Review of the TwitterTime.es tool. See what the people you follow are really linking to by using this tool to read your Twitter stream like a magazine or newspaper.
The tool follows the links from your Twitter stream and brings back more information and even pictures from the sites linked to. Very useful for research and to get more out of your Twitter experience.
You know there is something to be said for someone who can handle all the duties involved with a successful website all by one’s self. From graphics creation to site maintenance to writing to link requests to SEO to social networking, the list of tasks required to run a successful website can sometimes feel overwhelming, and sometimes actually be overwhelming.
So what’s an overworked frazzled web site owner whose knowledge and talents are stretched past their limits to do? How about outsourcing?
When it all becomes too much there is nothing wrong with buying a little help. In fact, you may actually find that tasks like content and graphics creation or site maintenance can be outsourced at a price that is much cheaper than the time investment you would have to make otherwise.
The trick with outsourcing is to be able to pinpoint the one or two tasks where your expertise or talents are overly stretched, or where your time is being consumed in huge chunks, and then finding the right person or service company for the job. Once this is done its just a matter of making sure everyone is on the same page and that your expectations are clearly stated.
If you decide outsourcing is the right path for your business there are precautions you need to take though. For one, its a good idea to have a written summary of the project that includes all the goals you expect to be met. Budgets and time lines also need to be clearly understood and agreed upon and checkpoints, or intermediary goals should be defined. A good method for keeping up with the progress of outsourced projects is to make a comprehensive list of duties in spreadsheets which are to be turned in weekly. You can then keep a tabs on progress with a minimal amount of intrusion and time investment.
Its also beneficial to make certain that the image you want to project and the message you want to push are clearly understood to avoid any conflicts in style or approach to the project that might otherwise arise.
In the end, outsourcing provides you with just the expertise you need, often at a very reasonable cost. When it all gets too much take a look at outsourcing a bit of the load. You might just end up finding it saves you more than money.
Though these may not be the best blog categories for anyone starting a new blog, due to many of them being seriously overpopulated, they are the hottest of the hot blog niche categories and the ones where, if you can find good connections or if you have the amazing talent to rise above the thousands of other voices in the niche, you can end up doing very well.
There are also always new niches opening up within many of these categories and there is always the possibility to find a unique angle or niche within one and stake out a previously undiscovered piece of real estate. So just because the category is heavily populated, as long as its hot, it doesn’t mean there is no room for new bloggers.
Check out these hot blog categories and see if you can be the next hot blogger to set the blgosphere on fire.
1.) Enviromental/Green Blogs- As green technologies expand so do the niches for green and environmental blogs. Although there are a lot of them out there with growing fields like this there is constantly new room being created.
2.) Mommy Blogs – From child rearing advice to slice of life humor to family oriented product review moms are getting their blog on all over the net. Where do they find the time and energy?
3.) Social Media Blogs – For every person out there using social media there is a person teling them how to use it better or pointing out those who use it in the best or most unique ways. With more people joining the social media masses everyday this blog trend looks like it will stick around a while.
4.) Freelancing Blogs – Everyone wants to earn money from home and be their own boss and with the blogosphere and social media exploding there are numerous opportunities for freelancers these days. This means there are also numerous opportunities for bloggers to blog about freelancing, which they are, hence there inclusion… here.
5.) Celebrity Gossip – There are so many celebrity gossip blogs that it is almost impossible to find a niche opening but as long as there are celebrities doing funny, outrageous or out and out stupid things celebrity gossip blogs will be hot. Don’t see that ending anytime soon.
6.) Political Opinion – Another severely overpopulated blog category but one that shows no sign of slowing down. People love to tell other’s what they think of those dastardly politicians and their sociliast/facist/religious/conservative/liberal plans to destroy the country and dominate the world. The vast majority will suffer in obscurity but the few, the proud, the really really good can be really really successful and that keeps this category forever hot.
7.) Investment Blogs – The downturn on Wallstreet has the opposite effect on investment blogs. Though people don’t invest as much or as often they are always on the lookout for the next big money making tip and that means that in a weak economy investment blogs will be hot, hot, hot.
8.) Technology Blogs – One thing about technology is its always changing. Due to this new niches are opened up all the time and new bloggers are there to fill them.
9.) Foodie Blogs – People love food and people especially love food that they will likely never get to try. There is soething about living vicariously through the gastronomical experiences of another that keeps networks like the travel and Food channels pulling in viewers and Foodie blogs attracting readers.
10.) Weight Loss Blogs – Well, I guess all those foodie blogs make people crave deep fried Twinkies. Enter the weight loss blogs. Weight loss is a multi billion dollar industry so it only goes to reason that blogs focusing on the topic will be hot.
When writing articles for your niche blog its easy to lose focus. Especially for those who keep up daily posting schedules, keeping on track, on topic and keeping it interesting and relevant can become difficult.
One way to combat this problem is to ask yourself these five questions about every article you write. If you have good answers to these questions, then go ahead and write the article. If you don’t, you might want to think about writing something else.
Who? Who am I writing for? Is it for me or for my audience? Always make sure you consider the perspective of your audience as you write. If you’re writing for yourself, put it in a journal.
What? What is the topic? Am I staying on topic throughout the article? Blog posts that try to cover too many topics at once get confusing. Stick to one topic per article.
When? When is this information from? Is this article timely? Am I writing about some topic that’s no longer relevant? Especially when responding to or working off of information you’ve found online make sure you check the dates and make sure that you article is something people will find interesting today.
Why? Why am I writing this article? Does it offer something; a unique point of view, helpful advice, a useful review? Sometimes it is easy to create content just for contents sake, but if it isn’t offering anything to your readers, they won’t read it so you might as well not write it.
How? How is this article related to my niche? It doesn’t always have to be specifically about the core topic of your niche blog, but at least make sure its related enough so that the same audience will find it interesting.
Give the questions a try and see if they don’t help you to know when you are writing good niche blog content and when you are just writing.
When the seasons start to change I’m sure you go through the clothes in your closet and move the ones you will be wearing for the oncoming season towards the front. You probably also put away the skis and get out the golf clubs, or drain the gas from the snow blower and fill up the lawn mower. There are any number of things in your life that are affected by the change of seasons.
Well, here is one thing you may not have thought about. How is your blog affected by the change is the seasons?
Just like everything else in your life it is important to keep your blog in tune with the season. Whether your blog is directly affected, such as if you blog on a seasonal activity like gardening, or indirectly affected, simply by the changes in attitudes and perspectives people may undergo during different seasons, it is important to make sure you blog is summer or winter ready when the weather starts to change.
In the case of seasonal blogs such as the gardening example, when winter rolls around you will want to shift your focus from to reflect what readers might be interested in during that time of year. a December post on summer plantings probably won’t have the same level of appeal as one on winterizing your outdoor plants. In the summer, a post on lawn care will probably find more readers than one on winter watering.
Even if your blog is not directly seasonal it is a good idea to take into account people’s differing interests during the different seasons. During summer posts on outdoor activities are better received while posts that deal with indoor issues or products will play better during winter months. The difference in the types of holidays, with winter being more religious in nature and summer being more patriotic (here in the U.S.) might also be something to take into account.
Whatever your blog is about think about how the change in seasons might affect it and how to incorporate those changes into your posts. Keep your blog in season and you will likely find people will find the environment to be just what they are looking for.
There are lots of blogs out there and some of them, if not many of them, probably have content that is similar to yours. So how do you make yours stand out? How do you write great content that will separate itself from the pack? Its all about style, baby. Or more specifically, knowing your own style and taking ownership of it.
Not everyone is Dave Barry. Nor is everyone Abigail Von Buren, or Carl Sagan, or Noam Chomsky. And none of these people are anything like one another. Well, except, of course, for the fact that they are, or were, all hugely successful writers.
And, even though you are none of these people, and might not be overly funny, or able to solve a persons life altering social problems in a few short sentences, or able to break incredibly complex astrophysics concepts down into language everyone can understand, or able to get people to read you even though no one can actually understand what you are trying to express, you can be successful in writing great content for your blog. All you really need to be… is you.
When people ask me what single step they can take that would most improve their writing, I tell them to forget everything they’ve ever read. Of course I don’t mean this literally. Hopefully there will be something in the writing that you have learned through reading and want to pass along to others. What I mean by it is to forget all about your favorite writers and how much you like and want to emulate their styles, and to simply say what you want to say the way you would say it.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in writing, whether you are a novelist or a blogger, is to try and be something, or someone, you are not. You may love to read Ann Coulter or Tony Bourdain, but that doesn’t mean you should try to write like them. They write the way they do because of who they are, the life experiences they have had and the way they feel comfortable expressing themselves, and that is how you should write as well.
There is no best or even correct writing style. A writers style is who they are, so be who you are. Take ownership of your you-ness and write your blog the way only you can. If nothing else it will guarantee that those who read your blog won’t confuse you with anyone else. And, in the blogosphere, that is a huge victory in itself.
We would love to hear your thoughts about this writing series, comment below!
Great content does not exist in a vacuum. Much like trees that fall in a forest when there is no one there to hear them, writing with no one to read it can’t make a sound. In order for writing to be great it has to be considered as great by someone. All writing is only as good as any given audience interprets it to be and that is why its so vitally important, anytime you write anything, to know the audience you are writing for.
An audience can be broken down any number of ways. Marketers and television producers look at all sorts of demographics when they consider their campaigns and viewership, and there is a reason they do this. The more you know about your audience, the easier it is to guess or predict what they will like. If you want to write great blog content then you need to make sure you are both writing for an intended audience and writing for the correct intended audience.
When you write for an intended audience then you have a much better chance of attracting those who will consider your blog to be well written, interesting and informative. For example, if my intended blog audience is professionals in a given niche, say auto repair, then it should probably be written in a more technical manner than if my audience is for a generally less automotively informed audience of teenage girls. You don’t want to have a blog audience of professional auto mechanics and write a post on how to change a flat tire or an audience of teenage girls and write a post comparing the 289 HiPo to the 302 BOSS.
You also want to make sure you are writing for the correct intended audience. If you don’t know a whole lot about auto repair and are having to research everything you are writing then you would probably be better served writing to an intended audience of less informed readers. This would mean that you would want to concentrate more on writing about less technical topics but make your writing stand out by focusing more on style. If you are more of a technical writer than a stylish one, then you may need to find another blog niche that you are better acquainted with.
When you know your audience, and know your topic well enough to write about it, then writing informative and interesting content becomes a lot easier. Simply consider your blog from your audience’s point of view and ask yourself what you would want to read about if you were visiting your blog. Then write, edit and, if you like it and find it interesting and informative, post it. There are very likely others out there who will enjoy it as well.
When I’m reading something on the internet, I can deal with a few typos. One or two words that have transposed letters or an omitted word here and there I’m basically fine with. I even do it myself from time to time. I won’t lie, it bothers me. I notice it and cringe and wonder why didn’t they catch that when they proofread it, especially when its my writing (it makes me shiver just thinking about it), but I can deal with it.
But that’s it. Anything more than that and I’m a goner, never to return, adios muchacho, goodnight and goodluck.
Am I being unreasonable? Is my reaction unusual? You know, I don’t think it is.
If you look around the internet at popular blogs one thing you will notice about all of them is that they are well edited. Is that a coincidence? I, again, think not.
There are plenty of blogs out there that are full of typos and misspellings and horrific bone chilling grammar and, lo and behold, none of them ever amount to anything. Some of them may even express some interesting concepts and offer great insights into particular niches but it doesn’t matter. If your blog is not well edited, it will never be successful.
That’s why the most important step to creating great content for your blog is to make sure you edit, proofread, edit again, spell check, edit, read it aloud and then do some editing. Okay, that might be overkill, but I hope you are getting the idea that good editing is crucial to the success of your blog.
Its not that people are inherently grammar Nazis. Its just that reading is a lot to ask of people. If they don’t think you are putting forth as much effort in producing the words as they are putting into reading them, you aren’t likely to attract many return readers.
In my opinion, the best method for self editing your content before posting it to your blog is to first use a good spell checker and then read the writing aloud. By actually speaking the words aloud you will greatly improve your chances of catching omitted words or improper usages.
Whatever method you use just make sure you take the time to edit to the best of your ability. Trust me, there is no such thing as great writing that is full of errors and there is no error free writing that is all that bad. If your content is well edited then you are already over halfway to the well written, informative and interesting content your blog needs to be a success.
If I wanted to start a new blog on some niche topic and make it successful I would not start a blog on dog grooming techniques. I like dogs, especially well groomed ones. I also know a little something about starting blogs. And a blog on dog grooming techniques has a reasonable chance of being a successful niche blog. But there is one major problem. I don’t know anything about, nor am I overly interested in, dog grooming techniques.
I won’t go as far as to say that it is impossible to have a successful blog on some niche topic you know nothing about. I’m sure with the investment of enough time and effort it can be, and has been, done. What I will say is that if you want to produce great well written, informative and interesting content for your blog, especially without having to spend hours on research for every blog post, then writing about a subject you have some knowledge of is the only way to go.
If you hope to gain any sort of audience for your blog, one of your major considerations should be whether or not your posts would be considered informative or interesting by your intended audience. The chances of meeting either of these criteria for people who have an interest in reading about a particular subject (which hopefully your intended audience does) when you have no interest or knowledge of that subject yourself, is slim to none. Your best bet for creating content others will consider great is always going to be writing about a subject that you know more about, or have more information about, than your audience does.
Not that you need to be an expert on any particular subject to start a blog. That’s not what I’m saying. But you should have at least a cursory knowledge of the topic and an interest in learning more about it. This way you will hopefully be able to understand any interesting relevant information you run across that you can then include in your blog posts, as well as present topics and discussions that your readers will find beneficial.
Most readers are pretty savvy and can spot a phony from a ways off. So, even if you aren’t overly familiar with the subject, make sure you’ve done sufficient research to know what you are talking about before you start talking about it.
If you do know your topic well, then writing great content is easy. The better you know it, the easier it will be. When you are writing on a subject you are familiar with and enjoy discussing, you will be amazed at how effortless it is to create content that others will come back for again and again.
We all know that, in the world of blogging, interesting, informative, well written content is king. Anyone who has spent any time reading anything about the art of blogging has had this said to them in ten thousand different ways by ten thousand different blogging gurus. What we don’t see nearly as often though, is information on what constitutes interesting, informative or well written content.
Here’s the thing. The fact that well written interesting information brings in visitors is easily determined by asking people why they read the blogs they read, or even just considering why you, yourself, read the blogs you read. No one says, “Well, I like to spend my time perusing useless boring pages full of grammatical errors.” Telling bloggers they need good content to attract readers is like telling a restaurateur they need good food to attract diners. It actually should go without saying.
The other part isn’t so easy to determine. The reason what constitutes good content is difficult and something you don’t see discussed as often is because there is no one answer. What any given individual considers well written, informative or interesting isn’t necessarily what any other individual considers to be the same. How many times have you seen a movie or book blasted by some critics and praised by others? As the old saying goes, “you can’t please all the people all the time”.
But, this is not to say there aren’t steps you can take to help you meet all the criteria for enough people to gain a sizable audience. Remember that same saying also says “you can please some of the people all of the time” and, in blogging, that is really what you should be looking to do.
Over the next few posts we will take a look at what we can know about how to write well and be informative and entertaining for an audience. Though these tips probably wont be enough to lead to your becoming the next Pulitzer winner, if you think about these simple concepts as they relate to your blogging, you will at the least be headed down the right path to creating the type of well written interesting and informative content needed to write a successful niche blog.