Infinite Path » Blogging

The Demise of Internet Advertising: Who Will be Left?

Infinite Path — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:15:31 +0000

It seems highly likely (although reports have yet to be confirmed) that Shiny Media has gone into administration today. Shiny Media created a range of very successful blogs back in 2004. They received backing from other companies, had millions of readers, a large team of writers and, until quite recently, were making a fair amount of money from advertising deals on all of their sites. However, it would appear that even this iconic network is not immune from the advertising downturn.

A few years ago, new blogs and blog networks, offering lots of quality content, were extremely popular with internet users and, as such, the advertising companies were prepared to pay for the traffic. Granted, they never paid a lot, but it was enough to sustain development while waiting for the big idea for an exit strategy. However, for some of these sites, and site owners, the big exit strategy never materialised. The advertising revenue dried up and many were left with popular websites with lots of traffic but no clear way of making any money.

So, what really is the future for making money online? Many major newspapers are also feeling the strain. Big UK broadsheets are able to drive huge traffic numbers to their site due to the amount of content they can provide, but they can’t come up with a way of making money from that traffic. With traditional printed media sales dropping by the day, it is essential that a way to monetise online becomes apparent before many of the best internet publishing operations fall by the wayside.

The internet is the future and the way we consume information is changing fast. There is an opening now for someone clever to figure out a way to make money online. If a sustainable revenue model can be created for websites that just publish content (and do not sell as well), maybe fewer networks and high-profile blogs will go under.

Obama Makes Social Media History in Africa

Infinite Path — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:08:51 +0000

Barack Obama is no stranger to social media. An effective social media campaign launched in the build-up to the election last year was lauded as a fundamental reason for his eventual success and, ever since, Obama has not been afraid to be seen to encourage interaction via online means.

The use of social media in Obama’s visit to Ghana at the weekend still signalled the start of something exciting, however, since in African countries social media has not become the buzz phrase it is in the Western world.

It seems that the U.S. government is keen to engage with a generation of Africans perceived as vital for securing a better future for the continent and clearly the White House believe that social media, an important element of what has been termed the government’s “new media strategy”, could be the key to breaking down barriers between authority and the wider population.

Before arriving in Ghana, the government established a website for users to register themselves to receive SMS updates and the further option of sending messages and comments, some of which would be read by the President himself, went down extremely well over the weekend.

Obama’s visit has been the subject of hot debate and this was facilitated by the organisation of “watch parties” (communal gatherings at public places and embassies which broadcast the speech). For those unable to reach such events, the speech was streamed live on several social networking sites and, for those watching in the privacy of their own homes, debate happened virtually via Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.

Social media certainly seems to be fulfilling the ambition of Obama to send out a firm message to as many people across Africa as possible. His words were not spoken exclusively for the privileged few in power; they were intended for those who hold the future of the continent in their hands. In the words of Obama himself: “You have the power to hold your leaders accountable”. Ultimately, social media ensured that the individuals being addressed in this instance were not those sitting in the room politely applauding.

Assess the success of your blog

Infinite Path — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:57:46 +0000

If you have been writing a blog for a while, you may be wondering how it is being received across the web. There are, of course, several obvious ways to find out how your opinions are being received, including reading any feedback on your blog and keeping a close eye on changes in traffic. However, how else can you make sure that you are providing your loyal followers with what they really want? The answer is not simple and, to do this properly, you would need to spend a considerable amount of time planning a complex strategy. However, luckily for you, there are several obvious and easy steps which can be followed to give you a brief idea of how well your blog is performing:

Monitor how someone is viewing your blog: This is a simple yet potentially effective technique. Ask someone who is unfamiliar with your blog to take a quick look at it. Allow them to spend five minutes browsing your blog as if they had come across it on the web naturally. After this period of time has elapsed, ask them some basic questions. Target these questions to help you find out more information about specific parts of your blog that are worrying you. For instance, how easy did they find it to access related blog posts from your main page? Did they even think about doing this? How did they find the usability of your site? Did they find it easy to navigate or did they become frustrated trying to perform a simple action? This technique is not at all representative, since the opinions of one person may be the opposite of another. However, it does give you a quick idea about what needs to be improved and what already works. If you want to make this technique more representative, simply ask a few more people to do the same thing. Encourage honesty from the people you ask to take part. Make it clear that you won’t be offended by their input!
Spend some time conducting research yourself: It may have been so long since you made your blog that it is now slightly out-of-date with regards to formatting and style. Dedicate an hour or two of your time to having a close look at other blogs which are ranking highly and performing well on the web. Is there a common style of formatting that they are using? After you have done this and provided yourself with a general idea of what works and what doesn’t work, take a fresh look at your website. This can be hard because you know your site like the back of your hand but try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who has never seen your site before.
Write a blog post: Outline your concerns in a short blog post and encourage input from your readers. Ask them what they like and what they aren’t so keen on at the moment. If you have a particular area of concern, ask your readers how you could improve it to make their experience of your blog stress-free.
Email your loyal followers: If you are able to find an email address (or several) used by your loyal followers, ask them individually for their opinions. Ask for active input from them and make them feel as if their opinions will make an actual difference to you in the long-run. This technique can be particularly useful if you know that one of your readers is involved in a profession which could work to your advantage. For example, is one of your readers a professional web designer? If so, ask them targeted questions about how you could improve the layout of your blog in order to attract more readers and keep the ones that you currently have, happy.
Insert a poll on your blog: Inserting an obvious and easy-to-use poll on your blog will encourage input from visitors who do not usually come across your site. It is all very well encouraging debate and input from people who are familiar with your blog but new visitors may not feel comfortable providing you with personalised opinions. It is much easier for these people to spend a few seconds clicking on a poll anonymously. Make sure you do something with the results. It is all too common for blog authors to conduct polls, some on a large scale, and then ignore the results.

Blogging: The Key Components

Infinite Path — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:58:25 +0000

Blogging is an activity carried out by many yet perfected by very few. The web is full of blogs which offer little value, useless information, and which exist solely to stroke the author’s inflated ego. However, occasionally you may be lucky enough to come across a real gem of a blog, one which offers you unique information and viewpoints, makes you think about a new topic in a completely new way, and ultimately excites you enough to make you talk about it either virtually or face-to-face. Many people think that writing a good and interesting blog is akin to understanding rocket science but this is not true. Stick to these simple guidelines and you will be giving yourself the best chance of blogging success:

Make your opinion know: Nobody wants to read a blog where you sit on the fence concerning a controversial topic. Make your opinions clear and exaggerate them if necessary. Blogs are all about subjectivity and being controversial (without being offensive or disrespectful) is very important
Write well consistently: Reading a clumsy blog with several spelling mistakes or grammatical errors can be an extremely painful experience. The level of authority imparted by your content will automatically decrease if you make just a few basic mistakes. If you have something important to say (and you really should if you are writing a blog), make sure you don’t undermine it by being careless with your style
Keep it short and sweet: Your readers won’t bother trawling through several laborious introductory paragraphs to reach your interesting content. Keep each blog post short (with 250 words acting as a general guideline) and to the point. You can follow your blog post up with another if you want to make further points but make sure each one is compact, relevant, and cohesive.
Involve your readers: Encourage feedback, comments, and debate on your blog. Nobody will respect you if you think that your viewpoint is infallible. If someone spends their time writing a comment and leaving feedback, make sure you do not ignore it. Their opinion deserves to be recognised, even if it does annoy you.
Remember that frequency is key: If you want to become an authoritative, popular blogger, who is lucky enough to have an army of followers, regular posting is simply essential. Spending an hour of your time creating a controversial, interesting blog is pointless if you then lose the followers who loved your initial post by failing to write anything new for another two weeks. Remember that blog followers will build up certain expectations of your blogging activity. They will not only expect a certain viewpoint and writing style from you. They will also expect you to respect them enough to remain regular and reliable with regards to your posting.

Should I write in blog format or article format?

Infinite Path — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:28:43 +0000

You would have had to have spent the past couple of years hiding away in a remote cave to have missed the buzz surrounding blogs. Once considered a slightly odd activity performed by people who didn’t know how to communicate properly with people face-to-face or those who couldn’t stop talking about themselves for five minutes, blogging is now such a common activity that you’re considered slightly odd if you don’t take part. Nowadays, many people, even those trying to promote a particular product or service online, choose to write in blog format rather than article format and it can be a difficult decision to make. When should you write in blog format? Can writing an article ever provide advantages that writing in blog form does not?

The fact remains that whilst articles have decreased in popularity since the rise of the blog, they still have their own unique advantages. The lists of respective advantages below clearly show that whilst blogs may have boomed in popularity, both articles and blogs remain important communication channels in today’s day and age.

Blogs

More personal than an article
More direct than an article
Mirrors the feel of face-to-face contact in a virtual world
Good for fresh and up-to-date content that will no longer be relevant after a few days
Respected because you can provide inside-information

Articles

More informative than blogs and better for including details or statistics needed to back up your content
Respected because articles automatically appear more official and, importantly, more objective than blogs
Can include more content within one article
Can be timeless
Can be listed on more sources and thus viewed by more people

Ten Ways to Overcome a Blogging Mind Block

Infinite Path — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:49:05 +0000

Even the best bloggers who write successful blogs run out of things to write about now and again. When you’re blogging on a daily basis, or even several times a week, you may find it difficult to keep coming up with original and interesting content without fail. However, the best bloggers on the web don’t get disheartened when they encounter blogging mind blocks. They simply find other ways to find great content ideas. Here are some of the best suggestions:

Re-post an old blog post. This may sound like a lazy idea but it can be great if you put a new spin on it and make it relevant to recent events
Subscribe to Google Alerts for a particular keyword and use the news which arrives in your inbox as inspiration
Subscribe to RSS feeds from a particular news site and pick up on any quirky stories that can be commented on easily
Have a look at websites which monitor what topics are hot on the blogosphere. See if you can put an interesting spin on this topic
Ask your blog followers to suggest a topic for you and use it for your next blog
If you know someone who is famous or renowned for offering a particular service or product, see if you can conduct an interview with them
If you blog about a particular industry or niche, see if you can make a prediction about future trends or hot topics. The good thing about predictions is you can be as wild as you like and it doesn’t matter whether or not they become reality
Think about something that has annoyed or excited you recently. Blog about why such an extreme reaction was provoked and ask others to leave feedback about whatever it was that stirred your emotions
Provide some useful information. Some of the most popular content on the web is anything that helps people to solve a simple problem. The same rule applies to television. Morning TV programmes are full of features about how to clean your fridge in five minutes flat, how to remove chewing gum from your hair, and how to remove wine stains from the carpet.
Take a news story and make it applicable to your own life. See what stories are really making the headlines and think about how it has impacted on a small-scale on your own life recently

Ultimately, if you can’t think of anything to say, you may decide not to blog for a while. However, you really should be aware of the impact that this can have. Your loyal followers may feel let down and look elsewhere and new visitors will choose to click away to a site which is updated regularly and reliably.