As promised a while back, I’ve finished editing the Corporate Blogging Guide in PDF eBook format. So, today I give you the chapters you’ve had the chance to read online plus a whole new chapter (8. Technical aspects) and some bonus tips to guide you in your corporate blogging adventures!

How to download the eBook?

In order to download the ebook, all you have to do is to subscribe for free to Blogsessive’s RSS feed (if you haven’t done so until now) and you’ll find the download link at the end of each article in the feed.

eBook preview and contents

Here are two screenshots of the book’s cover and the contents page:

Don’t forget to subscribe…

… to Blogsessive’s RSS feed to download the eBook and to stay updated. There are plenty more freebies in the works, including a new WordPress theme and my second eBook: “From Zero to Blogging Hero: 100 Blogging Tips”

Enjoy the eBook friends!

PS: Please do not link to the download link in the feed. Instead, if you wish to promote this ebook, link to this post. Otherwise, I will consider it spam and wrongful usage!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Happy Halloween folks! As you might have noticed, Blogsessive has changed its “clothes” on this special occasion. Don’t worry, the nerd will be back tomorrow, when Dracula “leaves the building”.

Now, since this is a special occasion, the topic for today’s article has been inspired by a comment I received on part 6 of the Corporate Blogging Guide:

I think we all start our blogs worried people might not like us and when they do, we don’t want to change for fear of losing readers. I’ll take experiments to stagnation any day.
David Walker

The moment I read David’s comment I knew he made a really good remark. It is fear that keeps us in place. It is fear that keeps us from “spreading our wings”. We abide all the rules and all things that we know for sure will work and hope to be the next blogging “rockstar”. But, do you really believe those “rockstars” we all follow are there because they are copycats? Because they follow rules? Or might it be possible that they are the ones creating new rules? Might they be the ones revolutionizing the concepts?

Do you want to be a better blogger? Then…

Don’t be afraid to stray from the pattern!

What worked for other people, might work for you. But it might not also. Do you want to be another face in the crowd, or “the inspiration” for the crowd? If you want to inspire, then find the unexplored paths. Lead people to places they did not visit before! Try, try, and then, try again. Who cares if an experiment fails? You lost 3 subscribers? OK! Move on, fight to find that something that will get you 300 subscribers in return!

Don’t be afraid to be yourself!

It’s your blog! I’m not saying you should be an a*s, but if you have an opinion, put it out there. If you’re not comfortable with your own views and opinions you should not blog. Blogging is about being personal. You need to have your own voice, different than the voices you hear in the crowd around you! Out of 10 people that say the same thing, only one will go down in history for saying it the best way, his way!

Don’t be afraid to lose battles!

No one is victorious every time. It’s all about winning the war, right? I’ll give myself as an example here. I’m still “fighting this blogging war”. I lost battles. You’ve noticed the time I spent away from the blog. It was a lost battle. So, I took the time to find the right resources to continue “the war” and I’m back. Have I lost something along the way? A couple of email subscribers. I do get why they are not subscribed anymore, but those who believe in you and support you will be there, for better or worse. (Thanks again folks!) Everything that you lose, can be built again. We’re not born with these. We’re born naked. With the right mind set on it, we can overcome loses.

Don’t be afraid to dream!

Dream. Hope. Believe! If you don’t set your mind to the higher target, you’ll never achieve it. Know your limits, and when you know them, set your standard above them. It’s the only way you can actually reach your limits, because it’s hard to avoid falling in the trap of indulging into small victories or sufficiency.

It’s Halloween folks, but on this day, you should NOT be afraid!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

So, did you ask yourself if a blog is the right thing for your company? Is it a solution that will boost your business instead of being a resource consumer? If so, it’s time to find out what options are there in terms of positioning a corporate blog.

Each company has its specific communication needs. Based on said needs and other established targets, a newly launched company blog can help achieve specific goals, such as:

• Becoming an alternative, and dynamic method to publish content;
• Positioning employees as thought leaders and experts in their respective fields;
• Building a community around a company, product or service;
• Boosting sales;
• Encouraging customers to send their feedback;
• Speeding up customer service;
• Gaining you exposure through both new and traditional (print press, radio, TV) media;
• Positioning you as a trendy company that keeps up with new technologies;
• Becoming and effective channel for crisis communication;
• Supporting your HR efforts by offering an “alternative” look at your team and thus attracting new job applications;
• Helping your company rank higher for specific search phrases and attracting new backlinks.

It’s highly recommended to establish a set of complementary goals. If a company manages to focus on and reach its main goals, the adjacent targets will also be achieved at the same time.

Here are a couple of examples of complementary goal sets:

• Building a community + boosting sales + attracting feedback
• Positioning yourself as a thought leader + building a community + gaining media exposure

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning (current)
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Not all promoting and marketing techniques yield results in any given situation and likewise blogs aren’t always the best solution. In certain cases, a blog can become a useless investment, or worse, a way to boost the already negative view the audience has on a company.

Before launching a blog, each company needs to ask the following questions:

2.1. Is the blog a necessity or just a whim?

A company’s decision to launch a blog may be based on obvious advantages generated by the freedom of communication and by its being given a human touch. Considering these advantages or failing to do so, we still run into situations where a company chooses to launch a blog because of reasons such as:

• Our competitor X has launched a blog;
• It’s trendy, any teen has one. Why can’t we have one?
• We want to look high-tech / tech savvy.

In theory, none of the reasons above is a real obstacle, given it’s associated with and supported by other factors such as having the necessary resources to create and maintain a blog or a positive or neutral image in the market.

2.2 Do you have the needed resources to launch and maintain a blog?

Unlike classic company website, blogs keep consuming resources.

Blogs imply costs. Be it the technical side – design, development, hosting, be it hiring an experienced blogger to maintain it and publish fresh content, a blog needs financial resources.

Blogs take time. It takes time to create and publish content; it takes time to research, write posts, update them and maintain the blog. And for any company with a sense of business, time always means money.

Blogs need dedicated personnel. While there are quite a few tools to render content publishing automatic, the best results in corporate blogging are harvested by those publishing customized content, created by their own people. Are there people in your team who can maintain the blog? If not, do you have enough resources to bring in someone new?

Blog require information. And information is either created or needs to be searched for, analyzed and filtered. These steps also take time and need to be carried out by people who need to be effective and thorough in research, data filtering and content creation.

2.3 How does the online audience feel about your company?

We are talking about the online world, where the fastest and most relevant reactions are being published. How do we track them?

2.3.1 Reactions in the blogosphere: Technorati

Technorati.com is at the same time a blog search engine and a blog content aggregation service. According to the latest data, Technorati indexes and analyzes the activity of about 110 blogs from around the world.

Through a system reviewing both post tags and inter-blog links, Technorati returns relevant search result in a reverse-chronological order, the most recent ones being displayed first.

2.3.2 Reactions in the blogosphere: Google Blog Search

The world famous Google has a search engine entirely dedicated to blogs. Using the traditional search algorithms it’s already known for, Google Blog Search allows you to filter results based on multiple search parameters as well as on the date when the blog articles and reactions have been published.

Running a search for your company’s name will most likely return relevant results which are usually very personal, as they are reactions from within the blogosphere. If your brand mainly targets domestic customers, the wisest choice is to use the local version of the blog search engine.

And of course, running the search directly on the main Google search engine can return similarly relevant results.

2.3.3 Reactions in the online press from your field

Although it is not always the most relevant source, as it is often affiliated to certain trade groups or biased by advertising constraints, the online press covering your field can be an effective indicator for your company’s image by taking into account what their experts and analysts have to say about you.

2.3.4. Quantifying the risk factor

Based on the results obtained after analyzing all these online reactions, one can quite accurately quantify the risk factor their company is exposed to by publishing a blog, especially if it is a blog that allows comments to be posted.

A negative online image can lead to a virtually unlimited series of negative comments which rarely have to do with the actual content published on the blog. Visitors would have thus found a way to express all their frustration caused by real or imaginary flaws they see in the company’s products and services.

2.4 Interpreting the answers

It hardly takes a genius to determine if the blog is just a whim with a short life span and inexistent success in communicating with customers.

Also, it is obvious that without the necessary resources, a blog cannot be launched or it will be launched while lacking any real possibility of it being maintained in the future.

And who would ever want to help spread an already bad image through exposing themselves to ever present negative comments, especially in their own “online home”?

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog (current)
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools

Photo credits to Johanna Ljungblom

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

A few months back I was invited to attend, as a speaker, an event on corporate blogging where the people in the audience were mostly PR Managers for different companies in my country. Along with the PowerPoint presentation, I have decided to also give those who attended the event more information on corporate blogging through an eBook I wrote at that time.

The following post is the first chapter of that eBook, translated into English. The rest of the chapters will be also published, over the next few days, except for the weekend. Now, let’s see what corporate blogging is about and if it is the right tool for you and your business.

1.1 Blog, Blogging, Blogosphere

The term blog, contracted form of weblog, defines a certain type of website where texts, photos, audio or video content are published in chronological order, much like an online diary.

The first blogs date back to 1993 when the term was first introduced, but they only started to be used more frequently in 1998 when the first blog community, Open Diary, appeared.

The true hit of the online mainstream happened around 2002-2003, when the first blog reactions regarding the Iraq war were published and when Google acquired the Blogger.com platform, which allows any person with Internet access to create and maintain their own blog.

The Blogosphere comprises all public blogs and is defined as a community based on the theory that all existing blogs are somehow interconnected, often through blogrolls or links inserted in their content.

A blogroll is a list of links, commonly displayed in a blog’s sidebar. The links usually point to blogs the author deems relevant to the content of their own blog or simply wants to recommend to their readers.

Therefore, through blogrolls, it is believed that any two blogs can be connected through one or more intermediary links.

Blogs allow publishing content in a wide range of types and formats, and these types of content lead to a first classification of blogs:

1. a. Classic blog – text content
2. b. Photoblog – publishes photo content
3. c. Videoblog – publishes video content
4. Audioblog (podcast) – publishes audio content

Microblogs and tumbleblogs, both defined as blogs with extremely short entries, are two other blog formats gaining more and more popularity in the past few years.

Regardless of information format, the online publishing of content through blog platforms is called blogging, and the author of a blog is called blogger.

1.2 Corporate blogging

Once they have hit the spotlights, the blogs’ potential to communicate effectively was immediately noticed by companies.

Initially seen as a mere tool to promote products and services, blogs gradually became part of a company’s brand. Aside from placing a name and a logo on them, blogs granted companies a persona they could be associated with. In short, they made them human. The corporate blog managed to break the barrier between the “inaccessible company” and its customers.

The true value of a company is undoubtedly fueled by its employees’ individual values. But how exactly can these values be expressed? How can they be best presented to the world?

Blogs allow companies to position their employees as industry leaders through the opinions they publish, through the breakthroughs shared on the blog, all in a human, personal form that eases communication with customers.

A few companies that have successfully adopted the concept of blogs are:

Adobe – http://blogs.adobe.com/
Microsoft – http://www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs/ and http://blogs.msdn.com/
Google – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

The benefits of a well crafted and maintained blog are plenty, but is it the right tool for companies? Find out in the next chapters.

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging (current)
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools

Photo credits to Peter Nielsen

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Tweetmeme buttons, plugins to show latest tweets on blogs, Twitter accounts linking to the owner’s blog, new posts being tweeted, and blog addresses and twitter links in signatures. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what else would show that blogging and tweeting go hand in hand for tons of people. If you think of names, blogging and microblogging, you kind of see the connection. If you think microblogging appeared later, you’d think much of the blogging knowledge is applicable. But how can you be on both platforms and make them work individually and as a team?

1. Spot the similarities

Blogs and Twitter are of the same species. They come from the world of the social web where the same rules apply. You know, give before you ask, be nice, share relevant information, never, ever, ever limit yourself to broadcasting, be conversational, help out. It’s not rocket science and it’s definitely not new. To make it more clear, here’s the example section: comment on other blogs before you expect comments – or – retweet before you expect your followers to retweet your 140 characters of content.

Catchy and interesting content is crucial for both. If your blog post is a big hit, make your tweets the same. “New blog post + link” won’t make a lot of people click. “Star Trek is real! We can all now teleport! + link + Fresh from the blog” might work a lot better.

They both need frequent updates. If you’re planning to create a blog and never post after the first time, you’ve failed. If you’re planning to get a Twitter account to say hi and have a cool button on your blog without ever doing anything more, you have failed. People expect updates from both bloggers and microbloggers.

Both need monitoring. You need to check responses, reactions and trends to be on top of your game. And if you’re blogging and tweeting right, that will take a whole lot of time.

Your blog and your Twitter account need to be welcoming and make it easy for visitors / followers to take action. Login required, captchas and about three other levels of security make it difficult to comment. Protected tweets make it difficult for new followers to 1. decide if they want to follow you and 2. actually do the following. It all has to be easy and accessible.

2. Acknowledge the differences

Blogs and tweets need different frequencies in updates. While it’s OK to post a couple of times each week on your blog, that might not work that great for Twitter. It’s more like a few posts per day. Yes, it takes time. It does take less time than to write a blog post. Plus content is readily available: your posts, industry news, tweets from those you follow. Add a few replies and you’ve got a quite active Twitter stream!

140 characters vs. virtually no limits. You need to adjust what you want to say to the platform you’re posting it to. Keep ideas short and sweet for Twitter and develop on the blog. Yes, we’ve all seen the huge ideas split into 4 consecutive tweets… But if you follow a few hundred people, you’ll see how fast the meaning gets lost in between tweets.

Different pace, different tempo! It all happens faster on Twitter. Yes, you can reply to a comment after two days. But if you reply to a tweet after the same amount of time, you have 90% chances that the person getting the response will have no clue what you’re talking about.

3. Fuel the team spirit

If it’s a team, it has to look like one! You are in the end promoting the same brand, so make sure to have common visual elements on your blog and Twitter page.

If it’s a team, it should feel like one! The style on the blog and that of your tweets need to be somewhat similar. People have to sense the same spirit behind it all; otherwise the connection between the two will be feeble. They’ll stick to one or the other, and your plan to make them work together would have failed.

If it’s a team, it should have the same purpose! Be it to promote your business, stay in touch with friends, position yourself as an expert, you need to have a common goal for both platforms. You can’t try to drive leads your way with the blog and talk about raising kids on Twitter if you have any plans to promote one through the other!

Over to you!

As it happens to just blogging, just tweeting, blogging and twitting, or any field for that matter, the pool of relevant information is always bigger than one person. What tips and tricks have you come across while trying to make your blog and twitter work like a dream team? Do share your advice in the comment box!

About the Author

This is a guest post by Alina Popescu, PR Consultant & Founder of Mirror Communications. If you’re looking for a fresh voice, balancing unique views on life with original PR and marketing tips, head over to her blog at WordsOfABrokenMirror.com, or better yet, subscribe to her RSS feed.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Let’s play! Today’s post is a fun, creative exercise that I’d be happy to complete with your help through the comments section. What is the exercise about? Blogging tips, of course.

This post is part of the change I wish to bring to Blogsessive and get closer to you folks, your needs and thoughts!

What I will do: Using the ODD letters (A, C, E, G, I, K, M, O, Q, S, U, W, Y) of the English alphabet I will list 13 blogging tips, each in a sentence starting with that letter.

What you could do: Share your tips and views by completing the sentences starting with EVEN letters (B, D, F, H, J, L, N, P, R, T, V, X, Z).

I’m sure that each and everyone of you has something to share with the community, so let’s get creative!

The Blogging Alphabet of Blog Tips

A. Acknowledge the latest trends in your area of blogging. Always stay up to date, informed.

B. …

C. Connect with other people, with bloggers in your niche. Offer help. Network. Friends are some of bloggers’ greatest “assets”.

D. …

E. Experiment with different approaches in your written speech. Depending on topic, you might find that different “voices” impact people in different ways. Push your communication skills.

F. …

G. Guide your audience through your content, through your posts, or posts’ paragraphs. Make your content accessible and readable.

H. …

I. Innovate. Don’t go on the same routes as everyone before you. Find your strengths and build a unique brand upon them.

J. …

K. Know when it’s time to let go. If an experiment or an idea doesn’t prove effective, leave your feelings aside and let it go before you’ve invested too much time and resources.

L. …

M. Mix your posts. Every once in a while add a small drop of fun. Informal and educational posts are great for your audience, but too many such posts in a row can become boring. Remember when you were in school. Your favorite teacher must have been the one that knew how to make learning fun!

N. …

O. Organize yourself. From writing habits to files, contacts and even structure of your blog’s categories. Create a pattern that will save you and your readers time!

P. …

Q. Quiz your target audience from time to time. Run polls and ask for views and opinions. Or make it even better. Run a real quiz and have some cool prizes ready. It helps getting more engagement from your community, as well as loyalty.

R. …

S. Seize opportunities as soon as they come up, especially if you’re an internet marketer. We’re living in an extremely fast world and what today is opportunity, tomorrow might be old news.

T. …

U. Unburden yourself. Learn how to delegate or outsource certain tasks while you focus on those you’re more skilled at or more time/cost effective.

V. …

W. Write. Write every day. Even if it’s not going to get published on the blog. Write as an exercise. Train your creativity and your writing habit until it all comes much more natural.

X. …

Y. Yield the best results by investing in your blog. Blogging consumes resources: time, money, energy, creativity. Be prepared to use them in order to succeed.

Z. …

Contribute to the alphabet

Leave your tips and contributions in the comment area and please use your NAME, not keywords. The best contributions will be selected for at PDF mini-ebook that I’ll make available for free download on the blog, and all contributions will be attributed to their authors with name and website link.

Sounds cool? Then jump in and let’s have fun!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

A few weeks ago I was driving down the highway. It was late at night and I was tired. The radio was starting to put me to sleep. Suddenly a song come on that woke me up – I could not believe what I was hearing. The song was that bad.

I am no expert when it comes to music. The last time I played an instrument was in grade 6 music class. It was the xylophone – I simply had to hit a a couple keys with a wooden mallet whenever the teacher pointed at me. I do not know anything about timing, rhythm or beat. But I do know how to listen to music. I know what music should sound like.

What I heard on the radio was not music – it was painful noise. No rhythm, no beat and the singing was nothing more then a girl squealing forced rhymes. I listened to the whole song just to find out if it was some kind of joke. Would the DJ admit that it was something his 5 year daughter composed and asked daddy to play on the radio? But at the end of the song the DJ only said, “… and that was The Shaggs”

The Shaggs

The Shaggs were a 3 girl band from the late 60’s. The girl’s ages ranged from 18 to 22. They had no intention of having a band, their father did. He had visions of being a big shot manager for the next big thing in music – his daughter’s band. He pulled them out of school and made them practice and play. He spent the family savings to buy instruments and record an album. The albums where distributed by the father to all the local stations.

Of course success did not come as the father had anticipated. And the reason is obvious – the music is terrible. It sounds like the instruments and singer are being thrown down a long flight of stairs. No tempo, erratic and completely off-kilter singing. The lyrics are about Halloween, a two legged dog, and how great parents are. It is simply bad music.

When I got home I was curios to find out who The Shaggs are and how they got on the radio. As shocked as I was when I heard how bad the music was, it was nothing compared to my amazement when I saw that on Amazon the album has a customer rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 and 131 reviews.

How Did The Shaggs Get On The Radio

They did not have thousand’s of hours of training, they did not have a million dollar promotion campaign, they did not have brilliant lyrics. How did they do it? How did they get popular enough to be heard on the radio?

The answer is what bloggers call a great backlink.

The famous musician Frank Zappa heard the album and publicly stated that the Shaggs are “better than the Beatles”. Why he thinks so or what he was on does not matter. What matters is that he said it. Suddenly The Shaggs were in the spotlight. People started to buy the album and listen to the music – it started to be played on the radio. Thanks to all the resulting publicity, in 1996 the Rolling Stones called the album one of the 100 “most influential alternative releases of all time”.

Terrible music but a big seller, all thanks to Zappa.

Focus on Getting the Zappa Backlink

The mantra you hear over and over again is that you need backlinks. The more backlinks you get the better chance you have of success. You might have the best blog in the world but without backlinks nobody will ever see it.

You are suppose to submit your blog to directories, make comment on other blogs, and submit articles. Accumulate as many as you can,the more the better.

True, this will increase the number of backlinks to your site. But even a hundred of these backlinks do not compare to a Zappa backlink – a backlink from a major player in your niche.

Get a backlink from the top blogger in your niche because it is worth more then the 100’s of backlinks from blog comments and directories. A nod of approval from someone famous and respected will instantaneously bring your blog into the spotlight. If they have a following of a 100,000 then suddenly 100,000 eyes will be on you.

How To Get the Zappa Backlink

Obviously the problem is getting the Zappa backlink. It is not easy and there is no step by step process to getting one. Nobody can give you advice on how to get it, there is no formula. You have to be creative and original. You have to find a way to get the attention of a big player and get them to mention you. There is the chance you will get lucky and receive one without trying, but more likely you will have to work hard for it.

A perfect example of a great backlink is this guest post. This blog is very popular with 1000’s of visitors a day. By putting in the time to create this guest post and having it accepted I suddenly get lots of exposure. The backlink from this high page rank blog can turn out to be my Zappa backlink.

You have a choice: you can either diligently spend a hours every week accumulating little backlinks that might make your blog a success over time. Or you can spend those hours going after the big score. The one big backlink that is worth a 100 little ones.

About the Author

Roman Jelinek is a new webmaster with a blog and website describing in detail what is involved in creating, maintaining and profiting from a site. Charts and statistics are used to reveal How This Website Makes Money Online. If you find the article interesting, do take the time to subscribe to his feed.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Yesterday, Syed Balkhi published one of his best posts lately: “Consistency & Frequency Are The Ultimate Downfall of Blogging“. While Syed was probably looking – as he stated at the article’s end – for a bit of controversy, he actually managed to create a very thoughtful post that made me write a follow up, something I rarely do.

Blogging “Experts” always preach that you must be consistent with your blog, and you should post frequently.

This is how Syed starts his article, making it clear where he’s going to hit, the famous “Be consistent, write frequently” blogging tip. While he makes some very good statement on consistency, I would have loved to see a more detailed explanation of what should be understood by “being consistent with your blog”, and since I did not find those, I’ll share my views in this article.

By blogging consistency you should understand that…

1. You should be consistent in quality

By quality consistency I mean that you should continuously thrive to improve both your writing quality and the usefulness of your articles. People follow you because of the practical use they have for your tips, or the fun factor you always provide and so on. If the quality is poor, make it good. If it’s good, make it better. There’s no perfect, but thrive for it, you’ll get close.

2. You should be consistent in writing style and tone

The folks that read your blog and follow you through feeds and Twitter, do so because of your personality. The more charming you are, the easier it is to get followers. When you’ve found that tone that suits you best, stick with it. Of course, with the occasional escapades. Once in a while it’s nice to break the blogging patterns.

3. You should be consistent in frequency

While frequent posting has its advantages in terms of traffic, when it affects the quality of your posts it can become your blog’s killer. If once a week is the rhythm than does not affect your creativity and quality, that’s how frequently you should post. Don’t post daily just because X does it. I don’t. Even more, whenever I feel that I come across a writer’s block I take a break from Blogsessive, and guess what. My readers are still here. My RSS subscribers are still here. Why? Because they understand and accept the fact that it’s better to sacrifice a week than sacrifice your readership and value.

All in all, Syed is a bit harsh and extreme saying that “consistency & frequency are the ultimate downfall of blogging”. But he’s got a point. Being consistent and frequent for the sake of it is wrong. Being constantly useful and frequently creative is what you should struggle for.

And one more thing to ponder about consistency…

Consistency is the key element in branding

Personal branding, just like any other type of branding is a compound of your actions. The better these actions are tied to each other, the more consistent your image/brand is. But just as with every other brand, there comes a time when you’re required to hit that “Refresh” button. And when you do that, it’s called rebranding.

The point of rebranding yourself? It’s infinitely better that instead of wasting time recycling others’ or your own ideas you should be using that time to reinvent yourself. Continue to provide value, just in a new shape.

My 2 cents on consistency: Be on the lookout for the best in you. Constantly!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

You know, planning a new blog post can be one of the most common problems for a new or recurring blogger. At the same time, the quality of one’s content can dwindle if you don’t take the proper time to consider what it is you want to write about, and stay on task. So how do you go about creating that perfect post idea?

Write When You’re Most Productive

To start, you should try writing when you’re the most productive. If you really want your content to sizzle, you need to be on top of your game, ready to outperform. For example, sitting in a comfortable chair and listening to music might be the best writing environment, while a silent library works for others. Naturally, it’s impossible to be able to sit down and be in perfect writing form 24/7, but being prepared to write is important to developing exceptional content.

Before you begin writing, why not try arranging your desk area in a way that suits you? Make your environment as comfortable as possible to get yourself into the writing mood. Try opening a window. Sounds crazy, right? Whatever you might think, creating an atmosphere that you feel at ease in will make you that much more productive.

Choose a Compelling Topic

If you really want to make an interesting post, you need to begin with an interesting idea. Generating ideas is as simple as considering a solution your readers might need, or a new product that has come out within your market. Let me show you some more ideas you might use for a blog post:

• 5 Ways to Do [Something]
• 20 [Market name] Professionals to Follow on Twitter
• How to Grow in [Your Choice]
• How I [Achievement] in [Timeframe]

One little suggestion might be to build upon previous posts that you’ve done for your blog. What areas have you covered that you can grow and develop more? Building upon your blog’s past content will make your new post even stronger. What’s more, it will give you a place to start when structuring your new blog post.

Structuring Your Post

Normally, bloggers will jump right into writing before deciding upon the layout of their blog post. But let’s be honest – considering the structure of your blog post will ultimately make it more effective. Taking one to two minutes to simply lay out your ideas in order will result in a much more professional post, which flows more seamlessly to your readers. However, you should not spend endless amounts of time on the arrangement on just one post. Figuring out the acceptable layout and moving on is perfectly fine. The bottom line is: spend some time arranging your ideas to avoid turning your posts into a reader’s nightmare.

Learn When to Publish

If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.

Why wait? Or why hurry, for that matter? The most important factor in planning a new blog post is when you’re going to publish it. Rhythm is especially critical in the development of a blog, and posting your new article online at a time of peak visiting hours will help raise subscribers and readership. In the past, new bloggers would simply post and let traffic take care of the rest. However, analytics software makes it easy to determine when people are reading your blog. Posting your new entry an hour or so before peak visiting time will help to improve visibility and exposure. Posting on a day when people are more apt to read your blog is also important.

You might be thinking that planning blog posts is for the more organized or elite bloggers, however, learning to plan out new posts is a skill that will help you to build your blogging experience and authority. Your content will excel with a little extra help.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Ever since blogging has become “mainstream”, companies have discovered a new marketing tool in blogs. Some took blogs even further and transformed them into brand elements and it proved to be a winning decision, as blogs have the power to give a voice and a personality to a company.

But even so, corporate blogging has not always been the best choice for some. Just as with any other marketing tool, it needs to fit your company’s profile, needs and expectations in order to be truly effective. Is a blog really going to help your company? Ask yourself these 3 essential questions before taking the step and launching a new corporate blog.

This post has been revised and included in the Corporate Blogging Guide.
You can read the revised post here.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

There are billions of blogs in the blogosphere. People always say that creating another blog might not be the better thing since almost everything online is saturated. Of course, that’s a complete baloney! Fortunately 60-70% of blogs don’t get traction and just couldn’t seem to make progress. And it’s because of several reasons which I wouldn’t want to talk about here.

Most people fall into this big misconception about blogging. This misconception is about “post and publish”. People think that the key to getting traffic is by creating a killer post, then publishing it. We all know it’s not the case. If no one reads your blog, then no one is even going to notice you created a good post! Obviously the one thing you have to do is to let people know “you” exists in the blogosphere. How? By spreading your content. Today I would like to talk about how you can possibly triple your traffic by spreading your content. Without further “fluff” here they are:

• Social Networking – I don’t understand why a lot of people are so much into the saturated social bookmarking when they have the whole social networking sites to work from! Look, how many of you have accounts in Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Bebo, etc? I have, and I have an average of 500 contacts on each of them. If you can let your article reach them without sounding spammy then it can bring you a lot. I have done it with my blog and so far I don’t see any saturation in what I am doing.
• Your Article into Podcast – Seriously I am flabbergasted with podcasts nowadays. I always thought before that it’s lame and doesn’t really make much sense to me. But look how a lot of people are using (and consuming) it now. Now you can use a little service known as Odiogo. What Odiogo does is turn your posts into podcasts and have them downloadable. It also has a nice Wordpress plugin that you can easily integrate in your blog.
• Your Article into PDF’s – A lot of people hasn’t used this method and frankly I haven’t yet but I think it worths a mention here. Post2PDF is a little WordPress plugin that turns your posts into PDF formats. And it doesn’t end there. You can then go to some famous forums related to your niche and spread it in the freebies section. Now make no mistake about it, people absolutely LOVE free eBooks and stuffs (just look at the forums). If you’re content is a hit, then prepare for truckloads of traffic and subscribers.
• Your Article into Video Posts – Unfortunately there is no software that can possibly convert an article into a video, but you can always take some time to do it yourself. Do a video on one of your killer posts, then submit it to TubeMogul. TubeMogul basically submits your video to famous video directories like YouTube, Vimeo and a lot more. Signing up for an account is free and it’s a very nice tool to get viral very easy.
• Tweet It! – Since Twitter has been one of the most talked about web application nowadays, I can’t help but talk about it too. Twitterfeed is a very cool plugin that basically posts (automatically) the latest article on your blog. Twitthis is another cool tool which enables your readers to tweet the post for you. Whether you have just 100 followers or 20K+ followers, these tools can really get the job done for you.

You can see that the key to getting traffic is getting viral and spreading yourself in as many places as you possibly can without being annoying. The truth about blogging (in my opinion) is that what you can get is based on how much “smart” effort you exerted on it. By doing the steps above, maybe you can get your blog known for a wider audience and have your traffic increased. What say you?

About the Author

Melvin Dichoso is an 18-year old internet marketer who’s been working in the internet for over a year. He’s currently taking up BS Computer Science and is planning to work in internet full-time sometime in the future. He blogs at Melvin Blog dot com where he shares his personal tack on internet geeky stuffs. If you find the article interesting, do take the time to subscribe to his feed.

Blogsessive is always open to guest posters. If you feel like your articles do match Blogsessive’s line of content and quality, contact me.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

How to blog? How to promote content? How to attract readers? How to keep them coming back? The are hundreds of blog offering blogging tips, and Blogsessive is only one of them. But, while running back and forth through the abundance of information, most times we forget about the basic principles of blogging.

Most times, we focus so much and invest too much of our time doing only one thing (ie: writing, promotion etc.) and we forget that blogging is actually a 3 step process, and all 3 steps should get the same level of attention.

These 3 primary steps of blogging are what I call the 3 C’s of blogging, or the 3C process:

1. Create
2. Communicate
3. Collect

Step 1: Create

There is no choice but to create something new, when starting from scratch. Without it, there are no other steps.

Invest everything you’ve got in this single moment in time. Focus on creating something valuable, timeless, helpful.

Create content. Create relationships and connections. Create resources. Create a brand around yourself.

Step 2: Communicate

There’s no point in keeping secret what you have just created. And obviously, no results (or ROI if you wish) from it. Are you proud of what you created? Then let the people know about it.

Communicate. Use the relationships you built to communicate. Communicate through them to those further away (just like the Twitter retweet). Use social media. Be proud and secure about the quality of your work, but don’t go over the top. People love successful people, but hate boasters.

Step into the conversations on your blog. Encourage them. When the 3 step cycle is complete, they’ll help you create again.

Step 3: Collect

If you’ve did everything right, now it time to collect the results. It’s time to collect awareness. Time to collect feedback, to collect income.

The better the creation and communication processes, the better the results.

Not a matter of ‘OR’, but a matter of ‘AND’

Remember:

• There no point in hoping for results without creating anything;
• Without creation, there’s nothing to communicate;
• Communicate well and attract better results.

With blogging, the 3 C’s process is a full circle. You cannot choose what to do better. You must do everything, the best way you can. Start to finish.

Photo credits: SXC.hu and altemark

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Yesterday, Fi (Fantasy Interactive) sent out alpha invitations to their new product, Kontain.

This is one product I’ve signed up and (not very) patiently waited for its launch, as it should be pretty revolutionary in terms of user-friendliness. Basically, it’s the first Flash-based blogging platform open to world wide free public access.

Here’s how the folks at Fi describe Kontain:

Kontain is a free destination for users to media blog and share photos, videos and audio with friends, family, colleagues and even beautiful strangers. The core of each user's experience is media-driven and Kontain takes the everyday concept of blogging to a wider audience by making it easy for users of all demographics to "kontain" and share their life online. Simple enough for Mom and Dad, yet flexible and sophisticated for a web veteran, Kontain aims to be the Internet's premier destination for user-generated content.

The Alpha launch features (which would soon be backed up by a lot more features that are currently under development) as listed on the Kontain website are:

• Easy to Kontain your life
• Upload Photos, Videos and Audio
• Explore Kontain’s most popular
• Search the media way
• Personal dashboard
• Ratings and Popularity
• Commenting
• Basic privacy settings

A look into what’s in development shows us high resolution media uploads, galleries and collections, messaging, groups, subscriptions, stats, possibility of having your “kontainer” embedded on other websites, multimedia comments, rich(er) text editing, notes over multimedia and many more features.

Here are a few screenshots to help you familiarize with Kontain:

Get your Alpha account!

By the time I’m writing this post, there are still 8.500 accounts available (out of 10.000 a few hours ago) for this Alpha version of Kontain. If you are interested in this service, just go ahead and sign up for a free Kontain account.

My only worry for the time being is the SEO value of this platform and how will Google approach Kontain blogs, but I’m sure that the experience Fi has in the interactive media field will be put to a good use search-engine wise.

Kontain your life!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Blogging, before being a tool of expression and communication is a tool of desire, especially these days when thousands of people start a new blog each day, hoping to become successful.

It doesn’t matter how each and every one of them defines success. It can be a big readership, new relationships, business leads, money making or whatever, in the end, it starts out from the desire of doing better for yourself.

Unfortunately, that’s the point where most bloggers get stuck. Success is a two-way street, a give and receive relationship between the blogger and its community, and a blogger that cannot see his work from the readers’ perspective is bound to fail.

Have a clear and easy to digest message

As bloggers, you are the experts, your ideas make sense to you and probably a lot of your readers too, but don’t expect everyone to be able to understand and follow your thoughts as easy as if they were of your level.

In order to attract and maintain a good readership you need to appeal to the novice and the expert both. You need to be able to explain things in such way that novices could understand, but interesting enough so that you engage the advanced ones too.

A good way to reach that is to avoid a vocabulary consisting mostly in technical or complex words. Rather than using such a vocabulary, add references to each of your articles, encouraging the novice to find out more about the topic. The experts can still be engaged by leaving enough room for conversation or second opinions, but don’t expect them to come by their own. Ask for opinions. Different people handle the same situation in different ways and those people might be willing, if encouraged, to share their experiences and results.

Let readers build the story

No matter how good an article is to you, it’s the readers who decide if it’s appealing or not. Use an engaging writing style to attract readers and give them the tools to build the story upon.

Without your readers’ engagement, your article is nothing more than a series of materials and words put together in a logical sentence, and that proves nothing about you. The second you publish that story, everyone reading it will have the chance to appreciate it, comment it or criticize it. Once it goes live, it’s not about how you wrote it anymore, but rather about how it’s read.

Accept feedback, but don’t let it drive your actions

No matter how good the quality, critics will come. It’s the human nature and the internet has its share of trolls, so don’t worry about them. Instead, focus on the real reactions to your work.

Satisfied readers will most likely go unnoticed or simply leave an appreciative comment. It is up to you to determine how many of these appreciative comments come from people that are really captivated by your work, and how many simply go with the positive flow.

To best determine the reaction to your work, look closely at those leaving truly meaningful comments. If their comments are mostly dissecting your theories, then you need to reconsider your views. That doesn’t mean you need to change them, just try and look through another perspective too.

If most of the comments take your theories further, complementing them with new ideas and experiences, then you article had a positive impact, turned out valuable and managed to engage the community. This is the case you need to find yourself in.

You and I both

We are both the ones deciding my fate, it’s up to me to give you my best, and it’s up to you to react naturally to what I give you. No matter how I choose to define success, I can only take the first step alone, because writing it’s a song to dance to in couples. One gets to lead as long as someone else follows.

And since it all starts out with your action, here’s a nice quote from Beth Mende Conny, recognized and appreciated writer, speaker andd trainer, the mastermind behind the “Art of Schmooze” series of books:

No one is asking, let alone demanding, that you write. The world is not waiting with bated breath for your article or book. Whether or not you get a single word on paper, the sun will rise, the earth will spin, the universe will expand. Writing is forever and always a choice – your choice.

Photo credits to Vinícius Sgarbe

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

About a gazillion people have blogs today. Devoted to anything from garden gnomes, celeb’s plastic surgery to the life of living in Papa New Guinea, blogs have become an easy way for average Joe to share his daily contemplations with the world. But with so many blogs, at least a couple of hundred per niche, you might need some help in sticking out.

As you can see we have taken the liberty to list five things that will help your blog reach great heights. All tricks below are equally useful and are hence not listed by worth.

1. Update with weekly content

A common expectation on a blog website is frequently updated content. Popular blogs normally have a high percentage of returning visitors through personal bookmarks or RSS feeds. If that is your ambition, you have to make sure to give your visitors reason enough to come back. New spaced out blog posts normally do the trick.

2. Create unique interesting content

Mentioning the importance of quantity and frequency above it is only fair to list quality as yet another important blog preference. And much like this article you should focus on bringing unique, practical and useful information to the reader. Internet users also normally tend to go mental over “How To”-guides and “Top 10″ listings. Quality blog posts will generate more RSS feeds and loyal visitors.

3. Search engine optimization

A must for any website. Onsite and offsite search engine optimization gives your blog the best chances of ranking high in Google, MSN Live or Yahoo. Researching popular search terms and including them in your blog post titles is a good example of relevant onsite SEO.

4. Engage in the blog community

There are several good and well-visited online blog directories where you can submit your blog. It will not only generate traffic but also help you create an awareness of your blog. Get on Twitter, Digg, and StumbleUpon but remain active in those communities, don’t leech

5. Get proper web design with premium themes

If you have Wordpress, you also have a smorgasbord of web designed themes to choose between. There are the ones that cost nothing and normally have the traditional “diary” structure and graphics. But if you want to increase your blog’s credibility and give a real professional look – Wordpress Premium Themes is the way to go. You will get away from always being associated with a simple blog and join the big boys as a dynamic and serious website.

And it goes without saying, quality content is essential. If you spend time writing crap then you are doomed to fail no matter what. And this does not mean boring topics. If you are writing about dull topics to your audience, try to spice them up. There are many programming websites, theoretical academic sites, and even the mundane web hosting sites that are lively and well designed for their audience.

About the Author

Brian Franklin is the proud owner of several websites and has been active in the web hosting games for many years. You can read more interesting posts on his website hosting blog, where he writes about hosting, platforms and performance, news and random bits and more.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

It’s hard to keep up with the blogosphere, being such a dynamic environment. Great content gets published every single minute, and sometimes, we miss the best things because they get buried deep in a long list of feed updates.

Here’s a list of link that you should not have missed these days:

Reader Blog Critique on BloggingTips.com

Kevin Muldoon of BloggingTips.com has recently started a blog project called Reader Blog Critique. The community response it’s amazing. Bloggers have a good chance of understanding their own blogs from their readers’ perspective and to improve whatever needs improvement.

Could an Ad-Free Blog Work?

According to Tibi Puiu from LostArtofBlogging.com, it can. Tibi explains Why An Ad Free Blog Rocks, covering topics like: advantages and disadvantages of classic monetization and alternative methods of earning a living through blogs. A great, extensive, worth-reading article.

Blog Action Day 2008

This year’s topic on Blog Action Day was Poverty. On October 15th over 12,000 websites with an estimated audience of over 13 million readers published a post about poverty. Amongst them CopyBlogger.com, ProBlogger.net, DailyBlogTips.com, SkellieWag.org, Guardian.co.uk, Lifehacker.com, HuffingtonPost.com, FreelanceSwitch.com and many, many more.

Stories That Sell

That’s what Brian Clark of CopyBlogger.com teaches us, by publishing a guide on How to Write a Story That Sells. It’s a well written and filled with examples article that you definitely should read.

More Worth Reading Stories

• Authority Versus Pure SEO by Chris Garrett
• The Price of Closing Comments on Old Posts by Lorelle VanFossen
• How to Choose Categories for Your Blog by Ali Hale on ProBlogger.net
• Search Engine Traffic and Not-so-New Blogs by Steven Snell
• 10 Ways to Improve Navigation in WordPress by John Pratt on HackWordpress.com

Enjoy reading and writing great content! If you’ve recently published an article that you’d like to get included in a “link share” post, do drop me an email.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Most niche bloggers have definitely experienced what is called a “writer’s block”. It’s a natural reaction that comes along with writing to much on the same subject and can be induced by many other things, non-blogging related, like the lack of sleep.

Just as writers experience these blocks, readers are no exceptions. They too can experience what people call reader’s block.

The good thing is that writer’s block and reader’s block can be treated or prevented by using the same medicine: Diversity.

Diversify by breaking your blogging patterns

At one time, many of us felt that a certain writing style or topic is more appreciated by our community. The obvious choice was to expand that topic and create follow-ups, or write aticles on other topics, but use the same writing style.

For a period of time, that proves to be a good strategy, but in the long run, you and your community will experience saturation which will lead to a block. This is where diversity should step up and break your blogging pattern.

Blog post alternatives

There are quite a few types of blog posts and writing styles you could experiment with and even mix them up as you find fit for your next article.

• Pillar articles
  These are long posts, usually well above 500 words, containing valuable, in-depth information on a certain topic. Tutorials are good examples of pillar articles.
• Interviews
  If the right people are interviewed, your readers will love them. Further more, interviews are a good way to reach out to those people you wanted to get in touch, but never knew how. They are a great networking tool.
• Market Research & Statistics
  Doing a bit of research did not hurt anyone. It keeps you and your readers informed and could also help catch some traffic if the topic is hot. Take Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere for example. Many bloggers republished the study’s results, analyzing them from their own personal point of view.
• Link Round-ups
  Many bloggers do it, but only a few go beyond linking. Link out and share your those on the topic. If you’ve enjoyed it enough to link it, you definitely can write something about it too. Here’s a good example on Words Of A Broken Mirror’s Monday Reading Roundup. Linking too can prove to be a great networking tool.
• Lists & Resources
  Lists are fun and easy to follow. Good resources are always appreciated. So, why not writing some good resource lists once in a while. You can take my Domain Names for Bloggers Series or WordPress themes round-ups (here and here) for example.

There are, of course, more types of posts that you could consider, such as: industry forecasts (predictions), relevant reviews, rants and gossips (be careful with these), open discussion threads, group writing projects and many more.

It’s up to you which one will be your next post or how would you mix up these blog post types.

Some writing styles alternatives

Different blog posts require different approaches. A “positive” approach may prove a good choice some times, but not always. Consider alternating your writing styles, once in a while:

• How NOT to’s
  “How to” posts have always managed to attract a good community response, but how often have you considered writing about the down-side of things? How often have you made your readers aware of the things they should stay away from?
• Thinking outside the box
  Presenting things from another perspective can prove to be not only a well deserved mouth of fresh air but also fun to write. Remember my Are Bloggers Hollywood’s Next Big Shots? post or 10 Blogging Tips from the Top 100 Songs of 2007? They are a good example of thinking and writing outside the box.
• Getting personal
  Bloggers are people. People have emotions, expectation and preferences. Sometimes it’s good to let your feelings about things show in different posts. Back in April 2008, Daniel Scocco wrote a post about the old WordPress Theme Viewer. If you read the post now, you’ll see how his personal feelings and opinions on this website stick out of every sentence.  My post Top 5 Reasons Why Blogging Rocked Our World would be another good example in this case.

Conclusions

In order to prevent blockage, be it writer’s or reader’s, a good deal of diversity is required. You don’t really need to look for topics outside your niche, but rather take a look at your niche from the outside. Go around it and look from every perspective that you can connect to.

The results will be amazing and fun. Just remember to break the blogging pattern once in a while!

Photo credits to Vivek Chugh.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Blogs live and grow through quality content. Writing a blog post is not a big deal if you have low expectations, but writing a post that will attract community reactions, traffic, social media love, links and new readers is definitely not that easy. It implies a creative writing style, engaging phrases, catchy headings and a good, logical and easy to follow article structure.

Here are five blog writing tips to help you give a better shape to your wonderful content ideas!

Expect unexpected ideas

If you ask me, writing is more about imagination than rules. It’s definitely not math. The harder you look for content ideas, the harder they’ll come to you, or come in the most appropriate shape. Keep an open mind and expect new ideas in everything you do, every comment or post you read, every movie you watch, every discussion with your friends.

It’s said that good journalists see a news story where other people notice nothing. That’s no different when it comes to blogging.

Start big and finish bigger

A great opening paragraph is decisive for making your visitor read the whole story. It helps build interest and a higher level of patience. But as soon as you fail to maintain that interest high, that great opening paragraph will only be a waste of good content ideas.

Focus on ending your story with at least the same quality level as the opening paragraph. Not only you’ll have a happy reader, but most probably one that will come back to read more each time you publish.

Be familiar with what you’re writing about

In that crazy search for “what’s hot”, bloggers tend to approach topics that they’re not familiar with. Sure, there’s a good side to this, you’ll get a few more hundred words as content on your blog, but where’s the value in that?

Where’s the value in writing something that you or your readers cannot relate to? Why write if you cannot add a personal view on the matter or expend what already got posted by people more into the topic than you? In the end, it all turns out to be a poor time investment.

Pay attention to details

Writing is a form of art, and as any other form of art, details turn a piece of work into a masterpiece. A shallow view does not add any kind of value to your articles. Spice up your writing with enough information to turn your idea into good content.

If you are the “opinion blogger” type, make sure you add your own views and suggestions on the topic. If you are more of the “advice blogger” type, think of writing as a form of building. Add pieces of relevant information to build upon your topic foundation.

Maintain a balance between form and foundation

The foundation of your articles are topics. The form is represented by the way you explore and expose those topics.

I’m sure you’ve all heard about the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) concept, but what you should be aware of is that certain topics require certain levels of depth and a certain type of language. If you’re topic does not require complex words and phrases, don’t use them. They’ll only be a waste of time as readers will make sure to skip them or worst, not understand them. It’s all about balancing content and ideas.

Blog writing tips are not rules

I’ve always said that the best you can do is to experiment. That’s why I’m offering blog writing tips and not writing rules. There are no rules when it comes to writing, but rather principles and personal guidelines that one should consider in order to find his own writing style.

More on this from Blogsessive:

• Blog Topic Research Resources
• Blog Topic Research Tips

Photo credits to Chris Greene.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Have you ever wondered what was it that made blogging turn into such a mass phenomenon, with billions of bloggers and readers spread all over the world? What’s behind the huge mass appeal? Sure, in the beginning it was a simple and accessible way to maintain an online diary, but that’s definitely not a powerful enough factor to affect the shaping of the future of the online environment.

The more I though about it, five reasons began shaping in my mind, strong enough to set things in motion and to rock our world. Read on and find out what these reasons are and don’t forget to share your opinion with me after you finish reading.

Blogging gave us back “reading”

In a world ran by television shows, Hollywood movies, adverts, gaming and cheap entertainment, blogging gave back “reading” to people.

Sure, some of us never gave up on reading. Some of us still devour literature, but I’m sure you’ll agree that less and less people still do that. Most reading we do these days is magazines and newspapers, and even those are affected by the low interest in the actual concept of reading.

Even so, blogging stepped in at the right moment, offering a wide range of topics, opinions and voices. Nowadays, we follow hundreds of blogs daily, read enormous amounts of text blocks and continue to train our reading skills. Ain’t that wonderful?

Blogging gave us back “writing”

Most of us gave up creative writing back when we finished school, no matter how far we went. With blogging, we (re)discovered skills and interests long forgotten. First, a bit shy, but more concise, meaningful and powerful with each post published.

Sure, we can’t compare to Tolstoy, Voltaire or even modern authors like Stephen King, but we do it. We do our best and try to improve our skills.

Blogging gave us back “thinking”

We’re so caught up in our little “nine to five” worlds that sometimes we even forget to “think”. We’re so caught up in labor that we forget how it is to work. Each morning, the subways are filled with apathy, with people showing little interest in everything else but their own little lives.

Blogging changed that. Blogging gave us back “thinking”. We read and write opinion posts. We’re concerned about our economy, our political system, our finances and ways to improve our status, the global warming, war in the Middle-East and much more. Blogging took as from robots to thinkers.

Blogging gave us back “evolution”

In a world of huge unemployment rates we’re bound to find success stories in the blogosphere. People that have evolved from zero to hero through their new found passion for blogging.

Take Darren Rowse’s evolution for example. When he started blogging, back in 2002, he was a simple part-time minister and casual laborer. His continuous blogging efforts made Darren one of the most notorious bloggers ever, with people only aspiring to his status. Talk about heroes, huh?

And last, but not least…

Blogging gave us back “empathy”

Some would say it sounds cheesy, but that’s what blogging did. We’ve opened up our knowledge for people allover the world to experiment and learn. We listen. We hear about problems and offer solutions. We promote charitable actions. We offer prizes. We understand and help.

And that, my friends, makes us better people.

That’s why blogging rocked our world; because it’s based on real people, evolving, striving to be better. Better people. Better us. Need any more reasons for blogging?

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive