The Reader Appreciation Project » Questions

Are You Concerned About Fake Friends?

Simonne — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:53:33 +0000

If you run a blog or two, you may already know that some of the means to promote your blogs to the world are social media and commenting on other blogs in your niche. Both methods imply communication. Your avatar meets my avatar on the same page and we exchange words and thoughts.

What if my avatar has been “borrowed” from Flickr and designed to represent that other “me” I want to be in relationship with you? If you knew that your web 2.0 friends who helped you when you needed were just “somebody elses” hiding behind fake social media profiles, would this discovery lower your appreciation for them?

Is this situation similar to the one of the little boy who wanted to get his grandmother married, so he pretended to be her in some dating websites, and befriended some potential grandfathers in her name?

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Invisible Readers, Where Are You?

Simonne — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:32:09 +0000

Do you remember the last time when you did something for your readers to make them feel better on your blog? How did you come to the conclusion that you had to do exactly that particular change and not others?

One of the niches I’m writing in is internet marketing. As I want to stay informed on what other people in the niche are writing, I’m subscribed to a gazillion blogs, and every now and then I even remember to read them. Many bloggers in this niche feel like monetizing their blogs is a must, taking into consideration that they write about making money with blogs. However, every once in a while, there’s a blogger who decides to get rid of all blog advertising as tribute to his readers. The results? The readers’ appreciation? I quote from the blog of Garry Conn, who’s the person in question:

Since this time, I have written some really good articles — at least what I thought to be — and have received virtually ZERO reactions to these posts. I even wrote a post about my daughter’s 16th birthday and out of 1200 subscribers on only 4 people wished her a happy birthday. So for me, I am truly offended by that. I understand nor do I expect that all 1200 people would have wished her happy birthday, but I would have expected around 20 people to do so…

So, ads are back on the blog, and so are the comments from readers. This is the last comment on the post I’ve quoted from:

I’ve never seen a marketer chew is viewers out … ?? I get great feedback, and most others do to. Only 25% of people come back to your site, meaning you’re failing on building the emotional connection. Don’t blame your viewers when you fail at generating buzz or comments. You are the one making the “first move” with your website. If you fall on your face, then work on your style, or add more value.

What do you think? Was this reader unfair? Or is it just that our readers are in such a hurry themselves that they really don’t find the time to stop and wish Happy Birthday to the daughter of somebody they learn from?

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The Lifespan of a Reader

Simonne — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:47:43 +0000

There was this research some years ago which was showing that the staff of a company fully renews itself over a period of three years. People come and go, and if you have the curiosity to pay a visit to your former colleagues after a few years, you may end up with the surprise of not knowing anybody in that company anymore.

Thinking at myself as a blog reader, one of the things I notice immediately is that the list of blogs I read has almost completely changed over the past two years. Although I watch on average 100 blogs (or more), the ones which are still on my favorites list can be counted on one hand’s fingers only.

I don’t remember when I’ve lost interest in some blogs and how long it did take until I wasn’t interested in them anymore. However, I believe that for most of the blogs, my lifespan as a reader last some 4-6 months. I have no idea if those bloggers were starting to repeat themselves, or was it only that I didn’t care for those topics anymore?

How are you as a reader? Are you aware of your lifespan as reader of a certain blog? When you stop reading one, do you know your reasons, or it’s just that one day you discover that you completely forgot it existed?

After how much time the readership of a blog is completely renewed? I wonder if we could measure that. What do you think?

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To Follow, or Not to Follow - on Twitter

Ronald Huereca — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:44:07 +0000

To follow, or not to follow. That is the question.

This past week I gained about sixty or so followers thanks to Jeff’s Twitter post over at WeblogToolsCollection.

After scanning through each of my new followers, I was faced with a decision. Do I follow just because they’ve followed me? Or, do I follow because there is a genuine, and hopefully, mutual interest?

It’s really the same dilemma I find myself facing when it comes to feeds. I would love to subscribe to each one of my readers’ blogs, but I typically only subscribe if I can relate to the subject matter in the areas of interests, language, and material.

If you are on Twitter, what is your criteria for finding people to follow? Also, what would cause you to unfollow (is that a word?) someone?

For those interested, here’s some of the RAP contributors’ Twitter profiles.

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What Else Do You Do With Your Readers?

Simonne — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:06:19 +0000

If you started blogging more than 5 minutes ago, chances are that you already have a few readers, and you probably know some of them (if not all) by their names.

Now you know who your customer is, you start writing with him in mind, you start polishing your articles more, because you know that Bill, or Jane or Cheap Blue Contact Lenses will have their say on that next article of yours.

But what else do you do with your readers, when you don’t write for them and you don’t answer their comments?

1. Do you share links on social networking sites?

2. Do you read their blogs?

3. Do you chat with them on Skype, or other instant messenger services?

4. Do you meet them at blogging conferences?

5. Do you exchange emails with them?

6. What else?

If you shut down your computer and close your eyes, how many of your readers you can list by their names? If you have less than 10 readers-commenters, you’d probably remember all of them. If you have 100 readers who comment, you’d be lucky if you remembered 50% of them. What if you had 11874 readers? How can you have so many readers and still write with them in mind? Or are you still writing only for the core readers who were the first to discover your blog and enjoyed it ever since? Or for those people you are doing also other things with?

Or are you just writing for the Google bots, hoping that people would follow?

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Do You Make Money Online?

Ronald Huereca — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:04:56 +0000

The “making money online” topic is something I have personally shied away from here simply because this isn’t the type of blog that talks about making money.

However, I know some of you out there who do make money online, whether it’s from blogging or some other online venture.

A question I’ve been pondering, but am unable to answer, is how does one make money online and keep the readers in mind?

The linked article does an excellent job of detailing how not to alienate readers, but I’d like to hear it from you if you have a moment.

By the way, the new (and about to be released) Ajax Edit Comments is live here, so feel free to comment and test it out. Please note that any test comments will be later removed.

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How to Ruin Hundreds of Online Reputations at Once

Simonne — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:31:02 +0000

We’ve just seen three ways to ruin an online reputation. It is just that easy: take a wrong step and you’re lost. Sometimes, one doesn’t even need to lie, cheat or hack your readers. Sometimes, a small “detail” like telling something really important for the readers in a small phrase hidden inside a very long sales letter can bring one down in a matter of days, if not hours. This was the case of Joel Comm, who was selling an ebook for $9 and had all buyers automatically subscribed to a $29.9 monthly membership.

Seeing his reputation endangered by greed, Mr. Joel Comm saw himself in the position of running from blog to blog and saying how sorry he is, and how he is going to fix that issue by changing the sales page, so people can clearly see and opt for one of the variants: buy only the book, or buy the book plus the subscription.

Surely, Joel’s reputation had to suffer. But what about the reputation of all bloggers, like Darren Rowse of Problogger who promoted his ebook via affiliate links? Maybe they didn’t notice the scam, like many buyers of the book. Or maybe they’ve seen that, but they kept their mouth shout, in order to get the commissions. There was a lot of money at stake, as the previous version of AdSense Secrets (the ebook in question) sold for $97, and now there was an updated version available at only $9. Quite a bargain for the naive buyers!

Quite a surprise for all bloggers who promoted the book, to find their online reputation endangered by the simple fact that they promoted a product they thought to be good.

What do you think? Did the affiliate bloggers’ reputation also suffer from Joel’s scam or not?

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Would You Buy From My Sidebar?

Simonne — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:58:00 +0000

Blogs. Sidebars. Fashions. Uniforms. The 125×125 ads displayed in the sidebar of probably 80% of all blogs.

Despite their extremely poor conversion rate (very few people are clicking, and even fewer buy), the little cute squares are bloggers’ favorites when it comes to selling advertising (or at least to filling them with affiliate banners, forever waiting for the day when the advertisers’ requests will start flooding their inbox). That section is most of the times clearly labeled as Advertising, or Sponsors, so it is clear the sole purpose of those ads is money.

Keeping this in mind, do you believe that displaying those ads in the sidebar implies that the respective blogger also endorses those products or services? I never thought that readers may think I’m endorsing those things I get paid for displaying in my sidebar, as long as I label them as advertising.

Although assuming is not the wisest thing of all, I assume that some of you will say that it is a sort of endorsement. Some others would probably say that a blog’s sidebar is just like the advertising pages in printed magazines: pure advertising. No magazine endorses the products which are advertised inside. It’s just advertising, everybody knows and accepts the convention.

Why then would you buy something from a banner in my sidebar? Or, would you?

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Usability or Stereotypes?

Simonne — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:31:04 +0000

Have you seen the dashboard of the new Wordpress 2.5 yet? I’ve seen it today for the first time, and for a few seconds I felt like Alice in Wonderland: despite the cool look, almost nothing was in the known place anymore. I suppose it is OK, but when you’ve seen the same page for thousands times over the past year, you have to fight a little to get rid of the old patterns (and develop new ones).

Lately I’ve become interested in developing themes for Wordpress blogs, and many times I ask myself which way is better: to get creative and take people out of their blog navigation patterns, or to go with the flow and create those kinds of layouts which are “in fashion”? Due to the fact that we design the themes for the readers, and we wish them all to download and use at least one of our themes within one year from now, we decided to follow the trend and create themes which respect the readers’ wishes and expectations.

What do you think? Is this usability, to find all things in place, more or less where you’d expect them to be, or is it only the fact that we are overexposed to certain things, thus developing stereotypes in our behaviours and expectations?

If you cannot figure out what I am talking about, please check out the following website: www.leoburnett.ro. It belongs to the Romanian subsidiary of the international advertising agency Leo Burnett. It is one of the most creative websites I’ve seen lately, but I’d like to find out your opinion, as users who don’t understand the language (actually the main menu items are in English, so you won’t have a problem finding your way).

How interesting should a website be, so we take time to learn how to navigate it? Is a website an artwork in itself, or should it mainly serve the purpose of offering information to the readers?

Personally, I like it when I find everything easily on a page, but I cannot refrain from thinking that we have imitation deep in our blood, with the consequence of a perpetual search for models to follow.

Would you still read a blog with a crazy creative theme? Would you give your blog a crazy creative look?

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What Is the Ideal Comment Section?

Ronald Huereca — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:19:37 +0000

With the upcoming re-design (details coming soon, I promise), I will have the opportunity to completely redo the comment section.

The slogan of this site is, “Where it’s all about the readers.” I’d like to keep true to that and have a comment section that is truly all about you, the reader.

As a reader, what is the ideal comment section?

Here are some things to consider if you are considering a response:

How prominent is the author name?
Are links no-follow’ed?
How do you tell different authors apart with the same name?
Are Gravatars or MyBlogLog Avatars displayed? How large?
What comment plugins do you like?
Editing comments?
Should readers be set apart from authors?
Should frequent commenters be shown different than new commenters?
How are Trackbacks/Pingbacks displayed?

I will absolutely use the feedback used on this post to draft a comment section. If you respond with a post of your own rather than a comment, I will gladly link to it here.

As soon as my design mock-ups are complete, I will post them for you all to see.

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What Happens if We Combine Social Media With Automation?

Simonne — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:08:03 +0000

I suppose social media is meant to give people a channel for socializing.

Socializing is like going to a party. You dress yourself nicely, put your best avatar for the night, perfume your account with your latest accomplishments, pick up your partners and go for it.

What if, instead of the host, you’d be welcomed by some robots, wishing you to buy the latest brand of detergent, or to read the newspaper before you step inside? What if, the host itself, would insert into the conversation some fragments like “you know I’m right, my darling, please see my yesterday’s post, and make sure you click on my affiliate link, since you are there”?

Well, this must be annoying, as you actually went to that party to interact with humans, not to witness a sample of the latest technology in matter of automation. As antisocial as I may be, as much as I cannot see the benefits of using Twitter, and I like to joke about it, I cannot stop myself from thinking that Twitter set on automation is a real freak.

How would it be to record my voice saying some promotional messages for my clients, or for my own blogs, take with me an mp3 player, and each time I meet an acquaintance, play him the morning tune, or the afternoon tune, or the evening tune?

Where’s the line between marketing and over-marketing? Maybe it’s us, the marketers who should draw it, who knows? And maybe we will, when we’ll realise that a pissed-off client is very hard to bring on your side again.

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Are Blog Contests a Sign of Reader Appreciation?

Simonne — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:16:53 +0000

You have probably noticed that blog contests increased in popularity, as more and more bloggers want to get more RSS feed subscribers and more comments on their posts. Encouraged by opinion leaders, bloggers are keen on launching their own blog contests, sometimes giving up the morning coffee in order to have the money for the prizes.

This is a very nice gesture, and a gesture of reader appreciation, you’d say. But as a reader, don’t you feel underestimated if you are required only to subscribe to a feed, or to leave a comment, or to write a few words about the contest, in order to qualify for a prize?

I’ve organized both kind of contests: the ones I’d like to participate in myself, which required an extra neuron to be put at work, as well as the typical ones, requiring no more than subscribing to my blog feed. The participation in the second type of contests exceeded by far the first category. The funny thing is that I was a bit embarrassed when I announced the simple contest, because, honestly, I think my readers can do better than that.

Somebody may say that people don’t have time for complicated contests.

OK, I agree, but if it is not for fun, why are they participating to the social blogging life? For the big prize of $20 which they may win if they subscribe to a feed?

Participation to contests is not an obligation. Blogging is not an obligation. Having fan could be.

If you want to have fun with a blog contest, please check out Emma’s Words to Know. This is also simple, but much more entertaining than the “subscribe to my feed” ones. And Emma’s got only 5 participants in her contest. Is that fair? I don’t know, but it surely is true.

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How Do You Prevent Your Readers to Get Bored?

Simonne — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:00:44 +0000

Every now and then, I notice people unsubscribing from my blog. There may be many reasons for that, one more serious than the other. As I don’t run a highly focused blog, I suppose that those people subscribed following a post which tackled a topic they were interested in, and now, seeing that I don’t write about that topic again, they unsubscribe.

Nevertheless, I think that another reason for somebody stopping reading a blog is just because it may be too focused, too serious, too narrow. I’m talking here especially about blogs about blogging, which tend to take a piece of info or advice (which may be good, I don’t argue that) and twist it, rephrase it, rewrite it, day after day, month after month, until everything starts looking like “deja-vu”, like in the Groundhog Day movie.

I’ve already seen blogs which try to prevent reader boredom. Some of them do it by participating in memes, others try to make readers think whether boredom is a friend or a foe, while others just discover the benefits of interruptions in work by using AntiRSI, a software which will force you to have a break from your computer activities at fixed intervals.

I did not pay too much attention to my readers’ boredom, maybe because I was not aware of it.

Do you think your readers get bored? Are you doing anything to prevent that?

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Poll: RA Project and Monetization

Ronald Huereca — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:47:36 +0000

There are obviously some changes coming to RA Project (which I will get into in a future post).

One of the first things is a new design. Simonne and I have agreed that we will likely transition to the Mimbo Pro theme when it is released.

If you look at the pre-liminary sketch, there are a few slots for adverts. Part of my reasoning for the potential monetization of this site is to compensate past and future contributors (as well as RA Project overhead).

This begs the question: what do the RA Project readers think about the monetization of this site?

If you have a moment, please participate in the poll below. You are also welcome to express your opinion in the comments section. If you are against monetization, I’d also be interested in hearing your viewpoint.

The poll will be live until 02/17/2008.

If you don’t see the poll, please visit this link to cast your vote.

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Are You a Readers Pleaser?

Simonne — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:04:16 +0000

Looking on Sphinn this morning, I came across an article called The People Pleaser 2.0. Briefly, the article explains that people pleasers are those ones who seek and find pleasure in pleasing other people. The author, Shana Albert, shifts the picture from the real world into the virtual space, comping up with the concept of People Pleaser 2.0. As Shana explains, amongst the symptoms which could diagnose a People Pleaser 2.0, there are:

People Pleasers tend to be frightened every time they publish a post. They are afraid of other people’s thoughts on their posts because a People Pleaser bases their feelings on how others feel.

Comments on their blog is enough to make or break them. They feel elated and happy when their posts receive good comments, but these people are coming undone on the inside with each of the negative comments.

While I really enjoy when I see people are pleased with what I write, I cannot stop myself from thinking that there has to be a border somewhere, between enjoying and craving for your readers’ happiness.

What about you? Is a negative comment enough to ruin your day? Are you doing the best you can to please your readers? If you do, how are you feeling on the inside?

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Does Level of Appreciation Affect the Message?

Bes — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:56:16 +0000

Today I would like to briefly address an important question that can affect the level of acceptance you can commit to a message. In my view, this can be one of the very few most important questions related to appreciation. If someone does not appreciate you, would you ignore what they are saying?

Good message = bad message if there is no appreciation?

Imagine going to a website and reading a message that you like. You like what you are reading, hearing or feeling, and you think you can implement it into your life, or you think it would be a good part of something in this world. Now, upon further browsing around the site, you realize that the author or the blogger does not appreciate any reader, or does not appreciate readers a lot. How would you treat the message that you just read?

No appreciation = bad message?

Now imagine the other scenario: imagine going to a site or even to someone and noticing that someone does not appreciate anyone. Would you start ignoring what they are saying or not liking it, simply because they do not appreciate you and others?

In your view, is being appreciated by someone more important than what they are saying? Is showing appreciation more important, or is the message, regardless of who is saying it, more important?

Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think.

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What Is Your Opinion on Trackbacks?

Ronald Huereca — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:00:16 +0000

Over at Weblog Tools Collection, I asked the question: “Are Trackbacks Still Useful?”

While this question has a bit of irony (a Trackback will be shown on the WLTC blog), I was hoping for your opinion from a reader’s perspective. How do you feel about Trackbacks on posts when you are reading other blogs?

Please weigh in here or at the post on WLTC.

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How to Write Good Tutorials

Simonne — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:07:39 +0000

If you are still with us after reading this Absolute Guide To Losing Readers, it means that you are either interested in what we write, or you are too lazy to delete the feed from your RSS reader. Or maybe we don’t follow all the guides we write

Anyway, if you offer tutorials to your readers, and you really want to help them, these are a few points you need to check before publishing:

A Good Tutorial Should Be Detailed

Do you remember how was it the first time you started using a software? Nothing was familiar to you on that screen, and there is nothing more frustrating than a tutorial which assumes that you know some things from before. When you write a tutorial, make sure you don’t skip steps. It is better to assume that your readers are complete newbies to that info you are giving them, than to imagine that some things are so simple that you could skip them. Don’t skip anything.

A Good Tutorial Should Be Specific

There’s no point in you telling me that good content can be obtained by “writing good content”. This is a fake tutorial, as it doesn’t teach me anything. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered so many examples in which we are told to do something by actually doing that thing, and to be honest, after reading such tutorials I have a strong feeling of losing my time.

A Good Tutorial Should Speak The Reader’s Language

If you use specific terms (and many times you’ll have to), make sure you have a glossary included with your tutorial. It’s pointless to tell me that I should be ranking better in SERPs, if I’m a complete newbie to internet marketing. If your tutorial is addressed to me, make sure it is fully readable by me.

A Good Tutorial Should Leave Room For Feedback

Sometimes readers would need further clarifications on an issue which you thought you covered well, but they still don’t get to the point. A good tutorials website should have comments enabled, allowing readers to express their wish to go deeper into some of the presented topics. If you write tutorials, get ready to answer all kind of questions pretty quickly (if you want to be a really good tutor).

Now I’m leaving you room for improvement: what else do you think could be characteristic to a good tutorial?

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Bloggers of a Feather Tend to Flock Together

Simonne — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:27:33 +0000

I don’t know about you, but every time one of my readers wants to write something on my site, be it a comment or a guest post, I’m glad. And if any of my readers would express the wish to advertise in my sidebar for free, I’d accept that happily (probably for the first 4-5 requesters only, in order not to scare away the other readers). I would consider that an honour, a sign of appreciation of my blog.

These being said, a few days ago I started to play with Entrecard, to see what’s this all about. I played for about 30 minutes, jumping from blog to blog, dropping cards, then I got back to more serious things. After a while, I noticed in my inbox a message that somebody wants to advertise on my Entrecard. I accepted that, and then I started to place requests for advertising on other blogs. I was shocked to see that there were people who rejected my ad, because they didn’t find it appropriate for their blog. Maybe they cared so much for their readers that they wanted to put only the best in front of their eyes. Maybe.

Then I noticed that for each blog page on Entrecard, there is a message saying:

37.33% of advert requests rejected

Higher percentages suggest a more discerning site owner, applicants should check their advert is likely to fit with the blog topic and format.

The percentage is different for each blog. Never mind the percentage. Don’t you smell some smart manipulation from Entrecard’s side? Are people flocking towards such affirmations, in their wish to appear more discerning, or more sophisticated, or wiser? Yes, it seems that humans and birds have the same origin, and our ancestral need to flock comes to the surface every time a bait is shown to us.

What do you think? Is Entrecard manipulating bloggers with that statement?

By the way, there was one blogger who wrote me a thank you message after I booked an advertising spot on his blog.

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Where Do Want Ads?

Ronald Huereca — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:05:17 +0000

Recently Darren Rowse from ProBlogger asked his readers, “Where’s the content?” The point of the post was to address ad-positioning on posts. One of his concerns was that ads above the fold would alienate readers.

From a different perspective is Vandelay Website Design’s post regarding monetizing a website without alienating visitors.

Both posts (and the comments within) provide a nice overview of how to position ads without alienating your readers.

I realize that many bloggers need ads to support their blogging ventures, but what are the advertisements you feel cross the line? Is it paid posts? Ads above the fold? Pop-ups?

My question to you from a reader’s perspective is: where do you want ads? Or alternatively, where do you not want ads?

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The Appreciation Quota - a Question

Bes — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:58:45 +0000

Here at RA Project the 3 team members spend about 25 hours a day looking for different sites to appreciate. We scour the dark depths of the blogosphere and the known online universe to find a few sites every month so that we can appreciate them as a way to let you know what sites and people out there tend to appreciate others, and how they do it. Because of our extensive work every single day, we rarely leave our homes, we rarely eat, we rarely drink, and we rarely stop taking energy drinks. Our social life has gone down the blogging drain, and we cannot remember the last time we met any human being in person. The only people any of us get to meet are the cats that live with Simonne and Ronald; I do not even have a cat, so I sometimes have to Google the word “Humans” and “Squirrels” to try to remember what humans and evilness look like.

I confess: We may have only 24 hours in a day!

Ok, fine, so we do not spend 25 hours every earthly day looking for different websites, and we actually do try to do other things besides RA Project in our life. However, as time has passed and as time is passing, slowly I am beginning to realize what tasks at RA Project are voluntary and what tasks depend on being a job in order for certain concepts to survive, concepts that are not widespread among the blogosphere yet or are not yet implemented on a grand level. RA Project itself is gradually growing, so we are changing with it and learning from each other. Because of things like the monthly Reader’s Choice Awards, I wonder if any task of appreciation that is done on a regular basis results in a different kind of result compared to when such a task is performed randomly and only when someone sees a good opportunity?

Quota vs. Passion which avoids any quota

What does that last question mean? Simple: What is your view on appreciating someone as a duty versus appreciating someone as a passion only when the right example or situation comes to us that results in us thinking “Wow, this is good, I need to appreciate this because I think that is what should be done!” ? If every month me or Simonne or Ronald had to appreciate a certain number of people as a requirement, would our act of finding out a certain number of people to appreciate result in us focusing more on the task of finding a certain number of people to appreciate to fulfill a quota, instead of us simple appreciating by noticing why, what and how we are appreciating?

Would you view RA Project differently if sincere appreciation became a sincere quota?

Here at RA Project, I think we are lucky to know a lot of sites that we like and a lot of sites that we want to appreciate or bring to your focus. Many of our online friends and contacts have also sent in several emails and comments on a growing basis letting us know about different sites that they think we should mention. However, suppose that theoretically we run out of all the sites we know, and we start looking for new sites to appreciate as a job for RA Project, even when we are not getting paid for it and RA Project remains a hobby or a passion. In your view, would the ending appreciation to both you and the people being directly appreciated in both cases be exactly the same, or would they be different?

What do I think?

As for anyone who may be wondering what my answer to the big question is, I believe the reason behind everything is the most important thing when it comes to many things, or maybe even everything. That should give you an idea as to what I think. I also realize that many people may base their passion on a quota of some sort, so not all reasons can be computed using a single system of thinking without considering each situation and its uniqueness completely.

Thank you for reading.

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Do You Ever Step Outside Your Niche?

Simonne — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:36:24 +0000

In this world of blogs, where there are so many ways you can please your readers (including your extremely suspicious ones), a world in which even 12 years old bloggers give pertinent advice on how to turn your visitors into loyal readers, a world in which you never know how your readers are going to write about your articles, have you ever thought of expanding your reader pool outside the niche you are currently in?

Some people would say that stepping outside the niche is a waste of time, be it in writing, or in commenting on other blogs. They want to stay focused, so commenting on a blog post which doesn’t bring in any marketing benefits is a waste and it should not happen. Not to mention writing about something which is more or less off topic, which consumes you a lot of time, only to see your readers accusing you of divagations (think only how many of John Chow’s readers accused him in the comments because he writes about food or because he takes paid reviews).

Some other people would encourage you to write posts that are outside your niche, but publish them somewhere else: like on other blogs you may own, or via guestblogging on other people’s blogs.

What do you think? Is writing outside your niche beneficial for your blog, or does it offend your readers?

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Is Money a Motivator? Just Tell Me How Much

Simonne — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:30:00 +0000

It has been noticed that when it comes to employees, salary is not a motivator. No matter how big it is, it’s a matter of months until the employee gets used to it, and treats it like a given, regardless the passion and commitment for the job. This is why employers who want to keep their team’s moral up, have to offer other kind of incentives, such as performance-related bonuses, trainings, or bonus trips.

What about blogging? I suppose most of you will tell me that readers are a motivator. That the comments you receive, the social bookmarks and votes, and all that stuff is keeping you on the track, is unleashing your best ideas, is giving you the strength to keep on blogging, in this ever busier age, when time seems like shrinking day after day.

What if there were no readers at all? What if I (or somebody else) would pay you to write posts after posts, the only condition to get paid being that nobody ever would read your articles. For how much would you do this?

Would $1000/month be enough to keep you motivated in the long run? I very much doubt.

What about $10,000 a month? If all you had to do for this kind of money would be to write great content which nobody else will ever read?

It is not about money? Then what other motivator would drive you to blog every day and hit delete before any foreign eyes would read your wisdom words?

If you will tell me that there’s nothing is this world to motivate you in this apparently non-sense enterprise, think twice: did you know that in the Tibetan Buddhist religion, when somebody dies, monks gather together and during several weeks, they make a sand mandala, so beautiful and so perfect that you cannot imagine? During all this time, they pray for the dead person, they quote from the Book Of Death, so the soul gets guidance in the beyond worlds. Then guess what? After they finish, they break the mandala, without any shroud of regret, without having the feeling they’ve worked in vain for such a long time. They don’t get any material reward for ther work.
Would you call this madness, or superiority?

Back to blogging: what would motivate you to destroy your blog before getting read by somebody else?

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Gravatar: Reader Appreciation After a Site Is Sold

Bes — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:52:47 +0000

Today I would like to ask you a simple question: what happens to reader appreciation when you a sell a site that has readers? Does the old site owner have any obligation to those readers? Does the new site owner have any obligation to those readers? Should the readers themselves expect anything from such a sale? Should the readers expect anything to change or remain the same during and after the sale?

To help you come up with some answers, let me tell you a story that happened not long ago: this is the a partial story of Gravatar.

Example: The 6 Gravatar volunteers, and the Gravatar Sale

I found out recently that Gravatar had been sold to Automattic, the company behind WordPress. On some levels it was kind of a good news for me, as that would probably mean that Gravatar would be developed further and would be around. On one level, it made me wonder as to what will happen to the people who helped run Gravatar in the beginning. Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, none of the people who helped run Gravatar before besides the owner, Tom, were mentioned or thanked.

There were 6 people who helped run Gravatar at one point when Tom was not around. These 6 people were the only people running and rating every image on Gravatar for a long time, specially in times when the original owner was not around. I was one of those 6 original people, and this post is a part of my thoughts about this situation. We spent around 8-12 hours every day running the image approval system and managing the forums. I sent an e-mail to Tom recently about the sale, and the e-mail bounced back; I’m guessing his Gravatar e-mail does not work anymore. I think I cannot ask Matt about this as Matt can rightfully say “Who the heck are you? You are not part of this deal.” Matt would not be wrong at all in saying that in this situation. That makes me think more about whether the entire responsibility lies on Tom’s shoulders, if there is any responsibility at all.

Does reader appreciation persist after the Gravatar sale?

When I think about the sale, it makes me wonder about whether or not any appreciation should exist for the volunteers, and whether or not the person selling the site is responsible for it. For example, it is as if I volunteered with the Red Cross; I volunteer a lot and do all the work, and when the paid staff comes to take over the project after the storm has died, I am not remembered until another storm is on its way. Tom has thanked us in the past. The original Gravatar blog however has been deleted, and the new blog by Matt Automattic does not mention us at all.

I think it is not the responsibility of Automattic or Matt to keep in mind the volunteers who may have run the project for free for Tom. That is the responsibility of Tom. Tom himself, however, has indeed thanked us once and gave us Pro subscription to Gravatar for whenever the Pro version came out, so another question rises as to whether or not appreciation stops at some point.

Original mention of the 6 volunteers deleted completely from annals of history

It would have been nice if the people who ran the site completely, for when Tom was not around for person reasons, and the people who kept sanity around all Gravatar used in the world, were mentioned and not completely erased off the charts. No more mention, no more thanks, no more names; on top of that, all the previous mention and connections have been deleted, as the original Gravatar blog has been deleted.

The Lucky/Unlucky 6 - Thank you!

For some of history to at least stay alive, let me list the other volunteers who at one time ran the entire Gravatar rating system and the Gravatar forums for when Tom was not around and for when the blogosphere would have come to a screeching halt had the 6 of us not kept the things in balance [ok, may that is an over-dramatization, but it paints a good picture to make things more clear, no?]:

http://blog.maltese.net - “Chris :: wired”
http://spoken-for.org
http://www.thereasoner.com [me]
http://www.lookanothersite.com
http://desinformados.net/blog - Álvaro Castaño
http://www.geeklimit.com/

[quoted from the original Gravatar feed where Tom thanked us openly in April of 2006, which is still available]. Thank you my fellow bloggers for helping run Gravatar in the past. I would have had monsters in my nightmares have unapproved Gravatar over their heads, were it not for the 5 of you to help also and rate images, helping keep the entire bulk of the load away from me.

What do you think?

Gravatar is a good example of a situation where one can ponder about the issue of whether or not reader appreciation exists or stops after a site sale. I think it should exist forever. At least that is what I think; maybe the other 6 original volunteers have a different view on this. Tom does not owe us anything, unless you subscribe to the view that appreciation is owed to readers or helpers. Similarly, Matt and Automattic do not owe anything to the 6 people, as they probably do not even know the 6 exist.

What do you think? Do you think readers or people who help run the site should be part of a site forever? Should volunteers expect anything when they are helping?

At least I can be proud to say I’m one of the only 7 people in history who spent almost every day for a long time rating and labeling every image submitted by thousands of Gravatar users. I am still using Gravatar; I have not changed my original Gravatar image for about 2 or 3 years now [I cannot remember exactly], and Gravatar has worked very well for me. I probably approved your Gravatar image too during that time.

Thank you Tom, Matt & the Automattic Team

Regardless of this situation so far, I am and will continue using Gravatar as it is a very nice service. Thanks Tom for having us onboard in the past; it was actually an honor for all of us, or most of us including myself. Thank you Matt and Automattic for buying the service, as now the service can continue and hopefully we will see some better integration with WordPress.

Thank you for reading everyone.

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How to Make Your Way to the Top. But Why?

Simonne — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:30:58 +0000

If you agree that your fellow blogger is not your competitor, then what’s the origin of this need for rankings and hierarchies which makes us develop ranking tools for (maybe) intentionally left unranked services? Yes, this is about the urge of improving StumbleUpon, by putting together a ranking tool which gives users the possibility to see the top 100 StumbleUpon members, ranked by several criteria, such as number of stumbles, number of fans, or number of videos.

Ranking instruments can be highly motivational, people trying to figure out ways to become one of the top members of such communities. Some of them misunderstand the meaning of owning the community, making a hobby out of adding friends to their account only to ~~spam them~~ beg for their attention afterwards.

What are social networking sites? Thanks to Lyndon Antcliff, who was kind enough to post this paper on social networking sites to Sphinn, we can find out that

We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.

No word about articulating a list of Power Users of the service. (May this be the reason why the post stalled two days until hitting the front page of Sphinn? Or maybe that’s just because it goes in deep details, spread on several pages - too much for this world in a never ending rush)

Again, coming back to blogging and readers, a recognized sign of appreciation is to display the Top Commenters list. Readers appreciate the feature, and some of them may even search for such blogs with good PR and low number of comments, so they can easily make it to the top. On very popular blogs, they spend hours every day, trying to conquer and maintain one of the top positions.

Is it true that playing only for the sake of the game is not giving enough motivation to keep us moving? If we strive hard to achieve, it may occur that we forget to enjoy the journey. Why would somebody want to be called a Top Stumbler? Will his stumbling experience be enriched by this tag? One of the most beautiful things of StumbleUpon was exactly the lack of hierarchy, the feeling of a community where no member is better than the others, where the idea of “better” applied only to web pages, or photos, or videos, not to persons, where you could send your friends a page without worrying that they might think you are a spammer (because the whole idea of StumbleUpon is to show web pages to its members).

Now, when we know there is a top, will my friends think that I’m sending them pages only because I want to be on the list? Maybe not, but I still have this feeling that StumbleUpon was a better place before being discovered by internet marketing experts. At least, it was for me. What are your thoughts about this?

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Online People, Fake Appreciation, Manipulation, and Being Quiet?

Bes — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:59:42 +0000

How many friends do you have that you know only from the online world? Now, how many times have your online friends acted like your offline friends, in terms of both interacting with you when they do not need something and interacting with you only when they need something?

Online, more people tend to try to manipulate others

For the past few days, I have been getting a lot of MySpace and Facebook friend add requests. I like adding and interacting with people, so I add a lot of people. However, as time passes, I also observe people and find out which people simply wanted to add me to build their contact list, and which people simple wanted to add me in order to communicate solely with me in any manner.

Same is the case with online people that we meet through instant messengers and different blogs. People come close, say they are your friends, ask for advice and get advice or simply pass time, and then they immediately pull away. Then, at the same time, they keep telling everyone else about how much they appreciate friendship.

How many people actually do what they say?

How many A-list bloggers you know that communicate with you on an almost daily basis simply to keep in touch? I can count 4 right now. How many A-list bloggers do you know who tell others on their blogs that they appreciate people, that they want to help others, that they value readers, and blah blah blah, yet these people only interact with others when it is beneficial for themselves? I can count 7 right now. It seems everyone is calling themselves a blogging professional, or a professional blogger, and yet most of them are actually professional illusionists. I have been blogging for almost a decade, and most of the people I know who have been blogging even longer than me or better than me in one form or another do not call themselves blogging professionals. But of course, if you want to make money, simply keep calling yourself a professional, and some poor fool will follow and worship you.

Kottke, oh kottke.org!

Kottke, the famous Kottke.org Kottke, has been blogging before many of the now blogging professionals knew that one could make money online. Kottke is known by the actual, real bloggers who started the blogging blogging phenomenon through personal blogs. Yet, Kottke does not go around calling himself a professional blogger as far as I know, and when he decided a few years ago that he wanted to earn money through blogging, he famously announced it publicly and let everyone know everything about why he wanted to make money, about how he would be quitting his job and rely on his blog for money and thus would post more solely to gain more readers and would do his best to give the best personal content of his life, how him blogging more will make money, and how he hoped his readers will take more action so that he could blog more in order to make money. He did something to spark a small interest, an honest interest. Many liked him because of his honesty, and majority of his readers wanted him to succeed through donations.

In contrast, look at most of the “blogging professionals” today; all you hear about is words, words and no real motives. All we want to hear is money, money and more money. The 16 year old kid working at Borders bookstore and helping me find a book early this morning knew about Darren Rowse and Chris G, yet he did not know, among several others, about Kottke, Valerie, Xanga, Wannbe Girl, LoobyLu, Pskratch, and a few others including The Penguin Chronicles [that's me!!!]. He did know about some Ronald, but not the Ronald I was referring to. People appreciate many bloggers today simply because of the money they make or how they can tell others to make money.

But of course, many people will not admit the fact that they respect and give priority to someone because of their popularity. “What is a Kottke?“, and “I’m not interested in penguins……you like penguins or something?“, as the Borders kid responded today. If John Chow stops blogging today I can bet you some may feel like crying. LoobyLu has not blogged since February, and is one of the original people to shape the concept of turning online websites into fun places because of extremely fun designs, and no one is asking about it outside of her blog. One talks making money, and the other one is there to have fun and do things without wanting to manipulate others. A new, online business owner vs. a real, original blogger from the pre-”self-proclaimed-professional-bloggers” era. And I wonder why.

To those that say that hearing about money money and more money is nothing bad, I say wanting to hear those words all the time is bad. Do you think about using your wife, husband, mother, father, son, daughter, sister or brother to make more money? Why can we not then make exceptions for more people and actually give more or not give at all, if that allows us to not manipulate others? For example, is it not better for me to not keep in touch and also unsubscribe from all RSS feeds than to show fake appreciation to a fake person? Of course, if you are a self-proclaimed professional blogger who just jumped on the blogging wagon, you will think that it is better for me to simply keep subscribing regardless of non-blogging, non-online, ethical values and concepts.

Who are these new professional bloggers anyhow? Did we not learn while growing up that labeling ourselves as professionals in something without actually acting and exhibiting such professionalism means we are full of it? Any blogger who calls her or himself a professional blogger without actually being professionals earns a “haha” or a lot of analysis and ignoring from me. Can you think of some bloggers that you know who call themselves professional bloggers? Heck, I have about 15 or 20 online titles on my mind but I feel too weird to proclaim some honor onto my own self, and thus have been waiting for ages to have someone else notice those traits and titles. Maybe I am dumb and should instead start claiming myself to be a lot of things, since apparently you aren’t noticing or you are also too shy to realize the kind of person I am. “Haha“, no?

My question to you: What would you do?

Here is my question: What would you do if you saw an online person who is faking appreciation and friendship in order to manipulate others? Would you point it our privately? Would you point it out publicly if they do not listen? How can you change trends or things if you do not expose them openly and work on them?

I already know what needs to be done. How about you?

Thank you for reading.

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Do You Have Alternative Plans for Communicating?

Bes — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:57:51 +0000

Here I am, in California, USA, at 11:10 pm. My Comcast internet service has been down for 2 days now, and Comcast tells me I will have to go to a Comcast store tomorrow morning to figure out what the problem could be with my cable modem. Because of this, the 2 days of no internet have resulted in a few issues, including the issue of me not being able to participate in the photography contest by Jeffro. I told him I would participate, and since tonight is the last day of the contest, I realize I will not be able to participate. Long live Comcast, emergency traveling, food and procrastination.

Because of this, I am thinking about many things including one simple question: what alternative communication plans do I have in times like these? What alternative, secondary communication plans or tools do you have in place for such situations?

Do you have secondary, alternative plans for communication in case your primary communication tools and methods do not work? In order to appreciate, you will probably want to communicate. In order to communicate, you probably need a communication medium or a tool. What if such a tool, or tools, simply vanish. Does that mean your display and act of appreciation has to be paused until the communication tool comes back to life?

What will you do in the following 5 scenarios?

You cannot access your e-mails
You cannot access the internet
You cannot send text messages
You cannot call anyone
You cannot check your voice mails
You cannot get a team member or a friend to help you

The backup plan for each of these points could be another point listed above, or something compeltely different. What if all of the above 5 points happened to you? What is your alternative plan for appreciating by communicating if your primary communication tools are not working? I am not experiencing all of the above situations, by the way.

What secondary communication plans and tools am I using?

Since yesterday, I am using a test version of the Helio Ocean to access the internet, send e-mails, and do a few other things like call people or send text messages. Yesterday I went to a university campus library to let the web of the internet stick to me again. For the past 3 hours, I have also been trying to connect to the free wifi offered by my city: Metrofi.

If you are reading this post, it means I was able to connect to a very weak wifi internet signal that my laptop was able to feel in this city. Now I hope I am able to maintain this signal and go participate on the contest by Jeff and update my other [personal] site. Otherwise, the 24 hour over-priced internet access at FedEx-Kinkos may become my secondary, backup communication plan, if I can get there soon.

Thanks for reading. I will be getting back to everyone within the next 48 hours, hopefully.

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