Archive for December, 2008
DuoBloggers Go Wild
Now that Hendrik is visiting me here in the Netherlands, we thought it would be a nice idea to go and have some fun – something like skiing indoors. 
While we had a great time swimming through the crowds of people (it was sunday night and there was a major cut on ticket prices), it was a perfect opportunity to build up our teamwork. While waiting at the lifts it gave us time to chat about random stuff. After the skiing we looked for a MacDonalds to fill our stomachs with some food, but there was a long line of cars in front of the MacDrive so we skipped it and went straight to my local kebab shop and ate something there.
After that day Hendrik went for some shopping at the Outlet store which sells high brand cloths for cheap. And in the afternoon we are always on our computers blogging and socialising :)
Tomorrow we are heading to Breda, which you can find here on Google Maps. And the plan is actually to go Karting. Like Mario Kart :P We will see what happens, and keep you up to date. We also try to get some footage there.
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We merged our blogs
You might have noticed that when opening one of the blogs that you get redirected to a new domain: Duoblogger.
Ownblogger + Donkeyblogger = Duoblogger
Mark (the owner of OwnBlogger) and me decided to merge our blogs. We have both been friends since we were eleven years old and got to know each other in the old-school game Tribes 2. We kept playing computer games together such as Warcraft 3 oder WoW and became friends. I visited Mark in Papendrecht in 2006 and he then visited me in return in 2007. In fact, while I am writing this I am currently in the train to Rotterdam and will then stay 1 week at his place (finally we can take some pictures together hehe).
We wanted to do some business together and hence both of us wrote about the blogging niche we then decided to put our work together. We only saw advantages in doing so, two experts always know more than 1. Mark is going to focus on blogging related topics and I will mainly focus on advertising related topics. Make sure to let us know some feedback about the new layout and idea of blogging together.
Problems we had with merging the blogs
Of course, there are always some problems when merging your blogs. The biggest one is of course that the old URLs will no longer work. All your content will move to a new domain. It is very important to redirect your old domain properly to your new domain. If you won’t do so and Google indexes your new domain then it will notice that that website has duplicate content and punish that website (in some cases even with a ban). Furthermore if you do not redirect your blog all your old readers and visitors will be lost. The only way of solving that problem is to set up a so called 301 redirect using an .htaccess file. I am not going into detail here, but that way we were able to forward all the posts to our new blog while keeping the links in tact. 301 stands for permanent and has something to do with the apache webserver. The next problem we had was that Mark was using a different URL structure than me and consequently we were not able to use the same redirect rules.
Until now all seems to be working fine except the “All In One SEO plugin”. When we activate the option of rewriting the thread titles all people are getting a white page when loading. Reloading the page solves the blank-page but still, reloading all the time is not an option, especially because the visitors of course do not know that they should do so. Unfortunately I can not look into the php errors of my webserver or else finding a solution would be way easier. Until then we have no rewritten thread titles and surely lack the most important factor of on-page SEO. If anyone knows a fix, then please let us know.
Update:
Cforms was causing the problems. We noticed that when having a look into the .log files of All in one SEO. So finally we now have no more white pages and SEO friendly titles.
So, don’t forget, send us your feedback and help in case you know how to solve that blank page problem. I attached a form below where you can drop us an email or if you don’t like to you can of course also write a little comment.
Does Grammar Attack Bloggers?
I will freely admit that I am not the best when it comes to spelling, grammar and all that good stuff. In fact I am one of those people who writes like I talk, which can often lead to mistakes that perhaps are best dealt with in the edit.
My approach has always been to aim to provide valuable content despite that English is my second language, but it seems mistakes in spelling, syntax, structure or grammar annoy some people so much that they can not read any further.
I can understand how there can be a limit to any individual’s patience when it comes to wading through error after error, but I am finding that there are folks out there who have a much lower tolerance than I had expected.
Now, I am not shouting out anyone in particular, my goal here is both obviously to have a good moan but also to get to the issue.
- How bad does the English need to be before credibility is lost?
- How many mistakes are acceptable?
- What is the tipping point from irritant to intolerable?
The web is full of people who either do not have strong writing skills or do not have English as their first language, and nevertheless have lots of value to offer. I believe everyone has something valuable to share within them. (Check my posts on how to write accurate and valuable content.)
Obviously some of us set ourselves up for greater criticism, I have to expect more heat about deficiencies in my writing skills when I am advising people how to write for the web in my blog posts!
We all make mistakes, and most of us are grateful when we are given the opportunity to correct them. When it comes to errors in writing, where do you draw the line?
10 Important but Potentially Distracting Blogging Tasks
Some days ago I wrote a post on how a blog post template helps you save time writing content. Hendrik wrote an interesting comment how this also effects having your mind on what you are writing, and how easy it is to wander off and do something else.
Did you ever experience that day when you sat down in front of your computer and actually nothing came to mind? Or when you set time aside to blog while you are actually wasting that time doing other stuff rather than blogging? Well, to be honest, your not the only one. I think I can safely say that almost every blogger has experienced this at least once. I actually had this when Hendrik and I merged our Blogs together. My blog pattern was kind off messed up, and so I had to came up with different ideas. As I looked back over my day and the things that I’d done it struck me that there are a lot of tasks that bloggers do that are important – but that can at times become distracting from… well… writing posts… the core task of any blogger.
10 Important but Potentially Distracting Blogging Tasks
Following are 10 potentially distracting tasks for bloggers (note, I’m not saying that any of these are not important or worthwhile, just that they can actually become a distraction if we allow ourselves to become sidetracked by them).
- Social Messaging – Twitter, Stumble, Msn, Skype, IM, Mybloglog…. (add your favorite blogging/social service here). Each can suck up your time if you don’t get focused and put some limit around them.
- Social Bookmarking – many bloggers become somewhat obsessed with writing posts for and then gathering votes on social media sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Yahoo Buzz etc.
- Social Networking - building profiles and interacting upon Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace etc – all useful in building a brand and profile as a blogger, but potentially a distraction.
- Blog Design – blog design is important at creating a first impression but when you find yourself tweaking it, reworking it (especially widgets/plugins), planning your next one more than actually writing content for your blog you might be in trouble.
- SEO – like blog design there always seems to be something you could do a little better when it comes to optimizing a blog for search engines. It can be worth your time to do some of this, but one of the most effective ways of doing SEO is to write content that hits the spot with readers.
- Reading other Blogs in Your Niche – yet another great use of time, but many bloggers spend so much time on other people’s blogs connecting, leaving comments and even writing about them that they fail to write anything unique on their own.
- Networking with other bloggers – another great way to build brand and traffic to your own blog is to connect with other bloggers in your niche – however there are millions of blogs ‘out there’ and it can be an endless task.
- Monetization – finding and testing ad networks and affiliate programs can take a lot of time. Then optimizing them for your blog and tracking the results and extending your earning potential by finding private sponsorships and ad sales can really eat up even more of your time.
- Analyzing Stats – one of the biggest potential time suckers, that many bloggers, such as me, become distracted with at different times, is analyzing your stats (see this post on Google analytics from either Hendrik or Mark). Sure, you can learn a great deal from looking at who is coming to your blog, from where they come and what they do when they arrive. or
- Personal Life – It can always happen some day… Your friend or someone close to you gets a car accident and loses a leg, or worse (this may sound cruel but don’t forget this can happen to anyone on a given day. Visiting him/her takes hours and there goes your time to blog anything that day.
Let me tell you this – there’s nothing wrong with any of these activities…. BUT….
While these are all great activities the danger is in those times when they sidetrack us from other core aspects of our blogging.
In my own blogging I try to guard against becoming distracted by:
- Having goals (both long term but also daily goals).
- Being aware how I’m spending time (periodically throughout each day I stop and ask myself if I’m on track.
- Setting time aside for the most important part.
What distracts you most from blogging? How do you keep yourself on the track?
8 (free) Killer Tips on Increasing Traffic
I am by no means an expert on the social side of life, but I did learn alot from the power of Social Bookmarking sites like Digg and Twitter for example. When you first start a blog and you aim on monetizing it, you want visitors… and alot of them. You can’t go anywhere without them so you will need to do some stuff to make the visitor stay and come back to your blog.
I’ve come up with 8 simple, yet effective ways on increasing traffic to your blog in almost an instant.
1. Yahoo! Answers
This is one of those easy Search Engine traffic grabbers. Google tends to put the questions that are asked on Yahoo!, even if they are a bit relevant, high on the first page of search results. Although Yahoo! stated that they forbid playing and abusing their system, however I don’t see a point leaving a link at the end of your answer to your own blog if the content is relevant and provides extra information. Sign up at answers.yahoo.com.
I see this technique being used by ProBlogger alot. It’s a great way of increasing post frequency per though. Guest posts tend to have great impact on readers and let them stick to not just your own blog, but also for the person who wrote it. If you post a quality article on a blog that’s popular, the readers are bound to visit your site looking for more and hopefully subscribe to your blog.
3. Make a video tutorial
This has the added benefit of a viral marketing effect, especially if your video tutorial solves a common problem easily. If readers really enjoy it, they are most likely to spread the word and bring in new visitors to your blog.
4. Introduce yourself to others
Often your biggest readers will be your rivals or other bloggers that are your peers. By peers, I mean that they are on the same level of traffic, content, etc. as you are. Email your peers to introduce yourself and mention that you subscribed to their blog and found the content interesting. Leave it at just that, and don’t ask for link exchanges or ask them to subscribe to your blog in return. But do leave a link to your blog at the end. That way they might visit your blog and subscribe, or even better write a short review of your site if they find it really worthwhile.
5. Submit your top articles
By this I don’t mean submitting your article to an article directory, because they never seem to bring in significant traffic. Submit your best articles (that are getting the most page views and comments) to Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and others. Don’t forget to include a ’submit this article’ button on your page to allow your readers to vote on the article. If you’re lucky you might even make it to the front page. One word of warning though – don’t submit every article you write because you run the risk of getting banned for spamming.
In my opinion, small blogs do not have the necessary reader-base to get to the front page. I’ve never had luck with Digg, getting 10-15 diggs at the very most. But I’ve heard small blogs can make it big on StumbleUpon. If you run a video games/technology blog however, I recommend submitting to n4g.com.
6. Make your blog Search Engine friendly
Everyone is obsessed with search engine optimization because it’s the biggest source of free traffic. Just don’t over do it – the key to SEO is moderation. While I’m no SEO guru, a keyword rich title and URL, description and keyword tags does the trick for me. Also consider going for the 3-4 word phrases, since it’s more easy to rank higher with them on Google.
7. Link out to other Bloggers
This is the best way to gain the attention of your peers. I have found that many bloggers visit my article just out of curiosity, to see what I’ve written about them. If they love what they read, they write a short article and link back to me. One example is Videobloggingtips.
Tip 8 is, which requires a whole different approach, forums. Read a detailed post about it here on DuoBlogger.
Contact Us
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Mark
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Phone: +1 (310) 734-8977
+31 6 34045081
Skype: MarkDuoBlogger
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Hendrik
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Phone: +1 (818) 322-0251
+49 176 48899584
Skype: Hendricius
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