As I was going through my Google Reader blog subscriptions, I noticed that I enjoy reading the blogs that are conversational much more than those that have no personal or conversational touch.  I started to read back my own blogs that I’ve written to look at my own writing style and I realized that I could be doing much better to include readers in the blog “conversation.”

After doing some research and reading a lot more blogs these are some steps I’ve noticed that differentiated the more interesting conversational blogs from the rest:

1. Write a story: Every blog that I considered “conversational” included some type of story.  Adding that personal touch to the blog helped me identify with the writer by thinking of my own similar experiences.  This also helped by giving me something to comment about.  Instead of just writing something like “great tips, thanks for the advice” I was able to respond to the story and even receive a response in return, hence getting a conversation going.  In other blogs I’ve noticed people actually do build real-life relationships that have developed through blogging.  So telling a story does not only help with allowing the reader identify with you, but it also helps the reader leave a comment and build a relationship.
2. Respond to comments: Another thing that I noticed was that the blog was much more effective when the writer responds in a very timely manner to any and every comment that has been posted.  I’ve even noticed on numerous blogs where readers would respond with comments like “this reminds me of the blog you wrote a few weeks ago…” indicating that the conversation doesn’t end at the completion of the blog but is ongoing.  You can build a stronger, loyal reader base if you respond to people’s comments promptly.
3. Blog about other blogs: This helps you in two ways: first it invites the audience of that other blog to come read about your opinion and to start building a community around your website; second: it gets a conversation going with that writer.  This is important because it is not only important to receive feedback from your readers but from your peers as well, which will help improve the quality of your blog.
4. Blog in series: When writing multiple blogs about the same topic it definitely keeps the conversation going.  It also helps establish you as an expert on that particular subject, allowing readers to rely and come back to you for information on that specific topic.

Tags: blog-series, bloggers, Blogging, blogs
Posted in Blogging, Sales & Marketing

A couple of days ago as I was having lunch with some of my old work friends at Panera, one of them mentioned that she recently read an article I had written for my college newspaper.  I was shocked to say the least, because I never had considered that anyone that did not attend the university, especially a much older individual, would be interested in reading our college paper.  It got me thinking that whenever I write a blog or any document I am always keeping in mind a group of readers that I’m targeting in my writing, however it’s important to keep other readers in mind.  It’s crazy to think that your blog audience can potentially expand to over 6 billion people!

Obviously not all 6 billion world citizens are going to read your work! But even if we limit our audience to the United States there are still some techniques that can be followed to help improve our ability to write effectively for multiple audiences.  When researching on this topic I found that Stanford University and The Poynter Institute did a study in 2000 on how people read the news on the web.  They tracked eye movements and came to the conclusion that on an initial visit to any website, people paid much more attention to text on that page than graphics.  After going through this study and researching a little deeper I’ve come up with the following tips to help improve effectively writing for multiple audiences:

1. Spend time on the headlines – It’s almost always the first thing that people scan and it needs to be meaningful and interesting.  As mentioned above, based on Stanford’s study of eye movements people are more likely to focus on text on the web rather than images.  Any headline or caption needs to be interesting and tell the reader exactly what the following information is about.
2. Focus on key concepts – Help your readers scan for key concepts by emphasizing important information using bold or colored text to highlight keywords. 
3. Use lists – Lists are easy to read and easy to follow.  Using bullet points or numbers helps organize the information and allows readers to jump to the crucial part of the blog.
4. Simplify – Try to use simple and small words in simple sentence structures.  Also keep in mind that using puns or metaphors might be difficult to understand outside of your own culture, so it’s better to avoid them.  Make sure that when you go back and edit your work that the information you are providing is in an easy to understand and simple format.
5. Be accurate and credible – It is very important for your readers to be able to trust and rely on the information you provide.  Make sure to site information gathered from other sources and to always provide accurate and credible information consistently.

Tags: blog-series, bloggers, Blogging, blogs, writing
Posted in Blogging

I was inspired by my blog about “the highest paying jobs” to search for the real highest paying jobs in the US. As I mentioned I was disappointed with the results provided by both Career Builder and Monster. But then, I stumbled upon www.payscale.com. The site builds itself as “a trusted market leader in online salary.” Surely a trusted market would have accurate data. When I did a search on Neurosurgeon pay, here is the data the site gave:

Median Salary by Years Experience - Job: Neurosurgeon (United States)

Compare your salary: Get a free Salary Report

I spent few minutes trying to make sense of the data. Here is what I came up with:

1- If you have less than one year of experience as neurosurgeon, you will make an average of 258,000 per year.

2- If you have between 1 to 4 years of experience, your pay will go down to 200,000 per year. So, more experience = less pay.

3- If you have between 5-9 your pay will go up to 250,000. It is still not as good as your first few months of work but things are getting a little better.

4- Things improve when you have between 10-19 years of experience because you will make around 284,000 per year

5- You would think that experience counts for something but after working for 20+ years  your pay will actually go down to a level below the years between 10-19 of your practice.

I think you get my drift. The data does not make any sense. It makes me wonder if it is too much to expect the “trusted market leader in online salary” to have accurate data.

Tags: blog-contest, blog-series, bloggers, Blogging, link-building
Posted in Blogging

I was surfing the web when I noticed that digg had a blog about “Highest paying jobs in the U.S." The blog seemed to be popular with 626 diggs which means people are definitely interested in the topic. According to the blogger, physicians and surgeons are on top of the pay scale by making an average of $147,000 a year. Software engineers, on the other hand, make measly average of $58,900 a year. In addition to that, the blog states that you can be a mere high school graduate to be a software engineer.

I could not even imagine where the blogger found his data. I first thought that it was “manufactured” data. But, as I always say:  “when in doubt, Google it.” I began searching and found that careerbuilder.com was responsible for the data.  Needless to say, Careerbuilder’s biggest competitor, Monster, doesn’t do a whole lot better when covering this same topic. Monster’s figures still do not come close to reality.

Let’s set the record straight. Neurosurgeons make on average $348,221 a year. That is just about double the amount reported by our blogger, careerbuilder and monster.  As a software engineer myself, I took offense to the statement that you only need a “high school degree” to become one. You can make it only as far as a simple developer/coder in small software shop, but never expect your career to advance more than that with a high school degree.  And on average, software engineers make $90,000/year.

The moral of the story is that sometimes you just can not trust data found online. If you must use some data in an article or a blog, do everyone a favor and analyze the data by relying on stronger sources before sharing it with the world.

Tags: blog-series, bloggers, Blogging, blogs, writing
Posted in Blogging, Miscellaneous

What makes the perfect blog?  I’ve been wondering that myself and as a result I have been jumping from blogger site to blogger site reading the different postings and trying to decide what makes them so great?  Why do hundreds and thousands of people log on to their sites, read and comment about their blogs, while I have not generated a pool of even 10 committed daily interested visitors?

Obviously, I realized early on that in order to be dubbed a “blogger” you need to post several blogs throughout the DAY!!  Now, that in itself is quite a task, and at this point, quite difficult.  But let’s start slow.  How can I write topics that are within my “niche” and still generate enough traffic and interest to my blogs?  It’s has proven to be quite difficult.

When I first started blogging, my postings were formal, boring and did not relate to the reader AT ALL.  I think since then I’ve improved, although I still get comments about how formal my blogs are.  I’m trying to target small (like myself) to mid size business owners, yet I haven’t developed that pool of interest.  So I set out on a quest to find out how to become an expert, popular blogger.

An article I recently read: 21 SurefireTips for a Successful Blog was quite eye-opening.  I realized that before beginning to blog I had to take necessary precautions and steps to ensure I will get people hooked.  According to the article I started out okay, but was missing some really important key items that would pull in visitors.  But then, I got busy and stopped blogging, which incidentally impacted my chances of establishing a strong reader base (any readers I did have at that point surely were turned off because of the lack of postings).  I guess you live and learn!  Read the article and let me know what you think.

Tags: blog-series, bloggers, Blogging, blogs, readers
Posted in Blogging, Copy Writing

We’re back! Yes, it has been a long time since we’ve actively blogged. Why, you may wonder? Well, as you’ve probably noticed, our site is quite different. We have added content, changed our overall site look, and included different functionalities. Unfortunately, because of the havoc of the situation, we were unable to post blogs at the time, but will continue to do so from now on. What do you think of our new site? Do you like the changes? What do you like most? Dislike most?

What is so different? First and foremost our old site was a simple static html site that only had 5 different pages. Our new site is built using Joomla, a content management software. In addition, our new site has close to over 100 new pages of new content. Not only will we be continuing to blog, but we will also be updating the guides on the site. What guides have we added? Here is a list of the available articles on our site:

• Customer Service 101
• Common Grammatical Errors
• The Art of Business Writing
• How to Write an Effective Business Plan
• Web Design 101
• Software Projects for Beginners

Changing our site required a lot of time and effort. It was not an easy process, but we are satisfied with the results. We hope you will continue to navigate through the site, download our guides, and enjoy the rich content we have included.

Tags: blog-series, bloggers, Blogging, blogs
Posted in Blogging