What Should A Blogging Bloke Write About?
Buzz it
Since my last blog post I’ve been feeling a little better and I’m mulling over what BLOGBloke should be writing about. You might have noticed that I broadened the niche of this blog from “blog tips” to include social media tips and news. Although I would argue the niche is basically one and the same, I’ve nevertheless done it partly because my niche is overcrowded with copycat “blog tips” bloggers, and because of the trends/direction that blogging is going.
So for me it all comes down to the following.
1. Commentary:
As you probably know I’m known for my cutting commentary/satire of the big guns. One of the things that my readers appreciate about me is I’m a straight-shooter from the hip. I don’t pull any punches or worry about political correctness. Unfortunately however, that has resulted in thin-skinned a-listers shutting me out of their cliques and going solo.
For example a long time ago I had contacted Darren Rowse to join the B5 Media network. His excuse for not adding me was they were not accepting applications. But not long thereafter I noticed a new blog called Copyblogger was added to the B5 fold. Since then Mr. Rowse has moved in on my “blog tips” niche and is it any wonder why we don’t get along and he became one of my pet projects.
So you might have noticed that I’ve cut back on the satire/criticism because it offended some readers. But I also believe some of my readers have gravitated to me because of it and like it, so I need to know what you think.
Should I continue with the criticism of Darren Rowse et al or should I just keep my mouth shut and let them go their merry way?
2. Technical Tutorials:
My biggest repeat traffic by far has been my technical tutorials such as How to move a Blogger blog over to Wordpress or Blogger Custom Domain: Best Setup for Optimizing your Blog Pagerank! Tutorials like these have become cult classics and I’m proud to say they are considered THE authority on the subject bringing me tons of traffic daily.
Want more tutorials? Then let me know and please give specifics.
3. Personal Annotations:
I’m a private person by nature and as you know I blog semi-anonymously. There’s a reason for that because I practiced law and was in politics. Although I am hesitant to divulge personal details, little by little I have been adding more info about myself including posts about funny, tragic or unusual things that happen in my life.
Would you like to see more of that?
4. More News Commentary:
Should I write more commentary for my niche or would you prefer that I just leave that for the Twitter sound-bytes?
5. Technical News/Commentary?
Just call me BlokeCrunch .. nuff said.
6. Do you not care and should I fold my tent?
I can’t help but notice a lot of my readers have stopped engaging me here on the blog and are instead commenting on Twitter or Facebook. Although my newsfeed readership continues to grow, comments here have not increased commensurately.
As you know I blog for comments, so if I’m not getting them…
7. Or is there something else you would like to see BLOGBloke write about?
Most of the so-called “blog tips” that I’m seeing out there are income related. I don’t see a lot of non-making money blogging tips and I was wondering what you think about that.
Is there a market for non-income related blog tips? And if so, do you have any ideas you can share with me?
Please let me know.
Filed under: Blog Tips, Featured Articles, Writing Blog Content
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I liked the blogging how to like last post. Those get rich quick blogging sites won’t last long. Stay true to yourself and write about what you enjoy.
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@Curtis .. thanks for the comment my friend but do you mean the technical tutorials or just general “how to” posts (or both)? I don’t mean to nitpick but the more specifics the better. Your input is greatly appreciated.
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@BLOGBloke, Technical posts and how to’s. Thats the ones I meant.
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Thanks Curtis. I write technical articles that are precedent setting - i.e. I’m not just going to recycle someone’s else’s work. I like to solve problems that nobody has solved before so if you come across a need out there please let me know.
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@BLOGBloke, Will do Bloke
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Curtis (@blogbloketips) reply on October 28th, 2009 3:35 pm:
BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on October 28th, 2009 3:44 am:
Curtis (@blogbloketips) reply on October 28th, 2009 3:00 am:
BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on October 26th, 2009 7:40 pm:
I like posts that explain the how to do posts. I also like posts that gives tips or advice on how to do things.
Nice Post.
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@Teen Blogger .. thanks my friend! Do you have any specific requests? I write original material and I don’t want to recycle what’s already out there like the copycats do.
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BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on October 27th, 2009 5:08 pm:
What I really hate is when *ahem* someone *ahem* steals an idea and then goes on to make money from it.
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@Mushfiqur Rahman, you wouldn’t be referring to that Rowse guy by any chance would you? Oops!
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BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on October 28th, 2009 1:21 am:
Naaah … go for it! Keep those A-listers honest!
As you say it is becoming crowded - maybe there is an opening in blog tips satire (something which I’m tempted by on occasion). (-:
In theme terms I’m personally fascinated by the slow-motion train wreck occurring in the publishing world and how that’s going to play out in the next five years but guess what I’d say to you is … errrr …. (where have I heard that before?) … ‘write-about-something-you-are-passionate-about’ … (-:
What is that? Let’s face it there are a squillion little bloggers out there who will find it increasingly hard to break into the realms of the big-time traffic sites because of Google working the way it does. You have something to say on that.
I wrote to ‘DR’ offering a guest post article on NoFollow as a technique for smaller bloggers. Interesting that DR has never written on that subject on his site … I wonder why … maybe it could possibly be connected with the fact that a) the technique only suits smaller bloggers and b) taken to it’s logical conclusion it may be better to link to smaller bloggers because they might actually notice you and reciprocate more often than the DRs of this world?
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@Mike, it’s odd that nobody else seems to notice Rowse doesn’t write technical posts. His posts are just summaries of someone else’s work or faq files that he’s plagiarized and rarely if ever giving credit to the original author(s).
He’s just a content recycler and repackager. He reminds me of those guys who sneak in the middle of the night to raid your dumpster and sell it to the 2nd-hand store. But in his case it’s our archives that are being raided. He also fancies himself an inspiration for bloggers and even calls himself a blog evangelist. An evangelist who is severely lacking in ethics. Some inspiration.
The fact is Rowse is NOT a geek and is just an OPPORTUNIST making money off gullible noobs and the know-how of reluctant contributors like me. His only real talent is his ability to use the system for his ego and profit. He hires real geeks to do all the technical work on his blog and lets his minions think he knows it all. But I know different.
For years he “bounced off” my posts, picking my brains and never giving me credit. He’s one of the main reasons why I stopped blogging because it was so frustrating watching him steal my intellectual property and grab all the glory and money for himself.
He’s also the reason why I never went to BlogWorld. If I met him there I might have given him a fist sandwich and that wouldn’t have done either of us any good. So I took a sabbatical and watched from the sidelines, and frankly I don’t want to go back to the way things were.
That’s all water under the bridge now and I’m looking forward to the future and writing great content for my readers. But the blogging landscape has changed so much I’m finding myself having to reconsider what BLOGBloke is all about. That’s why I’m asking for input because I need help figuring out where BLOGBloke fits in and hopefully not get ripped off again either.
As far as “nofollow” goes he does it on his blog and so do I. I don’t think it is as important (i.e. pagerank sculpting) as it used to be but it doesn’t hurt either.
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Interesting! What a great story. That is worth a post in itself: I’d do a plagiarism table! (-:
Re nofollows, mistake on my part in putting fingers to keyboard too late at night. What I meant was DoFollow not NoFollow.
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@Mike, there’s no way DR would give pagerank to his minions with a “dofollow” which is probably why you got the cold shoulder. He would rather they not know about it. I’ve already written posts on DR’s sins in the past and all you need to do is search this blog for “copyright”, “plagiarism” or the category “blog ethics” to find them. Or you can start here: http://www.blogbloke.com/blog-tips-content-ethics/
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BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on October 28th, 2009 7:41 pm:
Mike (@blogbloketips) reply on October 28th, 2009 7:33 pm:
BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on October 28th, 2009 4:08 am:
“Is there a market for non-income related blog tips? And if so, do you have any ideas you can share with me?”
“Want more tutorials? Then let me know and please give specifics.”
Hm… Google have so many services, such as Google Docs, Google Apps, etc… those are still fresh, and I think it is a great idea to post about how to maximize usage of Google service.
Example: How to make your own email address with google apps, how to make google doc to…., how to use google files for…., etc.
Cause I knew that Google invention always great, but I don’t really know how to use it.
Sorry for bad grammar. Your Indonesian fans.
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@Syamsul Alam, good ideas there. I’ll put it on the to-do list.
Thanks!
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BLOGBloke (@blogbloketips) reply on December 10th, 2009 6:13 pm:
@Curtis .. thanks for the comment my friend but do you mean technical tutorials or more general how to posts (or both)? http://bit.ly/1nuQw7
@Teen Blogger .. thanks! http://bit.ly/1nuQw7
[…] What Should A Blogging Bloke Write About .. Eh? www.blogbloke.com/blog-write-about – view page – cached Since my last blog post I’ve been feeling a little better and I’m mulling over what BLOGBloke should be writing about. You might have noticed that I altered the — From the page […]
What I really hate is when *ahem* someone *ahem* steals an idea and then goes on to make money from it. http://bit.ly/1nuQw7
What I really hate is when *ahem* someone *ahem* steals an idea and then goes on to make money from it. http://bit.ly/1nuQw7
@Mushfiqur Rahman, you wouldn't be referring to that Rowse guy by any chance would you? http://bit.ly/1nuQw7
Thanks Curtis. I write technical articles that are precedent setting - i.e. I'm not just going to recycle someone's… http://bit.ly/1nuQw7
@Mike, it's funny that nobody seems to notice that Rowse never writes technical posts. Most of his posts are just s… http://bit.ly/1nuQw7
Interesting! What a great story. That is worth a post in itself: I'd do a plagiarism table! (-:
Re nofollows, mi… http://bit.ly/1nuQw7
@Mike, yes there's no way DR would bleed any of his pagerank with "dofollow" which is probably why you got the cold… http://bit.ly/1nuQw7
[…] This post was Twitted by blogbloke […]
@Syamsul Alam, good ideas there. I'll put it on the to-do list.
Thanks! http://bit.ly/1nuQw7