The Opportunity Cost of Not Participating in Web Events

Problogger Tips

Just after midnight last night (as it ticked over here to 1 April) I posted that I was launching a new ProBlogger service - PayPerTweet - a service that pays Twitter users to Tweet about products, services and websites.

Of the 100+ commenters to respond to the post so far the majority noticed the date and time - although what unfolded exceeded my expectations for an April Fools prank. In this post I want to tell the back story of the idea (the idea actually is bedded in reality to some extent) and share some of the 'results'.

The Back StoryOn Saturday I received an email from someone asking me to Tweet about them in return for $20. I won't out them here but they wanted a little 'Tweet Love' to help them build their own twitter follower numbers and were willing to put up $20 to get it. I refused the offer and suggested to the person that there were better ways to build your Twitter following.

Last night at about 11pm my time I Tweeted about the experience of being paid to tweet. The responses from followers were varied from shock, to intrigue, to humor, to a few saying that they thought it was a good idea. These responses reminded me of the launch of PayPerPost. I immediately thought of 'PayPerTweet' and looked it up to see if anyone had registered the domain (purely curiosity). Funnily enough the domain was registered in 2007!
I tweeted my findings about the domain.

At this point I began to think about how I could make a spoof PayPerTweet like site and IM'd Chris Garrett with the idea. He quickly reminded me that it was April Fools day in just a few hours (actually it was 30 minutes away for me here in Australia). He suggested I write it up as a post on ProBlogger.

To this point I'd not been planning any April Fools Day posts (I've never really got into it) but began to write a post anyway - just for fun. I only half thought that I'd post it - I'm always nervous about playing jokes on readers (perhaps it goes back to an April Fools joke played on me in my childhood!)

I IM'd my draft post over to Chris - he laughed and said I should post it. On the spur of the moment I did just that and then Tweeted it for good measure.

The ResponseI was nervous about the post. I'd included a few 'hints' in the post about it's true intentions but still was nervous about how it would be taken. I was quite relieved to see the first comments and Twitter replies come in. Most people spotted the dates - although a few did not.

I stayed up for another hour watching the fun spread across Twitter as people Re-Tweeted the 'news'. The story spread and traffic began to arrive at the post.

The response to PayPerTweet was mixed and I'm not sure I've seen it all yet as it got tweeted and blogged about quite widely. Here's some of what I woke up to this morning:
100+ comments on the PPT post - most saw the joke, a few were completely taken in by it, a few were angry, a few thought it was a great idea.18 Serious Enquiries - surprisingly this morning I have 16 emails in my inbox and two direct messages in Twitter from people who wanted to know more information about PayPerTweet. The 'press release' post had a fake email address in it (the date of April 1) which would have bounced for anyone sending email to it - but 16 people emailed via my contact form. These ranged from potential advertisers wanting to know prices to Twitter users wanting to know how to sign up for the service.Blog Posts - I'm not sure how many people have written about the story on their blogs but there are definitely a few (track it on Technorati). My intention with this was not link bait - but it was the result, to some extent. It even made it to Techmeme. The posts have ranged from those writing about April Fools day through to a number who thought it was serious to a few who I'm still not sure if they got the joke. Twitter - Twitter lapped this one up. It was Tweeted and ReTweeted more than I know how to track (you can see some of it on ProBlogger's Quotably and this search result for PayPerTweet on Quotably). I helped it get kick started by direct messaging a few Twitter friends who gave it mentions. These drove a fair bit of traffic and also drove up my follower numbers (up about 160 so far since midnight). I guess this was good 'TweetBait'.Conversation - what I'm most happy about with this whole PPT thing is that it's actually generated some fascinating conversation and perhaps pointed to an issue that the team at Twitter is going to have to deal with in the coming months. The fact that someone is already offering Cash for Tweets shows that people are already attempting to manipulate the tool. The serious enquiries that I had as a result of posting also indicate that there is some kind of market for this type of thing. How long will it be before someone actually develops the business model for this? How will Twitter protect itself? Should it? Will Twitter be monetized and will see ProTweeters emerge? All of these questions and more have been thrown around over the last 12 hours - fascinating to watch.So it's midday here in Australia and that means the jokes are over and sadly (or happily for some) the PayPerTweet can be relegated to the deadpool (at least for me).

---

You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost.

Who Cares How Many Subscribers You’ve Got?

Problogger Tips

The following guest post on measuring a blog's success has been submitted by Mark Seall.
A guide to systematically troubleshooting your blog's performance by focusing on the measures that make a difference.

Apparently it's really easy to get zillions of subscribers to your blog - Just follow a few simple steps, work hard and write good stuff. I know this, because I read it every week on various pro-blogging sites which are keen to dispense the wisdom of their own success whilst making you feel inferior for having less than 20,000 RSS subscribers.

Unfortunately for many of us, the promise of multiple thousands of subscribers is unrealistic no matter how hard we try - sometimes because we work in less popular niches, sometimes because we just don't have the available time, and sometimes because we just don't have that magic mix of talent and luck.

Ultimately this leads to frequent disappointment among bloggers. Many of the bloggers I speak with are at a loss as to how to increase traffic, enviously regarding the multi-thousand subscriber club. Blogging is not a hobby or a profession for those without perseverance.

The reason that we obsess over our statistics

The only reason so many of us obsess over our statistics is because page views and subscriber numbers are the most obvious ways to measure our success. But are they really?

A business that only measures itself by its profits is unlikely to be successful in the long term. Profits are obviously important, but profit is only one measurement of success, and crucially, it is an outcome not a determiner. Outcomes are the things that ultimately we are judged by, but they don't tell you anything about the underlying factors which will make future success possible, and which are making current success difficult.

For example, a firm which is making roaring profits today is a poor investment if their products are so bad that few of their customers return tomorrow. A blog might have 10,000 hits today from social media, but that's hardly a success if visitors don't find any reason to return the next day.

So how can we measure ourselves

To truly understand and address what's driving your success it is necessary to understand the web of relationships between the different determiners which lead to the outcomes that you are looking for. The diagram below shows the network of measurable items which make up these relationships, showing how each is interconnected.

Some of these measures can be determined by statistics and some require a little more subjective judgement. What's important to grasp initially are the actual outcomes in which you are interested. Measures marked in red represent these outcomes. If you blog for money, then obviously ad-revenue is the most important outcome for you. But if you blog only for pleasure then perhaps your level of reader engagement (which can be determined largely by comments) is more important to you? If your blog is part of a longer term plan, then perhaps generating kudos within the blogging community is your best measure of success?

Next, consider (or don't consider) the things which you can't influence directly - such as page views. There is nothing you can do to directly influence these, so to a large extent you shouldn't waste time worrying about them. However, don't ignore them completely. These determiners can provide you with useful information as to why your blog is not performing as expected. For example, if you have few new visitors each month (often the case after the first few months) then perhaps you are getting poor search engine placement, or you are lacking in inbound links? If a quick check on Google shows that you are lacking in links, then perhaps it is time to re-focus on community interaction again? It is important to troubleshoot poor results in a systematic way to avoid firing random shots in the dark.

Finally, put all of your energy into the green items - the things that you can influence. Time and energy are always at a premium among bloggers, and it is usually unrealistic to expect that anybody can focus on everything. However, properly understanding all of the current performance measurements of your blog, and how they interact, will allow you to choose where to focus for the best results. It's worth noting that things which have multiple connections have a greater influence on downstream results - hence the constant emphasis on quality content.

Final thoughts

In reality, most bloggers (myself included) will continue to obsess over page views and find it difficult to walk past the computer without stopping to check on stats. However, putting a bit more focus on the wider measures of success can often delay the onset of the 'blogging blues' and give you the motivation to create that great content that we all love reading.

Blogging Truths

By: Jeremy Long Chia Teik

What can be further from the truth about blogging? It is phenomenal and explosive. Admittedly, blogging brings bloggers together. There is no other way that communities can be formed so easily, with bloggers exchanging views and ideas so willingly and honestly. Blogging provides the welcome space for bloggers to speak their minds via their blogs. It is the landscape on the internet that has made web surfing to be much more diverse, interesting and appealing.

Blogging has its own truths. To be successful in blogging, it is imperative to realize and understand these truths. Progress can be made. Results will be amazingly positive. Before these to happen, truths must be unfolded and followed faithfully.

Whatever the profession is, blogging truths require the blogger to be real. Bloggers have the responsibility of thoroughly knowing themselves. They must be in control of their own directions, where they are heading to in their blogging, what aims do they have for initiating their blogs, and how do they plan to achieve what they have planned at the outset. They must control their own destiny. Besides these, they have to comprehend their fellow bloggers too. These are people on the other side reading and listening. They comprise the target audience who are looking for something specific to their needs. Put simply, there is really too much for bloggers to blog about especially when it is about everything. Bloggers have to be specific.

To succeed in any endeavor, there must exist passion. If there is passion in blogging, the result will be that blogs will be outstanding. Bloggers will use their voices passionately about the things they are passionate about in their blogging. It is not difficult to visualize the enjoyment of something developing into passion, turning the blog into an explosive connection with other bloggers.

Needless to say, good blogging requires constant posting. Blogging truths endorse this fact that posts must be made constantly and with the inclusion of fresh content. Numerically, posting has to be made at the minimum once a day within a five-day week. Anything less than that is unacceptable. This is imperative because of the fact that the blogs will be subject to the scrutiny of search engines. Blogs will be searched more regularly for fresh content. Fresh content is therefore important not only to readers but also to search engines.

In blogging, the process of links is fairly noticeable. Links can imply that the blogger expresses interest in a certain topic posted, or that the linking blogger wishes to express his respect to the other blogger for the interesting post. The quality of the links that the blogger is linking to have the possibility of commanding more respect from readers and fellow bloggers. Respect begets respect. Links provide the way for newer blogs to be noticed only if their outward links are of higher quality.

Blogging truths reveal that in blogging, it is important and useful to request for and leave comments on the blogs. This process opens up the way for traffic and relationships building. Through links on the comments, the community members will be able to know more about the blogger and vice versa. There is the opportunity to get blogs and content revealed to the community. It is the golden path to enlargement of networking.

On the flip side of seriousness is fun. Blogging can be made fun. In reality, it should be fun, as it requires a voice from the blogger. It is an understatement to say that it can change views and relationships between blogger and customer. The fun aspect of blogging should be unanimous.

The advancement in technology is changing our lives on the ground and on the web. There are the new innovation of podcasting and video-blogging technologies which should not be left on the shelf. Blogging will be more enhanced with such cutting-edge technologies incorporated into the blogs. There will be more expression and appeal on these blogs.

New posts written have to be communicated to the blogosphere. In the world of blogging, there is the 'pinging' action that blog-software takes care of. This action readily shows the new posts to the rest of the blogging world. Bloggers thus stay connected and updated. To complement what 'pinging' can do, it is essential that content can be readily received by other bloggers or readers. This can be resolved by the usage of feeds. Through feeds, content can be easily read anytime and anywhere.

In blogging truths, it is strongly recommended to write a good blog post title. This is to captivate readers and to make them read on. When there are more readers, the chances of more links are higher. In the eyes of search engines, these are the kind of post titles they are searching for and type of blogs that they are sending more traffic to.

Learn more of these blogging truths and keep them in mind when blogging. They are the sure path to blogging success.
What can be further from the truth about blogging? It is phenomenal and explosive. Admittedly, blogging brings bloggers together. There is no other way that communities can be formed so easily, with bloggers exchanging views and ideas so willingly and honestly. Blogging provides the welcome space for bloggers to speak their minds via their blogs. It is the landscape on the internet that has made web surfing to be much more diverse, interesting and appealing.

Blogging has its own truths. To be successful in blogging, it is imperative to realize and understand these truths. Progress can be made. Results will be amazingly positive. Before these to happen, truths must be unfolded and followed faithfully.

Whatever the profession is, blogging truths require the blogger to be real. Bloggers have the responsibility of thoroughly knowing themselves. They must be in control of their own directions, where they are heading to in their blogging, what aims do they have for initiating their blogs, and how do they plan to achieve what they have planned at the outset. They must control their own destiny. Besides these, they have to comprehend their fellow bloggers too. These are people on the other side reading and listening. They comprise the target audience who are looking for something specific to their needs. Put simply, there is really too much for bloggers to blog about especially when it is about everything. Bloggers have to be specific.

To succeed in any endeavor, there must exist passion. If there is passion in blogging, the result will be that blogs will be outstanding. Bloggers will use their voices passionately about the things they are passionate about in their blogging. It is not difficult to visualize the enjoyment of something developing into passion, turning the blog into an explosive connection with other bloggers.

Needless to say, good blogging requires constant posting. Blogging truths endorse this fact that posts must be made constantly and with the inclusion of fresh content. Numerically, posting has to be made at the minimum once a day within a five-day week. Anything less than that is unacceptable. This is imperative because of the fact that the blogs will be subject to the scrutiny of search engines. Blogs will be searched more regularly for fresh content. Fresh content is therefore important not only to readers but also to search engines.

In blogging, the process of links is fairly noticeable. Links can imply that the blogger expresses interest in a certain topic posted, or that the linking blogger wishes to express his respect to the other blogger for the interesting post. The quality of the links that the blogger is linking to have the possibility of commanding more respect from readers and fellow bloggers. Respect begets respect. Links provide the way for newer blogs to be noticed only if their outward links are of higher quality.

Blogging truths reveal that in blogging, it is important and useful to request for and leave comments on the blogs. This process opens up the way for traffic and relationships building. Through links on the comments, the community members will be able to know more about the blogger and vice versa. There is the opportunity to get blogs and content revealed to the community. It is the golden path to enlargement of networking.

On the flip side of seriousness is fun. Blogging can be made fun. In reality, it should be fun, as it requires a voice from the blogger. It is an understatement to say that it can change views and relationships between blogger and customer. The fun aspect of blogging should be unanimous.

The advancement in technology is changing our lives on the ground and on the web. There are the new innovation of podcasting and video-blogging technologies which should not be left on the shelf. Blogging will be more enhanced with such cutting-edge technologies incorporated into the blogs. There will be more expression and appeal on these blogs.

New posts written have to be communicated to the blogosphere. In the world of blogging, there is the 'pinging' action that blog-software takes care of. This action readily shows the new posts to the rest of the blogging world. Bloggers thus stay connected and updated. To complement what 'pinging' can do, it is essential that content can be readily received by other bloggers or readers. This can be resolved by the usage of feeds. Through feeds, content can be easily read anytime and anywhere.

In blogging truths, it is strongly recommended to write a good blog post title. This is to captivate readers and to make them read on. When there are more readers, the chances of more links are higher. In the eyes of search engines, these are the kind of post titles they are searching for and type of blogs that they are sending more traffic to.

Learn more of these blogging truths and keep them in mind when blogging. They are the sure path to blogging success.

Ultimate Blogging Secrets

By: Shawnlim

Blogging has become more and more popular these days, people are looking for ways how they can improve their blogs so that more people know about their blog and can hence visit their blog. I believe that you can find a lot of blogging tips, guides and even secrets in the search engine, blogging has become one of the most-seek topic because everyone blogs.

So what are the ultimate blogging secrets? In my opinion, those blogging tips such as submit your blog to Technorati, post constantly, get a FeedBurner account, submit your posts to social networking sites, ping your blog and many more are not secrets anymore. This is because by simply typing 'blogging tips' in the search engine, you will come out with tons of results of the same kind. Almost every bloggers out there knows about these tips and guides.

So what I'm going to tell you here about the ultimate blogging secrets are something much more 'mental', it is more to your mindset rather than something like all the blogging tips that you can find from the net itself. Therefore, for me, the ultimate blogging secrets are:

Secret #1 – Know why you blog
Know the reason that you blog. Everything happens for a reason, and if you create a blog today, there must be a reason for you. So, why did you blog? Is it because you are just following the trend? You see a lot of people are playing with blogs, and you decide to join them as well? Or is it that you want to earn money from your blog? Whatever reason it is, there must be a reason; you have to find this reason.

Once you know why you blog, then nothing can ever stop you. Just like if the reason you blog is because that you want to create an extra stream of income online, then do whatever it takes to achieve it. It is the purpose that keeps you going, motivates you, inspires you and keeps you moving forward. Today, if you don't know why you blog, it is most likely you are going to give up the moment you find that nobody actually visits your blog.

That is why the reason is important. Know why you blog before you start creating your blog. This is just like having a clear goal, if you have a goal, you will know where you are heading. However, if you don't have a clear goal, you will be lost somewhere. If you don't even know where you wanted to go, how can you ever reach somewhere?

Secret #2 – Serve your readers
Many people did not know about this. Did you know that the reason people visit your blog is because of the information that you have? Therefore, the main purpose visitors arrive at your blog is because of your content, so you will have to write quality posts. You will have to serve your readers. This is the one question that you have to ask yourself, "Are you willing to do whatever it takes to educate your readers and without asking for anything in return?" If your answer is yes, then you should start creating your blog right now.

Just imagine that if someone arrives to your blog, but your blog contains nothing, your visitors will leave immediately, because your blog has got nothing that they are looking for. I like to use this word when I talk about serving your readers, Value. Yes, you have to create value for your readers, the more value you created for them, the more likely they will addict to your blog, and thus, follow your advice, and purchase whatever you recommend to them.

This is how it works; creating value for your readers, provide something that they are looking for. I know you've heard this, 'content is king'. This is very true, your blog content is just like the heart of your blog, and the traffic is blood. Without the heart, your blog will die, and without the blood, you blog cannot live. So, often bring out valuable posts for your readers, write with original content and your readers will appreciate it.

Secret #3 – Treat their blog as a get-rich-quick scheme
I believe that almost 50 percent of people who start their blogs with the reason that they hope they can make some money out from their blog, fast. If you think it this way, then you are wrong, blogging is not something that can bring you money in a fast way. In fact, blogging is something just like real-estate, it will appreciate over time.

Meaning that you have to spend time and develop your blog. Your blog is not a money tree and it cannot earn you any money if you don't develop it properly. Most people start their blog and wish that they can make some money out of it; this is because they have heard that many bloggers are making a lot of money from their blog, easily. They think that by simply setting up a blog, throw some posts in it, set up Google Adsense, and checks will come to them automatically.

If you think that blog is something that can make you rich in a quick way, you are wrong. Indeed that some people can earn a lot of money from their blog in just a short period of time, but did you really think that they are just lucky? You have to spend a lot of time to build your blog, you have to treat your blog as a serious business if you really want to make money from it.

There you go, the 3 blogging secrets that you never know about. Well, maybe you've already known about these, but in my opinion, these secrets are also important compare with other blogging tips such as submitting to Technorati, pinging, bookmark, etc. I hope that this article can help you achieve much more in your blog.