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| Come Join us in the ProBlogger Room on FriendFeed Posted: 24 May 2008 05:33 AM CDT Most regular readers of ProBlogger will know that I’ve been playing quite heavily with Twitter over the last few months. I’ve found it to be a very fruitful exercise. Over the last month or two FriendFeed has been another tool that many bloggers are also playing with. I’ve dabbled with it (my FriendFeed Account is here) bot to this point am still trying to get my head around it (would love to see some good tutorials on how others are using it). In the last 24 hours FriendFeed have added a new feature - Rooms. Most people that I see are still trying to work out what to do with rooms but from what I can see they could be useful - so I’ve started a ProBlogger Room to see what we can do with it. If you’re on FriendFeed and want to ‘play’ in our room - come join us. If all we discover together is that rooms don’t work - we’ll learn something - but hopefully in the process we’ll get to know each other a little more and learn more about FriendFeed. |
| Trent from The Simple Dollar’s Tipping Point Posted: 23 May 2008 02:17 PM CDT Today Trent Hamm from The Simple Dollar shares his blog’s tipping point. For me, the tipping point of The Simple Dollar was the removal of a mental block. Prior to starting The Simple Dollar, I’d had limited success with blogging and I’d chosen to convince myself that the reason for that relative failure is that others had access to some “secret” that I didn’t have - it was a buddy’s club that I was excluded from for some reason. I was bitter about it, to say the least. With that philosophy, I started The Simple Dollar not believing it was going to be successful at all. I started it intending solely to write about the stuff I was learning about money management - mostly, to work through my own personal finance goals and such. It really was all about the content - I hacked together my own template and did only the minimal SEO stuff. That’s why I think that it took off. I didn’t spend my time focusing on SEO optimization or grumbling about how other blogs got all the breaks or judging my own success based on the subscribers and hits that other blogs got. I basically decided that it didn’t matter and really only thought about the content. That made all the difference in the world, and in my eyes, it is THE reason my blog became successful. Don’t worry about what others are doing. Don’t sweat the “perfection” of your layout. Focusing in on that stuff just gets in the way of succeeding. Instead, focus on stuff other people want to read. That’s it, seriously - figuring that out and really applying it was my tipping point. More Blogger Tipping Points
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| Blogging and Insecurity: Conquering the Fear of Presenting Your Big Ideas Posted: 23 May 2008 09:09 AM CDT In this post Chris Guillebeau from The Art of Nonconformity examines the topic of blogger insecurity. Here's a confession: every time I post a new essay on my site, I experience a brief moment of panic. At first, the panic is the same feeling I get when sending an email or turning in an important memo. "Did I just commit a horrible grammar crime?" I wonder. "Did I misspell something obvious?" But even after the momentary panic passes as I proofread the post yet again, a deeper, more serious feeling sets in. The questions I ask myself shift from grammar concerns to fears about what I've actually written. "What if the readers don't like it… or worse, what if they just don't care?" That's my confession—I am a highly insecure blogger. I worry a lot about what people think, even though I fully realize that this fear is not always rational and certainly not optimal for good writing. In talking with other bloggers recently, I've begun to suspect that I'm not alone in my insecurity. Many of us struggle with the same emotional issue of learning to overcome fear and insecurity in presenting ideas to the blogosphere. At least for me, the fear of presenting free ideas for the world's benefit is much greater than the fear of presenting commercial projects for personal profit. I've produced about 20 commercial websites and consulted on a lot more. But none of them have caused me as much anxiety—or as much fulfillment—as my new personal site. I'm not entirely sure why this is true, but I do know that I feel much more personally invested in my writing project than in any for-profit venture I've been involved in. When I write, I think about the fact that these ideas are originally my own, but my greatest hope is that they will go out into the world and help others. Throughout the writing and publishing process, I experience these fears:
Countering these fears, the medium of blogging presents a number of opportunities that will help you overcome the insecurity and get your ideas to the people who need to hear. 1. The gatekeepers aren't in charge anymore. Perhaps the greatest thing about the blogging revolution is the increased democratization of information. People can decide not to pay attention to your ideas, but no one can hinder your ability to put them on the table. 2. You'll receive instant feedback that is usually positive. Eventually, all bloggers who gain a significant audience of fans will also attract their share of critics. You need a strategy to deal with the critics, but in most cases, the fans will greatly outnumber the critics. While you probably shouldn't present big ideas in anticipation of being praised, the positive feedback will help you break through the moments of insecurity. 3. Thanks to archives, your ideas will always be available. With traditional forms of communicating big ideas, such as public speaking, your ideas are more limited in distribution. Contrast this to blog posts and other online content, where a good idea can last a long time after you first publish it. 4. You can change your mind. If the passing of time or the availability of new information causes you to change your mind about the original position you took, that's OK. You can either write a new post explaining the change, or simply modify the original article. Some people will object to this, but remember—it's your blog. You are ultimately responsible for the ideas you present, so you also have the freedom to change your mind. My Own Story In my own quest to visit every country in the world and lead the crusade against conventional thinking, I spent nearly a full year outlining and writing initial content before I started the Art of Nonconformity site. I devoted hours to learning from the masters here at Problogger and other authority sites. I actively followed other bloggers I admired, especially those who were able to quickly establish a following. I solicited—and paid attention to—good advice from those who have gone before. But finally, I could wait no longer. With the help of a great designer, I set up my site and started publishing on a regular schedule. The time to start presenting your big ideas is when you can no longer keep them to yourself in good conscience. When you reach that same point, and when you're willing to sacrifice for it, nothing can stop you. Some of the best advice I heard came from John Wesley at PicktheBrain.com. John told me that the turning point for his site was when it went from being about what he wanted to what the readers wanted. I really liked that perspective, and we've been doing some redesigning over the past couple of weeks to focus more on what our own readers have shared through site comments and email messages. Do you have big ideas of your own to share with the world? In the end, you may find that any insecurity you experience will be worth it. Despite the challenges, there is a great deal of freedom in knowing that you have the courage to come out of hiding and share your ideas with anyone who cares to listen. Chris Guillebeau is a social entrepreneur who writes at The Art of Nonconformity. Over the next five years he will be traveling to every country in the world. |
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