Monetizing Your Blog in 2015: Getting Ready for the New Year

"How Do I Monetize My Blog?"

We've all seen this question a million times. And the people who answer it seem so confident - these easy steps are all they ever needed to monetize their blog.  It seems so easy, but why isn't it working for you?

Today's post include four steps, but each of these steps are pretty big ones. We're not talking fairytales - if you want to make money in 2015 with your blog, you need to do some real work on it right now. So let's get started!

Giving Your Blog a Winter Tune-Up

When cold weather comes around, you tune-up your car, recaulk the windows. When the weather warms up, you take to the garden to prettify your yard. Seasonally, you do maintenance on your house and yard.....

...so how long has that blog looked exactly the same?

As time changes, technology changes, and expected levels of technology use changes, as well. Layouts that were great in 1998 are embarrassingly painful now. It's time to shake that blog out and give it a look-over. Great big embedded files aren't important, what's important is that your blog is lithe enough to be shared and commented on. No wants dancing hamsters any more. What you want and need are a core audience of engaged, passionate readers.

Ask yourself,  Is My Blog Sociable?

Every corporate site has sharing links, but there's nothing sociable about them. You can share company news for years and no one from the company will thank you, unless you have a massive readership. If you have sharing tools on your blog, can you track the shares, know what people are saying and where they are saying it? Monitor who you top sharers are and be able to thank them where they spread the word. Being sociable will build a strong brand and a strong bond with your readers. Reward them with your time and attention when they engage and they'll be back for more.


Have Realistic Expectations

Whether you're writing about a niche topic or trends in technology, your audience size will be the key factor in what you can reasonably expect from monetization. The demographics of your audience will also be key. 250 readers everyday is significant to you, but even if each one clicks on those ads and affiliate links, it's not going to add up to much. The halcyon years of affiliate income is long gone, as retailers and ad networks are squeezing down hard on rates.

Audience size and readership demographics will affect potential income - but it's your readers engagement that will ultimately decide whether you succeed.  If your posts get high engagement - more than just a like, but actual conversation, people ready and willing to engage with your content by sharing their thoughts about it, you'll have a better chance to successfully monetize.


Don't Be Afraid to Talk About It

The very personal relationship you build with your audience is the real draw for your blog. Unless you're working with a major magazine site, readers are reading your blog because of you - your stories, your perspective.

When you launch your monetization campaign,don't slide it in when no one's looking, don't be subtle - tell folks about it! If you've done everything right, your readers will jump at the chance to be part of the team, and make your blog an income-generator for you. They want you to succeed, so help them to help you. 

Get your blog tuned up, ramp up on being Sociable, and come back next time for some good options for monetizing your blog in 2015!

Attack of the Serial Commenters (How to Manage Fans Who Don't *Get* The Rules)

Comments, likes, upvotes, shares - these are all signs that someone is engaged with your community. You use these marks of engagement to measure how well you are connecting with your audience and which members are converting their loyalty or interest into action.

So when you notice that a member of your community always comments on every post, it doesn't seem like it's a problem. Comments are *good*. Then you notice that this person comments on everything whether they have something to say or not. You're reluctant to tell them to stop, because People Talking About This is good, right? You can always pull the conversation back on track if it starts to slide or correct mistakes. This is your job as community manager.

Then one day, you notice that more than 15 minutes of your day is spent managing this one person. They've hijacked so many conversations you start to doubt that anything they've posted has value. And you start to doubt your own ability to manage your community - after all this person is a *fan.* So what if they keep mentioning this other site, or get annoyed with you for correcting them? And why do they annoy you so much anyway?

You have just met the Serial Commenter.

Serial Commenters come in several forms:

New fans who discover your community and spend the next week reading, liking/voting and commenting on everything you've posted for the last month, or in a particular topic.

Old fans who believe that "LOL" is a valuable comment on every single post.

Time-outs who seek to cull favor by adding content, whether or not it is relevant, helpful or legal. These often become the hardest to deal with, those people who simply Need to Stop Posting for a bit, but won't.

Serial Commenters are extremely difficult to deal with. They are often highly, deeply and passionately engaged, but cannot manage to play by the rules. They never take kindly to being gently warned. And more often than not, they have no self-awareness of what you mean when you ask them to stop.

So how do you deal with a Serial Commenter?

First, Time-Out: This is an incredibly important step. Give yourself a Time Out. Take a few days to decide if the comments are harmless, if they might add value to someone who isn't you, or if they stimulate productive conversation in the comments. If any of these are true, bite your lip and ignore whatever it is that rubs you the wrong way. They may simply be new and excited. Give them time to calm down. This person is not a problem.

Second, Etiquette Reminder: Some people are not used to community rules. They may have been hanging out somewhere with less rules, or simply never been socialized. Do your best to surface unwritten rules somewhere. Write down in plain words what you expect of community members. I keep my rules relatively simple, but my expectations high.

Do not be coy, if a Serial Commenter is breaking an unwritten rule, write it out. Some people are not subtle. Don't be rude, but be blunt.

Third, Warning: By the time you have gotten to this stage, you should have already given all the gentle guidance you have to give. At this point you are merely handing the SC rope with with they can hang themselves.  Warnings should be simple. If you choose to enforce a Time-Out for your SC, state the time period, expectations upon their return and the factors you will weigh against them.

Fourth and Final, Escort Them Out the Door: At this point, you have decided that their absence will free the community up. No one need talk around them, explain things to them or help them with a seemingly un-ending list of confusions and problems. Time and energy can be spent on fun things again.

Do not second guess yourself.  Whether it is your personal or professional community you have every right to control it. As we all must sometimes remember, every site/platform/network online is owned by *somebody.* It is a privilege, not a right to post on these. Sometimes we must remind someone of this.

Serial Commenters are not always a problem, but be ready for those that become one with a fair, actionable plan. You owe it to your community.

What is Blogging and How Does it Work?

It's 1770. You have a printing press. You write a broadside, full of insightful political commentary, some pithy sayings and admonishments for good behavior. Slap it up on the common walls in town - especially outside taverns - and let people read it. Then do that every week, until people are waiting to read what you have to say. They start making a detour past that wall to read that broadside...and they start talking about it in the town square or in the tavern.

That's what blogging is.

Your broadside is printed electronically and you need to make sure you post it outside your locals with links.

Now, once you have an audience for that broadside, you maybe suggest a thing or two - hey, the town gate needs shoring up, or we could use a new bridge. Then people talk about that - and maybe someone proposes to actually build that bridge in town hall. Everyone knows about the broadside, it's been talked about for a while. So, a resolution is passed that a new bridge will be built.

That's a suggestion to action.

Now, let's say war is building and the town hasn't shored up that gate. You write a smart, witty and passionate plea for a new gate NOW and all people to take up arms and...people do it. They get that gate repaired and start making ammo, because the enemy is not far away.

That's action language.

When your town wins against the enemy, other towns ask how they did it, someone says, "We have this writer...he got us focused" and the next town over asks for copies of the broadside too.

That's advocacy.

That's how blogging works.

Building Internal Traction for Your Corporate Blog

You've opened up a blog site and told everyone on the Exec team to go ahead and blog. Now, weeks later, the blog is still pretty empty. What's missing? A corporate blog, like everything else in the corporate world, needs a value proposition.

Before you even open that blog, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered honestly.

Is it really a good idea to have a corporate blog?

Is sharing information likely to help or hinder your business?

Is there a culture of sharing or non-sharing in place in the company? If so, how did that culture arise and what are logical ways to shift that?

***

Once these questions have been answered, you're going to have to get through the next set:

Why would someone want to share information on that blog - tell them why.

How does someone share information on the blog - tell them how.

What kinds of information are sharable - tell them what.

Who can share information - tell them who.

Until there is a clear, concise incentive/value for people to share information on your corporate blog, they're just going to go about business as usual.

Analysis of Spam on Three Blogging Platforms

WordPress, Blogger and Squarespace: All are popular blogging platforms. At the moment, I happen to be blogging on all three. Today we'll take a look at the spam each platform receives and see what we can learn from it.

WordPress

Widely considered the only real choice for a professional blog, WordPress has a vast array of customizable options, widgets, plugins and tools for the business owner. Blogs can be self-hosted, and matched to your website format, or even used as the backend for your website. Recently, I chose to do this for one of my websites. My choice was based on the need for an incredibly flexible solution, but revolving around content, not e-commerce. Wordpress offered me the solution I was looking for; static pages that could be updated on the fly, and posts that allowed for more interactivity, with total control over the comments. Plugins and tools provide the site with a slightly changing facade to provide a lively feeling.

Even with the Akismet plugin to filter out the most obvious spam, WP gets about 25-30 spam posts a day. Current ratio of spam to real comments is 200:1.((This is at least in part to the fact that commenting on the site is a new concept, but this is a much, much higher amount of spam than on any other platform I have encountered.)

WP spam is polite. It compliments you on your writing or the site design and tells you that it will be back. And it will, if you don't mark it as spam and delete it. An example might read, "I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am starting a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business." This spam is typically posted by a real-sounding name, with a link to an inoffensive sounding blog. If you check the blog link (and I don't actually recommend doing that too often, as these spam blogs are often loaded with malware) you'll find that they are spam farms.

Blogger

Blogger is the Reader's Digest of blogging platforms. So simple that most professionals dismiss it, it has some genuine advantages. The primary advantage is that it is a very simple platform to learn how to use. There is limited customization available and not nearly as many plugins, tools and widgets as there are for WordPress, but there are some. Control of commenting is limited to approving, rejecting as spam or deleting comments; no comment editing is possible at this time. Because of its simplicity, I adore Blogger. When I want to focus on content, not formatting, Blogger is my go-to platform.

There are no filtering widgets for spam on Blogger but, spammers tend to hit Blogger much more rarely - perhaps because it is not considered to be a "professional" space. In a reversal of the ratio of spam to comments, I see about 1:200 on my Blogger sites.

Blogger spam is obvious. Unlike Wordpress Spam, Blogger Spam is clearly spam. Links in a spam comment almost always clearly point to a spam farm or porn site. Rarely does Blogger spam pretend to be anything it is not. Recently, there has been a very slow shift to more polite "masked" spam, but links to Sunglasses R Us really can't hide too well among relevant Blogger comments.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a platform that is more advanced than Blogger, but not nearly as widely used as WordPress. Widgets are not plentiful, but the tools provided with the basic blog are more advanced than with Blogger. There are no anti-spam plugins available for Squarespace and while editing is possible, it's probably not useful against spam. Delete is your friend. Squarespace has a very clogged flash-driven design that can be customized with relative ease...as long as your browser likes Flash.

Spam on Squarespace is hot and heavy. Not content with one subtle link to a spam site, Squarespace spam are long lists of brand-name handbags, shoes, sunglasses, each with their own link. Spammers might hit the same post three or four times with the same list of links. The blog I post on gets a ratio of about 50:1 spam to comment.

Spam on Squarespace is in your face. This is the comment equivalent of walking through a crowded bazaar, while vendors scream brand names at you. You can tune it out, but the din is still there.

Overview:

Blogger might be the little brother to WordPress, but the lack of spam can make it appealing to people with niche audiences who don't want to waste time dealing with garbage.

WordPress offers the best tools for dealing with spam, but the most sophisticated spammers are flying under those radars. Don't fall for strangers commenting about your great design - consider the source.

Squarespace might provide an alternative to the other two blogging solutions, but the spam hammer hits hard. It might not be worth the effort to pan for gold in your comments.

Spam is a fact of blogging life. Knowing what you're trying to accomplish and how much time you have to give it will help you decide which blogging platform to choose. 

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Postscript: If you have a Typepad or Tumblr blog and would like to have your analysis added to this article, please let me know in the comments!

Rules of Blogging You Should Ignore (At Least At First)

 A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

When contemplating a project of any kind, it's smart to do research. Research now will contain at least a portion of "asking around on social media platforms." These networks exist, after all, to be places where we can get and share advice with our friends and peers.

Wherever you ask around, some of the advice you're bound to get will be well-intentioned, but will start to make you feel claustrophobic. Will picking the wrong name for your blog kill it before it even gets out of the starting block? Will choosing the wrong platform make you the laughingstock of your industry?

To some extent even ignorable advice is good advice. You may not choose to follow it for reasons of your own, but understand *why* people suggest it and know what sacrifices you're making, so you know what next steps to take as you move forward with your blog.

Pick a Name that's Easy to Type and Remember

This rule is clearly a no-brainer. Of course you want your blog to be easy to remember and type! This way, when people are looking for it on a Search Engine, they can find it simply.

When You Can Ignore This: Think about your audience - how are they going to be finding out about your blog? Will they be standing in your store, and you'll be telling them about it? Or will they be on your website, looking for your keywords on a Search Engine or checking out another social profile of yours?

When your *primary* means of getting word out to your audience is online, a more complex, obscure name is not the barrier it might be if your primary means of communicating with the potential market is print or by word of mouth. Online audiences will be clicking links to your blog from the spaces where you mention it.  Keeping the name short will make it easier for people to type in the name, but having a strange acronym or odd name will not make or break you.


Pick Your Platform for SEO

Is WordPress better than Blogger or TypePad for SEO? This question comes up very often on professional social networks. There are some people that insist that only one platform is appropriate for professional blogs and to some extent advance capabilities are going to be important to you down the road, when you've built up a following.

When You Can Ignore This: Right now, before you even have a solid blogging strategy, *where* you blog is, is much less important than *what* you are blogging and *why.* SEO comes from having strong keyword- and  key phrase- rich content, it comes from building up your reading audience with strong promotional strategies and writing unique, compelling content. The amount of SEO you can get from choosing one platform over another is incremental, and completely unimportant as compared with the content itself.

Here's one rule that cannot be ignored:

Formatting is Everything

Some people think in text, some people think in images. Others love video,  and for others, audio tracks pass the time during a long commute. A really good blog will be able to capture audiences from all these areas. But even if you're not jumping into the blogging world with podcasts or videos, it's important to remember that confusing format and navigation can really kill a blog.

Before you decide on a blog design, hand it off to someone who is not you. Can they find their way around it? Is there too *much* going on? Are you trying to do too many things at once? Is there consistent navigation across the blog, or are you bouncing from one format to another?

Find a designer you trust and go with your gut - if the first thing is absolutely not working for you, feel free to move to a different template. Don't get locked into something you hate. And if your readers say it's confusing, then trust them, it's confusing! Even if you love it, it might need to change.

Don't get caught up in what you shouldn't do. Start simple with your blogging. Don't try to do too much, have a clear idea of what you want to say - and to whom - then go, start blogging. You can always change the look, the name, the platform, but all of those take second place to the content.

Smart Corporate Blogging for Smart Companies

A major topic of conversation in business circles right now is the worth versus the risk of having a corporate blog.

There are several competing perceptions about the use of a corporate blog.

Consumers want to feel that a company they support is reasonably transparent, that their decisions are made in the best interests of the consumers and the global community, as well as stakeholders.

Bad corporate blogging sets consumers' teeth on edge, because it actually gives them the opposite of what they need. Attempts at humor can fall flat or be seen as incredibly insensitive. Lack of depth means that no one but lazy industry journalists can use the information provided.

On the corporate side, executives are often severely hampered in how they can address the public and what they can say when they do.  Even outgoing, accessible thought leaders can feel hurt, puzzled or plain, old pissed off when they are criticized publicly.  Even when they want to be transparent, industry regulations might keep them from talking about anything real.

I've worked with small, middle and large (Fortune 100) companies, and I can honestly say that size is not a contributing factor to excellence in corporate blogging. In fact, the company I worked at with the best grasp of and use of Social Media was one of the largest. The difference between this company and all the others was that someone positioned at a high level "got" Social Media and really carried it through all levels. This included corporate blogging by the CEO - for both internal and external readers. Within the company, the CEO was perceived as a forward-thinker and his use of Social Media meant that there were many company advocates who were engaged both internally and externally.

How did this work? What were the factors that allowed this multi-national company to embrace corporate blogging where so many other companies in the same industry lagged?

There are three key points for creating a culture that adopts and thrives in Social Media:

1) Someone at the top has to "get" it.

If that isn't there, then nothing else will ever work. It'll all be rendered into marketing speak and fake bonhomie that will probably make the company look more asshatish, than if they just didn't do anything. No one likes to be talked down to - neither employees nor consumers will respond to an insincere or superficial effort at connection.

Social Media has to have someone at the executive level setting the bar for use, or it is likely to become a mockable attempt at communication.


2) A culture of sharing.

This is harder than it sounds. If people are glued to their desks and never talk to one another in real life, it's gonna be a bitch to get them to talk online. In one of the worst cultures I ever was part of, everyone used Social Media - to talk to their friends. There was no internal group, no one actually talked with one another.  And despite the fact that the company was supposedly focused on Social Media, their blog doesn't allow comments.


3) Clear directives.

It's all nice and fine to say, "we should be more engaged" but if employees don't have very clear, very explicit guidelines on what can and can't be talked about on the corporate blog, there will be confusion, even if they are given freedom to post. In a regulated industry, that confusion can have repercussions for many years.

Without these three qualities, any corporate blog will immediately become another means for publishing press releases. The blog will fail to support the corporate communications strategy, or the business, and will be completely ignored by the consumers.

With these three key points, a corporate blog, whether internal or external, will survive and thrive.

The Secret Formula for Great Guest Posting

You've got a blog and it's going well - but now you want to expand your audience and perhaps even give space to topics you normally wouldn't address. As Mack Collier said on Quora, the best way to drive traffic to a blog is to leave it.

I write two blogs of my own and I have monthly columns on two other blogs. In addition, I'm occasionally asked to contribute a guest post to a colleague's blog. In most cases, I jump at the chance. I have regular guest posters at one of my blogs as often as I can; these guests cover materials I won't discuss myself - and they provide a different voice on things I have discussed already.

By reaching out to your readers and your peers for Guest posters and Guest posting opportunities, you have a chance to expand your reach, your scope and your writing skills. Here are a few things to think about as you decide whether to look for a guest to post on your blog, or whether to seek out a guest posting opportunity:

Have Something Unique to Say - Bringing a fresh perspective to your favorite blogs makes you a valuable resource to your fellow bloggers. When you're looking for a new voice, give someone with an alternate opinion a chance or someone whose voice is unlike yours. This allows your readers, or the readers of the other blog, exposure to a different way of thinking or a different style of writing - something that can really refresh a one-person blog.

Understand their Style - To be a good Guest Poster, it's worth taking a moment and reading the blog you're contributing to - note topics that are typically not addressed, or are regularly addressed. The blog you write may have a specific format that you can share with a guest - but do you also have a certain style that your audience has become accustomed to? Fitting in with the written and unwritten rules a blog has established makes it easier for the audience to get comfortable with the material, the perspective and the writer.

Know Your Community - You have peers; people whose blogs you read regularly, people with whom you converse on a regular basis in your networks. These people are your community. Know them, know their blogs and online magazines. By reaching out to them you'll have both a pool of great bloggers to recruit from and a place to put your off-topic-for-your-blog-but-still relevant-to-the-industry-posts.

Value Add - Guest posting for someone else provides an opportunity to bring some of your readers to the new blog...and having guests in gives you a chance to bring in new readers who are already fans of the other writer. If you can add value on top of that, through extra promotion, excitingly different content or a new venue, you'll gain increased exposure. Value add in your content too - bring additional depth, new resources and more tools to the discussion, so that the audience gets more than just a new voice.

Regardless if you are looking to be a guest poster or to find a guest for your own blog, the Number 1 thing you must do is:

Ask - No one will intuit that you're looking for a new voice on your blog. And no one knows you're looking to write guest posts unless you say it. Ask your peers if they'd like a post by you - ask your readers to send in submissions for guest posts. Reach your own hand out to expand your network and in no time at all, you'll find you are increasingly desirable as a guest poster and/or host.

Who Needs to Know About Your Blog?

In descending order of importance, here are the people who need to know that your blog exists:

People who Care About Your Topic

Blog Reporters in Your Field

Major Blog Aggregators

Social Media Aggregators

Search Engines

This seems horribly counterintuitive, because most people will tell you to keyword up so people who are looking for information on your topic will find you through search. But how do you actually rise in the search engines? By getting links to your blog from other, reputable sources.

The people who need to know about your blog most are the people who are *already* interested in your topic. They may be hanging out in forums, on mailing lists, Facebook or Google Groups, Twitter or IRC. Unless you find them and tell them about your blog, and about what it can do for them, they may never find it. Why? Because they are *already interested in your topic.* They have established hangouts and sources of information - they aren't searching for sites or information on the topic. These are the people who would comprise your core audience - if they knew about your blog.

Every industry, hobby and interest has someone, somewhere, collecting information and sharing it. Whether that person calls themselves a reporter or a linkblogger, online journalism has greatly expanded the sources a person can potentially use to learn about a topic. A few minutes with a tool like Alexa, or a Search Engine can lead you to the top sources for information and news in your field. Contact the editor - offer to write a piece on your topic, add some material to their encyclopedia, provide news for their feed or links through Twitter - do whatever you can to get noticed by them. This gets you on their radar and turns your blog into a source of information. News sites and news blogs often have a lot of followers - many only tangentially interested in your angle, but your name will get out there in front of a lot of people who would otherwise never have heard of you - and who *might* be interested if they knew your blog existed.

While you're out there looking for Links In to bolster your search ranking, don't forget blog aggregators in your topic area. Some are automatic, and will scrape your content through your RSS feeds (probably without permission) but others will require registration and/or submission of your blog. These aggregators are surprisingly excellent ways to get attention for your recent posts.

Social Media Aggregators like Reddit or Digg are incrementally useful if your topic is specialized, or you're entering a field with established opinion leaders. For instance, a Mashable post is going to get way more Diggs than anything I write here. It's not an expression of quality, but of quantity. If you have a small, but devoted following, asking them to share your links won't hurt. Don't expect them to bring in a gazillion new followers, but they might bring you incremental growth in people who actually care about your topic.

If you've done all the above - and you've got a blog built on a foundation of relevant content - the final step is a no-brainer. Search Engines will find you, because your keywords and phrases are well-placed, you have links in from reputable pages and people are looking for your blog, specifically. Set the other pieces up and the Search Engine piece will fall into place as naturally as it can. Be mindful of the relative size of your audience, the other sites and blogs with which you compete, so you're not delusional about the importance or impact of your blog on a Search Engine - and don't assume that being on Page 3 of a Search Engine is the end of your blog.

Work outwards from a small core of people who care, to build a solid blog audience that will support you in your expansion. Drop stones carefully into your pond and watch the ripples move outward to create a greater impact.

Life in the (Comments) Field

Once again, Twitter is to thank for today's post on the care, feeding and maintenance of Blog comments.

Comments are many things to a blogger - they are a measure of engagement, a way to determine the health of your blog, the reach, the coherence, the interactivity.... Comments are the way you know you're not just talking to yourself.

And so, when Social Media star ShellyKramer mentioned the other night on Twitter that she deeply disliked moderated comments on blogs, I thought that would make a stellar topic for discussion.

With thanks (and apologies for not attributing quotes directly) to Melinda Beasi, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber, Johanna Draper Carlson David Welsh and many others I'd like to summarize the Pros and Cons of Moderating Comments:

1) When You Delete, You Are Moderating...and Censoring

We all pretty much agreed with Shelly that anytime we chose to delete a post (aside from spam) we are making a decision to censor. This is not a universally bad thing, because as a blogger it is both our right and responsibility to keep the conversation in the comments relevant and friendly. (See #2.) But it can also lead to needing to have the last word.

Just as you toss out mail that is junk, there is nothing wrong with deleting spam, or shaping the conversation towards an end, but there are powerful pitfalls associated with deletions of posts. You can throw out mail that touts causes you don't believe in at home, and on your blog you *can* get rid of dissent or irrelevancy. It's important to know when you are riding that line.


2) Curating the Comments is Part of Your Job as a Blogger

Another commenter pointed out that, as a reader, there was an expectation on their part that the blog owner *would* curate comments and shape the conversation to keep it friendly, lively and non-toxic.

This will of course, depend on the purpose of your blog. Some are designed to *be* incendiary, some are meant to be educational, informative, conversational. Some blogs encourage dissenting opinions (I like to think mine are among those) and others are meant as a forum for a particular perspective. They way you curate the conversation should be in line with the mission of your blog. Maintain and support that position as consistently as possible, so commenters know what to be able to expect - for instance I now have this statement posted on my other blog:

...any comment that contains the word "objective" or "objectivity" is subject to rejection. This is a review blog - it's all personal opinions, all the time. Mine and yours.

Which was to expressly state that objections to my opinions are welcome, as long as they don't take the position of being in some way "objective," which opinions never are. ^_^

Setting ground rules helps your readers know where they stand.


3) It's Your Blog, You Don't Have to Apologize For Closing The Comments

A number of bloggers and forum moderators said flat out that if someone was misbehaving overtly, they had no compunction about closing that thread. The phrase bandied about was "Is that person being a dick?"

I and a number of other people weighed in with a slightly different perspective - people are allowed to be opinionated, but when they cease to be entertaining/informative/unique, the thread will be closed. In my case I have explicitly stated that "it is time to stop now" or "you have ceased to be entertaining." In both cases this means that the fourth incredibly long, single-spaced rant you have written on why I am wrong is pretty much exactly like the other three that have already been allowed. Nothing new is being said, so I'm going to stop approving posts.


4) Having The Last Word is Overrated

At least one person argued strongly that deleting comments or closing threads is always tantamount to needing to have the last word - and this can absolutely be true.

I frequently allow commenters to continue the topic as long as they want - even if they post serially until, as above, they start repeating themselves or are simply rehashing the same grievances in different form.

I rarely, if ever, require the last word. To be very honest, I prefer to let the craziest, most delusional posts stand for themselves, because I find that more amusing than any attempt I can make to punctuate that person's insanity on my own. (Mean, I know. But that's how I roll.)


5) Know Toxicity When You See It

Overwhelmingly, bloggers felt that when comments became toxic *for the readers* was when it was time to close the thread. No one I spoke to cared much about ad hominem attacks, but several of us felt that when the attacks addressed the readers, or the posts were close to threats against readers, they had to be stopped.

Toxicity goes back to #2. Part of the blogger's job is to make reading the blog enjoyable for the readership. If you run a very controversial blog and invite that kind of commenting, then as long as readers know what to expect, that's fine. But imagine the slap on the face effect when a person is reading a comments thread only to be told that if they disagree or agree, they are /something really insulting and rude/ or /terrible thing should happen to them/.

Serial ranting can also cause a thread to become toxic, just as a serial ranter at work can ruin the team environment.


6) Use an Engagement/Conversation Strategy

I use what I call the "3-comment" rule. I will engage with and respond to commenters up to 3 times on any given thread. Since I have written the original post, I'm willing to clarify or comment but, after 3 comments, I stop. This allows the commenters to comment on each other...and allows the comments thread to start to shift organically to other topics. I don't stop that and I often encourage it with ex-site conversation (for instance, encouraging someone to comment based on something we're discussing elsewhere.)

Other bloggers use questions at the end of a post to encourage responses. Of course some rely on strongly worded opinions (not any of the above bloggers, but it is a fact of blogging that some do) and some folks explicitly request feedback and/or suggestions.

On WordPress, bloggers can set auto-approval, so once a person's comments to a blog have been approved, that person no longer needs to be moderated. This feature is not available on Blogger. I wish it were and have already requested it.

Moderation is especially invidious on online magazine-type blogs. It's unlikely that Mashable, for instance, is getting loads of hate mail to need moderation. But if you have a topic (or a personality) that attracts strongly worded, insulting or plain old crazy responses, it makes sense to have a gentle, firm hand on the comments.

Lively commenting is a good indicator of the well-being of your blog. Encourage comments, don't make moderation a tedious process for your readers, keep both eyes on your mission as you approve those posts and you'll develop a thriving ecosystem in the comments field.

Best Practices for Promoting Your Blog

How do I get my Blog Noticed?

What's the best way to spread the word and get visitors to my blog?

Based on the number of times I see these questions, and their various iterations, these are the top concerns for people thinking about blogging. Related questions like "which WordPress theme should I use?" and "which hosting platform should I blog on?" still come down to the real meat of the matter - how do you get noticed?

Once you've decided to blog, regardless of what Wordpress theme you use, SEO strategy you choose, directories you list your blog in, here are three best practices which are the key to being noticed by people who count.

Cultivate contacts in your industry

Know the other bloggers who write about topics relevant to your audience. Comment on their blogs, follow them on Twitter, meet up with them at networking events. Take the time to build relationships with your industry news sources and blogs similar or tangential to yours. Relationships with others in your field will get your blog added to Blogrolls and link pages on profiles and sites that people with similar interests and concerns will visit. Feel free to link to them in your posts, engage in conversation with them, move that conversation across both your blogs (and on to other platforms on which you interact) and you'll find that you can expand each other's audience in a totally organic way.

Provide an open environment for discussion

It's very easy to state an opinion. Strong opinions will sometimes provoke strong reactions. But to get a true conversation going, you need to provide an environment that encourages and inspires diverse ideas. Asking a question of your readers, or inviting them to chime in with their ideas is a way to open the floor and get some noise going. The more people who feel free to comment, the more they will feel free to share your post and links to the comments among their contacts.

Reward your most engaged readers

Promotional campaigns aren't just for companies. Finding a way to "promote" your readers when they promote your blog can make a huge impact, in a simple way. On my other blog, I award Hero badges to people who sponsor a review, and Correspondent badges to people who provide tips for our weekly news report. Make your most engaged readers feel special and they'll want to support you even more.

These three tips all involve incremental additional work. Rather than spending time on LinkedIn asking how you can get your blog noticed, you can get out there and comment on a related blog, share some knowledge on Twitter, talk to someone at an event. In the same time it took to ask "how do I?" you'll see continued growth in your readership, more engagement in the comments and more passion from your advocates.

Now it's your turn: What do you consider a "Best Practice" in promoting your blog and expanding your audience? I'll collect up the answers for a follow-up post!

Three Rules of Blog Commenting for Fun and Profit

Any discussion of community and network building will inevitably touch upon commenting on other people's blogs as a great way to both promote yourself and expand your own sphere of influence. Here's three simple rules of Comment Etiquette that will set you on the right path.

Give to Get

The very best way to gain respect, increase your network and make friends is to share information. You have knowledge about your field and there are people who need and want it. Make yourself as available as you can to them. Offer advice when it's asked for, sympathy where it's needed and generally be an open book that people can turn to when they need a prompt.

Use your knowledge to set people on the right path and offer up lessons gained from your experience to provide others with a mentor or peer they can turn to when the chips are down.


Don't Sell - Talk

Writing a compelling comment takes humility. When you comment on someone else's blog, make sure the focus is on their content and what you can add to it. You have a unique perspective, unique experiences, but that person's blog is not about you. Don't take the opportunity to shift the focus onto yourself. It feels forced...and a little selfish. This is their blog - help them out. Add something to the conversation; present a new option. Don't derail the conversation in this space by pointing to another one somewhere else, unless it's really relevant to the topic at hand. And don't take that moment to pitch your exciting new product. It's not going to be as welcome as you might expect.


Avoid Zingers

There's an expectation in some spaces on the Internet that conversations have "winners" and "losers." For a lot of good (and bad) reasons that I won't be going into here, conversations on the Internet are often seen as battles that have to be won. And many people believe that the sure way to "win" a conversation is to kill it.

In reality, comments are only worth as much as they further a conversation. Your zinger may give you the feeling of a "win," but really, you've lost - not only is the conversation dead for everyone, you'll get a reputation as a troll.

Before you comment, ask yourself - is this comment going to contribute to the conversation? Will it prolong it? Am I opening doors or shutting them? Of course, we all have a moment or two when we're not in the most tolerant mood, but the more often you take a moment, breathe, and set down a comment that keeps the conversation going, the more you'll get a reputation as someone worth listening to.

As a colleague says, "First Thought Wrong," by which she means that it's important to take a moment - make sure you breathe - and consider what is about to come out of your mouth.

Use the same consideration on other people's blogs as you'd like on your own - share information, keep the conversation going. Then your comments will be seen as a valuable addition and you as a valuable resource.

A Simple, Delusion-Free Guide to Monetizing Your Blog

You've got a blog.

You like blogging and you get a a nice number of readers every day. It seems like a natural choice to monetize your blog and get something back for your efforts.

There is a lot of press about people making a living from their blogs - and some people do, it's true. There are a small number of professional bloggers out there who can make reasonably significant money from their blog, part- or full-time wages.

In many of these cases, these people had a large following *before* they began to blog. In others, they focused on celebrity gossip and related topics. It's unfortunate, but celebrity is the easiest way onto the money train. Today's post is for the rest of us.

I'm writing this post with two assumptions - 1) That you enjoy blogging in and of itself and; 2) That you are not trying to game the system and create an income machine. If you want to know how to fake your way into fast money, this is definitely not the post for you. If you have a blog you love and want to understand what you can *reasonably* do, read on. :-)

Here are Four Methods for Monetizing your Blog:


Banner, Block and Interstitial Ads

It's probably safe to say that the biggest ad network used by bloggers is Google Adsense, but it is not the only ad network out there. Many ad networks, both big and small, allow for creation of ads that can be placed in a variety of locations on your blog.

Banner ads were very popular in the early days of blogging. Many free blogging spaces put their own top banners above your blog to pay for your use of the space. These days banners are less common on blogs, because they separate your content from the audience in what is a very crucial space in your blog - below your header and above the cut, where they have to scroll down in order to keep reading. Banners across the bottom of a blog are often ineffective, because people read what's above the cut on your page and may not read all the way down.

Today, ads in the sidebars and in between posts, known as interstitial ads, are quite common. Block ads can be placed just about anywhere on a blog and can be practically any size. Interstitial ads separate posts or separate the top of a post from the bottom - you see this quite often on news/magazine sites: "Continue reading below." Interstitial ads that separate posts add distance between one post an another, but can also appeal directly to an audience with properly targeted ads.

Strengths: These kinds of ads are very easy to set up and, with most ad networks, a certain amount of targeting to your audience and topic is available. You can manage size and location so that these ads are not *that* intrusive.

Weaknesses: Your audience may not respond all that kindly to obvious monetization of your blog. Non-intrusive ads might not receive any attention at all. Bury your ads in the bottom right hand corner of the blog and no one will click on them. Many experts recommend avoiding interstitial ads, because they say it looks cheap. The irony is that at least two of the experts I saw with that advice had an ad planted squarely in the middle of their copy. So take your expert advice with a grain of salt. :-)

Be Aware: All ad networks have rules against you clicking your own ads to drive up rates. They also have rules about you making a point in the blog to encourage your readers to click the ads. Furthermore, many smaller ad networks have rules about mixing and matching advertising networks on one blog. Be careful to read the Terms of Service and not get on the wrong side of an ad network, or you could find your earnings held hostage or revoked altogether.


Contextual Advertising

Should your blog reach a certain number of visitors per month, you may be able to add contextual ads to your copy. These are, once again, served by a number of advertising networks. These ads appear as double-underlined links in your text and usually provide a pop-up ad as the reader scrolls over them. There isn't that much targeting available to you through these networks, since the words in your copy provide the context. Sometimes, the ads are hilariously off-topic.

Strengths: These forms of advertising are small, reasonably non-intrusive at first glance and sometimes actually useful.

Weaknesses: Contextual Advertising is not as targetable as banner/block ads and the pop-ups can be both annoying and are often blocked by readers.

Be Aware: There's no legal way to point out to your readers that these are not some evil virus put there by your blog host, but are, in fact, a way for you to make money. You have to hope that your readers are sophisticated enough to get what you are doing - something you can't rely on, realistically.


Affiliate Marketing

This is probably the most tried-and-true method of blog monetization. If you have a strong, focused topic, there are probably folks out there selling related items. There are any number of affiliate marketing networks, a little time searching around will surely come up with the best one for your blog.

Affiliate marketing works best when the blog actually discusses the items being marketed. This draws the reader's attention to the item directly.

Strengths: Affiliate marketing works well for review blogs, subject-enthusiast blogs, blogs in niches where information about relevant products and services are hard to find.

Weaknesses: Bloggers that rely heavily on sponsorships and received items can appear biased. There's a fine line to walk between unbiased, honest reviews and making yourself either unpleasant or a stooge.

Be Aware: Reviews of featured products are now reportable to the FTC and to the IRS. Bloggers should be aware of the new regulations and disclaim properly when reviewing received items.


Your Products and Services

Ideally, you have a unique idea or, at least, a unique approach to an idea. Perhaps you've written a book about it, or have branded T-shirts and coffee mugs or...something. Don't be afraid to commoditize you. Book, shirts, your services - these can all be featured on your blog as a way for your readers to show that they are part of your "team."

Strengths: You are selling youself, your ideas, your creativity. These are (or should be) your areas of strength - what you do best.

Weaknesses: No one cares until you make them care. Have a book? How nice. Having a book does not mean anyone will buy it - until that book becomes the most relevant and interesting thing for them.

Be Aware: The more you put yourself out there, the more you will draw attention - both good and bad. Be ready for negative reviews of your book, bad client experiences and nasty commenters on your blog. Note that they exist, then move on.


None of these monetizing methods give you a bye from promoting your blog, expanding your network or doing the work to create good, relevant, compelling content. If you are already doing the work these methods still might not bring in $$$ while you have 100 readers. But, when you have 100,000 readers or 1,000,000 readers, you might be one of those few who can say they make a living at blogging.

Congratulations! It's a Blog! Part 2

In Congratulations! It's a Blog! Part 1, we covered WHY you might want to blog and WHERE. Today we're going to touch on the real meat of the matter - WHAT to blog.

Remember, you need to have something to say. Here's a few ideas for keeping your blog relevant to your business and interesting to your readers.


Give your customers insight into your expertise.

Let's say you are a landscaping specialist. You have knowledge about plants, about sustainability, about climate and about terrain. These will all make great content for short, pithy posts in a blog. If you are not the wordy kind, you can show before and after pictures - maybe you can share some of your concept sketches.

Communicate the unique qualities of your business.

You've got a band and you're getting some good local press. Now it's time to ratchet up that social media profile and really sell yourselves. Provide examples of what makes your music, your sound, your look unique. You could highlight the charisma of your lead, the sultry sexiness of the bass player and the polyrhythmic skills of the drummer with video and stills. Downloads and merchandise are a great way to get your name out and build your brand.

Be the expert you are.

You know the ins and outs of your business better than anyone. And there is nothing that people like better than a glimpse behind the wizard's curtain. Open up your workshop, talk about the creative process, or the fabricating process. Let people see how you do what you do and they will respect you even more for knowing what goes into it.

You are not being graded.

One of the nice things about blogs is that you can be you. Typos can be fixed, syntactical errors become your very own down-home earthy style. Sure, it's no good to put incoherent ramblings out there - although that *can* get you a readership! - but you don't have to worry that it's not worthy of your sixth-grade English teacher.

Write what you know, the way you know it. Talk to your readers the way you talk.

In short - Be Yourself.

Talk with your readers, open up a dialogue through comments and ask questions and soon you'll have more than enough to write about. And, at that point, you'll have a really vital, unique and worthwhile blog for your business.

Congratulations! It's a Blog! Part 1

If you've been anywhere online these days, you know that blogs are one of the most popular segments of the Social Media world. And if you are running any kind of business, you've probably been told, "You should have a blog!"

As with so many pieces of good advice, this is really quite useless unless you know what that actually means to you.

Let's back up. Blogs started about 10 years ago. The original idea was that a "web log" would be like a diary, only instead of it being kept in the back of your desk drawer with an ineffective lock, it would be available online for other people to read.

And, for about 4 years, that's where they stayed.

Blogs through the early part of the 00's were mostly written by young people. They often included information like "Mood" and "What I'm listening to." From OpenDiary through Xanga to LiveJournal (which is so far off the radar of most Social Media gurus that few have ever heard of it...but it is nonetheless quite popular) and right on up through MySpace, which became popular precisely because it combined the popularity of diary-like blogs, real-time communication and multimedia.

Although blogs are often still perceived as being no more than kiddie diaries, almost as soon as they were taking off, they were being turned towards more business-oriented use. Reviewers, subject experts, small businesses, artists, musicians all turned to this new technology to reach out to a thinly and widely-spread audience. An uploaded MP3 could reach listeners who would never make a local gig; a book review might be read by anyone, anywhere in the world; and someone looking for custom-made shoes might happen upon your blog about...custom-made shoes.

So, now let's take a look at your business. You don't really want to blog about your mood (unless you are therapist) or what music you're listening to (unless you run a record store.) What you want to write about is *your business.*

Before we begin to talk about WHAT to blog, let's talk about WHY you should blog.

You should blog if you have something to say.

I get this alot, "I know I should blog but...."

Should you blog? Don't assume you should just because other people do.

Blogs are work. They take time - even short blogs take time. If you want to represent your business, starting a blog then never updating it looks worse than having no blog. It casts doubt on your ability to follow through with a project. It looks half-assed.

You should definitely blog if you have a unique perspective that you want to share with people. For instance....this blog, SocialOptimized. There are a zillion "experts" in the field of Social Media. Most of them are so caught up in trends and jargon that it's impossible to understand them without a MBA. Worse, few of them remember that you have *no idea what they are talking about.* On this blog I walk back to where you are and guide you forward into Social Media without jargon or delusion. It's a completely unique perspective that I wanted to share. So...I started a blog! :-)

Right now, think of three things about your business you might want to talk to someone about. The process of mixing a perfume, the challenges of video editing, the joy of teaching someone to read. If you can think of three things, you can probably blog. If you stared at that sentence and came up with nothing...then maybe a blog just isn't for you. There's many other ways to get information across - you can have a gallery, a video, a podcast....don't worry. Not everyone's meant to blog.

Once you'd decided that you can make the time commitment to blog regularly, the next question you might have is WHERE should you put the blog.

The real answer is - it doesn't matter. But again, that's not helpful to you.

Look up "blog" on Google and you're going to hit the two big blog hosting sites right away - Blogger and Wordpress. Blogger is a little easier to set up, I think. As a downside, it has less customization, less "widgets," available. Wordpress is a little bit more complicated, but there are more things you can do with it.

People will tell you that one or the other is better for Search Engine Optimization. Do not listen to them. That is useless information when you are deciding where to set up a blog. And, more importantly, good content will provide good search engine results. We'll talk keywords later...right now, just pick the site that you like best because, for the moment, customization isn't the point. Your point is the point.

Register for an account.

This one is easy - just follow the steps on the site.

Pick a name for your blog

This step is not easy. You can be clever, use your business' name, your own name, whatever you choose, but you must recognize that this blog is part of your brand identity now. Choose carefully.

Pick a focus for your blog - i.e., know what your blog is about.

This step is also not as easy as it sounds. It's tempting to come up with a vague idea, i.e. "The life of a printer," but then you don't really know what you are blogging about. This blog is an expression of your brand and it should, at the core, support and promote your business - especially if your business is you.

Go ahead and write about the life of a printer, but remember not to give in to temptation and badmouth clients, or talk about that wild party you went to last night unless you are the premier printer for rock bands and it'll help, not hurt.

Pick a look for your blog.

All of the major blog hosting sites have standard designs, and you can choose from some custom designs. (These usually live under the name "Templates" in the Formatting section of your blog setup.) It's as easy as clicking a few buttons to get a new look. If you want a format that is more integrated with your business's overall look, you'll need to bring in a designer to help you figure out what you want.

Whether you choose Blogger or Wordpress or LiveJournal or any blogging platform, read the step-by-step instructions on how to set up your blog. There are also many Blog Tutorials out there that you can access easily through a search engine of choice.

To sum up, first think - then rethink - WHY you want to blog. Then decide WHERE you want to blog. And to finish off today, consider WHEN you will have time to blog and HOW OFTEN you plan on maintaining it.

Once you have these before-the-basics down, congratulations, it's a blog!

We'll move on to WHAT and HOW to blog in Part II.