Tag Archives: Blogging

5 Tips to Being a Better Blog Manager

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With so many blog networks out in the world, there need to be people to manage the blogs, and the bloggers, but how do you do it right? I have compiled a list of five tips to help you on becoming a better blog manager.  

1. Spend time developing your staff’s skills

As things continue to change, so will your blogs, and thus your business. Making sure your staff continues to use and develop their skills will allow you to keep a step ahead of your competition. This doesn’t mean you need to send them on courses, but giving time for independent study to learn something new, be it advertising, search engine optimization, or copyrighting, could greatly help your business in the long run.

2. Get to know what your staff actually does

One of the hardest things to do as a manager is pin down what your staff are actually doing. You have to remember though that what they produce or don’t produce greatly effects your bottom line. Making sure you keep tabs on their progress will create a better work environment and help your employees have proper expectations for what you would like done.

3. Get to know what your employees are really passionate about

Great blogs require passion, but many bloggers are just looking for a pay check and as such, they won’t be able to keep up a high level of energy about a subject. Positioning your assets correctly will lead to better growth in your company, or new avenues for growth you hadn’t originally considered. At Bloggy Network, we have created certain blogs because there was a niche that a writer really wanted to cover.

4. Provide regular feedback

Bloggers that work from home can feel very disconnected from the world, and thus their task. By providing regular feedback, you are helping them remain focused and setting certain expectations once again. This will increase their productivity or let them know where they have gone wrong, so they can do better next time. There aren’t really any true experts in the problogging world, as the career choice has not even been around long enough for anyone to claim that title. Problogging is a constantly evolving profession and so for every blogger, there is something new to be learned every day.

5. Give incentives

I know this seems a little strange, but even most real companies have incentives in place, and there is a reason. People need goals. We want to aim for something, and it makes us feel great to achieve it. By providing incentives, you open up a system where your employees feel rewarded for working harder, and if they attain such goals, it helps your companies bottom line. It is usually a win-win situation.

Understanding what it takes to be a manager can be of great importance to a new or established blog network, as it is a difficult job, and done incorrectly, blogs can fail. Of course, just like blogging, managing blogs, bloggers or a blog network is a learning experience, but these tips should help you down the right path.

Originally posted on August 30, 2010 @ 1:39 pm

I Really Like RSS

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One of the best advise I got from a friend when I was starting mind your RSS feeds. The what ? Really Simple Syndication. It is one of the more overlooked and least appreciated part of a blog or a website. When you mention RSS – you often get the perplexed look on the face of the person you are talking to. But you can find it nearly everywhere on the Internet.

Why is it important?

Because it is a way for you to deliver your content or writing to your reader.The reader just has activate it and voila! the post gets delivered to the reader. Through an RSS reader, which maybe on-line or not.

The publisher, whether blogger or webmaster, may also enable a feature in the RSS feed via Feedburner or any similar service that will deliver content to the reader via the email.

Feedburner is one of the services that allows you to enhance the value of your RSS Feed through services like receive posts via email, chiclets to promote your feed; a way to get statistics from your blog or website; and a number of other things. The service is now owned by Google.

I realy like RSS. It is quite a useful thing, although a bit too hard to explain at times. Although, I think Commoncraft does a good job at explaining what it is:

Originally posted on March 14, 2011 @ 3:18 am

Working as a Problogger

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My current job is Director of Communications at Bloggy Network. It is a career that took a long time to get to. Though long is rather relative. I have been working for Bloggy Network for nearly two years now, and I have learned so much, not only from doing the work, but also from my bosses, and the contacts I have made.

Networking

Networking is really the number one tip I would give to any would-be Problogger. Finding people that can help you in your journey is the key to success. It isn’t just enough to work hard, and write exceptional content, you also have to get people to read what you have written, give you pointers on how to do better, and talk about how great you are.

Without great contacts, there will be a plateau you will hit, and it will be very frustrating. I know what it is like, as I have been to that point before. It almost made me give up, but then I started having conversations with the people I admired online, and they helped me get past that point.

Time Management

Time management is another skill that all the top level Probloggers seem to have in common. They know that the more posts they do that appeal to their audience, the higher their stats will be. Part of my day is spent organizing a break down of time and duties that I will need to perform, both over the course of the day, the week, and the month. I strike things off my list, but don’t remove them, so that I have inspiration, and a sense of accomplishment.

Some might think I am wasting time by making lists and organizing my work, but I know for a fact that I am getting a considerably larger amount of work done than I was before. This preparation time can be very powerful, and almost as difficult as learning how to network properly, especially for those that aren’t natural organizers.

Filtering Data

Another trait that is important when working as a problogger is the ability to deal with massive quantities of data. For some probloggers, this might not be an issue, but as you grow either in a network, or on your own, you will find yourself covering more topics, or diversifying more and more. You will also be dealing with site statistics, different software, e-mail contacts, spam, advertising, and of course finding great stories for your blog.

You will have to be able to quickly filter out information that is not important, and move on. I was able to pick up this skill over time, thanks to reading through hundreds of feeds in Bloglines, in a set period of time.

and Many More…

Of course there are many other skills a person needs to become a Problogger, and the process can be filled with many roadblocks, but over the lifetime of this site, I will attempt to shed some light on my experiences in the world of blogging, as well as teach using the words of others. If you are wondering if Problogging is the job for you, continue to read eXtra For Every Person, and I will be covering more on what it takes, and what it is like to be a Problogger.

Originally posted on August 23, 2010 @ 12:52 pm

A Day Job is Not bad

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Do you live soley by blogging or writing material for the Internet? Or are you like mo who still has a day job? Or if not maybe you own a business?

Well if you are … well its not too bad. Whatever happens you still have a way to bring home the bacon so to speak. Often a day job is a blessing for writers. And if one is really luck the job will allow the writer to write the post or article in piece.

The creator of Dilbert Scott Adams was an engineer and worked for Bell Telephone. He actually worked there for years even when he began drawing Dilbert. And left only when he was sort of laid off.

I have known a number of full time bloggers who earn their income from blogging. But I have also known a lot of full time bloggers who earn their money from other things. Some are resellers of Internet Service Providers and Hosting services. Some are also reporters or writers for magazines.

Not all of us can be Stephen King. Who incidentally started out as a High School teacher. But we can write and still afford to live.

Originally posted on November 16, 2010 @ 11:23 am

Making Passive Income

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Freelance Switch has released “A Guide to Making Passive Income” on their NotByTheHour.com domain. It is separated into four parts, with each part tackling a different thing that people can do to generate an income without any long term work. Things like selling stock photos, writing a book, selling subscriptions, and creating content sites.

From the site:

Getting paid by the hour is pretty neat, but it’s even better when you have income that comes in when you?re taking time off too! Freelancers are uniquely positioned to be able to spend time creating sources of passive income while still getting their main money earning work done.

Streams of passive income can take a bit of work to get started, some even take a little work to maintain, however they are well worth it. Having a steady source of income is particularly useful for a freelancer as it helps mitigate risk and balance out some of the ups and downs of freelancing. Besides who doesn’t want a source of income that keeps generating with or without your input!

The guide’s website is beautiful, and the information, while a bit basic in parts, is really well written. They also give some example websites that can help you on your passive income journey over on the right hand side of the page. Pretty much everyone will find at least one page useful, and worthy of bookmarking.

Originally posted on September 14, 2010 @ 10:41 pm