How Much Time Do You Spend on Social Media and Social Networking Promotion?
If you know me, you know I spend lots of time on Twitter. I also spend time at various other social networking and social media sites and forums. When I first began working from home, social networking was a way to stave off loneliness as I was missing the camaraderie from my office jobs. Now, I find it an absolute must if I want to turn others on to my blog posts and podcasts.
I spend at least a good hour each day visiting different social networking sites to chat or share links. I discussed this with many others while at BlogWorld last weekend and we all felt it was well worth it. In fact, for my podcasts and many of my blogs posts, Twitter is a top referrer of traffic.
I’m going to be getting more into social media and social networking here in the upcoming days. We’ll be discussing tips for visiting social networking sites, whether it’s important, the best sites for your blogs, how to be active in forums, how to get other bloggers to link to you and more. In the meantime, I’d love to know how much time you spend social networking. Do you find it’s worth the hours you put into it?
What do you miss from your pre-pro-blogging days?
I’ve only been blogging for money for about two years now give or take. Before that, I still blogged, I just blogged for me alone, and for no pay. I still wrote, I just did so in other writing venues.
Since I started blogging for pay, I’ve noticed that I miss a couple of things from before; when I only blogged for fun.
What I miss…
I miss reading blogs: I know, that sounds kind of funny; a blogger who doesn’t read blogs. I DO read some blogs, but not as many as before, and also, I sometimes feel like I’m more searching for topics or leads or networking than actually reading for fun. Also, frankly, after posting 30-40 + posts I hardly feel like reading blogs in my spare time. I’m online enough looking at blogs.
I miss writing what I want: This is two sided because by now, I’ve been blogging long enough that I do get to blog for money at blogs I like (I’m lucky). I also almost always get to choose what topics to blog about at said blogs. Still, before I blogged for pay, I never gave ANY thought to what I blogged about. I’d just blog what I was thinking. Now I spend a fair amount of time thinking about things like, “I wonder if my readers will enjoy this” or, “If I blog this theme, I might get more traffic” or I’ll run contests. I often put a lot of thought into posts before I write, which I never used to feel compelled to do.
Overall, I adore blogging. However, there are some differences between blogging for me, for free, vs. blogging for clients. That’s expected, because every single job comes with differences and ups and downs, but even knowing this is expected I do sometimes still miss the sheer fun of carefree, no pay, no traffic worries blogging. Don’t get me wrong, blogging for pay is a hoot at times, and trust me, I feel lucky that I not only get to blog, but that people give me money to do so. But once in a while I miss the old days.
Maybe I’ll take a day off here soon and do nothing but read all my old blog haunts.
If you used to blog for you, and now you blog for pay is there anything you miss from the old days?
Snag some extra October Blog Traffic
If you’re looking for a great way to get some extra traffic in October, and simultaneously voice your opinion on an important topic, you should sign up for Blog Action Day 2008.
Blog Action Day is a new blogosphere event (started last year). The goal of Blog Action Day is to gather voices in the blogosphere on a single day to discuss an important issue. Last year the topic was the environment - this year it’s poverty.
Anyone with a blog, podcast, or so fourth can sign on to participate. All you have to do is register at Blog Action Day 2008, and then commit to blogging about poverty on October 15th.
Blog Action Day was loads of fun last year. Tons of blogs participated and it was cool to see how everyone covered green issues from their blog’s unique perspective. It was also way neat to see how the blogosphere managed to come together on a single day - this event is a great way to get involved with the blogging community and find new blogs to read and adore.
The other benefit, as noted above, is increased traffic. Once you sign on, your blog is listed along with all the other blogs participating on the Blog Action Day website. Additionally, on the big event day, plenty of people linked to each other which also boosted traffic. Last year about five of my blogs participated and all but one had big traffic increases during the event.
Currently 4,599 sites have signed on, and because Blog Action Day gathers RSS info they’re estimating about 9,387,391 readers for this event so far.
Some of the blogs involved so far: TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, LifeHacker, Mashable, Smashing, VentureBeat, ProBlogger, Inhabitat, ZenHabits, Stepcase LifeHack, MentalFloss, DailyBlogTips, and oodles more.
As for me: I’m signed on this year with Tree Hugging Family and Offbeat Homes - I may add more. If you sign on for Blog Action Day, let me know in the comments, so I can try to stop by to read your thoughts on poverty.
[image via Blog Action Day]
Cool it With the Digg Requests
I have this thing about Tupperware and Pampered Chef parties. I rarely go to them. Invitations for these things usually come from people who wouldn’t call me to say hi, invite me out for a drink or even send a Christmas card. Yet somehow I’m a good enough friend to invite over so I can spend my money so the hostess can receive some free merchandise. No thanks.
I feel the same about Digg and Stumble requests. I don’t mind doing them, but if you’re not going to at least drop a line or a Skype to say hello to me now and then, don’t send me your Diggs. I find this so annoying.
I don’t mind doing favors for my friends. Indeed there are plenty of people I’m happy to give up the Digg love for. There are a few others who are wearing out their social media welcome. These are people who I know only slightly or who only contact me if it’s to ask me to promote something. I don’t think so.
Here’s a good rule of thumb, if you’re sending a Digg request to someone you barely even speak to, think again. It’s kind of rude to only come calling when you need a favor.
Blogging Wages: How Low Will You Go?
We’re having an interesting discussion at the Performancing Hive forum today about wages. At Freelance Writing Jobs, it’s our policy not to post any gig paying below $10. As one employer pointed out though, a job paying $5 for a post might add up to $10 - $15 per hour if one can write a post in ten to fifteen minutes. I can agree with that.
When deciding whether or not to accept a blogging wage, consider the following:
- How much work is in involved in writing the post.
- Will you be expected to research or interview?
- Are you expected to bring in traffic and promote each post?
If you’re writing a post for fifteen minutes off the top of your head, $5 a pop might not be so terrible. If you’re expected to write a well researched piece and do a lot of heavy promotion to bring in traffic, $5 is a low wage.
Remember, for most blogging gigs more than the actual writing is expected. Many bloggers are also required to build and interact with a community and bring in traffic. Perhaps an hour’s worth or more work for each post. If that’s the case, $5 doesn’t come close.
What do you think? How low will you go?
It’s not too soon to blog the holidays
I’m back. My move took WAY longer then I expected and other stuff happened like a nightmare cherry on the cake. But I’ll not bore you with that; Deb already covered some of the issue in How to Ruin Your Blog (Like We Did).
I’d rather talk about blogging. Right now it’s almost October, which means it’s past time to start blogging the holidays. No matter your blog topic, holiday posts are a big traffic draw from September to December. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and all the winter holidays are easy to cover and people want to read about all of them.
I usually start a little early when it comes to blogging the holidays, because frankly, I don’t see the point of a post titled “Ten perfectly green Christmas gifts” two days before Christmas. That’s not very blog reader friendly. Right now my focus is Halloween and although my blogs cover an array of topics, I’ll find a way to incorporate the topic at each and every one of my blogs.
Examples:
At Tree Hugging Family: How to green your Halloween costume
At Declutter It: How to organize a scary Halloween party
At Green Home Tips: Recycled Halloween decorations
At Pregnancy & Baby: 5 great baby Halloween costumes
At Offbeat Homes: 6 spooky homes you never knew existed
And so on…
By the time Halloween hits, I’ll have moved on to Thanksgiving, and well before Thanksgiving I’ll start covering the winter holidays (because people like to shop early.)
If you’re stuck in a blogging slump the holidays are a perfect time to get over it, because so many possibilities abound. You can try gift product recommendations, crafts, recipes, decor tips, or even go the sentimental route with topics like “how to have a peaceful family holiday” or “downsize your gift giving.” You can also work in some self-help posts like “dealing with your evil in-laws at Christmas” or “eating right during the holidays.”
I know some bloggers who skip holiday season posts entirely, maybe because they don’t celebrate or they feel like everyone else is already blogging them, but I don’t think it’s a smart move. Holidays provide free traffic ready material, and this is one time when you never need to wonder, “What the heck can I blog about?” so why pass it up?
If you don’t have a good handle on which holidays are which check out All Holiday Cafe to get up to speed.
What about you? Are you already blogging the upcoming holidays?
How to Ruin Your Blog (Like We Did)
Jennifer and i started out gangbusters when we began Network Blogging Tips. We had lots of bloggers linking to us, good traffic and decent subscription numbers. Then we did the unthinkable.
We took the summer off.
Jennifer moved to another state and I started a full time job. As a result, Network Blogging Tips fell to the wayside. You see, sometimes when you have a blog that’s not bringing in any income, it’s the first thing to be neglected. I suppose I could have posted at least once or twice a week to keep traffic flowing, but the truth is, I was out enjoying my summer evenings and weekends with my family, the first time in years.
Now that life is about to return to normal and we find ourselves with a bit more spare time, we’ll be posting here more often. We do hope you’ll come back to us.
