For many, despite how badly they want it to be, blogging is not the only “work” related commitment they have to make. Most have jobs ranging from different hours of the day to night, and some people (like me) have to deal with school. These other commitments, not always ones we’d like to keep, are often more important than the our actual blogs. So, how do you cope with the fact of putting what you love second to something you don’t enjoy as much?

Basically, this weekend I want to discuss with you guys and talk about how you all do it. It’s not easy trying to create a blog that may someday earn you a full-time living, or just build a blog period when you have other commitments that need your most focus.

When it comes to sitting in front of my computer and debating whether to do school work or blogging, it becomes tough to choose. The right answer, many would say, would to do school work and I’d have to agree on some level. But sometimes it’s just too tempting to write a blog post than write a paper for school.

How do you find the Mindset to do it?

Maybe you just aren’t too connected to your blog like you are with your job, or don’t blog for anything but the sole purpose of entertainment.

But for those of you who want to maybe make money or create a great reputation for yourself, how do you find the right mindset to actually do it all? To resist the urge to make your focus 100% about blogging and not much else?

It can be tough, believe me. I’ll admit that I have missed out on a few homework assignments here and there largely because I was doing something related to blogging or freelance. But we all slip up and fail to balance everything from time to time.

How do you do it all?
Fighting the urge to choose the less important commitment over the more important one can be extremely difficult, but not impossible. Sometimes it takes more than just having a mental argument with yourself, but to actually make sacrifices for the best. When it come to juggling your blog and your work/school, how do you do it all?

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

How do You Balance Your Blog & Other Offline Activities? — Wired Weekend

The weekend is finally here, and I hope you all have some great plans for it! In this issue of Wired Weekend, I just want you to really do some self-reflection and look back at your work. We are always trying to constantly improve our blog with new things, but when was the last time we looked back at the things that got us to where we are today?

It’s not easy to keep your blog constantly updated, and it drives many bloggers crazy when they don’t update their blog and stress themselves out over writing a post. We write to our blogs everyday, but when’s the last time you just sat back, looked at your blog posts and just felt proud at all of the work you have done?

You may seem this post as something that is just here to take up space for the weekend, but there is actually some significant value in what I’m trying to do here. I want you guys to look at the dashboard of your admin panel, run through the archives of your blog and just look at everything you have achieved over the lifespan of your blog.

I do this from time to time here, and am absolutely amazed at all I have done. It really inspires me to get into a working mood and I am surprised I don’t do it more.

As I write this post, the dashboard of Blogussion looks like this:

Just take 10–15 minutes out of your work/relax time this weekend and go through your blog. Appreciate what you have done, as it can really get you inspired to get going and make it all even better.

So Tell Me This…
After you looked over your blog, what did you see? Are you happy with what you have done, or are you yearning for more? Show me the same statistics I have shared with you about your blog — how many posts you have published, how many comments, etc.

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

When was the Last Time You Appreciated Your Own Work? — Wired Weekend

Many bloggers recommend as one of the best ways to bring a large surge of traffic to your site is to write about a controversial subject. They say this because there are always at least two varying opinions on anything controversial. And people just have to read what you say about it, and if you capture their interest enough — they’ll want to voice their opinion on it.

Some people just like to participate in a good debate. Others want to cause trouble. Whichever it is, a good controversy gets people talking. And as a blogger, isn’t that what you want?

What Constitutes as Controversy

Anything you write is controversy. As long as you have added you opinions into the article you have written, you will have created a controversy. Looking through the archives here, I see very few articles here that wouldn’t be considered controversial.

Many people who ready articles today on the web don’t realize the actual controversy in them. Most people who write don’t realize they’re writing controversy either. Think back to the last article you wrote on your blog. Did you add an opinion to it? Chances are you did, and chances are someone disagreed with you.

Controversy is not always popular

Just because you write your opinion on something doesn’t make your controversy something that will draw thousands of hits and hundreds of comments to your blog. If that was true, we’d all be blogging superstars by now.

Some topics have more grounds for debate than others. Which sounds like more of an interesting topic to debate about?

• The relevance of SEO
• Why ego is good for bloggers

Both are very interesting topics, but statistics prevail and say that topic #1 (SEO) is the better grounds for debate. It is a topic that more people talk about in this niche, and something that more people think about.

In association to blogging, which do you think about more? SEO or a large ego?

Learn by Example

A few days ago I stumbled upon a really great example of an article bringing in discussion with conflicting opinions. The discussions I saw in the article had everything you would normally expect to see in a controversial topic.

Two different sides debating two different views, detailed opinions, facts, agreement & disagreement, name calling and some very long comments. This was one of the most in-depth discussions I have ever seen on a blog, and it really made me think about the effects of having a controversial issue posted on your blog receiving such a response.

Luckily, I knew that blogger. Nicholas Cardot from Site Sketch 101 is a friend of mine, and he wrote about the Thesis Theme for WordPress. It is something that so many bloggers’ use and go crazy about (myself included), and he decided to write out against it. It’s something the Thesis community isn’t used to seeing.

So the response was huge. I talked to Nick about it on Skype, and he was kind enough to give me his impressions of how he thought the post went.

In a recent article at Site Sketch 101, I found myself in the midst of a torrent of heated debate. I wrote brief article challenging the supremacy of the Thesis WordPress theme. The article was born of an email response that I had put together for a very well-intentioned blogger who had developed a skin for Thesis.

My opinions being what they are, I thought that the concepts outlined in the email were worth sharing with my readers. I honestly had no intention of creating a debated issue out of it. That was probably a bit naive of me. The comments came pouring in. Some people called me ignorant. Others labeled me as uninformed.

As I look back over the article and effect that it had on my site, I don’t regret sharing it. I believe that we should be able to challenge the way that people think. We should be allowed to post articles that go against the status quo and we should be able to do so without name calling.

I don’t believe in writing controversial topics just to be controversial; just to get attention. I do believe in standing up for your beliefs and in sharing your opinions and when that means being controversial then don’t back down.

Is it Worth it?

A lot of things can happen if a debate on your blog escalates out of control. Would you say the discussions over at Nick’s blog got too hectic? A few people seemed to have really lashed out at his ideas and defenses in the comments section, and those sort of things can really get to some bloggers.

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

If You Blog, You’re Controversial. But is it Worth the Commotion? — Wired Weekend

Generally, when we write articles for our blog, we like them to get read. Writing content is no longer the hardest thing to do for a blog. It’s actually getting that content read that’s so challenging. Unfortunately, simply writing a blog post doesn’t just cut it. There’s still more to do.

There’s this thing called marketing, and when you actually do it, your articles tend to get read by more people. Now, “more people” can mean one or two people, or it can mean thousands of people. It’s all about how you market your blog post that gets it read.

There’s just one problem: most of us suck at marketing.

It’s easy to get so worried about actually writing a blog post, that we forget about the second, possibly more important part: the people who read it. Unless you really love to write, publishing articles for months straight without reactions might get on your nerves.

The Secret About Blog Marketing

Maybe it’s more than a misconception than a secret, but the most important thing about marketing your blog is not the actual promotion of the blog as a whole, but the individual articles you publish.

Tell me, which headline would get more clicks:

• Blogging Discussion, Tips & Tricks at Blogussion
• The best blogging tips from around the web

I can almost guarantee that the second headline would get more attention. The general tagline of this site describes what Blogussion is all about, but there’s nothing exciting about it.

It’s not to say that with a more exciting tagline (how many of you would be mad if I changed the tagline of this blog to “Blogussion — The most insane blogging tips blog you will ever f****** read”) it wouldn’t market better than an article, but it only works for so long.

Now, I can make a headline for an article whatever I want. If I promote a new article everyday, it would create more buzz than if I were to promote Blogussion as “blogging discussion, tips and tricks.”

So that’s just a useful marketing tip, if you haven’t figured that much out yet about the subject.

What can we do to draw traffic to blog posts?
Because the main idea of marketing your blog is marketing individual articles, what are some things you can do to get word out about your article? It takes a lot of different strategies and techniques, but there are plenty of things you can do.

So this weekend, I want to debate with you the tactics you use to draw attention and traffic to your blog articles. Recommend to me, and the rest of the community anything you do. From commenting on other blogs to running gnarly blogging contests, I (and many others) want to hear how you do it.

Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you in the discussion!

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

What are the best methods for marketing blog articles? — Wired Weekend

Twitter has proven to be one of the most beneficial social networking sites to use as a blogger looking to bring in some traffic. It is easy to use, easy to build and has a lot to give back to the user.

Unfortunately, the massive amounts traffic we all want Twitter to send us doesn’t just happen in a day. It takes some time to build a powerful Twitter account that thousands of people follow and interact with.

There have been many claims that there is a “best” way to build an account. Believe it or not, there is actually more to a strong Twitter account than just having thousands of followers. Just because you have a lot of people following you does not mean you will start bringing in each and every one of them to your blog.

If you have thousands of random people following you (people who you don’t know or aren’t even in your niche), maybe about 5%, sometimes not even that, will click your links. So by following “dumb” account building methods, you will successfully accomplish nothing.

Now, you can try smarter methods and end up with less followers. But any followers you do end up with will no doubt be interested in what you say. So, what sounds better? Thousands of followers with an extremely low click rate, or a few hundred with a higher click rate?

What’s the Best Way to Build A Twitter Account?

I like to think that I have been slowly, but smartly been building the @Blogussion Twitter account here, and as a result — Twitter is one of the top traffic sources. But, I feel like it can do so much better at a faster rate.

I do have some strategies in mind of what it means to build a really powerful and authoritative account, but I won’t share them in this article. I would much rather hear from you guys and get your opinions on what the best strategies there are out there.

Have a great weekend, and Spring break!

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

Twitter Account Building: What’s the Best Way?

Once again, it’s the weekend! How do you plan on spending it? Have you set yourself up for a weekend of relaxation away from the blog, or did you plan your relaxation period blogging? Whatever you choose to do, it doesn’t hurt to try to get some reading in.

Let me tell you, I have some great stuff for you guys in this edition of Wired Weekend!

The thing to note about the following articles I have for you today is that your article can just as easily be included the next time we do this. Simply participate in the community discussions around here, talk to us on Twitter and we may go to your blog and feature your best articles from the week here.

Blogging Tips from the Community

The following articles are all excellent sources for valuable blog content, and they were all found thanks to you participating in our community discussions.

Blog better by imitating a blogger who does it well

The best way to learn something is to see it done right in front of you. How can you apply that concept online when you don’t actually see face-to-face with another blogger? Well, you’ll have to read to find out!

How to overcome bloggers doubt

Often times it is easier to feel doubt rather than motivation, or a will to work. If you can’t work, you can’t succeed — no questions asked. In this short, but inspiring article, key ideas you need to understand about success and work methods are gone over. You should probably write them down.

The last time I’ll force myself to write

A great article that explains why it is harmful to not just your blog — but maybe even yourself to force yourself to blog.

How to overcome the fear of writing

Sometimes it is just so hard to come up with great ideas for an article, or — too hard to get your ideas out of your head onto your blog. Whichever it is, it’s important to try and overcome them.

Targeting long tail keywords on your blog

It’s always important to at least try to rank as high as possible for some keywords. The better you can rank for any keyword that gets search for, the more clicks you will get to your site no doubt. But, have you ever thought about long-term keywords? Do you even know what they are? Guess you better read and find out!

• The 1 trap when it comes to making money online
• Why you need to have goals
• 10 accurate predictions about social media in 2010
• What Do Blog Readers Want? Fast Food Content Or A Home Cooked Meal?
• The 3 unwritten rules of blogging
• 5 golden rules of relationship blogging

Blogussion Weekly Recap

Just a quick overview of the four articles that have been published during the last week on Blogussion.

I Don’t Feel Like Blogging Today

A motivational post about dealing with the common problem we all face as bloggers: doing nothing. I have said before that doing nothing can make you a better blogger, but there’s a certain point when it just starts hurting you. You will really enjoy this post I feel, and is probably my favorite article for the week.

The Iron Maiden Guide to Rockstar Blogging

A very detailed article comparing the success of the legendary band Iron Maiden to the success of you. A lot of points are covered in this article, and it really forces you to think about the direction you are heading towards on your blog.

Interviewing Bloggers and the Tremendous Value it holds

Interviewing other bloggers is a strategy that hasn’t really been adopted by all too many bloggers these days. Interviews actually hold an enormous amount of value in them as they are all unique thoughts and ideas coming from a single person about any topic. Learn about more important things that come from an interview in this article.

The Easy Blogging Life: Are you Ready for it?

An easier life is what we all want, right? In blogging, an easy life is when you have everything done for you. Writing, marketing, making money — it can all be done for you if you really grow your blog up. However, it’s incredibly difficult to achieve. And what happens when we stop living the hard life? How do we get back to work and start working for that simpler life?

All the Talk on Twitter

These are some of the things our followers have tweeted to us, and we have seen people retweet. Follow us on Twitter.

• How to Blog: Choose a Niche for Your Blog [Why Niches are Important] — ProBlogger
• Interoperability — Can it work for your blog? — BloggingTips
• How to recycle your existing content — ThouShallBlog
• The power of confident writing — CopyBlogger
• How to optimize your blog SEO — HowToMakeMyBlog

What are your plans?

So, after seeing all of this great content — what do you want to do on the weekend? For me, it will be blogging! We are expecting some hellish storms up here in New Jersey, so I can expect a lot of relaxation and blogging over here. How are you spending your weekend?

However you choose to spend it, I hope you enjoy it. See you all Monday.

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

The Best Blogging Tips From Around the Community — Wired Weekend

I have been talking a lot about SEO (search engine optimization) over this past week on Blogussion. I started the week off with an article about good headline writing techniques, and ended it talking about optimizing content for search engines.

With all of the discussions those two posts generated about search engine optimization, it left me with some interesting insight about what others think about SEO. From the comments I read, I came up with the following impressions about what some of you think about SEO:

1. Many of you do worry about SEO, and took the tips I wrote about into consideration for your own optimization practices.
2. Some reactions were, to my surprise, confusion. There were many people who didn’t understand even some of the basic concepts I was explaining, or were just hearing about them for the first time.
3. And the most interesting reaction I heard was someone telling me how they didn’t worry about SEO on their blog.

I was more surprised by the second and third reactions than I was the first. I never would have imagined that some bloggers would actually spend little to no time at all worrying about search engines, considering I do spend time on it.

I’m glad there are such diverse opinions about the topic here, as it leads me to ask you this question:

Is SEO worth spending time on?

I know I have spent a lot of time on the optimization of my blog. I spend at least 15–20 minutes per post just on fine-tuning every article I write on Blogussion to maximize its effectiveness in the search engines.

But I have to wonder, am I just overdoing it? Am I spending too much time worrying about the optimization of my content and even my whole blog in general?

You tell me:

• I bought the Thesis framework, a theme created with SEO as one of its strongest features.
• I pay a monthly fee for a plugin that checks the optimization of my blog articles.
• I spend time (like I said, 15–20 minutes) making sure I use the right keywords in my articles and headlines.
• I try to link back to past articles on my blog as much as possible.
• I try to make content as easily accessible to search engines as it is my human readers.
• I like to keep a tab on what keywords my blog is being found for in search engines.

I can keep going, but those are the main things I think about when I focus in on SEO.

Let’s Debate

I am curious now about your SEO practices. How often do you take the time to try to rank well in those search engines? Do you think that search engine traffic is even the traffic source to fully focus on? I want to know every thought on your mind about SEO, and I want to have a debate with you.

Because I think good SEO is very important to a blog.

I don’t think I would have spent so much time (or money) on it if I didn’t think it wasn’t important to a blog. I am very curious to hear what your thoughts are on the topic, however.

Enjoy your weekend!

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

SEO: Is it Really Worth all the Fuss? — Weekend Debate

How effective are your Twitter marketing campaigns? How often do you retweet your blog posts? Do you just retweet current articles, or do you ever dig deep back into your archives to find posts to tweet to your followers?

A great method I can’t recommend enough to bring back life into old articles is to simply retweet them to your followers on Twitter. This opens your blog up to a lot of new discussions and keeps old posts alive by keeping traffic flowing to them.

It’s something I recommend, but it’s not something that everyone likes to do. After blogging consistently for a few months, you will have a lot of posts to look through. It can become pretty difficult to find a good, retweet worthy post. There are over 300 posts on this blog, and there are so many I want to share with my Twitter audiences.

Why make this decision yourself?

This weekend, I want you to look into the plugin I am going to describe below. In brief, it will select a random post from your blog archives and retweet it to the Twitter account you connect it to. There are more details as to what this plugin can do and how it benefits your blog even more below.

Introducing: Tweet Old Post plugin for WordPress

The plugin I am talking about (big thanks to my friend Rob for sharing) that has done wonders for this blog is called Tweet old posts. I use it here, and without even touching it after changing a few settings initially, it has brought some discussion back to old posts on this blog.

All that’s required from you to set it up is your Twitter username and password, which is all configurable through your own domain. So you don’t have to worry about anybody getting your account details.

After installation, you are given many options to configure how you want your tweets to look. Now, a few of the most notable and useful features this plugin has to offer are:

• URL Shortening - All URL’s are shortened by default, to minimize the amount of space used in the tweets the plugin sends out.
• Add hashtags - In any tweet this plugin sends out, you can add specific hashtags to each one. So, I chose to add #blogging and #wordpress to each tweet this plugin sends out. Read more about hashtags and their importance here →
• Set time to tweet - This plugin tweets posts at random times, so all of your followers in different times zones can get a heads up of an older blog post. The plugin gives you the ability to control how often a tweet it sent out.

You also have the ability to filter what categories the plugin grabs posts from, and you can set a minimum age requirement for any posts to be tweeted. The plugin offers great filtering, so it only tweets the posts that are probably buried deep into your blog.

Again, if you want to use this plugin on your blog (you would be absolutely out of your mind not to), you can download it here. It’s absolutely free of course.

Will you be tweeting over the weekend?

Have I convinced you to take a look at this plugin? It is hugely beneficial, and your readers will really enjoy the content. Let me know if you do end up using this plugin, and how it alters the traffic to your blog.

Enjoy your weekend!

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

How to Tweet the Life Back into Old Posts

In this edition of Wired Weekend, I’m going to be sharing with you some great blogging tips that I have found from the readers of Blogussion over the last week.

If you want to be able to get your link mentioned here, all you have to do is participate in the community here. Reply to some comments, talk to us on Twitter and your blog will be seen and your tips will be shared!

Blogging Tips From the Community

These articles have been selected from those who have commented on a post that was published here in the last week. If you want to get listed here, simply have a great blog with some great tips, and start some great conversations in the articles published here for you to be noticed!

Generate remarkable headlines today

To many people, a headline will be the only factor that sways them to visit your blog and potentially read your article. Many bloggers do not understand the significance of a powerful headline, and because of that — lose the possible readers.

How to Create a Facebook Fan Page

We are slowly working on a Blogussion Facebook fan page ourselves, so we found this article rather useful. Facebook is a site that may be overlooked by many people as a platform for marketing, but as is talked about in this article — is not the case.

4 steps to keep yourself motivated

I could not look harder for motivation, and sometimes it’s hard to find. However, if you consider following the four ideas Nick Tart proposes in this articles, you will be sure to get yourself in the working mood.

For more on motivation, you might want to check out this pretty powerful post. It’s as moving as the title suggests — Hardcore Motivation

99 ways to promote your blog

If you are still looking for more ideas after digesting our list of ‚a href=“http://www.blogussion.com/marketing/blog-promotion-marketing/”>169 ways to market your blog, you may want to check out this organized list with 99 more great ideas for marketing your blog.

How to know when you have burned out

As a blogger, you are always at work. You need to write for your blog, reply to comments, market it, and a plethora of other things that you will suffer from the occasional (or frequent) crashes and burnouts. I wrote up a guide to defeating blogging crashes here, but this article mentions some pretty valuable things I didn’t mention in my post.

Blogussion Recap

Below, you can catch up on the posts that were published onto Blogussion this week just in case you missed them!

The 3 B’s of Networking

Networking with others is very important for your blog in three major ways; for branding, for creating buzz and making buddies (friends). Now, many bloggers think that it is a waste of time to stay on Twitter and engage others in conversations, and as I explain in this article — is not the case at all.

10 ways to overcome creativity blocks

Creative blocks hit us, and often hit us at the worst times possible. There are plenty of solutions to these blocks I’m sure you have tried before. Reading other blogs, scrolling through design galleries, etc. etc. But, have you ever thought of making some changes in your offline environment to fight creativity blocks?

Be a Blogging Olympian

With the Winter Olympics in progress, Chris Palmer was actually able to tie the games into blogging. In his post, he covers a ton of information and makes great metaphors comparing Olympians to bloggers. Crazy, right?

Remove distractions with information fasting

This is an interesting topic I thought. Ian Nuttal has basically gone against what many “gurus” tell you to do over and over again. Study. See, studying isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but when it’s all you do rather than actually taking action — you may start suffering from an information overload. That’s where this idea of information fasting comes in. I don’t want to get into the details too much here, so I highly recommend you read the actual article!

What Our Followers are Tweeting

If you follow us on Twitter, you will notice that we post plenty of blogging tips into the feed frequently. Well, we have been looking around and reading what our followers have been tweeting about and compiled all of those great articles here.

• How To Ease the Pressure of Blogging
• 29 reasons why you should be blogging and not watching television
• How long should a blog post be?
• 5 tips to gain more trust and retweets on Twitter
• 7 reasons why you need a blog
• 101 great post ideas to help make your blog sizzle
• 5 copyright facts every blogger should know

Enjoy the Weekend!

Well, this is the last you will hear from us until Monday. I hope you found some really great information here. Don’t forget, anyone of you can be included in this post! It comes around every few weeks, so all you need to do is talk to us on Twitter, or leave a comment on one of our fabulous articles we post during the week.

Have a great weekend.

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

Wired Weekend: The Best Blogging Tips Around the Community

My version of success is probably different than your version. But, success in a longshot can really be defined as the accomplishment of a set goal. You would probably agree with that, right? Of course, there’s more to it than that.

But what is the one trait or characteristic we must have in order to achieve our version of success? There are so many different things we need to realize about ourselves and be able to do in order to reach some of our goals that there may be more than one answer to this question.

But I want to discuss with you guys as to what you think the ONE most important trait of a successful blogger is. I am also interested in hearing what some of your definitions of success are as well. Can you define it as more than the way I did above, or is that all success is to you -the accomplishment of a set goal?

I Think Perseverance is Important

To me, this is the one thing that anyone needs for success. Success is not an easy thing to achieve, and there are many hardships on the road towards achieving it.

Let’s look at a few things about success that really depend on perseverance:

• Accomplishing Goals

Any goal you set out for yourself is usually something that was designed to challenge your skills. So, achieving something like 10,000 RSS readers in 10 months would take a lot of work and call for a lot of long term goal setting. Long term goals are the hardest to achieve, because of how much it tests your perseverance.

• Finding the Courage

It’s a little intimidating at first to go out there and try to achieve your success. One thing you can say about success is how much it depends on the people around you. You need to know how to communicate with those people, and that could be challenging to some for a variety of reasons. You’re shy, you’re nervous, you don’t want to say the wrong things, etc. etc.

• Sticking with it

Once you have started to carry out your plans and work towards your goals, it’s all about how you stick to it. There will be things that get in your way that could slow you down or even stop you from keeping with your process. It’s all about how you choose to get through those hardships, and persevere.

So really, I think you need perseverance the most because you need that willingness to keep pushing forward and never let anything slow you down.

Over to You

I’m interested in what you guys think now. Do you agree with me that perseverance is the most important trait of a successful blogger? Or do you see a trait that is far more valuable for anyone to find success?

And with success being talked about so much here, and by other bloggers — what is YOUR definition of success? See you in the comments!

Bloggin Discussion, Tips & Tricks Copyright 2009 Blogussion. All Rights Reserved.

Weekend Debate: What is the Most Important Trait of a Successful Blogger?