Expert Blogging Advice to Hate (Even though I mostly do follow the bloggers who gave them)
1) Choose one topic to focus on- by a lot of probloggers.
2) Pick a niche- by almost all probloggers3) Choose a blogging frequency and stick to it- by a lot of probloggers
4) Don’t write about blogging- Nathan Hangen
I am a follower of Nathan. I follow him via twitter and I receive his newsletter. He has valuable and fun advice to offer. But it doesn’t mean I’ll agree with everything he says. Obviously, Nathan won’t give a damn about what I think about a particular advice, but that’s not the point.
He says that not everyone should give blogging advice. This, I agree with.
“Seriously, outside of the people that actually make money blogging, there’s no need for people teaching others how to blog, especially when many of these teachers aren’t even qualified to teach. That’s like taking a college physics class and then thinking that you’re good enough to teach physics.”
(you can read his post here:http://nathanhangen.com/blog/where-99-of-bloggers-go-wrong/ )
But then again, why should people limit themselves to 5 or 6 experts in the field? Guaranteed, these guys rock at blogging. But, sometimes they might overlook some stuff. Sometimes I can’t get from Brian Clark that I get from Chris Garrett. I loved Andrew Hansen’s e-book and all that but…
But sometimes you want to learn from someone who has been where you are a short time ago. Sometimes rookies understand other rookies better than anyone else. It is like…does Brad Pitt really remember what it was like to be a struggling actor anymore? How well does John Grisham remember being rejected by publishers? It was such a long time ago…
So yeah, I will give blogging tips. Because I have been studying and researching my butt of these last couple of months and I’d rather have others not get lost in research the way that I did. And also because I follow Chris Garrett and his “killer flagship content” in this matter – when you are an intermediate at something, you can teach something to the beginners.
As much as I like Nathan, I am with Chris here. See, what if Chris hadn’t been a problogger? All the other probloggers and his advice was the one that I needed. Variety rocks, Nate. Let us find our own way.
5) Don’t put stuff into more than one category- Andrew Hansen?
I think it was Andrew Hansen. And he really has a perfectly logical explanation so I am begrudgingly putting my posts into one category. But some posts can go into more than 1 category- all related. When a reader looks at your blog and selects a post according to a category, you don’t really know which one he/she is after. So if you put a post into the relationships category and it is heavily related to the movies, you might scare the guy who would otherwise read and love the post, had it been posted in movies as well. Well, wordpress allows you to tick as many categories as you want but Andrew warns that google and other search engines hate duplicate content And those search engines are the ones that bring the reader to you in the first place so…It is complicated.A bummer, this situation.
6) Don’t use more than 10 keywords – by WordPress
This is a WordPress advice I found on WordPress. According to my dear blogging platform, it is not favorable to put more than 10 tags. They say this will drag us down on the list of popular wordpress blogs. Some posts do require more than 10 tags/keywords. Just because I don’t have a niche blog, ?t doesn’t mean I don’t write niche posts. I am not sure about probloggers’ or google’ position on this one. But traffic is traffic and I can’t just underestimate the power of WordPress. Damn.
7) Your blog is not a business- David Risley
David is the author of Six Figure Blogging Blueprint. Again, I am a follower. But this sentence just evokes rebellion. Yes, it is. It is a business. I refuse to see it solely as a tool for money or gaining audience. Because for one; gaining audience is my sole purpose. I don’t have any other side business to promote. Granted, I am a writer and my blog does often serve as a part of my portfolio but my blog is my baby. It is my brand. It is my office. It does become a tool sometimes but it is also the business itself. As I said, it is my cyber office. And I don’t care whether it directly brings money.
David says:
“A blog is not a business. All those bloggers who have failed to make money, who have been trying desperately to make more than a few bucks from all their quality blog posts… they all fail because they’ve missed one VITAL point.
…That blogging is not a business model.”
I am not saying he has a very good point. But I’ll again take the easy wikipedia route (and again I am backing myself up through some solid Chris Garrett advice)- a business is A business (also called a company, enterprise or firm) is a legally organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers-
It is not of course David’s fault that we bloggers struggle to make a decent income of the blog. But not all businesses succeed. We (rookie bloggers) might be lousy managers but that doesn’t mean our blog is just a tool. Was it personal? Of course. It is my blog. It is personal. It is my business. I just checked out his blogs and found tons of stuff to read about- again. To apply in my cyber office;)
8 ) The I’ll scratch your back, and you scratch mine mentality: (not their exact words but this is exactly what they are talking about) – by most probloggers.
We are supposed to engage in a related- community, make friends, provide value, establish authority, make a name for ourselves and attract those people to our blogs. OK. So we need to pick some good forums (well, maybe I need to pick like 25, since I do have a lot of topics going on..) and participate. Well, that takes a lot of time and effort. But our blog deserves it and suceess doesn’t come easy- so fair enough. But you don’t really know how many followers you will have (some people love forums and don’t like to follow links or read stuff anywhere else). So, it might be time well-invested or time thrashed. Then you need to the same thing in social bookmarking sites that (for instance) stumble upon will work for you, for instance. Oh, and there is facebook and twitter. But wait a minute, those bloggers did tell us that we should also show “love” for other people so that they will do favors for us. Plus, those networking places won’t label us as spammers if we “like” other people’s stuff as well. What? Feeling frustrated? Absolutely. It is a smart advice, but applying it takes time, effort and it does take a little away from your endurance levels. Terrific. (yes, of course that was sarcasm).
Good luck and patience to us all..
Next I’ll be sharing my blogging resources. Keep the faith! (it is not a religious advice. It is a Bon Jovi song;))
Other Posts on Blogging
Top Five Reasons Why Every Writer Should Blog
Triond vs. Blogging: Similarities, Differences and Benefits
Two Worst Comments Ever- It’ll Drive Most Bloggers and Writers Mad
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