Monday, August 10, 2009

The 5 Things They Didn't Tell You When You Started a Blog


In the beginning, it always sounds like a simple idea. I want to start a blog. Anyone can. But, there are some things no one tells you. I will tell you what I learned.

The "five minute installation" at wordpress is not "five minutes" but more like a four hour torture session. It's designed to check if you are serious about this blog thing. After four hours, I found the fantistco button on my cpanel and I was up and running. No one shared that helpful hint with me. I just saved you four hours.

Your theme is more important than you imagine. It is your reader's first impression. More importantly, it's not easy to change after you have posted for awhile. Spend more time on a theme than I did.

Traffic analysis tools like google analytics are required but I will issue a warning. It is the first person in the morning to tell you that you have no friends. Don't even think about visitors. Here is how it works. You wake up hoping that someone found your site in these early stages. Maybe they will subscribe too. But the stats say three visitors. They also spend less than two minutes on your site. It's more like a drive-by stop. Google analytics should just say "good morning, you are still a loser today. Why don't you write another post for you and your mom."

How many times have you heard "write content and the readers will follow". It sounds easy. In the beginning ideas flow on the blog. But, finding good ideas to write about everyday is not easy. I let search traffic guide me. Isn't that how the Google algorithm finds the best site. Hopefully, I can do that and convince new subscribers and at least one-third of my current subscribers( my mom) to return and read because the posts are good.

Another axiom is "contests are an easy way to get traffic". Who wouldn't want a chance to win a free prize? Don't count on a thousand visitors. But, isn't that what John Chow did. Then a week later the two people who signed up for it are laughing at the fifty-fifty chance at your free prize. The funny part is that you had to tell your mom that she can't enter. Now, you have alienated one third of your subscriber base already. One thing that helped me was that I found contest blogger. It's a great site that features blogs and their contests. It's one of those great sites. After you are done visiting, you kick yourself for not thinking of it first.


Author: Mike Gentleman writes about current hot search topics with a sarcastic tone at his website Whassupjack

40 comments:

  1. i agree! mahirap talagang mag-isip ng substantial na iba-blog. note the word substantial. hindi rin naman kasi maganda nag magpo-post ka lang just for the sake of posting

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  2. Lol! Truer words were never spoken! I have built it and I'm still waiting for them to come.

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  3. The content thing bugs me alot! ALOT! Why, not because I don't want to write content, not because I don't enjoy writing content. It doesn't seem to really matter, from what I've observed. I see blogs daily who only update once in a blue moon and have a page rank of 3 or 4, a low Alexa rank and so many ads, you're hard pressed to find if they actually blogged. I can think of about a dozen right off the top of my head without even trying. There are several I see who don't date their blogs, that way no one knows how old the post is. But, if anyone make a comment, you can see a date there usually. I've even hit some that clearly have gone back and changed the date of their post. I'm thinking right now of 2 I feel certain are doing that...yet, they are popular? They have tons of ec's, they advertise alot; it's expensive to advertise on their blogs. None of this makes sense to me.

    My favorite are the blogs that give advice, saying how important it is to post often, to have fresh content, and repeat the same stuff pretty over and over. Some even have 3 or 4 blogs with a slightly different title, or different color; but are almost a cut and paste. ??? I scratch my head. I really just don't get it.

    I like blogging, you're right it's not as easy as it's made out to be. It is contagious though I think. lol

    Some have all kind of tricks to get you to post their link, to make 12 comments, but many of those are people who never recriprocate.

    So, say hi to your Mom; and keep at it.

    Sandy
    swing by for a visit, welcome mats always out.

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  4. Very nice post and soooo truuuue!
    Patience is needed at first, and you have to visit other's blogs and comment, and subscribe to them in order to be known.
    Then you can submit your blog to a blog directory, and of course...entrecard...adgitize...etc
    Bye!

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  5. I couldn't have said it better myself! Well done. I usually spend 4 hours a day on my blog between posting and working on traffic and SEO. It's taken me two months, but I've got about 500 readers a day now. I still haven't made much money on it, but I've practically given up on that anyway. It's not wasy, that's for sure.

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  6. hey wish I'd have found out when I started my blog, would saved lots of time
    great advice great blog,
    drop by mine and enter some great giveaways
    http://women-prenuergalore.blogspot.com/
    thanks

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  7. I like this! Well written. I'm going to investigate further.

    Thanks.
    Your Friend,
    Bring Back Pluto
    "ONE of THE GUYS"

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  8. How true!!! The countless hours that I have spent trying to find that "just right" Wordpress template or the time that I have spent clicking and dropping. No one tells you all that in the beginning. "If you write it, they will come" is such a misnomer. You have to work at getting them to come. Thanks for the great post!

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  9. yup i like it because iam newbie :D

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  10. Great discourse. I spent the first two years effectively blogging to nobody, and now -in the fifth year- it's still sort of a "small fry" trying to get traction. Most jumps in readership for me have been cross-promotional efforts and "right post at the right time" dumb luck.

    I agree the statistics are disheartening, but I really like the readers I have and tend to ignore the numbers ... I would rather have a handful of them than a ton of screwballs ... :)

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  11. I love it and it is all so true!! I also really miss sleeping, eating, talking to my family and watching a movie even every once in a while before 2am in the morning!!

    We are all definitely a sub culture that border lines on insanity I think!! I am not sure but my my family is convinced!!

    At the end of each crazy day though I truly do love blogging and I have met and made some of the most wonderful friends from all over the world.

    I wouldn't change a thing except I do wish someone would invent a robot that could drop my ECards!!

    Then I would just sit back and blog hop all day chatting with everyone!!

    Great post Mike!!

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  12. Very funny, and I wrote so many posts about starting a blog, and when to Quit, that all talk about the frustrations and difficulties of bloggers. 90% of bloggers still make less than $200 a month after their 1st year of blogging.

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  13. What motivates you to keep going inspite of all the frustrations of writing a blog?

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  14. Thanks for posting this article. I think all bloggers have experienced frustrations and anxiety with blogging and trying to grow their blogs. Good luck to you, I'm sure you'll be a success.

    Mommy Reporter
    http://www.mommyreporter.com

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  15. Very funny! :) ... the one thing that you didn't mention, although not everone experiences it is the fact that you can do a posting with everything where you want it to be - absolutely fantastic. Then you press the publish button and Shazam when you look at your blog your posting is jumbled. I can't tell you how many times I have gone into the html to try and unjumble a post. Mine is in Blogger perhaps Wordpress is different!! Lol!

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  16. LOL I love the tone of your writing! You're right though, blogging isn't for everyone. There is a lot of research involved in becoming successful, between traffic building, content writing and SEO. Great post!

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  17. wow you just snatched words from my mouth...I don't know what to write about in my personal blog. I think should I write about my life but who will be interested to read that. Then I thought to write about SEO but again what new thing to write....Allready the net is full with seo stuffs.....Finaly decided to write anything which I like in the net.

    Thankyou.

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  18. You're a funny guy. And I love the way you write.

    As for me, i think I spent too much time looking for a great theme, I think i downloaded at least 200! But I ended up using the simplest one because I just can't deal with more complications (read: modifying the style sheet) at this point in time.

    Having to brainstorm and choose what topics to write about, researching them and writing them are enough to keep me occupied on most days/night. And then there's EC dropping...and oh I just spent a total of 15 minutes here on your blog. Haha!:D

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  19. It's true, I used to make blog with blogger, when I moved to wordpress for the first time, it's absolutely mess, I even didn't know how to use FTP, it's so frustrated :P

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  20. I tried wordpress but after four hours gave up and went to blogger. I'm afraid to move now. I've had the dumb luck syndrome as well. I wrote a post about Michael Jackson faking his death, right around the time he died and it is what is driving my blog now, that and a post about redheads being better in bed. Go figure.

    Great post by the way and at least your mom appreciates it. Entrecard is a big help. I met most of my best bloggy friends through EC. It's time consuming but worth it.

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  21. This is helpful to me (plus I identify with lots of what you say and that's always a great feeling) - Thanks

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  22. Excellent post. Very helpful tips and thanks a billion for the link to that contest place. It'll come in handy hopefully.

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  23. i very much agree with what you said about the theme

    it's the readers' first impression

    if it looks cluttered

    they'd probably get uninterested with the content

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  24. I love your blog...the info is awesome! :)

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  25. lovely blog, i can see people vent about their blogging here, but i believe blogging is surreal and an enlightening experience, thanks for the post!

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  26. Wordpress is lovely but I am technically impaired. I want to install some plugins and I haven't got the foggiest Mate how to do them..five minutes and pigs can fly ahahaah

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  27. I just started a couple of months ago and for me it's just fun..

    I get to read other peoples opinions, write which I love to do and hopefully share mys stories with a few people...

    The traffic thing is hard..EC has driven a lot of traffic to my site.. but sometimes I don't know who's reading...

    But out of all the directory I like this one the best..

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  28. for a beginner, you sure are getting a lot of comments, I've been blogging for at least 4 yrs and I still (if its my lucky day) only get a couple comments a day...love your sense of humor, ya gotta have a sense a humor with blogging...have a good one ;)

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  29. Hi www.greedygirlsguide.com checking stopping by yo drop a card.

    this i a funny and great post.Every point so true. I've only had my blog for 6 months and i think i've experienced every one of your points, even the failed contest. Another thing to add about those contest is that those 2 people fill never be back after its over and will un-follow you because all they really wanted was a free prize :D

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  30. LOLOLOL I resemble that remark!!!

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  31. hahahahah, that google analytics just taunts me. I'm always thinking... "WTF"... I need a shirt that says "Google Analytics is my only friend."

    Nice post. Swinging through on the EC vine.

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  32. I've been blogging for three maybe four months. I started for an outlet for my writing, just wanted to put some of it out there, just because I like doing it, its a hobby takes my mind away from my job and helps to clear the clutter(there's alot up in that skull of mind)..I do get frustrated,but before i was writing to no one and even if I have one person reading my writing I've improved..

    As far as the google analytics..I'm absolutely lost..

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  33. It's very interesting. I like it so much. Thanks.

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  34. Wow this article is cool and useful.

    I love how do you write it :)

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  35. Wow ! This explains everything ! About one year ago when I was starting blogging I want to be a full time professional blogger. I thought it was cool to stay home and work few hours per day and make a huge income. I guess I'm wrong !

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  36. I tried wordpress..Started and ended with two titles nothing else ha ha..Thanks for dropping by. Followed you

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  37. On the template part, yes it is very very important. Readers usually browse first from top to bottom to examine the blog template, the typography, the annoying widgets, etc. I've seen so many great blog contents but never took the advantage of the free templates blogger has to offer. Almost any wordpress theme can be ported to blogger! Very nice tips!

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  38. It is a great post and its every points is true.
    This is very helpful to those people who want to write about a topic in their personal blog.

    We have to think a lot about the topic which we want to publish in our blog. It always be very simple also interesting.Then a number of visitors will follow your blog .
    Thanks

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