Instigator Blog

If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck…guess what, it’s a duck.

A blog is a blog is a blog.

Not quite the same analogy, but you get the point.

Jakob Nielsen suggests that people write articles not blog posts. He differentiates them by saying that blog posts are often, “…quickly written, shallow postings”, while articles are, “…thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers.”

Part of his argument is simply semantics, which I find generally pointless. David Armano, who does a great job writing “articles” and “blog posts”, has suggested that we don’t even use the term “blog” at all. It brings baggage with it from the days when blogs were mostly personal diaries.

OK, there’s some baggage, but the term also differentiates from other words that could be used. There will always be people who don’t get it; but if we’re constantly trying to massage or whitewash what we do in blogging for “everyone else” we lose some of the core value blogging brings.

• speed of publishing
• experimentation
• conversation
• relationship building

I’d rather say, “I blog,” and help people understand what that means, versus “I’m a personal publisher” or “I write articles on the Web”.

Articles are meant for magazines, where the ability to respond is extremely limited. How many of us have written “letters to the editor?” Articles denote a certain finality — “I’ve written the definitive piece on X, end of story.”

Blog posts can be anything you want them to be - short, long, researched, opinionated, funny, serious, full of images, linked to everyone else, extensions of other conversations and ideas…

Matt Ambrose makes the point that content quality is key not whether you call it a blog post or article. Of course he’s right.

But Tony Hung is also right when he says that one or two off-quality posts won’t kill a blog, as Nielsen thinks.

Blogging is about experimenting, discovering what works for you and your audience. That might be a slew of one-line insights, or it might be a book-full of 40,000 word essays.

If we have to worry about calling blogs something else, and calling blog posts articles, what happens when we look at even “newer” means of publishing content and building business relationships. I can only imagine the debate on social networks and their role in business. (And trust me, there’s nothing to debate: Facebook, Twitter, etc. are business tools.)

Most people ask, “How much money do you make from your blog, and how do you do it?”

But Jonathan at SmartWealthyRich.com is asking a different question: What are your blogging expenses?

Good question.

He’s hoping to generate a lot of feedback and discussion, and I hope he does.

I spend approximately $20/month in hosting and that’s it. I’ve thought about having a professional do my blog design but haven’t bit yet. I strongly advocate having a top-notch blog design though, so if you’re going to spend any money, spend it on that.

I’ve also heard positive feedback on paying for clickthroughs from StumbleUpon.

If we associated a cost to the time we blog, our blogging expenses would be astronomical. Unless you value your time at $0.5/hour…But beyond that, what else do you spend money on? Do you buy advertising? Text link ads elsewhere? Every use any professional help to solve a problem or add special code?

Go check out the feedback Jonathan’s receiving and leave a comment for him with your blogging expenses.

When it moves your blog toward its ultimate goal.

You do have a goal for your blog, right?

(Thanks to Lorelle for asking the question: How do you determine the success of a blog post?)

Bloggers write a lot. We have to. It’s the nature of the blogging beast. Produce content. Do it. Write, write and write some more.

For all the debate over how often you need to be posting to maintain and grow your audience, the fact remains that many of us write a lot of blog content; perhaps 3 times a week, maybe even daily (and some of us post more than once per day!)

But do we always follow our own advice?

The old adage, “Do as I say, not as I do,” comes to mind, and I suspect it applies to many of us. An idea pops in our head, we write about it stating ideas and truths we believe in (I’m not claiming any of us are lying!) and then we’re off to the next blog post. We have to be: there’s four more to write this week!

That killer post you wrote with the great ideas, practical tips and important lessons learned, receives positive feedback, generates some comments, but ultimately disappears into your archive. There are ways of extending the life of a blog post but typically after a few days or a week, a blog post is gone.

Does the nature of blogging lead us to blog for the sake of blogging?

I’ve written a lot of content. I don’t remember everything I’ve written; every idea and suggestion. Recently, I’ve started asking myself, “What did I say on that topic again?”

I don’t want to speak for the sake of speaking.

Part of what makes blogging interesting is the sudden nature of it - publishing content quickly, connecting with people easily - but it’s also easy to post and post and post and not follow through.

Walk the walk. Don’t just talk the talk.

I’ve started using my own blog as a reminder service, a personal archive of what I should be doing. I know I won’t always follow my own advice (let alone remember it all!) but at least it’s there for me to fall back on. When I’m struggling with leadership questions, I can go back and read 10 Essential Business Leadership Skills. If I’m feeling worn down and need a pick me up, I might read Even Superheroes Have Limitations or 5 Inspirational To-Dos You Can Do Every Day. And it’s not just my own thoughts that I reference. Each post has plenty valuable comments: so my reminder service and resource library expands continuously.

Do you follow your own blogging advice?

It’s been just about a month or so since I switched from Akismet to Defensio.

The Defensio team are good friends of mine - Carl Mercier (uber-developer in charge of things over there) and Mat Balez (as good an instigator as any). They asked me to alpha test their WordPress plugin and I was happy to oblige.

Defensio is now in closed-beta. You can contact them for an invite by visiting the Defensio website.

In January, I wrote a blog post about ways Akismet could be improved. I know Carl and Mat didn’t read that post and decide to build a better spam plugin, but they’ve started to implement some of those ideas in a worthwhile way. They’ve sworn me to some amount of secrecy, so you’ll just have to sign-up for the beta yourself.

In the meantime, the results have been good. It’s not that Akismet does a terrible job, but there doesn’t seem to be much new work being done on it. The Defensio team are committed to making improvements to their existing WordPress plugin, and seeing if they can do a better job of beating spam. Even some of the Administrative interface changes alone make Defensio worthwhile.

Blog spam is a tough nut to crack. Spammers seem intent on making our lives miserable; and it’s frustrating when spam sneaks through, or worse, we find false positives caught in our spam filters. It’s a cat and mouse game that we’ll be playing with spammers for many, many years to come. Defensio may be able to help.