MappingTheWeb //

Hope for a buy-out? Maximize on-site page views?

To be completely honest, I have no answer for this question. I don’t think that the terms ‘widget’ and ‘profitability’ were destined to be together. Any thoughts on this?

A few days ago, Mark Evans wrote a post outlining some of the blog lessons he has learned since he began. I can definitely relate to most. In light of that post, I will now outline some of the lessons I have learned since I began blogging in September 2006.

1. Content is king. This cannot be over-emphasized enough. Always provide quality content for your readers. If you find that you are unable to come up with interesting, pertinent content on a regular basis, post less often. Do not allow the quality of your content to degrade.

2. NEVER take your readers for granted. Your audience is your basis for being. Thank them for their participation, be sure to respond to their e-mails, and never insult their intelligence.

3. Blogging is a huge time commitment. Well, it can be if you post regularly and plan on successfully marketing your blog. Often, new bloggers underestimate the time needed to successfully operate a blog.

4. Become a part of the blogosphere community. This means commenting on other blogs, adding trackbacks to your posts, linking to other blogs via your blogroll, and leveraging community widgets to enhance your blog experience for readers. This will help build your traffic, provide incoming links, and ensure a certain level of exposure for your blog. Furthermore, community participation will also provide valuable networking opportunities with other bloggers, Internet enthusiasts, and company exceutives.

5. Have a goal and a vision when you begin blogging. What is your reason for blogging? Do you want to provide an update for friends and family, or do you want to write articles on a given niche? Everyone has a different reason and underlying motivation for blogging. Money and financial returns should not be a primary motivator, nor should notoriety and fame.

6. Make yourself extremely accessible to readers. By prominently displaying your contact information and allowing easy communication with readers, you will be bridging the gap and creating a more loyal, trustworthy following. Having said that, you must also make a strong effort to reply to comments and e-mails in a prompt, thoughtful manner. 

7. Post on a consistent basis. This doesn’t mean you need to post daily. What it means is that you must post on a consistent basis, whether it be once every two days, weekly, or even monthly. This way, your readers will know when to expect another post and do not become frustrated by an inconsistent posting schedule.

8. Stay on topic. Don’t sway too much from your initial niche and begin posting off topic. This not only disgruntles readers, but also ruins trust and loyalty. Providing high quality content in a given niche will help shape your space in the blogosphere and showcase your expertise.

9. Don’t regurgitate other blogs’ content. Numerous blogs simply choose to paraphrase other blogs or re-write articles in their own words. This provides no value to the reader, as he/she can simply visit the cited location. Every post must provide a unique perspective or view.

10. Don’t be discouraged by stats. It takes time to build a reader base. By posting quality content on a regular basis and participating in the blogosphere community, increased readership is inevitable. Stats can be discouraging at times, but you must stick with your initial vision. Quality and consistency will translate into surprising success.

11. Make design changes every once in awhile. In other words, keep a fresh look. This may mean changes to the overall design, colour schemes, widgets, layout, etc… By making regular changes, you will be providing a fresh look for you and your readers, creating a more enjoyable experience.

What lessons have you learned from blogging? What have been your biggest hurdles and obstacles to overcome? I encourage you to write a list of your own.

Readers of MappingTheWeb will now be seeing me elsewhere in the blogosphere from time to time. I have just accepted a part-time writing position at Read/WriteWeb, one of the web’s biggest web 2.0/technology blogs. It is ranked 28th by Technorati out of all blogs and has 80,000+ RSS subscribers.

I will be posting 2+ times per week, starting Friday. I encourage everyone to check out my posts on R/WW, as well as those of the other publishers. The team is led by well-known blogger Richard MacManus and newcomer Josh Catone. The content is very high quality and a pleasure to read.

Having said all this, nothing changes around here. I will still be posting on MappingTheWeb on most weekdays (at least once), as well as the odd time on weekends.

For more information on the position, read this Read/WriteWeb article.

I’m not getting an iPhone and probably never will. Having said that, it looks cool and I can understand the hype and buzz surrounding the launch. But the hysteria and sheer madness have reached levels beyond my wildest imagination. Everyone is talking about the iPhone regardless of whether it’s on topic or not. Case in point: this blog. Even TechCrunch has been swept up in the iPhone fever. I counted 5 stories in a row dedicated to the iPhone. Remember, TechCrunch is a blog that supposedly discusses start-ups. They should leave these stories up to CrunchGear.

It seems that almost every blog, news site, and discussion group is buzzing about the iPhone. I feel like my head is going to explode. iPhone stories have run amok at Digg and Techmeme. Traffic at tech gadget blogs, such as Engadget, Gizmodo, and CrunchGear has spiked in the past few days. Almost every single blog on my feed reader has an iPhone story - some even have multiple.

When is the madness going to end? I hope it’s soon…

With all due respect, I give credit where credit is due. This has obviously been a phenomenal launch for Apple. I can’t think of an event that has garnered such PR attention and exposure in recent memory. But it makes you wonder whether a backlash or recoil is imminent. Sometimes the most successful campaigns spur counteraction and negative sentiment. Only time will tell.

… and I thought Dairy Queen had an incredible launch with their waffle sundae campaign. What do I know?

PS. Is everyone else embracing this iPhone frenzy? Am I the only one who is sick of hearing about this gadget?

Only in the past couple weeks has Tumblr come to my attention. Web 2.0 naming jokes aside, this new start-up has already made a phenomenal run since launching a mere 4 months ago . Banking off the hype of the “Twitter” space, Tumblr has propelled itself from an unknown to an Alexa rank of less than 5,000. I should have had Tumblr on my list of the the hottest web 2.0 start-ups of 2007, but they eluded me. In any case, they’ve accomplished a remarkable feat in such a short period of time.

Can the growth of the company be attributed to the actual service itself or the recent hype of the space? In other words, does Tumblr have a sustainable business model or is it just a fad?

The onslaught of micro-blogging start-ups and platforms has my mind spinning. Tumblr brought together the interface of Wordpress and the concept of Twitter to create new-ish service. Having said that however, the concept of micro-blogging is so dead simple that unless players in the space can differentiate with killer features, the market is going to get over-staturated and crowded very, very quickly. Furthermore, monetization has been an issue that has not been addressed. These start-ups are going to have to find a way to incorporate ads, charge for a premium service, or face certain death.

Don’t get me wrong - I love simple designs, simple concepts, and simple apps. But if everyone is making the same thing, I don’t feel very inspired. So I dare Tumblr and the rest of the micro-blogging start-ups out there to inspire me and show me something I haven’t seen. Trust me, I know what all my friends are doing RIGHT NOW.