PureBlogging

Hey, did anyone see the brilliant documentary film Helvetica? Yeah, neither did I. But it’s a great idea: An hour and a half about a font! One can only hope there are plenty of sequels (Helvetica II: The Helveticking) and copycats (Comic Sans Ascendant — The Dark Tide Cometh: A Film by Uwe Boll) so the market fills up with great options for those of us who like learning about kerning.*

Sometimes geeks can be such geeks, can’t they?

Font is, of course, a fairly important concern for those of us who write for a living. But it’s only one item on a list of things that we should always be checking up on. The little things on your blog have an aggregate effect on how your readers perceive you, so it’s important to revisit them every once in a while.

Font. Legibility, of course, is the most important consideration when choosing a font; you don’t want your readers missing out on your brilliant ripostes because they can’t penetrate whatever weird gothic calligraphy you’re using. But there’s more to the choice than that. This great post on Inspiration Bit documents the best-loved fonts in web design. And the comments on this Problogger post gave me a good crash course in typography.

A good font can help you stand out from the crowd, but the choices are rather limited, so be careful. The best font is often the most “invisible,” which is why ostentatious fonts like Comic Sans and Papyrus are so reviled.

Verbs. Verbs are very likely the most important and versatile parts of speech. There’s almost no effect you can accomplish with adjectives and adverbs that you can’t accomplish with verbs. Many resume coaches instruct their students to invest their writing efforts in the verbs they choose, and they’re right. The proper verb can mean everything, so go through some of your old posts and look at what you’ve used — does your verb choice match the tone you want your blog to achieve?

Bob Harris provides a great example of this by contrasting the buttons on Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s Web sites.

Privacy. OK, OK, so privacy isn’t such a small thing. But readers like to know these things matter to their content providers, and no intelligent person should assume any website has his or her best interests in mind, no matter how great the site is. Creating a privacy policy is a great idea even if you feel you don’t need one — it’ll let your readers know you’re an ethical blogger, and that you’re not selling their information to spammers. Of course, if you are selling their information to spammers, you are a very, very bad person.

Josh over at The Comics Curmudgeon recently created a thorough, user-friendly privacy policy written in plain English. Looks like a good template to me.

So there you have it. It’s the little things like these that can have profound effects on your relationship with your readers in the long run. What are some of the little things you find yourself fretting about?

*Forgive the snark. I’m told by at least one reliable source that this is a great film.

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One of the secrets of being a good writer — heck, probably one of the secrets of being a good anything — is to always have your mind ready to learn. Often these lessons will be things you knew in theory — concepts you’ve read about on personal development books or copywriting blogs. But if you’ve got an open mind, you’ll be able to spot those theories in practice. I’ve been lucky enough to see that happen three times this week, each time with the help of my girlfriend, Alanna.

1. Your (blog, website, television show, column) isn’t a sharpening service. Take your axe elsewhere. This weekend, while Alanna was doing some crafting (she makes jewelry, stuffed animals, picture frames, and a whole raft of other stuff) (actually, I think maybe she makes rafts too), she had an episode of The West Wing on as background noise. In this particular episode, Bradley-Whitford-as-Josh-Lyman was on more of a tear than usual, ranting against the personal development industry and those who write self-help books, complaining that people are foolish to read Tony Robbins and Zig Ziglar when great philosophers like Immanuel Kant are, like, right there.

Certainly, there’s no denying the personal development industry has more than its fair share of hacks (“Just pay $24.95 for my book, and I’ll teach you how to save money by avoiding foolish purchases!”). This particular speech wasn’t motivated by the episode’s plot, however, or any of the characters’ story arcs over that season, or really anything other than Aaron Sorkin’s own compulsive need to complain about whatever we mouth-breathing, non-Ivy-League Chalupa Disposal Units are doing to annoy him this week, instead of reading Proust by lantern-light or being highly-paid television writers. It reminded me that what you leave out of your work is probably more important than what you end up with.

The moral: Don’t write something to your readers that isn’t motivated by something they want or need. If you want to get things off your chest, keep a diary.

2. Sometimes, unintended consequences can be the greatest ones. This week the web development company I work with gained a new client, a contractor who’s looking to snag some market share from a competitor whose website has a much higher page rank, and who does a substantial amount of business on the Internet.

Alanna was sitting nearby as I checked out the competitor’s website, and she noticed a “careers” link on the front page navigation. Odd, she said, for a home-improvement contracting firm to have a page on its website dedicated to a call for new employees.

But as I looked at it in light of the overall look of the site — which was confident and uber-professional — I realized that the real benefit of that particular page wasn’t getting more handymen and carpenters on the company payroll. It was letting visitors to the site know that they’re looking at a growing organization. And if they’ve got a customer base that’s large enough to demand a bigger workforce, they must be doing something right… Right?

The moral: Sometimes it’s not about what you’re saying to your customers. It’s about what your customers hear you saying to others.

3. You gotta know when to hold ‘em. More importantly, however, you gotta know when to fold ‘em. I had a wasted day this week. You know the kind. I got a late start, and wound up running errands for much of the mid-morning and afternoon. By the time I sat down in front of my computer, my brain was fried from a combination of LA traffic and big-box-store crowds, and despite my best efforts at getting some serious writing done, all I could count on myself to do was play Text Twist. After a while, Alanna asked me if I’d like to watch a movie with her. I did, and we wound up falling asleep under a blanket on the couch together. It was the best part of my week. Had I continued to sit at my desk, telling myself repeatedly that, okay, this would definitely definitely definitely be my last game, I’d have gone to bed disappointed and underconfident.

The moral: Sometimes, one of the best ways to maintain yourself as a writer is to not do any writing at all.

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In order to rank well in the search engines, your business blog should be search engine friendly. To begin, the title as well as the content of your blog post must contain keyword phrases that are relevant to your business blog. However, before you choose your keyword phrases, research each keyword phrase and pick the ones that are most popular and have the least amount of competition. Some tools to help you select the best keyword phrases for your business blog are Wordtracker, Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool and/or the Digital Point Keyword Research tool.

After you’ve chosen keyword phrases relevant to your business blog, place the most important keyword phrase in the title of your post. Next, place all the keyword phrases you chose throughout the content of your blog post. Once you’ve completed these two steps, check the keyword density with a free keyword density tool such as the Keyword Density Analysis Tool. A good keyword density to aim for is anywhere from 3% to 5%, anything over 5% may be considered spam. If you discover that your content needs more keyword phrases to reach at least 3%, then the above-mentioned keyword tool will allow you to rewrite the content for your business blog while viewing the keyword density for the keyword phrases you entered. As you write the content for your business blog, you want it to be interesting enough to keep your visitors reading, so try to let your keyword phrases fall into the content naturally.

In addition to including your most important keyword phrase in your title and sprinkling your chosen keyword phrases throughout the content of each blog post, I also recommend installing a SEO plugin.

For more tips on how to make your business blog search engine friendly, read JohnTP’s “8 Simple SEO Tips for Bloggers.” Finally, join me next Wednesday as I reveal how you can make more money with your business blog.

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Now that you’ve decided on a blog host, it’s time to create the content for your business blog. “What type of content should I place on my business blog?” you ask. The type of content you display will depend on what products and/or services your business has to offer. For example, if you offer writing services, you may want to feature content related to the niche you write on the most. This will show your readers you know what you’re talking about, and it allows you to show off your experience. Another example: If you sell software, your blog content could include simplified tutorials for using some of the software you sell. Nevertheless, no matter what products or services you offer, your first blog post should be an introduction. In your introduction, discuss your experience, introduce your business, and let your readers know what to expect from your business blog. Also include a link to your website as a way for your readers to contact you, in case they have questions about your products or services.

Other content that works well with any business blog includes:

• Announcements about special offers and freebies.
• News related to your business.
• Latest trends.
• Business advice to share your knowledge and expertise.
• If you sell products, buying guides for the products you sell.
• Monthly or yearly analysis of your sales.

In Choosing the Right Host for Your Business Blog, I discussed going with WordPress if you wanted to create extra pages for your business blog. So now I’m going to cover some of the pages you can create that will be beneficial to your business blog and hopefully increase your sales.

Biography Page

This page is much like your introduction post. Again, you’ll want to give information on your experience and introduce your business: How long have you been in business? Do you donate a portion of your sales to a charity, and if so, what charity? What products or services do you offer? How can potential clients/customers benefit from your products or services?

Product or Services Page

If you’re in the business of selling products, feature some of your best selling products here. During the holiday season, you could feature products that make great stocking stuffers. Include pictures and a short description of each product, as well as a link to buy the product. You can update this page as often as you like.

For those of you offering services, mention the types of services you offer, your rates, and include samples of your work.

Sales Page

When you have a sale, include the information about the sale on this page.

Contact Page

Every business blog should have a contact page. Through this page, you’ll give your potential customers or clients a way to contact you. If you’re worried about spam bots, you can always place a contact form on this page instead of your e-mail. If you host your blog on WordPress, consider this contact form plugin.

Contest Page

Announce all your contests along with the details on this page. You could run monthly, weekly or yearly contests, and let your readers know when you’ll publish the details for that contest. For example, you could say, “Check back here on the first of every month for a new contest.”

Press Page

This page should include links to features, articles, profiles and interviews about you and/or your business. You’ll also want to give details regarding your area of expertise, and give members of the press a way to contact you for an interview. Let them know you’re willing to share your advice and be interviewed. These types of interviews could lead to free advertising in magazines and other publications. “How does that lead to free advertising?” you wonder. Most likely the writer will quote you in their article, or they may write a profile about your business.

That concludes Creating Content for Your Business Blog. Join me next week for the third article in this series: Making Your Business Blog Search Engine Friendly.

Do you know of other great content for business blogs? Feel free to comment and share your ideas.

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Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be a teacher, in charge of explaining to alcohol- and sex-crazed first-year college students what it means to write a decent essay? (Your answer: “Gosh, Kevin! Only every day!!!”)

I know what it’s like. You have to make use of every possible resource to keep their attention, ranging from the simple (rewarding correct answers with miniature Snickers bars) to the complex (in-class games of musical chairs and duck-duck-goose). Every day is a challenge.

The same goes for blogging — and aside from podcasts, one of the most valuable pieces of multimedia you can add to your blog is video. Whether it’s a series of instructional movies like this excellent tutorial on replacing iPod batteries, or the daily and humorous videocasts at TV Squad (starring the uber-crushworthy Brigitte Dale), short movies are always a pleasure to the web-going public, and, if they’re done well, are a sure bet for bringing in the numbers.

But as with writing, there’s a whole boatload of rules-of-thumb and dos-and-don’ts when it comes to shooting great video. Nobody expects you to be Scorcese, but you should at least shoot somewhere north of Ed Wood. Here are a few tips to keep in mind before you fire up the camcorder.

Don’t shoot video if you don’t need to. Ze Frank does a good deal of talking directly to the camera, but that’s because Ze has great public speaking skills and rarely sounds like he’s reading off a screen. Before you start shooting, ask yourself: Why am I putting this particular piece of information/entertainment/cat-related humor on video as opposed to simply using words? Do you plan on using the versatility of video to its full potential, or are you just going to talk at the camera? If you’re making a tutorial video, will you use visuals to make your instructions more clear to the viewer? If your skills in front of or behind the camera aren’t up to snuff, you may wind up doing more harm than good. Which leads to our second point…

Spontaneity is good, but practice makes perfect. If you’ve got a script, make sure to read it in an audible voice at a measured pace. Speaking too slowly might make your viewers snicker, but speaking too quickly or quietly will lose them entirely (As much as I enjoy the delightful ministrations of Ms. Dale at TV Squad, she occasionally tends to mumble a bit, which detracts from the overall experience). If you’re looking for public speaking advice, you could do a lot worse than Speaking with a Purpose by Arthur Koch.

Lock your frame. Most people doing video on the Web seem to follow this rule pretty well, but it’s an important one and thus bears repeating. Every good piece of filmmaking results from two things: (1) Mounting the camera on a tripod, and (2) Leaving it the heck alone. Remember The Blair Witch Project? With all the screaming and vertigo-inducing camera work? You don’t want your blog looking like that. If the camera is held still, your viewers will forget they’re watching a video, and focus only on what’s going on within the frame.

Sound matters. Possibly more than you think. The microphones on the new Mac desktops seem to have a pretty good pickup range, but sadly, most consumer camcorders don’t pick up sound very well — particularly if it’s coming from multiple sources. You might benefit from picking up a camera-mountable mic with a broad pickup pattern; B&H Camera is a decent online source, but if you want to keep things cheap and simple, a handheld mic from Radio Shack, held out of frame, will do the trick.

I can’t stress enough how much bad sound can ruin a good piece of filmmaking. If your viewers are straining to hear what’s going on, they’re not giving the content their full attention, and they won’t be compelled to return for future videos — even if the content is entertaining overall. And unless you’re shooting documentary footage on the run, subtitling to compensate for bad sound isn’t going to work.

One thing to consider: Since many visitors do their blog-surfing on the sly during work hours, consider making silent videos, that viewers can enjoy without sound. Netting this often-forgotten demographic might set you apart from the pack.

Just because your digital editing app has cool titling effects doesn’t mean you need to use them. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got Morgan Freeman doing your voice-over and Conrad Hall behind the camera. If you use anything other than the most simple and direct titles, your video will look like it was made by Mrs. Himelfarb’s fifth grade civics class. The fact that Conrad Hall has been dead for five years makes this statement no less true.

Also, stick to either black or white titles with a simple font without serifs. If your background is black, use white titles, and vice versa. If you’re placing titles over a shifting background, give them a contrasting outline.

If possible, have a comely raven-haired lass star in your video. Seriously, Brigitte: Call me. My girlfriend will probably be cool with it.

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So, you’ve expanded your blog empire to a few blogs and have started to notice that you are ignoring some of your money-makers. You’d like to dedicate more time to them but you really don’t find yourself coming up with good articles – it’s expected, your spending a lot of your time launching your new project! What do you do?

Open your blogs up to guest bloggers! It’s not very difficult and you’d be surprised at the response you’ll get from people who would just like to spread their AdSense IDs out to other domains. The most common scenario is allowing the guest blogger to use their AdSense code when the post is viewed (a single post, that they authored) while you maintain your AdSense codes on all posts you have authored as well as any pages (to include the homepage).

I’ve recently established a scenario exactly like this on my gaming blog, GibThis.com, and this is how David runs the guest blogging program here at PureBlogging as well. It took me longer to walk my new authors through the process of registering for Google’s AdSense program than it did to setup the revenue sharing on my blog. Now, I’m going to walk you through that process as well.

The Plugin
The first step is to download the AdSense Author plugin. This plugin allows authors to enter their AdSense ID within a control panel on their Dashboard. After they’ve accomplished this, their AdSense IDs will be positioned throughout the site in the manner we’ll configure below.

Configuration
After downloading, uploading, and activating the plugin – your first stop should be the Author Adsense Configuration panel, found within the Plugins menu. The configuration is very easy with only three fields you must fill out:

• Admin Google ID: Place your AdSense ID in this box – if the plugin finds an author without an AdSense ID setup, it will use yours instead!
• Admin Percentage: Enter a percentage of time you want your own AdSense ID to be displayed rather than the authors – we’re going to be nice and give our authors 100% of the revenue off of their posts (if you placed 50 in this field, you and the author would split the page views evenly).
• User Level: This determines the lowest level a user can be to have their AdSense ID displayed – we’re going to position that at the Author level, since it’s the lowest level that can actively contribute to the blog.

One final step that people often miss is configuring their own AdSense ID. Technically, if you didn’t do this the plugin should realize you are an author without an AdSense ID and use the Admin ID within the plugin configuration. Unfortunately, this didn’t work for me – but it’s easily fixed. Just go to the Dashboard menu, click My AdSense, and enter your ID in the field. Now your ID will be displayed within every post you make!

The Setup
Not so fast you say – that was to easy… you’re right! Although we have the plugin all setup to do what it is supposed to, we still need to call the plugin from our template files. Head over to the Presentation editor and find one of your AdSense fields (probably in your Sidebar). Find the line within the AdSense code that reads:

You want to change this line to read:

Make sure you run all around your blog and change this across the entire site. Note: The plugin author provides a different means of accomplishing this (assigning a variable to the returned value, then merely echoing that variable throughout the template). I tried to do this within my header and it didn’t work – what I’ve done here is working fine for me though.

Touch-Ups
If you have AdSense ads that are placed within “global” areas of your blog (the header, footer, sidebar, etc) – then you may have noticed an odd occurrence: whoever authored the last post gets their ID displayed in the ad unit. We’ve been nice to our authors by giving them 100% of their own posts but we still want to get some money coming our way as well, right!?

This can easily be accomplished using PHP’s if…then statement. The following code will ensure your ID is displayed on the home page as well as all static pages within your blog. You should use this code whenever you have an ad unit that is displayed at the same time as multiple posts (the home page, archives, etc).

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