The Wardman Wire

Darren Rowse at Problogger has posted about things that potential bloggers (”Pre-Bloggers”) need to think about:

After yesterday’s post on the pressures of blogging I had some great feedback from PreBloggers (those thinking of starting up) thanking me and those who commented for giving a more realistic view of blogging.

This article is my response to this article and top 21 points for pre-bloggers to think about.

ProBloggers and PreBloggers

I’d suggest that there is a difference between Pro-Bloggers and Pre-Bloggers. I’ll start with a definition:

Pre-Blogger: People thinking of starting up a blog, and trying to understand what is involved.

Pro-Blogger: People who have one or more larger blogs bringing in a significant income.

I’d characterise a Pre-Blogger as sitting on the edge of a pool wondering about learning to swim.

By comparison a Pro-Blogger is swimming around, working hard - but not sinking.

Unfortunately, a Pre-Blogger may have to swallow many litres of water and nearly choke before they become a Pro-Blogger.

So, here are my top 21 items for Pre-Bloggers to concentrate on:

Decide to keep going for 3 months

1 - Blogging does not deliver quick results. Learn that, live with it, and do not worry about it. In general, don’t spend time on advertising or messing about with complicated design changes in this period.

Setting up

2 - Get a Domain and a hosting system that can grow. It is easy and cheap. Get one then forget about it. Do not build a framework that could turn into a cage in a few months if you succeed.

Focus on Content

3 - In the first 1-3 months, split your time something like this:

• 10% initial set up and optimising design.
• 10% promotion. Directories, search engines, networking.
• 80% researching, writing, publishing content.

4 - Content is King is an old adage. It was true then. It is still true now.

Search Engines, Directories

5 - Get in search engines early, especially Google, Yahoo, MSN and Technorati. These will provide some traffic early on focused searches.

6 - Get listed in a reasonable number of directories early. Perhaps between 20 and 50 is a decent target. These will help your visibility.

Web Statistics and Traffic Monitoring

7 - Put in place some easy way of tracking your traffic / popularity. I suggest:

• Statcounter or Go Stats for your numbers.
• BlogTopSites and The Truth Laid Bear for comparisons with others.
• Do not be shy about making your statistics available to the public.

8 - When you do compare statistics, only compare like with like. This means comparing statistics generated through IDENTICAL systems. Remember that only three statistical figures matter for general comparisons:

• Page impressions.
• Visitor sessions.
• Unique visitors.

9 - Take a vow only to look at your traffic statistics on Sundays. Spend the time on content instead on the other days. In all this, remember that web statistics are the 21st century snake oil.

Posting, Pinging and Publicity

10 - Understand pinging

11 - Post, post, post with short posts, and ping each time. This will generate a small amount of traffic each time you post.

12 - Write occasional authority articles. A good target is one per week.

13 - Think carefully about tags you wish to use. Spend time looking for the popular tags that others in your niche, and adjacent niches, use.

14 - Spend time on making “added value” comments on related articles on bigger blogs if you can - especially pillar articles, pointing back to a response article which adds even more value to the conversation. This article is an example. If possible get in in the first 5 or 10 comments.

15 - Look for events / unique situations that you can respond to quickly with a unique contribution. Find a way to get that unique contribution into the general blogosphere. That article will become a reference source in itself, and generate links and - over time - traffic.

One example from the Wardman Wire was that I was the first to post an audio recording of Tony Blair’s resignation speech, and commented on half a dozen popular blogs that I had posted it. This article has now had in excess of 300 visits. Not many - but a lot for a small blog.

Quickly means within 2-3 hours of the event breaking - before most of the blogosphere has responded.

16 - Do not mislead your readers about your posting frequency. Aim to post somewhat less frequently than you can, and use the leeway to build up a small buffer of “future posts” that you can use to cover gaps.

17 - Keep a list of topics for the future, and a number of posts that are “ready to go”. These are useful when you over sleep.

When you post

18 - Make sure you keep “deep linking” to previous articles so that search engines and visitors can find them.

Learn from Others

19 - There is immense experience available from successful bloggers, and many of them are willing to give advice.

General Principles

20 - When setting up a blog, follow these steps in each aspect of the blog:

• Focus on it.
• Think about it.
• Do it.
• Leave it completely alone for long enough for a proper evaluation.

Do not worry, be happy

21 - Enjoy writing for the pleasure of thinking and writing. Other bloggers will be reading you if you are posting regularly. One day - maybe sooner than you think - links will start to appear.

Cartoon Credit: Virginia Water Safety Coalition

Tags: response to problogger, matt wardman, wardman wire, darren rowse, tips for prebloggers, technorati tags, key tasks for bloggers, the first month of blogging, link bait, commenting on blogs, starting a blog[tags]response to problogger, matt wardman, wardman wire, darren rowse, tips for prebloggers, technorati tags, key tasks for bloggers, the first month of blogging, link bait, commenting on blogs, starting a blog[/tags]