PureBlogging

Could you write a book? Have you already written one? If you have been blogging regularly for some time, then you have probably written enough for a book.

I worked it out. One one of my blogs, I have written nearly 400 posts. While some of them are short, many of them are long. I reckon a rough average is 300 words a post. That’s 120,000 words right there - more than enough for a non-fiction book. In fact, I once asked a publisher about this, and she said that the minimum for a non-fiction ebook was 60,000 words.

Of course, meeting the word count is only the starting point for creating a book from your blog. I turned to the Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network (SPAWN) for advice on what makes a successful non-fiction book. The article listed seven elements for success.

1. A timely or timeless, unique or interesting subject which appeals to a wide audience.

I don’t know about you, but most of the content on my blog is timeless. Writing advice doesn’t really date. The only content that’s likely to be dated are the posts that respond to current events and preoccupations in the blogging world. Most of the successful bloggers also have the wide audience which would make a book of their blog successful.

2. A descriptive and attention-getting title

This advice is much the same as for individual blog posts. The question is, how do you find a book title that encompasses all of what your blog is about. Blog titles are often short and memorable, and you might find that you need more description to make them appeal to book lovers.

3. Well written and edited, and easy to read

Again, if you have a successful blog, the chances are that your content is easy to read and well written. The challenge in making it into a book comes in editing it into a coherent whole. Book readers won’t be able to navigate your content using tags and links, so you will have to organise it in a more linear fashion than you would normally do.

4. Written by a professional, expert or good researcher

Here’s one area where blogs are different from books. Even the blogs that we most respect were started by bloggers who were trying something new. They weren’t experts then, but became experts by dint of experience. That said, most blog-aware readers are more likely to buy a book by Darren Rowse than Joe Bloggs (Brit slang for the man on the street).

As with a good blog, though, it’s the content that will sell it. If you have got some of the other elements right and good content as well, then you will make a successful book from your blog.

5. Well organised

I see this as being the same as point 3, especially if you get a good editor.

6. Attractive and professional presentation

Once you’ve created your book, then you need to give it a cover, and a blurb. The more it looks like a real book, the more seriously the book buying public will take it. If you are self publishing, splash out on a good cover design. If you have got a publisher, then they will use their experience to find a cover that works.

7. Well promoted and marketed

This is where your blogging experience will let you shine. In the offline world, books are often promoted at launches, signings and events. In the online world, blogs, forums and social networks rule. Now, you already know a lot about this, so you won’t have any trouble promoting your book through all your usual networks - and that’s a surefire way to make the book of your blog a success.

Have you thought of making your blog into a book? What would you need to do to make it work?

Anyone who uses WordPress knows that one of the best things about it is that it allows you to really customize your blog through the use of plugins. Many of these plugins merely customize things on your end as a blogger but aren’t seen by your readers. Common examples of these types of plugins are WordPress.com Stats, Google Analytics and All in One SEO Pack.

However, there are some plugins that you can get that will actually change your site and get more attention from the people who read your blog. Here are 5 examples of WordPress plugins that really make your site pop:

1. podPress. Let’s face it; podcasting is in. If you want to make your site sizzle, you need to add some sound to it. A podcast is also great because it allows you to speak directly to your reader. This plugin makes it super simple for you to add a podcast to your existing WordPress blog so you can start incorporating this feature without making any serious changes to your site.
2. FlogMaker. It’s not just audio sounds that are hot. Anything that gets the attention of readers on a site can be used to increase traffic. Flash is a perfect example of that; people are more interested in a flash site than a more basic site. FlogMaker allows you to easily turn your WordPress blog into a flash blog.
3. Polaroid on the Fly. Hopefully you’re already using images on your blog since a blog with pictures tends to get more traffic. Make those pictures stand out from all of the rest of the images on the blogosphere by using this WordPress plugin that creates Polaroid-style thumbnails within your posts.
4. zLinks. There are only a few links plugins that really make a difference in appearance to your readers. This is one of them. What it does is shows the reader information about the link that can be found elsewhere on the web. In this way, you provide your readers with additional information while creating more widespread links from your blog.
5. WP_MonsterID. This plugin does something interesting; it creates a monster-style avatar for every person who leaves a comment on your blog. You’d be surprised by how many people will start leaving you comments just to see what avatar gets created for them. If the monster theme isn’t right for your blog, search through the plugins to find some of the other avatar creators that are out there. Gravatars is a popular one.

WordPress plugins are important on the blogging end of things because they assist you with tracking statistics, organizing information and managing your blog. However, an increasing number of plugins are creating an experience that’s different for readers as well. Using these, a simple WordPress blog can be turned into something that’s worth talking about.

Related links: Top WordPress Plugins, Top WordPress Plugins For the Smart Blogger, 50 Best WordPress Plugins For Power Blogging

Question of the Day: What’s your favorite WordPress plugin?

Last month I asked the readers of Life of a Writer to share suggestions to assist me in my effort to bring something new to the table here at Pure Blogging. I asked them what they’d like to know about blogging, promotion or both that they haven’t read anything about or something they’ve not read a whole lot about. Novice Writer was the first to leave a suggestion, which I will be covering in today’s blog post.

After Novice Writer requested I blog about viral linking, I was not familiar with the topic but decided to research it. During my research, I immediately discovered the disadvantages of viral linking:

1. Links may be irrelevant to your blog. Viral linking includes links to a variety of different blogs, and the viral link list is published on a number of blogs that may not be relevant to your blog. According to Google’s advice for a better SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position) and PR (Page Rank), backlinks to your website or blog should be on other websites or blogs relevant to yours.

2. Links may not be good for family-friendly blogs. The links in a viral link list could go anywhere. What if you have a family-friendly blog and one or more of the blogs in the viral link list takes your blog readers to a pornography website? This could reflect badly on you because your blog is, after all, family friendly. Wouldn’t you agree?

3. Could hurt your SERP. Viral linking reminds me of those sites full of just links, and many search engines frown on you for participating in “link farms” such as this. Therefore, if you’re trying to get a better SERP for your blog or you’re working toward getting your blog listed in the popular search engines, then I’d advise against viral linking.

4. Viral linking has a horrible click-thru rate. Brook Durant at A Blog About Nothing researched his blog’s statistics after participating in viral linking and reported a horrible click-thru rate. “I’ve gotten less than 35 clicks coming in to this blog. Outgoing clicks on viral listed sites has been less than 15. As you can see the CTR for viral links is miserable,” Brook Durant explained.

5. Your blog post could go unread. Many of your blog readers may skip your blog post once they realize the post is a viral link post. Why? Because viral link blog posts don’t provide your readers with what they had hoped to discover on your blog: interesting content. Personally, during my research, I looked at a few viral link blog posts and found them uninteresting, so I was one of those readers who didn’t read the post. All viral linking boils down to is a list of blogs. Readers come to your blog for advice, not for a list of links to blogs that may not even be related to yours.

Now you know the disadvantages of viral linking. Whether you participate is up to you. Just keep in mind that participating might hurt your SERP or PR.

Is there something you’ve not read at all or read much about that you’d like to learn related to blogging, promotion or both? If so, leave your suggestion(s) in the comment area, and if I believe I can cover the topic, I will be more than happy to fulfill your request, too.

Last week I wrote about building your network.  In that article I talked about several different options to build the amount of traffic that comes to your site.  I just scratched the surface of the different traffic building tools you should be using.  the problem is, there are only so many hours in a day, so you really have to pick and choose a couple to concentrate on and really work them.  You want to concentrate on whichever tactics give you the most bang for your buck, so to speak.

So, how do you know what works and what doesn’t?  If you choose 3 different tactics to concentrate on, how do you know which were the most effective, and which were a waste of your time?  It’s possible that one is driving themajority of the traffic to your site, while the other is barely generating a trickle.  That’s where a good stat tracking program comes in.

I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here.  I’m sure you’re all serious about this and your tracking your results, right?  Well, for those of you that aren’t, you should.

Back in December Sharon Hurley Hall wrote about different stat tracking programs.  Go back and look at that post for a nice run down of a few of the many different programs that are available.  The best part about these programs is the cost…Free!!!  Some are better that others, so you’ll need to spend some time trying them out to see which one delivers what you want.  The most important thing is that you do something.

What you are looking for is a program that not only gives you the visitor count, but will give you some details about those visitors.  You want to know notjust overall count, but how many of them were unique visitors.  While total visitors is important, you need to be able to separate out the returning visitors from the ones that are there because of your current marketing efforts.  You also want to be able to see where the visitors are coming from.  If I am seeing a great deal of traffic from one effort, but hardly anything from another, I can scrap what isn’t working and focus my efforts on something new.

Remember though, most of the things you will be doing take time to really work.  This is especially true when your blog is young.  When your blog is more established and you have a larger reader base some things will happen faster, but early on you need to show a little patience and not abandon your efforts too soon.

Another thing that tracking your stats will do for you is to give you some insight into the many different ways people are finding you.  I always look at my visitors that come to my blogs through Google.  When I first started doing that I was surprised to see some of the things people were searching for when they found me.  That’s a useful bit of information.  In order to succeed I need to give my readers what they want.  By knowing what they are searching for, I can aim some of my posts to answer their questions.  That will keep them coming back for more.

A stat program will help you identify trends and patterns with your traffic.  I know from watching my stats that my visitor counts go up on my blogs every Wednesday when my post gets published onPureBlogging (thanks to those of you who are visiting).  I know that my restaurant blog tends to have more traffic on the weekend.  Knowing that helps me to know where to focus my energies.

Knowledge is power, and the more you know about what works and what doesn’t with your blog, the more successful you will be.

Good artists copy. Great artists steal.

~Picasso

What does this mean? What is the difference between copying and stealing? (And, oooh… don’t they both sound just so wrong?)

Copying is duplication.

Stealing is taking something that belongs to someone else.

Copying: Mark Wielgus of 45n5.com is has vowed to do a video every single day for a year, so you decide to do that, too. Big whoop. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger does a video every week, so you do, too. If there were such a thing as “anti-points” you would get them for copying that.

Stealing: Come up with your own remarkable take on multimedia. Be as original as you can. How is this stealing? Most people don’t know Mark is doing a video every day for a year. That gimmick is long lost. “Steal” the idea of doing something remarkable, though, and it’s a “theft” you’ll always get away with.

Copying: Everyone else has EntreCard, BlugRush, whatever, so you do, too. Really? Can I be your friend, now?

Stealing: Steal the idea of stimulating blog traffic… but do it by creating your own methods.

Copying: Everyone else does a “link roundup” or “speedlink” type of post, so you do, too. Yawn.

Stealing: Steal the link thunder by doing links in a more creative fashion or in a more unusual way than everybody else.

We can’t be a great artist 100% of the time. Sometimes, we can only be a good artist. Many people before me have skyrocketed their subscriber rates by releasing a free ebook only to subscribers, and I did, too. It worked. In fact, it worked like you wouldn’t believe. And that was just “copying” rather than “stealing.”

The paradox of this is that one of the best ways you can truly steal is to be original, and one of the best ways to be original is to truly steal!

One of the problems with blogging as a business (or doing any type of business online for that matter) is a lack of accountability. With most businesses and jobs there is always someone reviewing your work and your progress and holding you accountable for meeting your goals and objectives. Most blogs are one-person operations, and as a result there is no one there to hold you accountable.

If your goal with blogging is to make money, shouldn’t it be treated like any other business? At most businesses, as an employee you’ll probably have a review every six months or every year to evaluate your performance. If you’re willing to go through this while being an employee for someone else, why not put yourself under the same scrutiny when you are the one that has everything to gain, not an employer?

In addition to employee reviews, any viable business will have monthly and quarterly goals that are used in part to determine success and encourage consistent growth. The same should be true for us as bloggers. There are a number of different types of goals or measurements that we can use each month. Of course, whatever we use to determine our success should ultimately depend on our goals. For example, if making money is the most important goal, then it only makes sense that revenue and profit would be measured on a monthly basis.

How Can You Hold Yourself Accountable?

In order to be able to measure your achievements you need to have specific, time-sensitive goals. Some examples of possible goals:

• Number of unique visitors
• Number of pageviews
• Advertising revenue
• Affiliate program revenue
• Alexa rank
• Technorati rank

I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet that helps me to set monthly goals and track my progress. At the end of each month I can look at the results and see where I succeeded and where I came up short. That spreadsheet is available for download if you would like to use it for yourself. It includes columns for goals, actual achievements, and percentage of the goal accomplished.