I was talking to some friends about how we all hate that the school uses Microsoft Word. After trying to find a Microsoft Word compatible word processor, many of them had given in and made the jump to actually buy microsoft software to use at home.
“WHAT?!?!” I replied in horror. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Some students use a free alternative to MS Word called Open Office. OpenOffice does everything you can do with MS Word and then some. It is probably the best open source word processor. However theres still the matter of physically transferring the document by email, usb key or whatever mobile device and then hoping it will look the same when it is printed out at school (cuz you know you don’t have any ink at home and you might as well use the school’s ink for all the college tuition your paying).
I prefer to work on and store my files in the same place with Google Docs. That way I always know I can access them on any computer anywhere. I don’t have to open my text files in any other program to read and print the documents, but if I wanted to Google exports in several useful formats such as PDF, .txt file, Word, OpenOffice format and even HTML.
I’ve also used Docs and Spreadsheets to work on group projects because we don’t have to be in the same place or even working at the same time and we can communicate and collaborate.
Apart from the collaborative features and optimum accessibility offered from Docs is the fact that you will save space on your PC and you can create and edit different types of documents all in one place. MS Word is part of Microsoft Office, a suite that installs several programs to do different types of things. Powerpoint for presentations, Word for word processing, Outlook for emailing, Excel, Access, and so on and so on. These are all things you can do from your Google account, most of them right inside Docs and you don’t need to install any software to do it.
If you haven’t tried Google Docs and Spreadsheets for yourself you don’t know what you’re missing. You can save yourself dozens of headaches and all you need is a Google Account.
Why do I need to write a post that will generate traffic? - You have a great blog with some great posts. The people who know about your blog absolutely love it. And any reader that crosses your path is drawn to surf your content, subscribe and comment as much as they can. But how do you get those readers to cross paths with you? The answer is simple. You need to write some posts that are guaranteed to bring new traffic to your blog.
Viral posts, traffic generators, and pillar posts are an important necessity to any blog worth its’ salt. But if you don’t know how to write blog posts that will bring traffic in, you will likely be disappointed with your early attempts.
How do I write for traffic? As Connor Wilson points out in How to write link bait for viral traffic, the best place to start is with the four essential parts of any article. The headline, which should bring the readers in, The opening paragraph, which should should serve as a description as it will likely get read by everyone, The Copy, where you need to cram in the keywords and write for the web, and the Conclusion, where you want to seal the deal. Connor also mentions that it is a good thing to research the site you want to get traffic from. What are the top clicks on either Digg, Stumble ect? Read Connor’s article for more.
What type of post will bring them in? Once you have your article format, the next thing to do is look at the different types of posts that are going to really bring in the traffic. In 5 types of blog posts that generate traffic, Nate Whitehill looks at each of these surefire blog traffic generators. The How-To post, The controversial post, the round-up post, the Hot-Topic post, and the Motivational post.
Writing lists for blog traffic - Lists may seem cliche to you. But when properly written and executed a good list can go a really long way. Especially when its a social media site that you are aiming to get traffic from. Shorter paragraphs and easy to digest sentences all in a related topic just flood the reader’s in for some reason.I guess it comes from lazy eye syndrome that readers simply gobble up lists. Including a number in your headline will let the user know immediately that this will be a nice and easy read and they are twice as likely to clickthrough.
Picture Posts - Picture posts are always great for viral traffic. Including (pic) or (pix) in your headline seems to really get the user’s interest when they come across your article on a social networking site like Digg or Thoof. Thoof users especially seem to love seeing (pic) in the headline for whatever reason.
I’ve got a format, a type of post and its’ written… now what? - Don’t just post your work and go eat a sandwich. It may generate a little, but you didn’t just do all that work to get a few hits did you? Now its’ time to sell your post. The first thing you should always do after a good post or two is ping. I prefer to use blogflux because they simultaneously ping several services for you at once. After a couple good posts (or even one really good one) it can also be very useful to go out and start posting on other blogs. The best time to go on a comment spree is just after your best work has been published. You also need to submit to the social media and networking giants, some people Stumble themselves but it would be best to wait on this one. Get a friend to Digg, Stumble or save to delicious for you. Thoof is one that I would recommend submitting or yourself as you need to write the description.
There is no right way to write a post to bring traffic to your blog and posting certainly isn’t the only way to get traffic either. Nor should it be. These rules are simply here to serve as a guideline for you when you are looking to write for traffic.
This is a very good way to become aware of the mistakes you’re making and train yourself to change them. I used to write some of the mistakes I was making into my posts to tell people I was making them. Then I realized it would be better to write them down telling people not to do those things. The outcome is great. You learn from your mistakes and you dish out some valuable advice to your readers.
Set daily goals
A lot of other blogs will tell you to do this. It just makes good sense. Theres is always a reason for you wanting to blog, so you have a goal that your blog is trying to accomplish. In order to get there you must set daily goals.
Set amounts of blogs to read and comment on per day, dedicate time to writing good content, respond to a certain number of emails, they are all pretty simple. But what you may not have considered is that you should also be applying these techniques to your outside life. You have to manage ALL of your time, which brings us to our next tip.
Apply some of that discipline to your other tasks
Get things organized. If your life isn’t on track, your blog wont be on track. In order to train yourself to be a better blogger you must also train yourself to take care of your other responsibilities. I’m not going to list them here, because they depend on your priorities. Showering regularly should be up there on the list, though . Building a better blog takes a long time, but organize your daily tasks well and they will begin to adapt to your blogging schedule.
Reward the commenter, not the writer
I have seen a few blogs with an entire sidebar widget dedicated to the authors of the blog. It is almost like a Top Commenter’s lis for the writers. The writer shouldn’t need any extra incentive for writing. Its the writer’s job to write.
Blogs that don’t allow people to post a URL wont get as many comments. Thats a fact. Its’ snaky, but many people wont take the time to think of a comment if they don’t see a backlink coming out of it.
And the number five training tip for a better blog is…. (I just wanted to feel like Dave Letterman)
Get off of your computer!
In order to have something decent to talk about you have to interact with people. Go out and experience and you’ll probably find new topics that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. There is also the chance that somebody else will inadvertantly give you an idea for a better spin on something you were already working on. Be it a crazy analogy or metaphor, a new trend or idea that you can compare your idea to, or even just a silly saying that you might want to use. Now go outside and see what I’m talking about.
The funny thing about blogging is its’ such hard work, requires discipline and focus, but you have to use one of the most distracting machines known to man to do it. If you really have to crack down there are some things you can do.
Turn of MSN/AIM/Google Talk; Don’t go to busy or away or invisible. Just turn it the heck off.
Turn off your feed readers. This stuff is an essential part of the blogging routine, but it can wait for now.
Give yourself chores. I’m being serious. No TV or going out with friends till you finish your post, young man! That sort of thing.
When I dropped the music format here, I promised a new site was coming. I even went as far as to register a domain and post the occasional link to this upcoming Canadian music review spot (see? I just did it again). Well that is about all the progress anyone has seen so I thought I would let you all in on how it is coming along.
The site will be in blog format, but divided by monthly issues. I’m either going to release each issue in bulk, or set them to be autoposted in weekly or daily intervals. I am almost ready to go live with a beta preview version of pressriot.ca, which means a scaled back version to gain some user input before the big release. The site will go live and people will be able to read and rate all the articles.
As far as the writing and content production, it is going pretty well. I have enough articles on my own and I’m waiting on some other submissions, I have just about enough to do the first issue.
The development stages are basically finished, save for once people actually get in and start to try it out. It was relatively simple to get a working model going being that I planned on using Wordpress as the core.
The inlying challenge was to get it up and running with enough distinction from section to section. I wanted to have the main blog page more category oriented rather than just laying out all the freshest posts in reverse chronological order. Sounds like exactly the opposite of WordPress doesn’t it? Well it can be done.
Once again, its all in the theme. The theme essentially structures everything using the loop. You can call anything from just the post content of a single post, single category, anything really. I’ll get more into this when I talk about the awesome theme I discovered in a later post. When will it be? You’ll have to subscribe to the feed if you don’t want to miss it.
I’ve been testing the core of the site in a far away secret location, nobody will ever find in order to keep things under wraps. Nothing is currently hosted under the pressriot domain. Its all on a secret account hosted an a sea-barren shanty, floating in uncharted off the coast of Zürich. It is guarded by a one-eyed crow with a hooked beak. He will peck out the eyes of anyone who attempts to spoil the surprise.
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I was talking to some friends about how we all hate that the school uses Microsoft Word. After trying to find a Microsoft Word compatible word processor, many of them had given in and made the jump to actually buy microsoft software to use at home.
“WHAT?!?!” I replied in horror. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Some students use a free alternative to MS Word called Open Office. OpenOffice does everything you can do with MS Word and then some. It is probably the best open source word processor. However theres still the matter of physically transferring the document by email, usb key or whatever mobile device and then hoping it will look the same when it is printed out at school (cuz you know you don’t have any ink at home and you might as well use the school’s ink for all the college tuition your paying).
I prefer to work on and store my files in the same place with Google Docs. That way I always know I can access them on any computer anywhere. I don’t have to open my text files in any other program to read and print the documents, but if I wanted to Google exports in several useful formats such as PDF, .txt file, Word, OpenOffice format and even HTML.
I’ve also used Docs and Spreadsheets to work on group projects because we don’t have to be in the same place or even working at the same time and we can communicate and collaborate.
Apart from the collaborative features and optimum accessibility offered from Docs is the fact that you will save space on your PC and you can create and edit different types of documents all in one place. MS Word is part of Microsoft Office, a suite that installs several programs to do different types of things. Powerpoint for presentations, Word for word processing, Outlook for emailing, Excel, Access, and so on and so on. These are all things you can do from your Google account, most of them right inside Docs and you don’t need to install any software to do it.
If you haven’t tried Google Docs and Spreadsheets for yourself you don’t know what you’re missing. You can save yourself dozens of headaches and all you need is a Google Account.
Why do I need to write a post that will generate traffic? - You have a great blog with some great posts. The people who know about your blog absolutely love it. And any reader that crosses your path is drawn to surf your content, subscribe and comment as much as they can. But how do you get those readers to cross paths with you? The answer is simple. You need to write some posts that are guaranteed to bring new traffic to your blog.
Viral posts, traffic generators, and pillar posts are an important necessity to any blog worth its’ salt. But if you don’t know how to write blog posts that will bring traffic in, you will likely be disappointed with your early attempts.
There is no right way to write a post to bring traffic to your blog and posting certainly isn’t the only way to get traffic either. Nor should it be. These rules are simply here to serve as a guideline for you when you are looking to write for traffic.
Name your flaws
This is a very good way to become aware of the mistakes you’re making and train yourself to change them. I used to write some of the mistakes I was making into my posts to tell people I was making them. Then I realized it would be better to write them down telling people not to do those things. The outcome is great. You learn from your mistakes and you dish out some valuable advice to your readers.
Set daily goals
A lot of other blogs will tell you to do this. It just makes good sense. Theres is always a reason for you wanting to blog, so you have a goal that your blog is trying to accomplish. In order to get there you must set daily goals.
Set amounts of blogs to read and comment on per day, dedicate time to writing good content, respond to a certain number of emails, they are all pretty simple. But what you may not have considered is that you should also be applying these techniques to your outside life. You have to manage ALL of your time, which brings us to our next tip.
Apply some of that discipline to your other tasks
Get things organized. If your life isn’t on track, your blog wont be on track. In order to train yourself to be a better blogger you must also train yourself to take care of your other responsibilities. I’m not going to list them here, because they depend on your priorities. Showering regularly should be up there on the list, though
. Building a better blog takes a long time, but organize your daily tasks well and they will begin to adapt to your blogging schedule.
Reward the commenter, not the writer
I have seen a few blogs with an entire sidebar widget dedicated to the authors of the blog. It is almost like a Top Commenter’s lis for the writers. The writer shouldn’t need any extra incentive for writing. Its the writer’s job to write.
Blogs that don’t allow people to post a URL wont get as many comments. Thats a fact. Its’ snaky, but many people wont take the time to think of a comment if they don’t see a backlink coming out of it.
And the number five training tip for a better blog is…. (I just wanted to feel like Dave Letterman)
Get off of your computer!
In order to have something decent to talk about you have to interact with people. Go out and experience and you’ll probably find new topics that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. There is also the chance that somebody else will inadvertantly give you an idea for a better spin on something you were already working on. Be it a crazy analogy or metaphor, a new trend or idea that you can compare your idea to, or even just a silly saying that you might want to use. Now go outside and see what I’m talking about.
The funny thing about blogging is its’ such hard work, requires discipline and focus, but you have to use one of the most distracting machines known to man to do it. If you really have to crack down there are some things you can do.
When I dropped the music format here, I promised a new site was coming. I even went as far as to register a domain and post the occasional link to this upcoming Canadian music review spot (see? I just did it again). Well that is about all the progress anyone has seen so I thought I would let you all in on how it is coming along.
The site will be in blog format, but divided by monthly issues. I’m either going to release each issue in bulk, or set them to be autoposted in weekly or daily intervals. I am almost ready to go live with a beta preview version of pressriot.ca, which means a scaled back version to gain some user input before the big release. The site will go live and people will be able to read and rate all the articles.
As far as the writing and content production, it is going pretty well. I have enough articles on my own and I’m waiting on some other submissions, I have just about enough to do the first issue.
The development stages are basically finished, save for once people actually get in and start to try it out. It was relatively simple to get a working model going being that I planned on using Wordpress as the core.
The inlying challenge was to get it up and running with enough distinction from section to section. I wanted to have the main blog page more category oriented rather than just laying out all the freshest posts in reverse chronological order. Sounds like exactly the opposite of WordPress doesn’t it? Well it can be done.
Once again, its all in the theme. The theme essentially structures everything using the loop. You can call anything from just the post content of a single post, single category, anything really. I’ll get more into this when I talk about the awesome theme I discovered in a later post. When will it be? You’ll have to subscribe to the feed if you don’t want to miss it.
I’ve been testing the core of the site in a far away secret location, nobody will ever find in order to keep things under wraps. Nothing is currently hosted under the pressriot domain. Its all on a secret account hosted an a sea-barren shanty, floating in uncharted off the coast of Zürich. It is guarded by a one-eyed crow with a hooked beak. He will peck out the eyes of anyone who attempts to spoil the surprise.