If blogging is all about sharing and learning, shall we make this a platform where we could all share and learn from one another?
All right, here’s a little experiment for the weekend. Instead of you asking me the question, I’d like to turn the table around where each weekend I’ll ask you one question and you’ll share your thought, input or suggestion with the rest of the readers here.
Ask not what the blogosphere can do for you but what together we can do for the blogosphere. – Chris Garret
Question of the Week:
If there is one change you’d like to see here on thoushallblog.com, what would it be? and why?
I’ll pick the best answer suggestion at the end of the week and showcase it on the next installment of “Ask My Reader” with the easiest backlink you could have ever got from me.
All negative comments (that pass Akismet filter) will not be moderated so you are most welcome to send me your best hate comment.
Happy weekend!
PS: I’m looking forward to what you have to say ’bout my blog as I’m planning to do a major revamp of my little playground to better serve my audience. Your suggestion is worth more than anything to me.
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{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }
Yan
I really enjoy the quality of the posts you make on your blog. I also appreciate the time you take to go over to my blog and comment too. I know I won’t get every blogger commenting on my blog but I sure do appreciate the ones that do.
I’m not sure in my opinion you need to change at the moment. I think you provide easy to read content that anyone can follow.
Bruno Auger´s lastest post..Suspended by Twitter
Hey Bruno
Thanks for the kind words. I always make it a point to return the courtesy but visiting those who leave comments on my blog the best I can. There is nothing like being well connected in the blogosphere.
Anyway, if you think there is anything you think I can do better here, feel free to let me know. I’m all ears..
Yan
I have to agree with Bruno and I took some time to look over your blog in its entirety and could not think of one thing to change. You content is excellent and all essentials are on your blog including, the nice link luv from top commentator..thanks for that!
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s lastest post..Affiliate Marketing – 16 Website Content Ideas
Thanks, JR.
Though I don’t practice doing a “link love article” here but I make every effort to link out to fellow bloggers as a show of my gratitude to those active readers of my blog. I’ll keep the practice for as long as I could manage.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.
OK Yan, you asked for the hate comment, there you have it :D
What I “hate” about your blog is a guy like you, who can make such brilliant posts on interesting topics, from different angles and great ideas, wastes his time and his blog on sometimes stupid sponsored reviews instead of doing what he’s really capable of – producing quality content.
Seriously, I didn’t meant to be harsh there, but I think You and this blog could be much more and should be much more. I believe focusing on short-term income streams can destroy your whole creditability and reputation, thus your long-term income.
You could easily make serious money from this blog if you’d put a little more focus on posting more frequently from the material that your readers really love.
Hmm, sorry for not posting something about your design, or something, but I hope it’ll help :)
Jani
You know what..I value constructive criticism more than fake praises. I understand your concern, I really am. In fact, I have been very selective in doing those reviews. Otherwise, I could be doing review every alternate days here and make my money.
Thing is doing review is just another experiment on blog monetization. Just in case you aren’t aware, I don’t blog for money or at the very least, I don’t set out to make money off my blog. Everything I do here and on my other niche sites is just a game of trial and errors.
In this regard, feedback such as yours gives me a clearer picture of what I have done right and what I could do better. Thanks, buddy. I value your feedback.
….You could easily make serious money from this blog
Hmmm, still trying to figure it out how without doing any paid review….;)
Yan
I do not agree with Jani at all.
I have seen other bloggers doing paid reviews and never once do they tie it to some kind of relevancy for their readers. Yan you always find a way to do that, even if the review subject does not appear to be relevant, such as Miss Gullible, and for that reason I do not believe you will lose any credibility nor will it affect your reputation because those reviews never read as sleezy or as “crap written just for money.”
Your reviews are well written and entertaining and there is nothing wrong with using good writing talent to make money, blogging is not just for fun, some of us are trying make a living.
Also, in my opinion high posting frequency has nothing to do with making a lot of money. Quality posts is what creates loyal readers and that is what leads to more money. Quality posts take more time, and because you take the time to create quality content in the end that content will bring the money. Also, what is wrong with letting posts live for a little while? Give people a chance to see them instead of burying them with more and more posts. High frequency is overrated.
It’s funny to me how people bash bloggers who are trying to get some monetary compensation for their time and effort, as if they think it is okay for us to constantly put out incredible content and work as hard as we do in the business of blogging without also having monetazation venues.
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s lastest post..Affiliate Marketing – 16 Website Content Ideas
I gotta say, I agree with JR completely.
Reviews – spot on! You can so tell when it is only for the money as it has absolutely nothing to do with the bloggers niche, and he/she doesn’t even attempt to fake like it could.
Yours are just fine ;)
Posting frequency – what a myth that it has to be daily or like 5 times a day as some proclaim…complete burnout for 95% of the bloggers that attempt it.
I only started recently posting daily or even every other day because as my readership grows, y’all seem to be eating it up! LOL
Mine may have to slack back to 2-3 times per week, as I have other projects in the works for everyone :-)
Dennis Edell´s lastest post..Is Your Online Reputation Solid? I hope so, It’s All You Have.
Thank you, guys for such an awesome discussion. Nothing is more true than the fact that I do find the joy doing what I do here. Though I value all the suggestions here, no one really dictates me how I run my blog. In this regard, I can’t possibly please everyone all the time.
The last thing I need is to lose the passion in what I do. When it’s gone, it’s remotely possible for me to keep writing quality content. One of the reasons, I don’t write every single day is part of experiment to see if posting frequency does have an effect on my subscribers count.
There are times when I wish I could have the best of both quality and quantity but in reality, you gain something at the expense of another.
That being said, I will continue to do sponsored review if only the content is of value to my readers. In any case, I find the greatest joy in writing a review.
Yan
I love the articles on plugins because I’m always on the look out for new ones to try. I would like to see more of the specific plugins that YOU use and why you like to use them over a similar plugin or just generally managing it yourself.
Welcome, Veronica. You have finally decided to come up and say something. Speak up more…it’s the best promotion strategy you owe it to yourself..
By the way, your site is still not loading since the last time I checked. Let me know if you need any help…
Yan
Hi Yan!
You doin’ good Buddy just like you is!
But now you’ve opened up the ‘wish list’, how about some place us more geekish types can interact without feeling we are pushing out the ‘newbies’ that this blog caters so successfully to?
Rhys@monetize your site´s lastest post..How To Hide Adsense From Social Traffic
I hear ya, Rhys. If my memory serves me well, you were the first person who reminded me to stay within the beginners niche at one point in the past…….didn’t you? LOL
I wish I could be as geekish as you but I’m following and you are certainly better than me in this area..;)
I don’t know, Yan. I love your blog the way it is.
Although less sponsored posts and guest posts and more Yan would be nice :)
Other then that, the blog is fantastic and so are you
EmmaB´s lastest post..I Love You And I Am Going To Show It!
Thanks, Emma. You are one of those people who have stuck around since the beginning of this blog. I always value our friendship even though I may be too preoccupied with other things you hardly see me on your blog.
I couldn’t possibly be at 100 blogs all at the same time, could I? However, you will see me pop up every now and then when I get the chance to do so and since you are managing too many blogs I almost lose my count, the chance of you seeing me is pretty high…;)
Oh, and to add to my last comment, the fact that you take the time to visit your eaders blogs, (I think you have seen practically all of them-even my personal one!) is awesome!
EmmaB´s lastest post..My Class is the most ethical
I ll like to know how you get traffic for yoru blog and your monetization methods
ZK@Internet Marketing Blog´s lastest post..Ultimate Blogging Theme – Download Now
ZK,
The only promotion I do to generate traffic is blog commenting and nothing else. When my inner pages are out of the sandbox, I should be able to see more traffic from search engines.
Aside from private ads, I do make my money through paid reviews and affiliate sales.
Hey, should I be the one asking question? ;)
Yan
Well Yan, given that you’ve accomplished so much in so short a time and have shared these moments with your readers too, perhaps you could take it to the next level but withyour readers in mind. Start a few experiments involving group participation. If you explained the objective and benefits to the group, you may get better results and it’s a win-win situation for all. An example I can think of is viral link/traffic building like the Viral Linkathon
we discussed briefly sometime ago. Firstly you give your thoughts on the idea, then you get people to commit to whatever needs to be done and then you start. I can forsee great participation and the best results ever.
Peter Lee
Work At Home Ideas´s lastest post..How Blog Commenting Got Me 1200 Backlinks in 5 Days
Yes, sir. You seem to be very pushy on this viral thing. I’m sorry that I have not been able to follow it through. Let me tell you what..why don;t you start all over it again and pay more attention on who you are tagging? It really takes a concerted effort for this to work so your choice of bloggers makes a whole lot of difference.
I understand that Jeremy is keen on this as well, so do bloggers like Sire, Tara…just to hint a few…you be the leader and let us know about it. Deal?
Yan,
I really don’t wish to reinvent the wheel, but I do agree with you that who you you select to tag is very important. So since you’ve provided some names I’ll just contact them and see if they are really keen to start this post.
To anyone who reads this and is keen to participate, just give me a shout and I’ll contact you.
Peter Lee
Work At Home Ideas´s lastest post..Link Love-Links Round Up No. 10
Yan, this is a hard one, as you always have great content and have a very nice design.
Honestly the only thing I can think of is you could darken the font color here in the editor. It is such a light Grey shade I have a hard time seeing it!
Tara @ Affiliate Marketing Prodigy´s lastest post..Fast Search Engine Indexing
Thanks, Tara. Your suggestion is well taken and I’ll look into it. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. But wait a minute, don’t you read my article from your RSS reader? ;)
oooooooo this is good lol, I’ll be thinkin’ and get back to ya ;)
Dennis Edell´s lastest post..50 Social Bookmarking Sites. What Are The Top 5-10 Most Popular?
Hi Yan:
My initial reaction was why do you want to change something that is already working and working well. Upon further thought, I figured that mankind does not make progress with that approach. Hence, this is what I came up with. What I would like to see is more posts from you addressing bloggers that write on highly niche topics that are far removed from the mainstream topics. There seems to be a scarcity of such content currently. For example, I would like to read more from you regarding optimizing blogs that deal with engineering subjects and such and how to bring them up to mainstream blogging standards. Your writing ability is fantastic and this could help bloggers like me. Thank you.
Raj Krishnaswamy´s lastest post..Thermal Spray Credit
Raj, my friend. What a nice surprise to see you here. How’s it going, buddy? You are right, ….mankind does not make progress with that change.
Let me get it correct as I don’t wish to be a smart Alex is, what do you mean by optimizing blogs that deal with engineering subjects.
By the way, everything that is written here is what I have learned, experimented and applied so none of the kind I know nothing of or no experience whatsoever. So if the subject is something I have tried and tested and should provide value to my readers, I don’t see the reason why I’m hiding it from here.
Let me understand what you are trying to say first. How ’bout it?
Yan
Hi Yan:
I guess I was not too clear on my comment. Let me clarify it here so you can help newbies like me in your future posts. Essentially, I find a lot of blogs on mainstream topics such as real estate, motivation, blogging itself, money making, etc and such blogs seem to be very well optimized by way of search engine rankings etc. New bloggers in such arenas get instant help simply by following all of the advice that you present in this excellent site of yours. However, highly niche topic blogs are also seeking help from experts such as yourself. For example, increasing backlinks from other blogs is great for SEO, however if there are not that many blogs related to the topic you are blogging in, then the search engines do not give as much value to those links. For example, in the thermal spray coatings blog that I own, there is not a single other blog ( believe it or not ) around. How then will blog commenting work? Same is the situation with forums. This is just one question that highly niche topic bloggers might be interested in learning the answers from you. I hope I have clarified my question. Thank you.
Raj Krishnaswamy´s lastest post..Thermal Spray Credit
Now I understand. OK, I’m going to write a post to address this issue once those articles in the queue see the daylight but this is really interesting topic to write about.
….then the search engines do not give as much value to those links
Long story short, I think it’s very much overrated. A link is still a link irregardless of its origin so I’m going to cover that on my future article.
Till then, buddy. Forget what the “gurus” say, just keep commenting on dofollow blogs.
Yan
PS: I have always appreciated your writing skill, I’m not too sure if writing is your passion. If it is, I’ll like to welcome you on board to be one of our regular contributors here with adsense revenue sharing. Think about it…..no obligation.
well…Yan I wouldn’t ask you to reduce the number of sponsored posts…but i would like to read more posts here…atleast one per day…
well group projects as suggested by peterlee would work great here as you have a lot of regular readers…
and maybe I am still expecting someething unique here…something that has never been done before…the blogging tips are now there to read in several other popular blogs as well….but you have a great style of your own…but i am expecting something other than too here…may be something that gets viral and gets the attention of the whole blogging community…
Rajesh´s lastest post..Download windows vista SP2 from Microsoft servers via windows update!!!
Hey Rajesh
I hear ya. The hardest thing about blogging is to be able to consistently come up with killer (read:link baiting) article every single day, something which Darren Rowse is very good at. He has perfected the art of mind mapping to keep coming up with viral articles consistently without any burnout.
I have a rule of thumb by which I go by, that is I blog to live and not live to blog. I’m not going to do it at the expense of my quality time with my family if you know what I mean.
I think I’d better go back to master the art of mind mapping. Talk to you again and thanks for your feedback. I really value it as always.
Yan
You have good blog and the audience from your blog is great, and you want to improve more? this is good, i like that attitude improve and always improve because there are always a room for us to improve , as you know I’m not the expert in blogging so what can i suggest is keep up the good work and maybe you can make a contest to make more participant (maybe you have do that :-) ) from your audience.
Ahh, I don’t know, I’m just newbie
newbiesblogger´s lastest post..Lets Get Addicted With Twitter
Hey newbies
Thank you. I value your suggestion as well, irregardless of who you are. You are always welcome to voice your opinion here as this is one of the most open community you can find on the planet..;)
By the way, if you aren’t yet, don’t forget to subscribe as the best is yet to come.
See you soon..
I love your blog and all of the help it has been to me just starting out in blogging!
I do wish you would blog a little more about your life where you are at and maybe post some pictures too because it is much different than my life and would be interesting to me.
LOL, I’m afraid my readers here are not interested to know at which restaurant I had my last dinner. Even though, I really had a awesome dinner last nite that’s worth a mention. If you are keen, I’d let you know in private..;)
Anyway, I do appreciate your suggestion. Keep it coming and oh ya, welcome to thoushallblog.com. How did you get to know this blog?
Yan
Goodness Yan, you brought up a tough one. It’s like walking into someone’s house and them allowing you to tell them how to redesign it. So, mine is going to be easy, though I have two. One, I’m with Tara; if you can, make the type in the editor darker. Two, on your main blog page, can you give a little bit more of your posts before sending people to read the article itself? On my blog, I show the entire post, so people can scroll down and, if they wish to, they can read the entire article, my latest articles anyway. I don’t mind truncated, then read, but I’d like to see more, like at least 20 lines or so. Thanks!
Mitch´s lastest post..Dofollow/Page Rank Discussion
Mitch,
I hear ya too on point #1. Change is on the card. Now, the reason I’m only showing an excerpt on my home page (archives page, category page and search page) is to eliminate any unwanted risk of duplicate content.
You have a valid point anyway but somehow I don’t have the technical skill to truncate it with more words. I’ll definitely look into your suggestion closely.
Thanks for participating.
Yan
Yeah, after I wrote it I wondered if that was something you could change within your blog. I certainly wouldn’t know how to change mine.
But you mentioned the worry about duplicate content; can you explain your fear there? That shouldn’t be an issue, since your main page would have other blog posts, and therefore wouldn’t “exactly” be duplicate content.
Mitch´s lastest post..The Dance Off
Mitch
The last thing you need is to have the full post at the wrong places. From SEO stand point, the optimal would be leaving full post exclusively on single post only and post excerpt on homepage.
Here’s what the big G says about duplicate content
Deftly dealing with duplicate content
Yan
I might have to agree to disagree with you on the SEO point, and I read the Google declaration before, and it doesn’t quite apply in this instance, IMHO. But that’s okay; moot point.
Yeah, we do agree to disagree sometimes. As long as it doesn’t affect you at all, do what you think it’s good for you and your blog in particular.
Lovely discussion, Mitch.
Hi Yan,
These are all great comments. However, I think the next big step for you would be to think up a fascinating group project or experiment. Something truly viral. A contest may be good, but I think there is something better you can come up with.
Maybe I am jumping the gun but I like Peter’s idea best. Overall, its hard to improve a site that is this good, but I think your readers have some great recommendations. Ill be thinking hard about a group experiment.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy Day´s lastest post..How To Know a Book is Worth Reading
…Overall, its hard to improve a site that is this good
I’d take that as a compliment. Thanks, buddy. You have been very generous with your words since day one.
With regard to the group project, I’ve thrown the ball back to Peter and I think he will know what to do. Your participation is certainly most welcome.
Actually, I have a better idea but let me sort out some priorities first and I’ll come back to both of you.
Yan
There is one thing that I would like Yan, and it is all to do with me not taking the time to proof read my comment before hitting the submit button. I often see a typo that makes me want to tear my hair out. Anyway I would love the ability to be able to edit my comment in case I screw up, something that I offer to my commentators.
Sire´s lastest post..Interact With Other Bloggers On Blog Engage The Real Social Bookmarking Site
I gotta go with this one also. I’m thinkin’ of implementing it on my blog as well.
I find myself taking the time to fix the really messed up ones before other readers say, huh? LOL
Dennis Edell´s lastest post..Is Your Online Reputation Solid? I hope so, It’s All You Have.
Hey Sire
I do understand your concern as typo error are inevitable while commenting. We are more likely not to proofread our comments.
I’ll see what I can do and I hope I could manage to integrate ajax comment edit into threaded comment as soon as I get the chance.
Yan
All I want is more blogging tips!
Off topic:
Why in my Google Reader you have new post but when I check your blog or click the link in the feed, there’s no post or it is 404. What’s happening?
Hussein´s lastest post..Directory Spot – Submit Your Links Now
I hear ya, Hussein and thanks for your suggestion. The best is yet to come.
By the way, it was just a technical error on my part. My apology…
Yan
I would say to invest in some more in terms of branding. Maybe shoot for a favicon that matches the color scheme? The designer in me finds it vexing, haha. That’s my 2 cents.
My goodness, I almost forget that my favicon is long due for change. Thanks for the 2 cents and good to see you here again. It’s been a while, huh?
Yan
this is a solid idea. i have incorporated it into my blogs as well and they have taken off! good post
You really have brilliant ideas in mind. That is why I love reading your articles. If you ask me to suggest one thing is that can you have an article about weight loss? :)
Thank you!
Diana Rupert´s lastest post..7 Secret Tips to Rapidly Lose Weight
This is one of my new favorite blogs, and I’m hard-pressed to find anything to change other than the number of ads. Our office has a firewall and some form of ad blocking, Firefox has some ad blocking that I don’t really use, and I still see around 15 ads on this page. I see one in the corner, one in the post, ten 125×125 banners, a couple larger ones and some Adsense ads that I can’t see… You obviously know what you’re doing and have a great thing going, so I’m not sure I’m in any position to say… Anyway, great blog & I appreciate the info!
drivelocity´s lastest post..Top Commentators Plugin