A question that is often asked what is the ideal length of a blog post.  Should I write long posts to attract thoughtful readers or short posts that are easily scanned?  What type of post is best to get properly  indexed by search engines?

There is a simple answer – which is?  There isn’t a correct answer.

Look at the Successful Bloggers

Long posts

If you type into Google the following search: ‘How to make money with a blog’, you will find the three prominent blogs, Problogger, Daily Blog Tips and Steve Pavlina among the top ten answers.  So they’re doing something right.

Steve Pavlina writes extremely long posts, usually over 1,000 words and quite frequently over 5,000.  The site built up traffic by the number of long tailed searches, ie searches with unusual combinations of words – which are more likely to be found in a long article, which has more words and therefore more combinations of words.

His articles are also linked to by numerous other bloggers to the mass of articles and the couple of million words of text on his blog.  He makes little effort to promote his site and his blog demonstrates the power of the attraction of good content to build a very successful blog and online business.

Medium Sized Posts

The majority of  leading blogs, such as Problogger and Daily Blogging Tips  tend to offer useful medium sized posts.  Their big secret is that their posts are produced regularly and their large number of posts cover all aspects of their niche area: making money through blogging.

Another aspect of their work is that the owners of these blogs, Darren Rowse and Daniel Scocco, is that they put a lot of effort linking different sections and posts of their blogs.  This helps keep the visitors on their sites, which builds their authority.  Both blogs are well worth reading.  I’m particularly impressed by Darren Rowse’s money making methods, such as the ebook: 31 days to build a better blog.

Very Short Posts

On the other hand the author Seth Godin’s success is down to his numerous, short posts. His books on marketing are well written and usually contain quite a lot of humour.

I note does tend to write slightly off the wall and again will catch unusual searches. A lot of his success is down to the effective use of social media, such as Twitter.  Most of his posts are retweeted over several hundred times.

My Suggestion

I think this post proves that there is not a definite answer to the question.  Bloggers are successful with different lengths of posts.

Being English can I suggest a compromise: write a number of longish posts with your material, but also write a number of shorter posts. Then link the articles.

Leave it a couple of days or a week or so and you can usually generate a number of other linked posts to your long articles. Build the internal links between your posts to boost the blog’s SEO rating.  In this way you encourage your visitors to stay on your blog.

Then be a recycler. I suggest cutting down your larger posts and use them as guest posts on other blogs. Then split the large article down into smaller posts – rewrite them – then post them to free article directories. In this way you build one or to backlinks.

Links

Small Business Search Marketing: How Long Should a Blog Post Be?

Viper Chill: Interesting analysis of length of posts

CopyBlogger: 3 Things to Consider When Deciding How Long Your Blog Posts Should Be

Beginning to Blog: Use Pillar Post to Promote Your Blog

Beginning to Blog: The Early Morning Post – The Blog Needs Night Time Planning

Image:  Flickr @Dano

Over to you

Well what do you think?

The seven stages of bloggingis a framework that shows how a blogger can progress from a basic start-up blog to earning a living running a professional blog. A few, very few, bloggers can then achieve the status of the fame and fortune of the star blogger.

This framework shows the steps a person should take to achieve their blogging goals. It should be pointed out that many are, and should be, happy blogging at the lower levels of this framework. For example most bloggers the ideal level is moving towards the promoted blog, which has  a a reasonable number, and a growing number, of visitors.

The Start-up Blog

At this stage the blogger is learning how to write posts and how to use a blogging system.

This is often the fun stage.  Using a free service, such as Blogger or WordPress, you can be set up and typing up your first post in minutes.  alternatively you may have a domain and again using a quick install be ready to publish your work in a short time.

The new blogger will often play around with the theme, (the layout), trying out one free theme after another. They will play around with writing styles and the use of images and video.

They may belt out many posts in a day and for a few days, few weeks or for a couple of months be quite excited as their work is displayed to the entire worldwide audience of Internet users.

Sadly it is in this period that well over 90% of blogs die. The writer gets disappointed as they get few visitors and the effort of producing post after post begins to get tedious.

The Standard Blog

A standard blog is a blog where the owner posts regularly.

The owner is fairly comfortable in their writing style. He or she will be reasonably happy with their theme. They will be comfortable with using the blogging software and will probably be used to working with plug-ins.

Some will have have put some adverts, such as Adsense, on their site. They will be aware of visitor numbers, but will not have done much to try and build these numbers up.

For many, in fact the majority of, bloggers this level is all they want to achieve.  They are happy being visited by friends, relatives or work colleagues and feel it is a bonus if they get a few extra visitors through search engines.

Other standard bloggers are trying out experiments with their writing, putting their thoughts across or find the process of writing a blog quite satisfying. I have seen blogs used as a kind of therapy, a tool to force the writer to do something, (I’ve told the world that I’m going to lose 10 pounds — therefore I will be embarrassed if I do not lose this weight), a portfolio, (to demonstrate writing or presentation skills) or just as a online diary.

Quite a few standard bloggers are frustrated by the lack of traffic or the fact that they do not make much money from their blog. They need to move their blog to the foundation stage and then work hard on promoting their blog.

The Foundation Blog

the foundation blog is a standard blog that has been prepared to be promoted.

A visitor landing on a foundation blog will easily understand what the blog is about, will easily find their way around the blog’s content through good navigation.

Most important the blog will contain a reasonable number of posts that are likely to be linked by other bloggers and other websites. These will mostly be substantial, informative, timeless articles, which will add to the knowledge of others in the niche.

Of course the blog will naturally have a good contact form, and a good about page. the about page should have useful information about the blog, the purpose of the blog and usually details about the writer.

Two other factors are important: the first is that by this time the blog should have an e-mail newsletter which all visitors would be encouraged to subscribe; and secondly the writer should be writing all of their posts with a call to action on behalf of the reader. The action could be to click on links, to comment, to subscribe to the newsletter, to try out a product or to actually buy something.

Once the foundation blog has been set up the owner can then seriously start promoting their blog with the intention of building up traffic. The step from foundation to promoted  blog is probably is toughest, but it is very worthwhile as the blog will gain a lot of traffic and its authority will be greatly enhanced.

The Promoted blog

The promoted blog is a blog that has successfully attracted a level of traffic that its growth is organic. The blog will have many subscribers and many regular visitors. It will also have a good many back links. Although it is important that the owner continues to promote the blog he or she will find that their promotional work is a lot easier.

The owner will by now be an affective networker, using social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. Their posts will automatically appear on these sites.  he or she will by now have good links with fellow bloggers and there will be some cross promotions.

For many blog users the promoted blog is the ideal level. This is the level of a popular personal blog. It is the level that a campaigner or political comment blog would want to obtain. For those wanting to attract visitors to their business website and those who want to promote themselves as a consultant, freelancer, coach or service provider then the promoted blog is their target.

The promoted blog is also the level at blog owner can start seriously look at making money from their site. Advertisers will become more interested in their site. Their traffic will make it easier to earn  reasonable income from affiliate schemes.

The blog owner is now in a good position to build up their income.

The Business Blog

With a good volume of visitors, a good number of subscribers and newsletter readers many blog owner will now focus on developing business projects.

They may work with other bloggers to develop say training programme program. They may write and sell an e-book. They may work with a business and sell their services, (for example a web design service). They can easily setup their own advertising scheme where they can cut out the commission from agencies.

At this stage the owner is learning the skills of becoming a business person. They are learning how to network with fellow blogging business owners. They are learning how to negotiate and how to price. They are learning the techniques of placing advertisements in the most effective positioning on their site. They are learning the copywriting skills to encourage the readers to buy a product or to sign up to a service.

The Professional Blog

The professional blog is where the blogger has developed their business blog into a blog with a number of alternative ways of earning an income. There are now at stage where they can safely live off the earnings of their blog.

At this stage they will be recognised within their niche. They will know quite a few of the leading bloggers within the niche. They will probably have been interviewed by the press.

Whether their volume of traffic it will be relatively easy for them to launch a new product, support someone else’s product launch and they will also be able to start up say another blog or website, which will quickly become prominent because of their support.

the professional blog is achievable, but requires a lot of work and perseverance. Very few people make it to this level. Those that do seem to be reasonably happy as they have carved out a life will themselves. They have a career where they are the boss. They can choose when to work and went to rest. It is worthwhile aiming to achieve this level.

The Star Blog

The star blogger if someone who is not only will recognise within the blog’s niche, but more widely within the business press, entertainment press or other relevant media.

Whenever they do something new then it will be widely reported by other bloggers. It will create an excitement within the niche. At trade fairs and business conferences you will see them as guest speakers. They have fame, while and recognition.

Few, extremely few, become star bloggers. To achieve this status they would have had to have worked extremely hard to reach the professional blogging level. Then at that stage they would have still have had to work hard networking, being creative, producing innovative products and ideas and keeping on top of it all.

Star bloggers got there because they deserve to be there. I believe that star bloggers float up naturally from the professional level. they have worked hard, networked hard and more importantly being very helpful to others.

So how do I become a star blogger?  I don’t believe  you can make it as a career goal. I advise you to aim to be a good professional blogger and a happy at that level.  You should still work hard and co-operate and help others. Then one day you might wake up and find that you are recognised by the blogging community as a star.

So over to you

What do you think?

There are some gurus who argue that should try and keep visitors on your blog by only providing internal links.  So the visitor will flit from to post until they click on the buy something button or sign up to a newsletter.

Well to use the phrase of the miserable, cantankerous, British, sit-com character, Victor Meldrew, ‘I don’t believe it‘. I believe that links pointing to external websites are important. They raise the authority of your blog.

External links to your blog have the following benefits:

• they enhance your writing
• they reference your writing
• they can show your subject in a wider context or more in depth
• your reader is more likely to trust you if you have the confidence to link out to potential rivals
• other bloggers are likely to be happier to point to your site if you point them out
• your links out help Google and other search engines refine their understanding of the content of your blog
• they make your sites internal links more valuable
• it’s a nice thing to do

They Enhance Your Writing

If you’re at a party and you watch a good, entertaining talker, telling about some event, you’ll notice that he or she will at little points get others at various points bring in Jane or Jim to confirm that this or that happened.

The talker is still in control, but they will have built their authority with the audience by getting other people to confirm facts on incidents.  It makes the story, which is probably a tall story, following the old Irish belief ‘that the facts should never get in the way of a good story’, much more believable and entertaining.

It’s exactly like this in blogging.  You’re here to tell a story, whether fact, or fiction or a combination of both. Outside references in your posts: build trust, entertain, make your writing more believable and show that you have confidence in your material.

They Reference Your Writing

If you are writing an academic paper then virtually everything you say is referenced in footnotes and the bibliography at the end.  Your original thoughts are based on Professor Blah’s original concept, but it was also influenced by Doctor Dee and the research paper of Exe, Why and Zee at MIT. This gives the paper a context, a respectability and authority.

You don’t have to go into such detail but mentioning or linking to the bigger hitters in your niche argues that it is not just you, but that the big guys think this way as well.  Also you should be referencing the newcomers to the niche, (and if you don’t know who they then shame on you), as this shows that your posts are up to date.

So the external links put your posts and blog in context, show that you’re up to date  and show your visitors that your blog is the place to be find out what’s happening in the niche.

They Can Show Your Subject In a Wider Context or In More Depth

This is a time saver.  This blog is about blogging.  It’s in a crowded filed with a lot of competition.  It is also in a niche where there are a lot of great and skilled writers.

Now some of them have produced excellent materials on aspects of blogging that I don’t want to cover at all or I don’t want to cover at the moment.  For example I don’t need to explain how to install WordPress.  All I need to do is go to Google and write the words ‘install wordpress tutorial’ and I get a list of blogs that have explained it and very impressively a list of Youtube videos, which I could then embed into my post.

In fact I lie – going back to the search I find that there are hundreds and hundreds of videos at the top of the search – proof that Google rates video very highly.

Linking to other ‘install WordPress’ posts saves me time.  Embedding the Youtube links not only saves me time, but enhances my post as well.

There are an amazing number of good posts and videos out there.  Some will probably cover your niche in greater detail, or will give a wider appreciation of your subject area, than your blog.  Save your time and effort just link and praise.  You will look professional and knowledgeable if you link to the best of these.

Your Reader Is More Likely to Trust You if You Have the Confidence to Link Out to Potential Rivals

You are working to demonstrate to your visitors that you are a well researched, knowledgeable  professional.  You know your niche like the back of your hand.

Your blog is the place to go for information about the niche.  Provide it link to the best.  Your readers will appreciate it.  They’ll trust you and come back again and again.

Other Bloggers Are Likely to Be Happier to Point to Your Site If You Point Them Out

Bloggers love to be loved.  They like to be acknowledged.  They love lots of visitors.  Send them some.  They’ll check you out as you’re obviously a poor of great taste – you must have – you like their blog.

Those on the ball will check you out.  They will post comments on your blog thanking you for the post.  You may then post another link to another part of their blog.  You may put a comment of their blog.

With some you’ll be considered a friend.  Now and then you’ll email each other.  You’ll discuss problems and successes. Now and then you’ll swop the odd guest post.  You’ll co-operate on projects and introduce each other to useful contacts.

You’re building up your network. Other bloggers in their network may contact you or they may contact other bloggers in your network.  Your internet world is expanding.  You’ll not only have friends, but friends of friends and your readers will be impressed by your contacts.

Your Links Out Help Google and Other Search Engines Refine Their Understanding of the Content of Your Blog

You’re visiting a new town.  You’re thirsty – you desperately need coffee as a boost, (or if you’re older English, like me, wanting a nice cup of tea).  You had to drive for two hours, through heavy transport and been to a heavy meeting. You’re tired and don’t want any hassle but you’re due to go to another meeting in half an hour’s time.

There’s three places offering coffee in the high street.  The first is small, but empty apart from two people sitting at a table.  The second is a little bit bigger has a lot of customers, who seem to be enjoying themselves chatting.  The third is Starbucks, which is half full.

You’re tired and in a hurry – you’ll probably go to Starbucks.  It’s a well known leading brand.  The quality of the coffee and the level of service is predictable. It’s safe.

If you were staying in the town for a number of days and you needed you daily fix of coffer you would almost certainly try the second cafe.  You may then find that there is a friendly waitress service, the seats comfortable, the snacks good, but the quality of the coffee lacks a certain something.

You may on a whim try the first cafe.  You find to your surprise that it has just opened.  Though the service is fairly slow the quality of the coffee is absolutely excellent.  So when you have some spare time this is the place to you go to unwind.

So Google analyses websites in a similar way to you.  The Google spiders, (the clever bits of software that build up the company’s database),  analyse all the links from your page.  They note where your link is going to and they note the content of the page the link lands up.

A link to a significant highly rated website is good for your page.  A link to a page that has similar, but not the same, content to your page clarifies Google’s impression of your site.  If you have say four links to different aspects of your post’s  topic Google is much clearer on the purpose of your writing.

Your outbound links are really useful to Google and this process increases the value of your work.  High status, high ranking pages help you get a higher rating.  Linking to popular and rising websites increases your page’s value.  Having your outbound links spread among a number of different sites of different ratings is also helpful.

Having dozens and dozens of links will make Google suspicious.  Continually linking to the top four blogs in your niche will not only look suspicious, but will bore the pants off your viewers and tell them that you are superficial.

They Make Your Site’s Internal Links Much More Valuable

As a kid the old folks will tell you that you’ll be judged by the company you keep.  At the end of a blog post you should have a link section which shows:

• a combination of links to the top blogs
• some of the interesting, emerging blogs and
• some well considered placement of some of your own internal links to other parts of your blog.

Your visitors will then see your links seen in combination with other high value links.  This will then appreciate your links more than they would if your links were just by themselves.

It’s a Nice Thing To Do

Outbound links showcasing other people’s work in your niche is a nice thing to do.  Do it and you’ll find that your kindness will be rewarded. Your visitors will respect you, your standing with search engines will be enhanced and both you, as a writer, and your blog will gain authority.

Links

Vandelay Design: Using Outbound Links to Improve your Blog

Google Webmaster Central:  Useful discussing on linking out

SEO Blog: Useful discussion on the topic

Over to You

Well what do you think?  Tell me interesting pages to link to.

Of course link to rubbish and your reputation goes out with the garbage.

External links are great at making quick points

Whether you’re new or an experienced technology user you should join a number of technical forums as soon as you can.  I am a regular user of the support forums for WordPress, StudioPress – my theme’s support and Daniweb – a nice independent support site.

In addition to the forums there will also be a host of tutorials, documentation, tips and sometimes worked useful examples.

Three technical forums

WordPress support forum can be a bit difficult to understand and occasionally the responses are a bit abrupt – usually to someone asking the same question as dozens of others and the solution could have been easily found by using search.

Daniweb is totally manned by others and so dependent on the section and how you phrase the question you can get a good response or none.  Daniweb also has discussion forums and so you can use these to ask general questions, such as ‘what security measures should I take with WordPress?’.  In many cases this will then generate quite an interesting discussion with people who really know what they’re talking about.

StudioPress support is really excellent.  There’s a small group of the theme’s developers hovering in the background and eager to help, OK this is partially as they use this to demonstrate their skills to find work.

But it’s a friendly environment and usually any query I’ve made has been answered very quickly

Other support sites. Occasionally I use other support sites to learn about something specific, such as the programming language, php – phpfreaks being really helpful, but sometimes the answers are a little more difficult to understand than the problem – but they are really enthusiastic, and like a religious cult they’ll work hard to convert you.

w3schools: But for HTML and CSS problems I go straight to w3schools tutorials and just see their worked examples.  An excellent resource.

Technical Forums: Help When You Need It.

A sad story. Christmas a couple of years ago my central heating boiler broke down between Christmas Day and New Years Day. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  No heat, no hot water, no shower, no washing up water unless heated in a kettle.

I needed help and I needed it fast.  Technically my insurance policy should cover this situation and two days later, on New Year’s Eve,  a gas fitter turned up took our boiler to bits and then decided that our boiler was not covered by the policy.  Arghhhhhhhh.

We couldn’t get them on New’s Day, but the day after I phoned up a small local plumbing company that I used before and we were quite friendly.  Could they come? They checked and one of their plumbers – the brilliant  John, the biker with fantastic Celtic tattoos, was working in the neighbourhood and he turned up later the next day and sorted out the problem in around ten minutes.

Help when I needed it.

Morale of the story

I’d used the plumber company before and had recommended them to a couple of friends.  I’d also got on well with the plumber- when he’d done some work for me.  I’d also sent them a note of thanks.  They knew me.

So when I needed them – I had a little a bit of a priority over other new customers when I made my cry for help at a timethey were extremely busy.

So knowing where to go and having been a good customer in the past got me the result I wanted fairly quickly.

Plus I’ve learnt what I always knew – that insurance companies have a fantastic service except when you want to make a claim.

Technical Forums: Improve Your Geeky Knowledge

You don’t have to become a complete geek, but I advise browsing a relevant forum now and again. Get to know your way around, find out where the tutorials are hidden, (a common problem), learn good practice and get some good ideas.

You should:

• checking out a few of the current problems
• learn how to use the search facilities
• find out where the tutorials are located
• looking at problems that have a lot of answers helps
• see how others frame questions
• make yourself known by answering the easy questions, (the techies will love you for this and your queries will then get more support)
• get involved in discussions

In a short time you will be able to use some of then jargon, you will be aware of new developments in your topic area and you will be known on the forum.

Technical Forums: A Great Boost to Your Blog

These sites are highly rated.

WordPress support has Google page rank of 9.  It’s Alexa rating is 95, (that means it is ranked as the 95th most important website on the internet.

Daniweb has a Google rating of 6 and an Alexa rating 1,193.  The much smaller StudioPress support site has a Google rating of 6 and an Alexa rating of 1,681.  Phpfreaks has a rating of 5 and an Alexa rating of 6,357.

These are then great sites for giving your blog very valuable backlinks.  But use these sites properly.  The majority of users on these site are net savvy and will get annoyed at someone just using these forums to get backlinks.

Become part of the community and you will be accepted.  Try and be clever and you could get banned, thrown off or very rarely flamed – ie your comments system will be blasted by thousands of unwanted emails.

Technical Forums: Security Warning

Search for and ask for help for an error message.  Describe a problem.  But don’t start giving away too much technical information, such as very specific locations of folders or answer queries about things, such as port numbers, unless you trust the person you are dealing with.

There is always the slight possibility that a hacker is lurking in the forum.  I had a problem on one forum, a small social forum, where someone got obscenely abusive to a woman member.

I made the mistake of suggesting that he was sexually immature and that if he had learnt the skills of using soap he might one day actually meet a girl, who would dain to talk to him.  I obviously hit a nerve, suggesting that my remarks probably had an element of truth.

I was then under constant attack for six months and in the end closed down a blog I was using.  It was mostly a constant stream of emails with nasty attachments.  He opened up over forty email accounts to try and fool me. Three times he’d got through my security. Fortunately I had good backups.

Technical Forums:  Ask the Right Question

To be taken seriously ask all your support and technical questions in a professional manner.

The heading should give a strong indication of what the problem actually is.  So in StudioPress I would have a title like ‘Foundation- full width logo image’.

This would indicate that I was concerned about the Foundation theme, the one I’ve radically cannibalised for this site, and that I wanted to ask a question about how to install a full width logo.

This then makes it easier for someone on the forum to have a strong idea on what the problem is and those that know about it will probably answer it.

In most cases on the StudioPress forum it is useful to post a link to the website or website page that is giving the problem.

Support Forums Can Help You Find Content

You look around a support forum.  You see that there is interest in a particular problem or you’ve asked a problem and realise that there are other people with the same problem.

A problem shared is a problem halved and often a problem solved.

If relevant why not fully document the problem, make it a bit prettier, use a screen grabber, such as Snaggit, to get a number of screen shots and you’ve got yourself a post.

Be polite send an acknowledgement link to the forum for the solution.  It makes you look honest, it praises the person who had the solution, it raises your credibility with the forum and it gives authority to the post and I’m told it gives you more authority with the searthc engines.

When You’ve Had a Response – Respond

Monitor the forum and be polite respond to people asking questions.

Tell them if their suggestions work and thank them.

If there’s still a problem then tell the forum and try and clarify what’s not working.  Again thank people for trying to help.

And one of the great plus things to do on a forum is if someone comes up with the same problem and you respond saying like Aaron suggested this to me and it worked, with a link back to Aaron’s solution on the forum.

Well Aaron’s going to be pleased. The person you’ve helped is going to be pleased.  And some of the big cheeses on the forum are going to be pleased that you’re learning.  So win win win.

Don’t on forums

There are ways to really hack off the people providing support on a forum.  Remember most are doing voluntary.

Don’t do the following

• title a query -’I'm a newbie help’
• title a query – ‘help’, ‘I’ve got a problem’
• respond to arrogance or rudeness.  The arrogant or rude person has the problem not you, (remember they’re probably more technically able than you – see sexually immature above)
• tell someone that their solution is rubbish – even if it is – politely thank them, (well I’m English and I’d apologise if you stood on my toe – yes I really would)
• forget to thank someone – you may need their help at a latter date
• don’t use a forum as an excuse not to write that important post
• don’t just post trivial queries to boost you’re site – the forum regulars will soon be on to you.

Technical Support Forums are Good for You

Knowing your way around a number of technical support forums is good for you and good for your blog.  You will

• quickly build up a better technical knowledge
• you will usually save yourself time and money finding solutions to problems
• you can build up contacts, who could be useful to you in your online career
• your queres and discussions will help boost your website

Over to you

Can you recommend a good support forum?  What have your experiences with technical forums been?

You can write or do it right: Part 1 You can write

True confession

I tend to be a writer than a do it righter.   Well I’m English so I tend to be a bit of compromiser.  I do a tiny bit planning, before I charge into setting up an instant blog, and then there’s the sound of the  keyboard rattling,  only broken when I charge off to brew yet another cup of English Breakfast Tea, (which can be drunk any time of the day – especially by me).

Two days ago I had an epithany, (which is not Tiffany’s younger sister), where I realised that I should have planned this blog properly.  I’ve written around thirty posts which could have, nay should have, been written in a different style.  However, I’m now excited that I’m now totally focused on where this blog is going and I’m now very confident that this blog is going to be a great success.

So you want to write – right?

The really, really easy way to get writing quickly is to set up a blog on one of the two, free hosted blogs services: Blogger or WordPress.  You just join one of these service, choose a quick name, choose your theme, (layout), and that’s really it.  Start typing.

Blogger

Goto Blogger.com

or WordPress

The Benefits of these Systems

There are some useful benefits to starting your blog on one of these services:

• In around 10 minutes you can be producing your first post
• the service is free
• These systems now come with a wide variety of themes
• Both have a lot of useful features
• You don’t have to worry about upgrading, backing up etc
• It’s reasonably easy to export your posts etc from one of these systems.

The Evil Downside

As these services are being controlled by one big organisations, Google for Blogger, and a smaller network of enthusiasts, WordPress organisation for WordPress there are implications:

• unlikely- but they could go bust
• possible – that they may decide to close down the service
• probable – that at some point some bright technical spark will decide to change the whole system and it will mess up the look of your blog.
• there are more controls in the system.

The last thing happened to me.  I had a personal blog over about two or three years, with 300+ posts, which were written under my premium subscription, ($5), with Blogger, then an independent business.

The business got taken over by Google – I was given a great Google hoodie as a bribe not to complain about the take over, (my price is sadly very low), and everything seemed OK around two months.

Then the great anoucement the system was going to be improved and much, much better and much, much faster.  It was except every one of my images on my 300+ posts had vanished.

The update had modified my links and unfortunately I had worked out a clever, non-standard, quick way of loading  my images to Blogger.  I started loading the images post by post but at the end of the evening I had only sorted out around thirty images.  Arghhhhhhhhh!!!

Which is why I suggest that you think seriously about setting up your own blog with your own domain.  See part two of this post.

Overview:

You think you are a blogger, but what you really are is a budding expert in your niche.  As an expert you will know your niche well.  You will will write regular and reasonably well written articles about subject matter relative to your niche.  You will gradually become  an acknowledged authority, but it generally does take a week or two to get there .

I advise that you start off sensibly and stick to writing the basics .  As you develop  your expertise, (a word meaning you are growing into an expert), you can start tackling the more in depth aspects of the subject area.  In a few months, (though it make take a year or two), you will become an expert and you may develop beyond the blog into giving talks, training sessions, writing articles, consultancy or paid work.

This article looks at the art of becoming an expert quickly and successfully in today’s wired world.

Becoming an expert

As an ex-further education lecturer, (I think this is equivalent to American community college teacher), I had to quickly become an expert in quite a few topics.  My college management was pretty inefficient and every September I would suddenly find myself teaching, without warning,  completely new subjects.

I’m quite experienced in both computing and business studies and I know I can carry a class for the first two or three weeks in virtually any of these areas.  After a couple of years I learnt just to enjoy the summer holidays and follow my own interests.  It was a waste of time preparing course materials as in about half my classes I would  be teaching different classes and at different levels  in the new academic year.

My technique with a new subject and keep my expert edge, was to work out a strategy to keep the students occupied for about four or five weeks, by which time I would have prepared a course handbook.  My handbook would include a description of the course, what it covered, what the students should be reading, suggested links on the net and clearly defined exercises and assignments.

As a lecturer it is essential to get your students to do as much work as possible.  So for the first few weeks I would be looking at giving my students a short lecture and then get them to do some simple group exercises.  This gave me breathing time, got the students occupying each other and it gave me an insight into attitudes and ability of the individual students themselves.

So to appear as an expert you need to:

• confidently demonstrate your expertise in a basic area
• when you’re confident write about other areas in your niche
• keep reviewing the areas you have covered and explore them in more depth

What do you do with smart Alecs, or people who know, or think they know, more than you?

Don’t be intimidated by them.  On the web there are a lot of people who need to demonstrate they are clever.  Most are OK, but some do have some sort of problem.

My usual technique is to be pleased that have their expertise.  Ask them their views they will be usually be happy and treat them as a fellow expert.

Where they are clearly trying to get one over on you and try and prove you are stupid and they are genius – just don’t play the game.  Don’t respond to their comments.  Don’t reply to their emails.  It they are abusive delete their comments.

In teaching or speaking it can get tough.  You should try and talk to them on a one to one basis and if that doesn’t work tell them straight you disagree, but for the class or audience can they let you continue.

So What is an Expert?

In very simple terms it is someone who knows more about a subject than the audience.  They may be a page in front or they may know the whole encyclopaedia.   The readers or listeners think the blogger or the speaker is the expert and unless the writing is poor, or the speech appalling, then they will carry on thinking they are the expert.

So when I used to turn up to my college and suddenly find, (and all these cases I was given around ten days notice),  I’m teaching second year university databases, computer graphics or teaching technicians how to repair and build computers.  I groan, realise that for most of late September and October I’m going to working hard at home to build my class teaching materials.

But get the students engaged.  Look like I know what I’m doing and in most cases I’ve won and I’m thought of as the expert in the subject.  So all you need to do is write as if you are the expert and most people will accept that you are.

Defining your expertise

I am writing this blog to consolidate my expertise in blogging.  This is why I bought the domain, ‘Beginning to Blog.com’.  I want to help people dewvelop a professional aprroach to blogging.  I don’t want to be too technical.  I don’t want to compete wioth the ‘get rich quick’ bloggers.

So I’ll develop my writing aimed at the beginner’s world, though in time my posts and hints may be of use to the more expereinced content writer.

By being focused on a relatively quiet corner of a very crowded niche I hope to develop the authority of this blog over the year 2011.  We shall see.

So it’s Simple Really

It all in the mind.  Think yourself an expert and you .  Write expert articles on subjects you know.  Expand the areas your expertise covers and review your posts and then write in more and more depth.

If people start subscribing to your site or keep coming back for more than your readers think you are an expert.  And if they keep coming back – well my son, (or daughter), then let’s face it you are an expert.

Over to You

Well what do you think? What areas? What subjects are you going to write about?  Do you want help then shout why I am free?