How to get your blog post dugg and dugg and dugg

August 4th, 2006

Are you one of the millions of bloggers out there who are trying desperately to use the power of Digg, but can’t seem to get dugg? Are you foregoing the high ideals of user-powered content and just trying to send more traffic to your site? Then this information is for you.

Stuart Brown took the time, effort and technological talents to attempt to answer the unanswerable, “How many Diggs do you need to make the homepage?” He set up a script that logged the average number of diggs per homepage story. The results are detailed and interesting to decipher. For example, most of the front page diggs occur between 6am and 8am, when most people are starting the work day. This is in stark contrast with the people I know who spend most of their work day reading blog posts and digging them. By the way, you didn’t hear that from me.

Read it for yourself. It’s a well thought out post with solid data to back it up.

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  Is Disney my biggest fan or just more spam?

July 27th, 2006

So there I was, innocently obsessively checking my blog stats, when who suddenly appeared? Disney. I looked again. Disney? There it was, in all its glory. Disney was looking at my blog. I’ve made it to the big time. I am the man.

I went to the Disney site to find out where the link was coming from. Searched for Spectorbrain - nothing. Searched for blogs - found a boy band site. Oooo-kay - but still nothing.

Confounded, I went back to my stats. 10 Disney links … then 20 … then 30. A day of Disney stats turned into weeks with no end in sight. I sat by my phone, starved and sleep-deprived, waiting to the call. What call, you may ask? The call offering me a cushy job with the huge sign-on bonus, of course. Come on, Mickey, my bags are packed.

I’m sorry to say, however, that all of this dramatic embellishment was for nothing. In reality, it was just some unscrupulous num-nut sending fake referral spam to my blog and other blogs (Burbanked, Affiliate Marketing Journal, Village Blog, Blogging Poet) under the Disney name. Yes, I said num-nut.

But it did get me thinking – why would Disney be interested in me (if they really were)?

10. Walt always wanted to be a web designer.
9. Without any possibility of an original Disney idea, I came up with Cinderella 3.
8. I’m conducting usability testing on Space Mountain.
7. They know that I know what’s really in the vault.
6. My photoshop skills are pure Disney magic.
5. I was their back-up plan if Pixar fell through.
4. Disney wants a blog for “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger 2.0”
3. “Mr. Spectorbrain’s Wild CSS Ride” is opening in 2008.
2. Disney is updating Mickey’s look by exposing his frontal lobe.
1. Who cares? It’s Disney.

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  The Unknown Blogger and First Impressions

June 19th, 2006

When communicating with other bloggers through their web sites, I’m reminded how much first impressions have an impact. In the olden days of the telephone, I would unintentionally create an image of the person at the other end of the line and speak to them based on those sometimes false conclusions.

Now blogs have taken it to a whole new level by removing all vocal cues. What most readers are left with are the site design, branding, content, and writing style. And it’s that initial dependency on the design for those conversational cues - even before the other elements - which I find so intriguing.

• Is the layout rigid or fluid? Does that make you feel welcomed or defensive?
• Do the colors make the site seem aggressive (reds), intellectual (blues), energetic (yellows) or ominous (black)? Learn more about color.
• What reactions do you get from the blog’s name? Is it professional, intelligent, cute, angry, and/or immature? (By naming a blog simply, “Mike’s Blog”, the author gives even less information and allows more dependency on the design elements.)

I’ve personally made unintended assumptions about a blogger based on their design and writing style. Someone who I was convinced was an utter argumentative ass turned out to be a pretty nice guy and vice versa. I also found myself interacting with what I thought was a female blogger until I read through their comment strings. And although my reactions to these differences may by subtle, some people can have great variances in their conversations regarding gender, age, and/or race.

Why don’t I go to the author’s bio when I first enter the blog? Good question. The answer is in standard on-line behavior. Bloggers are no different than the millions on-line who read the news, check e-mail or visit retail sites. We just spend that time reading other blogs. In short blocks of time (usually at the start of the work day, lunch break, or the end of the work day), we quickly scan the headlines and continue on if we’re interested. Most of us probably don’t consider the bio until the need arises or time allows.

So what can you do to give your readers a more accurate reflection of you and a better blog conversation?

1. Figure out who you want to be
   Do you desire to be an expert in your field or a conduit for design issues and creative solutions? Do you want to stand out be part of a community of peers? Make a list of your desired or actual characteristics.
2. Find your audience
   Are your core readers new to your subject matter, your professional/academic peers or the industry creme de la creme? Make a list of your desired readers’ characteristics.
3. Design your blog
   Create your visual design based on these choices, supporting color palettes/imagery and good blog usability practices
   (Jakob Nielsen | David Armano)

I know that this is an oversimplified list, but it makes the necessary points. Before you design a blog or quickly grab an available template, think about whom you are and who you want your audience to be. Remember that people judge websites almost instantly upon initial viewing. In the case of blogs, that decision will influence how your readers speak to you or if they want to speak to you at all.

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  Do Comments Affect How You Write Your Blog?

June 6th, 2006

If you have been anywhere in the blogosphere in the last few days, you have seen the flurry of reaction to Seth Godin’s decision to remove comments from his blog. One of Seth Godin’s reasons for ending comments is that:

…it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters.

Now I’m not going to add to this windstorm of opinion (see it for yourself), but I will use his reasoning (however accurate or flawed) as a starting point for what I think is a worthwhile discussion. Do comments affect how you write?

What’s your blogging voice?
Everyone has their own blogging voice, an individual recipe of conversational tones, language and opinions diced and sliced into your on-line persona. It could be conversational, sarcastic, literary, professional, or completely insane.

Think about how many posts you’ve read in a day about the same web trend, piece of code, or new photo gallery. If they’re all the same, why do you continue to read them? Because each and every post is different, depending on whether the author is objectively discussing the topic, sarcastically ripping it a new one, or posing a question and asking for opinions.

Weren’t we talking about comments?
We are, because comment threads are no different. Numerous truly unique conversations can originate from the same topic. Your voice not only sets the tone of your writing, but also the conversational tone of the comments. The thread doesn’t necessarily have to remain in that tone, but it introduces the starting point.

So what your saying is?
We’ve established that you, as the author, affect your comments. Now, let’s get back to the original question. Do comments affect how you write? I feel that they do, but it depends how much you let it. Comment threads are like any other conversation. You can try to control them, let them control you, work with them, or ignore them completely. But in the end, they tend to have a life of their own.

What do you think?
Do the comments (or lack of comments) your blog receives affect the way you write? How? Do you consider that a good thing or bad thing?

Yes, I do allow comments and I wholeheartedly encourage yours.

Resources

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  Welcome to Bloggers Anonymous

June 1st, 2006

I was recently taken aside by my friend and fellow blogger, Burbanked *. He put his hand upon my shoulder and said with a supportive, comforting voice, “I think you have a problem. I know someone who can help.”

I was soon introduced to Bloggers Anonymous. I read the first line of their masthead and I knew that would be OK. “You are not alone.” In the moments that followed, I looked deep within and recognized the signs of Compulsive Bloggers Syndrome (CBS). That realization started my long, painful journey towards Blog Addition Recovery (BAR). I still haven’t been able to get past number one, but I’m trying.

Bloggers Anonymous is a humorous look at obsessive bloggers and their blogging universe. The site is written in a serious yet tongue-and-cheek tone that gives wonderful insight into the millions of bloggers’ psychological “issues”. It’s hard not to find something you have said, thought or done in each and every post. Take, for example, the Panera blogger over this past holiday weekend. If you haven’t done this, I’m sure you’ve thought about it many times.

What are some of your blogging confessions? Get it out in the open. It’ll make you feel better just to talk about it. Well, at least it’ll make me feel better.

* Burbanked is a hilarious, insightful look into movies and the movie industry. Tell him Spectorbrain sent you. With every referral, I get a shiny new quarter.

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