Pick The Brain has a post of blogging tips, and there’s a theme running throughout the tips: don’t post just for the sake of posting. Not if you really want readers to come and stay and subscribe and comment.
I’m very guilty of posting just because I think I have to. Some days, there are just [...]

Pick The Brain has a post of blogging tips, and there’s a theme running throughout the tips: don’t post just for the sake of posting. Not if you really want readers to come and stay and subscribe and comment.

I’m very guilty of posting just because I think I have to. Some days, there are just no topics coming to mind that I feel like trying to write about, or feel I have much to say about. But when a few of these days get together in a row, I start to panic: maybe I’m never going to have anything to write about!

4. “Be prepared to completely run out of ideas after the first 3-4 months.” - Do your best to stick it out and refrain from posting anything that’s absolutely lame. The inspiration does come back.” - I think most experienced bloggers have been through this at least once or twice. It’s a real test but if you can come through it then you’ll find you learn a lot about yourself, blogging and your niche.

If I disappear from time to time, this is why.

Want feed subscribers? Stick an invitation at the bottom of each post (look down for example). I set up one of my sites like this recently, and got 20 new subscribers in 3 days. When are people most likely to think they wouldn’t mind subscribing to your blog? Right after reading a post.
Email updates are [...]

Want feed subscribers? Stick an invitation at the bottom of each post (look down for example). I set up one of my sites like this recently, and got 20 new subscribers in 3 days. When are people most likely to think they wouldn’t mind subscribing to your blog? Right after reading a post.

Email updates are also a good option, especially in certain niches. You can easily set them up via Feedburner.

Lynn Terry makes some interesting points about not even bothering to try to make it to the A-list of bloggers. Some of them I’d thought of - that it’s better to have several smaller blogs (not only to hedge against changing niches, but also a better chance of one of them happening to reach the [...]

Lynn Terry makes some interesting points about not even bothering to try to make it to the A-list of bloggers. Some of them I’d thought of - that it’s better to have several smaller blogs (not only to hedge against changing niches, but also a better chance of one of them happening to reach the A-list), for one.

But I hadn’t considered that you might actually have a more targeted audience if you stay small. This is absolutely true, and it means better conversions.

Additionally, A-list blogging verges on big business. You could really use a staff. Do you want to get into that kind of mess, or would you prefer several blogs that earn you a very good income without all that headache?

Another point I had thought of - but it’s worth mentioning - is that you can have a better community on a B-list blog. More discussion making you more of a resource, inspiring loyalty from the people who read you (this comes into place when you create products or recommend other people’s).

If you want a nice, clean, well-coded SEO-friendly WordPress theme, Copyblogger has made their old one available. Not only that - they’ve written you a guide on customizing it and styling it like a pro. Aaand, there’s a custom style pack called Organic. It’s a “custom.css” file you can replace the Copyblogger file with to [...]

If you want a nice, clean, well-coded SEO-friendly WordPress theme, Copyblogger has made their old one available. Not only that - they’ve written you a guide on customizing it and styling it like a pro. Aaand, there’s a custom style pack called Organic. It’s a “custom.css” file you can replace the Copyblogger file with to get a slightly different look from the original Copyblogger theme.

It’s pretty easy to work with - I downloaded it and played with it on one of my sites.

Aviva Directory has a list they call Blogger Law. The items on it are potential legal issues that could affect bloggers, with advice on how to operate so you won’t get in trouble. Most of it’s nothing new, exactly, but it cites some court cases that you should be aware of. Most of them should [...]

Aviva Directory has a list they call Blogger Law. The items on it are potential legal issues that could affect bloggers, with advice on how to operate so you won’t get in trouble. Most of it’s nothing new, exactly, but it cites some court cases that you should be aware of. Most of them should not apply to simple opinion and thought blogs, but since most lawmakers and judges are probably much less internet-savvy than we are, there’s always a potential for misapplication of the law, so why not protect yourself?

There is one change I immediately implemented on some of my sites. I’ve used it before, but forgot to re-do it when I last changed themes. Comments left on your blog technically belong to their author, not you. To grant yourself the right to delete and edit them as you see fit, you should include at the very least a commenting guideline or TOS somewhere on your site which spells out your rights. I also include a bolded paragraph right above the "submit" button which says that "by commenting here, you agree" to follow the rules, grant me the right to edit or delete your comments as I see fit, and grant me the right to cite your comments.

If you have any troll humiliation devices in place, I suggest mentioning those up front, too.

Remember: to anyone who’s spent much time in the blog or forum world, it’s pretty obvious that some people delete entire threads on whims and there’s no point crying about it. But when a sue-happy nutcase realizes lawmakers are ignorant about all this stuff and the law is kinda sorta technically on their side, you don’t want to be on the wrong side of that stupidity.

I still have the button at the bottom of each post that lets you bookmark your site with whatever social bookmarking service you like but I’m getting rid of the Digg buttons at the top right. Why?
I’m convinced they just highlight the low Digg numbers. They don’t seem to be encouraging anyone to Digg posts [...]

I still have the button at the bottom of each post that lets you bookmark your site with whatever social bookmarking service you like but I’m getting rid of the Digg buttons at the top right. Why?

I’m convinced they just highlight the low Digg numbers. They don’t seem to be encouraging anyone to Digg posts - even when they comment about how great the posts are. Digg is still a very techie thing, and not all of my sites are for webmastery types.