The Everyday Blogger

Just Because a Blog Has Little Traffic Numbers Doesn't Mean It's "Little Known"

Many of us who blog in the healthy living niche were really saddened to hear that Elastic Waist, owned by Conde Nast, was being shut down because well in our part of the blogosphere Elastic Waist was one of the biggies. If this were tech, it would be like hearing that Mashable was shutting down. It's a major bummer.

Along with Elastic Waist, Conde Nast is shutting down skincare blog Product Fiend and sex blog Daily Bedpost. The reason for the shut down was no shocker, unsustainability due to falling ad revenue in this down market.

Because the three blogs were owned by mega corporation Conde Nast, the shut down got coverage in big industry site Mediaweek. I'd like to take a moment though to correct the MediaWeek story by saying the word choice "little known blogs" is not entirely appropriate because in the niches that these three blogs belonged to: healthy living, beauty, and sex/relationships, these blogs were big and very much well known. As well, the bloggers of each blog were very well known in their respective communities.

Just because a blog has little traffic numbers and wasn't splashed all over the mainstream media does not automatically mean it is "little known". Context needs to be considered. A blog may be little known to the general media public, but can be a huge player in the blog's niche.

Therefore, in context, Elastic Waist may have been unknown to the Mediaweek audience, but the blog was one of the major players in the healthy living blog community, and will indeed be deeply missed. I would like to take a moment to pay respect to a quality blog. Hat tip to my fellow niche bloggers at Elastic Waist!

Why Are You Giving Your Content Away For Free?

I've been thinking about my answer to that question very deeply these past few months as I've been re-examining my blog monetization strategy because right now, to share honestly, other people are prospering more off my content than I am. And, I'm not alone in this. It's actually quite an issue for most bloggers...but most don't even realize it.

Clarifying freebies

Before I get into more detail about how others can be prospering more off your content than you, first, let me make clear that when I say giving your content away for free, I'm not talking on your own blog. One piece of advice that many an Internet marketer recommends is giving away free content on your blog and I agree with that strategy because it's like the taste test spoon at the ice cream parlor. If someone likes the bite, they'll buy a whole scoop or two, and might come back another time and buy a whole sundae.

And as well, I'm not talking about doing a guest blog or video post on another blog because that is good exposure for you and it helps create social currency with that blogger and their audience. Plus, your only doing it like once or twice a year kinda thing for any given blog.

I'm talking about situations where you are providing regular posts on blogs or sites that don't offer you money but the exchange of "exposure and honor" of being on their site. The typical business model of these blogs or sites is built upon getting non-paid aka "free" content from bloggers. These same business models do not include getting free content from "journalists."

Some of these sites might even offer a small bounty like if you happen to land in the top 100 of their leader board, but in most cases, you won't ever land in that leader board because the niches that tend to clog up the 100 are in tech, sports or business, non-lifestyle categories.

...What have you actually earned from all your free blogging? ...

Isn't that kinda like a sweat shop model?

For example, the Huffington Post has openly said that their business model includes not paying bloggers, and they will not change that. Last year, HuffPo had over 1800 bloggers contribute content, they earn revenue through advertising, and since their launch in 2005, HuffPo has received $35 million in VC funding.

If you are a HuffPo blogger, your content is helping them make more money, become #1 on Technorati, get better Google juice, and get better SEO. You get "visibility and distribution." But let me ask you, have you actually sat down and calculated what that visibility and distribution has translated for you into more traffic to your blog or to increase in your own revenue stream? What have you actually earned from all your free blogging for them?

Who wouldn't want to be in USA Today?

Services like Blogburst who round up the best bloggers in various niches sell this gathered blog content to major media sites like USA Today, Reuters, and Fox News. You the blogger get exposure and a byline on the big site. This indeed is something very impressive to put on your bio. Blogburst offers "rewards" to bloggers who make their Top 100 Leaderboard that ranges from $1500 to $50.

But now consider this, Blogburst makes money off of all content the media sites pay for whether you make the leaderboard or not. The media sites again gain traffic and quality content from you, and you may or may not ever get on the leader board because the Blogburst leaderboard can change on a whim, and you must stay be on that leaderboard by the Quarter close.

I will share that Back in Skinny Jeans has been a Blogburst member for almost 3 years, has garnished over 12 million page views from various media sites, and I have not made one cent. The click through traffic to my blog is less than .05%. I have some nice screen shots for my portfolio, but from a business perspective, how much has Blogburst and the media sites made off of my content compared to me the creator?

We all gotta pay our dues

There are many other examples I could bring up, but the Huffington Post and Blogburst are two perfect examples of bigger blogs/sites that make money off of free or next to nothing payment to bloggers like you and me.

Now granted, in your first year of blogging when you're starting out, everyone even journalists in their careers do "intern" type, paying your dues work where you get paid nada to handfuls because you're just after resume building experience and exposure. But at some point, journalists start to get paid real money and they get paid more the more experience they gain.

Most bloggers don't ever get that kind of pay ladder because we're primarily small business owners and earn by what we can hustle. We do have greater earning potential but again, you have to get creative and really hustle which can be a real challenge for those who are not business savvy or just don't like or are good at the business side of their blog business.

When are you gonna show me the money?

When thinking about your blog monetization efforts, what is important to ask yourself is if it is worth it to you to give your content to these blogs/sites for free in exchange for exposure and distribution? Do you feel that you are getting a mutually thriving deal and that you are profiting as well?

You need to know these answers for yourself because, at the end of the day, if you are in blogging to make a living or money, you need cash because your blog love does cost a thing.

The Gift of Blogging!

A blog is a gift to yourself and the world. It's an extension of your heart and soul, so thank you for sharing who you are!

Style tip: Increasing or Decreasing YouTube Video Size Dimensions

Did you know that you could change the size of YouTube clips to make them bigger or smaller so that it looks better in different places on your blog? Yeah, and it's real easy too!

The standard dimensions of a YouTube clip is 425 pixels wide x 344 pixels high which looks like this:

Now, the width of my blog posts here at The Everyday Blogger is actually 500 pixels wide, and style wise I like the video to look more like it's filling up the space. So, a good size to accomplish that goal is 465 pixels wide as I alott for padding on the sides. When I change the size dimensions to a 465 pixel width, I can now get this:

The video now fills up the space more. Looks better huh?

As an example of making a clip smaller, over on the sidebar of this blog where I have 'The Everyday Blogger Weekly Video", the side bar is 335 pixels wide, and I resized the YouTube clip to 300 pixels wide again alotting for padding.

It's really wonderful that in the YouTube embed code they make it easy to adjust the clip sizes by just making 2 very simple changes in the code. So, this is what you do. 

Copy & paste the embed code of your YouTube clip in the HTML editor part of where you want the video to go on your blog like in a post or a sidebar. For example, in TypePad, if you're putting a video clip into a blog post, switch to the "Edit HTML" view of your blog post and then paste the embed code from YouTube like so:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/V-a_cCBzXRg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/V-a_cCBzXRg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

In yellow, I've highlighted the places where you need to edit the code to make the clip the width size you'd like. In the current code, like I mentioned above, the default size is width 425 x height 344.

If you want to make the clip bigger to width 465, change the 425 number to 465, and for the height we are going to change the number to an equal proportion as the width difference. Meaning, in the width difference the pixel change was a 40 pixel increase: 465 - 425 = 40.

So then, we'll change the height number by 40 pixels from 344 to 384: 344 + 40 = 384. It's very important to make your width and height adjustments in equal proportions so that the video clip scales correctly, and looks good.

The new code to reflect your 465 pixel width and 384 pixel height will then look this:

<object width="465" height="384"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/V-a_cCBzXRg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/V-a_cCBzXRg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="465" height="384"></embed></object>

If you want to make your video clip smaller, adjust the same highlighted numbers to reflect the smaller dimensions you'd like.

See. Wasn't that easy?

Why Using Social Media to Break the News to Your Ex is a Bad Idea

Normally, I have an online boundary around the love/dating thing because you can’t really share stories at least the blog juicy kind without involving other people and their oh-so-not-best moments.

But today, I’m going to break that rule and share with you how my Ex broke the news to me about his new girlfriend and how it has affected me because one I can do what I do best and that is use my personal experience to help other people grow and learn, and two, it is a perfect example, of how social media can impact our personal lives, and not always in the ways we want it or expect it to.

Wearing my heart on my blog

But most importantly, this is a peek into how your actions shape who you are as a person and your personal brand online. I’m taking a risk with this post with my own online brand but risk is what separates the exceptional from the ordinary. I'm also tired of always following "the rules." I'm taking my turn to break the rules. I could fall completely on my face, but failure is how we learn too, right?

And before I go further, this post is not meant to bash my Ex because yes, in this post he is going to look like a prime piece of a**hole, I won’t candy coat that, and I’m not that good a writer. But, he is not, I still believe this. I did leave out big chunks of details and am only sharing the ones relevant to my point.

And even though I have many un-loving feelings towards my Ex right now and am feeling pretty wounded and Irish mad, I can separate who he is at the core from how he is behaving currently. I understand as we all should, that sometimes even good people can do hurtful stupid things. I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. So please, remember this and have an open heart while reading.

And before you start thinking how too damn healthy and mature I’m behaving, well, I’m not. I’m not that nice. There's a pinch of vengeful ex-girlfriend in here. Not pretty but so what.  And yes, I am very raw and I go between crying a river and punching the hell out of the bag at the gym imagining it’s my Ex’s face. But, I’m not hurt for the reasons you may think, and yes despite the bloody spit I’m swimming in, I amazingly have much clarity.

But quickly, before we get to the Ex, a word from mom….

Where's the Pro Blogging Life Filled With Flowing Lattes and Croissants at Cafes?

Remember in Private Benjamin where Judy Benjamin played by Goldie Hawn joined the Army, but the Army she thought she joined was one filled with Condos and trips around the world because that's what her recruiter sold her. See, in the beginning, I was kinda like that too thinking that the career I signed up for as a Pro blogger was one that would be filled with flowing lattes at cafes, travel to hot spots, and lounging all day in pajamas.

I even thought geez how hard could this blogging thing be because it's just writing funny witty stuff about your life and then hitting publish with no idiot Dilbert boss telling you what to do. You get to be a free agent, do what you want, any time you feel like it. Plus, I was a marketing whiz. I managed multi-million dollar marketing campaigns. I got the world's largest computer makers to give me money for co-marketing opportunities, and I even got cc'd on an email to Steve Jobs. So, blogging for a living should be a piece of cake. Right?

Cut to rude awakening in the latrene

Like Benjamin, I discovered that flowing lattes and croissants actually make you gain 10lbs in no time flat thus giving you the dreaded blogger butt, travel to hot spots is really a trip to your local Starbucks for free WiFi, and if you lounge in pajamas, the only decent thing you can write is pointless dribble about bacon or dumb kitty videos which really no one will link to let alone click to read from their RSS reader.

Damn, you people! Leave your RSS, and click onto my blog so I can get the traffic number because I am pathetically sitting here checking my traffic stats at least twice a day. I can't believe how easy it was to get addicted to a bar chart. Indeed, I'm a recovered stataholic because I learned that going to my stat counter every hour only made me more nutzoid or depressed because no one was acknowledging my brilliance with loads of traffic. I have no doubt that as more people become Pro level bloggers that there will be a pill for us for NTSD, No Traffic Stress Disorder. You laugh because you know it's true.

Sometimes I kinda miss the cubicle farm

I can tell you this. It was actually much easier to get those OEMs to give me money than it is to try and get traffic, create content, AND manage the business end of your blogs. Getting yelled at by your boss is nothing compared to getting flamed when the web turns on you. And that piddly bonus check I used to bitch about, now seems like a bag of gold compared to the nickels you get from Google AdSense. And at the j-o-b you actually didn't have to bust your hump too often or at all depending on where you work, you still got a paycheck every 2 weeks. Oh how I miss those regular 2 week payments straight into my bank account.

The life of a Pro Blogger is not filled with glamor, a life of luxury, or ease, at least in the beginning. No, you will probably work harder than you have ever worked in your life. You will have to learn how to stay disciplined and manage yourself, and yeah, you will have to experience some if not a significant adjustment in lifestyle. I didn't plan the money side too well, so I've been living like a college student for the last couple years.

If Deepak Chopra could see me now

However,and there is a big old but, but the good kind of big but, being a Pro Blogger for me has been nothing but utterly amazing and has filled my life with such a sense of meaning and purpose that I could never have imagined. Really, you can't write this stuff in a book, you just have to experience it.

I have never felt this alive in a job - ever. Have you ever had a job that made you feel alive? I didn't until now. Don't get me wrong, I had some real high points in my former corporate career, but the happiness never lasted that long and I never felt the satisfaction as deep as I do since I started blogging for a living. So despite all the hardships, I've been able to stick with it and continue to do so because it feels like my life purpose work.

Right now, I'm really struggling with the monetizing part, and how to get more traffic despite being one of the top healthy living bloggers, but I see it as a problem to solve versus something to feel like I've failed at or am no good at. Admittedly too, not all days are that sitcom rosey either. I do have days where I cry after looking at my bank accounts online, and I lie on the floor in fetal position wondering what the eff I'm doing? That's human.

Seeing Life Through Edison's Eyes

The other day a friend asked, "So, if you haven't really been able to make it on your own two feet with all this blog stuff after 3 years, do you think anyone will listen to you and your advice at The Everyday Blogger?" He meant well with the question, and it is a legit one to ask.

My answer, "Well, I don't know. But I really won't know unless I actually do it, and I'm not going to let my inner perfectionist stop me like I used to let it. And I can tell you this, I have discovered about 50 ways to NOT make money effectively online and there is value in that. Like Edison who didn't see over 900 attempts to make the light bulb a failure. He found over 900 ways to not make a light bulb. And people would pay for that kind of info in order to learn from my experience so they don't do the same. So see, even in my "failures" I'm still winning something." 

Quick Fun: Enjoying a Moment in a Foreign Land

One of the reasons I love all this social media technology is that no matter where you are in the world, you can enjoy a moment in some other part of the world. For example, via a cell phone, here's a very cool example of video microblogging, a 36 second bus ride through Tokyo speeded up. Sweet!

Learn How This Blogger Averages 100+ Comments Per Post And Did It In Under a Year

Photo: By yours truly when MizFit and I were in Chicago for a Quaker Oatmeal Blogger Event

A common challenge for most bloggers is, "How can I get more people to comment?" And even better, how can you get commentry that is healthy (even when disagreeing), insightful, and interesting?

Today, we are very lucky to have with us one of the popular bloggers in the healthy living niche, MizFit Online who's specialty is fitness. This lady is a master at the commentry. MizFit averages 100+ comments per post AND she was able to accomplish this level of commentry in under a year. Amazing!

We're gonna pick MizFit's brain, and see what we can learn! She'll share her secret sauce, what type of posts ellicit higher comments, and a thing she calls "commentversation."

Style Tip: How To Add Magazine-like Block Quotes in Your Posts

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A style thing you can do to help visually break up long blog posts is the block quotes like you see in magazines. Besides looking really cool, the block quotes can help highlight an upcoming point later on in the post, which if intriguing enough, will get your reader to keep reading because they want to get to the juicy quote part.

Now some code is involved but it's really easy, so easy in fact that all you have to do is cut & paste what I give you, and then make some minor tweaks, that's it.

As well, the ability to do block quotes is only possible if your blog platform has an "EDIT HTML" feature where you write your post.

So, this is the code you will copy & paste:

<p style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 50%; color: red; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; opacity: 0.75; float: right; width: 150px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Georgia; font-size: 24px; line-height: 26px; text-align: right;">
<span style="opacity: 0.75;">...insert your block quote here<span style="opacity: 0.9;">...</span>
</span></p>

It is best to put this code snipet in between paragrahs, and do this last after your post is all ready written and ready to publish. What you want to look for in your html is the paragraph symbol which is this: </p>

So basically, you'll be doing this:

</p>all the code/verbage for your 1st paragraph</p>

paste the block quote snipet here

</p>all the code/verbage for your 2nd paragraph</p>

Using our block quote snipet again, I have highlighted in yellow the areas you will have to tweak to fit your post which again is very minor.

<p style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 50%; color: red; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; opacity: 0.75; float: right; width: 150px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Georgia; font-size: 24px; line-height: 26px; text-align: right;">
<span style="opacity: 0.75;">...insert your block quote here<span style="opacity: 0.9;">...</span>
</span></p>

• red is the color of the block quote. You can change the color of your block quote by putting in the color you'd like. I find in this code that it is best to use basic colors like: blue, purple, orange.

• 24px is the font size of the block quote. 24 is a good size but you might want to make the font size bigger or smaller. Just change the "24" to the size you'd like.

• insert your block quote here this is where you put in the quote you want to use.

You can change the font style, but for simplicity and usability, I recommend just staying with the font in this code because all browsers (ie. Firefox, Explorer, Safari, Chrome) have the font, and this font is easy and clear for most people to see.

I also recommend keeping block quotes on the right side if you're blogging in a language that is read from left to right because it's an easier transition for the reader's eyes. If you want to have the block quote sit on the left side, you will need to look for the word "right" in the code, and change it to "left." The word "right" is in two places in the code snipet.

Hit save, there ya go. For those of you who know code, if you have any other block quote tips to add, please share! We likey very much.

An Everyday Perspective: Are All Bloggers Journalists?

You can find tons of blog posts about what journalists think and what social media business experts think, but for a moment, I’m going to throw in an everyday person’s perspective on the subject of blogging and journalism from someone whose day to day activity is removed from the business, journalism, and geek worlds. I'm just someone who is just trying to make a living in the real world helping people live healthier lives, eat better, and make a living through lifestyle blogging.

I'm offering an everyday perspective because frankly I'm frustrated as I think some of these “experts” are out of touch with the everyday world where there are millions of bloggers like me who also make up the socialsphere. Yeah it’s pretty ballsy of me to say that, but I’ll expand more later on.

Here at The Everyday Blogger, most of our readers would most likely have to call in a life line if asked to name a web 2.0 social media expert. But ask us who the top healthy living, food, parenting, green, or fashion bloggers are and we could come up with names in an instant. Try asking your typical social media expert to name the tops bloggers in the lifestyle niches. The two worlds just don’t often touch each other, but I’m hoping to help bridge those worlds with this blog, The Everyday Blogger.

So, let's talk about Kmart...