ContentRobot

With the warmer weather hitting the Northern Hemisphere, our thoughts may be turning to playtime rather than blogging.  So, how do you keep that blog stoked?

Blogging can sometimes be as easy as sitting down at the keyboard and start typing and a post appears, but sometimes it’s not so easy. It’s a matter of working on your mindset (as well as your writing skills). Here are some things that can help you, think like a blogger:

1. Have Content Goals

Think about :

• How many posts you want to write per day / per week
• What the topics you want to focus on, push, or get away from

2. Develop a Routine

To get yourself into a rhythm, you might:

• Set deadlines for yourself
• Create an editorial calendar to help you focus

3. Keep Learning

You can never know too much about blogging.

• Read books and other blogs
• Take a course and attend conferences

4. Try Something New

Experiment with your blogging, and consider:

• Using different types of posts (teaching, opinion, etc.)
• Writing in a different voices (mentor, friend, expert, etc.)

5. Mistakes Can Be Overcome

Getting flamed in public is no fun. You’ll be quickly forgiven if you:

• Adjust your stance, your goals, or your mindset
• Learn from your biggest critics

The best bloggers continually find ways to keep it going. You can, too!

Are you still writing 2007 on your checks (if you are still writing them)? Even tho we are over two weeks into the new year, are you still struggling to say this is 2008?

Now … what does your blog’s copyright date say? Scroll down to see your footer, do you see © Copyright 2007 Your Blog Name?

While it’s a little mistake, it may be big and glaring in the eyes of any unforgiving readers. Don’t give them any reason to question why they should stay on your blog.

If you are on a PHP-driven blog (such as WordPress), you can fix it now and forever. In your footer, merely put the following code to display the year: <?php echo date(’Y'); ?>

For those of you who want to include your starting the copyright date (example: 1998-2008), just code it as follows: 1998-<?php echo date(’Y'); ?>

Not on WordPress? For hosted solutions and other blog platforms, we suggest that you check out your user guides - but get that timestamp automated.

Now, go out there and show ‘em what year we are living in!

As we head into the final quarter of 2007, we offer a variety of ways to get your blog noticed.

1. Start with a Great Design

Your mother was right — first impressions do count. An eye-catching professional design will go a long way toward:

• Showing you are serious about your blog (and care about your readers)
• Branding you (and your company) properly
• Attracting new and repeat visitors (who may be encouraged to subscribe to your content)

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Lately, our clients have been asking us what makes up a good blog post and how can they get some inspiration for creating interesting and relevant content.

What is Good Content?

What is going on in your industry right now? Look for interviews given by leaders, tips, opinion pieces, research, news, and posts from bloggers. Who are the main players in your field? What are their positions for popular issues? What context can you provide?

These all can spur ideas for your posts. While you might not be “scooping” big news, you should concentrate on generating thought leadership by stating your own view of what’s going on.

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Are you a passionate blogger? As you know, blogging is much more than slapping up a few posts per week.

When we surf around, we can immediately tell who has passion for their subject… from those who can tell a story from a small idea (reminds us of Seinfeld, the show that was “all about nothing”) … to those that can draw you in with a great picture that they took or from an image they found on Flickr.

Beyond politics or iPhone crushes, you too, can you project a little love on your blog. Here’s how: Read the Entire Post >

Late last year, ContentRobot lamented that using Microsoft Word to craft blog posts was asking for trouble.

One of the bigger issues we had was wacky formatting of certain characters (including curly quotes that display as typos or mistakes in many RSS readers).

To combat some of this silliness for our WordPress clients, we installed Unfancy Quote by Semiologic. In a nutshell, it would remove any styling to the following:

• double quotes … “this is a quote”
• single quotes .. ‘just one hash, please’
• apostrophes … like the possessive: ContentRobot’s

And, bingo, newsreaders were now a lot happier and displayed clean feeds. Everyone looked much more professional.

Enter WordPress 2.1 and its revamped WYSIWYG editor. You can now take advantage of some “hidden buttons” that allow you to easily cut and paste from Word. The new buttons are “Paste as Plain Text” and “Paste from Word.”

That’s great! But why hidden? Oh well, it’s pretty easy to get them to show and use. Click here to see how.

And here’s a WordPress thread for more information about these buttons in the new WYSIWYG.

Linkbait: verb: describe a variety of practices that have the purpose of generating links to your site.

Want to get people to link to your site? Here are five linkbaiting techniques to consider:

1. Tools - offer useful, fun or cool tools that webmasters can use on their blog. Don’t forget to point them back to your own.
2. Quizzes - quizzes, surveys and tests are popular with web users and can be quite viral. Make them fun and humorous!
3. Contests and Giveaways - create something for people to participate in. Ask interesting questions related to your topics.
4. Design - design something that others can use. A great blog theme, for example, can send the links your way.
5. Coolness Factor - write posts that are provocative, gets the scoop, exposes something, etc. While coolness can be very subjective, it can also be very linkable.

In reality, the very best way to get others to link to your blog to continually provide interesting and unique content. But it’s great to add some fun with some of the methods noted above. Blog on.

Are you commenting on other blogs? It can be a great way to bring traffic to your own blog, but you shouldn’t comment for commenting sake. Know that what you say reflects positively or negatively on your own blogs.

Here are 3 tips to follow when adding your two cents:

1. Write or ask something intelligent that extends the conversation.
2. Teach something new.
3. Make a provactive statement that makes others react. And, no, that doesn’t mean being nasty if you want to be controversial.

Finally, while its nice if others respond to the comments you’ve made, don’t take it personally if you don’t get a reaction. When you can, jump into conversations and connect - you’ll never know what can happen!

You know those products that inspire the “Nod” … like seeing someone working on a Mac Powerbook in a local cafe or the look from fellow MINI Cooper drivers at an intersection.

The Nod recognizes a person who is part of the club or someone who “gets it.” And it goes beyond having something in common.

Does Your Blog Get a Nod?
When we go to your blog, can we inherently assume your readers possess something more and that it inspires others to want to become part of it?
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Problogger has written a great post on why blog projects might lose steam after running for a while. Don’t let this happen to you!

You bit off more than they can chew
Did you start multiple blogs that the same time and find you can’t maintain them? Or did you pick a topic that is just too wide and, therefore, overwhelming?

Tip: Focus on what you enjoy most and put your heart and writing into it - it may mean dropping a blog or two, but remember that better written blogs get better results.

You ran out of things to say
Did you pick a topic that is too narrow and now you can’t find much to write about?

Tip: Find a new twist on what you’ve been talking about and see if that can revitalize your creativity and perhaps expand into new territory.
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