eXtra For Every Publisher

One thing that I have been noticing lately is that bloggers are adding every widget under the sun to their blog. There is content, and there is advertising, other than that, you shouldn’t be mucking up your blog.

Some Things To Avoid

Stat Trackers that Require an Image. There are so many web statistic trackers now that you can avoid the ones that require an image back to their service. Things like ExtremeTracking aren’t as featured as some of their competitors anyways. I like Google Analytics, as well as AWStats to watch over how my blogs are doing.

Bonus: Of course there is Feedburner to track how my RSS feed is doing, which I highly recommend for all bloggers.

Separate Links For Each RSS Service. I don’t mind people putting a single RSS badge on their blogs, but when you add a small graphic for every RSS reader service. That gets to be a little ridiculous, and it can push other more important things from their deserved spot on your blog.

Hundreds of Categories. Not only does having more than a dozen or two categories listed on your front page look cluttered, but it also makes sure new readers won’t be able to find or focus on your best content. If you are going to make a crazy number of categories, find a way to only display the top dozen in your sidebar, and create a categories or tags page for the rest.

More than Three Advertising Programs. Do you really need to have every piece of screen above the fold be advertisements? It seems this has only gotten worse since Google AdSense allowed competing ads to be put on the same page.

I know you want to monetize your content, but I will never come back to your blog, no matter how great the content is, and I know many others would agree with me on this.

Conclusion

Every couple of months, take a look at your blog, and decide if there is anything you can remove. Simplifying things will keep your site focused and your readers will keep coming back.

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John Chow is an online idol of mine. While I don’t agree with how heavily he monetizes his blog, you have to respect someone that can do so well from their blog. Sidenote: he is a fellow Canadian He recently released a post talking about valuing advertising space on your blog and makes some good points.

Here is a snippet from the article:

The bottom line is Google AdSense can only get you so far. If your prime ad spot isn’t pulling in the kind of money you like then ask yourself what you can replace it with. Can you sell the spot to a direct sponsor? Can you replace it with an affiliate deal? Would the spot do better promoting your own site(s)? Would it be better just to get rid of the spot? The key is to experiment and mix things up. It is a lot easier to double blog income by tweaking than it is to double income by doubling blog traffic.

There are very few websites though that have maximized their potential with Google’s AdSense program, but working on various high level blogs, I have seen situations where this has occurred, and like John, private sales seem to be the best way to attain the maximum amount of money from an advertising spot.

The last thing I would like to say about all this is that bloggers should try hard to balance their need to monetize their traffic with the user experience of the site. I find certain types of advertising really put me off using a site.

Read John’s full article for some insightful details on how you can get the most money for your advertising space.

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One of the tips I have been giving bloggers lately is to think about what they would want to read. I have had to go outside my normal comfort zone a few times in writing articles. I have had to deal with subjects I know absolutely nothing about, but when it all comes down to it, if you think about what you would like to read about a certain topic, you can then go backwards from there.

Say you are tasked with writing about kitchens and you are a technology buff. Well, you can mix those two interests rather easily for your first few articles.

Titles like:

• Ten Great Kitchen Gadgets
• The Ultimate Geek Kitchen
• Kitchens of Yesterday versus Today

Fairly quickly you can build up an index of titles which will help focus your research and writing, and allow you to build up content in niches that you have never thought to explore before. It is a simple trick, but it definitely works.

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There are so many places now to find a paid blogging job that it is almost hard not to stumble across one, but I wanted to point out a few great resources for those still on the hunt.

Darren Rowse created Jobs.Problogger.net, which has a great listing of all sorts of different niche related blogging jobs. Because people have to pay to get on the site, the postings are usually fairly high quality.

Splashpress Media has their own job blog called BloggerJobs.biz. The design is pretty basic, the content is mostly taken from other job boards, but it does have a fair number of jobs you won’t find anywhere else.

Over on the WordPress.net domain, there is a Job site as well, which is very nice called Jobs.Wordpress.net. It is much newer than all of the others listed here, but it is a much nicer design, and a better sectioning of the different types of jobs you can expect to see. Even better, like the blogger job site I once tried to start, it is powered by WordPress.

The last job listing site for blogging jobs that I want to mention is in Performancing’s forums. Performancing is also owned by Splashpress Media, so don’t be surprised if you see many of the same jobs listed, but it also has bloggers looking for work. It might be a good idea to pool your talents with like minded people and maybe create something together, rather than joining an already established blog network.

Over in the sidebar, you will find the latest jobs from a few of these sites. Hopefully, this will help you find the job that will begin your problogging career.

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There is a reason lists are so popular online. They give a vast amount of information in an easy to digest format, and Freelance Switch’s tips for telecommuting success is no exception. They list some great tips that will help you succeed in any telecommuting job, including problogging.

Here are two of the ones I really liked:

Find your zone. Most people have a time of day when they’re most productive, when they can really crank out the work. Find your zone, and make the most of it. Don’t schedule trivial tasks during this time, but the most important tasks of your day.

Communicate. Whether you’re a regular employee working from home, or a freelancer working on a contract basis, you need to communicate with those you’re working with. That includes communicating what you’re working on, the progress you’re making, what you’ve achieved, any issues that need to be resolved, and anything that needs to be followed up on. Keep that communication regular, so you can’t be accused of not doing your work.

My most productive time actually shifts, sometimes I can get an amazing amount done first thing in the morning, while other times, I am only productive late in the evening, so don’t feel bad if finding your zone is difficult.

As for communication, I find this to be difficult to do, but very helpful. Communicating takes time, energy, focus, but making sure that everyone you work for, or with, knows what is going on, can help a project move faster, and keeps things organized.

Check out Freelance Switch’s full list.

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