 |
May 22nd, 2007 — blogs
Why do you Blog?
1. Earning Money?
2. Writing Articles on Topics that interest you?
3. Receiving feedback and comments?
4. Increase Traffic?
5. Increase Technorati ranking?
6. Building an online community of like minded people?
7. Blogging Awards?
8. Entertainment?
May 21st, 2007 — increasing productivity
In a previous article I showed how you can be more focused to increase your productivity. However, another aspect of increasing productivity is using labour saving tips and tricks. There are many people who spend several hours a day on the computer, but will always maintain an attitude “I don’t know anything about computers”
It’s like spending several hours a day driving, but never reading a manual before starting. If you spend a few hours learning to drive before starting, you will crash less often and get to your destination more quickly. It is the same with the internet. Each week try to add a few things that increase productivity. Don’t forget to bookmark them (or add in a blog post like this) Some of the following may be fairly basic tips, so this post is aimed more at beginners. I will add more technical tips later.
1. Change Attitude.
Don’t be frightened of learning and using tips, none of these are complicated, none require a knowledge of C++ programming. Even my mother could do all the following (well at least the one about turning on the computer)
2. Use Mozilla Firefox.
Many of these tips are for use with Mozilla. It is really easy to download. It will take less than 5 minutes. It has more features, and provides safer internet browsing. There is NO risk involved: Click Here: Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
May 21st, 2007 — increasing productivity
Do you find yourself wasting time reading social bookmarking sites? Do you compulsively check your email every 20 mins? Are you an expert procrastinator? - If so, there are several things you can do to increase your productivity and become a prolific blogger.
1. Set Goals
If you have 1 hour or 2 hours per day, have a clear goal for what you would like to achieve in that time. This goal may be to complete 2 blog posts and/or promoting your articles in some way.
2. Be aware of how much time you are Surfing.
It is easy to spend time searching through various sites and links on the net. However, we may be surprised at how long we can spend in these unproductive tasks. For a day or two, try to monitor how much time you spend in productive tasks and unproductive tasks. You may be unpleasantly surprised.
3. Go Straight to Useful Tasks.
Often when I switch on the computer I feel obliged to check various things first; 5 email accounts, 3 statistics programs, RSS feeds e.t.c. These are activities which are generally passive and need little effort. However, if you turn on the computer 3 or 4 times a day, it means you can be spending over an hour per day in doing these preliminary things, which are not actually productive. If you have already checked your email once, the second time you turn on your computer go straight to your task. Don’t even look at your inbox or stats or RSS feed. If you do, you will get distracted.
May 21st, 2007 — increasing productivity
Keep it Brief and to the Point
“Brevity is the Soul of Wit”
– so said Shakespeare. Who are we to argue with Shakespeare?
Don’t Check Email Compulsively
Check email once or twice a day. Check email when you have enough time to properly respond. If you don’t have time you may rush a reply and not give yourself time to think. Don’t have email on auto prompt. – I.E. every time a new email comes you get a prompt, - you will never get anything done.
Be polite
Not matter who you are replying to, always try to be polite and cordial. Remember any negativity can get magnified in an email.
Don’t Say anything you wouldn’t say in Person.
The problem with email is that the personal contact is lost. Therefore, we feel detached, sometimes this can make it more willing to say things we may regret. When writing an email, feel you are actually speaking to the person.
DO NOT WRITE IN ALL CAPS
IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING. PLEASE TURN IT OFF!
May 20th, 2007 — increasing productivity
“The Internet is like trying to get a glass of water by standing under the Niagra falls.”
The problem is not the lack of water, but its capacity to drown us.
The internet has a similar infinite capacity that at times can overwhelm us. There is so much “information” - things to see and read, that if we are not careful, we will be distracted and not achieve anything useful.
Here are some tips to gain greater productivity when working on the internet. This is the first part in a series of posts to help increase productivity and efficiency whilst working on the net.
1. Check stats and Email Once a day.
This may sound quite difficult, but if we are honest with ourselves, we really don’t need to check our inbox for the 38th time today.
If you check email once a day, you can set aside time to answer all emails in a timely fashion. If you open an email, whilst doing something else, you may forget to respond, or not have time to write a measured response.
May 19th, 2007 — blogs, wordpress
Tip of the day: Before making any changes to sidebar or stylesheet. - Copy the code into a notepad file and save. This means that if things go awry, (and they can easily do) at least you have a back up and you can revert to the original. This is much easier than trying to alter code.
Whenever I make a successful improvement I save the new file before moving on. This will save a lot of wasted time.
Changes I made to sidebar:
1. Add RSS button.
It is crucial to encourage readers to sign upto RSS feeds. It is the easiest way to keep new readers.
2. Add Photo
I like the style of this wordpress theme, but it is dominanted by one colour which makes it a little austere / bland. A photo adds a little interest; the only suitable photo I can think of at the moment is one of myself. At least, it gives the blog more of a personal touch.
3. Recent Posts
I added this feature, because I found I liked to use it on other blogs; it saves scrolling down the blog and searching through archives. Rather than use a plugin I used some simple code:
Thanks to Erii for this code: eri’s wordpress blog
May 17th, 2007 — blogs, wordpress
Comment spam has plagued blogs, for almost as long as blogs have been in existence.
Basically spammers use comments as a mechanism to leave links to their sites The spammers gain in 2 ways:
In response to the real problem of comment and trackback spam, Google suggested implementing the no_follow tag. See Google blogspot. The no_follow tag is like an indicator to the search engines not to count this link when calculating P.R. and Link popularity of a site. The argument is that since the links may be spam, they don’t deserve to gain any credit from in boosting a site’s link popularity. - Which seems a good idea.
The hope was that if comment’s have no_follow then spammers will not have any incentive to leave automated comments and trackbacks in blogs. The no_follow tag soon caught on, and most major blog software use “no follow” as default. However, it didn’t quite work out as hoped.
May 17th, 2007 — blogs, selected posts
This is a list of mistakes that are easy to make when blogging and building websites. To some extent, I have made all of these mistakes at some time. Hopefully by sharing them, the mistakes may be avoided. But, I think it is worth mentioning that the biggest mistake is not to try, experiment and learn from your mistakes. Even the top bloggers will make mistakes along the way, but these, of course, do not need to hold you back.
1. Pleasing Only Search Engines.
It is a mistake to judge your blog only on the position in search engine rankings, and how much traffic you get. I think it is important to get satisfaction from your blog, even if not many people are reading it. If you feel you are contributing something worthwhile it will inspire you to keep blogging. The strange thing is that quite often when we ignore search engine rankings, we start to do better.
2. Focusing on One aspect of a Blog.
If we spend all our time, trying to get links, the quality of our content will suffer. Also I find, writing content much more enjoyable than the process of promoting your blog.
3. Lack of Focus in Blog.
Most people stumble into blogging, with no clear purpose. My first blog was a personal blog, entries included diverse topics from “Credit Card Debt”, “cycling” “Fawlty Towers” and “the Spirituality of Advaita Vedanta” - If you happen to share these interests, I’d love to hear from you, but it is unlikely people will share your eclectic range of interest. The point is your blog should have a clear focus so people know what to expect. Posting on various topics confuses everybody; search engines, google adsense, and most importantly your readers.
Continue reading →
May 17th, 2007 — wordpress
This post is primarily for my benefit. It is a list of wordpress plugins I either use or intend to get. Quite often I say a plugin I would like, but don’t have time to install it, then later I can’t find it. Therefore whenever I come across a plugin I would like to have I shall add it here. I would be grateful for any suggestions, which can be left in comments.
May 15th, 2007 — blogs, selected posts
Short posts have many advantages, see: advantages of short posts. But, what makes a successful short post? These are some ideas for quick but meaningful short blog posts.
Invite Comments.
If you have a readership base, who are willing to leave comments, this can be a great technique. For example, in this post on Best RSS Feeds, it is the comments that make the post. Another advantage, of this kind of post, is that it makes the readers feel like they are participating in the blog.
Tip of the Day
Never underestimate people’s desire for short pithy quotes. Quotes of the day are always popular. For example, once a week you could give a “top writing tip of the week”. Don’t feel obliged to always have to give a top 10 or top 5.
Link Round up.
Each week you can collect your favourite sites and pages you have visited. It makes a relatively easy post. It is also very useful, for both yourself and your readers. Quite often I regret not bookmarking my favourite links, and then waste time trying to find them again. My favourite posts at Problogger are often the speedlinking.
