The Blogging Mindset: Blog About Stuff That You Actually Care About

I just read this article on the New York Times about "Blogging Your Way Into a Business". I find it interesting that regular folks like you and me can find their way into a lucrative enterprise by way of their blogs.

But here's the thing: I feel that this article, along with other features on other newspapers, magazines, even radio and TV shows, seem to perpetuate the idea that blogging for money is an easy thing. Maybe it is, maybe it's not- it totally depends on a number of things, in my opinion:

1> your ability to actually communicate effectively through writing,
2> your natural passion to share thoughts and ideas through writing,
3> your discipline and commitment to keep on sharing these thoughts and ideas,
4> and your aptitude towards picking up necessary skills and using them well, like internet marketing, networking, etc.

As you can see, blogging probably isn't for everybody. And if anybody's motivation is purely to make money out of blogs, don't expect those sites to be up for long.

If its one thing I've learned- no matter how hard you try to get into it- you can't write about stuff you don't care about for long. I have this particular blog- "Blog. Blogger. Bloggest: Renzie on Blogging"- mainly because I care about learning how to blog better, and helping other casual bloggers to build better blogs.

Over the past few months, I've positioned myself as a writer-for-hire. So I end up writing for anything from pet care products to industrial packaging and memory foam. I can tell you right now that it didn't quite work out very well.

Pets are alright- in fact, I have a couple of cats at home, but the truth is, I can only care so much about how memory foam is made, and there's just way too much fun writing about industrial-grade cardboard and plastic, right?

So I started working on a couple of other blogs- I now have one on radio and the music industry, another on gaming, and then another on food reviews. Kind of shows exactly what kind of guy I am, right? They're all in the content development stage right now, and not meant to be marketed yet until a few more posts. I also plan to write up one on TV, another on movies, another on business, and the project list can go on and on.

I know it's not going to happen just yet, or at least not anytime soon. I mean, it's great if I managed to stumble onto something lucrative doing this, but it really doesn't matter. For as long as you're doing something you absolutely like, something you feel really passionate about, you can just focus on developing good content.

Which is the whole point in developing the whole positive-reader-experience concept we've been talking about all this time.

Okay, maybe the money matters a little. Got bills to pay too, you know. But that's what the day job is for :)

Bottom Line: Blog about something you care about. Keep at it. But don't rely on it to put food on the table, or pay this month's rent.

Then again, you'll never know when opportunity comes knocking at your door, as a result of what you put online. And when it does, you'll be more than ready to take on new challenges, and reap the rewards of what you've sown.

Cheers, everyone!

Resources for Blogs: BlogCrowds

I suppose it is no secret that I've been trying out all these different kinds of templates on my other blog projects.

The usual templates provided by Blogger is alright- but as I may have mentioned before, it seems that I have a preference for 3-column templates.

Now, there area a lot of sites out there- both free and paid- which features quite a number of the 3-column templates that I like, and a lot other templates. The problem is that when you start loading the .XML template file, or pasting the template file onto the existing one, more often than not, Blogger displays a variety of error messages, end result being- you find yourself unable to load that smashing new 3-column template you found.

And it does get rather frustrating after the first several tries, really. At least until Blogger fixes this nuisance altogether.

Of course, you have the option of learning how to make a template yourself. I probably could, but I'd really rather spend more time churning out blog entries than making templates on my own- but maybe much later on, who knows?

Thank goodness persistence pays off: I stumbled onto Blogcrowds. On top of the new templates they've been offering, they also have lots of useful tips, widgets and other goodies for bloggers- all bloggers, for that matter- whether begginer, intermediate or even advanced.

Nothing too fancy, really. In fact a lot of them are just the usual Blogger templates, only expanded from 2-columns to 3-column deals. As far as I'm concerned, they loaded easily enough (just take away all your previous widgets before previewing or making final changes- you can slap them back on later anyway), and they look great! And I'm already sporting them on my other blog projects.

So go check it out. I'm sure there's something in there you'd like. If it's working templates you're looking for, you can get them here.

Cheers!

The Blogging Mindset: Preparation + Opportunity = Success

I remembered it hit me in the face when I saw it on an E! True Hollywood Story or something. It was a story about Keenen Ivory Wayans. You may know him as a successful and talented actor, comedian, director and producer- but for me, I will forever associate him with one of my most favorite sketch comedy shows of all time, "In Living Color".

Shout-out to my sister for getting me Season 1 on DVD, by the way. Great stuff.

Now from what I remember (I could be wrong, so bear with me), Keenen had always wanted to be a cast-member of Saturday Night Live- which has always been the benchmark for TV sketch comedy, even to this day. For some reason, he never made it into the show- but it didn't keep him from honing his craft, working on writing and directing and producing.

It wasn't long until he got noticed- this time, a TV network (FOX) presented him with the opportunity to have his own sketch comedy show- which we now know as "In Living Color", and which I think at the time was positioned against Saturday Night Live.

The show was groundbreaking. We know it now as the show that helped jumpstart the careers of Damon Wayans, Jim Carrey (back then credited as James Carrey), David Alan Grier, Jennifer Lopez (she was a Fly Girl!), and Jamie Fox. "In Living Color" went on for five seasons, until 1994- which was still a very respectable run for any TV series.

Brothers Damon, Shawn and Marlon Wayans all had fairly impressive movie careers already going on at the time the E! True Hollywood Story was done. I remember them crediting big brother Keenen for drilling into their heads this simple, but very important equation:

Preparation + Opportunity = Success.

And it has been a source of inspiration for me ever since. The story was something I've shared with people I've worked with- not just at the radio stations or the contact centers I've seen action in, but also with clients and friends.

It teaches us that success depends on two things: One- the amount of effort you put in to honing your craft, making yourself more marketable, essentially building yourself up. And Two- getting yourself into a position that opens doors for you, and grabbing the chance to showcase your skills when the opportunity presents itself. You need both to achieve success.

And yes, I believe in that.

It's no different for blogging. Building up your blog is the 'Preparation' part of the the equation. It gives you a chance to develop your writing skills, to get into the habit of churning out good content, and get completely immersed in the blogging lifestyle.

The 'Opportunity' part comes in when you start marketing your blog. You allow more people to check out your work, and you also put yourself in situations where you can get noticed by the people you want. You'll never know what you can find out there: making new online friends, getting offered to write for a blog network, getting invited to blogger events, being asked to talk about your blogging experiences at a workshop- the possibilities are endless.

In fact, blogging presents a lot of opportunities for anyone who's serious enough with it. Check out this posting for jobs for bloggers just for this month. And the way things are going, there's a rising demand for good, quality content- a need that can be filled if writing is your game.

So do you think you're ready? If so, then good for you- get yourself out in the spotlight and show us what you got. If not, well then keep building yourself up- and hope that, next time the opportunity presents itself- you'll be ready this time.

Hope this helps. Cheers, everyone!

Blog Tools: AddThis.com

In my quest to find out how they put little "Bookmark This!" buttons at the bottom of every post on your blog, I have managed to stumble upon (no pun intended) a rather useful service on AddThis.com.

As a blogger, you'll want the buttons from AddThis.com because of several reasons, all pretty much pointed out on their homepage.

1. It allows for easy bookmarking. Once a reader likes one of your posts, you have a button right there that allows bookmarking on several services- Technorati, Digg, Facebook, MSN Live, Furl, Ask, Del.icio.us, Google, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Yahoo MyWeb, Twitter, and so much more.

Note that I probably haven't even familiarized myself with some- okay fine- a lot of these services, but let's leave it at that for now, and get back to them in greater detail later on.

2. It helps promote your site. Sending content to social bookmarking services like those mentioned above helps bring traffic to your site. So, yes, you'd want to do this.

3. It increases your rankings. More traffic means a greater likelihood of people linking to your site, and therefore, higher ranking on search engine results pages.

4. It reduces overall clutter. No need for separate codes and buttons for each bookmarking service. One less thing to worry about, so just keep on churning out good content!

5. It's easy to install. No shit. If I have been able to figure it out, so can you. Assuming you already have an account on AddThis.com, just click on the large 'Get Your Button' button on the home page. Pick the kind of widget you'd want- whether one for bookmarking or one for subscribing to your feeds- and how it looks like.

You go to a page which enables you to put an AddThis button on your blog, and gives you a code to put on your template's html coding so that all your posts have an AddThis button at the footer of every post.

6. It comes with free statistics. Because sometimes, you'd like to know more on how readers are bookmarking and sharing your content.

7. It's very reliable. Heck, a lot of sites and blogs already use this service, including Time.com, TechCrunch, ABC, Lonely Planet, Freewebs, Tower Records, just to name a few

8. It's free! Can't argue with that, can you?

So if you're building a blog, go right ahead and sign up for an account on AddThis.com. Get the buttons for your blog, and keep on posting!

Cheers, everyone!

Social Bookmarking For Blogs: del.icio.us

I was playing around with my del.icio.us account the whole day today, mainly trying to figure out how to slap a del.icio.us script at the footer of each post, versus just having one at the side of my blog.

Del.icio.us is a free social software web service for sharing web bookmarks. See, there used to be a time when you'd bookmark your favorite websites from whatever PC you'd be using at the moment. Del.icio.us takes all that bookmarking several steps further because, not only can you store all your personal bookmarks on an easy-to-use, easy-to-access online account, you can also share your bookmarks with other people, as well as check out what other people are bookmarking.

So in essence, del.icio.us allows you to create your very own list of links, categorize it, and share it with others. You can access this list anytime you're online, so you can practically bring your list of links and bookmarks to any PC or laptop you're working on.

As a blogger, you want this service. For several reasons:

1. On the front page, you can see what are the hottest topics/pages/blogs at any given time. You'll want a quick way of finding the newest, or the most popular resources online, especially on subjects related to your blog.

2. It's a great way to market you and/or your brand, or in this case, your blog. You would want to use del.icio.us to promote your blog and your individual blog entries with other people.

3. It's really meant for networking. You'd want to hook up with people who also look for the same things you do, and share bookmarks with them, as they share theirs with you.

4. It's a great way to archive your blog. Del.icio.us allows you to keep track of what you've already written or what you still want to write about.

Check this out: Roland Piquepaille has a great read on how he uses del.icio.us. Sign up for del.icio.us by visiting their website. For more information on del.icio.us, read more about it on Wikipedia here.

I hope this has been useful. Cheers, everyone!

Social Networking For Blogs: Twitter

I've just successfully put up Twitter on a few of my blogs.

Twitter is a free micro-blogging service, which enables you to post updates of about 140 characters long- enough for a short sentence, and enough to tell people what you're doing, what you feel or what you're going through with just a few words.

You can go sign up quickly for a Twitter account here on their website. Once there, you'll want to start looking for friends who are also on Twitter. Eventually, you'll be able to 'follow' each other through little updates you leave online.

You can get the html codes for your Twitter account so you can embed it in your blog, MySpace or website. I was able to set up my Twitter on one of my Blogger blogs here, and also on my Multiply. It shouldn't be any problem setting it up on, say, a Wordpress blog- in fact, I'll get down to it once I'm done here.

Another interesting feature is that you can actually send Twitter updates via SMS- through your mobile phone. Which means you can easily tell people what you're having for lunch right at moment, or what you think of the latest Will Smith movie, or mention how you've spotted some local celebrity at a local mall or restaurant or something.

Give Twitter a try- I understand that it's probably not for everybody. It's just one of the many options available to you for keeping in touch with your online network- but not like you already need any more social media applications, right?

In any case, if you do feel like Twittering, do look me up- look for 'Renzie' and drop me a message. Cheers!

Read more about Twitter here on Wikipedia, or check out their website here.

Social Bookmarking For Blogs: Technorati

Seems like a real fun site. Technorati is an online service that allows you to keep track of other blogs from all over the world.

It works just like a search engine, you can search by topic, tags or keywords, keep track of your favorites, and visit blogs based on your searches, or by other people's recommendations.

Signing up to Technorati involves letting them know which blogs are yours- so you not only create a short profile (so other people can know a little bit about you), but you also create a list of all the blogs you author, and what your blogs are all about.

You want this, because it effectively registers your blog into Technorati's massive blog directory, and as more people turn to Technorati to find blogs and websites on topics that interest them, it therefore gives you a chance to get much-needed exposure for your and your blog/s.

It seems that your blogs are measured by "authority", which are denoted by a certain amount of points. Currently, this blog's authority points are at 5, which isn't much, considering the most popular blogs on Technorati have authority points in the tens of thousands! *gasp*

Which therefore begs the question: How do you gain more authority points on Technorati?

A quick Google search led me to a forum on The V7 Network- and a number of contributing members have thrown in their two cents' with regards to increasing your standing on Technorati.

According to a post by info4beingrich...

Technorati authority increases with incoming links. So you should:

1. Make comments on various blogs, so that your links in the comments are treated as backlinks (but be careful, don't spam comments)
2. Swap links or buy links from other websites..
3. Trackback your url on other sites..
4. Request people to post review about your blog on their sites with links to your blogs. This can be done via paid reviews or free reviews..
5. Request people to techno fave your blog or writings..

Another contributing member, interwebhunt, also suggests...

start surfing high authority blogs in your niche, and take time to cultivate a relationship with that blogs owner. If you find a connection with that blog owner, look to link exchange. Just randomly emailing people for a link exchange can be viewed very negatively.

Bottom line: If you want to build your blogs well, focus on two main things...

1. Developing quality content. Keep churning out content that readers can keep coming back to, and share with other people. This pretty much is in line with creating a good experience for your readers, fans and fellow bloggers.

2. Developing relationships. Be a good blog-neighbor- leave comments, encourage interaction, and share with others. Link exchange with fellow bloggers-turned-friends, rather than just spamming people indiscriminately.

Well, I've only gotten into Technorati for a few hours, and as I discover about its services and the blogs featured in it, the more I have to share with everyone.

So I'll check you guys in a bit. Cheers, everyone!