Web Publishing

The posts in Web Publishing are usually things I have learned the hard way, or the long way around. I like to do things my own way. I look for better ideas, well, different ideas, later – if I need them. People should always pick and choose what advice they follow. But, I have more than 20 years of experience creating, building, and maintaining my own sites. I’ve learned a few things, in my own contrary, independent way.

There are 866 posts filed in Web Publishing (this is page 5 of 87).

How to Be a Great Guest Blogger

What makes someone a great guest poster?

Great guest bloggers know the blog they want to write for. They know the content published, the niche the blog aims for.

This doesn’t mean you have to camp out for weeks studying the blog. Start by reading the About section on the blog. Is this even a topic or niche you would have something to write for? Have you got something in mind that the blog owner will want to post?

Read back entries. Skim headlines for anything connected to what you plan to offer as a guest post. What has already been written about the topic? Do you have a new thought, a fresh angle? If so, this is a great thing to let the blog owner know when you submit your proposal.

Plan ahead and make sure your site (the place you choose to showcase your writing) is actually putting your best foot forward. Are there typos? Do all your links work? (You don’t want them to find a broken link because you moved a post – or a broken image file). What do you say about yourself? Do you have an introduction to who you are and what you are doing?

How can you interest blog publishers in the posts you offer them?

You submit a proposal for the post you want to write. Have your idea ready, have the whole post written or at least planned out. If this blog doesn’t want it you can find and ask other blogs who would be interested in the same content. But, if this blog owner is interested you want to have the content ready to send as quickly as you can.

Before you rush to send your post make sure you agree to terms with the blogger.

Ask when the post will be published, if the blogger has a schedule (most will).

Set out what you would like when it comes to an author bio and any links in the bio or the post itself.

How long or short should your post be?

Do you need to include an image? If not, can you get the chance to ok the image which is used with your post?

Do they have rules about using extras like text in bold or list posts?

Do they want to set the title themselves or will they be using whatever you send as a title?

Will other content be run with the post you have written, are they posting their own links or creating an introduction to go with your post?

Don’t spring any surprises on the blog owner once your post has been accepted. You also don’t want to find yourself surprised. Try to think ahead and… if you do get a surprise about how your post is used, keep calm, take a break away from the computer before you send off a note to the blog owner.

What is guest post etiquette?

Proofread your post, more than once. The blog owner won’t be impressed if they have to fix typos.

Ask the blog owner how they want the post sent. Some might prefer HTML or plain text. Some will want it as an attached file and some will want it in the email itself.

Keep your author bio short and don’t use more than two links. Pick smart links: your best source for showing your content and your most active (non-personal) social media account.

Don’t use too many links in the content of the post you write. Two is a nice amount. Three is less acceptable. Over three links will probably not sit well with the blog owner at all. Even if they publish the post they aren’t so likely to agree to more.

Afterwards… Promote Your Post!

Don’t sit on your laurels once your post has been published on the blog. Now is the time to promote your post. Get readers, bring in traffic and show the blog owner you have some pull, some regular readers and social media clout.

If you bring them traffic they will be far more interested in working with you again, and again.

Also, don’t abandon your post too quickly. Check for reader comments and answer them. Provide more information or just chat and use the post to build your own social network and bring people over to read more of what you have written. (This is why it’s a good idea to keep writing in the same niche/ topics where you want to build up your own authority).

A day after the post is up send the blog owner a note. A thank you note. Include any statistics you have about the post traffic. Ask for feedback from them. Ask if they have any ideas they would like worked on for a future post. There could be ideas they have not had time or resources to create a post about themselves.

You could become a regular contributor if things work out. But, watch your time management and don’t over commit yourself. Don’t undo what you have started by missing deadlines.Accept the work you know you have the time, energry and knowledge to complete.

None of these have my personal recommendation but they are a place for you to start looking for sites that want your content.

How to Approach Blogs Which Don’t Want Guest Posts

Pay attention to a site which does not accept guest posts. Don’t send them a guest post!

Chances are, a site which specifically does not want guest posts has been flooded with spam offers and they are fed up with the whole thing.

If this is a site or blog you really do want to write for, approach them through their blog comments. Do not offer them a guest post. You could also find them on Twitter and other social media (choose one they are actively using).

Begin by giving them real comments on the posts they have. Offer some ideas, tips, insights you have. Keep it light and neutral.

Make sure every communication and comment you have with them is typo free and use spell check.

Make sure you include a link back to your own blog (a place where your content is showcased). Let them find you.

After some time and several comments you could suggest an idea for a guest post relevant to their niche and offer to write it. Use your common sense and don’t end up sounding like just another spammer.

This way you are not one more half-assed idiot offering them a ‘free’ (typically irrelevant) post for their blog.

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How to Choose Great Guest Bloggers

If you have a blog up and get some amount of traffic, you will begin to get requests for guest posts. At first you may feel flattered. That wears off pretty quickly.

Posts offered to you are not relevant to your topic or niche. They are all about getting their links on your blog, for free. There isn’t anything in that offer really for or about you and your blog/ site. Almost every offer you will get for guest blogging will be nothing but a new form of spam. The value of the posts they offer you will be on the level of comment spam, the stuff you delete.

It’s discouraging.

When guest blogging started, before it became popular and attractive to spammers, it was a good thing. You could find real content to supplement your own and give yourself a day or two off from writing and posting yourself. Those days are gone. We are left with a very few sincere guest bloggers and a mass of spammers all too happy to take advantage of web publishers who don’t know the difference.

Choose Your Own Guest Bloggers

Don’t wait to be asked by guest bloggers. Reach out and find the people you want to work with. Find people in your niche/ topic. People who already have content you have read and found worthwhile, resourceful, competent at the very least. Approach people you would like to write for your site. Offer them space in your blog and set out your terms: formatting, length, links, author bio, etc. Keep it simple and let them suggest alternatives and options.

Start by requesting an interview. This gives you a post, introduces your site to them (if they don’t already know you) and you find out more about them and what they specifically know about your niche/ genre/ topic. If you do accept guest posts from them you can refer back to this interview as an introduction to them.

Pick Performers, not Promoters

Look at the content the perspective guest blogger has to show. Do they focus on informing readers or are they selling keywords for ads?

You want a blogger who will have reader appeal. You also want someone who will focus on promoting the post AFTER it’s on your blog, not from inside the post itself. The smart guest bloggers will promote the post with their own social media. They will also return to check the post for reader feedback/ comments and give replies.

Don’t accept guest posts from anyone who wants to talk about links before any other content. You don’t want more than 2 links in the post and 2 links in the author bio at the end of the post. That’s a total of four links, 2 which should be for the guest writer – not something they are trying to sell.

Typos Are Unacceptable

When someone offers to write a guest post don’t give them the time of day if they have a typo in the very proposal/ request they have sent.

If they can’t put time into making a good first impression do you really want to give them more time. Obviously, they don’t think much of you. They don’t really appreciate your time or the chance to have some of your blog space.

Offering a Post "Free of Charge"

How kind and generous… how full of themselves they are…

A guest post is free.

If they mention this they either think you are too stupid or clueless to know this or they think you will appreciate their boundless generousity and grab up the offer while you still can.

Either way they are trying to pull something on you and I don’t want to work with someone like that.

Beware the Tried and True Cookie Cutter Content

The last thing you want from a guest post is something you could have written yourself, or something you have already read in a dozen other blogs. Blah, blah, boring.

The guest post you publish should have something fresh, unique and individual. A new slant or a fresh point of view. A twist on an old idea. Something!

Don’t publish a guest post to be nice, to do someone a favour or just because someone offered you a "free" post.

This is your blog. Your name is on it. You pay the bills. It’s your space to create something great, including the content from guest posts.

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Uncluttering your Blog: Keep your Clutter Bug in Check

Clutter builds up on your site quickly if you stop working on it. Each time you add something new to your blog, in the sidebar, the footer or the menu and header – stop and think about it.

  • Is it necessary for your blog readers?
  • Does it say something about yourself and your blog that you actually want to say?
  • Could it be moved to a subpage of your blog and not really be missed?
  • Is it slowing down the load time and, if so, is it worth it?
  • Have you located it in a way which it’s function is easy to understand?
  • Don’t keep any broken links, including images.
  • Consider moving archives, link lists and categories/ tags to their own subpage.
  • Condense and prune your tags and categories. Use a general category for things which don’t fit into the main theme/ topic of your blog.
  • Consider using plain text links rather than image files, widgets and etc.
  • Downsize and/ or double up when giving your own links to be followed on social networks.
  • If you run ads, limit them to ads which are actually performing well.

Tidy Up Your Blog’s Sidebar

Focus on your readers. What are you keeping in your sidebar for yourself? What do you actually read and like to see in a blog sidebar when you read another blog? Let that be your guide to deciding what to keep on your own blog sidebar.

Work out the most important thing in your sidebar and on your blog.Create a list of everything in your sidebar – list them in order of importance. If you have more than ten things choose a few to be voted off the island. See if you can limit your blog sidebar to 5 or fewer items.

Remember, less is more. Put away anything you want to keep but don’t really need on your sidebar. Use features like pages and even your footer to tuck and tidy away extra items.

More to Read

Use CAPTCHA and Word Verification to Make Art

6975320_f260Next time you’re stuck trying to read the lines of word verification (CAPTCHA) somewhere think of a way to turn those words into something funny. Add an illustration. Make the word verification part of a cartoon.

I’ve done it. I did cheat a bit. I refreshed a Blogger blog until I felt inspired by the word verification that came up. Then I cut and pasted the letters, added my own text and my own art. I used a simple graphic program, nothing fancy.

It’s not terribly funny, the CAPTCHA art I created. I’ve found much funnier and far more clever art created with word verification on various sites online. But, I did it myself. Sometimes that’s kind of nice in itself.

CAPTCHA Art

  • CAPTCHArt
  • Captcha Art
  • Captcha Comics
  • captcha art | Tumblr
  • CAPTCHA Art | Word Grrls

The CAPTCHA Protest

word verification

I’m not a big fan of CAPTCHA and/ or word verification. It annoys me frequently. Many times I have chosen not to leave a comment on a site rather than deal with their word verification. It’s like going to visit someone’s house and being attacked by their dog at the door. Makes you feel unwelcome.

However, it’s not just blog comments that require word verification and CAPTCHAs now. If you register for a site, or sign up for an account you get stuck with verifying you are human too. (That’s the original purpose of CAPTCHAs and word verification). Well, as a human, I find I’d like a machine that could read and type in the word verification for me – cause I’m tired of trying to prove I’m a human.

word verificationI doubt anyone is ever glad to see word verification. But, we have come to see it as the standard pest we are forced to deal with. That’s fine when it’s simple, easy enough to read and understand. But, some sites really want you to jump through hoops.

I’ve had some ask me to do math. I dislike math and avoid it when I can.

Another asked me to do word verification, TWICE!.

Some sites will ask you to register – I never (or very rarely) do this. Why register for a site you have only visited once and may never come back to read again? Meanwhile, you give them your email address and any other information they expect from you. They can now take that information and sell it. Registering for one site to leave one comment can leave you getting a lot of spam in your email.

Other sites stick you with word verification and even then they hold your comment back until someone moderates it and actually lets it post. That is a bit much. Pick one! Either moderate your comments or leave on the auto pilot. I’m a bit insulted at your laziness in moderating the comments to your blog. Be assured, I won’t be leaving another comment cause I probably won’t read your site after that.

The latest trend I’ve noticed is the double word. Two words in one word verification. Now, it would be some small help if the two words made sense together. You might be able to use them to figure out what you need to type in. But, they almost never do. They are two random squiggly words instead of just one.

The irony of people relying on word verification is that it stopped working awhile ago. Comment spammers and others who want to post junk on your site have found ways to do so. They can get past word verification. Some use newer technology and others pay real people (they hardly pay them in reality) to type in the CAPTCHAS so the spam computer can leave comment spam. So the whole thing is a lost cause.

  • Petty Revenge for Annoying Word Verification | Word Grrls
    “…that gave me the idea of telling every blogger what their word verification says. If they want to inflict the thing upon me I will give them updates about how it is working.”
  • The Official CAPTCHA Site
  • CAPTCHA – Wikipedia

Alternatives to CAPTCHA

Simple Keyboard Shortcuts Everyone Using a Computer Should Know

I thought I should write about keyboard shortcuts. I’m surprised people don’t know them. Even simple things like using your keyboard for cut and paste functions.

Your computer mouse will work for most things you can do with the keyboard. Maybe the keyboard shortcuts will never be anything but extra knowledge or a backup plan for you… but, maybe knowing a simple keyboard shortcut will turn out to be a great thing.

Browser shortcuts save you time while you are looking at websites. Using the shortcuts on your keyboard can be simpler than right clicking the mouse, you don’t need to be as precise. Also, on sites which disable right clicks you can still use the keyboard shortcut to open new links or copy text.

These are the shortcuts I use most often. (Don’t type in the first ‘+’ it just means ‘and’ in this case).

shortcuts

Browser Shortcuts: Resources

Move your Links from One WordPress Blog to Another Easily

opmlI have a large collection of links. I add them using the bookmarklet feature with WordPress. I was surprised that WordPress removed the blogroll from the new versions. Why? I enjoy collecting links, hoarding them you might say.

But, when I decided to shuffle my blogroll links from one domain to another… I was left doing it one by one. One link at a time with a list of over 500 was a bigger project than I really wanted to start. So, I found another way to do it.

It is actually very simple to import your WordPress blogroll from one WordPress blog into another WordPress blog.

Go to the site you want to import the links to. (Tools > Import > Blogroll). If you don’t already have the blogroll importer on the list you can get it through WordPress  (just click on Bogroll).

Highlight the following link BUT replace the no-name domain with the domain which currently has the links/ blogroll you want to export (the links you will be importing).

http://YOURDOMAIN.com/wp-links-opml.php

Paste the link into the OPML feed box.

You can select a category to import the links into. This will let you sort them out before adding them all to any existing links you have.

Click the button and wait for the links to load up. Mine took a few minutes, but I did have a lot of them.

It works! I did it for my own site and all is well. Of course, now I have to go through and check each link, decide where it will fit in my new categories. But, I would have been doing that either way.

Building a Web Directory with WordPress

You can use WordPress plugins to create your own web directory. There are premium plugins and themes, or you can try the free plugins. Expect to do some work, making some changes to HTML and CSS code and work with an FTP program. If you can’t (or won’t) do the extra work then look at the premium options instead. However, if your plan is to make money with a web directory aren’t you smarter to use free options and do some of the work yourself?  Note: I do pay for software and themes and even the odd plugin, but I prefer to give business to the open source and free software as often as I can.

Link Library is the plugin I have been using longest. You can work with the links you already have in your WordPress blogroll. Take a look at the information given for setting it up. It is fairly simple and most of the work is just done inside WordPress itself. Pretty simple.

Open Links Directory is the one I’m looking at and thinking I will start with for a new directory I’ve been wanting to sort out and get active. See the demo. I’ve done the install but I’ve got a bug to work out with FTP. Your own install may be bug-free. Other than a small bug, it looks great and I’m impressed.

WP Link Dir looks interesting and they say it works with pages on WordPress instead of posts. So that could leave you with the ability to run posts as a regular blog with the directory in the background, or as a feature. I’m only hesitant to download this one because they want to gather your email address first. (I don’t like having my email address harvested for spammers).

Outdated, possibly forgotten plugins which you can still find to give a try:

Article Directory is an interesting plugin to try. You can read the FAQ and find the plugin (and a theme) on the site which also acts as a demo for the plugin.

Web Directory WordPress plugin has not been updated for years so it is use at your own risk. But, you can find more information for using and installing it on the site (the download link there is broken).

WordPress Link Directory is outdated but available. The link to the site from WordPress is broken but I found it myself.

Quantity and Quality for Traffic and Readers

Originally posted to HubPages, March, 2013.

It seems I’m going to be one of those HubPages writers who does things the long, hard way. The way that takes it’s own, sweet time getting here.

I don’t know why I like giving myself hard goals to reach. But, it seems that I do. I set myself the HubPages writing goal to have my traffic badge for the 100K by (or closely after) the end of this year, 2012. But, I’m not getting any flash in the pan wonder traffic posts. So, it seems I am just going to have to keep making my own steady, slow progress.

I might not get 100K by the end of the year and that will be ok too. As long as I feel I am still making progress I will stick with it. It’s only when something seems to have stalled out completely that I begin to think I should be reconsidering the plan. I do tend to stick with things long after the flogging a dead horse idea though.

Don’t think I’m some doddering newbie type. I have paid attention to SEO schemes and even the scams. Most of them are not for me. I have a line drawn where my ethics kick in. If I cross it I just don’t see the point of continuing on. Once you cross your boundaries you’ve lost your original feeling of value in the project and accomplishing your original goal loses it’s worth too.

You Can’t Write for Traffic

What you may not know; there is a difference between traffic and readers.

Readers are the real people who visit your posts, sometimes read right to the end and occasionally leave a comment. Real readers are the people who want you to know they were there. Then there are general readers who maybe didn’t find what they were looking for, thought you could have had a better post or just didn’t quite catch on and stick with you through to the end of your topic.

All kinds of readers are good. Even those who just lurk and don’t let you know they are out there.

Then there is traffic. Traffic is just a number. That’s how I see it. Traffic doesn’t have a face, it may not have a home with a family and goldfish named Henry. Traffic can be something less than human, more likely traffic is a machine, or software and does not have a face at all.

By now you may have realized that traffic doesn’t read your content. Traffic doesn’t care that you spent extra time to pick just the right word. Traffic doesn’t care that your photo illustration was your own photo or that you waited all day for conditions to be just right for that photo. Traffic doesn’t care that you checked all your spelling, grammar and then proofread your post again.

Traffic just cares about keywords and how they can use yours.Traffic is Google, traffic is people looking for content to claim, traffic is a feed reader that no one may actually read… and so on.

You can’t write for traffic. Or, you shouldn’t be writing for traffic.

Build Your Readership by Finding Readers

If you want to build readers you need to go looking for them. Don’t wait and hope Google will come to you. Google is big, like a mountain. The mountain is not likely to come to you.

Today, while writing a post about women and friendship, I found a very interesting site, Finding Dulcinea. It calls itself an online library. Why is this interesting? Look at the site yourself. Chances are you will find something there to read, to find out more about, to spark your interest in some way. It’s a site with information and ideas. Not a web directory, like the ODP, but a gathering of ideas and information, like HubPages itself.

At Finding Dulcinea you can find articles to link to in your own posts. You can find new ideas to write about. You can find more information to add to posts you are writing, plan to write or have already published on HubPages. You can also find the people who wrote those posts!

Finding the person who wrote a post that interests you is a start to finding readers for your own posts. People tend to be interested in the same things, related ideas and information. Follow your writer, track down other sites he or she writes for. Can you find them on Twitter, Facebook or do they have their own blog? Who do they follow? Chances are you will find a lot of great resources.

Keep track of the resources you find. Use them for your own posts. Use them to continue on and find more resources and people. All of the people you find are perspective readers. You just have to help them find you.

Look at the list of resources you have created.

How many are Twitter accounts you could follow?

Don’t just quietly follow someone on Twitter. Announce yourself! This is so important and yet almost no one actually does it! Why not? I get a lot of new Twitter followers and I have to spend my own time to find out who they are and decide if I want to follow them back. How silly. How often do you really think I spend time doing this? Not too often.

If you decide to follow someone on Twitter send them a Twitter post and tell them how you found them, why you are following them, etc. Announce yourself, tell them who you are and give them a reason to choose to follow you back.

How simple was that?!

You can use the Twitter example for any of the social networks. Just adjust as necessary. The concept is the same.

Don’t be spammy. Make sure the note you send is catered to the person you are sending it to. See it from their side/ angle. Why should THEY want to follow YOU? What do you have to offer them?

Be a Realistic Joiner

It’s a good idea to give yourself an established Internet presence. Join things. Join the main social networks like Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and StumbleUpon. Even Facebook, though it’s lost a lot of it’s usefulness due to overtraffic (too much useless stuff).

Try a few others. Try Scoop.it where you build collections of content and share them with other people on the site and through your Twitter feed. Snip.it, and sites like it, let you branch out. You need the original account on Twitter and etc but you can post through Snip.it. It saves some steps and keeps your other social accounts from running dry. Less maintenance is a good thing.

Don’t be a joiner on sites that require a lot of participation, unless you really can give that kind of time and energy. Pace yourself. Don’t become just another dead account. If you can’t be active at least weekly, or a few times a month, don’t keep the account. Or, leave a note in your profile with links people can follow. You may be back some day.

Don’t Forget the Less Than Virtual and Digital World

Con’t forget, the Internet isn’t everything. It’s not the world.

Look around you offline, in the less virtual world. Are there local groups you can join right in your own town? Or, could you be bold, brave and daring… offer a workshop, start a group yourself and bring people together (in the real world) yourself?

People who have actually met you are very likely to take an interest in your work online. They are more likely to go to read your stuff and they are more likely to want you to know they were there. So, you will get readers who comment.

What can you do in a real, local way to find readers?

Sell your arts or goodies at a flea market, a farmer’s market and have business cards available? Hold a garage sale one weekend and put up a display about your topics and see how many people will take away a sheet with information they can read at home? Talk about your hobby/ interest at the local library and offer people a bookmark with your link printed on it?

Find out more about marketing your content offline. Also look up the phrase guerrilla marketing. Keep in mind your own ethics when you read about how far others have gone. But, you can get a lot of ideas that just might work from the crazy ideas of others.

Organize a Local Blogging Event

Have you ever thought about doing something with local bloggers? I have. I tried (once) to have a local gathering. I was there, alone. At least I’d picked a good place for coffee and people watching. I had a window seat and my book for the whole hour I had set aside for the event. It wasn’t awful but it was pretty discouraging when it came to doing anything like it again.

My only real mistake was in not trying again right away, or within the same month. I did have some people interested and a couple who said they would come (even if they didn’t show up).  So I had a start to what could have become a local event for bloggers and writers in my area.

Starting small is a good plan. For one thing you won’t feel you are taking on too much and if you make mistakes you don’t have a lot of people to inform when you change the date, place or anything else about the event.

Find a great place where people can get their own coffee/ refreshments or snacks. I picked a coffee shop on the main street of my town. Easy to find, right on the bus route and enough parking as long as I had it on a week night.

Keep in touch with people, whether they show up or not. Collect email addresses and give them out on a sheet at the event or email everyone the list (save paper).  If someone has a book out, or another kind of achievement get them to talk about it and turn all of this into an email list for the group. A good way to remind everyone of the next event and get people talking and meeting each other so they won’t feel they don’t know anyone when they do show up at your event.

If you get enough people start a blog or a group of some kind online. But, make it clear the focus is on getting together for coffee not just hiding behind the computer screen and not being included in the live event.

Find interesting places to meet, relevant to blogging, other local events, local businesses and resources for bloggers in your area. Introduce the people in the group to new and great things they didn’t already know about. This will give more people a reason to come out and find out more, while becoming part of the group too.

Resources for becoming a WordPress WordCamp Organizer (but don’t assume everyone is using WordPress):

WordCamp Planner

WordCamp Central

Vintage Office

So much is advancing, crowding out the old typewriters, file cabinets and even the lowly trashcan may now have evolved into a recycling bucket instead. What vintage treasure do you keep in your office? There must be something. I know I cling to a few things which remind me of times past and the people who worked and wrote there. I used to have a pencil sharpener which my Grandfather bought me when I was a kid. But someone took it. They claimed their children were going to use it but, I just never saw it again.

Flickr: Vintage Office