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I love blogging. I really do. And what’s not to love about it, whatever the reasons behind it. No matter if people pick up blogging as a way to share their opinions with the world, get a side buck or simply keep a public or private journal, the end result is just the same. Those that invest time and passion in their blogging activities, those that stick to it through better or worse, I believe that those are becoming better human beings, reaching a higher state of humanity through blogging.

We have learned to love human contact once again

Remember the days without computers and internet? Remember the days when kids were getting together, playing in the streets, constantly looking for adventures in the urban jungle? Remember how everyone from child to teenager and adult was looking to group up, find new friends? That was the time before mIRC, IMs, Counter Strike, World of Warcraft, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. With time, we grew close to fewer friends. We learned to keep the close ones closer and draw a clear separation line between friends and casual contacts.

Not anymore. With blogging, we’re getting back on track. We know that networking is that Ace card a blogger has hidden in his sleeve. And not just simple networking. We have learned that without sustained contact – developing real relations whenever possible through meet-ups, online or offline – there is no point in trying. Blogging gave us back that big circle of friends. We reach out in hope to be reached back.

We have learned to care more

While we do our daily networking and social media routines we show appreciation to those around us. You might think that linking to a post we enjoyed reading or retweeting someone’s tweet or article it’s nothing more than that, but you’d be wrong. It’s that feeling inside that pushes us to do a good thing for the ones sharing all this amazing content with us, and why not pushing it out there for all of our friends to discover it. If that ain’t caring – in our little virtual world – I don’t know what else is.

We’ve rediscovered our selflessness

Most times, just the fact that we put useful content out there for others to discover it’s a sign of us getting rid of our selfish habits. But there’s more to it. We have discovered that without giving away and not asking for something in return our own virtual universe would not expand. We give away eBooks, designs, apps, you name it. And yes, we HOPE it will open the gates to a whole new audience, new relationships and generally an increased awareness. But that is only HOPE. We’re not asking nor begging for anything in return, and that’s how I know we’ve reached a good level of selflessness.

Therefore, you should keep blogging. You should undoubtedly continue to put great resources out there, in any form: content, files, applications, you name it. Why? Because you’ll simply be blogging your way to a higher state of humanity!

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Not a single blogger exists that was not at some point an immature blogger. Even the current A-List bloggers started off being immature – the fiercest lion in the jungle was once a cub chasing butterflies.

It is part of the process, before you can become a mature blogger you need to go through the immature stage. You cannot skip this step. You cannot go straight to mature. Blogging is a learn as you go endeavor. At the beginning everything is new and you make mistakes.

You cannot avoid it, but you can be aware of it. First step is to admit you have a problem and only then can you start to heal.

During the two years that I have been blogging I have slowly moved towards maturity. Here are some changes that occur when you become a mature blogger.

You Forget To Check Your Statistics

For the first few months you are addicted to statistics.

How many visitors in the last couple hours? Even though there are never any surprises, its always two new visitors, you check anyway. Two visitors is not a lot but its better than nothing. You get a slight rush from seeing the visitors number increase. Unfortunately what you do not realize is that your mother, who is so proud of you, visits your website at least twice every couple hours.

It has been one hour since you checked your Adsense revenue so you check it again. And again you see the big green $0.00. Everyday and six times a day the zero is waiting to greet you. You know that it is going to be there but you do not care – you need to see it with your own eyes. A nervous goose constantly standing and checking whether her egg has hatched – nothing there but a goose egg.

The mature blogger knows that checking statistics once a day is plenty. And if you are lying in bed and suddenly realize that you forget to check your statistics, no problem, you will check them in the morning.

You Can Delete Content

Of course when you start your blog what you lack most is content. So you write. Driven by enthusiasm and excitement content spews out like ground meat. Every word is precious – the more words the more content.

At the end of your first month you look at the big pile of words and pat yourself on the back. Look at all my words, its amazing that I did all this in a week. Only a squirrel perched on top of his mound of acorns could be happier.

The mature blogger knows that it is not about the amount of words, its about the quality of words. A well crafted four hundred word post is a lot better than a two thousand word vomit. A mature blogger will never hesitate to delete words because he realizes that its not about the amount of words, its about what they say.

For You Three Months is Not A Long Time

The internet sends information at the speed of light. A nobody becomes somebody in less than fifteen minutes. On the internet things go viral – within days a video can go from being viewed by fifteen people to being viewed by millions.

New bloggers assume that everything works this fast on the internet, including their blog’s rise to the top. They believe that all they need to do is create content, let a few people know, and the internet will do the rest. They believe that to start an avalanche all they need to do is to roll a snowball down a mountain and gravity will do the rest.

A new blogger’s typical three month plan:

• Month 1 (pack the snowball) : Create blog, write content.
• Month 2 (start to roll the snowball down the hill): Market blog. Leave comments on other blogs, join forums, tweet all your friends about it. This will put your blog out there and people will notice. They will tell their friends and their friends will tell their friends.
• Month 3 (cheer as your gigantic snowball causes an avalanche): Quit your job and move to Beverly Hills.

Matures bloggers wipe away tears of laughter as they hear these kind of plans from new bloggers. Mature bloggers know better, they think in years not months. They know that just like in the real world, persistence and patience win the day on the internet.

You Are Not Concerned With Fame Or Money

New bloggers are always prepared for the future.

They know exactly what they are going to say after the audience quiets down and Opera Winfrey asks them to tell their story. They know they want to go on a luxury cruise and then want a jet ski for the cottage – not the other way around. They realize that a Manhattan penthouse on fifth avenue is close to shopping but a mansion in Bel-Air is an ideal place to have a olympic size pool.

Fame and money lure many into blogging. They start their blog motivated by the prospect of a pile of money and adoring fans. They work hard and long hours believing that the internet will pay them handsomely for their effort.

The mature blogger know that the internet can’t care less about your efforts. The internet does not owe you a dime. Being hit by the ugly stick of reality, the mature blogger writes posts because they enjoy it, not for some crazy dream of chatting with Opera.

Are You A Mature Blogger?

I admit, I am still have some immaturity left in me. I still check my statistics way more than I really need to and I want a big pool. How about you? Are you a mature blogger?

About the Author

Roman Jelinek from How this Website Makes Money has really matured in the two years since he started his site. Although he will be the first to admit that his addiction to statistics is very hard to outgrow. If you find the article interesting, do take the time to subscribe to his feed. Roman has guest posted for Blogsessive before and you can read his other article here: How a Great Backlink Can Make You An Instant Success

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The niche of blogging tips is a crowded one and no wonder it’s that way. Blogging is so “the new black”. It gives you freedom, the perspective of making a few (or more) bucks and why not, for some might be just a way to vent. So, what better way to reach a constantly growing and renewing audience than by providing tips on how they should blog. The problem is that sometimes bloggers in this niche forget to be original and get stuck in the same circle of clichés.

Let me take you through my personal top 5 list of the most annoying blogging clichés.

5. Content is king

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that reads this almost daily on some blog or Twitter. It gives me the feeling that people keep on discovering the wheel over and over again. We all know that content is king, but there’s so much more beyond that. How many or the articles you read on this topic go further into exploring the ways to give your content the deserved spotlight? My take is that without due promotion, aesthetics and a good network, your content is nothing but a king without a kingdom!

4. How to overcome a writer’s block

Are there any more ways to overcome a writer’s block? I’ve read so much advice on this, but fact is you only need to know/do 3 things:

• Step aside from what you’re trying to write.
• Get out of the house, do something different. There’s life outside blogging too!
• Ask other people for their opinion. You might consider it or not, but a fresh perspective is always welcome.

Other than this it’s all a matter of personal habits, of things we love to do and things that relax us.

3. Top X lists

He he, I know I’m guilty, but can you blame me? We all love lists! The trick is to know how and when to do another list post. Lists are such an easy way to get some new content published without worrying too much about creative writing, but please don’t overdo it. Have a good balance between in depth articles that will encourage your readers to think and react and list posts. Consider them a way to give your readers a moment to breathe.

Also, make sure you don’t copy other people’s lists, which is hard because lists are about mass-appeal, and if you chose a topic, chances are other bloggers have already been there and already done that, most probably in just the same way.

2. (How to) Make money blogging

Hype. Everyone wants to be the next 6 figure blogger (hate the term) and so many people state they can help you. Fact is, even if they could, they rarely do. I mean, have a look around at most of the crowned kings in the make money blogging niche and answer me this: how factual are their tips. Or better yet, how many tips, other than generic stuff they share? It’s all about “I’m affiliate to this, I’m affiliate to that, try it too.” Of course, through their affiliate links. I’m not saying you cannot make money online (God, please don’t smite me!). I’m just saying that there are only a few things you need to consider and not expect someone else to do it for you:

• Put great content out there. Nobody gives a poop (stop smiling, I’m just using decent language!) about how much you make if you don’t help them make that too.
• Try out different services. Some will prove to be money makers, some won’t, but there’s no generic recipe that will fit every blogger and his unique blogging style and topics, and most importantly their particular audience.
• Network like crazy! It’s the one big secret you rarely read, but if you watch closely, networking it’s all there is to it. Call it affiliate marketing, call it promotion, call it whatever you want. In the end it’s still multi-level marketing and it cannot be done without strong partners and happy followers!

Or, you might just want to create a brand for yourself that you can leverage to promote and distribute your own products, but that’s a path that requires work and where the fun in that when we could just expect money to fall from the sky.

And now for my all time favorite…

1. Stand out from the crowd!

I’m guessing I should be in perfect health right now from all the standing gymnastics I’ve done. No really, how many times a week do you read this? I know it sound nice, it even rhymes, but seriously, ain’t that the reason you blog about blogging, to help your readers achieve uniqueness and greatness? Should you add another generic “stand out from the crowd” post just to catch a damn long-tail keyword in search engine rankings?

Every time you use a blogging cliché…

You’ll make Mr. Newman sad, and seriously, see for yourself how sad he already is!

Jokes aside, consider this post as an advice to keep away from the blogging clichés. I know it’s hard since the niche is crowded and topics tend to come back into spotlight regularly, but if you must write about it, please try and get a fresh perspective or at least add some depth to your perspective. People rarely get down and dirty dissecting topics because using a cliché is just that: an easy way to get something out there. Why would you want to complicate your life? Really? Then I’d ask you: Why would you want to waste my time making me read the same over-recycled content?

Over to you

Tell me which are the most annoying blogging clichés you’ve come across in your blogging adventures? Drop me a comment, or better yet, write a post about it and give it a nice twist. Link it back here and if it’s really interesting I’ll include it in this post as a sample of “what others think”.

The cute sad pup in this photo is Bob aka Mr. Newman, which unfortunately passed away (one more reason not to upset him) and the shot was taken by Christopher Michel

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So thrilled to announce yet a new quality freebie here on Blogsessive. Meet Typominima, a free typography based, gorgeous, minimal WordPress theme fit for the writer inside you.

If you’re looking for a free theme to help you put the content in spotlight, without worrying about it being suffocated by advertising space and unnecessary design blign, than Typominima is the perfect free WordPress theme for you.

The purpose of this theme is to enable writers and publisher to express themselves online in a clean and beautiful environment. You can check out the theme features and also a series of posts containing sample styling for the most common elements you’ll need on your blog before you download Typominima.

Typominima Preview & Download

Head over to the Typominima DEMO site to view it in action and learn more about its features.

And of course, you can download it for free here: Download Typominima (v1.0)

Note: Please do not link directly to the file if you wish to promote this theme. Link to this post instead. Thank you!

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After more than 2 years since launch day, 2 years with ups and downs, higher or lower publishing frequency, Blogsessive proudly reaches a new milestone: 1 million page views.

I don’t know if for others this is impressive or not, but I am thrilled and happy to be part of the nice community that formed around this blog and its blogsessed brand. I’m thrilled to be here and provide you folks with quality information and resources and I’m thrilled to let you know that such an event calls for a celebration.

And how better for a blogger to celebrate such a milestone than by giving back to the community for all he himself has received. Not more than a few days back I’ve released the Twitter Tweet button WordPress plugin and now it’s time for a new free WordPress release.

Introducing Typominima

Typominima is a free typography based, gorgeous, minimal WordPress theme. Head over to the Typominima release announcement post for more information, download link and let the writers in you express themselves in a beautiful environment!

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A few days ago I received a comment on one of Blogsessive’s older posts on SEO & keywords. That comment got me a little worried about the fact that due to people spreading incomplete information, or just putting out statements like “Google doesn’t care about keywords”, some of you might think that having a keyword strategy is pointless. This is what reader David Housman asked:

I thought that search engines had stopped factoring keywords into relevancy?

The source of this belief is probably a post published on the Google Webmaster Central Blog back in September 2009 in which Matt Cutts refers strictly to Google not making use of the keywords META tag in order to calculate a search result’s relevancy to the search query.

In other words, you could type 300 keywords of your liking there. Google will just skip them entirely and rather decide if the result is relevant only based on the content itself. This doesn’t mean that the Google bot will ignore your keywords. It means that it will consider only those keywords present on page, in the content. That’s why it is extremely important to write your blog post from both the perspective of a human reader and a search engine bot.

I’m not going to get any deeper into the topic of writing SEO friendly content. Just remember that it’s a must if you want to rank high for certain keywords and phrases. For more information please read some of the articles I have published here in the past:

• Using Keywords for Blog Optimization
• Advantages of Long Tail Keywords Optimization
• Top SEO Mistakes to Avoid
• SEO-Friendly Content is the Key
• How to check and improve your WordPress SEO

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Since Twitter is yet to offer an alternative to those less savvy with code implementation, I’ve decided to offer you a WordPress plugin to help you include the official Twitter Tweet button in your blog posts. Download the plugin and from this point on, it’s all as easy as 1-2-3.

Current plugin version: 1.1
Supported WordPress versions: Most recent. Pre-3.0 versions not yet tested.

Twitter Button WordPress Plugin Options

To easily adjust and include the Twitter button in your blog posts, you have a plugin administration panel. Here’s a screenshot of the options:

Download the Twitter Button WordPress Plugin

Click here to Download the Twitter Button WordPress Plugin

Plugin Updates

Version 1.1 has been released. Download link is still the same (above). Fixed a bug that prevented recommendations to be displayed. Please re-download and re-upload. No need to deactivate the plugin. Just overwrite the files in order to keep your settings.

Known issues

Since Twitter did not offer an image based alternative to the button and counter, feeds will only display a CSS styled Tweet button without a counter. As soon as Twitter completes their API, I will also implement it in the plugin.

* Support for the ‘Twitter Button for WordPress’ plugin will be offered only through the comments. Thank you for downloading and enjoy your new retweet button!

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Nothing helps set a blog and its author apart and give them the visibility they need more effectively than a unique blogging voice, one that’s easily recognizable in each post you publish. Both general and niche blogs need their style to help them stand out. It’s an easy way to gain loyal fans, authority and reputation.

How exactly can you find your blogging voice and make sure it is recognizable in everything you publish? Here are a few tips:

1. Identify your blogging voice

Each person has their preferences for certain phrases, expressions, ways of building phrases or of presenting arguments. This personal style needs to be inserted into your blog writing and maintained throughout each post. You need to experiment to first come to understand which is your blogging voice, otherwise you’ll just stumble around blindly, picking up influences from who ever you might think is hot and popular at a certain point. It has to be your inner voice, not a fabricated one, as its being genuine will make it easier to maintain. It will be something that comes naturally when you write, not a forced tactic meant at setting you apart that you might overlook when getting into a topic you’re passionate about.

2. Use catchphrases

Everyone recognizes Midnight Caller’s “Good night, America… Wherever you are”. And if you don’t know this one, who on Earth does not immediately associate Bugs Bunny with “What’s up, dock?” or Porky Pig with “That’s all folks!”? They are used in movies, by writers, by radio show hosts. A certain turn and twist of a famous phrase, a typical start to to your posts’ conclusions, a personally developed way of inviting others to comment, an interjection that’s all you, supporting your blogging structure with such catchphrases will make your unique voice and style recognizable to your blog readers. It will become part of your brand.

The secret to a good catchphrase is to choose one that actually fits all and any post you might think of publishing and stay away for overused, cheesy catchphrases. For example, the overused, Pantene invented “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” might not make you seem unique and have the exactly opposite effect, resulting in a rolling-eyes gesture from readers that’s actually bad for your blog. Though that might be good for Kanye West!

3. Get your readers accustomed to receiving something extra from your post

If a catchphrase that fits all your articles is harder to pin down, you can create other writing habits that will later define your unique blogging voice to your audience. Start or end your post with famous quotes or lyrics, book recommendations or a quick roundup of other blogs debating the subject that are relevant to the topic you’re debating.

4. Using themes or blog series

Joanna Paterson over at Confident Writing further defined her unique blogging voice by choosing a theme for each month of blogging. All the posts published in a month would further expand the chosen theme. If you don’t have enough material for a monthly theme, you can choose a weekly theme or have a blog series published each month. State the theme at the end of the month and publish one or two parts each week. Also, try and come up with a unique and appealing name for your series.

5. Create your signature group writing project or award

While there is nothing new or impressive about group writing projects (GWP) or awards per se, creating a unique, signature GWP or system to award others will help readers better identify you and your blog and it will set you apart from the millions of blogs out there. Think of how we immediately connect the “What I learned from...” monthly GWP with Robert Hruzek. Or how the weekly list of new SOB badges says Liz Strauss and Successful-Blog.com to all of us!

And while we’re debating the unique blog topic, you might travel back through the archives and read this post too: What’s behind a unique blog?

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The social component is thought by many to be the true spirit of what we obsessively hear called as the Web 2.0. Not the round font logos, nor pink or blue gradients.

The need for more human interaction and developing an online identity has lead to the apparition of thousands of social networks and social media platforms out of which only a few managed to get the blessing of the masses. What set them apart from the rest? What made them turn from social experiments to successful businesses? The user, their biggest asset.

Power to the people

During development stages and also while growing in popularity, these social media platforms understood the need to focus on what users wanted or needed:

• The means to connect with people who they shared interests with;
• The means to discover content based on their own interests;
• The means to become an important part of a community.

Driven by such needs, some members of these social networks turned into what we call power users. They were the most prolific users of each platform, gathering masses of other users around them, sharing the most content and most times acting like evangelists for the services they used.

The idea of one day becoming one themselves, of wielding the power that such users have, attracted more and more people to these social networks, giving them the boost required to reach mainstream and go beyond, turning them into the multi-million dollar businesses we know them to be today: Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter.

Social Media is shifting perspectives

The mirage of power users also had the unlucky, but somehow normal, outcome of attracting people who’d want to bend the rules and exploit the system in order to obtain personal benefits. So, unlike our wall-climbing-building-jumping superhero Spiderman, they did not get the fact that “with great power comes great responsibility”. Also, to an extent, the social media platforms themselves, turned into online business superheroes, neglected the concept completely and focused their actions against power users instead of thriving to come up with solutions to prevent such exploits. They chose the path of reaction instead of action and so, a witchhunt began.

The people that were once their most respected assets and their closest allies were forbidden to do any kind of self promotion, no matter the percentage of it compared to the contribution they made to growing the platform, nor the fact that most times, this so called self promotion was nothing more than addition of new content, quality content even. When money is involved and these platforms offer advertising methods to “self promote”, you have to be at least the next online Messiah, sharing fish and bread to the people expecting nothing in return.

Power from the people

Such is the case of StumbleUpon and more recently Digg. The idea of being a StumbleUpon power user was at some point similar to being some sort of modern Robin Hood. You’d have to keep quiet, do your thing and hope you won’t get noticed by the local SU sheriff. Shortly, Digg followed in their footsteps hunting such high profile users to the extent of banning them from ever using the service again. How dare they get any kind of profit from using the platform and not share it in part with the owners?

On the other hand, we have the platforms that have always encouraged you to be as active as you can, with limited restrictions (mostly common sense restrictions) and let the rest of the users decide if you’re worth following and thus becoming a power user or not. A notable example would definitely be Twitter .

Have you ever seen a Twitter user being banned because they dared share a link to their own website or blog, unless it’s a shady business or pornographic content? I haven’t. Indeed, Twitter is yet to discover its own successful money making recipe which might turn things around at a later stage.

And what about Digg’s new approach? The power users are still there, only they are not real people. They have been replaced with large media corporations and publishing groups that pump steroids into their content with the help of Digg users. Why aren’t they hunted down? The answer is truly simple: money. They bring in the cash for the platform, but their success depends on the mass-appeal of the platform. This way, the old creed of “power to the people” shifted to “power from the people”.  But how long will this last?

People started noticing that StumbleUpon is nothing but a way to pump up your Alexa rank. While a few years back this would have meant the world for a website’s advertising efforts, now that most advertisers seek results and real conversions, that you have more chances to get through cost-per-click or cost-per-lead than with the old cost-per-mile model, StumbleUpon’s model is outdated and thus has severely decreased in popularity a lot.

For Digg it’s just the beginning. When people will start realizing that their content will virtually have no chance to outrun the competing corporate content, they’ll abandon ship and Digg will be forced to either reconsider its position or take the fall.

These are the past and the present of social media, and unless the user is the center of attention of both, there will be no future.

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Every once in a while I like to scan the plugins directory on WordPress.org and see what beautiful & useful pieces of code the community comes up with. Here’s a selection of 6 of the latest WordPress plugin releases that caught my attention during the last “scan”.

1. Simple Fields

Plugin description: Simple Fields for WordPress lets you add groups of fields to your edit post page. Simple Fields turns WordPress into an even more powerful Content Management System (CMS).

Required WP version: 3.0+
Compatible up to: 3.0.1

Downlod & more info: Simple Fields

2. Simple Mail Address Encoder

Plugin description: Automatically encodes every e-mail address on posts, pages and sidebar widgets to prevent spam. Simply decodes any previously encoded e-mail address by just clicking the mail link.

Required WP version: 2.7+
Compatible up to: 3.0.1

Downlod & more info: Simple Mail Address Encoder

3. SEO-Tool – Keyword Density Checker

Plugin description: This SEO plugin automatically generate a keyword density report of used keywords and 2-/3-word keyphrases in the pages’ or posts’ content. The statistics will be updated at a specific interval while the author is typing in edit-post and edit-page dialog.

Required WP version: 1.5+
Compatible up to: 3.0.1

Downlod & more info: SEO-Tool – Keyword Density Checker

4. Anthologize

Plugin description: Anthologize is a free, open-source, WordPress-based platform for publishing. Grab posts from your WordPress blog, pull in feeds from external sites, or create new content directly in Anthologize. Then outline, order, and edit your work, crafting it into a coherent volume for export in several ebook formats, including PDF, EPUB, and TEI.

Required WP version: 3.0+
Compatible up to: 3.0.1

Downlod & more info: Anthologize

5. FeedBurner Stats by DevMD.com

Plugin description: The plugin enables you to get a great insight into your FeedBurner feed, along with information and statistics about the subscribers, views, clicks, feed item information and chronological statistics right from your WordPres administration panel.

Required WP version: 3.0+
Compatible up to: 3.0.1
Also requires: PHP 5.1 or higher

Downlod & more info: FeedBurner Stats by DevMD.com

6. Members Only Menu Plugin

Plugin description: This plugin allows you to mark a page as “Members Only”. Once this is done, the user must login to view the page. However, you can still add the page to the menu, and it will then ONLY show up if the user is authenticated. That way you can have more items for logged in members on your website.

Required WP version: 3.0+
Compatible up to: 3.0.1

Downlod & more info: Members Only Menu Plugin

Important note

All the above descriptions are provided by the plugins’ authors. At the time this post was published, the latest stable WordPress release was 3.0.1, thus, all plugins are “Compatible up to 3.0.1″. Check out each plugin’s info page to see an updated compatibility as new WordPress versions come out. And remember, always try (if possible) new plugins in a testing environment, on a test installation of your WordPress blog, for safety measures. If anything breaks or you need instructions, please ask the authors for support, I’m simply the messenger.

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We’ve already established that how you act on Twitter is paramount in determining your success when using this microblogging platform. What you say, how you engage others, how you act towards them, all these matter in positioning you as either an ideal Twitter user to follow or a nuisance.

The following question is how to effectively choose people to follow on Twitter. There are literally millions of options to choose from and in most cases you know nothing of that user prior to seeing their Twitter profile page. What should you look for, what criteria are there to be used to decide if clicking the follow button is a good choice?

Again, this does not necessarily apply to people you know or whose work you follow. If your favorite bloggers are tweeting, of course you will follow them. You will probably also follow some friends and relatives for diversity. But these are people you already trust or look up to and the value of their tweets needs no further proofs.

1. Check out the numbers

How many people do they follow? How many follow them back? How many tweets have they posted already? If for example the person you want to follow has been tweeting for a week, has 3 tweets, follows 1500 people and only 5 follow them back, of which 3 are bots, that user is not someone you should follow.

If on the other hand they follow 10 people and tens of thousands follow them back, they won’t be a valuable Twitter connection. The most common scenario is that you’ll follow them, they won’t follow back, you will never engage in a meaningful conversation with them.

2. Check out their content

Is what they tweet interesting to you or your own followers? If the content they post is not in any way related to the fields or activities you’re interested in, following them makes no sense. Some people you follow for the great information they post, relevant to your job or line of business, some you follow because they cover your hobbies or passions, some you just follow because their tweets are a great way to relax. Of course, the reason you follow them might be the same for which other people follow you and retweeting their messages might be valuable to you. But if what they post is something you may as well leave without, the logical decision is to continue to ignore them.

3. Check out their conversations

Do they retweet other people’s stuff? How many people to they exchange replies with? If you’re on Twitter, you’re there to exchange ideas with other people, share tips and offer advice and be introduced to fresh content to users you might not be introduced to otherwise. If the only thing you get from following someone is fresh news from a field, there are dozens of other services that broadcast constantly.

4. Check out tweet frequency

If a certain user has not posted an update to their Twitter account in over three months, they probably won’t use that account again. They might come back later, but following them just to add a number to your counter has little value of any kind.

If they post on a regular basis, also check out how many tweets they post each day. Some people are power users that post a few updates every 5 minutes. If that does not bother you, then follow ahead. If you cringe at the thought of too many messages flooding your stream, step away from their profile

What do you check before deciding who to follow on Twitter? Which are the best criteria you’ve used up to now?

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The latest major release of our favorite blogging platform – WordPress 3.0 – has brought quite a few new features to the table. Among them, the custom navigation menus and the post thumbnails (featured image), the latter being available since version 2.9 came out. This started a whole new trend between theme developers, most of them rushing to announce WordPress 3.0 ready themes.

In all this rush, some of the themes released suffered from one big problem: backward compatibility. Why is that important and how can we give some backward compatibility to our WordPress 3.0 ready themes?

Importance of backward compatibility

While I feel that generally offering some sort of backward compatibility is just a common sense policy, in this case it’s more than that. Let me explain why.

Not everyone uses the latest WordPress release, and that is for various reasons:

• Failed to update, or waiting to make sure it’s “stable”;
• Doesn’t really get the importance of an up to date software;
• Certain plugins they use are not yet 3.0/3.0.1 compatible.

This doesn’t mean they don’t want to try and use your beautiful 3.0 ready WordPress theme, or that they shouldn’t. But you see, the biggest trick resides right here, in this terminology: “3.0 ready”. The actual meaning of this is that the theme is compatible with the 3.0 version, not that it requires 3.0 or higher to function properly, and this leads a lot of people into a trap that will cause their blogs and websites to break.

So, the common sense thing to do would be to take the time and apply certain checks and fallback solutions to our themes. Lets see how we can do that.

Adding WordPress 3.0 features with fallback support

Both of the above mentioned features – custom menus and post thumbnails – are based on a WordPress function added once 2.9 was released: add theme support();

Adding post thumbnails support

In order to add post thumbnail support to your theme, you’d write this in your functions.php file:

// Adds support for post thumbnails
add_theme_support('post-thumbnails');

Simple adding this will cause any WordPress installation prior to 2.9 to break, as the add_theme_support() function was not part of the WordPress core back then. The fix? As easy as this:

/* Checks if the installation has the function defined.
If true, continues to add the support for post thumbnails. */
if(function_exists(add_theme_support)) :
	add_theme_support('post-thumbnails');
endif;

Adding custom menus support

In order to also add support for the custom menus feature, you’d normally write this:

// Add theme support for custom menus
add_theme_support( 'menus' );

// Register a custom menu name/location
register_nav_menus(array(
	'custom-menu' => __( 'My Custom Menu' ),
));

In this case, we obviously need to check for core support of both functions: add_theme_support() and register_nav_menus(). Let see how we can do that, also including in this check the post thumbnails:

if(function_exists(add_theme_support)) {
	add_theme_support('post-thumbnails'); // Support for post thumbnails

	if(function_exists(add_theme_support)) {
		add_theme_support( 'menus' ); // Support for custom menus
		register_nav_menus(array(
			'custom-menu' => __( 'My Custom Menu' ),
		));
	}
}

In case you wonder why I chose to add support for menus only after checking if register_nav_menus() is defined, it’s simply because there’s no point in adding support for a feature that you won’t be able to use. Remember, add_theme_support() was added in 2.9, while register_nav_menus() became available only in 3.0.

But how about adding compatibility in the front-end of your theme?

When using post thumbnails, never call them without checking if the function exists first:

// Performs a check to see if the function is available and there's also a thumbnail attached
if (function_exists(the_post_thumbnail) AND has_post_thumbnail()) {
	the_post_thumbnail();
}

For the custom menus, the thing is just a tad trickier, but simple as well. I’m usually using a function that I wrote to specifically check for custom menus support, and even though the wp_nav_menu() function provides a fallback solution, defaulted to wp_page_menu(), this fallback will only activate for 3.0 installations without any menus created and allocated to the reserved space. The fallback won’t set off if you’re using a version prior to 3.0.

Due to my preference of wp_list_pages() over wp_page_menu() – for more customization options – the following function will apply a compatibility fallback to wp_list_pages:

function my_nav_menu() {
	// Check if installation has wp_nav_menu() defined.
	// If true, generate the menu, but don't print it yet;
	if(function_exists(wp_nav_menu)) {
		$my_nav_menu = wp_nav_menu(array('menu' => 'Top Menu', 'container' => '', 'fallback_cb' => 'wp_list_pages', 'depth' => 2, 'echo' => false));
	}
	// If false, generate the menu using wp_list_pages, but don't print it yet;
	else {
		$my_nav_menu = '<ul class="menu">'.wp_list_pages('sort_column=menu_order&title_li=&echo=0&depth=2').'</ul>';
	}
	// Prints out the menu;
	echo $my_nav_menu;
}

Now, in the front end. instead of calling your menu with wp_nav_menu() you’ll now use my_nav_menu() to display a backward compatible version.

Conclusions

Caught in the rush of doing something nice and new, like a child discovering a shiny new toy, we can miss out some of the most basic problems. Most of them are really easy to solve, like the above mentioned and it would be common sense to make use of them.

And remember: if ( function_exists(function_name) ) is your geeky B.F.F.

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It’s been already established that Twitter is a great channel to form relationships, network and connect. Moreover, it is a great tool bloggers have to promote their writings. If your followers read the stories you tweet about, retweet them to their own connections, it translates into more traffic, more comments and leads for the business part of your blog.

While some get great results when using Twitter, others fail to see any positive outcome from their 140 character writing endeavor. Who are these users that get all the attention and added benefits of traffic, always more followers and business success? Let’s see how ideal Twitter users look like!

They are not self-absorbed

Twitter users with steady crowds reading fervently their every update don’t think the world revolves around them. They don’t exclusively tweet their own stuff, urging others to worship them. The only such users that actually are successful are the stars and wannabe stars in the entertainment world, and they are the exception to the general rule – narcissism does not work in social media!

They value conversations

Twitter is not just broadcasting your own products and services. It’s about engaging in meaningful conversations with your network. Be it to find out how they’ve been, to advise them or share some useful piece of news, popular Twitter users talk a lot with their followers.

They are the first to offer something

Power users know that the examples they set will most likely be followed. If they engage their online friends, if they answer their questions, if they retweet their stories, the same will happen to them. You cannot simply show up on Twitter, post a few updates and expect everyone to drop everything and concentrate on you. Most of them follow hundreds of people and need to notice you first. What better way to discover you than a reply or a retweet with a valuable comment.

They respect their followers’ interests

If you’re an expert in a field, have an unusual hobby that you tweet about, have a niche blog, your followers most likely read your tweets for that very reason. You can mix it up with personal updates, funny videos and other such casual conversations, but most of your tweets will be about your topic of interest, the one generally described in your Twitter bio.

If people have followed you because you initially posted a lot of great resources for small business and you switch to ranting about unimportant, unrelated details and only write a useful tweet once a week, they are bound to leave.

In conclusion, the recipe for success is not complicated, at least not in theory. All you have to do to be a successful Twitter user is to get to know the community you are about to join, find out what their interests and preferences are, then join the conversation and try to help whenever you can. The rest is mostly based on reciprocity and being nice.

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Despite being a trend these days, the Do It Yourself concept – referred to as DIY from here on – is nothing new. It’s been around since the Stone Age, ever since people decided to use sticks and rocks as tools and weapons. So, if you think you’re one inch cooler than the next guy, forget it, you’re getting the whole concept wrong.

Who should go for DIY?

There are three types of people that should go for DIY, and three only:

• Industry PROs;
• Industry savvy people;
• Amateurs.

Let see what each of them can achieve through DIY.

Industry PROs & DIY

Clearly, being a professional in the field you’re looking to apply DIY is a major perk. You’ve got what it takes, you have the knowledge, you have the skills and obviously the results are going to be of pro-level.

Industry savvy people & DIY

Being savvy with the online environment – for example – might help you get decent results through DIY. You’ve got the love for it, you’ve got some basic aptitudes, but don’t expect professional results. Such results are achieved through hard years of learning and working. Don’t get me wrong, pro-results can be a reality, but with a lot of time invested and quite a few trial-and-error mishaps.

Amateurs & DIY

If you’re looking to DIY and you know you’re an amateur at it, expect nothing else than amateurish results. Period.

Who should NOT go for DIY

If you’re not in any of the three categories above, then DIY is not for you. If you believe that you can boost your professional image (as a PRO in another field) by doing an amateurish DIY job, you’re wrong. It’s only going to hurt your professional appearance. Get some cash, settle a barter and let a PRO handle it. Do you think that a professional cars salesman (really good at his/her job) can benefit from a poorly executed DIY website? I don’t.

In my experience – and yet I let other people judge the level of my skills – it took me about 11 years to reach my current level of expertise, 11 years of being a web designer and more recently blogger. Where I lacked the formal training for it, I compensated with self-education, reading and lots of trials and errors.

Now, tell me what’s your story with DIY?

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OK, I’ve been dying to write about this for a while so bear with me for a little rant-type of post in today’s schedule. With the explosion of all social media websites and platforms like WordPress and Blogger, nowadays everyone has access to publishing and networking. The more time passes, the more such “Internet Marketer” and “Social Media Expert” profiles seem to rises around us, invading our Twitter accounts – following – and our Facebook accounts – connecting.

In a tough economical climate and with the rapid development that has always been the online’s industry trademark, it’s only natural for people to try different ideas and approaches as means to create either an extra income or a stable full-time income in this field. That’s understandable, but what I simply don’t get is where do these “experts” come from?

It’s a job like any other

Being an Internet / Social Media Marketer is a regular job, not much different than being a teacher or a policeman, for example. So if it’s just a job, I’m yet to see that person on Twitter – let’s say – that describes his/her job position as “Junior Internet Marketer”. Have you seen any? Let me answer that for you: NO.

We’re living in a world where being and Internet Marketer is not a qualification, but rather a personal decision, and where the “Expert” title is not earned by the appreciation of others or results of your work, but rather a catchy term that acts like a “nice bling” on your profile.

In a world where a self-titled Social Media Expert follows 3000 people on Twitter and has 4000 followers you know you’re bound to waste time and money if you put your trusts in the wrong hands. And to further express my worries about this topic: Have you ever looked at some of these Experts’ websites, blogs or even their big-bold-italic-red-titled-dash-bordered-money-back-guaranteed sales e-letters? Maybe I’m just crazy, but tell me in which universe a person that doesn’t put up the money to get a decent design (an investment in his/her own image – self-marketing/self-promotion) would qualify as an expert to teach us or promote our products/services?

Open your eyes

Take a good look at the reality around you. Want to see how a real Internet Marketer looks like? An expert? There you go: Chris Brogan, and if you don’t agree with me, check the stats:

• ~60.000 blog subscribers (not counting daily casual readers);
• ~145.000 Twitter followers (can you imagine the exposure?);
• Marketing business owner/president;
• Published book author;
• Top 5 in AdAge Power 150;
• Speaker at countless industry events and workshops;
• And the list could go on and on…

Now, if everyone else is an expert, what should Chris do? Start a religion? And before it passes your mind – NO – this post is not sponsored by Chris, although I bet he pays decently.

What needs to change?

The answer is so simple: We should all exercise our decency. Truth and honesty about our own abilities and performance would take us further than a faked-blinged-out profile. The road from spare-time blogger or work-at-home blogger to Social Media Marketer / Expert is long, and although many take it, less than a handful reach the end. Just remember that along this path, there are crossroads that we call stages, and through which you have to go. You cannot jump to the statute of Expert just because you wish to.

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In yesterday’s post I have shared some light on two of Facebook’s most attractive features for bloggers, the Facebook Like and Facebook Share buttons. While the decision of which one of the two use is your own (though the general answer seems to point to “Like”), today I’m going to talk about another feature that Facebook has improved and re-released back in June: Facebook Insights.

Through Facebook Insights you can gain free access to a whole bunch of highly useful information about your users’ behavior, their like/share habits and pretty decent demographics analytics, since Facebook uses their own user profile system to provide the information (and we all like to fill in our profile info, right?).

While Facebook Insights provides analytics data for Facebook Apps too, for bloggers probably the most interesting segments of this data are those that reflect the users’ like/share/reshare habits on Facebook accounts attached domains and the Facebook Pages created by their owners.

Getting Facebook Insights for your domain

Attaching a domain to the Facebook Insights is a straight forward job. All you have to do is to access the Facebook Insights dashboard and follow the 3 easy steps described in the image below:

Once you’ve completed these simple steps, you’ll gain access to a set of domain overall analytics data, as well as per URL data, by request, by entering the desired URL from your domain in a classic input box. Here are some eloquent screenshots of the data the Facebook Insights provides:

Facebook Insights: Likes vs. Shares

Facebook Insights: Demographics Analytics

With Facebook Insights, your choice is easier

Now you have a better tool to help you decide which button works best for your blog: Facebook Like or Facebook Share. Although my personal favorite is the Like button, I’d recommend using both of them for a while and simply compare in the Facebook Insights dashboard which one performs better, and only take a decision after you’ve come to a strong conclusion.

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Soon after one starts blogging, the fact that just posting the entries and waiting for an indefinite “them” to come is not really working well hits you. Posts need exposure, especially for new blogs that don’t have an established readership. Even when we’re talking about a well known blog, the audience has its preferences when it comes to where they like to receive the latest updates. And Facebook is one of those places where you can reach a lot of new or returning visitors.

As it happens with any other social media channel, the blog author’s connections are limited. But their readers come with their own friends that might be interested in what the blogger has to say. So making it easy for them to share your fresh stories on Facebook is important. You’re faced with two options – going for the Facebook Share button or choosing the Facebook Like or Recommend button that’s so popular right now.

Most times, Share buttons are placed at the beginning of the post. They’re easy to spot and a visitor shares the story with a few clicks. Recommend or Like buttons are usually smaller and harder to spot, especially when there are no prior recommendations. Yet when a few people have already clicked the like button, you’ll see how many of them have done so and if they are people in your network, their photos will also appear.

The names of those who have already recommended the story add credibility. If your friends, the people whose updates you follow, think this story is worth reading and sharing, it probably is. The one seeing the recommendations will more likely read and share it.

It’s also important to note that a single click on the Facebook Like button is a lot easier than a Share. People find it fast and painless and don’t think of it as a big effort. They just push the button and continue to read the story or its comments.

If you’re inclined to choose the Like button, you now need to consider Facebook visibility! A simple like comes with a quick update on the Facebook feeds saying X likes the Z story. A share comes with a link to the story, an excerpt and eventually a photo. If the person sharing it adds their comments, they will also show up on their wall and in their friends news streams.

The trick is the Facebook Like button also allows visitors to add their comments and share the story. But people sometimes overlook this feature. The option to add your comments and post them to your Facebook page shows up after liking the story. So a second action is required, which some would choose to say no to.

Best solution to decide which to use? Trial and error! Add each button to your website and see how people react. Add them both for further testing and see what the outcome is. Then decide which button suits you better!

Have you added Facebook Like and/or Facebook Share buttons to your blog? Which worked better in your case?

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There are a lot of bloggers out there that write great content and even if they get a decent amount of traffic, some of them don’t seem to have a lot of interaction with their readers. On top of that, some of them might discover your site from the search engines and never come back again, even if they liked it. Seriously, they could have forgotten your URL or website name.

Your goal is to grow as much as possible with your current traffic. There are many different ways to get more traffic to your blog or website, but why not establish a better connection with your current readers from the start. Master this and then you can work on getting more unique visitors later on. So listed below are some ways to accomplish this and brand your website or blog:

1. Email Optin Newsletter Form

One of my favorite suggestions is to display an email opt in newsletter form on your site. If you’re using a WordPress blog platform, then you can place it in a widget on the side. In order to get an opt in form, you will need to sign up for a email service such as Aweber, Constant Contact, along with multiple others out there.

Another tip is to choose a newsletter form that is eye popping and has a good call to action. Then once you got a large list of email subscribers, you can easily email them about a new post that you made. This is more direct than having them subscribe to an RSS feed because the message is sent straight to their email address. RSS feed subscriptions can also be powerful and should be used along with email newsletters. Also, RSS is free so don’t forget to display a RSS feed on the site as well.

2. Subscribe to Comments Plugin

Another favorite tip is to use a free plugin called “Subscribe to Comments” for WordPress. Quick Online Tips uses this itself as shown on the bottom of the comments section and all they have to do is check the box. This allows readers to get email notifications after they submit a comment. That way they don’t have to keep checking up on the blog to see if someone answered their question.They just get an email that shows any comments placed after them and it gets more exposure to your blog so they are more likely to reply to the conversation. It gets them coming back to your blog.

3. Social Media

This has been discussed before, but you sometimes need to do more than the average person does. Instead of posting to social media sites and expect people to start following you, go out and read other peoples information and leave comments. You should look for targeted and similar subject areas. For an example, in Facebook you can do a search for your topic and register on a fan or group page. Sometimes there are thousands of people registered on one fan page. By interacting with a large fan page and leaving a link to your site in the signature can help get people to notice you.

4. Conversations with Readers

My third tip is to actually interact with your readers on the blog. Write a sentence or two at the end of your blog post telling them how much you would appreciate a comment or tell them to ask a question. Then come and reply to their questions or think of some to ask them. Usually having them ask questions will help lead you to more blog post ideas because some people start to become stuck with new ideas to write about. So this can be a big helper to keep your blog fresh with ideas and the readers will be more eager to come back for the whole post.

I hope this has helped and if you implement these tips you will see your blog grow. With that said, please share your own experiences, or thoughts or any question that you might have. I appreciate any feedback or if you have a tip, leave it in the comments section. Thank you!

About the Author

This is a guest post by writer Eric Woolf from the Pixels and Dots web design team. Please leave him your comments below or on the Pixels and Dots blog.

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December 26 is here, which means today I am going to announce the two winners of the Xmas ReTweet Contest.

Each of the winners will have the possibility of choosing one of the Premium WordPress Themes available in the WordPress category at ThemeForest as their prize.

Complete list of participants

Below you’ll find the complete list of participants (39) that had valid contest entries (followed both steps in order to enter the competition):

1. Bloghita - @bloghita
2. Marius. - @Marius__
3. Radu Panciuc - @panciuc
4. Eugen - @pauneugen
5. Nikolaevi4 - @Nikolaevi14
6. JeremyOLED - @JeremyOLED
7. Aldo - @iFeelanceWeb
8. Kimberly Castleberry - @KimJCastleberry
9. AlexT - @alext_1020
10. Razvan Girmacea - @RazvanGirmacea
11. Cristian VADUVA - @Vaduva
12. Youwei - @Youwei
13. Calítoe.:. - @Calitoe
14. Daniel - @danielpeisar
15. Anand Srinivasan - @knewthis
16. Margaret Ayad - @eracose
17. Nice from Thailand - @SE7ENize
18. Jennifer - @grizzarkhov
19. Dimitry Ekzarkhov - @design_deity
20. Tracy - @mattnem05
21. Dhaunae @Dhaunae
22. Jessica Dooley - @jessicadooley
23. Jason - @jasontromm
24. elmot - @elmot
25. Kat - @simplywp
26. Codrut @ Blog Post Ideas - @CodrutTurcanu
27. Damir - @wisehat79
28. Melvin - @melvinblog
29. Prasanth Chandra - @pcsbox
30. Jacob Yap - @jacobyap
31. Raju - @rajupp
32. naz - @aenaz
33. Suhas - @suhastech
34. Siddanth
35. Slipdisc - @Roadrippersid
36. technbohowl - @technohowl
37. Rich - @fireitup4USA
38. Michael Cannon - @SMARTcutGeek
39. Kushal Chen - @slayershanks

Contest winners

Here are the lucky winners:

2. Marius. – @Marius__ and
23. Jason – @jasontromm

The 2 winners have been selected using the random number generator available at Random.org. See screenshots below for the winner drawing process:

Xmas Contest – Setting up the draw

Xmas Contest – Draw Results

Claiming your prize

Marius & Jason, I will contact you both via the email addresses you have used to place your comments (contest entries) and we’ll set up the prize selection and delivery. Congratulations!

I would also want to thank everyone else who participated in this fun Christmas contest. The number of entries has surpassed my expectations. If it were possible, I’d gladly give a prize to each and every one of you. But fear not, there will be more contests, so stay tuned to Blogsessive through the blog or my twitter account: @Blogsessive

Happy Holidays!

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How long has it been since I’ve held the last contest on Blogsessive? Too long, but since holidays are close, lets have some fun and make two of you folks the owners of a brand new premium WordPress theme from ThemeForest. It is a simple contest and everyone owning a Twitter account is invited to join in!

Xmas Contest Prizes

Two of the contest participants will each win a premium WordPress theme of their choice from ThemeForest. Contest prize selection is restricted to the WordPress category on the previous mentioned website.

The two winners will be randomly picked by me on the day of December 26th. Read the rules below.

Xmas Contest Rules

Do you own a Twitter account? If so, there are two things you need to do in order to enter this contest:

First you will have to retweet an exact copy of the following:

Win a Premium #WordPress theme in @Blogsessive’s Xmas Retweet Contest! http://bit.ly/XmasRT Click to enter!

Second, after you’ve retweeted the above message, come back here and post a link to the Twitter status containing the retweet in this post’s comments section.

Important:

Entries are valid ONLY if both steps have been followed exactly. Participants are allowed one entry per Twitter account!

Xmas Contest Results

The contest results will be made publicly available on December 26th. I will contact the winners via the email addresses they will use to leave comments on this post, so make sure you comment with a real valid email address in order to claim your prize.

Good luck to you all and let the fun begin!

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