Blogging | The Reader Appreciation Project

2 Typical and Deadly Trends Your Blog Should Avoid

21. Jul, 2010 3 Comments

Is your blogging avoiding these 2 deadly trends?

Every blog you visit has some things you like, and some things you do not like. Your own blog is also, fortunately or unfortunately, judged or viewed by others in a similar fashion. Everything on your blog usually comes off as a good or a bad thing for your blog readers. While you cannot cater a blog to everyone’s needs, you can try to have good things and avoid bad things that you think may affect all or almost every blog reader who comes across your blog.

Last week we covered the idea of things your blog should have. In addition to knowing the things you should have on your blog, you should realize the things you should avoid on your blog. It can be very hard to do and try new things on your blog, so in contract it may be very easy for you to try and avoid certain things in your daily blogging.

Today we shall go through 2 important things that you should try to avoid on your blog and in your blogging. Avoid these 2 things on a daily basis and in every blog post if you wish to have a blog that wins both loyal readers and customers.

5 Things Your Blog Should Avoid

Misconceptions, Tips

avoid, blog, Blogging, featured, Tips

Consistency in Your Blogging Efforts

10. Jul, 2010 2 Comments

Are you consistent in your blogging efforts?

While it can be very easy to start a blog, it can be quite hard to maintain it. From writing blog posts, coming up with topics to write about and bringing in visitors to answering e-mails, replying to comments and keeping people interested in your blog, the entire concept of blogging can be the most time consuming online activity in your life. And that can be for a good reason too, because all the time and effort you put into your blog pays off in both the short and the long run. The one thing you have to realize through your entire blogging effort is consistency.

Being consistent in your blogging efforts basically means that you keep maintaining your entire blog and the elements related to it at least on an almost regular basis. For example, if your blog gives blog readers one new article in July, two articles in August, 20 articles in September and then 5 articles in October, people may simply lost interest in your blog because of the inconsistent scheduling of your blog posts. While consistency itself may have nothing to do with the quality of your blog and blogging efforts, blog readers do try to incorporate your blog and your ideas into their already active lives. Being consistent means your blog readers can find it easier to be interested in your blog in both the long and the short run.

In order to have a successful blog, you need to be consistent in your blogging efforts. The following list will help you focus on 5 things in your blogging efforts in order to be more consistent.

5 Things to Be Consistent About on Your Blog

Blogging, Tips

blog, Blogging, business, clients, consistent, featured, goals, list, plan, readers, Tips

Are Customers Making U-turns On Your Blog?

05. Jul, 2010 1 Comment

Are you making customers make u-turns on your blog?

U-turns are usually the least liked signs some drivers want to see on a road. And there is a good reason for that. Many drivers prefer driving straight or making left and right turns. A u-turn usually tells a driver that they have come too far, and that they have to turn around their entire car. This kind of an experience exists in the online world too. U-turns are everywhere online, and your blog may be making your customers make unwanted u-turns.

In addition to making sure that your customers have a great time on your blog, you have to make sure that the different blog features you offer do not result in your customers wanting to literally back off simply because of feeling stuck. From bad blog design to inconsistent ways of incorporating new features into your blog, you may actually be forcing your customers into making u-turns on your blog. And you may thus be losing readers, customers and money because of such u-turns.

RA Project shows you 3 ways your customers may be making u-turns on your blog, and not liking you because of that.

3 Examples How Customers Make U-turns on Your Blog

Questions, Tips

blog, blogger, Blogging, business, consistent, Customers, ease, easy, experience, featured, help, list, navigation, smooth, Tips, turn

Do You Try to Make Money Through Blogging?

04. Jul, 2010 Comment now

Are you trying to make money through blogging?

Many people are doing it. Many people want to do it. And many others out there are thinking about it. The idea of making money through blogging has been around for many years. And in the world of online social networking where the actual lives of people are revolving around the online world more than ever before, the concept of making money blogging has never before gotten so much attention as it does today.

While majority of the blogs end up making absolutely no significant amount of money, the trend of hearing about famous blogs making a lot of money prompts many people to start blogging. Your entire blogging plan can change or may need changing if you introduce a plan to earn money through blogging. And in order to successfully make money through blogging, you need to figure out whether or not you wish to make money through blogging.

Today RA Project asks you to answer a question that can define the future of your blog and blogging: Do you try to make money through blogging?

5 Ways to Make Money Through Blogging

Surveys

advertising, blog, blogger, Blogging, business, featured, money, personal, plans, poll, survey, vote

5 Important Types of Blog Comments

03. Jul, 2010 2 Comments

What kind of blog comments do you leave?

Almost every blog that wishes to be successful at one point or another had to come across the question “Do I want comments on my blog?” For many people, the answer to such a question is an easy and powerful “YES!” The consequences of such an answer, however, are not easy to realize in advance.

Once your blog is active, the types of comments others leave you and the types of comments you leave in response to other comments varies greatly. Some comments appear great to you, while other comments in your view are simply spam. How can you figure out what types of comments you should focus on? What types of comments should you simply ignore? What types of comments should you yourself focus on promoting through your own commenting? These and many other questions can easily be answered if you realize some of the different types of blog comments people leave online.

Here are 5 important types of blog comments you should realize exist in the online world. Your own blogging and commenting efforts can improve if you figure out the kind of comments you wish to get on your blog or leave for others.

5 Important Comment Types You Should Remember

Articles, Tips

appreciation, blog, blogger, Blogging, business, clients, commentors, comments, communication, featured, list, spam, types

5 Ways To Make Your Business Blog More Personal

02. Jul, 2010 1 Comment

Do you follow these steps to make your business blog more personal?

Creating a blog in this day and age is very easy. Creating a successful blog can be very hard, however. Working on a blog can take as much time, and sometimes even more, than the amount of time it takes to actually create or promote a product. Even if your exact product is your blog, you have to actually immerse yourself into the concept of blogging in order to attract blog readers. And one of the only ways to actually be success through loyal blog readers and customers is to make your business blog more personal.

Do people always run away from business blogs? Not at all! In fact, blogs tend to be more successful when they are run like a business in at least some specific manner. That specific manner or method depends on you and your business preferences. What you can do, regardless of your business or blog niche, is to try to bring your blog one level closer to the actual blog readers who are your existing and potential customers.

RA Project in this article shares with you 5 ways you can make your business blog more personal.

5 Ways To Make Your Business Blog More Personal

Blogging, Tips

advertise, Blogging, business, communicate, disclosure, featured, list, money, personal, Tips

59% bloggers do not reply to every comment – June 2010

01. Jul, 2010 2 Comments

59 percent readers do not reply to all commentors

Do majority of bloggers reply to every comment on their blog?

The most important trends of today will affect your blog and blogging today and tomorrow. RA Project focuses on figuring out what the online and offline world of readers and customers think, so that your business and blogs can function better in order to both appreciate your clients and your blog readers. Today we have very important and fascinating results for you when it comes to figuring out whether or not you should reply to each and every reader or client who leaves a comment on your blog.

Here are the results of the Poll “Should you reply to every commentor on your blog?” which was open from June 18th,2010 and ended last night, June 30th, 2010.

A total of 1,018 RA Project readers voted in this poll.

Majority of bloggers prefer not replying to every blog comment they get

Case studies, Surveys

appreciation, blog, Blogging, clients, communication, featured, poll, readers, reply, results, survey, time, trends

5 ways to abuse the concept of appreciation through blogging

30. Jun, 2010 2 Comments

Are you abusing the concept of appreciation?

Blogging was a concept considered only for a few people as recent as 5 years ago. Today, not knowing about blogging is considered by many in both the online and the offline world to be a sign of not keeping up with times. With the wide use of blogging comes the fact that many people are abusing the very concept of appreciation through blogging. You do not want to end up being such a person if you want your blog to succeed.

There are many ways you can directly or indirectly abuse the idea of appreciation and respect for your blog visitors through blogging. Whether or not you realize such a thing happening, your blog visitors and customers will surely notice it. Very few things can do more damage to your blog than a bad reputation and vibe that turns away people from your blog.

RA Project refreshes the concept of 5 ways you can abuse the concept of appreciation through blogging. Avoiding these 5 things will make sure your blog heads gains more visitors and loyalty.

5 ways to abuse appreciation through blogging

Articles, Misconceptions

abuse, appreciation, blog, Blogging, business, clients, featured, list, Misconceptions

Are Your Potential Readers Better Than Your Current Readers?

23. Jun, 2010 6 Comments

Are your new blog readers better than old ones?

I found myself at the bank last week standing in a line for around 5 minutes waiting for a cashier. While waiting, I turned around and saw several other people sitting on leather seats talking to the bank staff. Why was I standing while they were sitting? They were new customers, of course. The bank already had my money, and already had my account. Leather was too high of a standard for existing customers like me.

Your blog may be acting in a similar fashion. Because of the popularity of the blogosphere, many bloggers focus on luring in readers in order to let them roam free around their blogs. Such blogs fail to create any extra incentives for readers who have already found those blogs. Instead, such blogs focus on getting new readers to come along and join the crowd. The real prize for many blogs, it seems, is the population that lies outside of the growing crowd that exists within the blog.

In this article, we will go through the question: Are your potential readers better than your current readers?

What do many banks, airline companies and your blog have in common?

Articles, Misconceptions

appreciation, bad experience, Blogging, blogs, business, clients, existing, featured, incentives, manipulation, mistakes, new, readers, rss, trends

Tell Blog Readers How You Make Money Through Them

21. Jun, 2010 4 Comments

Blog Money - Do your readers know how you monetize them?

One of the best ways to appreciate your clients and blog readers is to tell them how you make money from their activities on your site. Many blogs and businesses focus on making money through website readers without actually letting those readers know about that practice. If you are making money from your site, it can be a very good idea to let users know about it. A blogger can specify somewhere on a blog how money is made through user interaction with the blog content. Having such a disclosure can make sure you appear as an honest entity to your readers. In addition to that, it also increase the level of confidence and trust your readers have in you and your site.

I see bloggers and websites debate a lot these days whether or not such disclosures are necessary, and whether or not avoiding such disclosures is unethical. Disclosures about how you make money through your readers is ethical only if you believe it is ethical; ethics can be proven to be relative. You should not focus on whether or not a thing is ethical. You should focus on whether or not your reader will be happier and you yourself will benefit if a certain thing is said or done. Telling readers how you make money is better as it shows your readers that you are transparent, and it also shows your readers that you trust them enough to tell them how you make money through your site.

If you want to be transparent with your clients and blog readers, you can start with the most powerful method of letting others know how their behavior around your site makes you money.