Posted on Monday 21st of April 2008 at 13:07 in BloggingThis is one of the strange things about being a blogger; if you're writing to a set audience on a regular basis there suddenly becomes this self-enforced expectation to keep up your posting schedule. But unless you're a professional blogger (With nothing else to do) this is very very difficult. So how much time can you take off?I've been consciously avoiding blogging recently purely because I've not had anything meaningful to say. I've lost my motivation and there's no point posting poor quality content because that'll be detrimental to my overall objective. So I've just left the site alone.
1. Take as much time as you needIf you're taking a break then take as long a break as you feel you need. If your motivation has slipped away then wait for it to return. Your readers aren't unhappy with you.
2. Keep an eye on those feed statsA good sign that you've been inactive too long is when your feed subscribers start to drop off significantly. Obviously the stats rise and fall as the days go by but consistent drops will need addressing - if your subscriber stats are dropping on a daily basis then your time off is undoing all your good work to date. So it might be worth getting some content up!
3. Keep promoting the older contentJust because you can't find the motivation to write new content doesn't mean you can't promote the older stuff. Unless you're in a news niche most of your content is timeless, so it doesn't matter if it's 12 months old, if it's still useful to people then promote it.
That's all I've got for now. I'll be back when I find my motivation and stop being quite so busy with the rest of my life. I'm still alive though...read more and comment Posted on Monday 7th of April 2008 at 06:46 in Make Money OnlineThis is a really strange move from Google and I can only imagine they're doing it to make their life easier. Keyword bidding on registered trademarks is a big no-no at the moment but from May 5th, UK advertisers are going to be allowed to do it.
What is it?It's essentially Audi advertising their cars by bidding on BMW keywords; so if I search for "new BMW M3", Audi's results can appear in the sponsored results bit of Google. So this means that if I start my own computer shop, I can try to steal Dell's business by bidding on the "Dell" keyword.
This is bad for affiliatesYou'd be forgiven for thinking that affiliates will be loving this; but the reality is that 90% of proper affiliate schemes have terms and conditions applied to them that state you cannot display the advert as a result based on searches on their trademark. So for Dell it means I cannot show my result if the user searches for "Dell". However Google changing their policy means that I *could* if Dell would let me. Which they won't.
Therefore affiliates are in the same boat they were always in; but individual shops with an Internet presence will do better because they can piggy-back off the popularity of bigger brands. Therefore if I started "Seopher Computers" I could genuinely bid against "Dell" and "Packard Bell" to promote my own brand.
This is bad for the brand-ownersOkay so imagine I own Dell. Currently I can buy Dell keywords for next-to-nothing (as I'm the only person who can) - so it's a tiny CPC but great click throughs and conversions. What happens when anyone else can bid for them? Suddenly my own trademark becomes competitive and lucrative by extension.
What are they doing? Are they trying to push people to natural search? I assume not considering how much money Adwords makes them, but I can't see a real reason for doing so otherwise. It just looks like Google is trying to kill PPC... Check out the original story in NMA.read more and comment Posted on Sunday 6th of April 2008 at 09:49 in BloggingOne of the nice things about blogging professionally is that you could viably work from anywhere; but you're unlikely to be in a position where you can write anytime, anywhere. I both admire and despise the people you see sitting in Cafe Nero (or Starbucks) at 11am on their Macbooks (when the rest of us have to go to work). For those of us who have full time professions to maintain as well as our websites, here are a few ways I make sure I capture my inspiration wherever I am.
The list in the top pocketThis is something I've been doing for a few weeks and it works just as well for blogging as it does everything else; I have a business-card sized piece of paper in my shirt pocket that contains a to-do list. This list dictates what I need to do that day/week/etc and it's a very useful tool. If you suddenly think of a great idea for an article you can just add it to the list and forget about it. I've found the list far more useful for remembering to pay bills and call suppliers than for blogging, but it's a very good habit to get into.
PDABefore I broke my O2 Exec PDA phone I was able to jot ideas down with the stylus; so if I was away from my desk I could jot down an idea, maybe even with a doodle and either save it for later or email it to myself.
Email yourselfSometimes you're at your desk but unable to write (when I'm at work). Therefore I find emailing myself is a great way to capture the idea. If I get an idea I send my seopher.com address an email explaining what I'm thinking. When I get home later that night and check my email I'll be reminded and have something to write about.
DictateI've seen plenty of people do this but I rarely do it; largely because I've never found a suitable situation where I wouldn't look out of place doing so. I can't exactly walk around shopping centres trying to dictate an article about monetisation - I'd look crazy. However when you're out on your own or in business districts then it's perfectly acceptable to dictate notes to yourself. In fact most mobile phones have this functionality these days.
Asus EEE-PC / Uber-small laptopWhen I took a first look at the Asus EEE-PC I called it the
ultimate blogging companion because of it's minute size and low price. Having a tiny-form laptop is a great idea if you're serious about staying connected on the move because it's only slightly too big for your pocket. I'm in posession of one now and it gets used a lot in our household. I really must get around to giving it a proper review...
This post was a little disjointed, I've been really busy this week (hence the lack of posting) but felt that I should try and put some content up before Google forgets about me. Got any methods I've missed out? Interested in an EEE-PC? Hit the comments.read more and comment
