But do you know what’s even more important than giving your readers useful tips?

Giving them in form of lists.

If you believe what I’ve written so far, that’s OK, your readers probably love you already. But doesn’t this blogging world start to look like a cookbook? Take two eggs, scramble them on a plate, add some salt and pepper, some small cut bell peppers, throw everything in a hot pan, wait one minute, turn on the other side, wait another minute, put everything on a plate, decorate with parsley, eat, enjoy.

Although there are great recipe books available for almost everybody, some of us are lousy cooks. Or maybe we are good, but the ingredients we use aren’t always that fresh. Or our timing is not exactly the right one: 30 seconds more on the fire can change the taste of the food we make.

Do you see my point? Why writing in lists, when the outcome would be unique anyway? Why respecting the cooking recipe, if I think my food could have a better taste if I cook by inspiration? Do you think the guests you invite for dinner care more about your cookbook rather than about the result, the food itself? If I were a cooking expert, supposed to produce the same outcome each time I combine the same ingredients, that would make a sense. If you go to a restaurant and order a Caesar salad, each time you expect to get the same combination of foods which we use to call Caesar salad.

But cooking by the book when nobody expects that can be a little frustrating, don’t you think so? Having an infinity of blank pages waiting for me to fill them in could be a challenge for creativity and not for making more and more lists. Why limit myself to a given frame, when I feel like crossing the boundaries? Only because I assume that readers cannot focus enough to read a whole page which is not broken into bullet points?

I’m smarter than that and I’m sure my readers are smarter, too.

What do you think about lists?

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Whatever the reasons, we want to be creative and to live up to the expectations of others. That’s why we need backup plans and strategies. Let’s see some of them:

Pat B. Doyle provids her readers with an impressive list of 23 great ideas for blog posts.

Lisa, from Hit Those Keys tells about counterweighs to beat Inertia and produce “New Work”.

Spinebreakers publish an audio interview with an author who has never experienced writer’s block. It seems that having multiple jobs ongoing at the same time is key for him to never have this problem.

Finally, this is how Rudyard Kipling explains the six words which prevent writer’s block.

What’s your way? Do you want to get rid of your writer’s block when it comes, or you are just living it to the full and stop posting for a while?

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• 5 Ways to Disrespect Readers

Writing for free, programming for free, talking, e-mailing, more blogging, more writing, and soon I got over my head.

Everybody is busy in their own way. Priorities shift constantly, and interests change.

One thing I’ve struggled with lately is how to keep on going. My personal situation has changed since I bailed out a friend who was kicked out of his apartment (long story). I’ve met a nice lady friend. I used to use blogging and programming to pass the time, now I have to make the time.

It’s a struggle, and one that I’m sure we all face. Some of us have kids. Most of us have day jobs. Some of us have school. And some have all three and then some. Yet we still find the time to make it online and share with the world our thoughts and knowledge.

Just this week I had to tell a guy who requested CSS customization on Ajax Edit Comments that I wasn’t able to help him unless I billed him my hourly rate. I felt bad about it, but there wasn’t much I could do. I had a paying client I had to finish a job for, and the custom work would have competed with that.

Andrew Rickmann also raised a thought-provoking issue. If someone had a site you didn’t particularly agree with, would you still help? So not only is our time being competed for, our ideals are as well.

My question to you is, how much are you willing to give away before it’s too much for you to handle? If you do client work, how do you determine what work should be paid for, versus not?

Thank you for reading.

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In a crowded, smoke-filled room, a person asks me, “What are you singing?”

I stare at the blank sheet of paper in front of me, where I am to fill out my name and song request.

“I’m not sure yet. What about you?”

“Oh.” the person replies, “I’m not going up there.”

“Why not?” I ask.

“I get horrible stage fright.”

“It’s just karaoke. Nobody expects you to be an expert singer.” I say trying to reassure my friend.

“I’ve tried it before. I just froze up.”

I smiled, “Sometimes you just have to forget there are other people in the room and sing for yourself.”

Karaoke and Blogging

Singing karaoke in front of a bunch of strangers is an intimidating experience.

If you’ve ever written a blog post for a rather large audience, it is an equally intimidating experience. You’re placing yourself out there for all to criticize.

It is my belief, however, that the more comfortable you become with yourself, the more your audience will be comfortable with you.

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• Avoid Ignoring Commentors Without Notifying Them First

It was just a little over a month ago that I was in Dallas for WordCamp Dallas. It was my first real trip to Dallas (besides going to the Ft. Worth zoo), and I had a blast.

The trip today, however, was more for business.

Knowing that Dallas is a maze, I went to BestBuy late yesterday and bought myself a Garmin 200W. I had hopes it would come in handy in Dallas, and boy did it ever!

The first order of business was visiting a home establishment in Grand Prairie, Texas. After we were done with that, the work for the day was done.

I mentioned to my co-worker that there’s a great Tex-Mex place called La Hacienda Ranch that you can only find in Dallas.

After traveling through torturous rush-hour traffic, we finally located it (using the trusty GPS) on Preston Rd. The name sounded really familiar, but I let it slip by me.

After La Hacienda (which was great, by the way), my co-worker wanted to find a sports store. The trusty GPS took us to a place called Dick’s Sporting Goods, which was still on Preston Rd.

Déjà vu swept over me. The sporting goods store was located in a giant mall, which looked very familiar. It finally dawned on me that I was in the very location where the WordCamp Dallas attendees had their first meet-up (at Dave and Busters).

I looked over at my co-worker and said, “Wow, I never thought in a million years I’d be back in Frisco, Texas.”

It was WordCamp Dallas all over again for me.

As a sidenote (I think everything in this post is a sidenote), the La Hacienda had a nice feature that I think should be done more often.

In their restroom is a switch above the sink. The note more-or-less states, “La Hacienda Ranch is committed to a clean restroom. If this restroom needs attention, please flick the switch to the right.”

When I read this, I thought, “Wow, what a great and non-embarassing way to bring attention to a problem.” If only every restroom had such a feature! I was looking for one in my hotel room, but I sadly couldn’t find one.

Anyways, I head back from Dallas tomorrow and back home to humid Alabama. I just wanted to share a quick note with the readers. I hope all is well out there in the blogosphere.

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I’d like to think I could approach just about anybody on the streets and make a good first impression. But since I’m not super-human, I can’t.

I’m not that guy who can sell ice to Eskimos, or sell sand to people on the beach.

And since I’m not super-human or a power-salesman, I have to rely on the power of introductions.

It’s Who You Know

You’ve probably heard the saying, “It’s all about who you know.”

With introductions, it’s the same thing. And it really doesn’t matter who you know. It does matter, however, that the people you know, know someone else.

I would love to spout off bullet after bullet of why being introduced is a lot better than a “cold call”, but I think it’s just too obvious. If you have a good reputation, and you introduce me to someone, it’s likely that that someone will take your word for it until I prove otherwise.

If there’s a girl (or guy) you’ve been yearning to talk to, one of the best ways is to find a friend who knows that person and ask for an introduction. It won’t guarantee you anything further, but it’ll at least get you that foot in the door.

Introductions and Blogging

Blogging and introductions are no different.

What would happen if you suddenly received a few invites a day for xyz product that claims to be the best thing since sliced bread? You’d probably scream “spam” and go for the delete button.

What if, however, your favorite blogger gave a rather nice review of this xyz product and explained its usage. Then, perhaps, you might be just a little more receptive of an e-mail. You may not even need an e-mail and pursue the product on your own. And it was all due to a friendly introduction.

Introductions don’t have to stop with products. I’ve discovered many blogs and bloggers due to recommendations from friends.

Introductions and Commenting

Another introductory approach, which can’t really be duplicated in offline life unless you leave notes for people in the bathroom stalls, is that of comments.

Commenting is a fantastic way to put yourself out there and allows others to get to know you without really knowing you.

After commenting on a site for a while, you start becoming a regular. The other commenters may not “know you”, but you aren’t a stranger either. If you then need to contact one of the other commenters, you can simply say, “Hey, I saw a comment you made at xyz site and I had a question…”

If you would’ve just e-mailed that person out of the blue, you might have a difficult time getting a piece of that person’s mindshare.

Conclusion

If you talk to anybody in the dating or job hunting game, they’ll tell you that introductions can be priceless. All it really takes is that foot in the door.

Once you get that foot in the door, however, the rest is up to you.

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A few days ago I read an article from Daily Blog Tips about managing reputations online.

A good reputation is a hard thing to earn. It can take years to build a good reputation, and only seconds to destroy it.

A while back I wrote an article here talking about how to irritate your readers. The same irritants of readers can also be very effective ways to ruin your reputation online.

Within this article I will highlight three ways one can easily ruin a reputation online.

1. Hack your readers into submission

I am a WordPress plugin author. I’ve also developed a few themes as well.

Having done both, I realize there are many ways I could hack into a person’s blog. All I would have to do is provide myself a back-door.

Earlier this week one of my friends discovered her blog was hacked. In the source were many links pointing to spammy sites. This is a constant problem with WordPress themes, especially if the theme has been hijacked by a third-party theme site.

Plugins can provide the same issues as themes. Plugin authors can create user accounts, track the plugin’s usage using stealthy code, and even harvest commenter e-mails.

However, what happens when this plugin and theme “hacker” is discovered? Well, let’s just say their reputation will take a nose dive and the person will never be trusted in a community such as WordPress.

2. Promise, Promise, Promise, and Never Deliver

We all have been in a situation where we have promised something, but never delivered.

I personally have promised plugins or designs, but then life just gets in the way. In those situations, it’s helpful to be transparent and honest.

However, there are some that are content to always promise something. The next big contest, or giveaway. A free e-book or membership site. A brand new theme or program.

It gets to the point where I just want to tell the person, “When are you going to stop talking and actually do something?”

I realize people are extremely busy and things are forgotten rather easily. I have this problem, and I’m sure I’m not alone. After a while though, people get sick of the empty promises.

3. Lie and Get Caught

When one announces a contest and a fake winner, readers get pissed off.

In the blogosphere, news spreads like wildfire. When Ashwin Khanna scammed a bunch of bloggers into a fake contest, they became angry.

How’s he doing? See for yourself.

There’s nothing to gain from lying, whether it is to get traffic, advertisers, or subscribers. Long-term, lying simply will not pay off.

Reputations are fragile…

Reputations are eerily fragile. It’s almost discomforting. But most of the cases I’ve seen where a reputation suffered, the person basically did it to himself.

Whether it’s a politician and a talkative ex-pastor, or a bride who ran away, reputations are there to haunt us or help us.

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There’s no secret that many bloggers measure online success beyond dollars and cents. I suppose that even those ones who are measuring success in money are happy to see that their blog attracts loyal readers.

What does a blogger do after he gets his loyal readers?

Well, a piece of advice which is frequently encountered is to “make a list”. So people follow the trend and make a list out of their readers, either by bribing them into subscribing, or simply by the interesting things they write.

What does a blogger do with his list?

Once the readers are not readers anymore, but “the list”, the blogger starts sending them emails. He has their permission, so he feels free to communicate with his list as frequently as he feels like.

What does a blogger communicate to his list?

This is the sad part of the story: once you turned from reader into “part of a list”, you start getting advice about what is the next thing you need to buy in order to … (to whatever the blog you subscribed to was about), or about how lots of people are so cool and you are not, because you don’t have Y product, or because you haven’t read Z book.

The funniest thing is that most of the times, those bloggers get their offers from affiliate networks, and you find yourself every morning flooded with offers to buy the same product, but from a dozen of guys who all want your attention.

Do you want to be “a list”?

I don’t want to be “a list”, and despise the fact that I receive maybe hundreds of offers every day. I have never bought anything as a consequence of getting those messages. Am I a bad reader because I don’t make those bloggers happy and buy their stuff? Actually it happened only once that I bought something only because I wanted to reward a blogger for his efforts. I already had a cracked version of that stuff, but I felt good when thinking that the guy would smile when he sees that he’s got a commission, consequent to my purchase.

But you know what? That blogger never put me on “a list” and never sent me one email to sell me something.

Do you share my feelings against such lists? Let’s all have our say as readers, maybe internet marketers would end up listening.

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Today is Earth Day 2008. I’ve seen it celebrated at first in Google (and I didn’t get the reason for shaping letters like trees) and later on, in many blogs who wrote about it, or celebrated it by changing their usual header to a “greener” one.

Have you thought that the more readers we can get, the better the Earth can become? Do you remember, in the age before internet, how many books were you buying and reading every year? Hard copy books are eating the forest. Printing houses are polluting (I never understood how printing house workers don’t faint because of the smell inside). Or how many newspapers you used to read and send to the garbage the next day. Other trees, other forests gone for good.

The better a blog is, the most readers it attracts, the more trees are saved, simply because those readers take from their books reading time, in order to read your blogs. The days have still 24 hours each, while the things we want to do in those 24 hours are maybe ten times more. The result? We cut on books reading time, then we buy less and less books, as the ones we’ve already bought over the past five years are still waiting to be read.

How is it? Can you believe that your blogging can save a few trees every year?

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The Bad

I’ve lost count of the number of sites I have stopped visiting because of the readers. I’m sure you can think of several sites off the top of your head where the readers routinely indulge in OS flame wars, sexism, racism, stupidity, or are generally unable to string together enough words to form a cohesive, or rational, argument.

So if readers can make such a negative difference can they also make a positive difference and turn their comments into an essential part of a site? I think they can, and I have a site in mind.

The Good

I am a big fan of Formula 1 motor racing. I never miss a race or a qualifying session, and there is so much to discuss that I talk about it, read about it, or think about it every day. A significant amount of this discussion happens at F1 Fanatic

When you open your feed list I imagine you do the same thing as I do: go straight to your favourite blogs and check out their content, leaving the rest for later, or at least after you have read the favourites. Am I right?

With F1 Fanatic, however, I found that I actually lose out by doing this.

If I come to a post late in the day I find between ten and twenty comments featuring extra thoughts, more information, and different viewpoints. If I get there first I miss all of that. The readers provide so much added value that it is better to wait.

For me this blog stands out for me as a prime example of how a blogger and their readers can work together to create something larger than the sum of its parts, how great the conversation with a blogger can be, and how a reader focussed blog can prosper.

The Contributory

Blog communities like these probably owe as much to the blogger for fostering the relationship as they do to the readers for coming back and commenting in the spirit that was intended. It may be that this is the natural result of great content, a great subject, and great reader appreciation.

As a reader in these communities, which sites do you value more because of the contributions of other readers? How much of this effect do you think is down to the blogger, and how much to the reader? And do you think it is possible for a blogger to achieve this without appreciating his readers?

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Most of the people I know have no concept of what blogging is, much less on how to deal with readers.

While at WordCamp Dallas, however, I was able to explain to others, some new to blogging, some veterans, what the concept of reader appreciation was all about.

Below is a fictional conversation of how I would ideally explain reader appreciation to someone who had no idea that it was.

Jason: Hey, nice to meet you Ron. I see you blog for the Reader Appreciation Project? Did I get that right?

Ronald: Yes, the Reader Appreciation Project.

Jason: So what is it? Something to do with readers, I imagine?

Ronald: Well, everything you see or experience generally has some kind of support base. For example, a business wouldn’t survive long without its customers. A television show wouldn’t last long without viewers, and a radio show wouldn’t last without its listeners.

Jason: Right, so you’re talking about blogging and readers, correct?

Ronald: Yes. Whether a blogger realizes it now or later, he is writing for an audience. This audience is his readers, and without his readers, his blog won’t be able to sustain itself over an extended amount of time.

Jason: But not all bloggers write for an audience.

Ronald: Well, I would argue that everyone who blogs is writing for some kind of audience, otherwise why not write in a diary and tuck it under the mattress? It goes with the saying that if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it really make a sound? The same goes with blogging: if you write a post, and nobody reads it, did you really write it?

Jason: Gotcha.

Ronald: So bloggers need that audience to survive. Not only are readers necessary for advertisers, but many bloggers are encouraged by comments, e-mails, and growing statistics.

Jason: So where does reader appreciation come into play?

Ronald: When you’re online, it’s rather easy to forget that there is a human behind every comment, e-mail, and visit. Each subscriber to a blog is giving up a moment of his or her time to read your material. Every time a reader leaves a comment, that reader is focusing his or her energy momentarily completely on you and your words. And when that reader writes in that e-mail, the reader is attempting to interact with the author.

Too often, comments go ignored, e-mails get trashed, and readers aren’t treated as the humans that they are. Just like you wouldn’t want go to into a store and be ignored while making a purchase, neither do readers when leaving that comment or sending in that e-mail.

Jason: So reader appreciation is just giving attention to the readers then?

Ronald: More along the lines of giving back. Readers make up the foundation of a blog. Without them, bloggers couldn’t even dream of monetizing. A lot of time bloggers measure their stats in the terms of page views and hits, but there are readers behind every single web statistic.

Jason: So what are some ways a person can show reader appreciation?

Ronald: At its simplest? Responding to comments is a good start. Most bloggers unfortunately don’t even do that. But there are many, many other ways, which is why there are sites like the Reader Appreciation Project.

Jason: Alright, sounds like something I should look into. Thanks a lot Ron.

Ronald: You’re welcome, and good luck.

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The following article was originally written for Peeve Week 1. Here is a preview of what you can expect for PW3. There are only twelve slots left, so get in while you can.

Whether it’s contacting a webmaster, site owner, tech support, submitting an essay in a contest, or enlisting the help of a blogger, e-mail is an incredibly unreliable form of communication. From my experience, e-mail is slow, and delivery isn’t guaranteed. This article will focus on my peeves with e-mail as a communications medium.

Check Your Spam Folder

Since I signed up for my Flickr Pro account, I have tried and tried to get my friends and family to join Flickr so they could see my pictures. Flickr has a nice built-in “invite” tool that auto-sends invites to e-mail addresses of your choice. The problem, however, is most of those people getting the invite will never even see the message. The message is probably going straight to that person’s spam folder.

Blame it on the spammers. If there wasn’t such a thing as spam, then there wouldn’t be a thing called the spam folder. Every e-mail you intended to send to somebody would reliably get there.

But spammers are prevalent. Spammers are a nuisance. And spammers won’t stop. So spam filters are here to stay, and so is the spam folder.

Whenever I contact a fellow blogger and do not hear back, I try not to take it personal. For one, the blogger could be very busy. I know I am. Two, the e-mail could have very well ended up in the blogger’s deep and heavy spam folder. Or three, the e-mail could have been lost in oblivion.

It’s not the blogger’s fault the e-mail is not getting to him or her. It’s the darn spammers. So please check your spam folder every now and then. I might be sending you a message.

Lost in Oblivion

Many website owners have nifty little contact forms built into their website. I have one too. The problem with these contact forms is that they are notoriously unreliable. The e-mail may seem to be sent from your end, but the form settings could be screwed up and the e-mail lost forever. You are then left sitting around wondering why the site owner never responded.

In my experience, it’s always a good idea to have multiple ways to get a hold of a person via the web. E-mail does not guarantee delivery.

E-mail is Slow

For somebody that’s always on the net, I usually respond to e-mail rather quickly. But most people aren’t like me. Most people check their e-mail once a day or every other day. I once tried to schedule an appointment with my therapist via e-mail.

Me: “I have Tuesday open. Do you have any slots open on that date?”

One day passes.

Therapist: “I only have Friday at 1500 open. Are you available then?”

Me: That sounds good. I’ll see you then.”

Two days pass.

Therapist: “I’m sorry. I scheduled the 1500 appointment before I got this e-mail. Can you do next Thursday?”

Good thing I wasn’t in a life or death situation. E-mail could have killed me.

My Personal E-mail Filter

When I receive an e-mail, the first thing that pops up in my head is, “Is it spam?” If it’s not, then I ask myself, “Is it a scam?” If the e-mail is not spam or a scam, I then ask myself, “Is it a forward or chain mail?”

After the e-mail has gone through those three internal tests, I ask myself, “Is it one of those stupid global e-mails that everyone in the company receives?” If it’s not any one of those, then I might open up the e-mail and read it. Even if I do decide to read it, I skim it to see if it applies to me. If it doesn’t, to the trash it goes.

I am a trained e-mail filter. And so is everyone else that uses e-mail extensively.

E-mail is Mis-used

I do not miss forwards. I do not miss chain mail. I do not miss jokes.

I don’t think I’ve ever found a forward that was remotely interesting. I don’t think I ever proved my love for God by sending the e-mail to twenty people. I also don’t think I’ve ever read a joke that I haven’t already heard before.

E-mail is for communicating. It shouldn’t be used for useless trash.

E-mail Sucks For Communication

There are things e-mail should never be used for:

• To terminate an employee.
• To break up with someone.
• To initiate divorce.
• To threaten someone with deadly force.
• To convey humor.
• To convey sarcasm.
• To convey any affection for that matter.

E-mail is just words on a screen. It takes a very talented writer to communicate an emotion via the writing. Judging from the e-mails I have seen, not many people are talented writers. People try to place emphasis that a deadline must be met, but that e-mail is just one click away from the trash. One I hit delete, the deadline no longer exists. And since e-mail is so unreliable, I can say that the admin restricted all incoming e-mail because my inbox was too full. Oops.

Why Bother With Read Receipts?

I have no idea why anyone bothers with read receipts. Every time Outlook asks if I want to send a read receipt, I click “No.” Everybody else I talk to does so also. Read receipts might be a good idea to ensure that everybody who needs to read the message has, but it’s only putting a small band-aid on the e-mail problem.

Conclusion

E-mail is a fact of life. I use it constantly. But I also realize the limitations of the medium. I’d rather call somebody or talk to the person face-to-face than e-mail. E-mail is impersonal and unreliable. I use it when I have to.

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In Andrew’s case, the blogger actually cared enough to follow-up and make sure everything is okay. However, the blogger’s behavior seems to be the exception to the rule after reading several articles this week on Internet behavior.

What can be taboo and obscene offline is usually fair game online. Calling someone a moron, an idiot, a jerk, a noob, or a host of other names is as simple as typing them on the keyboard, hitting send, and hiding behind a monitor.

PC World calls these people Jerks of the Web.

Within this article I will detail some of the jerks mentioned, and add a few of my own.

E-mail Jerks

These jerks pay no mind to how high someone might rank in the corporate world. With e-mail, everyone is equal, and is reduced down to their writing ability. Don’t like how your boss spells thier? Rip him down and call him an e-mail noob!

Scamming Jerks

Another point the PC World article brought up was those who write sponsored posts. It’s a topic I’ve avoided writing about here personally because I’ve done some in the past and I do think that there are decent sponsored posts out there.

However, there are some sponsored posts out there that are the equivalent of a 500-pound guy getting on television explaining how the “XYZ” diet is the best thing since sliced bread. Sometimes it’s too obvious that the writer of the post doesn’t give a crap about the product — the writer just wants the paycheck at the end of the month.

While writing a sponsored post in itself isn’t bad, if one isn’t writing honestly and without bias, then the post is just nothing but a scam.

Noob Jerks

Jonathan Fields writes about how to deal with blog hecklers. He was new to blogging and wrote a controversial post. And here’s what happened:

I ended up being called names that, only three-weeks into blogging, made me seriously re-think whether I really wanted to keep going.

Sue @ TameBay is also wary of the noob jerks:

But the bigger problem is the other commenters. They don’t have the vested interest in reader appreciation, and how you say to them “if someone’s a newbie, don’t go for the jugular”? I don’t know. On some of the blogs I was thinking of when I wrote the comment, the regulars have got so used to each others’ pet issues, and their arguments are so well-rehearsed, that a newbie is almost like ‘fresh meat’ to play with.

Trolling Jerks

Jonathan Fields called trolling jerks “The Genuine Thrasher”.

Some people literally spend the better part of each day looking for a fight. It makes them come alive. And, very often, with the added separation of the screen, people feel even freer to let loose online.

Trolls are out for blood. They feast on noobs, bloggers, forum members, commenters, and just about anything else. They are the fungi of the Internet, willing to infect all.

How to Deal With These Jerks?

I’m afraid that even I have not mastered how to deal with all kinds of Internet jerks. For starters, try to identify what kind of jerk the person is. Once again, I refer you to the article on how to deal with hecklers, which has a nice breakdown of the kind of hecklers (not all jerks) you might deal with.

My way is to try not to take anything personal, even if it is personal. If the comments are starting to get bad, I usually turn them off for a post, or I put my foot down and say, “Keep the comments on topic or they will be deleted.” I don’t like deleting comments, but sometimes it’s necessary to make a point.

I’ll also let a post with a lot of negative comments sit on the shelf for a while. Then, with a friend, I’ll read through the comments again. It’s amazing how personal attacks seem utterly pitiful and sometimes funny in the company of others.

Conclusion

It’s easy to be a jerk on the Internet. But one must remember that we are all human, flaws and all.

I’ll close with this paraphrased quote when I watched a customer-service video from Disney. It was a training video I watched while in college and it was of a manager talking to some of the maintenance people:

You all are very visible to the customers of the park, so you’ll be asked a lot of questions. You’ll be answering the same question over and over throughout the day. Just remember that although the answer will be quite obvious to you, each one of those customers has a brand new and genuine question that needs a genuine answer.

The above quote is quite different from the noob experience when visiting a forum, where the common phrase is, “Use search!”

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Have you ever written something you thought would offend?

Writing can be difficult when you are talking about subjective topics, matters of style or taste, or even just good practice, so it is no surprise that from time to time someone takes what you have to say the wrong way.

What do you do then when you write something and realise when you read it back later on that you have just criticised something that a reader does, even though it wasn’t meant to apply to them?

There are a few options:

1. Nothing, if they are that easily offended perhaps they shouldn’t be reading it anyway;
2. You can wait, and hope they understand you enough not to take offence;
3. You can be extra nice to that person, possibly adding a link;
4. You can can go back and add an update to your post;
5. You can e-mail them directly and explain;

So which would you choose?

Be Honest

What happened to me this week is that someone e-mailed me to tell me that their comment didn’t mean to apply to me, and clarified their meaning. I hadn’t read it as being critical of me, and even if it had been I probably would have agreed, but regardless of the original intent that e-mail spoke volumes. I, the reader, was appreciated.

I probably wouldn’t have been so forward thinking. I might even have opted for the head-in-the-sand approach. The web is full of people who like nothing better than to shoot you down so a few days under the duvet, sneaking furtive glances at the comments page when you think no one is looking, is a fairly easy choice to make.

So what would you do? Any of the above, or something different again?

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• Best of the Reader Appreciation Project - Anniversary Edition
• The Stupid Internet Jerks
• Blogger Anxiety - Posting
• Readers Behaving Badly - Comments Meant to Hurt

This post is somewhat of a departure from my earlier posts in an attempt to speak my mind on a topic I hold dear to me.

Not everyone speaks English as a first language. That is one thing I have to constantly remind myself, whether I’m writing for this site, my personal site, or at rather popular blog such as Weblog Tools Collection.

Case in fact, I am currently the only writer for RA Project that lives in the United States. Aside from Andrew, I am also the only writer that speaks english as a first language. The rest have learned english at their own will and have grasped it quite well.

Part of my heritage is that I am a half-Mexican. I speak a little of Spanish, but that’s only because I have actively been trying to learn it. The reasons I want to learn a foreign language are as follows:

• I want to learn a language that is very quickly growing in use in the United States.
• I want to continue my Mexican heritage by learning the language and culture.
• I want to help those in this country that have yet to adapt to the english language.

When I mention my reasons to those around me, some people will say, “But they’re in our country. They should speak english.”

Perhaps they should (I have no opinion on the topic), but that doesn’t change the fact that they don’t.

And in my local area isn’t the only place where non-English speakers are looked down upon. I was playing a video game where there were several people speaking Spanish. Some were from Argentina, some were from Panama. However, the Mexican jokes kept flying from the english speakers. I continued to talk with one of the guys from Panama (in spanish) and actually be-friended him.

My position is, everyone is human. And every individual is part of a unique culture. When someone refuses to accept other languages and cultures, he is doing a disservice to himself. There is so much more out there than just one country, one language, and one culture.

Blogging has widely changed my perspectives. Just yesterday I talked to people from Great Britain, India, Australia, China, Panama, Argentina, Canada, and the United States. Throughout the week I talk to people who live in many more countries. Sure the common foundation was the english language (in most cases), but it’s exhilarating to know that so much more exists out there.

I love blogging, and I love the readers I get the privilege to interact with. I am thankful for the many readers who have helped me or I was able to help. None of that would have been possible if I had refused to interact with those who may be a little different than me, or who may wake up and speak a different language.

Part of reader appreciation is recognizing the readers are indeed human. And part of that recognition is attempting to acknowledge and accept another person’s culture and language. When that attempt is made, doors appear out of nowhere and are wide open.

I love my language. I love my culture. And I love my country. But I try to keep my eyes open and recognize that where I am isn’t the only place, culture, or language in this world.

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And if you happened to have a brother like mine, who was hiding from me, and then came out with the magic cube solved, you can imagine how upset I was the day I discovered he was actually peeling off the stickers and stick them back again.

But once you got the technique, and you managed to solve the cube, suddenly the fact that your younger brother was doing that shameful thing became much less important. It was like a confirmation of a hierarchy you had in your mind regarding your abilities compared with your brother’s.

The Rubik’s Blogging Cube

This is pretty much like the relationship a blogger establishes with the audience: you have to know the secret to make them come, and once they are there, you need to learn how to make them stay, and even more, how to bring them back.
The more you know, the most successful you are in doing this. But in the beginning, without having almost any experience with readers, a blogger could get frustrated and demotivated when seeing others attracting readers like the fly paper attracts the flies, while she puts a lot of effort in writing, linking, commenting, socializing, writing again, linking some more, and yet seeing day after day how others come from behind and move forward in high speed.

You’d ask now, and you’d be right, which is that secret, that technique which sticks readers to your blog. Do you believe that Rubik’s cube has only one solution? I know two of them, and probably there are more.

Like this blogging and readers appreciation: there’s no unique way to get to it. Indeed, you can read guides on how to become an authority in your niche, you can assimilate the knowledge and the insights they give you, you can find original ways to know your readers better, and yet, when it comes to real life, you are faced with the reality of not getting the attention you’re worth.

If you don’t know Rubik’s cube, please watch this demonstration on how to solve it, and then you’ll get an idea of how complicated it seems to get to your readers. Then learn and rehearse the solution, and you’ll realize in fact, how simple it is. Just a bit of learning and a lot of rehearsal.

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The Blogging Commitment - Five Days a Week

When someone starts a blog with the intention of making it a success there is usually a mental commitment that comes along with that. A commitment that means that missing a day when one intended to post makes him feel as though he has messed up, or failed in some way.

Somehow though that feeling goes away at the weekend and there doesn’t really seem to be a good reason why that should be.

I have written a few series on various blogs now, and every time I do it I plan to post on the weekdays and enjoy a nice relaxing weekend where I can ‘get away with’ not posting. This has never been a conscious choice. At no time did I think that no one would be reading, or that people would want to catch up on the week’s posts or anything as logical as that. I just took a few days off.

However, I Miss the Weekend Bloggers

At the same time though I would stare at my feed reader wondering where all the bloggers have gone.

So why are the weekends so slow? Are bloggers deciding not to write because the readers aren’t there? Or are the readers not there because the bloggers aren’t writing? Are we in the typical Catch-22?

Do You Skip the Weekend?

If you skip the weekend, what are your reasons? If more bloggers wrote on the weekend, would you want to read more? If more readers were around to read, would you want to blog more? Or are two days a week of lax blogging a nice break? Please weigh in.

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This is my first contribution to RA Project, but hopefully not the last one. I guess it’s for you, the readers, to decide.

Have you noticed that when a blogger reaches a certain point of recognition, admiration and popularity amongst his/her peers, no matter what will be said or written by him/her will be perceived and received with even a greater accolade? I did use “no matter what” because even in the case of a negative behaviour or mediocre writing nothing can hurt that image of someone who really knows his stuff.

Why then sometimes I can’t help but feel cheated when some aficionado uses readers to produce the content for his blog. Sure some will say that I take it the wrong way, that it’s simply the way to encourage reader’s participation and give them a chance to contribute. Oh, don’t get me wrong - I’m all for reader’s involvement, that’s why I’ve organized several group writing projects and contests on my own blog, but I believe there is a fine line between a sincere desire to get readers active and excited and the fact that the blogger had no desire for a critically acclaimed writing on that day. It is very important to recognize that difference and not cross the line too often.

On the other hand, like I mentioned before, they know their stuff and what they’re doing, so why don’t we use their knowledge and implement it ourselves. Next time when you don’t have time for writing a reasonably lengthy article for your blog, or having another one of the writer’s blocks, or need some user data for your future articles, or simply want to increase reader’s participation on your blog, try one of the eight ways below to involve your readers in producing content for your site:

1. Poll

   This is probably the simplest way to gather a significant amount of input from your readers and later write an article based on their feedback. You can either use one of the available plugins to generate the polls or simply collect everyone’s answers in the comments. I still remember the poll - Do you maximise your browser window - ran by Roger Johansson last year that collected a staggering 1070 responses, and was followed up with the Poll results: 50.4% of respondents maximise windows two weeks after.

2. Ask thought-provoking questions

   This method is used very often by many bloggers. To get the best results ask questions that you yourself don’t have clear answers for or the ones that you’re wondering a lot about. Later you can follow up the readers’ responses with a post or two, or simply keep the discussions open for future readers who happened to stumble upon your blog. Veerle took it one step further: after asking her readers What is Graphic Design and collecting 194 responses, she decided to run a contest (which brings us to #3 on our list) and get visual interpretations in a form of a poster on What Is Graphic Design.

3. Contest

   Veerle’s design competition has produced over 600 amazing posters, worth taking a look at when you’re searching for some design inspiration. Everyone likes prizes, so get creative and come up with contests that are fun for your readers and beneficial to you, make sure to follow Simonne’s advice on having interesting vs. boring contests.

4. Group Writing Project

   It takes quite a lot of effort to organize a group writing project, promote it (especially if your feed count didn’t cross ten thousand or more subscribers), however the results of interesting group projects are very rewarding, not only because of lots of link love among its participants, but because it really brings readers together and develops dependable relationships. Carnivals also can be included in the category of group projects.

5. Readers Questions

   One of the best ways to get some ideas for your articles is by asking readers what is it that they’d like to learn from you. Daren Rowse is pretty good at that with his “ProBlogger question box”. He opened the box a month ago and over the course of the next few months he is and will be answering the readers questions.

6. Readers Analysis

   If you’ve gained lots of respect from your readers it would allow you to not only whip up a post based on their feedback but even make some money on it, why not? When I first read about ProBlogger Community Consulting where Darren is actually charging people for having their sites reviewed and criticized by his readers, I couldn’t believe my eyes. But it’s been over three months since that announcement and people are still ordering the reviews and the readers and gladly providing their feedback. I guess we can all learn a lot from this “experiment”.

7. Guest Writing

   This one is the most obvious way in getting some fresh content for your blog or backup posts when you are going away. However, be careful and choosy when inviting others to guest write on your blog. You might want to provide them with some topic directions or find out in advance what their guest post would be about. The rule of thumb here for me is that if I really liked the guest article myself chances are my readers would appreciate it as well.

8. One-liners

   Sometimes all you need to initiate a discussion is an intriguing or questioning post title with one word or one sentence in the post, or simply an interesting image or a video. I remember back in my early days of blogging I found a witty comic and decided to post it on my blog without any personal comments about it except the question in the title: Is This Really A New Definition Of Love? I’ve got several interesting comments in return. I also remember how Daniel from DailyBlogTips has produced over a year ago the shortest blog post ever: titled Get straight to the point and one word affirmation in the post itself: “Period”.

Once again, a word of caution - don’t overuse those tricks, and spend more time on producing a quality thought-provoking writing rather than provoking others to write for you.

Which of those methods have you used on your blogs? How do you feel as a reader when others implement them on their blogs?

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• Simply Saying ‘Thank You’ Pays Dividends

This is my first (and hopefully not last) post for the Reader Appreciation Project and so I thought I would try to take the outsider’s view. I imagine that after a few months of blogging everyone has questioned at least once whether it is all worth it and so the proposition I am going to examine is this:

The ideals of reader appreciation are great; but to do so much, for so many, for so little reward just isn’t worth the effort. Someone who is putting in so much effort must have an ulterior motive.

So why is it that people expend so much time and effort for the benefit of others?

I think it is a combination of four reasons:

Fear of success

The problems of success are no less than those of failure; they are just different. Giving away content for free and hoping for advertising revenue lets you succeed or fail in private without obligations to others.

Avoiding the mundane

One of my favourite shows is one where amateur cooks compete to prove they can cut it as great chefs and, without fail, they all want to convert their passion into their job.

Not everyone can successfully transform their hobby into work, and many shouldn’t. There is a risk of turning something you care about into an obligation and ruining it in the process.

Fame

Blogging can do wonders for your reputation as an expert. If you want to be considered an expert, get published, headhunted, or just gain the respect and adoration of your peers, then giving your content away may just help you achieve that.

True community spirit

I’ve left this until last for a reason. I am in awe of bloggers who appear unconcerned with power, fame and money, and they do exist, but I am a sceptical soul and I think this is usually only a small part of a blogger’s motivation.

All four of these reasons play a part in my motivation; fame is at the top of the list. I live and work in an environment where I am known for my knowledge of regulations, but it is one where people just don’t understand my knowledge of programming and the internet.

Blogging is my way of gaining respect for that aspect of my life.

If you are a blogger, what is it that motivates you to give back to the community and to appreciate your readers? Do these four come into it?

If you are a reader, do you think any less of me, or any other bloggers, because their appreciation of you may be driven by selfish desires or fear?

Finally, is there any motivation for giving back to the community that you would find unacceptable?

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The game goes like this: a word is chosen, and we are all going to say it, 10 time, 100 times, 1000 times, for as long as we can resist. The idea is that regardless the word, after a number of repetitions, it loses its meaning. You keep on saying it, but it doesn’t resonate anymore in your brain, it is just a bunch of sounds with no sense attached.

You can try this at home. I guarantee that all you need is a half an hour to make any word lose its meaning, provided that you constantly keep on repeating it with a loud voice.

Take the words “nice post”. Isn’t it that you loved to see a comment like that in your first days of blogging? I surely loved it. Then it started repeating, post after post, until it lost its meaning, and finally I realized that it was an artificial finding (called comment spam) meant to increase the number of links pointing to a certain site.

Now take the words “great content”, or “make money online”, or “to your success”. Words with meanings that once upon a time made sense, lead us now to pushing the back button in our browsers, only to get rid of the vacuum sensation that fills (or rather empties) our brains at their sight.

Original thinking people try to pull an alarm string, but the crowd they are speaking about is elsewhere, reading some more marvelous-empty words, and dreaming about celebrity, which is always by the next corner.

Good people spread the word about great initiatives, and reward those they had so much to learn from. Such articles are relaxation for my tired mind.

Cool people step out of the crowd and speak their mind. This doesn’t mean they don’t have respect for anybody. Actually they do.

New projects are rising, now when so many readers were hungry for them.

What shall I say more? Be careful with your words. Improper use may lead to a serious loss of meaning. And of good audience.

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A crucial element to the concept of reader appreciation is being available to your readers.

To show that one is available is to make a good attempt at some of the following:

• Have an About Page.
• Have a Contact Mechanism.
• Have Comments Enabled.
• Respond to Comments.
• Be personal (writing about yourself).
• Have a Picture.
• Display Your Real Name or a Suitable Pseudonym.
• Read each of these points in detail here.

But That’s On Your Blog…

Perhaps you have taken my advice and done your best to make yourself available. But then what? Is your availability to your readers solely based on the existence of your website?

It is a great (and generous) feat when a blogger shows a level of transparency and availability to their readers. But there’s even more that can be done!

So where are you when you’re not on your blog? And are you open to more “offline” communication with your readers?

Here are a few questions that could be answered in order to show your readers that you are available outside your website.

1. Do you have a Flickr account?

If you have a Flickr account, perhaps you can show some photos from time to time or embed your photo stream into your website.

A great way for readers to “discover” you is to see your photos.

2. Do you have Skype? Can I call you?

Do you have a Skype account? Are you open to readers chatting and/or calling you? Then perhaps you can list your Skype username and show your online status on your website.

I personally love talking to people on Skype, but I don’t always have my webcam on when on a call (not everyone is 100% their best 100% of the time).

3. Do you run (or are you apart of) a forum? If so, where?

Do you do other things besides blogging such as running or participating in a forum? Let your readers know where.

4. What other blogs do you write for?

Where else can your readers find your work?

I’ll be the first to admit that I have a wide range of writing styles. I can write technical one minute, humorous the next minute, and then turn on the political incorrectness for a personal rant.

If you let your readers know other places you are writing, then perhaps they will follow you there to read more of your work.

5. What are your personal interests?

What do you like to do when not blogging? Do you fish on the weekends or spend your evenings playing Guitar Hero? Let your readers know. Maybe you’ll get a challenge from one of your readers on X-BOX Live.

6. What social media sites are you apart of?

Where can your readers find you on social media sites? Are you on Facebook or MySpace? Somewhere else?

Why not link to your various profiles so readers can see more about you?

Where You Can Find Me

Taking my own advice, here’s where you can find me.

Yes, I have a Flickr Account

You can see some of my various photographs (not all are public) at my Flickr account.

Am I on Skype? Yes.

You can find me on Skype with the username “ronalfy“. I’m open to all (ok, most) calls, especially if you speak Spanish (I’m learning it right now).

Do I run a Forum? Nope.

Sorry. Been there and done that. I am a member of Jeff’s forum, but haven’t been too active.

What blogs do I write for? Lots.

I’ve contributed posts for the following blogs (higher frequency first).

• Reader Appreciation Project
• Ronalfy - Life is a Blog (my personal site)
• Weblog Tools Collection
• Devlounge
• All Tips and Tricks
• The Reasoner
• Inspiration Bit

I’m also apart of a weekly podcast called WordPress Weekly.

And yes, I’m open to doing guest posts. Just contact me please.

My Personal Interests?

I am a Christian. I like going to church and actually maintain my church’s website.

I love web development and custom programming (I prefer to keep it as a hobby).

I run about twelve miles a week and work out at the gym regularly. I am also studying the Spanish language with the hopes of achieving advanced fluency in reading, writing, and speaking.

Oh yeah, and I love Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Day of Defeat Source.

And Social Media Sites

I’m on Facebook and MySpace, although I prefer Facebook by far.

Conclusion

So where are you when you’re not on your blog? I’m sure you know. What about your readers?

If you have something to add (something else to show readers), please add it in the comments section. I’m interested in reading your input.

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Ronald recently wrote a post talking about different ways to losing readers. I would like to continue that post in its same format, almost, as a series and present to you part 2 of how to lose readers.

The points listed below are not universal laws, but only trends and ways to create your own universal laws that can apply to any or many situations. The same way each and every of Ronald’s point had exceptions or could be an exception instead of a universal law, each and every point below may or may not apply to you or every situation you can think of, depending on what you think is right or wrong. The points listed below are basic mentality trends that can lead to very dramatic results of both positive and negative nature, depending on how well they are handled.

Ok, so let us start losing some readers in the long run, shall we? Remember, each and every point below has exceptions, or is an exception to a general trend.

Making promises and not fulfilling them

Telling users that you will do something, and then not doing them on purpose can be a very bad thing. I have had many online bloggers ask me for advice and then tell me that they would contact me to let me know about something. Many of those online bloggers never do, since they only wanted to ask for advice in the first place.

It is not a bad thing to not promise something to the reader. Promise only when you can deliver, and if you cannot, let the reader know that you could not.

Discrediting the existence of problems that readers bring up

Imagine letting a bloggers or a site owner or worker know that you are experiencing some difficulty, and in return the site owner says that they do not see anything wrong with their site. It is one of the biggest annoying factors to be told by someone else that they do not see the problem you are facing, since that means that either the other person does not care, or that the other person must be forced into a parallel world where they can experience the exact same thing that you are experiencing.

I do not see it from my site, and from here, it works perfectly.

How many times have you received that answer? I have gotten that answer many times, usually from personal blogs or really popular blogs. The reason why personal blogs and really popular blogs have the tendency to think like that requires a detailed article of its own.

Focus only on new or supportive comments and commentors

I think the concept of agreeing and disagreeing comments should be done away with, and every comment be treated equally. I try to unsubscribe from all blogs that love supportive comments and hate critical or nonsupporting comments.

Megan, thanks for the supportive comment, I really appreciate it. Chandler, the disagreeing points you have mentioned have been duly noted. Thank you.

For me, the above comment is a slap to Chandler, as it makes me think that the author of the above comment is a weak person who wants everyone to agree to them without them working towards that objective.

Replying without courtesy

I have to explain this one in a bit detail. Imagine you calling someone or sending a snail mail to a company employee asking a question or giving some feedback. Now imaging driving to that company employee’s workplace and waiting downstairs by your car: the company employee comes down, looks at you, walks over and before you have time to shake his hand or say anything, he/she says:

The product handle does need some improvement and the product packaging seems perfect to us already

Imagine the employee then walks off, without waiting for your reply or anything, to a nearby restaurant. Regardless of the busy schedule of that employee, squeezing in a hand shake, a “hello” or a “Sorry have to go, really busy, will try to contact you again or you can call me” takes no more than a few seconds.

Now compare the same exact thing to comment or e-mail responses you get from bloggers. Many bloggers respond as if you have disturbed their 400 years of beauty sleep, and that they are very angry about it. The responses are cold hearted, and show no emotion. You are just a single reader: if you do not find the responses to be polite, the blogger has many other commentors who will stick around to keep the readership base growing.

Responding only to complaints

I usually find it annoying and funny when companies respond to complaints faster than they respond to non-criticizing feedback. Similarly, bloggers who respond to criticizing comments more than non-criticizing comments appear to be people who care only about their reputation.

Sure, respond to people who are complaining, but also respond to those who are not complaining, since both of those groups of people may be equal. If you are taking time to defend yourself against people who attack you, how about also taking the time to open yourself up to people that you think are not attacking you?

Not being considerate of others

This is a point that deserves a book of its own. A lot of people want commentors who agree with them, and a lot of people are not open to other ways of life. For example, many times, religious or political blogs rip apart comments by anyone from a different religion, even if the commentor does not rip apart a post by the other author.

Remember, simply adding “Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate it” to a comment does not make it nice; a comment that insults or disagrees with a commentor simply because of their religious, political, ethnic, cultural, educational, work-related or any other background and not the topic at hand is still a comment that is inconsiderate. It is like saying “Hey, watch out, I don’t mean to do this and I appreciate you experiencing this from me” and then punching someone in the face.

Focus on famous blog owner comments

Take any of your popular blogs and see how many times the popular blogger responds to another popular blogger. People who try to respond to famous blog owner comments immediately are basically telling all non-famous blog owners that they are not worth the effort to be responded to.

Hey Darren, very nice to see you here! Thanks for the response. Yes, I agree, full feed posts are better than partial feeds.

Imagine seeing the above reply from a post author to a post where a dozen other comments have not been addressed.

Disabling or turning off comments without notifying affected parties

When commentors comment, they are spending time on your site. Sure, it is your site and if you are not making any money or getting any kind of a personal benefit from it for yourself or some other entity, you can do anything you please. However, I believe that if you attract people into spending their time on your site, actions like turning off comments which can affect those people should be preceded by notifications or warnings.

Ronald does not like deleting comment