Having been a Twitter user for some time now, there are certain groups of users that really start to annoy.  They are the users who immediately get unfollowed, or not followed at all. So let’s look at these groups of users, and what they’re doing wrong.

The “Please Pay Attention To Me”ers

I don’t understand where these people come from, or why they end up on Twitter.  You can usually identify them within a fraction of a second of their first post, which usually starts by asking if there’s anyone around that they know. And when no one responds, you can sense the frustration and anger growing tweet by tweet usually resulting in some form of curse on the users of Twitter for not paying attention to them.

The Twit-illiterates

There’s a big intersection between the Twit-illiterates and the Please Pay Attention To Me-ers, and one can very easily evolve into the other.  A Twit-Illiterate doesn’t understand how Twitter works and can be identified by a tweet that usually goes along the lines of:

Dave, you on here?

This is usually a first tweet and is made immediately after joining.  Now, it’s obvious that someone called “Dave” has told this person about Twitter, but then not actually explained it to them.  Of course, anyone who knows Twitter will understand that unless you are being followed by Dave, or you directly address a Tweet at them (e.g. “@Dave”), Dave isn’t going to see the Tweet.

One of the differences between a twit-illiterate and a Please Pay Attention To Me-er is persistence.  A Twit-illiterate has a reason for joining Twitter, so they will likely persist.  However, they’ll continue to struggle for some time, not quite understanding the difference between an @ reply and a direct message.  You’ll also see them having conversations with people who follow them without using @ replies, causing confusion all round and making them look like the digital equivalent of the crazy lady in the park who talks to herself.

The Shameless Self-Promoters

There are plenty of these on Twitter, and you have to be weary.  You’ll notice them because the ratio of interesting tweets against those tweets which simply link to something they’ve written/posted isn’t favourable.  There’s a big cross-section between these and the Auto-Twits (see below).  You’d be surprised how many so-called A-List bloggers are nothing more than shameless self-promoters when it comes to Twitter, or maybe you won’t.

The Auto-twits

Any tool that automatically adds tweets to twitters is a bad thing.  The two most annoying types of auto-twits are:

• Bloggers who automatically send a tweet whenever they post any new content (some even do it when they first start to write a post, or even when they change a post).  If I wanted to subscribe to their blog, I would.
• Music fans than tweet, automatically, whenever they listen to music.  This is usually in conjunction with Pandora and/or Last.fm and is very annoying for two reasons.  Firstly, I don’t really care what music you’re listening to.  Secondly, it will tweet every time a song plays, so consider each song lasts 4 minutes, that’s around 15 tweets an hour.  So don’t check your Twitter feed for an hour, and it’s filled with 15 tweets you don’t care about, that’s hiding other tweets you might.

The Spammers, Scammers and Salesmen

Because of the 140 character limitation of Twitter, to post links people use URL shortening services, like TinyURL.  And while many internet users are cautious when seeing these links in the wild, people seem less so on Twitter.  After all, there’s a genuine reason for using them.  This alerts those who would want to take advantage of this potential lapse in care.  Hence, Twitter is slowly filling up with Spammers, Scammers and Salesmen.  Fortunately, they are fairly easy to identify.  If you are a Twitter use, you will no doubt, at some point, have been followed by a Twitter user that only has one or two followers but is in turn following thousands of people.  It’s also likely that you’ve been followed by a Twitter user that, when you check their feed, has only tweeted links with non-descript text.

If you do click any of the links in their tweets you will find  site either trying to sell something to you, something you don’t want, or you’ll find a site that tries to scam something out of you.  Learn the signs, and be weary of them.

Beware the Sneaky Ones…

It’s fairly easy to identify the above groups of Twitter users, but you must be on your toes.  All it takes is a normal Twitter user to discover one the Auto-Twit’s tools and think it’s a good idea for them to turn.  So always be vigilant, for your own safety.

Research the location

This is something that I didn’t quite get when first started applying for jobs.  Even in a discipline as diverse as IT, there are still hot-beds of certain types of jobs.  Similar companies tend to group together.  Try and consider this when you’re looking for a job, and make sure you research the location of the job before you apply.  Is it close enough to comfortably commute (also, remember to work out the cost of your commute, estimate high as prices relating to travel can shoot up)?  Are there enough facilities in the area to keep you happy (pub, gym, cafe etc.)?  By doing all this research up front you can really narrow down your search, meaning you can focus on the jobs that are actually viable, and discount the rest.

Graduate Course or not?

Strolling around your campus you will no doubt be inundated with advertisements for Graduate Schemes for various companies doing various things.  You need to think carefully before applying for one of these schemes.  I know quite a few people who went down this route, and there are benefits and drawbacks to them, which I’ve outlined below: -

Benefits

• A well defined career and development path
• Meet the right people early on in your career
• Gain lots of experience in a short space of time
• Fast track to management
• Well defined pay scales

Drawbacks

• Being tied to one company for a set period of time
• The possibility that you can be moved to a different location at the drop of a hat
• The possibility that you can move business functions at the drop of a hat, potentially resulting in you doing a job you didn’t sign up for an hate
• Not gaining the respect of other staff members who feel you are receiving favourable treatment over them
• Reduced pay (at least initially, when I was looking the difference was something like 20%)

These are all things you need to consider.  It’s really worth pointing out that if you end up getting a “normal” job, as opposed to one in a Graduate scheme, you will still receive training and career progression.  The decision as to whether to go for a Graduate scheme or not really boils down to two things.  Firstly, are the opportunities in the location you’re interested in good?  Secondly, are you the sort of person who wants the structure (and inherent restrictions and advantages) that a Graduate scheme provides?

Get “On Side” with recruitment agencies

If this is your first experience of applying for a job in IT, something may come as a shock to you.  Very very few companies deal directly with job applications.  Every company I’ve ever worked with has outsourced this to a recruitment agency.  This means that, at some point, you will have to deal with a recruitment agency.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and you can use it to your advantage.  The thing to remember here is that the recruitment agent gets paid when you get placed in a job.  Further more, they will usually get a percentage of your initial salary.  So, when you’re job hunting contact all the relevant and local recruitment agents and get their advice.  What sort of jobs are there in the area?  What sort of pay should you be looking at?  Is your CV suitable?  Any interview tips? etc. etc.  Buyer beware though.  In almost all cases I’ve had recruitment agents overstate the amount of work available as well as the potential pay.  So YMMV.

Bring experience to the table, by hook or by crook

If you have any experience, any experience at all that is relevant to the job you are applying for, you will have a head start on all the other graduate applicants.  Te best way to get relevant experience is to do a placement year whilst in university or some temp work should you have the time.  If this isn’t possible, you may have to get creative.  One example I gave in a job interview (actually, I used it twice and got both jobs) was that of a car crash.  In both interview I was asked how I dealt with stress in a work environment.  I didn’t really have any relevant work experience and I desperately wanted to avoid using the boilerplate “assignment deadline” answer all the other graduates give.  So I recalled a traffic accident I was involved in, which became a stressful situation after one of the passenger started to become hysterical.  Talking the interviewers through the steps I took to calm the situation, and take control until help arrived really elevated me above the other candidates. So if you don’t have experience, don’t make something up, just get creative.  And if you get this right, an interview can really swing in your favour.

Pick the right job!

I’ve left what I feel is the most important until last.  I mentioned above that IT is a very diverse market, so try as much as you can to specialise.  While many will say you need to be as flexible as possible, and this is true, it can also be highly advantages to pick a speciality.  By choosing a speciality you can do two things.  Firstly, target your CV and covering letter to that area so it best highlights your skills, talents, experience and achievements that are most relevant to that discipline.  Secondly, you can research the area to ensure you are well prepared for the interview.

Picking an area to specialise in can be difficult.  You not only have to consider what you enjoy and are good at, but also what is “workable”.  By workable I mean a job that you will be able to do in your chosen location and a job that will pay well enough to keep you satisfied.  There are a few tactics you can use when trying to specialise.  Firstly, as far as it’s possible, try and make yourself un-out-sourceable.  Choose a job that can’t easily be outsourced.  This, generally, means going towards either the soft-skills side of things, the local jobs (on-site support for example) or those jobs that are heavily involved at the beginning of the development process.  If your university course is anything like mine, you will find that these jobs aren’t really spoken about.

During my course the developers were talked about, as were testers, project managers, planners, engineers, hardware engineers, support technicians and network engineers.  The job I’m currently doing, Business/Systems Analysis, was barely mentioned at all.  Because I do this job, as opposed to one of the other roles that do get attention, means I have higher job security, better prospects, more interesting work and better pay than my peers who went for the more mainstream, headline jobs.  One of the best ways to research the types of jobs you can go for is to talk it through with your resident recruitment agent.  You can also do a search across job websites for some skills you possess, and see what roles come up.  For example, searching for the skill UML will return lots of development jobs but also jobs as an Analyst.

I hope these five tips have given you something to think about.  I’m far from being a millionaire IT tycoon, but would consider myself successful enough to offer advice.  If you want some practical tips on ow to write a good CV, or how to prepare for an interview, try out sites like LifeHacker.com, which regularly posts tips on practical aspects of job hunting.

Photograph by  [K].

www.moneysavingexpert.com – This may very well be the greatest site on the internet.  It’s focused on the UK, and provides links and advice to UK visitors, but also has some fantastic advice.  If, for example, you’re looking to renew your insurance, it provides extensive tips on how to reduce your premium, and then links to multiple brokers and comparison sites for your to pick the cheapest supplier.  But, it goes even further than that, giving you tricks, tips and techniques to drive the price down even further after you’ve got all the quotes.  Signing up to the Weekly Newsletter is an absolute must.  If you’re not based in the UK, you can still make use of the tips the site contains, as well as the very active and informative forums.  Including an “Old-Style” thrift section, which covers things like reducing waste and reusing household items.

www.petrolprices.com – Another British one this, but there are American equivalents.  The premise of the site is incredibly simple.  You provide your postcode and they send you an email pointing out the cheapest local supplier.  You will be astonished at the variation in price within a couple of miles of your house.  There’s around a 3p a litre difference within 2 miles of my house.

Lifehacker / LifeHack – Two sites that generally serve the same purpose. They will teach you ways to improve your life.  The tips featured range from ways to better use your computer and the internet to handy ways of saving money round the house.  Both are very well written and researched, definately worth a read.  And remember, even if you only pick up productivity tips, time is money!

Consumerist – We need more websites like The Consumerist.  While the site mostly focusses on keeping US companies in check, it’s packed with tips, stories and anecdotes about how to get the best service from companies you deal with every day.  It also points out some widely used advertising, sales and marketing techniques that consumers should really be aware of.

Hot UK Deals – Shopping for something online?  Make sure you head here first.  Quite simply, you search for whichever online retailer you’re using and it will provide you with any available discount voucher codes.  If you’ve ever been buying something online, seen a field in the shopping basket and wondered how you get one of this, this site is the answer.  I’ve saved 100s of pounds using this site, and others like it.  If you’re in the US, you can use a similar site called Retail Me Not or Coupon Craze, which offers a rather excellent FireFox plugin which automatically alerts you when you are on a site that has valid vouchers available.  Both of these also work for UK stores.

There’s just one other site I’d like to mention.  Ikea Hacker may or may not actually save you money, but it will definately put a smile on your face and help you make the best use of furniture once you’ve bought it. Providing, of course, you bought it from Ikea.  Which, if you’re like me you probably did.

Photo by  Weeping-Willow.

I’ve covered quite a variety of topics over the last year, and some posts that I didn’t expect to be successfull really took off on the social networks. Let’s take a look at the top five posts of the year.

1. 5 OSX Hidden Gems – By far the most popular post on this blog after making the digg front page and then becoming popular on del.icio.us and Stumble Upon. It was really the post that launched this blog and still remains popular today.
2. 5 FireFox Keyboard Shortcuts – This was one of those posts that I really didn’t think would be popular. It was a fairly simple list of reasonably well known FireFox keyboard shortcuts, the sort of thing I use every day without even thinking about it. Yet it hit it big on Stumble Upon which sent a steady stream of visitors for a few months and then, out of nowhere, started sending thousands of visitors a day ans sustained it for almost a week. Let’s call it a pleasant surprise.
3. 5 Resources to make YOU a Better Blogger – This was an incredibly easy post to write. I picked four of my favourite RSS feeds relating to blogging and one of my favourite forums. Surprisingly, many people hadn’t come across some of the sites,so I’m really glad to be able to point them out.
4. How to Scientifically Identify Content that’s Perfect for your Blog – At times, coming up with fresh, new and interesting content for a blog is difficult. In this post I outlined a scientific method to generate ideas for new blog posts. I’ve since received emails from readers thanking me for the post as it’s gotten them out of some periods of writer’s block.
5. 5 Things that Make Quicksilver Awesome – I really do think Quicksilver is one of the greatest productivity boosters out there, and the more people who know about it, the better. Especially now it’s gone open source. In this post I pointed out five of the many things that make Quicksilver simply amazing to work with.

Overall, it’s been a pretty good year. I’ve learnt alot and I’ve shared alot. Blogging is something that I enjoy doing, and I think I’ve picked up enough tips over the last year or so, and have enough good ideas to give it a go.

Consolidation

This is probably a safe bet, or as safe as you can get in blogging, but I’d be very surprised if it doesn’t actually happen.  2007 saw a certain degree of consolidation in the blogosphere, with independent blogs joining networks like Weblogs Inc, and B5 Media.  You will also see these networks launch brand new blogs on their own volition, often poaching established bloggers to get them off the ground.

Conversational Blogs

I think this is an area with lots of potential.  The first time I came across a Conversational Blog was with The Superest.  The Superest is a blog where two cartoonists (plus guests) compete to create the ultimate cartoon character.  Each one has to top the previous entry with each new one.  Explaining the concept using The Superest as an illustration should make the format immediately obvious.  I can see this idea being expanded into more typical conversations.  Imagine five or six well known bloggers each responding to each others posts in a blog format.  I can see it really taking off providing the right personalities get involved.

Subscribers Will Soar

Probably another safe bet this one, but I can see subscriber numbers all round increasing dramatically.  I think the driving force behind this will be the further acceptance of blogging as a legitimate source of news in the wider, more established media.  This will draw new readers, who previously stayed around the more established outlets, being directed to blogs.  When they start being directed to blogs, at least some will be converted into subscribers.

Premium Blogs

I’m slightly torn on this one.  While paid-for-subscription sites are slowly dying out, I can see them taking off in blogging.  We’ve already seen people like Yaro Starak, with Blog Mastermind, experiment with costed options, and I can see this being expanded.  Initially, at least, it will be used to provide additional content, with the bulk of the site remaining free.  Logically, you could argue that programs like the Community Consulting Project at ProBlogger constitutes one of these Premium Features (i.e. you can only participate if you pay).

Blogging About Blogging Will Continue to Grow

For the same reasons subscribers will grow, I think the number of blogs will continue to grow.  Exponentially in fact.  And with so many new blogs, writers will be looking for that extra edge, the extra 10% to make their blog successful.  This means that the market for blogs about blogs and blogging will continue to expand.

What do you think the new year will bring for bloggers and readers?

1. iPhone Touch and iPhone Basic – Steve Jobs’s plan to corner the mobile market isn’t going to happen with the current iPhone. It’s just not. It’s too expensive, IT departments don’t like it, and it’s really not suitable in certain situations. Because of this, I’m predicting a cut down, basic version of the iPhone. I doubt it will retain the touch screen and will offer a far simpler solution to those who want it. It will also be significantly cheaper. When there’s such a range of choice in the iPod line, why would the iPhone be a single SKU? The regular iPhone, from now on called the “iPhone Touch” will get a boost in storage space (to 16Gb) and 3G. Steve will also announce an enhanced tracking feature to provide GPS-like functionality through Google Maps, far more accurately than anyone as done before. There will also be a second camera for iChat compatible video chat and a beefed up normal camera. Expect the media to brand the iPhone Touch the new Newton shortly afterwards and Apple to deny all similarities. Obviously, before talking about the changes being made to the iPhone line there will me a five minute presentation, complete with wooden graphs, on how successful it is.
2. No More AT&T – Sticking with the iPhone, I can see the partnership with AT&T being broken. Apple only ever needed it as a stepping stone into the market, and now they’ve succeeded in doing that. I don’t think this will be immediate, but there will be strong hints coming from Apple.
3. Completely Redesigned MacBook Pros – An overhaul of the GPU, CPU and mainboard, new, larger and faster drives and redesigned cases. I’d expect the new enclosures to look more like the new iMacs, with a keyboard similar to the MacBooks, with a “chiclet” style. I see the 17 inch being the flagship, with the obvious 15 incher, but, there will be a new…
4. Multi-Touch MacBook Pro – 13.3 inches, same style as the new MacBook Pros with a Multi-Touch Interface. I’ve posted my reasons for believing Multi-Touch Macs are on the way earlier this week, and I think it’s a feature that has to go into the Pro line. It’s also a feature tht I think would be better implemented in a smaller than 15 inch form factor, so expect 13.3 inches, the same as the MacBook. There will, of course, be no stylus, it will all be driven by human touch and much of the technology will be similar to that found on the iPhone and iPod Touch with a few extra bells and whistles thrown in. Expose will be enhanced as will Safari. Front Row will become the primary method for interfacing using touch technology, so this will be enhanced to work beyond it’s current media-driven focus.
5. OSX 10.6 Cougar – There were some red faces round Apple when they had to delay Leopard, only to mildly dissapoint with the final release. So Steve will announce that 10.6, either “Cougar” or “Lynx” (both registered by Apple, my money’s on Cougar), is already well into development and will come out within 2008. The main draw will be the new, much discussed file system, everything else will be kept secret.

Have I hit the nail on the head with any of those predictions, or am I way off? Isn’t wild speculation fun! If you want to start some rumours, the comment field below awaits.

During this process, I’ve picked up on a few aspects of blog design that I hate. Not dislike, but i actually hate. I’m really conscience of these elements when viewing a blog (or any other site for that matter), so to make sure I don’t make the same mistakes, I’ve been keeping a list.  I’ve expanded on the five most common elements of blog design I have problems with and given some examples.  As pointed out by Daniel in the comments, these five elements fall into two broad categories, Style over Substance and Third Party Tools and Features.  So keep an eye out in the near future for a post covering each of these elements along with tips on how to avoid them.

Take a look at the list below.  Do you agree or disagree?  Are there any other elements of blog design that really annoys you?  Something that you keep being drawn to whenever you read a blog?  Let us all know in the comments.

FeedBurner

For some reason, people like to show off their FeedBurner stats. I’m British, so I’m not flash like that. My real issue though, is less with showing the world the stats, but more the fact that people just seem to shove the FeedBurner counter into the design without any consideration of placement or aesthetics. (screenshot from ShoeMoney).

It’s not just the counter, oh no, the option to subscribe by email is also handled badly. For some reason, it seems to be a blond spot for many blogs. Take a look at the image to the left, this is from the newly redesigned Zac Johnson Super Affiliate Blog. Can you tell what this field and button does? And even if you could, it’s not exactly seamlessly integrated into the site, is it. Now I accept that this is likely a browser quirk, but FireFox on OSX isn’t exactly unheard of.
There are also sites that make it very easy to confuse the email subscribe form with the search form, purely because it wasn’t really considered when designing the site. There’s been a number of times I’ve put a search criteria into a subscribe box without realising. Search should go at the top and be clearly labeled. Subscribe should be not near the search box and also should be clearly labeled.

Widgets

I have to admit, I’ve been guilty of this in the past. A new widget comes out for bloggers and you rush to install it on your site. It happens all the time. The two biggest offenders around at the moment is the Blog Rush widget and the My Blog Log widget. I’ve seen both used incredibly badly on various blogs. The Blog Rush widget is a particularly bad offender, purely because at the time of launch it had only one colour scheme. Considering how varied blog designs tend to be, this seems like utter madness.

Hiding Content Below the Fold

I don’t know about you, but the most important thing on a blog, in my eyes, is the content. I’m constantly baffled and bemused by sites that try as hard as possible to to hide the content underneath the fold so you can’t see it without scrolling. This is like putting a big sign on the front of your blog saying that I care more about these things than I do the content. I think one of the worse offenders is John Chow. I’ve been wondering for a while what he’s actually doing with his blog, I can’t remember the last time he wrote content worth reading that wasn’t telling us how much he was earning or one which he was getting paid to write. The image to the right is what I see above the fold, not a great deal of content, is there?

Comments

Another two fold one this. Many people simply don’t put enough thought into laying out and styling comments on their blog. In the increasingly competitive world of blogging, an active community is a real feather in the hat and can raise your blog up above the rest. So this section on the site needs to be attractive, inviting, in line with the rest of the theme and easy to read. It also helps if you make it easy to determine who the site administrators and writers are, so people reading the comments can instantly identify “official” responses. The biggest offender is Blogger, which goes so far as putting comments on a completely different page. Talk about trying as hard as possible to prevent a conversation from erupting over the content.

Quirkiness Over Usability

Yes, having a unique design helps, and yes being unique does sometime mean quirky, but please don’t choose a unique design over usability. It’s a trend that’s becoming increasingly common, and increasingly worrying. To of the best looking, and most baffling are eleven 3 and Cult-Foo, below.

I’d never suggest that you should fall in line and set out designing a blog to look like the rest, but top of my list would be usability, and the ability for users to know where everything and get around easily. There are blogs that manage to be unique, attractive and usable. One of my current favourites is PSD Tuts and I’m also a fan of Web Designer Wall.

I should probably point out that the elements of sites I’ve pointed out above only annoy me because I visit the sites often, due to their great content and, for the most part, the rest of the site design is stellar.

Is there anything you see on blogs that really gets under your skin? And please, don’t hold back on this site, it will be refreshed and renewed soon anyway…

1. The same information with every post – This very much follows the example found on the WordPress Codex entry for Custom Fields. The idea is simple, if you usually put the same information, for example your location, a task you’re completing, on every post, you can use a custom field. The advantage of using a custom field to do this is that the information is displayed consistently on every post and, if you’re clever enough, you could do different things based on these values. If you just put this information in the main post content, it tends to get lost and it would be a pain to maintain. This is really the basis for custom fields, so we’ll expand on the sort of information you may want to use consistently across posts.
2. Images – Yes, you can put images into posts but using a custom field for an image allows you to do new and interesting things with them. One of the most common uses is having a thumbnail for each post. Thumbnails are only slightly usefull when viewing the whole post but come into their own when you are viewing the home page, or category page of a site. An example is the Premium News WordPress Theme which uses custom fields to hold the images that accompany the stories on the front page. You can probably see the implementation more clearly on the Kineda inspired version. Disclaimer: I don’t know for sure whether the designers use custom fields to acheive this, but I would be surprised if they didn’t.
3. Files – There are blogs out there that attach files to blog posts. An example is the rather excellent PSDTuts site, which runs some really high quality Photoshop Tutorials. With each post they attach the PSD file (Photoshop file format) for download (and recently, purchase). Looking at the way this is handled, I would imagine this is through custom fields.
4. Change Styles – The previous examples have all been to do with displaying information to the user or making something available. There is something else you can do though, and that’s attach a value to the post that changes it’s style. For example, if you wanted to make any posts you make about Christmas look more, er, Christmassy, you could output a value which styled the post accordingly. It would be fairly simple to set up and you could leave the rest of your posts completely untouched.
5. Copy Functionality – Functionality is available on other blogging platforms that you can’t find in WordPress. Fortunately, the custom field options allow you to duplicate much of this. To give a specific example, blogs run by Weblogs Inc use a custom blogging platform called Blogsmith. If you take a look at one of their most popular blogs, Engadget, you will see that they provide a link at the bottom of each post that points to the source. This differs from many other blogs that include a link to the source within the body of the post. Want to do something similar, and make sure your readers know where to look for these links? Then use Custom Fields.

So I’ve listed five possible uses for custom fields, hopefully you can see a use for them on your blog. If you want to make the most of them, you will need to prepare your blog first. For a bit of background, have a look at the WordPress Codex, specifically, the Using Custom Fields page and the the_meta function. There’s also a nice run through of an implementation here and here.

1. Make a running start – You really need to hit the ground running if you want to make an impact.  The best way to do this is to have content ready when the blog goes live.  Especially, make sure you have a solid about page up, so new visitors, and remember all visitors will be new visitors, can quickly find out what you’re about.  If you do make an impact, have some non-time sensitive posts ready to catch any readers who decide to subscribe after your first few posts.  Catching these readers is vitally important.
2. Branding – Have a look around, take in what you see.  How can you distinguish yourself from the competition in this new niche?  There are a numerous ways to do this, design, taglines, themes, writing style etc.  Set yourself apart from the rest so when the first visitors arrive they know it’s a new, fresh blog with something interesting to say for itself.  If you’re entering a niche which isn’t generally known as being tech savvy, you can very easily set yourself apart through a customised blog theme, or in some cases by simply not using blogger.  Keep an eye out for killer domains as well.
3. Search for traffic sources -Blogrolls are often over looked but can be highly valuable sources of traffic.  Search around your niche and see if there are any popular blog rolls or link exchanges you can join.  It’s a great way of getting those first few readers.
4. Build up to a crescendo – Commenting is vital to get your name out there in a new niche. However, you have to be carefull when playing the commenting card.  I take the following approach.  Get together a list of the most popular, entertaining and readable blogs in the niche.  Start commenting on them well before you launch your site.  When your site has actually launched, continuing commenting and add links to your site if there is relevant content (hint:  Make some relevant content to link to).  Always fill out the “Your Site” field on the comments form.  Then, when a post that really grabs your attention comes up reply on your blog and make sure a trackback gets posted on the originating blog.  Just to be doubly sure, and this is something most people forget, click the link on your blog so it appears in the referral logs of the original site.  This does two things.  Firstly, if people check their logs they will see your site, even if they don’t quite know what a trackback is or how it works.  Secondly, they will think your site gets traffic, even if it doesn’t.  This will make them more likely to link to you and may result in an immediate increase in authority within the niche.  Of course, only reply and/or comment if you genuinely have something interesting and unique to add to the conversation, otherwise you’ll (rightly) be labeled a spammer.
5. Hit the hot topics – Every niche as topics de jour.  If you are the first to respond to the topic, you can ride a wave of traffic.  The important thing, however, is identifying how to discover these hot topics.  Pick out the blogs that court controversy, the news sites that are always first, put them in your feed reader and be quick to respond.  As with the point above, the medium you chose to respond through can make a big difference.  Make a judgement call on when to respond with a post or a comment.

These approaches really paid off for me.  And it didn’t happen by accident, I thought the approach through before hand.  I also chose to not monetise the blog immediately (and a month later, I still haven’t) and I refrained from submitting it to search engines.  I did this for two reasons.  Firstly, it’s easier to gain the initial trust of readers if they don’t think you’re trying to make money from them.  Secondly, I didn’t want the search engines to spider the site until I had content worthy of it.  On the point of monetisation, different niches take different approaches to this and the audience will react in different ways.  The same goes for the type of content, replying to posts and quoting other’s content.  When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Have you ever entered a brand new niche?  What did you do to prepare?  Let us know in the comment.

Five steps, research, community, comment, schemes, authorities, talking points. colour

I’ve listed five things you should include in your plan. They way you decide to approach each of these aspects of your blog will depend on what you want to achieve as well as your experience. As someone who’s set up a number of blogs, some more successfully than others, I’ve offered my thoughts on each. but please consider each carefully before setting up your blog.

1. Permalink Structure – You have to get this right first time. Changing the permalink structure mid way through a blog’s life is an absolute nightmare. I’d recommend having the post title in the permalink, similar to the approach I’ve taken with this site. By doing this you will rank higher in the search engines and allow people to clearly see what the post is about from the URL alone (remember, you can’t control how other people link to you, so have a fall back).
2. Policies – There are a number of policies you will need to establish before you start your blog. The main ones you need to decide on are Commenting/Trackbacks (moderated? Allow links? No follow links?), Privacy Policy (What are you going to do with the email addresses, names and other stats you collect?) and Monetisation (Will you carry ads? Will you sell links? Will you accept paid for content?). When you have thought about these aspects, write them down and be sure to add this information to your site. To read the policies of this site, see the about page. Comments are not moderated, but there are anti-apam measures in place.
3. Data Structure – When coming up with the plan mentioned above, you should really come up with a list of topics you want to write on. These should become the categories you use to classify your content. One advantage of doing this early is that you can give some serious thought to the phrasing used. It also helps to quickly give your new readers a quick overview of the topics covered by the blog. It should also prevent you having to come up with new categories as you go, which can be problematic.  And now, with WordPress 2.3 you have Tags to consider.  You need to ensure that your categories and tags are clearly defined to avoid getting yourself into a confusing situation with overlapping tags and categories and no clear categorisation policy.
4. Strategies (navigation, promotion, SEO) – As many of you will be aware, just starting a new blog and putting content up isn’t going to be enough for success. You have to seek out readers and draw them in. There are many techniques you can use to do this, which I won’t get into here. With that in mind, one of the most important things you can do when establishing a new blog is to come up with a marketing strategy. This should be long term.  You will also need to come up with a strategy for content.  How often will you post, on what subjects and where will you find your inspiration?  Also, take a look at some others who occupy the same niche, what do they do well, what can you do better, what got them to where they are today?  Learn from others and don’t reinvent the wheel.
5. Implementation – You will need to decide on the blogging platform you intend to use, along with whether you will be hosting it yourself or using a hosted solution.  Most people will stick with that they know, but starting a new blog is a fantastic opportunity to experiment a bit and to see if other platforms have moved on.  You will also need to think about themes and plugins, and map the two together.  For example, if you decide to use a theme that relies on a certain plugin, what will you do if that plugin stops getting updated and becomes incompatible with the latest version of your software?  Along with these considerations, PLEASE make sure you have backup and recovery plans in place.  And if you do, test them at least once a month.  And remember, it’s not just the database that needs to be backed up but all the files as well, including those that you upload to add to your posts (e.g. images).

I hope those five points give you something to think about.  I absolutely believe that having a plan is one of the most important things when starting a new blog.  Something else that I find useful is the strategy point above.  After six months it’s incredibly useful to revisit this strategy to see if it still aligns with what you are currently doing.  if not, why not?  And is your current approach wrong, or is the strategy wrong?

What do you consider when starting a new blog?