Blog Tips

How to Kill Your Blog in 10 Easy Steps

So you’re bored with blogging. You have other things to do – like eat, sleep, go out, work. You know – boring “real life” stuff. Besides, thinking about it, blogging is for computer nerds and failed writers.

Not to worry – help is at hand. Here are 10 ways to kill your blog. Let’s begin.

1. Stop Writing

What? That’s too simple – of course your blog will die if you stop writing? Well, yes, if you stop writing altogether. But be smarter about it – change your writing habits. If you write daily, change to once a week (and vice versa). If you want to lose your readers, confuse them.

2. Be Obnoxious

People like to be respected – your readers are no different. So be obnoxious. This can take many shapes – talking down to them in comment replies (if you reply at all); using made-up words that make you sound wanky; and making them feel you’re a hundred times smarter than they are. Be mean – and keep those pesky readers away.

3. Close Your Comments

People like to be heard, and we especially like to be heard when we read something that either inspires or polarizes us. So take away that option from your blog, and make your site a talking head instead. Unless you’re Seth Godin or Leo Babauta, you’ll soon see your blog’s popularity shrink, wither and probably die.

4. Use Captchas

When I was younger, I used to love stuff like the Rubiks Cube and 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. Now, though, since time is a precious commodity, I like things to be simple and easy to do. So install a crazy ass captcha on your blog that no-one can decipher and make people pull their hair out from frustration – great way to scare readers away!

5. Limit the Options

When blog readers read a great post, very often they want to share it. Of course, if you’re trying to kill your blog then you don’t want that sucker shared a lot. So limit the amount of sharing options – instead of making it easy to share on whatever networks the reader wants to, limit it to Facebook and Twitter. After all, they’re the only real social networks that are important to bloggers. Right..?

6. Screw Formatting

Because blogs can be read on different browsers and computer screen resolutions/displays, there’s no real point in formatting your post – it’ll never look good on every reading option. Instead, bunch all your words into one long-ass paragraph; don’t use images; and make your font 9-pixel Copperplate. Job done.

7. Die, Navigation, Die

Think of the world’s biggest maze. Then think of the world’s biggest maze at night. Then think of you trying to navigate the world’s biggest maze, at night, in a blindfold. Now – make your blog’s navigation that much fun, and make it easy for your readers to get lost and not know how to get back home. Lost readers = frustration = see ya!

8. Search What Now?

If you really want to kill your blog quickly, you could even combine a couple of the ways here. For example, if you have crappy navigation, make sure you don’t have a Search Box to at least let your readers find what they’re after. Add in no Archive section and boom, you have one heck of a lost blog happening!

9. Subscribing is for Wimps

When you set a blog up, generally it’ll come with a standard RSS feed. Thing is, the standard RSS feed doesn’t always work on certain browsers, so using something like Feedburner or Feedblitz is better. But you don’t want better – so leave the standard feed and make sure you don’t have any subscribe options in your sidebar. If your readers can’t subscribe, they won’t know when you have a new post. Blog death on the horizon.

10. Repeat Yourself

We all run out of ideas, but often you can find things to blog about to share with your readers. But if you’re trying to lose readers and kill your blog, then you don’t want fresh ideas. Instead, copy a post from your Archives, change the minimum amount of words up, and you have a new-but-not post to pan off on your readers. Tip – don’t use a Related Posts option here, as you can get found out and look stupid.

As you can see, there are a bunch of ways to kill your blog, so you don’t need to worry about pleasing these damn readers of yours anymore.

Of course, if you actually want to have a blog worth visiting, and one that sees you respected and visited and recommended, then ignore all of the above and do the exact opposite.

Your choice.

image: shiner.clay

10 Free Blog Topics to Help You Get Your Blog On

This post is part of our free blog topics series over at For Bloggers By Bloggers.

For many bloggers, coming up with blog topics can be hard. Keeping your blog fresh and interesting for readers old and new can see you hitting the blog topics wall, and often that leads to you just not blogging at all.

So, in this weekly series every Saturday, we’ll provide you with 10 free blog topics to get your mind rejuvenated.

As well as offering you some blog topics ideas, we’ll also give a short paragraph on each topic to help you get off the starting blocks. Hopefully this will give you some more ideas, if the initial titles of the post topics themselves don’t.

So – on with the topics!

How Music Helps Shape My Decisions. We all have our favourite songs, and can remember a time in our life based on a certain tune. But how did they help shape your life? Did a certain song give you the strength you needed at a certain time? Was there a song playing when you told your partner you loved them for the first time? Music is all-encompassing – share what your music taste means to you.

If The Matrix Was Real. If you’ve seen The Matrix trilogy, you’ll be aware of the concept of humanity being the puppets of machines. But can that be correlated to your actual life? Who would the machines be – your boss, your partner, your bank manager? And how would you overthrow them? (Note – this should probably be written in a tongue-in-cheek manner!).

The Best High School Date I Never Had. In high school, there’s always that one guy or gal that we had a huge crush on, but nothing ever came of it. So if you could go back in time and be guaranteed a date with that person, who would it be with and where would you go – and money’s no object?

If This Was My Last Blog Post. At some point, we all die – it’s one of life’s absolutes. So, if you could write and schedule the last blog post you would ever write, what would it say, and what would be your parting message to your community?

My All-Time Guest Blogger Line-Up. If you offer guest posts on your blog, and you could choose from your all-time favourite bloggers to line up for a week on your blog, who would the seven bloggers be, and what would you have them write about (even better if it’s outside their normal niche)?

Lessons Learned From Being Fired. Have you ever been fired from a job? Not made redundant, but actually fired? If so, what lessons (if any) did you learn from that, and how have they helped you in your career or job decisions since then?

Remember When??Life moves fast; changes happen all the time. So how about sharing the things that were a constant in your childhood, and why today’s equivalents are better or worse? Take a trip down memory lane, and see how many of your readers connect with their memories.

What The Harry Potter Saga Can Teach Us About Branding. Whether you’re a fan of the series or not, with billions of dollars in book, movie and merchandise sales, the Harry Potter saga is a modern phenomenon. So what can businesses learn about branding and longevity from the simple words of an author?

Knowing When To Stop. The original Star Wars trilogy remains a favourite to me, even though Return of the Jedi wasn’t that strong. And then George Lucas ruined the memories for me by first updating the trilogy, and then releasing the vapid new trilogy. So when should people stop? At what point does something not get any better? Share your take on your favourite author, movie, singer, etc, and where they should have stopped while they were ahead.

The Best Invention No-One’s Invented Yet. There are innovations all around us, helping make our lives easier or better. But what invention hasn’t been created yet, and if money was no object, what would you invent that would change either your life, or the world around us?

Hope these help you get some ideas to start your creative juices flowing again – and feel free to share any posts you write from the above topics in the comments below, or linking back here.

A version of this post originally appeared on For Bloggers By Bloggers, our blog resource centre offering tips, tricks and advice to help make your blog the best it can be. Head on over and check us out, and make sure you?subscribe to For Bloggers By Bloggers so you get each post as soon as it’s published.

image: kentbrew

Does Your Blog Embrace Mobile Browsing?

Some interesting figures about mobile browsing and user activity:

38 percent of web users in the U.S. access the web from their phone (or 89 million people).
53 percent of Americans using their phones to go online do so at least once a day.
65 percent of mobile users aged between 18-29 use their phones to go online.
43 percent of mobile users aged between 30-49 use their phones to go online.

And these stats are just for American users. Across the globe, mobile browsing is continuing to grow at a huge rate and, as you can see from the image at the top of this post, it’s expected to overtake fixed (or desktop) browsing within the next 2-3 years, going by current trends.

Which begs the question – is your blog or website mobile-friendly? And if not, how do you make it more mobile-friendly?

Defining Mobile Friendly

Depending on who you ask, making a blog or site mobile-friendly is as simple as asking the question, “Can I view it when I open my phone’s browser?” (or tablet, as the likes of the iPad and Playbook continue to grow in popularity).

While this might help, it’s not really looking at the bigger picture, and the differing experiences of the various mobile browsers that are in use. Apple uses a different browser from Android uses a different browser from BlackBerry and so on. Then you also have older phones that don’t have the features of a smartphone, and this makes the experience even more different.

So to define mobile browsing, let’s work with the meaning of “compatible with as many mobile browsers as possible”. It might look better on some than on others but at least it’s available on more than just the latest smartphones.

So now that’s kinda cleared up, how do you make your site or blog mobile-friendly? It depends on the experience you want to offer and how much you want to spend (if anything).

The Build It Yourself Approach

The most intensive way to mobilize your site is to give it a full mobile makeover. This can be by yourself with some recoding, or by hiring a professional to do the work for you.

Depending on how much you want to make your site mobile-friendly and still interactive, the cost can run into several thousands of dollars.

Other ways you can bootstrap and make immediate changes include:

Use a fluid width design. This is a fairly straightforward approach and just involves modifying your CSS style sheet to allow your site to change widths depending on what browser it’s being viewed on. Make sure you make a back-up of your site and refer to any manuals before progressing with this option.

Centre your content. If you’re reading this blog on a desktop browser, you’ll see that the content is pretty centred, as opposed to being full-width and starting on the left. This means I don’t waste any content in the sidebars, and keep the main post area as the one that’s always front and centre.

Friendly Links. A lot of websites and blogs use contextual links, so when you hover over them a box opens up on-screen and shows you an ad or similar (think Kontera and Apture). Great for desktop browsers, not so much for mobile. Consider making all your links simple and mobile-friendly too.

Easy and Complete Navigation. When you’re on a site and you can’t find what you’re looking for, then it’s either a choice of searching (if it has that option) or simply leaving (never a good scenario). For mobile browsers, it can be even harder to implement a search option for such limited space. So make sure you have a clear, uncluttered navigation option, and have the most important pages you want your visitor to view upfront and centre.

Brevity is King. Depending on what browser a mobile user comes in on, the load time of a page filled with content can be nasty, and put them off. Counter this and have a short, punchy page each time – the easier the experience (including load), the more likely a repeat visit.

The Plug-In Approach

While the most comprehensive way to mobilize your site is by in-depth optimization, like I say this can be pretty expensive (though definitely worth it for larger sites). For blogs, though, it can be less expensive, because generally most blogs only worry about the post content, and not other sales pages, etc. This means you can choose a simpler option, and there are a ton of these available. Note – these are for self-hosted WordPress blogs – there are options for Blogger and other platforms.

WPtouch Pro. Probably my favourite out of all the mobile plug-ins for WordPress, WPtouch Pro offers a great-looking and customizable app that supports all the major mobile browsers. You can even add less popular browsers through the excellent WPtouch Pro documentation. There is a free version – but it’s definitely worth investing in one of the premium licenses. I use WPtouch Pro on this site – if you have an iPhone, iPad, Android or similar, check it out. You have the choice to switch between mobile and desktop view.

Wapple. Wapple is another excellent option, and one that I’ve used previously on this blog. It’s hugely in-depth and really lets you set up the mobile version of your site to replicate a lot of the desktop version. Again, it offers a free trial, but it’s the premium options that stand out. I prefer the simpler approach of WPtouch Pro, but Wapple would be my next choice for sure.

WordPress Mobile Edition. Built by the guys that developed the popular Carrington framework, the WordPress Mobile Edition automatically detects what browser is on your site, and offers a straightforward user experience based on simplicity. It’s probably the least “graphic” of the three plug-ins here, but its ease-of-use and simple set-up make it one to check out. Oh, and it’s completely free!

So these are the two main ways to make sure your site and/or blog is mobile-friendly. Some are more in-depth and expensive than others – your needs will determine how much you need to spend.

But with mobile browsing become more popular by the day, it’s a small cost to pay compared to losing readers and customers, no?

Note: A version of this post originally appeared on For Bloggers By Bloggers, the free blogger resource centre from Bonsai Interactive. It’s reproduced here to give you an idea of the daily tips on offer to help you grow your blog. If you enjoyed the read, feel free to drop on over and check us out.

Of Comment Trolls and Flash Mobs

At some stage in your blogging journey, you’re going to write something that, for whatever reason, brings down the equivalent of Darth Vader, Sauron, Freddy Kreuger and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse onto you all at once.

That’s okay – part of the beauty of blogging is that you’re opening up your opinion to the world, and as we all know, no-one ever agrees on everything someone else says.

Healthy debate is good – it helps grow both you as a blogger and your reader, as they get to interact with you more as well as your other readers. This helps foster your blog’s community.

But sometimes, you’re going to get idiots that have nothing better to do than try promote a hidden agenda, or simply want to be the loudest voice in the room. No matter what you say or do, they’re still going to be angry little children.

Otherwise known as comment trolls, they can be a pain in the butt. Especially when they hunt in packs, and become comment troll flash mobs.

The good news is, you have complete control over how you deal with them and how much say they actually get.

Comment Trolls on Your Blog

If the trolls are attacking you on your blog, obviously as the blog author you have complete control over what is said, how it’s said, and who it’s said to. So how do you deal with comment trolls on your blog?

Comment Policy. One of the ways you can preempt trolls is by having a clear comment policy on what will and will not be tolerated. While you’ll still get trolls, you’re showing your trusted readers that you have their back – again creating a better community.?If you’re unsure of what would be a good comment policy for your blog, The Blog Herald has a great overview.

Ask Why. A lot of trolls, funnily enough, aren’t as bad as they make themselves out to be. Sometimes, your most vocal critics can be mistaken for trolls, when in fact they might have a valid point. Ask them why they feel you erred, and see if there’s common ground you can agree on.

Polite Warning. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, some trolls will just continue to come back at either you or your readers. This isn’t something you should let continue for a protracted length of time. Advise them politely that you respect opinion and disagreement, but not rudeness or attacks. If they continue, you’ll have to moderate, delete or ban them.

The Three Strike Rule. I’ve used a rule on every blog I’ve ever had, or helped a client with – the Three Strike Rule. If you’ve been advised not to be rude and ignored it; had your comment moderated and ignored it; and then had your comment deleted and reposted, you’re banned from the blog. You can either use the troll’s IP address to filter them straight to spam, or completely ban them from your blog. If you’re unsure how to do this, speak to your web host about IP Blocking.?

Comment Trolls on Other Blogs

As you can see from the above suggestions, you have a ton of control over comment trolls on your own blog. But what happens when someone’s attacking you on someone else’s blog, and the blog author isn’t protecting you?

Be Polite and Ask Why. The beauty of blog comments is they encourage interaction, whether it’s a personal, professional, business or hobby blog. So ask your attacker why they feel so strongly. Look at your comment and ask about a certain point in it. You’ll either spark up a reasoned conversation or be ignored/attacked again. Which leads to the next point.?

Reach Out to the Blog Author. Any good blogger should protect their commenters and make sure everyone knows personal attacks will not be tolerated. Unfortunately not every blogger lives up to this. If you feel you’re coming under attack unfairly, ask the blogger why they’re allowing it. If they don’t protect you, find another blog to read.?

Ignorance is Bliss. You can have the most valid responses. You can agree with other points of view by trolls. You can accept your point-of-view isn’t cast in stone. But still the troll persists. Time to let them waste their own energy and just ignore them, and instead continue to converse with the folks that bring value and common sense to blog comments.

When and If You Should Engage Flash Mobs

Like I say, sometimes you’ll see the trolls hunt in packs. This can be a community from another website coming together to attack you on your post, or blog authors and their friends beating you down in the comments on their blog.

The best thing to do here is just sit it out, ride the storm, and jump in where necessary (to correct erroneous facts, or protect your other readers).

I had an example earlier this year where a Tumblr community came out in force and attacked me on?this blog. They got really personal at times (although some were pretty funny too).

Instead of jumping in and fanning the flames more by replying, I simply replied to a couple to correct a statement and offer some further information. The furore died down pretty quickly – sometimes people just want to let off steam. If you watch a pan of boiling water when it’s taken off the stove, you know the steam eventually evaporates.

Flash mobs are actually a bit easier to deal with, as they generally compliment each others comments, as opposed to hitting out at anyone else but you.

Of course, if it does become too personal or they’re attacking your other readers, you can refer back to how to deal with trolls on your blog from earlier in this post.

Business blogs are a bit different, because obviously there’s a lot more legal stuff at stake as well as how your business is viewed when replying. A strong comment policy is needed with business blogs, and you’ll want to consult with your legal team about how to proceed.

I’ll be looking at business blogs and interaction in a future post.

In the meantime, how about you? Have you had to deal with comment trolls, and if so, how do you deal with them?

image: Yoshi 2000
image: neonihil

Why We Don’t Charge for Blog Topics

Over at For Bloggers By Bloggers, we offer free weekly blog topics every Saturday. A collection of various ideas, titles and niches, it’s to help bloggers get inspiration when they hit the blog topics wall.

As bloggers, we know how difficult it can be to come up with just the right idea sometimes. It could just be that your mind is a little empty on a given day, or you’re not quite sure how to make the next post seem a little bit different from your previous one.

So, the blog topics section was set up just for these times. So far, we’ve provided 30 specific ideas and topics for you to run with, although we’ve deliberately set it up so you can take the ideas we provide and use them regardless of the niche your blog covers.

It’s been really well-received, and we’ve started to see some of the blogs coming back that have taken our topics and run with them. So, great to see that the service is helpful.

One of the funny things, if you like, that has come about is the question why we don’t charge for our blog topics. There are other bloggers that are offering a similar service, but charging around ten bucks a month for it. So why don’t we charge as well, and are our blog topics less useful because they’re not being charged for?

Ideas Are Everywhere

The simple response to why our blog topics are free is that ideas are everywhere. I know I’ve gotten an idea for a blog post just walking down the street and seeing how a couple interacts. Or how a business responds to a query. Or how a child can teach us about blogging.

Additionally, ask any blogger where some of their post ideas have come from and they’ll probably reply, “From my comments.” See, the great thing about blogs is that they’re two-way. You write the post and start a conversation, but the comments are the gold where even more ideas can be born, including follow-up posts and new blog topics altogether.

So if bloggers get a lot of ideas from their community, then – in a sense – the blogger should be paying their commenters for their ideas, no? Same goes for other bloggers – if you write a blog post and I’m inspired to write my own based on that, you gave me the idea. So, should I pay you for that?

So, yeah, ideas are everywhere.

Ideas Aren’t Always Premium

Riffing on the above, most people pay for a product or service because it offers a premium advantage to something you can get for free. It’s the reason business and customers exist. For me, ideas aren’t premium.

As I mention above, ideas are everywhere – all you need do is look. But if you’re not sure where to look, then that’s where something like our blog topics come into play. But premium?

If we were to offer you steps and strategies on what to do with these topics, then that has the potential to become a premium service. For example, if we were to share how you can then promote these topics ; how it can be used to drive sales leads your way; or how you can measure how successful your post was and how many new readers you got – and kept – then that becomes a premium service.

Ideas are definitely useful, but it’s the strategies that drive the ideas where the real value (usually) lies.

Premium versus Free

Does this mean you shouldn’t pay for blog topics? That’s up to you. Like anything, you gauge the value from what’s free and what’s premium, and how much of a difference there is between the two.

Does the fact that something’s premium mean it’s better? Maybe, maybe not. Although I’m obviously biased, I think getting 10 free blog topics every week from a team of multiple award-winning bloggers offers great value. Again, though, it’s in the eye of the beholder, and the value received.

There’s definitely a need for premium blog services, and we’ll be offering some soon with the likes of blog auditing, blog mastermind classes and more launching soon. But sometimes there’s also a need just for straightforward help for bloggers who’ve helped you get to where you are, or want to be.

Making that help free is just a nice way to say thanks. It’s also another reason why our blog topics are free – it’s our way of saying thanks for your support.

Cheers!

image: jangelo