Mind the Beginner

As some of my readers already know I’m working on a challenge to get my blog to grow big enough so that I can reclaim my domain. Big enough is defined here as >500 pageviews a day for seven consecutive days or >300 subscribers to my RSS feed. There already have been several occasions where readers have asked me how things were going. So I’ve decided to give an update every weekend on how things are going. I’ll split those up into four items:

• Average number of pageviews over this week (Monday-Friday)
• Number of subscribers to my RSS feed
• Where the traffic is coming from
• What I’ve done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned

The observant reader will also know that not only has my domain been bought and I’ll get it for free if I manage to succeed, but another benefactor has stepped in who offered me free web hosting for a year.

Average number of viewers: 117
Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 8
Where is the traffic coming from:

Mostly it’s getting here through the problogger.com forum (31DBBB)at the moment, a few more get here through my twitter and a few find their way through comments I’ve left on other blogs. The remainder get here through all sorts of little things I’ve done such as putting up a link to my blog in the signatures I have on all the forums I visit.

What I’ve done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned:

I’ve become quite active on the 31DBBB forum and that alone has doubled my pageviews. I’ve also managed to be (one of) the first to comment on the new 31DBBB blogpost as it hit the net and as the assignment got announced on the forum. These both have resulted in a lot of traffic coming this way but it’s not the kind of attention you want to be getting in the long run. So as of next week I will no longer react to the assignments within minutes but will wait until after 7 pm to act upon them. That’s a good three to four hours after problogger posts the new assignment for the day. It’s not always good to be first. 

On the problogger forum I’ve set up a topic searching for other bloggers so we can help each other through Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.isi.us. and other means of promotion. As I’m writing this I’ve only gotten two other bloggers to join me but I hope more will follow. Perhaps I’ve turned the 31DBBB forum visitors against me already by being to omnipresent. 

I’ve received several mails of people who did a quick review of my site. Stating what they were missing and how things felt to them. The biggest issue is that the niche of my blog isn’t clear right off the bat although the minimalistic style and the “relaxing” green header combined with the title of my blog gives a vague idea as to what it’s all about. So far people are positive about its as a whole. I’ll tweak the layout when I get Wordpress.org. I like this layout a lot but there are minor things I’d like to change. I’d like a three column layout for instance and a subheading to go with the title of my blog.

I’ve seriously edited my “about” page after getting numerous comments (I asked for a review on the 31DBBB forum,worked like a charm) that my picture was portraying me as very inaccessible. People thought I was a speaker of sorts. Truth be told I was a picture taking during my final presentation in order to graduate as B. Health. I’m not a regular suit wearer though. So the picture got swapped for something friendlier. 

The text on the about page also got an overhaul, I hope it’s now much clearer on what this blog is all about as well as who I am as a person and blogger.

At the end of this article I now realize that getting more than 500 views on both Saturday and Sunday will be the toughest of all. As it stands I’ll only keep everyone informed on the average views Monday – Friday just to keep the excitement.

…Day in day out he stared at the statistics of his little blog, he had a dream, get his blog big enough to claim his place among the great blogs out there. Perhaps even cast a shadow over them and become the best of his niche. One day he would get there, he was convinced. They would see, just wait…

For many of us this is a dream we have about blogging. Making it big time and have a blog that will one day get into the illusive technorati top-50 blog list. Considering how many blogs there are out there this is not as easy as it sounds when we first have this dream. As soon as we start to work on realizing this dream we see just how hard it will be to get there. Struggling to get the first viewers, struggling to get people to subscribe to our RSS feed, struggling to get noticed.

A few weeks ago problogger started his 31 days to building a better blog program. The goals would be to make your blog better. With over 9000 participants he recognized a need and who better to lead all these bloggers to a better blog than the writer of the best read blog on the subject. I am one of the 9000 taking part in the program and I have another challenge. Get this blog bigger, and do it in the fast lane.

To get there we need a solid plan, stepping stones to get noticed. How to get more traffic, write quality (and quantity without loosing quality), how to get comments and get people to subscribe to your RSS feed. All these are questions we want answers to don’t we? Well, I can answer al the questions but I’ve asked myself how I would do it and the following points make up my plan:

•  Take part in the 31 days to building a better blog program and follow every piece of advice that is offered. Although this advice is temporary, it’s a great help. If I’m correct the entire 31DBBB will be offered on problogger’s site by the beginning of May.
• Use twitter to get the word out there on your blog and on new posts. Don’t overdo it though as this will become less effective over time because you saturated the market.
• Comment on other blogs in your niche, add value to their posts, be a help and do make sure you give a linkback using the “your website” box. Be honest in your comments, it’s not just about marketing your own blog on other blogs, it’s adding value.
• Participate in the comments on your own blog, let your readers know you appreciate their input and use the feedback you get. Making this obvious will make that reader appreciate you more and tell others about it.
• Set up an RSS feed. I use feedburner for this. This is very important as we all know.
• Write consistently, in the first weeks of your blog, it’s about a steady stream of posts. New readers will want to see that you regularly post on your blog. Only your trusted followers will forgive you if you don’t post for a week. Try one post a day, ever day. Try and use the right time to get your posts out. From other bloggers I’ve been told that the best time is around 1pm GMT. The US will be waking up and read your post during breakfast or in the early hours of work before really starting work. The UK will come back from lunch and take a quick peek. Australia will be done working and see your post in the evening.
• Work on the visuals. New readers will judge the looks of your site in about 0.2 seconds. If it doesn’t look right you’ve lost a reader. (Yes you had a pageview, but those don’t count, you want readers, not viewers.) Make sure your blog visually supports what you are writing. Add pictures to your posts that support the post. As a last note, most people like a light background.
• Make sure people know what your blog is about within a few seconds of looking at your front page. Some people will head off to the “about” page but if your front page isn’t clear you’ve already lost readers. Get a good one-liner up there that captures viewers.
• Don’t write outside of your niche to much. Your blog should express in it’s looks and in it’s writing what it’s about. If your writing is all over the place you won’t build a good base.
• Use all possible channels to get the word out on your blog: Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Technorati, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Blogcarnival, Forums you visit, even if they are not in your blog’s niche (make sure you have a link to your blog in your signature), I’ve probably forgotten a few, please let me know in the comments
• In all these channels, use the same name and avatar. You and your blog are a brand.
• Don’t be afraid to ask other bloggers to help you. Think guestpostings and linkbacks. Do offer something in return though! You could also reverse this and do other bloggers favours, you always get something back.
• Analyze your favorite blogs, what makes them tick for you? Why do you like to read them. Try to incorporate that into your blog. 
• Read anything “on blogging” you can get your hands on. 
• Get out there, leave your PC at times and interact with people and public places. This will teach you what is going on, what colors are used and how things are marketed. Marketing is something for professionals and their efforts are all around us. Watch and learn. Take notes, grab a cup of coffee and think about how you can apply what you’ve seen to your blog.
• Last of all: Write quality, nothing is more important than this.

Over the next months there will inevitably be more and more ideas to implement in the grand plan but this is how that plan stands so far. It’s not all implemented yet, so don’t be surprised if something changes on this blog. If there is anything you missed in this post that is part of your plan to build a better blog please do tell me about it in the comments. You will not only help me but also all the other readers that come here after you. Thanks everyone for all the ideas you’ve already supplied me with, I’m looking forward to hearing more. 

If you liked this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed and tell others about it. Thank you

Having your own .com web address is getting harder every day, all the good ones seem taken and you have to resort to ever more creative names in order to find something that’s free. When you finally find one you can use there is the next issue, what do you want to be doing with the domain? Do you want to start exploiting it immediately or do you just want to make sure that if you ever want to start using it someone didn’t snatch it from under your nose.

After finding the name you want there is that second choice, do you want the .com or the .net or perhaps something else, even down to a .nl (the Netherlands) or a .eu (European union). For most of us, the .com is the way to go and yet you see several great blogs using the .net. Why is this? After a few hours of looking into this I haven’t found the answer yet. An international extention still seems the best option unless you’re writing in your own language (non-English) and are trying to reach people in your own country.

There are blogs out there that don’t have their own space but use blogger or wordpress, you don’t have to have your own domain you see. That being said I hope one day I can transfer this blog onto my own domain. You can guess which one that will be. Now hands off ’till I claim it! As of right now I don’t have a perfectly clear plan on how to claim my domain and what it will cost me. For the moment I only want the name to be safe, paying for web hosting will have to wait until I can get the financial ball rolling. It’s not that easy trying to fund things when you’re a student.

Oh well, the big question remains. Do you want your own domain or do you settle for a domain at wordpress or blogger. The advantages of your own domain are simple:

• Better memorization
• Professional look
• Free to do whatever you want in terms of software and monetizing

The downsides are few, the biggest one for any beginner is the cost. Although it’s only a few dollars a month try paying those few dollars when your budget is already stretched as it is. This is the only reason for me not to get stared straight away. It takes some time to get a blog rolling and although it will be hell to transfer everything from here to there if the time comes it’s just that little word… “if”. Will this blog grow enough for the blog to pay for it’s own hosting?

I can tell you that this blog will grow, as long as I apply my three essentials to every single post I write.

There are a few exceptions out there to prove me wrong but for just about any blog, getting your own domain will lift your blog to the next level and certainly is the way to go. A .com or a .net is a matter of personal taste I think.

When you start with a blog or any other site not on your own domain, think hard about the name you want to use. Take a peek to see if the domain you might eventually want is still available, this might help make the transition easier to your own domain if the time ever comes. One day mindthebeginner.wordpress.com just might become mindthebeginner.com or mindthebeginner.net, both are still available as I’m writing this and will soon belong to me. I’ll make you this promise:

If one or more of the following happen I’ll transfer this blog to my own domain (whichever happens first)

• If I have more than 500 pageviews a day for 7 consecutive days.
• If I have more than 300 subscribers to my RSS feed
• If a pig flies by my window
• If this blog is still growing at a steady pace in one year from the start of this blog (March 13th 2009)

If any of these things happen the few of you who read this can say you were there when we started. Thank you for helping me begin.

If you liked this post, please feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed

I guess I’m on a roll here about the whole mountain metaphor. As I wrote in my last blogpost it’s all about getting the ball rolling, not only in life but in blogging as well. How do you get your blogball to go uphill? In my view there are only three essentials that can actually help you (other than shameless marketing and tweeting about your newest blogpost) to get noticed in this ever growing blogosphere:

Write great and original content Writing what is on your mind, even though it might not appeal to everyone. In a comment on my last posts  Jack Yuen told me that he is  ”more interested in reading about what goes on in a blogger’s mind than in what he has got to sell.” Well, because of this little comment I realized why I like certain blogs. The best example I can think of is Illuminated mind, Jonathan is all over the place at times and at the same time manages to keep a laser-like focus on what’s going on. His non-conformist writing style and the kicking against norms somehow has an appeal. At last, someone is honest… A great example of great and original content.

Be ruthlessly honest in your content Among other things it’s at times kicking against the norm. Don’t confuse the opinion of the majority with the truth. Some things hype for the oddest reasons. Some because the have an almost unrealistic appeal to us. Do you want to be a hype or honest? How do you manage to get a blog to go uphill when you don’t want to conform to the masses and try and sell? Well, actually there is a whole niche about non-conformity out there and just like any niche you can appeal to the readers and bloggers in that niche to notice your blog. Nobody likes a fake.

Do this one post at a time The last of these three essentials is taking things one post at a time like I’ve talked about before. You’re only human and can only do so much at the same time. Take things one step at a time and you’ll win that uphill struggle.

I could add more in this list like “keep to your niche” and “post frequently” but those are all obvious. (Just like the three essentials I just stated.) A longer list would quickly be forgotten or would loose it’s power of simplicity.

If you find the right niche for you and you apply these three essentials to your blog it wil grow, it doesn’t have a choice. It’s an uphill struggle though and you’ll have to work for it. All beginning is though and in blogging it stays tough as far as I can tell from reading the success stories of other bloggers. It’s worth it though, it’s fun to write and a kick to have other people like your writing. (I should have started blogging years ago… I didn’t know what I was missing.)

If you liked this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed

..That is the question is it not? Why would you blog? Why wouldn’t you? There seem to be more and more blogs every day, it’s a virus spreading on the internet. Starting up a bog is easy, you just get an account at wordpress and voila you can start writing about anything and everything. Perhaps you even get some readers who can help you and comment on your reading…  and if you’re REALLY lucky you get so many followers that you become an expert of sorts. More and more bloggers however seem to be in it only for the money. They read all these fantastic stories about making huge incomes on blogging. But is it realistic to expect your blog to get there? If you’re lucky you might make a buck or two but that is not the reason to start a blog. Blogging is hard work and it takes a long time to get readers. If you want to, you can get there however and have a tiny second income from it. Be realisic about it but don’t forget to dream.

There is a long way to go however. A way that takes you past a lot of hurdles and setbacks. For the beginner I’ve identified two major ones:

1. The actual writing
2. Getting people to read it (and comment)

For me personally, the first hurdle isn’t a hurdle. I aways find something to write about and with the upcoming problogger 31 day challenge I’ll probably get even more ideas. But that second hurdle is a major one. How do you get people on your blog and how to you provoke them into commenting and in doing that helping you with your blog. I read somewhere that out of every 100 readers on your blog, only one will comment. That’s 1% of your readers. But what if you have only about 4-20 readers a day? How do you get comments then? Patience…

Is a blog all about the comments and the statistics? As I’ve talked about before this is a beginner’s trap you should be weary of. Again the solution is simple, write for yourself and write consistently. Readers will come over time when your writing inspires people and offers a certain level of quality. Keep writing, above all keep writing and when you least expect it, your blog wil grow if that is what you want.

If you can answer for yourself what you want from your blog that’s the place to start. Set goals and work on them, one step at a time.

What do you want from your blog and how to you plan to get there? Tell me all about it please.

It has been said before but this is really important. How do you market your blog? How do you get readers? The answer is simple: one post at a time.

The last few days I’ve seen a slow rise in visitors to my blog. Visitors mostly come through two channels at the moment: Either a certain forum I attend or through Twitter where I notify people when I have a new blog post. But as any beginning blogger I want more. The trap of blogstatistics and I fell in face first, even with the big red flashing neon arrow above it stating “watch out for the trap”.

So how do we market our blog? How do we get more readers. There is only so much you can do to market your blog and after some thinking and reading I’ve come to the conclusion that indeed, you can only market your blog one post at a time. Not only blogposts though, meaningful comments on other blogs should help. If you add something meaningful the odds are at least one reader from that blog will see your comment and decide to take a look at your blog. It’s a great way to test your writing skills and to learn to give useful comments to others.  (It’s harder than it seems.) Next time you comment on a blog somewhere, make it count. Forget the “Nice blogpost, please visit my blog too.” posts you see at times. They do stand out in the crowd, but for me personally they stand out in a very negative way. 

 I must admit that the first few days I’ve been using twitter to give a heads-up on my new blog posts but you can only do that so many times before you start to loose followers because of it. There is no quick way to get a blog on the roll, it takes hard work, long hours getting out there getting known for contributing to the blogosphere. 

Problogger had an interesting post a long time ago about marketing your blog. There are great tips there but in the end, only one thing really does matter. It’s the number one on his list: Write well, write consistently, don’t give up. As we are only human, we can only do this one post at a time. 

So there we have the long and short of it. Blogging isn’t a quick way to earn money, nor is a blog an instant success. Getting more readers involves getting known…  and getting known only works properly if your writing is worthwhile. Let’s begin there, meaningful writing and meaningful commenting on other blogs.