Ramblings

How Long Can You Stay Nice to People

by Melvin · Mar 5, 2010

Recently I was reading a post from Rob Sutton about dealing with people w/c gave me a good idea on this post. We, as bloggers are generally nice to people whoever they are and wherever they come from. That’s why we look into each other more as peers rather than competitors. But everything has its own limit and today I am going to discuss to my experience with dealing with different types of people.

Generally when we were just getting started, we were nice as much as we could. I mean, if someone sends us an email on something, we would always respond. If someone comments on our posts, we are nice enough to reply back. That’s how we are.

Fast-forward to the time we became a bit successful and known, we know don’t have time to respond to people all the time, we are not as approachable as we used to before and it seems like we’re not the same kind guy we used to be when we were just starting. Admit it, admit it people.

Cold Hard Fact

Here’s the fact: When a blogger gets more and more popular and established, he/she becomes less nice, less responsive and less approachable. Struggling with keeping your feet off the ground (like before) is ALWAYS a factor. But there are a lot more to consider.

When people become more successful, he/she switches from socializing to more of managing and administrating. Because of the success, the blogger tries to leverage what he has either by starting a new business or by taking the current one on the next level. As a result, the blogger’s interaction with people as friends becomes lesser.

And With Being Nice

Being nice is not really mandatory. I understood this nature and that’s why few bloggers aren’t generally nice to their readers. I am a frequent lurker of WickedFire forum and if you know that forum, you know what I’m talking about.

Some people on the other hand, seem to morph from a nice person to a complete asshole. Either because of the success that he/she tasted or whatever. Do take note that is normal in today’s world. Success comes with responsibility and as we become more successful (or just by making progress) we also change.

To be fair and have a more balanced outlook in this post, it’s really hard to be nice all the time. Of course when we are just getting started, we are into this mentality of being nice or else not get noticed thing. We try to be nice to rude people. But as I’ve said it’s impossible to be, all the time.

As we get more and more positive mentions online, we also tend to get a lot of negative criticisms from some unknown people. And oftentimes we engage ourselves in bad-mouthing against them. Some even use their blog to bash those people.

I don’t know. I am nice to people, all people who have contacted me using my contact form were replied (even those annoying ones), I try to be as accommodating as possible here in this blog and that’s because I am intrinsically that way. But at some point I wonder and ask myself, how long can I stay nice to people?

Great Blog Design & Why it Can Make or Break your Business

by Melvin · Feb 19, 2010

Most of my readers here treat blogging as a business and if you’ve already read my Blog Marketing for Fame report (w/c is free!), you can see how much I emphasized good blog design as one of the keys in blogging success. Just by simply paying attention on the top blogs in any niche, it’s easy to spot that no one in them sports an ugly design. That being said, you can’t expect people to read your content (even if its a good content) if your design is crappy.

As always the best time to get the perfect design is at the start or at the earliest time possible. The reason is you don’t want to waste new readers by leaving a bad impression to your blog.If your design alone can persuade them to subscribe then why not! But what is a good blog design?

Great Blog Design

If you are thinking that a superb design is synonymous with the price tag, then you’re wrong. I’ve seen a lot of custom-designed blogs that sucked while others simply use a free tweaked theme and it looked awesome.

To achieve a good design, you don’t really need to pay for a custom unique theme from a certain company. All you need to do is grab a design and then lay out your brand properly and clearly. The key here is lasting impression and brand awareness. Of course the basic things are important as well like readability, typography, cleanliness and etc but these days one way that people can remember you is through your design.

For instance here in my blog, people (imo) do realize that I am using a custom theme when in fact it’s just a premium theme. Why? Because I don’t think anyone using Colormatic Theme (my theme) has done good branding for their blogs enough for people to realize them. In short, when people see my theme, they know I’m the only one using it.

Importance

Two things I’ve mentioned above is lasting impression and brand awareness. For me design is neither a part of content nor marketing, it’s actually a part of both. People won’t read your content if your design sucks (debatable) and on the other hand I’m amazed to see how a lot of big firms have used attractive design as a major marketing strategy to boost their business! All together it speaks both of content and marketing.

How do I know I have a good one for my blog?

This is actually a pretty opinionated question but all I can say is your readers will tell you. I’m sure you all do forum reviews for your blog. If it’s your first time to hear it, its basically when you solicit reviews on large forums for your blog.

Funny thing is that most people view that strategy as a traffic generator but the real key in there is still the review itself. I, myself seek for tons of those forum reviews and it has really helped me out in improving the design of my blog.

You can also do so by observing the top blogs in your niche and see what they have. Although one can say it’s just a time-waster, you can still gain something because blogs from different niches accomodate different layouts so that may probably be useful as well.

All up to you

Tackling blog designs, how to have one and how to maximize it, is a HUGE topic. In fact there are blogs who are solely dedicated in writing about it. I’m no expert and heck no good designer (I always seek opinion).

What I intend to share here is the importance of good blog designs and how it can make you ahead of those so many lame bloggers sporting stupid crappy designs. 😉 What say you?

Blog Interviews are Lame

by Melvin · Feb 16, 2010

The “in” thing nowadays is blog interviews. You can surf the blogosphere and easily find a ton of bloggers doing it. Why? “Maybe’ because it’s a good way to boost your blog’s traffic. Before, it seems that only reputable bloggers can do interviews with big people. But now it has become different as almost anyone can easily hold one. Not only that, these days you don’t need big people, you can interview random people and still look like you’re doing it finely.

My Rant with Interviews

Personally I’m not a fan of these interviews (although I got interview quite a many times). I find it as a lazy blogger’s way to sneak some traffic w/c will not really convert in the end. Either way here are the main reasons why I think its lame:

1. Lazy, Generic and Annoying Questions

There is nothing more annoying for me than to see generic questions get asked like “Tell something about your blog”, “What’s your advice for the readers here” and stuffs. While you cannot avoid asking the same questions with different people, it’s a completely different case when you just intentionally have a pre-made question for all your potential interviews.

Remember, each and every blogger has their own persona, different experience, expertise and tone. Don’t be lazy, ask questions accordingly!

2. Interviewing People that Don’t Add Value

The main purpose of an interview is for the interviewee to share something valuable to the readers of the interviewer’s blog. I don’t mean to be offensive but the hard fact is that you cannot just interview random people across the board and expect your audience to get interested in it.

It’s also important to stick your niche. If your blogging about blogging, you need to interview credible probloggers, not just any bloggers out there blogging on different niches.

3. Gullible Interviewees

Again you are going to disagree with this but I would just like to be honest. I find it absurd that these big people let these unknown bloggers interview them. Unknown bloggers are those who are just getting started, with 10m+ Alexa ranking and stuffs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying someone is not qualified to do an interview if he/she is just getting started. What I mean is that there must have some sort of credibility first before you can interview people. Just like in guest posting, you have to look first on the guest poster’s site before accepting the post if it’s good.

And as for the interviewees, I think it’s also important to think on whether accepting the interview can benefit other blogger’s audience (if there’s actually an audience) and benefit themselves as well. I don’t see the point of spending an hour answering questions when no one is really going to read it. I know you know what I mean.

Final Words

In doing interviews it’s essential to become creative and stand out from the rest. One person who does it fairly well is Michael Dunlop from IncomeDiary.com. The guy interviews people well and I myself enjoy all of his lengthy interviews with prominent people in the industry.

Just becoming different and not lazy can make a huge difference.

What is Problogging & A Look at Some Pro Bloggers

by Melvin · Jan 29, 2010

Problogging is a word that’s not new. If it sounds new to you, then probably you are living under the cave. Pro blogging simply stands for professional blogging and today I would like to talk about it more from my own perspective. No worries as I’ll assure you that this is no generic article.

Each and everyone of us bloggers want to be called as professional bloggers but in reality we’re not. Professional bloggers are simply the ones who do blogging as a business, more specifically as a primary business. They usually allot 6+ hours per day with their blogs, mostly dealing with content and marketing. That being said even though I am spending a lot of time blogging, I cannot still call myself as a problogger because I am student.

It’s also a big misconception that you can look like a professional one by blogging with perfect grammar and great fluency. Again its a total misconception. Although I don’t want to imply the mentality of speaking like a moron/douchebag, you cannot just focus too much on how formal your way of speaking is. At the end it’s all about gaining popularity and capitalizing on it, not boasting your English degree.

So Im going to take a look at some probloggers today. Obviously, just earning a big amount of money doesn’t mean you’re a pro blogger. Anyhow, here are the great examples of bloggers who do professional blogging.

Darren Rowse – is the pioneer of professional blogging. I probably have never seen a guy who is as dedicated as Darren in this world. He blogs at ProBlogger.com and some other many sites. What’s amazing with this guy is that you can take a look at all his blogs and easily notice that they are all established in whatever niche they are. Although he’s a bit conservative in terms of making money, I still believe he makes a heck of cash with all of his assets in the internet
Yaro Starak – Yaro is my favorite blogger. Although he’s not the earliest person to do blogging, he probably is the first guy to leverage his audience best by offering a membership site called Blog Mastermind. Since then it really exploded his expertise on the subject matter where he gained a lot of reputation and trust. Look at Yaro as a blogger who got interested in internet marketing, studied it and mixed it with blogging superbly to achieve who he is today now.
John Chow – Ok it took me 5 minutes to decide whether I should include Chow in this list. After all he’s like Shoemoney. The only difference though is that Chow has no other big business aside from blogging w/c is why he’s in this list. John is the best example of a pro blogger who doesn’t need to have perfect way of expressing things in word.
David Risley – It was only last year when I stumbled upon him and his blog. Some of you may not even know him yet. If not it’s your best chance to know him @ DavidRisley.com. He connects with his readers well by just blogging spontaneously. David is a problogger even before the term existed but he just started building his expertise couple of years back. If you’re looking to build a blogging business, then head on and grab his six figure blogger blueprint (Don’t just get afraid of his large voice!)

Okie dokie. As always I’d love to hear your opinions on this and your thoughts about problogging. Also do you have any other suggestions out there for professional bloggers? Or do you think someone in that list doesn’t deserve being included?

The Big Glitch In Guest Posting

by Melvin · Jan 11, 2010

By now you probably have been already told that the quickest way for a brand new blog to get traffic and build some buzz is by doing guest posting. It doesn’t just apply to new blogs, it also applies to mid cap blogs like my blog and probably your blog. To sum it up, doing guest posts is vital in increasing your blog’s brand awareness.

Anyways, I’m always a good observant when it comes to the blogosphere and all the things that are currently happening in it. And one thing I noticed is that there is “somehow” a big glitch in guest posting (glitch means minor problem, adding the word big means it’s a big problem, lols!).

It usually happens like this. A famous blogger is entering a busy weekend thus no time for blogging. Then he would offer his readers to guest post. Lastly he would publish the said post. Where’s the problem? Well if you observe it’s not hard to figure out that the certain guest post SUCKS! In formal terms, it doesn’t meet the quality that the owner usually publishes. What the heck? How is that possible?

This is debatable and many will not agree with me. That happens simply because of the fact that the owner blogger is busy. When someone submits a guest article, the owner doesn’t really read it, he just skims at it! He just looks at the basic things, the grammar, spelling, if the sentence makes sense, if the paragraph is well done and etc. They don’t really analyze that much if it’s a generic boring article or a regurgitated concept. In the end they think like it’s better to post something than have nothing for your readers right? Wrong!

This is obviously a big glitch. It harms both blogs. No one will click on the link of the guest poster because the blog post sucks and on the other hand, the loyal readers of the famous blog would feel bad that the quality they used to see is not met. And worse, they might start lose your trust if you do it again and again. Reputation tarnished!

Guest posting is good, cool and nice. You reap both benefits. But if done like the way I mentioned above, it becomes a recipe for failure. This is my call both to guest posters and the blog owners. Be sure to do it right.

Fruitful 2010 for Everyone!

by Melvin · Dec 31, 2009

Hey guys, as I was typing this, its like just 5 minutes before 12 am, the first day in 2010. Here in Philippines, people are so used to being noisy before the eve up to January 1. We use a lot of fireworks and firecrackers, noisy sounds, and small trumphets (w/c is called torotot here), and just about every asset we can use to be noisy..

For today I have a short message to everyone of you (I rarely do video posts). Again happy new year and may 2010 be the best year in our lives. 😀

P.S. I am creating a new report that would be FREE (interestingly) to all of you guys and I’m promising you it’s a great stuff, so stay tuned!

My Best and Worst For Year 2009

by Melvin · Dec 27, 2009

So looks like it’s time to say goodbye to year 2009. Whew, how quick time really flies! The time I first started this blog is still fresh in my mind and now Im close to 2 years with this blog.

Anyways since most people are still enjoying this holiday, I believe they won’t have any time to swallow marketing tips, blogging tips or whatever. So for today’s recipe I am putting out a list of the best and worst things that happen to me (not just blogging and business) for the year 2009 (in no chronological order):

Note: Bare in mind that some entries here can be irrelevant due to the fact Im typing drunk (not that much) and I still have that hangover,lols). Either way isn’t it sweet that even Im drunk I still have something for you. 😉

Best of this year

Went in love (the usual teenage love affair)
Won an Ipod from Market Leverage (w/c was converted to cash)
Won a gift card from another ML Contest.
Finished my 3rd year in college w/o any problems at all.
Become a more responsible person (both family and community-wise)
Sold old sites for a total amount of $1230
Purchased a nice Presario Laptop
Bought another walkman phone and then a smartphone
Attended several good conferences
Invited as a speaker in a local SEO Conference (I rejected it though)
Gained weight during the summer (good because I am skinny)
Leverage my online earnings and used it in offline business dealing with nuts.
Had 2 extremely successful internship stints
Finally did a redesign with this blog.
Never had a month without an advertiser/sponsor
Orlando made the NBA Finals
Achieved my goal of being as frugal/thrifty as possible.
Had a superb relationship this year with my parents.
Made a lot of new good friends while still keeping in touch with old ones.
Had myself interviewed thrice and getting mentioned a lot of times in the blogosphere.
and many more.

Worst of the year

Lost weight during the internship
Got a cease and desist letter twice
Got a legal letter from Yahoo! Search
Lakers won the Championship
Lost over $1000 in affiliate marketing
Lost my skill in playing guitar and keyboards
lost my skill in playing basketball
Have never been involved in sports for the whole 2009
Got banned for a month in Digital Point Forums
Bought some stupid info products
Never got my blog featured in a local newspaper here
Let some of my good domains expire & get picked up by someone
Still Pagerank 0 for MelvinBlog
Has not launched 4 out of 5 of my big projects this year

And that’s it. The list goes randomly crazy and I really never thought I would share some of the stuffs there with you guys. 😀 Either way, I would love to here yours too and you can do so in the comment form.

Photo Credits by Under Consideration