I’ve joined Grasshopper New Media (GNM) as Director of Operations. Many people that know Chris Brogan and his work with PodCamp are probably asking, “Who the heck is Ben Yoskovitz? And how’d he get so involved working with Chris? Does he have a podcast we don’t know about or something?” You can read all about […]
Archives for October 2006
Check Out These Posts Inspired by Blog About 5 Things Week
People continue to write posts about “5 things” inspired by Blog About 5 Things Week. It’s great to see people participating… 5 Ways to tick off Customers during Customer Service Week 5 Lies People Tell You 5 Things You Should Spend Money On When You Start a Business 5 Men I Wish I Knew When […]
5 Reasons to Listen to The Great Big Small Business Show Podcast
The Great Big Small Business Show continues to roll along, providing advice, tips and pratical guidance for small business owners and entrepreneurs. We’ve hit episode #8 — and this week we’re talking about client relationships – building them before and after the sale. I didn’t participate in this week’s podcast (I had a power outage […]
5 Blog Writing Mistakes I’ve Made
How many mistakes have I made since I started blogging? Do you really want to know? Alright then…here’s 5 blog writing mistakes I’ve made: Ending blog post titles with periods. Gack! I did this all the time. I debated whether it made sense or not, but apparently it doesn’t. So let me ask you this […]
5 Blog Writing Tips To Get More Comments
Short of yelling or begging, let’s take a look at 5 blog writing tips to get more comments:
1. End blog posts with questions. Make the question as specific as possible. “What do you think?” might not be inspiring enough to get someone to comment. Re-iterate the point or argument of the blog post in the question, to make it as direct and pointed as possible.
2. Take a stand. If you wiffle-waffle in a post, or present too many sides to an argument, no one will bother commenting. Take a stand, stick with it, argue as persuasively as you can, and then let the “yays” and “nays” battle it out in the comments.
3. Controversial headlines. Write a headline that’s opposite of what people would expect. Write a headline that takes an obviously controversial or bizarre stance. Or, write a headline that asks a very direct question, or a question that’s bound to ruffle feathers. The most popular post I’ve ever written was titled, “What Do Real Estate Agents Do Exactly? Where’s The Value And Innovation?”
4. Keep posts short. There’s a time and place for long posts, but if you want to generate comments, keep your posts as short as possible. I’m not recommending that you exclude information from your arguments, but the longer a post goes, the more people skim, and the less likely they are to get the information they really want; that’s going to get them to comment.
5. Put a kicker inside. It’s understood that the start and end of a blog post need to pack a punch. People read the intro, skim…skim some more, and read the end right? Well, some people do read the middle. And you may be able to nab someone into commenting by putting some kind of kicker in the middle. Give ’em something meaty to chew on, and they might even skim the rest of the post so they can comment right away. If the middle is drab, people will be less inspired by the end anyway, so shock ’em on the inside.
5 More Posts By Others For Blog About 5 Things Week
More and more people are contributing to Blog About 5 Things Week. Blog About 5 Things Week, Apparently 5 Things That Suck 5 Lessons Gleaned from Blogging Tips by Avinash Kaushik Five tips when starting a business at home 5 Creative Commons Photos of Jesus Three of the above five posts are from Kevin Keating. […]
Blog About 5 Things Week – People Are Blogging About 5 Things
People are starting to catch on to Blog About 5 Things Week which is great! Here’s the first 5 posts written by others (that I’m aware of), inspired by this little project: 5 Ways to Overcome the Home Business Blues, Blahs, and Burnout Shedding the Facade (Monday Morning Musings) 5 ways to stay in touch […]
5 Steps to Providing Good Constructive Criticism
As soon as you hire someone you’ll need to start providing constructive criticism. Whether you do it in a formal manner (performance evaluations), or you do it on-the-fly at a project-by-project level, doesn’t really matter; constructive criticism is part of the game. Constructive criticism is important; employees need to understand where they’ve gone wrong, and […]
5 Things You Shouldn’t Spend Money On When Starting a Business
Some things are worth spending your money on. Others aren’t. Worth it: Not worth it: When starting a business, here are 5 things you shouldn’t spend a lot of money on:
Join Me for Blog About 5 Things Week
A couple of weeks ago, inspired by Darren Rowse’s group writing project I ran a “How To” Week here at Instigator Blog. It was fun, but challenging, to focus on one style of post for the entire week and make sure I wasn’t cheating myself (or you!) into writing something that was less than a […]