PureBlogging

I enjoy cooking. I’m not really spectacular at it — my roux always seems a little pasty and my soups too often turn a bit too soupy. But I’m pretty good with spices. Which isn’t surprising; I got a lot of practice using commas.

Learning to use commas is like learning to use spices. Add too many, and they can utterly destroy the flavor of your content. Read an essay with too many commas in it, and you’ll be tasting commas for the rest of the day. And whenever you see one, you’ll recoil, even if it’s used properly.

But if you don’t use enough commas, your writing will be a flavorless, incomprehensible mush, a bizarre melange of non-flavors that intrude on each other like chicken gravy spilling over the TV-dinner-tray barrier into the chocolate cake compartment. And that’s just unpleasant.

(Another thing you never want to do when writing is use half-assed mixed metaphors that you’ll later have to apologize for. But that’s another post.)

In my travels across the Internet, I’ve noticed that most writers generally tend to take the same approach to using commas that I used for talking to girls in college:

If I don’t do it, then I can’t screw it up.

The same way I avoided Alicia Wrobleski, most bloggers avoid using too many commas, figuring that not using a comma is better than misusing a comma. Of course, this is nonsense. Not doing something is usually worse than trying and failing. And just as the bedpost in room 311 of Sherwood Hall could have had a lot more notches in it if I had just put forth the effort, so your writing can flow effortlessly through your readers’ eyeballs into the Broca regions of their brains.

So: If you only remember one thing about commas for the rest of your life, remember this: A comma is a breath. If you’re a long-winded writer, commas are some of the best gifts you can give to your readers.

Consider this sentence from an advance review of The Dark Knight, posted on one of the Web’s more popular movie sites:

I personally am not a fan of the Joker and find him often grating and overused foil for Batman but there’s no denying his place in history and to many people the first film’s Achilles Heel was the lack of the signature Batman villain.

There’s actually a lot wrong with this sentence (though I agree with the sentiment it expresses). The word “personally” as used here is unnecessary, and really, this whole thing should be broken down into two or more sentences. But let’s see what we can’t fix with commas:

I personally am not a fan of the Joker, and find him often grating and overused foil for Batman, but there’s no denying his place in history, and to many people the first film’s Achilles Heel was the lack of the signature Batman villain.

It’s still not perfect, but see how much simpler a few commas made your reading experience? Commas aid in comprehension in ways that are subtle and subconscious to many of us.

Here’s another example — one that’s more easily fixed — from a popular political site. Here the writer is reacting to a column on marriage in the New York Times:

I just think it is unrealistic and feeds into those crazy ideals we have to internalize and then adds more pressure on our relationships.

One of the problems with failing to use commas when offering your opinion is that it’s easy to come off with a lecturing tone. Again, there’s plenty wrong with this sentence, but it can be patched up pretty well with the addition of a few commas:

I just think it is unrealistic, and feeds into those crazy ideals we have to internalize, and then adds more pressure on our relationships.

But you didn’t come here for examples. That’s not where the hot, wet grammatical action is. You came here for rules.

So, with the caveat that the rules of grammar are really more like guidelines, I offer a few simple rules (um, or guidelines) for using commas.

1. Commas go before conjunctions introducing independent clauses. Conjunctions are words like and, but, or and yet. Independent clauses are sentence clauses with a subject and verb (think of them as clauses that could stand as complete sentences if need be). Keeping an independent clause separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma helps the reader know when he’s moving on to a new thought. The sentence “Alicia Wrobleski was a total babe, and I’m still kicking myself for never having the nerve to talk to her” is a good example of how to use a comma to separate clauses.

2. Never use a comma when a semicolon will do. Don’t simply use commas to separate two independent clauses; doing so betrays a lack of wordsmithing acumen. (See what I just did there?)

3. The rules for lists aren’t as hard and fast as you think. Some people will use commas throughout a list, as in “apples, oranges, grapes, and bananas.” Others will eschew that ultimate comma, opting to write “apples, oranges, grapes and bananas.” Either way is correct, so don’t sweat it.

4. Use commas to separate nonessential elements of sentences. What constitutes a nonessential element may be a bit hazy at times, so try to think of this as one of those times when you’re giving your reader a chance to take a breath. Think about this sentence:

Barack Obama, who is originally from Hawaii, is running for president.

Now imagine it without commas. Pretty hard to read that way, isn’t it?

5. Don’t use commas after conjunctions. Look at every use of the words and, but, nor and or (as well as subordinating conjunctions like although and because) — how would they look with a comma stuck after them. Pretty bad, that’s how.

I know I’m going to get a lot of arguments from big-money SEO types about how this kind of stuff doesn’t matter if it doesn’t affect your clickthrough rate or your pagerank. And to be honest, the rules of good grammar are malleable not always trustworthy. But trust me: This stuff is important. How you sound to others is important.

It probably would have impressed Alicia Wrobleski. At least, I like to think so.

This post is part of a group writing project organized by Jacob Share to coordinate with the Blogging Idol competition.

When it comes to gaining subscribers for your blog there are loads of factors that play a role, including quality of content, frequency and consistency of content, personality, uniqueness, focus, design/appearance, etc. The list of things you could do to help boost your subscriber count is almost endless.

One factor that I feel is often overlooked by bloggers who are struggling to gain subscribers, and one that I overlooked myself for a while, is the need for a strong professional network of other bloggers. Without a doubt, networking is one of the keys to blogging success, and this is evident by observing that all of the top bloggers are very well-connected.

Unlike some promotional methods such as social media marketing or releasing a free e-book, which may give you a quick burst in subscribers, networking has more potential in the long run, but it will take some time.

Ways Networking Can Help You to Grow Subscribers:

1 - One at a time

Many of your direct contacts and friends will subscribe to your blog if they’re not already, especially if you focus your networking efforts to your niche. While this isn’t going to create big jumps in your subscriber count, you’re still gaining subscribers and the result over time can add up to a more significant number.

Fairly often I’ll reach out to other bloggers in my niche to introduce myself. Many times I find out that they’re already a reader of my blog, and other times I don’t think they know who I am. Either way, it’s very common to find that same blogger leaving a comment at my blog or seeing their avatar for stumbling one of my posts. While that’s not my primary motivation for reaching out to them, it’s nice to see that networking can have an impact in this way.

2 - Quality over quantity

Subscribers that know you personally and have interacted with you will almost always be higher quality subscribers than someone who doesn’t know you. I hate to refer to people in terms of “quality” here, but what I’m really saying is that they will be more involved and more likely to stick around long-term if there is some additional connection to you. There are probably other things you can do with your time that will get you more subscribers in a short period of time, but I doubt many of them will help you to also create a more active and responsive audience.

3 - Inbound links and personal referrals

The human nature of bloggers leads us to link to those that we like. Of course, not every link is going to go to someone you know, but if you have two potential posts from other bloggers that you could link to for a specific topic, one of them you know well and one of the you don’t, who are you going to link to? I know I work this way, and I think most other bloggers do to. It’s not a matter of trying to be exclusive, it’s just that most people like to help their friends.

4 - Social media votes

If you’re marketing your blog through social media, a strong network is priceless. Along the same lines as the previous point, most of us tend to vote for those that we know better than the typical blogger/reader relationship. In some cases you may be requesting votes from others in your network (which works much better than spamming strangers) or you may just be benefiting from their unsolicited votes.

5 - Guest post opportunities

One of my favorite methods for blog promotion is writing guest posts on other blogs. It’s an incredible opportunity to get your name and your writing in front of a targeted and potentially large audience. Getting your guest posts published at other blogs is much easier if you already know the blogger (although it can still work if you don’t). That friend that you have who runs a popular blog in your niche may be going on vacation or just needing some extra content.

6 - Advice

I think we could all use some advice every now and then from others in our niche. I know on a few specific occasions I’ve been fortunate enough to get some great help and advice from my blogging friends, and I’ve had other ask me for advice as well. Of course you’re not going to want to treat your friends as your personal consultants, but when you need some help or guidance there will be someone that knows you and your situation that’s interested in your success.

7 - Long-term benefit for your efforts

One of the things I really love about networking is that your network can help you for years to come. If you’re willing to take the time and make the effort now to get to know other bloggers in your niche, the long-term benefits could keep coming. Over the course of a few years you could get hundreds of links from those in your network. Not just links, but everything I’ve mentioned above can be a long-term result from a strong network.

8 - Can help you to get a new blog off the ground

If you already have a strong network of blogging friends, launching a 2nd blog can be much more successful. Not only will you have your own audience from the first blog to start off with, but you may get some links or mentions from others in your early days that could make a big difference.

Some Easy Ways to Get Started with Networking:

1 - Comment on other blogs in your niche

2 - Network via social media

3 - Reach out to those that you don’t know through an email or a contact form

4 - Write guest posts for other blogs

5 - Link out to others frequently

What’s Your Experience with Networking?

Have you found that networking has been a help to you in your own efforts to grow your blog?

Well, it’s still Monday morning on the West Coast. For a little while longer, anyway.

37 Signals offers some great motivation (and good ideas) for finding revenue streams.

Hacker News has a great discussion on the nature of SEO.

Copyblogger has tips on managing the length of your blog posts.

Men With Pens asks the Ultimate Question: Why do we blog?

Seth Godin makes a great observation about Wall-E and the bravery of creating great content.

Has anyone seen Wall-E, by the way? For my dollar it’s the best movie of the year. If I ever make it as an actor, I’ll be able to cry like a hungry baby, on command, just by thinking of the scene where EVE is trying frantically to find a new circuit board to replace Wall-E’s broken one. See, there I go right now. Big salty tears, right in the keyboard.

Thousands of blogs are launched every single day with the intent of making money. You can see just how popular this is by observing how many “make money blogs” and blogs about blogging exist. I’m sure you’re aware that only a select few make money bloggers have actually made significant and consistent money with their blog. That’s not to say that there’s no value in a blogger who is writing about the journey. I enjoy Caroline Middlebrook’s blog where she discusses her own efforts and talks through her opinions with readers. I also enjoyed following Ben Cook’s progress through his one year Blogging Experiment before he sold it.

The truth is that very few bloggers will ever make a full-time income by blogging. In my opinion, that opportunity is very much available, but few bloggers have the persistence, patience and ability to get there. What’s more likely is a respectable part-time income, but many are let down when they conclude that this is as far as they’re going to get.

Many bloggers tend to lean on ad revenue as a source of income. Top blogs can usually make a pretty good amount from ads alone, but most bloggers are fortunate to make a few hundred dollars per month. I’m not attempting to discourage anyone from going after ad revenue, it’s certainly a major piece of the puzzle in most cases, but I think most bloggers don’t really calculate how much traffic they’ll need in order to earn a living on ad revenue.

Why Blogs are Difficult to Monetize:

People are used to getting something for free

Blog readers have gotten used to the fact that blogs produce content for free. As a result, this becomes expected and many bloggers that try to develop some revenue streams face the difficult task of convincing readers that there is something worth paying for. An example of this is premium content, membership sites, or even e-book sales. We’ve gotten so much for free that it can be difficult to create something that’s going to lead people to open up their wallets.

Ad blindness

Most blog readers visit a decent number of blogs and websites on a daily basis. As a result, they see the same ads over and over again, and they start to ignore the ads. Ad blindness makes advertisements less effective than they could be otherwise, and that means bloggers can’t make as much with the advertisements.

Affiliate sales can be frowned upon

Depending on the niche and the audience of a blog, placing affiliate links in posts can really offend some readers. When I first started blogging I put a couple of affiliate links in a post and I got a few readers who questioned the practice, including one who flat out was against it. Affiliate sales are a big source of income for many top bloggers, but if your audience isn’t ok with affiliate links (assuming they can even identify an affiliate link) it could be a big struggle to generate sales this way.

Traffic and effort has to be constant

I couldn’t even tell you how many bloggers I’ve seen over the past year that looked like they were on their way to running a very successful blog, but they gave up somewhere along the way. Not that many people are able to stay interested and motivated when it comes to building a blog, because it takes constant work. Take a month off with no posts and your traffic and income will fall, and you’ll have to build yourself back up again. Especially if you’re hoping to earn a full-time income, the consistency becomes an even bigger issue. As a part-timer you can probably deal with up and down income, but that might not be possible without another source of income to fall back on.

Compensation is usually not direct

I think most of us are programmed to expect to be paid according to the work that we put in. With blogging, you could spend hours researching and writing a post, but if it doesn’t do well you may not have anything to show for it financially. This is actually a positive, because once you’ve built a successful blog you can earn much more money for your efforts, but it becomes a discouragement to those who are just starting out.

Many traffic sources are difficult to monetize

When it comes to making money with your blog, not all traffic sources are equal. For example, social media is a leading source of traffic for many blogs, but these visitors are notoriously difficult to monetize. They’re not going to click on ads, they usually leave after seeing only one page, and they aren’t as likely to subscribe as other types of visitors. As a result, you may be able to produce impressive traffic stats and not even be able to really make anything significant from it.

Uneven playing field

Small bloggers trying to “compete” with blogs that have a full staff of writers are at a significant disadvantage. Additionally, established blogs have a much easier time than those that are just getting started. While I don’t think that this is really a negative to blogging for money, it does make it difficult for the little guy, and many don’t have the patience to make it to the other side of the fence.

What Can You Do About It?

1. Be realistic

One of the leading causes for bloggers giving up is the existence of unrealistic expectations. It’s a one in a million shot that you’ll be making a full-time income from a blog in a matter of months, yet that’s what some people have in mind. There’s nothing wrong with ambitious goals, but they should also be accompanied by some realistic understanding or there’s a very high chance of disappointment that won’t be overcome.

A part-time income from blogging can be pretty nice, but when you’re expecting much more it can be disappointing. Whatever your goals and intentions are, take some time to realize what’s involved and what others are able to accomplish. Appreciate and celebrate your small victories along the way and take a long-term approach to building an income.

2. Diversify income sources

Rather than just relying on ads to make money, why not find other ways to do so, such as selling an e-book, doing reviews, etc. While one source of income is unlikely to support you full-time, three or four may be able to do the trick. Take a look at top bloggers like Darren Rowse and John Chow. They make money in a number of different ways that all add up to a six-figure income.

3. Get creative

The income sources from your blog don’t have to be the typical ones mentioned above. Get creative and find some new ways to make money. Niche-specific job boards are getting very popular, and for blogs with a decent-sized and focused audience, this can be an excellent source of income. I mentioned Blogging Experiment earlier. When Max Davis bought the site from Ben Cook he turned around and offered a membership course on buying and selling websites, and he almost recovered his investment in just a few short months.

4. Provide a service

Many bloggers have the opportunity to sell a service in addition to their blogging efforts. Michael Martine wrote a post several months ago about selling consulting services through your blog. Services can be an excellent fit for bloggers. As you publish content on your blog you’re selling your readers on your knowledge and expertise. Once you’ve built some respect you’ll have a natural marketplace for your services.

5. Freelance on the side

While you’re building your own blog you may want to consider writing for others on a freelance basis. Freelance blogging can be a nice source of supplementary income and it may keep you motivated as you’re seeing real money coming in.

6. Build your name

Many pro bloggers earn a living by running multiple blogs. If this is the case, name recognition is very important. Once you have built an established audience at one blog you could branch out to another one and take many of your readers with you. Then you’ll have two successful blogs instead of one. We’ve seen this in practice recently with the quick success for NETTUTS and VECTORTUTS riding on the wave from PSDTUTS.

What Are Your Thoughts About Blogging for Money?

Do you blog with the intent to make money? If so, what’s your experience and what do you feel are the biggest challenges?

So, who else hated Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?

Well, OK: I didn’t hate it. And neither did you, probably, right? I mean, it was bad, yeah, but you didn’t hate it, right? Think about it: Harrison Ford has still played Indy, Han Solo, Jack Ryan and Rick Deckard. And nothing can take that away from us. If Harrison Ford wants to make movies about flying refrigerators and interdimensional quartz-skulled aliens for the rest of his career, he’s more than earned the right. Hell, I watched Random Hearts — and nothing, not even an entire league of Shia LaBoofs, swinging on jungle vines surrounded by monkeys, can be worse than that movie.

One thing I dislike more than Random Hearts, however, is reading the same damn thing over and over again on the Internet. I realize that the sociology of the Web means that memes will crop up over and over again, but good LORD if I read one more comment by the Keyboard and Mountain Dew Game Fuel League about how Stephen Spielberg raped someone’s childhood, I’m gonna raise $200 million to shoot Indiana Jones and the Long, Meandering Conversation With Justin Long, just to cheese everyone off.

Unfortunately, the fact that 100 million mouth-breathing basement dwellers believe a thing does not make it untrue. Skull is still, more or less, a crappy movie — and crappy movies are always a great excuse for good writing. But how to do it without sounding overdone?

Rod Hilton has figured out how, with his “abridged script” for the latest Indy movie. Here’s an excerpt:

SHIA and HARRISON go to SOUTH AMERICA to look for the next CLUE. SHIA flips his knife around in his hand trying to look badass, but actually grabs it by the blade. Twice. Seriously.

HARRISON FORD

Alright, the walkthrough for the movie says that our next clue is in a spooky graveyard. We should probably save our game here.

SHIA LABEOUF

Pick up MAP. Use MAP on HARRISON FORD. Walk To TOMB.

Here’s the ironclad rule that Rod Hilton stuck to when he wrote this (whether he knows it or not): If you’re going to say what everyone else is saying, you’d damned well better have a better way to say it than they do.

See, we all look for ways to reaffirm what we already think. It’s why I watch Keith Olbermann and my Republican friend watches Sean Hannity. And there’s nothing wrong with trying to capitalize on the current zeitgeist by taking advantage of people’s tendency to seek out the comforting and familiar. Unfortunately, that tendency is also our Achilles’ heel — particularly for those of us who are writers.

Let your personal rule be this: If it’s been done, don’t do it again. If it’s been said, don’t say it again. If it’s a popular opinion, don’t add to the din; create your own voice.

I never watched much Saved By The Bell. And I’m reasonably certain it’s not a great show.

But there’s a lot it can tell us about writing.

The show, which ran on NBC from 1989 to 1993 (and in syndication thereafter), documented the dating adventures of a small congress of high school students — sort of like the Archie comics, but less sexually charged, as though each episode were given Tipper Gore’s stamp of approval. During the years it was on TV, I was just old enough that social pressures forced me to think it was stupid, and not watch it. Of course, those social pressures turned out to be correct, and the upshot is that I’ve never really seen a whole episode.

But there is one thing I have noticed about what I have seen of show: The lead character, Zack Morris, has the power to stop space and time. He does this roughly once per episode, mostly so he can talk to the audience. I can’t imagine what this is like from his perspective — how does he perceive the audience when he interacts with it? Does he know it’s out there? Or does he perceive it as some horrific Lovecraftian space-god, hanging massive and aloof at the edge of his consciousness, having granted him this celestial power that he may entertain it before it devours his soul? Is that weird prickly energy we see in Mark-Paul Gosselaar not tenderfoot acting, but barely restrained terror?

Frankly, I don’t care. Whether or not the pitiful vestiges of Zack Morris’s consciousness mourn for the days of summer love and Sadie Hawkins dances as they lazily flap from the muscularis mucosae of Nylarhotep’s oily duodenum is of no matter to me or you.

What does matter is that, whether you’re using Microsoft Word, a pen and paper, or a rusty Smith-Corona with a missing K, you are far more powerful than Zack Morris could ever have hoped.

Most of us tend to forget that when we write, we are the master of all we survey. When faced with rules of grammar and usage, and the panoply of websites telling us how the Really Good Writers do it,  and the many, many voices out there claiming to be experts, we fail to appreciate the pure power we have when we site with a blank slate before us. And even more, we fail to appreciate the extent to which that power grows once we’ve committed words to that slate. The editorial process is scarier to many of us than Zack Morris’s ancient and polypous captor was to him. So too often, we bloggers dash off a post without drafting, without taking a third look, without an editorial process that goes beyond proofreading.

I do it too. And the reason is because I don’t really absorb the full scope of the power I have as a writer. Like Zack Morris, I can stop time. But I can also change the past. I can travel back in time, to six paragraphs ago, and make a change that reverberates throughout all four dimensions of my essay or short story or blog post. I can create the future before the past has even happened — then create a past to match it. I can make changes whose ripples create other changes, whose results I could never have dreamed of.

Too many of us see the drafting process as something that limits us — a slate-grey mechanical process with no art to it, far removed from the blossoming spring of initial creation. A few weeks ago I met an aspiring screenwriter who boiled all of this thinking down to four simple words: “Write drunk. Edit sober.” Usually, any aphorism that advises heavy drinking is one I endorse. But not here.

Editing is power. Drafting is creativity. And to end the writing process after the initial heady thrill of creation is to rob yourself, and your readers, of all the brightness and Brobdingnagian creativity within you.

You owe that to yourself. You owe it to your readers.

And, god knows, you owe it to Zack Morris’s soul, as it is slowly digested over thousands of millennia.