While writing this post for example I had 3 websites to complete – one for a client and two for a class – on top of that it was finals week. Some how I manage to press on anyway.

See, I’m a full time student that drives almost 3 hours round trip to and from college. I work 4 days a week at my fathers restaurant – which I hate doing – and I do some web development on the side. On top of that I manages multiple blogs.

I pull this off cause I run on a schedule - a very tight one – but a schedule nonetheless. I set aside time for everything, my calender is my best friend. How can you live your life and blog too?

Set aside a time for blogging

You have free time in your day to blog. Everyone does. For some it my be during a lunch break, for others it comes after the kids are tucked in and for people like me it’s usually that down time in between classes or during the weekends. I wrote this article between two classes. So use your time wisely and you too can do what I do.

Something I’ve just started doing is writing notes in my phone for posts so I never lose an idea, it’s been working pretty good.

Schedule your posts

If you haven’t already noticed this post was written in the past tense. I wrote it on December 9th and I scheduled it for December 16th. This really goes hand in hand with setting aside time to post but it’s diffrent in that you can get ahead by doing this.

Not only will scheduling posts save you if you end up losing your writing time, but it takes out a lot of the stress from blogging.

No more last minute posts for you!

Hire someone to help

I pay people to write articles on a few of my blogs – usually when I go on vacations. I need to keep fresh content up to satisfy my readers!

I know this really isn’t a great option for video bloggers, but if you can find someone good at it you can get away with it.

I know I’m not the only one that juggles a ton of stuff, so I ask you how do you keep up with your blog in a tight schedule.

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I personally love getting a ton of comments because it adds a sense of community to a blog and makes it feel more active – plus they tell me that people read my very well organized words. Yet some hate the huge amounts of spam that leak trough the filters or their blogs just weren’t built for comments. So why would some one go and turn comments off on their blog? Great question, here are my answers.

1. Too Much Spam.

This is actually an issue that I face every day here. Since my start here at Blogict last year I have gotten more than 20,000 spam comments. Now just imagine the kind of spam sites like Smashing Magazine and those big name bloggers get. Now imagine some bloggers going through all their comments manually – they would spend hours upon hours a day on each of their blogs. Hours that could be spent making their blogs better.

2. I’m A Blogger That Doesn’t Reply.

This – I feel – is a reason most of those I’m too cool to talk with you people need to start disabling comments. John Chow is a perfect example of the type of person who should go ahead and turn off comments – as they really serve no purpose.

3. Personal Attacks.

No one wants comments that attack either a specific person, race, or religion. I’m not talking about getting comments that are critical of a thought in your post but rather – straight up slander and blatant attacks. At one point this had actually become a problem for CBS News back in 2007 when they disabled comments on all posts about Barack Obama – they’ve since enabled them – but this could become a big enough problem on your blog that you may want to turn comments off.

4. You Blog Wasn’t Build For Comments

Some of you may have automated blogs – or sites that basically run themselves. These types of blogs typically don’t need or use comments so it might be smart to disable them completely.

5. Your Posts Are Old.

This is common practice nowadays – comments automatically turn off – not allowing new ones to be made. It’s a good idea if you have a blog with tons of posts – since it cuts back on spam as well.

6. You’ve Got Forums.

You might have forums working hand in hand with your blog to create that sense of community I was talking about earlier. With these forums you can move, or relocate, the conversation from the blog and into a thread allowing for more interaction which will benefit readers more. The down side to this is that unless everything is amazingly well connected it could hurt interaction.

7. You Get No Comments.

I see this from time to time, some blogs just don’t have any sort of reader interaction. These blogs may have hundreds of thousands of readers and visitors but maybe two comments per a post. Sound familiar? Usually those big name news blogs are like this, I personally thing they should just take that function out completely.

8. You Shutting Your Blog Down.

It’s just good practice to shut off comments if you ever decide to close down a blog.This way you don’t waste peoples time when they try to participate.

Like I said at the beginning of the post everyone has their reasons for turning comments off . So now its your turn to tell me why would you disable comments on your blog.

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So hopefully you read the post just prior to this one about how I adjusted my direction and intentions on a blog and how it worked out for me. If not check it out as it will show you why adjusting your sails is important. If you don’t feel like it though – this post could be semi sufficient.

This is day two in a short two day series, the post was way too long so I decided to split it up into two readable chunks for you guys. You can find the Story Here

Adjusting to your readers is a fairly simple task when compared to actually writing great posts people want to read. But it can turn into a lengthy one – so try setting aside a day or so for this – plus take notes as you go through the process to guide your changes in the end.

1. Find out where you readers come from

Go into your stats system – in my case Google Analytics – and take a look at things like referring traffic. What sites are giving you the most traffic and what are those sites saying about you. If you have a blog about dishwashers and they are telling people you have stuff about ovens and refrigerators you need to work on that.

Go ahead and expand your post topics to what people are looking for – and I can almost guarantee more success. But legally I don’t think that would be a good idea.

2. Find out what your readers are searching for

This step can go two ways – you can check your stats and find what people are Googling when they come to your site or you can figure out what people are searching for through your search box.

Either Way it’s the same concept and I’ll let you twist my example to fit both. You can usually do this through your stats program – find what people were searching for when they landed on your page.

Sticking with the appliances example above – your visitors may be looking for posts on counter tops to match their dishwashers. If this is the case you now have a whole new field to expand on. So go at it by writing how certain counter tops react to acids – you get the point.

3. Find out where your readers live

As far as my blogs go they mostly get native English speakers or people that need English for what they do – like Internet stuff. But for the sake of example lets say your writing about cooking and recipes – and that 50% of your readers are from German speaking countries.

We’ll I know you don’t want to want learn German or exclude your English speaking readers. The simple solution – if you use Word Press – is to get the Global Translator Plug In or something similar. Then make sure you have both standard and metric measurements for things like recipes.

Bam you can now reach out to a wider – international – audience. The only thing you can do to make it better now is to direct some posts specifically to your international audience. Maybe with some German dishes.

4. Acting on it

So if you took notes on what you found when doing the research – the only thing thats left now is to act on it. Change your logo and fix your theme if necessary to match the new expanded topics. Create an update post explaining the addition. Add the new categories your blog and fix your about page if needed.

Cause without action reading this was useless.

What do you think about changing your directions to fit your visitors needs? Is it worth it to you?

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Adjusting to your readers is one of those things bloggers tend to overlook. I’ve fallen into this myself. People are land on one of my blogs for something I didn’t have have it. Believe it or not it’s probably happening on your blogs more often than you think.

This is day one in a short two day series, the post was way too long so I decided to split it up into two readable chunks for you guys. You can find the How To Here

“You can’t change the wind, but you can adjust your sails” – Anonymous

We’ll start with my story

A while back I started an SAT related blog – The SAT Blog in case you wanted to see it – and my main intentions were to help people do good on the SAT Test.  So after reading Crush It by Gary Vee I decided to go back and reevaluate by blog.

What I found was pretty surprising. After digging into the traffic stats and checking out my top rankings in the Webmaster Tools from Google – which I’ll talk more about on Friday – I found that that some people did want help with the SATs, but more often than not people were looking for post SAT advice.

Mainly picking the right college, writing admissions essays and things of that sort. I didn’t want to leave my old intentions behind but I needed to adjust to my readers. So now although I still post about SAT test taking, I’ve started to expand with more college related posts. All in an effort to give my visitors what they want. Not only have I seen a boost in traffic but a jump in newsletter subscribers as well.

What this all means

The moral of my story is that your blog is like a little – or maybe semi big- ship of information on the sea we bloggers call the Internet. You have your sail up and your waiting to catch the wind – in this case your readers. The chances are the wind has always been there you just never adjusted your sail to catch it.

I expanded one of my blogs by adjusting my direction and intentions – Friday though I’ll show you exactly how you can do it too.

Image by Greg Timm

I want you to think about this one for a couple seconds. What makes your blog unique? Chances are it’s not your content – cause really everything’s been written about at one point or another. This topic for example has definitely been written about before but it’s still differentthan the rest.

Now unless your name is Jason Santa Maria and you create one off layouts for every post – your blog probably has the same basic layout as every other blog just with a little bit of color here and there.

So if it’s not your content or your design that makes your blog unique – what does? Or should I say who does?

Now if you didn’t catch the hints yet -  it’s you that makes your blog unique. I’m done bolding “yous” now, except for the next one.

You should come out in your posts

All your writing, videos or podcasts should have you infused in them. It may sound cheesy but I try to put a little bit of me in to all my posts – and definitely in my about pages. Weather your blogging about dishwashers or roller coasters you literally need to take a little chunk of your heart and put it into that post. Preferably in the middle somewhere.

Another way you can come out in your posts is by using your own words. I encourage research but you really need to word things the way you speak – not the way another blogger speaks. Then expand on those topics with your own ideas and experiences – not just those of other bloggers.

These things are especially important in very saturated niches – like blogs for bloggers – so you may notice I usually refer to a past experience in my posts and try to make each post unique in it’s own way.

So not to be extremely repetitive but it really boils down to simply being different in your own way. Or at least that’s the way I see it. Now you tell me what makes your blog unique, I’m kinda curious as to what you think.

p.s. If you liked this post I think you might like an earlier post Your Niche Is Under Your Nose.

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It’s a tough question to answer, but an important one  nonetheless. Just like finding your posting frequency, post length depends heavily on the depth you go into, niche,  readers, and even your posting frequency. Now, I’ve read a ton of theories that say very short or very long posts are horrible SEO wise, but I believe that finding your ideal post length should again revolve around the topic at hand, the overall niche, and two other variables, so I won’t be touching on SEO here. Maybe another post though.

1. Deeper the depth means longer the length

It seems pretty obvious, but when you look at post length it should mostly depend on just how deep into a topic you go. This post – for example – goes into what I would call some detail, making it an average length, around 500 words long. But if you go into more depth like I did in my post about getting comments on your blog you need to have a longer post – about 1000 words – to cover everything you need to.

2. Your niche really matters

Think about it this way – if your writing news updates, like engadget does, your posts are typically going to be short compared to say a tutorials which usually need to go into a lot of detail.

3. Your readers really matter too

We’ll as long as your writing for people and not search engines your post length should revolve around them. People now-a-days have a very short attention span, including myself, but there are ways around this. You could make your posts readable or at least scanable – which are two very different things – making sure your readers can go through an article and it won’t seem like a task to them.

4. Posting frequency – more posts means shorter posts

Now this doesn’t always hold true but the great majority of the time when people write more posts it means that they are shorter – again think about engadget or uncrate. They post multiple short articles through out the day.

My goal here was to give you a basis of what I think post length should depend on. But in the end it boils down to these two questions, “did I explain everything I needed to?” and “can this do the job in a shorter post?”

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I’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to commenting. Yes, I love getting comments on this blog and the handful of other blogs I run. My infatuation with comments doesn’t end there, no, I love commenting on other blogs and adding to the ongoing conversation for multiple reasons. Mainly for the promotion aspects, but that doesn’t take away from my liking it! Anyway like I said, I have quite a bit of experience on this and today I will share with you 5 ways to get all your comments noticed. Seeing as getting noticed is half the battle of promotion, this should help a lot of you.

1. Be First

So it may not be a surprise that number one is actually being the first commenter. Being first gives you the most visibility, when some one finishes reading a article they tend to skim through the comments looking to see what was said. The thing about being first or at least in the top three is that nearly everyone will see your comments, what you added and hopefully click through to your site.

2. Be The Only

Never assume a comment-less post doesn’t get traffic. I find that commenting on posts without comments or with very few comments actually gives me the biggest return as far as traffic goes. Cause the post either already gets good amounts of traffic or it eventually gets some good traffic. Be that only commenter, chances are it’ll be worth the 20 words.

3. Use Your Real Name

This is simply good practice with a ton of perks. Every time you go around commenting on some good posts use your real name, preferably first and last name. This creates consistency and can eventually build a brand around you. People are going to start to recognize you as “Jim Sams” instead of “#1 Fishing Blog.”

Plus most blogs have comment policy’s – which I will be adopting very soon – that say these keywords aren’t allowed in the name field.

4. Personalize Them

What makes your blog yours is the personality you infuse in the writing, videos or audio. Well the same concept goes for comments. The only thing really separating your comment from the others is the fact that you wrote it, so put your feelings about the post into your comment, make it alive and loud.

Just make sure you don’t go on a CAPS LOCK and explication point rampage, and I guarantee your comments will be seen and read.

5. Reply To Replies

Conversations get noticed. So if some one replies to you – this goes ten fold if it’s the author – respond to it. It shows that people are noticing you so for a lack of better term notice them back. Show people that your not just in it for the traffic but for the community and conversation as well.

Some blogs have a subscribe option at the bottom of the comment are – like the one here – so it makes it easier to keep up with replies.

Well, if your like me you love the power of comments, but you know that getting them noticed is really the most important part. What do you think gets comments noticed? Also do you think comments are really useful as a promotion tool?

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What should I blog about? What niche is gonna make me money? Can you give me an idea for a blog? They’re the questions that truly irk every time I hear them. Call me a bad person for wanting to drop kick people that come to me with these things – but to me it seems obvious that no one else can tell you what you like and what you know. Which brings me to my two main points, you should blog about either what you like or what you know. It’s how long term blogs are built.

What You Like

When you want an idea for your blog go ahead and dig deep, real deep. Figure out what you like or better yet what your passionate about. Blogging about your passion will not only come naturally to you but it’s going to be fun too.

Think about it this way – if I ask you about cars and your really passionate about cars – you could probably talk to me all day about them. You don’t even have to know everything when you start – cause you like the topic so much you’ll have no problem researching it.

I know Gary Vaynerchuk would agree with blogging your passion cause his book – Crush It – pretty much bashed it into my head.

What You Know

Maybe your not passionate about something but you be a true professional in the field? Well you have a huge opportunity. I drive over 1,000 miles a week and I drive them fast – real fast. I wouldn’t call my self passionate about driving but ohh am I good at it. I’m practically a stunt driver locked up in a suburban town – and this could make for a damn good blog. Well now that I think about it…

Sometimes blogging about what you know turns it into a passion so the only problem that I could foresee is not getting that spark turning it into a passion – eventually it might seem like a chore.

These are the questions I asked myself both when I decided to restart this blog, and now before I start all my other blogs. Do you blog about what you know, or what you like, or neither? Hows it working for you?

When I first jumped into blogging it was like diving into the frigid ocean in the middle of December. I was expecting a tough time being a complete newbie in blogging but when my balls shriveled up into my stomach really wished I looked into it first. Now that I look back on those days I really wish I knew some of these the following tips, I would be so much bigger, and richer now.

1. Don’t procrastinate.

This is huge in blogging, especially for some newer bloggers, you have to keep your schedule and stay focused and consistent. We all now that 5 hours on Twitter is procrastinating and it’s easy but hard work is what pays off in the end. So close your stats page, YouTube, Twitter and that video game running in the background and get to work on that next post.

2. Know what your talkin about.

Make sure if your blogging about cars, that you really know about cars. So do your research and write what you know. Take me for example, I’m always upfront with my readers, and take a no bullshit approach to writing about what I know. Not one person want’s to or will, for that fact, read bullshit plus it ruins your credibility which follows you everywhere.

3. Link in and out.

Don’t be afraid to link out , you won’t be sending your readers away forever. So if you have something related to the content at another blog link to it. It’s gonna add to your overall credibility and your gonna get a few grateful bloggers coming your way. Linking in has some very different benefits, you get people to read old posts and (they say) it helps with SEO. Not only do you want to get people looking at older posts but those search engine spiders as well, so link to em and show them off.

4. Write for rainy days.

Writing extra posts when you can is like having an insurance policy for your blog. Whenever you have some extra time you should write an extra post or two and save it. Keep a stash of 5 or 6  draft posts in your panel cause they really come in handy when you get pulled away from your computer for any reason. No only have I been stuck in a position like this I see it happening left and right. With these rainy day posts you’ll always keep fresh content up and stay with your posting frequency, no matter what happens.

5. Promote more than you write.

Promotion as we all know brings in tons of traffic and can build links for that PR that every one is after. Do some post by post promotion, go hit up them forums, and be a little socialite with Twitter. Personally I’ve always put 4 times more work in promotion than the actual writing, and then Gary Vaynerchuk told me through his book, Crush It, that I was spot on with my theory. You’ll be amazed at the results, promise.

There you have it, the five things I wish I knew when I first started blogging. Now its your turn, tell me with a comment (or tweet or email) what you wish you knew when you started blogging.

Post Image By: Sukanto Debnath

Boom, I’m back in the game and yes I literally pressed a restart button on my old desktop in a way to restart this blog. Now a new life has been poured into this semi-new blog. Now I wanted to post a video of my doing back flips in the shower but I figured I’d explain to all of you what happened prior to this post and then what will happen after this post. Seeing as I’m not very athletic, plus I don’t know how many of you wanna see me in the shower.

What Happened

Their are no excuses for this, it wasn’t cause of a lack of experience, or even time. I know what the problem was, or rather who. It was me, I’m sometimes lazy, I get bored and disappointed easily. So their is no one or nothing that is to blame other than me.

What Will Happen

That’s the golden question I guess. I really don’t want to make frivolous promises or anything along those lines cause I’m finally starting to figure out what I can and can’t do. I plan on growing this place into a blogging resource, and giving it everything I can. Post wise you should expect about 3 posts a week, with at least one link love and one blog update every month. I also want to create a nice Thesis Theme customization so watch out for that in the near future. The last thing I’m working on is a newsletter which is scheduled to begin on December 15th.

Well that is about it, for now, just make sure you head over to the top of the sidebar and subscribe, follow or stalk me.

Ardit Veliu

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