damien at the Speed of Life

Blog Bloke left a comment to my recent post 50 Blogging Tips that Deliver.  It was great and I wanted to make a whole new post about his valuable responses.  My original tips are numbered, then his comments are below that and finally my responses are in bold:

1. “Find your “niche” and become a slave to it.”

And also be sure to not choose a niche that is already saturated ;-)

Yes but that is an “advanced” concept.  I am talking to people who sit usually down to blog with zero focus.  Whether you write about a narrow focus like wakeboarding or the broadest like SEO/MMOL you are better off having a niche focus than not.  In the next class ;) your point would be a good one.

2. “Make posts over 100 words, around 200 words and usually not more than 400 words.”

Of course it depends on the type of post you are writing. If you write detailed tutorials like I do then it’s impossible to write a short post. (Btw isn’t this post over 400 words? :-)

Yes it is by absolute word count but if you count my sentences where I elaborate there are only about half of that.  In your lengthy tutorials it is likely the same situation.  I am speaking to writers who want to describe how much their day sucked etc.  If I want a “thesis” on someone’s day, I’ll listen to my wife.  LOL  PLEASE OUT THERE keep it to 200-400 words.  Of course there are always exceptions that work.  This is a guideline I have learned through time.

3. “Regularly post.”

I’ve hardly posted lately and my traffic is up more than 500%. So writing every day isn’t necessarily going to bring you good results. I would say that writing quality posts that are SEO optimized is far more important than quantity.

I call those “authority posts.”  I’ve also seen them referred to as “pillar posts.”  If you have enough of those, what you say is true.  For example, my “Crazy Quotes” page has a higher rating than my actual blog domain.  Still, if you want to gather followers/readers/contacts, posting regularly is a must.  After a few years maybe not so much though.

4. “Pick a simple theme and then test, test, test.”

Although I agree with the testing part (does it ever end) a “simple” theme isn’t always your best choice if you have a lot of content like I do. A nice looking site also doesn’t hurt to attract repeat visitors.

The Peter Principle says that every person will rise to their own level of incompetence.  I want to stay where I am competent.  To a beginner “simple” may mean using the Wordpress default.  To you or I it may mean using Ajax or not … just as an example.  I think simple was the wrong word choice so thanks for clarifying that.

5. “Here today, gone tomorrow: remember your post is not a bestseller in process. Write it and move on.”

Sometimes when we write a post we forget to optimize it for the SERPS. I’m always going back to my better posts and tweaking them for optimum performance. Like I said earlier good quality posts will bring you more traffic over the long term.

I only optimize my favorite posts.  The other ones get picked up anyway whether I liked them or not.  Can I get an AMEN?  No ryhme or reason sometimes.  I go back and tweak popular posts all the time, a very fruitful practice!

6. “Have a minimal sidebar. Most the “flair” out there is so distracting and lame.”

Agreed, too many bloggers have useless widgets such as showing what the weather is in your home town. But the sidebar/footer is a useful place to put your best posts, reader’s comments etc. So don’t neglect it.

Great thought about the sidebar.  Getting readers access to back posts is a great use of a sidebar!  Plus a little advertising as long as it is not too gaudy.

Hope that helps and cheers!

It helped very much, thanks for taking the time to read and comment.  Keep in touch!