PureBlogging

I Stumbled Upon this post at Rauru today that suggests when blogging that you should write your headlines before you write the actual post. Ikki says:

As I said on a previous post, headings are the first impression you make on your audience. Focusing on crafting a great headline for your blog post will entice them to keep reading what you have to say.

Furthermore, writing your headline first will help you keep your contents well-structured. What lies behind this statement is the fact that you’re developing your contents from the idea expressed in your heading - instead of backwards. This will keep your writing closely aligned to the engaging promise delivered by your headline to your readers.

I respect this strategy (and with all due respect to Ikki), and if it works for you than that’s great, but I find the opposite to be true for my own writing. I almost always write the post first and then determine what I think the headline should be based on what I have written. The biggest reason for this is that when I start writing, I don’t always know what I am going to say for the duration of the entire post, and therefore surprise myself in the end.

I understand Ikki’s point about keeping your post structured by starting with the headline. I could see how it might keep you focused on what you’re trying to say, but on the flipside, I like to be able to have free roam in my writing, and let it take me where it wants to go naturally. Sometimes I will find that I have written a different post than what I had originally set out to do, but that’s ok, because often times, it will turn out better than the original idea I started with.

To me, staying confined to your initial idea of what a post should be about can hinder your writing, and I just don’t see how that would benefit the finished product. That is unless you have been assigned a specific topic to write about with little room for your own thought, which could be the case in some instances if you are blogging for someone else.

This is just my opinion. What do you think? Which method do you prefer?

Read Write Web posted some fascinating findings from a survey it conducted recently, in which they asked 20 bloggers and social media consultants how much they make. An intrusive and personal question perhaps, but that’s why half of them agreed to give out that information on an anonymous basis.

Rather than write it all again, I’m going to use my coverage for WPN liberally:

It looks like the average rate on a per-post basis is $25, though some reported to make as little as $10 and as much as $80. “Let’s say these people are half-time pro-bloggers making $25 per post, writing 3 posts per day,” Kirkpatrick [of RRW] says. “That’s $75 per half-day, a little less than $20 per hour, about $1500 to $1750 per month for half time work. Take two of those jobs at once, do it for a year, and you’ll make about $40k.”

You could do worse, but in-house bloggers seem to be doing better. According to Kirkpatrick, respondents reported annual salaries ranging from $45k and $55k with benefits up to $70k, $80k and $90k with bonuses. “We’re tempted to say, based on the anonymously submitted but descriptive replies we got, that the closer to pure journalism our respondents were doing the lower their wages were,” he says. Now that’s interesting. Critics of blogs as news sources (like the one discussed in this article) ought to love that little nugget.

Those in-house bloggers still didn’t make as much as the participating social media consultants who make as little as $150 an hour, and most commonly about $300 an hour. That’s fascinating considering the amount of sponsored content infiltrating social networks. I have to wonder how the pay rates of these consultants reflect their practices in terms of white hat/black hat.

These numbers (while it should be kept in mind that there were only 20 anonymous participants) might make you jealous or provide you with motivation to reach that point (unless you’re already in the same range or are doing better). What do you think?

OK, yes, this is the third post in a row about Johns Wu and his $15 million Bankaholic blog. I keep bringing it up because not only is this a wildly inspirational story for all bloggers aspiring to achieve success at the hands of their blogs, but I keep getting more info.

I talked to Wu a second time and came away with some more insight into his deal, which I wrote about in yet another follow-up piece at WebProNews.

Since we’re all about blogging here, I didn’t want this nugget to float by off the radar, so you can read that here.

From the little I’ve communicated with Wu, he seems like a pretty cool guy with some personality. He likes BBQ and making his own beer (not to mention Subway at drinking on the weekends [I wonder if he's checked out Google's latest Google Labs project - the drunken email filter aka: Mail Goggles]).

Anyhow, Wu said taht user engagement was a huge part of why his blog was bought by Bankrate.

He also noted in a comment on WPN that Shoemoney is the reason he got into web publishing. Not a bad endorsement for Shoemoney huh?

It just goes to show that you can learn a lot from other bloggers, and translate that knowledge into a ridiculous amount of money for yourself.

You may recall my post from a week or two ago when I talked about blogs as credible news sources.  I consider  blogs and social media to be in the same ballpark, because after all, blogs are social and community driven as well.

After posting an article about CareerBuilder gaming Twitter at WebProNews, and talking about how social media legitimacy was deteriorating as a result of social sites not better policing their sites, I got into something of a debate with one of the commenters, who claims that there never has been or ever will be any legitimacy to social media as a news source. Obviously, that is a notion I disagree with.

Of course , seemingly right on cue, someone upset the “Apple” cart today on iReport.com falsely reporting Steve Jobs having a heart attack that temporarily sent Apple’s stock plummeting. I also talked about this at WebProNews.

That story would seem to favor the point of the guy I was debating with, but the community factor is what led to it being disproved, which kind of illustrates my own point.  To quote myself,

Where the legitimacy shines through is in the communities themselves. There are always others to call something out as BS in new media formats where discussion is the key to coming away with useful information.

When all is said and done, it is up to readers to use their heads and think about where they are getting their info. Just as has always been the case, (even long before social media, blogs, and citizen journalism were ever heard of) you shouldn’t believe everything you read. But damning an entire medium because some abuse it is just ridiculous.

Your thoughts?

You all seem to like the link lists, so perhaps, I’ll just try to make one post a week one of these. It’s certainly less time consuming for me too

Here are some notable ones for today:

From 0 to 2000+ Subscribers in 90 Days - This is a post from early in the year at ProBlogger, so some of you may have read it before, but speaking of using good titles, it’s hard to beat this one when you’re addressing an audience of people wanting to increase their blog traffic.

Too - Google Co-founder Sergey Brin started a personal blog a couple weeks ago called Too, which I talked about here. He’s only made one significant post so far, but it’s a blog worth watching, based on the fact that he is one of the brains behind one of the most important technology companies in the world.

Anatomy of a Social Networking Friendly Blog (video) - Again, the title pretty much says it all, but it’s an interesting and increasingly important concept.

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda Talks with WebProNews - This is an interview from the BlogWorld Expo. While I’m definitely not a fan of Linkin Park’s music, Shinoda’s take on blogging is somewhat interesting, if only to get the perspective of a celebrity.

Top 5 corporate blogging mistakes and how to avoid them - Lists are always interesting, and there is not question that corporate blogs are always making mistakes. This is an interesting look at the issue from David Meerman Scott.

Enjoy!

Here’s the second in the series of “Blogs on…” I talked about here. I got some good responses on the one about blogging, with some good suggestions.  Now as promised, I will switch it up to a different category.

Also, just so this post doesn’t seem totally off topic, I should mention that blogs in all industries can often provide insight into good blogging strategies, whether it be in the are of design, marketing, or writing. Even if you have a blog about making money online, you can learn things from blogs about movies, football, or pottery. I think you get my point.

Since it’s Friday and the weekend is approaching, let’s talk about movies. I know many of you are probably going to the theater tonight or sometime before Monday, and if you are like me, you like to know about movies before they come out. Not necessarily anything to spoil the movies, but you just want to get a general sense about them. Anyhow, today, I’ll share three of my favorite movie-related blogs.

1. Bloody-Disgusting.com - First off, you should know that I am a huge horror movie buff first and foremost. Though there haven’t been many good entries in this genre to hit mainstream theatrical rotation this year, I still read Bloody-Disgusting, because they always have the latest news on just about everything horror-movie related. I don’t always agree with their opinions and reviews, but when it comes to reporting the news, they are second to none. If you are not a fan of horror films, don’t bother with this one. If you are a fan, there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with it. I don’t know if you would technically call it a blog, but for all intents and purposes, I read it like one (through RSS feeds) and the news section is laid out pretty much like one.

2. The MTV Movies Blog - It is safe to say that I find a lot of MTV’s online content much more useful than the content on their television stations. When it comes to getting news on bands and in this case movies, they do pretty well, and it is not limited to one genre, so if you don’t like horror, you might still dig this one.

3. Roger Ebert - I’m talking about what is technically his movie review site at the Chicago Sun Times, although it does provide a section where the posts from Roger Ebert’s Journal - his actual blog, are displayed. Again, I do not always agree with Ebert’s reviews, but he’s been doing it a long time, and there is no question he knows what he’s doing. His reviews are often thought provoking and sometimes humorous, and I respect his opinion, although I sometimes disagree. He really won me over by defending “Predator” when Siskel was tearing it apart.

So what blogs do you like to read when it comes to movie news? Are you even interested in movies? Tell me what you like.