Bloggywood Squares starts today

June 21, 2010 By

Do you remember the TV game show, “Hollywood Squares”? Or if you’re in the UK, “Celebrity Squares”? Well they’re back… sort of.

Nathan Hangen, Mike Cliffe-Jones and Jordan Cooper are teaming up to host Bloggywood Squares – an Internet gameshow that aims to help you learn to turn your blog into a highly profitable business. Plus, if you get chosen from the audience to participate as a contestant, there are prizes on offer! Can I get an “Oooooooh”?

The preliminary rounds are at 7pm EDT weekdays, and 1pm EDT at the weekend. That’s midnight and 5pm in the UK (if I’m getting the conversion right).

The show starts tonight – so get your skates on if you want to be a part of it. Just head on over to Bloggywood Squares, put your name and e-mail address in the box provided, and you’ll get your invite to the show. Remember, you’ve got to be in it to win it :)

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WordPress Easter Egg – how to find it

May 26, 2010 By

I love easter eggs… not just the chocolate treats (although they are yummy), but hidden features in DVD menus, software, websites and, it turns out, blogging software.

Antti Kokkonen has published a guide to finding a fun easter egg in WordPress. It’s pretty straightforward and there’s no sense in republishing exactly the same info here, so head on over to Antti’s site if you want to know more.

I can confirm that this isn’t a trick – I tried it and it didn’t delete my database or anything :) And the Easter Egg does have a lovely geeky element to it.

Enjoy.

Post image by adobemac.

Filed Under: Fun, Tech Tagged With: , ,

What to do if there’s a gap in your posting schedule

May 25, 2010 By

I’ve been writing a few articles for EzineArticles.com lately, and was checking out the various plugins that are available for WordPress. There’s the official one that will allow you to repurpose your blog post as articles, and another unofficial one that works the other way… it allows you to use articles from EzineArticles.com on your blog.

It got me thinking – what do you do when you need to fill a gap in your blog‘s posting schedule? Would you use an article directory like EzineArticles.com, ask for some guest bloggers to writeyou unique content, or just leave a gap?

Article Directories

EzineArticles.com is one of the largest repositories of writings on the Internet. It’s a great place to submit an article to because you know it’s going to get read and, potentially, generate traffic for your site. They are also a huge resource of material for your blog but buying in articles is controvertial. For a start, it means the content on your site is not unique, and some people would consider that to be an insult to your readers. Search engines certainly notice duplicate content, so don’t expect to rank particularly highly for the keywords contained in your bought-in article. Secondly, if you get into the habit of using articles from directories you wil become lazy… and lazy blogging soon becomes dull for your readers.

All of this is not to say that article directories are inherently bad – just that you have to be careful how you use them.

Getting guest bloggers

Getting people to write unique content for your blog is a great way to mix things up a bit, introduce a new voice, and bring benefits to your guest author too as they are exposed to a new audience. If you have a good relationship with another blogger you may be able to find guest authors fairly easily, but it can sometimes be difficult to get people to write articles for you. Even if you do, you’ll want to ensure the guest article fits with what your readers are expecting to find on your site, and that it’s up to the standard you expect.

Of course, assuming your guest author wants to give a good impression of themselves they’ll be writing some of their best material for you. After all, this is their chance to make an impression your readers… and they’ll want to make a good one.

Leaving a gap

There’s a very strong argument that you shouldn’t just post because you feel you have to… instead you should post because you have something to say. That encourages a high quality of post, but it’s not great for your readers as they’re never quite sure when there will be something new to read. Assuming you have a very understanding readership, or that most of your readers read your site via their RSS readers this might not be too much of a problem – but what if you have readers who actually visit your site every day rather than using RSS?

So, you have a gap in your post schedule… we’ve thought about a few options… what would do you?

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: , ,

Creating compelling content that ranks well in search engines

May 11, 2010 By

SEO Copywriting ReportSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) is the dark art of the Internet. It’s like a secret club… those who know how to get their sites to rank well on Google being the members and the rest of us plebes just looking on jealously.

Brian Clark, the author of Copyblogger and founder of the Scribe SEO service, has written a fantastic report about search engine optimization. It’s completely free, so you have nothing to lose by downloading it.

What will you learn in the report? Plenty, it turns out:

  • Why SEO Copywriting Still Matters
  • How Search Engines Work
  • Why You Have to Spoon Feed Search Engines
  • The 5 Essential Elements of Keyword Research
  • How to Create Cornerstone Content That Google Loves
  • Five Link Building Strategies That Work
  • Five Areas to Focus On for Effective SEO Copywriting
  • Why Writing for People Works for Search Engines
  • How to Make SEO Copywriting Simple

If I had to sum the report up in one sentence, it would be this: When writing, write for people and the SEO will follow. After all, as Brian points, out, the search engines are there to match your content with what people are searching for – there are just a few things you have to consider to help them do that.

As I say, you’ve nothing to lose by downloading this free report and, even for someone with a little SEO knowledge like me, it was an eye-opener to read. Go on, get it now.

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How can I build community around my blog?

May 10, 2010 By

Bit of a first step for me today… my first video post. I’m afraid there’s plenty I need to learn before I get these looking slick, but I take heart from some advice I heard from Chris Brogan once, “don’t worry, be crappy” ;)

Here are a few thoughts on how to create community around a blog:

Community in Blogging from Chris Hinton on Vimeo.

Yeh, I know I said YouTube – but I ended up going with Vimeo instead. For links to the sites I was talking about, see last Thursday’s post on how community is key.

I’d love to know your thoughts. Are forums a good way to build community? Are there ways the ubiquitous commenting facility can help? How about e-mail newsletters? Tell us what you think in the comments.

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Community is Key

May 6, 2010 By

I was interested to see a video from Darren Rowse on the blog of Andrew Jones yesterday, talking about how churches should use social media. I know for many of you the subject may fall outside of your area of interest, but stick with me. If you want to watch the video, I’ve embedded it below (you’ll need flash to watch it).

Darren’s thoughts have really made me think, both with my pastor’s hat on and my blogging hat. What I’m thinking is this… Community is Key. I’ll save my thoughts on how this relates to the Church for elsewhere, but I want to record my thoughts on how this relates to everyday blogging here.

See, the blogs that I feel most drawn to are those with a good community. Guys like Johnny, Mike, James and Robert have all built up cracking communities around their sites. There’s a common adage that content is king in blogging, and I can certainly understand that point. But given the choice between two sites, both sporting excellent content, it’s the site with the more engaging community that really draws me in. In fact, I might even put up with some slightly inferior content if the community is engaging enough.

How do you create community?
I think it’s one of those delicate things you’ve really got to work at, but if you push too hard it’ll just fade away. One thing I’m absolutely certain of is that it can only be done by genuine interaction – listening to each other, discussing with each other, and sharing with each other.

That’s hard – especially on the Internet where there seems to be so many people happy to insult each other while hiding behind their computer screens. But when it works, the effort of creating… maybe building is a better word… a good community is well with it.

We’ll look at some of the ways community can be built around blogs on Monday, but in the meantime I wanted to know what you think? Is community important when deciding which websites you’re going to visit time and time again? How do you think it can be built up? Let us know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this you may also be interested in The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging.

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Problogger 2nd edition out now

April 28, 2010 By

Just a quick post today – I wanted to let you know that Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett have updated their excellent Problogger book with a second edition. The first was so good that I got two copies – one for me and another to give to a friend.

Darren says this in the e-mail he sent out about the book:

2 years is a long time in blogging and so it was time for an updated version – hence when Wiley asked us to do a 2nd edition we were only too pleased to do so.

This is an update of the 1st edition and not a complete rewrite – however there are a few significant updates including:

  • there have been many many small updates and changes throughout the book. New examples, screenshots, updates of new tools, a few deletions of references to old tools, an update to our stories in the intro etc.
  • we’ve removed a chapter on blog networks – things have changed a lot in this space and many networks are not hiring any more or have changed their models significantly.
  • Chris has added a significant chapter on social media and how it impacts and can be used by bloggers
  • I have added a case study chapter that goes through the first 4 years of my main blog – Digital Photography School. I work through how I launched it, what I focused upon in years 1-2 and then in years 3-4, how I monetize it and share the secrets to how I drive significant traffic and income through email newsletters, social media etc.
  • Bonuses – we’re offering anyone who buys the book a series of bonuses (some interviews with successful bloggers, some extra teaching etc)

The first book was excellent, and I have no doubt that the updates and additions will make this edition another essential read. It’s currently available from Amazon.com (of which I am an affiliate). Go on, order your copy today.

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Let’s go back in time…

April 27, 2010 By

Blogs are a bit like living organisms – they grow and change as they get older. So delving into the archives and reading early posts is a bit of an eye-opener.

I had several blogs before this one, and looking at my very first blog post ever is a painful experience for a few reasons. Firstly, I started blogging because I was going through a rough time, and that’s reflected in my early writing. Secondly, I’ve become much better at expressing myself over time and I just think my early writing’s a bit pants.

I was looking through the early posts on Geek-Speak yesterday and re-reading my first. It’s weird – there was no opening announcement. No “this is what I’m doing”, just a post about how blogging can take the place of traditional news outlets. If you’re interested, you can read it here. Prior to this I’d had a “personal” blog and one for sharing thoughts on faith, but I started to lose my passion for writing on both those areas and moved on to this. I’m guessing I just launched into it without an intro because I didn’t have any readers yet!

What about you, though? If you blog, have a look at your very first post. How did you start your blog off? Do you remember what you were thinking or feeling at the time?

I’d love to read some of your first posts, and I’m sure others reading this would be interested too. If you’re happy to do so, why not share a link in the comments and tell us a little of what was on your mind?

If you don’t blog yet, but want to learn some of the fundamentals to doing so successfully, check out The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging.

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Thesis 1.7 out now

April 8, 2010 By

I’ve previously written about how much I love the Thesis WordPress theme, and how it’s now my first choice of theme for any WordPress site I design. Well, version 1.7 was released last week and it’s even better than before.

What’s changed?

  • Easy 301 redirects – you can direct visitors to any post or page to any other location using built-in 301 redirection. Just enter the URL you want your visitors to end up on and away you go.
  • Built-in JavaScript libraries – if you need some JavaScript functionality you can now easily add a host of libraries from right in the composing screen.
  • Options Manager – export and import options from one site to another. This is an absolute godsend if you’re trying to set up a client’s site. Just set everything up on your test site and then import the options to the live one once you’re ready to go.
  • …and a load of other improvements that I haven’t personally used yet.

The upgrade to 1.7 is free for existing Thesis users. The process of upgrading is pretty simple, and the instructions on the DIY Themes site will walk you through it. I’m always a little nervous of upgrading my theme in case I’ve edited something I had forgotten about and will lose an important customisation. There were no such glitches this time, however, because I’d been sensible and confined my changes to the Custom folder… which I could just copy across to the new version.

Add to all those features above, and the easy upgrade Thesis‘ flexibility, typography, and SEO options and I think this makes an already brilliant product even more of an essential buy.

Thesis is available to buy online from DIY Themes.

Links to DIY Themes in this post are affiliate links.
If you’re just starting out in blogging why not check out The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging?

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Should I self-host my blog?

March 31, 2010 By

Yesterday we looked at some of the benefits and downsides of using a managed service to host your blog. If you want the full picture of my thoughts on this you might want to read that post too – feel free to do it now, I’ll wait!

OK, today I want to talk about self-hosting. What is it? What are the benefits of it? And what are the downsides?

Self-hosting

Self-hosting is when you buy a package from one of the myriad hosting companies out there. You usually get some disk space (well, you always get that), a bandwidth allowance that determines how much data your site is allowed to serve up in a given period, and a domain name.

The difference between self-hosting and managed hosting is that self-hosting is usually empty when you get it – you have to set your entire site up yourself. It’s a bit like renting an empty warehouse. You get to decide what you put in it, but you have the hassle of doing the outfitting in the first place.

Flexibility

The warehouse analogy might be useful, though, because in both situations you have the most flexibility to decide what to do. Want to have a WordPress blog? Then install WordPress. Want to use Drupal? Just install it. Decided you want a traditional site rather than a blog? Go ahead and build it – it’s your webspace after all!

In both cases there’s still an element of “management” – your landlord may be managing the integrity of the building, and your hosting company will be managing the availability of your webspace – but what you do with the space you’ve rented is entirely up to you.

Take Geek-Speak, for instance. I currently run three installations of WordPress in my webspace – the main one you’re reading just now, a second one on a subdomain about digital cameras (which I haven’t updated for a long time) and a test install for when I want to play with things that might break the site! I also have  subdomain that’s just a normal static website, and an advertiser management system. I can keep all that stuff in one place, which I couldn’t do with WordPress.com or Blogger.

Add to that the fact that I can install any WordPress plugin that I like, or any theme, and I’m left with the conclusion that, for me, there’s no better option than self-hosting.

Professionalism

Because you can customise your blog much more, and because you’re more likely to have a proper domain name if you go self-hosted, your readers are far more likely to see a self-hosted site as being professional. We thought in the last post about the difference between looking for advice from “technicaltips.com” and “technicaltips.blogspot.com”. Remember, you can buy a domain name and point it at a managed blog, but the level of customisation offered by self-hosting will vastly add to your professional image.

Complexity

There is more complexity to self-hosting than a managed blog though. You need to know if the package you’re on from your hosting company will support the blogging system you want to use. For many this will mean having a MySQL database and PHP (a programming language that runs on your server).

There’s also the power to edit any file in your webspace which can bring brilliant opportunities for customisation and innovative features, but at the same time could lead to your site being broken should you make a bad change. My advice there would be to keep backups of your files just in case something goes wrong!

Cost

Self-hosting is the more costly choice when looking at blogging. There’s the cost of the hosting package, which may or may not include the cost of registering a domain name. You may decide to use a design or theme that you have to pay for, and perhaps paid plugins too. All that adds up, which is one reason you may choose to go for a hosted service.

Let me categorically say, though, that I believe the benefits of going self-hosted far outweigh the financial costs.

Conclusion

That’s been a bit of a whistlestop tour of my thoughts on self- hosting. Let me summarise: self-hosting is like renting a warehouse. Other than the structure of the webspace, everything else is up to you. This allows for brilliant customisation and a professional image, but does add complexity and cost. If you want to take your blog seriously, though, I think this is definitely the way to go.

Do you self-host your blog? Have you switched from managed to self-hosted and want to tell us what you’ve found different? If you have any comments or questions please feel free to leave a message below.

For more in the basics of setting up a weblog (blog), check out The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging.

Filed Under: Media, Tech Tagged With: , ,
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