Bruce Lee is the most influential martial artist to ever live.

In the book Tao of Jeet Kune Do he shares many of his philosophies on life and fighting. The great thing about his teachings is that they can be applied to just about anything, including successful blogging.

Let's examine what Bruce Lee can teach us about the art of blogging.

1. Drive to succeed

You can win if you want to badly enough, means that the will to win is constant. No amount of punishment, no amount of effort, no condition is too tough to take in order to win.

Becoming a successful blogger is damn tough. The fact that such a tiny fraction of bloggers actually make a living from it underscores just how challenging it is.

While the above is true, to have any chance of reaching your goal of making a living as a blogger, you really have to want it. It can't merely be a passing thought, or a fantasy you have when feeling inspired. It has to be a fire that rages within you from the moment you awaken to when you hit the sheets at night. If you don't have that kind of passion, your chances of becoming a professional blogger are slim.

2. Seize Opportunities

If you think you have the opening, you should let it fly and not be half-hearted about it.

When opportunities arise, don't hesitate. Instead, make the move and put your full effort behind it:

If you notice a popular blogger hasn't posted in a while, this could be your golden opportunity to submit a guest post. Don't hesitate, churn out your best material and let it fly.

If you come up with a killer idea for a post and decide to save it for when your blog has a larger audience, that's a mistake. It's far better to write that post now and submit it as a guest post to a large blog which will grow your audience, now. The time to increase the popularity of your blog is now, not tomorrow. Seize the opportunity.

3. Use Your Energy Wisely

A relaxed technician expends mental and physical energy constructively, converting it when it does not contribute to the solution of the problem and spending it freely when it does.

Blogging is hard work, so using your energy wisely is essential to your success.

Don't allow nasty emails or comments from haters to diminish your energy. Instead, use all your existing energy to further your goal of making your blog even more successful.

Likewise, if you've reached a temporary plateau, don't feed the flames of frustration. All that frustration drains you of energy. Instead, use your energy to write guest posts, and brain storm new ways to broaden your reach and gain new subscribers.

Your energy is the currency for which you can further your objective. Use it wisely.

4. Practice

Each performance of an act strengthens the connections involved and makes the next performance easier, more certain, and more readily done.

Are you writing daily? If you're a blogger you're a writer. The best bloggers make writing a consistent habit. You don't have to post everything you write, but you should create a habit of writing as consistently as possible. Not only will this lead to you writing better blog posts, but the time it takes you to write posts will decrease as well.

Practice your craft as much as you can and it will only improve with each passing day.

5. Passion

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. Yet, it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents as well.

Don't get hung up on whether or not you have the requisite talent to become a successful blogger. Talent isn't a fixed phenomenon. On the contrary: You can significantly improve your blogging skills by reading and writing daily.

If you want to become proficient at writing headlines, you can do it. If you want to write quality openings in your blog posts, you need only study and internalize the proven methods that work for other successful bloggers.

If you want to write great content, you'd be wise to follow blogs like Darren's and to read often and widely.

Apply the wisdom of Bruce Lee today and you'll be kicking-ass in no time.

About the Author: Ted Pendinun is a part time actor who aspires to one day have a blog that inspires many. In his spare time he enjoys surfing, martial arts and going on whale watching expeditions.

This Post is from: ProBlogger Blog Tips.

5 Ways to Blog Like Bruce Lee

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Note from Beth: Here's another terrific guest post from Manny Hernandez. What has been your experience getting a Wikipedia Page for your nonprofit?

Guest Post by Manny Hernandez

Because it was such a painfully long process and because I couldn't find too many complete articles when I googled Wikipedia nonprofits, I decided to share the lessons we learned so that you may not make the same mistakes we made.

Build your reputation and notability first

No matter how important you think your work is (and I am sure you are doing amazing things for others in the world), your organization needs to be notable, according to Wikipedia's guidelines, before it can be Wikipedia-worthy. Quoting:

An organization is generally considered notable if it has been the subject of significant coverage in reliable, independent secondary sources. Trivial or incidental coverage of a subject by secondary sources is not sufficient to establish notability. All content must be verifiable.

Don't kill the messenger! This set the rules of their site and it's worked for them so far though the jury is still out on this one. So, your blog? Not typically a reliable, independent secondary source. A passing mention in an article in your local newspaper? Not notable enough. Does it suck? Ask me! But if you come to think of it, it's what keeps the site as encyclopedic as it can hope to be.

Make the page about your organization, not your programs

Our earlier attempts at getting a Wikipedia page up were focused on a page about TuDiabetes, the diabetes social network we run in English. As our first program, it got the most visibility at first and it got the most reliable (in our opinion) media coverage earlier. However, TuDiabetes, unlike Facebook or Google, is not a household name (not yet at least!) and it isn't its own organization: it is a program of the Diabetes Hands Foundation.

The results when we posted a TuDiabetes page on Wikipedia in 2008 were disastrous. But I am going to let a screenshot of the page speak for itself:

Your Wikipedia page should encompass all your work. Not only will this be a more complete depiction of your work: it will also furnish you hopefully with more notable and reliable sources to insert as references in your page.

Let others write about you

This, to me, was one of the most puzzling things about getting a Wikipedia page started (for a nonprofit or any other organization). One of the arguments we heard from Wikipedia in our first attempt to write our own page was that others had to do write about us. It didn't dawn on me that the this implied other MEDIA (reliable media, that is). It is not a problem for you to write your own page, but you have to make sure the reliable references are there and that you are writing about something bigger than a program you just launched.

Last few tips

• It helps to get a copy of a book like Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, but you don't need it as much these days as you used to back in 2008 when it first came out. Recently, Wikipedia has added new features that make creating and editing articles a lot easier.
• Reputation management online is key, so make sure to watch your page. After you log in to Wikipedia, you will see a little star (it's blank by default) next to the View History link for the page. Click on it (which will turn the star blue) to have your page added to your Watchlist.
• No matter how tempted you may feel to trick Wikipedia, don't do it. Don't waste your time or loose your account's credibility in the process. Stick to the Wikipedia guidelines and address the concerns they may have about your page when you post it in a timeline fashion. Respect their decision even if you dislike it: this doesn't mean you are not supposed to talk with them about your questions or ask for a more detailed explanation about a particular decision, but always do so in a respectful way.
• Most important of all: getting a Wikipedia page for your nonprofit is not a sprint. In the world of Web 2.0, this is as close to a marathon as it gets. Be patient and do your homework. It will pay off in the long run.

If you have any lessons you have learned from your experience with your Wikipedia page, I would love to hear them.

Manny Hernandez is a social entrepreneur, community strategist, president of the diabetes hands foundation, founder of tudiabetes and estudiabetes, author of ning for dummies

Bob Dylan once said that money doesn't talk, it swears', but in Hargeisa the capital of Africa's Somaliland it stinks. It literally stinks, reeking of rotten paper, like a leaky library in a monsoon.

That's because there's so much of it. For every dollar there are almost 17,000 Somaliland Shillings and the highest-denomination note is 500 Shillings, which is by no means the most common note in circulation. Money-changers sit within self-built stacks of money (picture left, video below) and children take wheelbarrows of it from one place to another, reminiscent of 1930s Weimar Germany when the Deutsch Mark became worthless.

By all criteria, cash doesn't work here. Could tiny, unknown Somaliland become the first nation to become a cashless society? It is not only possible, it is almost certain. There is already a surprisingly strong base for this to happen. Thanks to a cobbled together-by-necessity system of money-transfer posts from Somaliland's diaspora and a surging mobile banking industry, the country has to do away with cash. But first some background.

The currency is not formally recognised and neither is the country. Somaliland has no ATMs and credit cards are not only impossible to use, but are regarded as ridiculous items by local people. The country declared itself independent in 1991 after a brutal civil war with Somalia and now has a free press, a free market and a recent election was widely perceived as free and fair.

A significant diaspora send American dollars home by using Dahabshiil, an African version of Western Union that is extraordinarily efficient. Wherever in the world money is paid in, Somalilanders can withdraw American dollars within five minutes of funds being deposited via 24,000 agents and branches in 144 countries. Moreover they receive a SMS before that time telling them their dollars can be picked up.

I was thankful of Dahabshiil after arriving overland from Ethiopia. I had flown in from India after acting in my second Bollywood movie and was used to people escorting me from my trailer carrying umbrellas and catering for my every need. I would have needed a trailer if I had changed all my dollars; an obviously insane and unsustainable system.

Consequently, Selesom, the major mobile carrier has launched a service where cash is completely bypassed. Mobile banking in Africa is nothing new and is far more advanced in the West or Asia, but Somaliland can take this to a further level because the country itself doesn't officially exist. The state itself runs on a budget of only $40 million dollars so entrepreneurship and innovation is vital to keep the country going as it strives for formal recognition from the rest of the world.

In less than six months more than 80,000 people in Hargesia have signed up with Selesom for its ZAAD mobile money service for money transfers, retail purchases and bill payments, a significant number in an already buoyant mobile sector of five carriers in a country' the size of England and a population of only 3.5 million.

Calls from Somaliland are the cheapest in Africa and fierce competition between the country's carriers means calls from Somaliland are five to six times cheaper than other African countries. Mohamed Saed Duale, the founder of Dahabshiill has joined the fray and recently launched Somtel and joins Telesom, Telcom, Africa Online, Nationlink and Soltelco as the country's sixth carrier.

The implications are clear. Somtel will use the 18-year money-wiring experience of its parent company to take on Selesom in the mobile money sector. The diaspora will continue to wire money home but the recipients will no longer need to go to a bank or visit the money-changers.

They will only need their mobile for all transactions and it means the money-changers will be kicked out of the Somaliland cash temples forever. Where Selesom has led, Somtel will attempt to dominate while the four other carriers will undoubtedly emulate.

So while the world wasn't watching, a small peaceful country in the Horn of Africa that doesn't officially exist will set an example that the rest of Africa will inevitably follow. Funny old world. Perhaps Dylan should write a song about it.

Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism and returned to the UK in September, 2010 after living in India for two years. In that time he consulted clients such as Paramount Digital Entertainment in LA and Liverpool FC to deliver their content to an Indian mobile audience, spoke at events in London, Dublin and Singapore and landed two speaking parts in two big-budget Bollywood movies that will be released in December 2010.

[This is a guest post by Roy Peter Clark. He was indirectly quoted in "Flacks and hacks and brainscans" (11/23/2007), but the "analysis and criticism" that he mentions can be found in "Slippery glamour" (7/4/2008), "Don't tell Sister Catherine William" (7/5/2008), and "Funky a" (7/7/2008). I admire him for being such a good sport about the whole thing, and I urge readers to respond to his invitation to read his new book and to comment "thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs sideways". Substantively and politely, of course.]

About two years ago, my work became the subject of analysis and criticism on Language Log. At the time I was not familiar with this community of language experts and students and was not prepared for what was about to happen. Under a category of comments called Prescriptivist Poppycock (gotta love the alliteration), I read folks who questioned my scholarship, my credentials, and my writing. I am not complaining about this. I would like to describe what happened and how I responded to it.

In brief, the criticism, some of it harsh and uninformed, helped me straighten out some crooked thinking about language, a process that resulted in the recent publication by Little, Brown of my book The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English. On August 22, Ammon Shea gave the book high marks in the New York Times Book Review, calling it very much a manual for the 21st century.

I write this on Language Log not to tell you that my success has proved some of your commentary off the mark. Quite the contrary, I have often said now to friends and colleagues that had I not been roughed up by the Language Loggers, I could not have developed the muscle tone to write the book.

Let me explain how all this came to pass.

I once heard an interview with a famous songwriter who was asked What comes first, the lyrics or the melody. To which he responded: What comes first is the phone call. My phone call came from a Little, Brown editor, Tracy Behar, who had worked with me on a previous book Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. Published in 2006, more than 75,000 copies are in print, a success that Tracy wanted to turn into a sequel. Would you consider writing a book about grammar? The answer was no, until they offered an advance, and then the answer was yes As long as you let me define grammar' as broadly as possible.

My idea was to write and publish about a dozen pieces on rhetorical grammar on the Poynter Institute website, an influential source for journalists and other writers. My goal was to 1) to work out in print what we would mean by grammar; 2) to understand what I knew and what I needed to learn; 3) to find a voice that was congenial and curious, more the eager student than the pedantic teacher.

Later, a young friend of mine, Jason Fry, an expert on online news, argued that it was not a good idea to write and publish on the web material that was not fully cooked. I would not be judged by my eager transparency, he said, but by my mistakes, assumptions, and miscalculations. He was right. Someone, perhaps it was Mark, sent me a message that my essays were being discussed on Language Log. I'll be the first to admit, that the work you saw back then was not fully cooked. In fact, it was half-baked.

By then, the water was a little too bloody to stick my hand in (saw the movie Piranha yesterday in 3D). In spite of my silence, I read all the comments, took them seriously, and used them to draft a personal plan of research and writing. I learned what I could write about language with confidence, as well as areas I should avoid.

As a result of this experience, I had little hope that the book would be a critical success and the glowing review in the NYTBR came as a complete surprise. Because of it, Little, Brown went into a second printing, less than two weeks before the book was first released. Here are the lessons I learned from my encounter with members of this virtual community of language thinkers and workers.

• The Internet is not a pleasant little garden. There are more snakes than robins, and no writer should enter without being prepared to be handled roughly, at times venomously.
• If you are willing to venture in you can learn an awful lot, including from commentators who are, at times, uncivil or worse.
• When you comment on a person's work, especially when he or she is not part of the conversation, it's good to envision that person a real and not virtual as someone who you might run into the next day on the cafeteria line.
• In an area as vast as language, there are many so-called discourse communities that sometimes express themselves as factions: linguists, poets, journalists, deconstructionists, semanticists, composition teachers, prescriptivists, descriptivists, free lancers, and many more. All pilgrims should be prepared to encounter reflexive misunderstanding of their motives, values, and intentions.

Finally, I am not suggesting for an instant that the revisions you would find in Glamour of Grammar from two years ago would meet the highest standards of this group. So I invite anyone to get a copy, and offer a summary, review, or critique. Thumbs up or thumbs down or thumbs sideways, I promise to respond in a spirit of collegiality and with a shared passion for language, literature, and the craft of writing.

A Guest Post by The Blog Tyrant


photo credit: andronicusmax

World of Warcraft has over 11 million subscribers paying monthly fees. It is one of the most addictive video games of all time. In fact, there are several websites devoted to just helping people quit the game. There is even a detox center in China that addicted kids are sent to. It is that bad. And while I don't think these addictions are particularly funny, I do think we can learn a lot of valuable lessons from WoW that we can apply to our blogs. In this post I am going to show you how you can make your blog addictive just like World of Warcraft.

Unethical? Did they made it addictive on purpose?

A few months ago there was a TV show where a video game company was being sued over the death of a teenager who died as a result of being addicted to their game. During the case it was exposed that the company had hired psychiatrists to make the game play as addictive as possible and this addiction was the cause of the death. While the show never made any mention of names, a lot of people assumed it was based on WoW because there was a real life law suit on a similar matter. There had also been a lot of reports where medical experts said that the game was more addictive than cocaine. As to whether it was talking about WoW we don't know and saying so would just be speculation.

As I have already said, I don't think these addictions are funny. And if a company knows that their product is doing harm to kids and then continue to make it more and more enticing then I think some ethical questions have to be raised. The downside to any capitalist system is that the desire for profit often outweighs the side effects. And this is a shame.

I do not wish to celebrate the fact that some people are addicted to WoW, but I do think we can learn some valuable blogging lessons from their example. The reason I think it is okay to delve into these tricks is because I don't think anyone will ever become addicted to a blog. And if you can grow your blog with these methods and then use it as a platform to help people I think that is a very good thing.

How to make your blog addictive like World of Warcraft

photo credit: mangpages

Now that I have ranted about my ethical concerns we can get into the bulk of the post. I am going to go through a bunch of WoW features and then show you why they are so addictive and how you can apply that to your blog. As always, if you have any other ideas or thoughts please leave a comment and let us all know.

1. Appear popular

The first reason that WoW is so addictive actually starts before you even play the game. Before you even buy the CD. Every gamer you know has played Wow, all your friends are talking about it and you constantly hear about it in the media. This sets up the game in a very positive way because it makes you feel like you are missing out. When I heard that 11 million people were subscribed to the game I just had to take a look at what all the fuss was about.

This phenomena is called social proof and it is anything that shows someone that they aren't the first to try out your service. People do not like to miss out on popular things but they also don't want to be the first to try it. If you can appear popular you take away their concerns and set yourself up for success.

How you can apply it to your blog
There are quite a few ways you can apply these social proofs to your blog. Remember, you want to make people feel curious about all the other people involved but you also want to address their fears about being the first to try something. In order to do this you can try:

• Showing recent comments
  Show your recent comments in your sidebar. This instantly tells people that there are other people interacting on your blog and that you have some level of popularity. Showing your recent comments is a wonderful idea as it also gets people involved in any discussions that you might be having.
• Use Wibiya
  Wibya is a new toolbar that I am starting to see on a lot of the big blogs and websites, including Darren's Digital Photography School. And yes, it is free. All you do is sign up for an account and then add some code to your site and you have this nifty new footer that shows everyone the number of people on your site, how to connect with social media, etc. It is a very useful way to make your blog appear less static and more dynamic.
• Reference readers in posts
  When you are writing a post it is a good idea to give shout outs to people who visit your blog. For example, if some guy called Ben left a really good comment about something relevant to your latest post, why not give people a link to the discussion and mention his name in the article? This has the dual effect of showing that you get comments as well as increasing loyalty by being very personal and in touch with your readership.
• Use subtle testimonials
  Everyone knows about testimonials on product websites but for some reason people don't use them on blogs. A subtle and well placed testimonial can do wonders for making your blog more sticky. For example, in your About page you might want to have some dot points about your traffic, subscriber numbers or comment count. This has the effect of showing people that others are using your blog without plastering it all over your sidebar.

Appearing popular is important if you want people to feel like they need to be a part of the action. It is terrible when you arrive on a blog that looks lifeless and dead. On the other hand, when you arrive on a site that is awash with conversation and energy you just have to get into it. Be creative with your social proof.

2. Leverage people's need to be in a group

Something very similar to point number one, and one of the most addictive things about World of Warcraft, is the fact that it leverages people's need to feel a part of a group. This is a very primal and subtle psychological phenomena that all humans possess. We find partners, get married and have kids. We play team sports, join clubs and hang out in packs at school time. Humans need to feel part of a group.

When you play WoW you don't play by yourself, you join groups of players from around the world and form guilds. Sometimes these guilds become very close and chat by email and IM and often log on at the same time each day to play together. This is an extremely powerful tool for making the game addictive, especially if the people have trouble making friends on the outside world. If you want to make your blog more addictive you have to leverage people's need to be in a group.

How you can apply it to your blog
So how do you apply this to your own blog? How do you make people feel like they are special and a part of a group that wouldn't function properly without them? Here are a few ideas:

• Send emails
  When someone leaves a comment on your blog they usually leave their correct email which allows you to shoot them a message to thank them for commenting and let them know that you appreciate their input on your site. Now, there are plug ins that do this automatically but that is not what I am necessarily talking about. If someone leaves a great comment you might want to send a personal message thanking them for their expertise. Or if someone constantly leaves comments whenever you write you should thank them for the frequency. Make sure you reward the aspect of their behavior that you want them to continue.
• Refer comments to other readers
  One of the first websites I ever sold was a fitness site that was mostly used by women. Over time I built up some very loyal readers and a lot of them were fitness experts, personal trainers and dietitians. If someone posted a question in the comments about a workout or diet plan I would occasionally send emails to the experts asking them to help them out. These experts then become frequent users of the comment section and always seemed willing to be a part of the action.
• Name your team
  Something extremely subtle but extremely addicting is a team name. In the gaming world it is called a clan. Some clans are extremely hard to get in to and involve several try out phases. For example, in WoW you need to be at a certain level before even being eligible to join. Once you are in though you have brothers who look out for you in battle, give you hints, etc. It is just like high school! Giving your loyal readers, subscribers and commenters a clan name is an easy way to maximize the team spirit.

Make people feel like they are part of an exclusive group and you will have fans for life. Everyone needs to feel as if they have some sort of ownership in the blog, as if it might not be as good if they stopped visiting. This group mentality is an extremely strong tool for all online marketing.

3. Lure with the promise of rewards and new features

Why do people spend their entire lives playing Wow? Partly because the game is incredible, partly because the pollen outside gives me hay fever and partly because there is the ever enticing possibility of leveling up. Why is reaching the next level so amazing? Because you get to access new powers and weapons and challenge new bosses. You also get the bragging rights associated with being a level 80 as opposed to a pitiful 79.

photo credit: videocrab

Blizzard (the makers of WoW) constantly add new things to the game. They tweak the maps to make sure they are perfect, they change the damage of certain spells by minor margins to make the battles more interesting and they periodically release new updates that allow you to access new bosses, maps and, of course, levels. All of this keeps the game fresh and new and stops boredom setting in.

How to apply this to your blog
To make your blog feel super addictive you need to have a reason for people to come back. It has to be something that compels them to check back again and again and they have to feel like they might win or gain something new by doing so. Here are some ideas:

• Have regular competitions
  Your blog should have regular (but not too regular) competitions that give away something useful. The prize could be won by leaving a certain amount of comments, subscribing to a feed or mentioning your blog on Twitter. Whatever your competition is it should be interesting. Something that gets people talking. Shoemoney and Overnight Prints did this extremely well once with his business card competition.
• Have a long term but secret release
  One of the coolest thing Darren ever did on Problogger was build up a new feature that he was adding to the site. This created a lot of buzz as it wasn't really something done before. Now the great thing about this was the way he did it; very subtly. First he acquired the domain name www.problogger.com which he previously didn't own. We knew something was up. Then he dropped a few hints over the months. Finally he launched a new community on the address once everyone was seething with curiosity. Perfectly done. Try and have a long term reason for people to keep checking back on your site.
• Plan your content and reveal it carefully
  We all know that you need compelling content to succeed but what a lot of people fail to do is release that content in a way that is interesting and alluring. WoW doesn't just let you access all the maps and features at once. You'd be bored of it in a day. Rather, they slowly let you at it after you have earned it with interaction and game time (and subscription fees!). Try and think of your content in a similar way. An example we all know of is Darren's 31 Days to Building a Better Blog.

Your content alone should be enough to get people to come back to your blog. But, if you add an extra incentive, some kind of nifty reward or new level, you are going to generate a lot of interest amongst those regulars out there. Without new levels, weapons and magic spells WoW would be dead and gone by now. So what are you adding to your blog in order to keep it exciting and new?

4. Create an alternative world for your readers

The real fans of WoW don't see it as a game, they see it as an alternative world. A world in which they can perform magic, make friends, conquer towns and change. When playing World of Warcraft you get an almost identical physiological response to events that take place as if they had actually happened in real life. When you run into battle you get an adrenalin rush that makes your vision fuzzy and when you can't solve a puzzle you get flooded with stress and frustration.

How to apply this to your blog The ultimate way to make your blog addictive is to create an alternative world for your readers. A place where they can go and get away from the problems of their daily life and absorb themselves in a community of like-minded people. A place where they learn new things, feel more powerful than they really are and discover their inner potential.

• Make it as interactive as possible A blog should not just be a place where you read/write about something. That might have been the original intention behind their popularity but now they are so much more. If you want people to become addicted they need to be involved on every level. Let them suggest topics, ask questions in the comments and chat to you on Twitter and Facebook. Ask your readers for help and give them tasks to solve. The more interactive your blog is the more time people will want to spend there.
• Make it beautiful and easy to use Your blog's design is so important because it has to sell your content. Read that carefully because I think a lot of people fail to grasp the idea. Your design sells your content. How many times have you left a blog because it was ugly or the font size was too small or the colors hurt your eyes? That could have been Shakespeare himself writing that blog and you wouldn't have cared. Make sure your design is beautiful and your navigation is as simple as possible. The look and feel of your website should become like a second home to your readers.
• Solve real world problems on your blog One reason that people find it hard to leave WoW is because it solves some of their real world problems. The classic example is the kid who struggles to make friends in school but in Azeroth he commands an army. Your blog should always try to make people's lives better. Your content should address issues in their life, even if only indirectly. But what if you run a product blog that only talks about antique cans or something equally as boring? Well make sure that you address concerns, give amazingly detailed responses and help people find the answers they seek. What do your readers want to feel and discover? What makes them happy? These are essential questions to know if you want to create an alternative world for your fans.

What do your readers want to feel and discover? What makes them happy? These are essential questions to know if you want to create an alternative world for your fans. And creating an alternative world is the best way to make your blog sticky.

Conclusion

This post could go on forever because World of Warcraft gets so many things right. In fact, it might have been quicker to just write about what they do wrong! In any event, if you give people rewards, help solve their real life problems and make them feel part of a group you are part of the way there. Perhaps most importantly, however, you should do as Blizzard does and constantly add new features, content and always be testing for ways to improve and grow. Now go outside for a while.

About the Author

The Blog Tyrant has sold several blogs for large sums of money and earns a living by relying soley on the internet. His Blog is all about helping you dominate your blog and your blog's niche and only includes strategies that he has tried on his own websites. Follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his feed for all the juice.

This Post is from: ProBlogger Blog Tips.

How to Make Your Blog Addictive Like World of Warcraft

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Dr. W. Edwards Deming always said we need to drive out fear from organizations, as point 8 of the 14 Points said:

Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.

Too many organizations, including hospitals, are driven by fear. This is counterproductive and harmful. You can't implement Lean in a fear-based culture, as instilling fear in employees runs counter to the Respect for People principles. MSNBC and BusinessWeek bring us this article, Ten signs you work in a fear-based workplace.

When people are fearful, they don't speak up, they don't question the boss, and they feel hamstrung to do the right thing if they fear getting in trouble. When people fear being punished or looked down upon for failure, they can't take risks that lead to kaizen, and they certainly can't take risks necessary to redesign whole systems.

You can get more detail and examples in the article, but their top 10 signs are:

1. Appearances are everything.
2. Everyone is talking about who's rising and who's falling.
3. Distrust reigns
4. Numbers rule
5. And rules number in the thousands
6. Management considers lateral communication suspect
7. Information is hoarded
8. Brown-nosers rule.
9. The Office' evokes sad chuckles, rather than laughs
10. Management leads by fear

I like the summary paragraph article, it's hard to say it better:

Chief executives know in their hearts that smart people, set loose to solve big problems, are responsible for every success and innovation industry has ever seen. Fear-trampled employees don't do a thing for your business. Still, management by fear is a hard habit to break, because fear-whipped underlings don't squawk. Meanwhile, your competitors may be hiring your best talent away and stealing market share while you make it easy for them to do so. Those meek, submissive, broken-down employees might blossom in your rival's trust-based culture. Do you really want to find out?

Do you find fear a barrier to your Lean efforts? What are you doing to drive out fear in your organization, to build trust and collaboration? What are the biggest symptoms of fear in your organization?? Feel free to share your stories you can always type Anonymous and a fake email address if you are fear of your comment getting you in trouble with the boss.

Other Posts That Might Add Value:

• Lean Leads to Green, Which Supports Lean
• Guest Post: Deming, Lean, and Healthcare Transformation
• What Makes You Want to Do Better?
• TED Video: Dan Pink on Motivation
• Bad Behavior Kills in Hospitals?

Chicago Underground Library's Guest Post on Museum 2.0: A Community-Based Approach to Collecting and Cataloging

Chicago Underground Library is a replicable model for community archives that accepts every piece of print media from a certain area without making quality or importance judgments, going back as far in history as possible. That means we collect university press, handmade artist books, zines made by sixth graders, poetry chapbooks from big names published in tiny local presses, and self-published poetry chapbooks sold for a dollar on the street. We have neighborhood newspapers, internationally-renowned magazines of political commentary, and three View-Master reels of Chicago hot dog stands, neon signs, and motor inns, respectively.

A public library can grant you access to all kinds of knowledge, but where do you go to add to that knowledge base and stake your claim as an expert? You go online, and that's why physical culture is at risk. While more and more people are creating their own media thanks to the internet, there's an unfortunate paradox in media creation in the physical, local world. I hear writers bemoan the fact that no one but other writers come to their readings. They blame it on the general public reading less. But people who don't go to readings believe that the readings are only for other writers and that they wouldn't be welcome. From CUL's perspective, if you're reading to other writers, that's not a problem, it's a community. If that community is too small for comfort, the trick is not to stress about the lack of passive listeners, but to create and recruit more writers. CUL strives to preserve media, but it's equally important to us that we encourage existing media cultures and create new access points.

In order for physical media to remain relevant, institutions like libraries and museums have to start looking at the inclusive and collaborative community-building models present in digital media culture. Our collection has a home that people can visit, but we'll also bring it to them and share it on their platforms: their classrooms, performance spaces, galleries. The collection is history, but it's also inspiration, example, and a guide to what's out there for people who want to be actively involved. CUL helps people who are just starting out or who may have assumed their words didn't count to get a foothold and not only places them in a collection that values their work, but through our catalog instantly locates them within an interconnected map of the city's history.

Read more here

Flickr Photo by Roberto Ferrari - Creative Commons License Some Rights Reserved

Note from Beth: Social media is not a waste a time, but there are ways to waste your time. On Saturday, I had the honor of presenting at Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp and one of the burning questions was about efficiency. So, I'm going to explore this theme over the coming weeks.

A few weeks ago, I started a thread on my blog's Facebook Page, What are the best tips and tools for saving time managing your nonprofit's Facebook Page? I summarized the tips shared in this earlier post. Managing your organization's Facebook page, particularly tracking, content, and engagement can be a time suck, particularly as your network grows. For example, we know that identifying and engaging with super fans/influencers on our Facebook presence is important. But keeping a spreadsheet of the names of people who like and comment on threads involves a lot of cut and paste. Is there a tool that can automate this someone asked on my blog's Facebook page? (unfortunately, FB Insights doesn't do this)

Or what about a tool that helps you plan out your content strategy for the week and even schedule posts on days when you can't? What if you want to aggregate and look at all the comments and responses to threads before responding?

There is an evolving category of tools (some free, some not) that can help make the tasks associated with content strategy, engagement, and tracking less onerous. On the free side, Manny Hernandez mentioned NutShell Mail, software that aggregates comments and likes on your fan page and delivers it in one email. James Young mentioned SpredFast (he works for them now) and he offered to write a post about how he manages him time. And while this guest post is about one particular tool, remember when looking for a technology tool solution, think carefully about what pain point is it solving and whether it can truly work for your situation. If you know of other tools (or tips) that make you more efficient managing content, engagement, and tracking on social media, please share them in the comments.

Guest Post by James Young, SpredFast

And as a marketer like you, who has added social media to the mix, I struggled with the same issues you face with being efficient with my and showing the results. Here's how I use Spredfast to help me with these challenges.

So Many Social Networks, So Little Time

Doing social media right takes time. We engage in multiple social networks, some that you probably also use: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare, our own blog, and a few other networks.

Aggregating Conversations

Conversing with people in all of these places, and creating interesting, value-add content for each is a time consuming business. It gets worse when you consider that you have to duplicate efforts across different social networks. With Spredfast, I can do two things that make this so much more efficient. First, I can pull in all of the conversation taking place across all of the networks into one place, read through it, and participate where I want to. Each and every day, I look for all of the people who have mentioned us or retweeted our tweets, and I thank them. I can do it easily right from my listening dashboard.

Planning Content on Weekly Basis

Second, I can plan out the content I want to publish, schedule it out for the next few weeks, create the content (or, one day when we grow, assign it to someone to create), choose the social network or networks I want each piece to go to, and save it. Spredfast will publish it on the schedule I've set. Typically, I will get a week's worth of content ready to go ahead of time, and then spend the majority of my remaining time just engaging with individuals.

Tracking for Insights and Value

Like all activity within a good company or organization, I have to create some value. To prove I'm doing that, I need data. Some of the social networks provide a lot of good data, others not so much. Regardless, it used to take a lot of time to go into each network and gather the data I needed, pull it back into my master spreadsheet, and then do some crunching.

Spredfast makes that a lot easier for me, because it gathers two types of data into one dashboard. First, all of the content that I send out (both planned communication as well as off the cuff conversations I engage in) is tracked. For example, for each tweet I send, I can see how many times it was retweeted, by whom, what they said, how many people could have seen the retweet, and if I included a link I can see how many times the link was clicked. For every post to my Facebook Page, I can see when someone comments, who they are, what they said, how many times the post was liked and how many times the link in my post was clicked. The list goes on across a wide variety of social networks and kinds of interaction people can have.

Second, I can see data that relates to my social media account (as opposed to my content), like number of friends, fans and followers. I can also see the volume of the conversation about my brand, like mentions in Twitter, references in blogs, etc.

The big deal is that all of this data is in one dashboard, so I can jump straight to analysis, making my weekly report a whole lot easier to produce. I just create a graph or report in Spredfast, or I export the data and use Excel and PowerPoint.

It is important track conversions and Spredfast can be integrated with my integrated my Google Analytics account, and I tag all the links I send out in conversations. Spredfast does some cool stuff like creating unique shortened links for each content piece (including separate links for the same post sent into both Facebook and Twitter, for example), so when I look at my web funnel data, I can actually track a conversion all the way back to the individual tweet or post. Literally, I can tell my boss how many subscriptions came from social media activity, from each social network, from each account and from each individual content piece I published.

Now, I know that not all value is measured in conversions. So, all of those other things that are valuable, like engagement levels and reach, are available too, using the data in my dashboard. We have some internal, soft values we attach to that data, and ultimately arrive at a total value comprised of soft and hard (conversion) values for my activity this week, month, or quarter.

Scaling Engagement

I know many organizations are worried about giving a lot of staff and volunteers access to the organization Twitter or Facebook accounts. This has some serious consequences. First, it usually limits the number of people empowered to engage in social media. Consequently, it decreases the quality of the social media engagement that does happen. How? Let's face it, we don't all have an unlimited supply of time, patience and creativity. Having more people involved raises the quantity of engagement, time to response and content variety.

Spredfast makes this easier too, because the many authors you may have are not logging into your Twitter account directly. They're logging into Spredfast, creating content and then publishing it to that Twitter account. One trusted person has already come in and connected Spredfast to the Twitter account. Spredfast also has draft function which is particularly useful is you're working side-by-side a social media intern.

Best practices in social media is listening, engaging, identifying influences, and tracking. Spredfast can help your nonprofit be efficient with these tasks.

Questions from Beth:

What tools and techniques are you using to make your social media content, engagement, and tracking more efficient? Spredfast is one, but are there others? What has your experience been? At what point does it make sense to move to a paid tool for content strategy, engagement, and tracking?

A Guest Post by Pamela Aurino.

1) Camera Settings Burst mode, Focal Points & Aperture Priority

When shooting any sports, make sure your camera is set to burst/continuous mode to keep up with movements of the players. This will save you having to press the button manually for every shot. Have your camera's focus mode to AI servo mode which is made to shoot continuous movement & for panning.

Also ensuring all your focal points are active will make sure you have optimum chance of focusing on the player with the ball. When shooting sports it is ok to have the camera in Aperture Priority mode as we're dealing with a really fast game and you need to be on the ball with exposure rather than having to always toggle the shutter speed manually.

2) Camera Settings Shoot in JPG!

I personally shoot in jpg as opposed to RAW. When you're taking so many continuous shots you're going to want a maximum buffer speed. You'll find when shooting soccer / netball tournaments, the parents buying the shots aren't going to be too fussed on quality of the image as long as you captured something at the right time. A sporting tournament can get quite messy when you're coming out and back off the field to download CF cards and you're having to wait for the raw files to download.

3) Lens settings 2.8 Is Almost An Essential!

You're going to need a fast telephoto zoom lens when photographing sports. I shoot with a Canon 70-200 f/4 IS USM and I love it! Although indoor sports photography like bowling may require a 2.8 lens as you get another full stop of light in.

4) Lens settings Image Stabiliser & Focus Mode

An absolute MUST when photographing sports photography is to have IS on your lens. You want to set your lens to Image Stabiliser Mode 2. Mode 1 is only made for still subjects & portraiture and won't perform as well as the panning mode 2 in sporting situations.

Have your focusing distance range set to 3m to Infinity mode instead of 1.2m to Infinity. This will make sure you have the fastest focusing possible.

5) Note The Time of Day

Soccer games usually run in the morning so if you're aiming to sell prints after the game of the individual players be sure to spread out the range of players shot. There are certain players who like to step back more than others but it's your responsibility as the photographer to record everyone and to maximise your profits.

Take note of where the sun is and make sure the sun is to your back when shooting. This will ensure you have your shutter speed on it's maximum without having to worry about exposing for the faces of the players if you were shooting into the sun. I am willing to sacrifice a little squinting and panda eyes from the players to ensure I get the right exposure. After all if you don't nail that exposure no one is going to care about panda eyes because there won't be a shot.

Concentrate on shooting one team for the first half as they will be in the right position with the sun illuminating their fronts/faces. Then when half time is over aim to shoot all the players on the other team as they would have switched sides on the field.

6) No Eyes! No Shot!

When photographing sports, the key rule is to include the eyes of the subject and you can never fail. If you're shooting the back of a player, STOP! ..Wait for them to turn around (or turn to another player on the field) ..and shoot when you have their eyes in the shot. The best shots in soccer are the headers and knee shots, as their eye level will typically be above parallel to the ground which is what we want. Whatever you do, don't forget to photograph the goal keeper! He/she doesn't have much interaction with the entire game, but the anticipation shots in between can still make great shots.

7) Include The Ball!

The eyes and the ball are two of the most important compositional elements in a shot. Then to add to the shot is the expression in the players face.

Although it can be difficult to capture, parents of the players are more likely to buy a picture that includes the game ball in it.

8) Wear an Official Photographer Vest!

Make sure you wear a big yellow/orange vest to indicate to people you are the official sports photographer. A photographer in Wollongong, NSW taped a sign on his back saying Request A Shot!' and at least that indicates to them that they are welcome to pull you aside. If you are more open to people nagging you, (yes it will be a little annoying having to be pulled aside with parents saying look out for my son, number 12!') the more sales you will make from prints.

See more of Pamela's work at http://www.elaphotography.com.au.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

8 Tips On How to Photograph Sports

I recently wrote a guest post on the Shark Snowboarding blog (run by a friend of mine in the Netherlands):

Related posts:

1. How To Improve Your Switch Snowboarding During The Summer
2. New Look, New Focus and Ready to Rock Out
3. Les Deux Alpes Summer Shred: Snowboarding at 27 Degrees?

Editor's note: In the following guest post, former Google product manager and MyLikes CEO Bindu Reddy has some advice for her former employer on how to kickstart a social network. Reddy's last guest post looked at the advertising threat Facebook poses to Google.

While there have been a lot of rumors floating around about Google's social aspirations, including its recent acquisition of Slide and work on Google Mea purported extension of Google's profiles that is going to be built on Buzzthere is also quite a bit of skepticism about Google's ability to succeed in the social networking space.

Most people are focused on Google building a good product. But even a really good product won't be enough for Google to gain real traction in the social space.

A lot of people underestimate the challenge of being a latecomer to a space like social networking. Social networks are similar to online marketplaces such as auction websites. For those of us who have been around for a few years, there was a time when there were a lot of online auction markets including offerings from Amazon and Yahoo. Only eBay, the leader, survived and stayed No. 1not because it had the best auction site, but because it was the first one to reach a critical mass of users.

Trying to take on Facebook today is a daunting task even if someone comes up with a great product. There is a really high barrier to switching to a new network along with all your friends.

The only way that Google can hope to gain momentum is if it can gain critical mass rapidly after launch and make the Google network as valuable as the alternatives to a significant pocket of users.

With Buzz, Google took the correct first step and made the uncharacteristic move of exposing Buzz to the firehose of Gmail traffic. However distribution does not necessarily guarantee usage or retention and Buzz seems to have fizzled out after the initial buzz around it died down.

So this time around what can Google do that will help attract and retain millions of users to a social network that is built from scratch? To answer this question, Google needs to look at smaller social apps that seem to be gaining some traction lately.

Following Twitter's lead to some extent, companies like Ustream, TweetPhoto, TwitPic and DailyBooth have realized that a relatively small set of users are capable of driving massive amounts of repeat traffic and engagement.

Whether it is real-life celebrities like Lady Gaga, who can generate 390,000 visits to a photo on TwitPic with one tweet and the Jonas Brothers, who can generate 2 million views to a stream on Ustream, or online celebrities like iJustine who has more than 90,000 followers on DailyBooth, these start-ups have been able to capitalize on the magic of the one-way folllow.

As few as 5,000 large influencers can bring and retain millions of users with them. All you need to do is to look at the engagement that is generated by the 5.5 million people following Britney Spears on Twitter or the nearly 11 million fans Megan Fox has on Facebook to be convinced.

So here is one way Google could still have a fighting chance: Before launching a new social network, they could actively enlist around 1,000 of the top online celebritiesstarting with Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber and going down the list. They already have a bunch of them on YouTube. It shouldn't be too hard with their brand, clout and the resources they can bring to bear given that they have more than $30 billion in cold hard cash. Make it really attractive, fun and easy to use for these users and enable a personal publishing platform for them. Make a great mobile product and do photos, audio and video well. Make it even easier for big influencers to manage and monetize their online social presence, and tie it into Twitter, Facebook and all the rest as much as possible.

Build the iPhone to Twitter's Blackberry.

Admittedly, signing up Web celebs is just a way to kickstart Google's social network. Google still needs to do a better job of understanding people and how they relate to one another to keep it going. But enabling this kind of one-to-one communication between influencers and their fans would be a good first step towards creating engagement and it would also bring in a number of aspiring users who hope to be influencers in their niche. The users in the community then would need to take care of the problem of ongoing engagement and critical mass.

And for launch, make an ad much like the Expendables trailer. Only instead of Slyvester Stallone, Bruce Wills, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham and Jet Li, you would have Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Megan Fox, Paris Hilton, Eminem and Fred all telling you why Google Me is the place to be :)

Photo credit: Lady Gaga

A Guest Post by Jeff Bartlett.

Let's face the facts; lugging a tripod isn't always a fun way to take pictures. Ignoring the obvious complaints, which include their size and weight, tripods are actually becoming banned in a number great shooting locations. Unfortunately, hand holding a camera in low light can be extremely difficult and many honest attempts result in soft images.

Thankfully, any of these three techniques will greatly improve the likelihood of sharp hand-held images.

A. Correcting the stance

Most photographers are familiar with how to hold a digital camera in their hands, but most ignore the important aspect of body position. Many people lean forward, leaving their arms to hold the camera steady. Much like lifting a heavy object, the weight is best handled by your legs so adapt your step to fit these guidelines:

1. Hold the camera with both hands. The left hand will be on the lens, while the right holds the camera body and controls the shutter.
2. Take a half step forward and keep your knees bent. This will distribute your weight equally over both legs.
3. Bring the camera up to your common shooting position. For dSLR cameras, this means with the viewfinder held firmly in front of your right eye, while compact cameras should be held at eye level, about 15 cm in front of the face.
4. Squeeze your elbows tightly against your sides. The left forearm should be completely vertical and behind your toes. Avoid the temptation to lean forward and take the weight off your legs; leaning forward will result in camera shake.
5. Take a deep breath and let the air out. Before taking the next breath, press the shutter as gently as possible.

B. A pocket-sized tripod

While tripods are awkward to carry, this technique will add a pocket-sized solution to low-light shooting situations.

1. Before going out shooting, cut a string that equals your height and keep it in your pocket or camera bag.
2. At the low-light shooting location, take the string out and loop it around the camera lens. Let the extra string fall to the ground.
3. Step on the loose end of the string and slowly raise the camera to your eye. Carefully pull the string taunt, while making sure not to pull hard enough to effect the camera-to-lens connection.
4. With the string pulled tight, stand in the same position described in the first technique, and gently push the shutter.

C. The Joe McNally Grip

Photographer Joe McNally, best known for his speed-lighting techniques, regularly shoots for publications like Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, and the now defunct Life Magazine. Despite shooting in various lighting situations, he rarely uses a tripod. Instead, he uses his own grip style that requires shooting with the left eye. With a little practice, this grip allows photographers to handhold with really slow shutter-speeds.

1. Follow the same foot position as technique one, with the left foot in front of the right, shoulder width apart.
2. Turn your upper body so that your left shoulder is pointing towards your subject.
3. Holding the camera with your right hand, bring the camera up and set it on your shoulder. The corner of the camera body should sit in the small hole behind your collarbone.
4. Use your left hand to brace the camera against your body. Anchor your weight equally on both feet, and lower your left eye to the viewfinder. Take the shot after letting out a deep breath.

Jeff Bartlett is a freelance travel photographer and writer. He splits his time between opposite ends of the earth; he lives six months in northern Canada before heading south for six in Argentina. He is also the editor of The Camping Cook..

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Prevent dSLR Camera Shake With These 3 Techniques

Accepting guest posts is an effective way to freshen up your blog, share various perspectives and build a stronger community (especially if you manage such a multi-author, multi-topic resource as SEJ).

Naturally, if you want to get the maximum benefit from guest blogging, you will need to give back. This post is about the most popular (yet, NOT the most important) benefit of guest blogging: linking: best practices and ethics of linking back to your guest bloggers (as well as allowing them to).

Linking as Incentive: Introduction

Unless you are ready to give back, you won't be able to build a strong community of guest bloggers who will contribute top-quality content, support each other and promote your blog. Giving back is a must. You can't expect people to be sincere in their intent to drive quality to your blog unless you are sincere in your desire to pay back.

First of, let me disclaim here that I express my own attitude in this post. I fully agree that as a blogger and web marketer you may have an opposite view and I even can imagine why: with so much spam around here it is easy to get suspicious and overly cautious.

My own take on linking is very straightforward: if you see your guest author deserves it, give him as much linking benefit as you are allowed to.

It doesn't take time or effort to tell if your guest author is really serious about that guest blogging opportunity you are offering him: diligent guest authors are easy to notice and appreciate: they email you several times with post ideas and various questions. They look for (properly attributed) images to attach to the post and link back to the content you have published previously. They may suggest different variants of the post title to let you choose the best one. They don't stuff their content with self-serving links.

That being said, if I appreciate the work and like the result, I will be happy give back.

But being too generous means being scammed in our world. This lesson has been learned (not once, I guess that happened to me too many times actually).

Linking as Incentive: Policies

Like it or not, linking is still the strongest incentive for people to guest post for your blog. It is the most tangible advantage as well. Therefore if you plan to allow people to guest post, you won' be able to do without allowing them to link back to their sites and projects.

I am all for linking back and forth as I believe this is the essence of the Internet. But in our non-perfect world you still need to be cautious. You need to have a set list of rules to be able to always base your decisions on. Being consistent in your linking habits means you will avoid any bad neighborhoods or shaky grounds.

The huge advantage of having linking guidelines / rules is that you are able to treat all your guest bloggers equally (no matter what level of relationships you have with them: friends, partners or just random acquaintances).

Here's what I see many bloggers do (and try to implement as well) in terms of controling what their guest bloggers link to:

• Links to the author's projects should be in the by-line: Ask your guest bloggers to only link to their personal projects in the author's by-line. Remember that the post will be published on your blog and thus all in-content links may be related to you. Links in by-line clearly belong to the author, so you are totally honest with your readers and yourself.
• Linking from within the post content: As a rule, I ask my guest bloggers to refrain from linking to their properties in the post body unless:
  • The link is tightly relevant (or the author can't do without it): like links to the mentioned events, conferences, etc;
  • The link does NOT point to the home page but to the relevant post or article (which elaborates further on the mentioned phenomenon or tactic). Links from content to content (NOT to landing or home pages), I believe, add quality to the guest post and let readers learn more about what has mentioned.
• Number of links: the general rule of thumb (I myself try to follow) is to let guest authors limit external link to 3 in the by-line (including Twitter profile link).
• Anchor text: You may adopt Daniel's rule and accept non-anchor text links in by-lines. This way you will save the trouble explaining your guest author why his loan consolidation link is not appreciated on your blog. Or you may go less extreme and only remove keyword-based anchors from the non-relevant links (because those can really hurt your blog reputation.)

Keep in mind though that having too strict linking rules will scare away your guest authors. Even if you have a high-traffic blog and people will still choose to guest post, limitations will discourage them to be a return contributors and community members.

You need to be both generous and careful: to encourage your guest bloggers to contribute high-quality articles while still maintain the reputation of the high-quality resource (with high linking standards).

Linking as Incentive: Tools

I've seen plenty of blogs accepting guest posts with varied policies and rules. Some of them have succeeded in both keeping high standards while offering enhanced exposure to their authors. Here's what they do:

• The author's box is the great way to both drive attention to the post author (and also give them exposure) and keep the linking limited to fit your policies. Here's an easy-to-follow tutorial on how to code and customize the author box (with no plugin needed).
• The enhanced author page (including bio, photo and maybe social media profiles) is the great way to encourage the author to both contribute more (to maintain the impressive online portfolio) and link back to that page (and thus your site) to share that portfolio with his community. Here's a detailed tutorial on customizing and enhancing your blog author archive page template.
• Linking to (most active) authors from the sidebar is another strong incentive. This newly-developed guest blogging WordPress plugin may be a great option: it allows to set the minimum number of guest posts (contributed over the set period of time) after which the author will be featured on the home page. Besides, you can set to show the widget on home page only or sitewide.

What are your linking policies and experiences? Please share!

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

#1 Guest Blogging Incentive: Backlinks (Guidelines and Ethics)

What am I doing wrong? I whispered to the computer screen.

A part of me wanted nothing more than to go to bed and forget about blogging forever.

And yet, there I was, hunched over the computer, as I dug through my traffic stats for the millionth time. Somewhere inside was the answer to why I wasn't getting more traffic, and I was going to find it.

Some people would have said I was asking for too much.

The blog was already doing decently well, averaging about 100 visitors a day after only two months. I got at least a few glowing comments on every post I wrote. Several people had sent e-mails, complementing me on my writing.

But the problem was the blog wasn't growing.

I was putting out better content than anyone else in my niche. I tried every traffic strategy you can name. I was working on it so hard that my day job was suffering.

And yet the traffic stayed the same. It was like I'd run up against some invisible barrier, and nothing would push me past it. I was beginning to think I'd be doomed to 100 visitors per day forever, and that certainly wasn't enough to quit my job over.

I sighed and pushed back from the computer. I'll figure it out tomorrow, I said, heading off to bed.

And the next morning I woke up with a peculiar idea that explained everything.

The glass ceiling

What if I told you the blogosphere has a sort of glass ceiling?

The idea goes something like this:

Anyone can start a blog. If you work hard, you can even grow it to a few hundred visitors a day or so.

But at some point, the growth stalls out. You reach a plateau.

It'll be like you've run into a glass ceiling an invisible but bulletproof barrier. You'll see bloggers on the other side, and they don't seem to be doing anything different than you are. But for some reason, they were able to break through, and you weren't.

It took me two years and three failed blogs to figure this out. And the answer is nothing close to what I expected.

The inner circle

The good news about the glass ceiling is there is a door.

The bad news is it's guarded.

You see, every niche has an inner circle. A group of people who command a lot of attention.

Everyone reads their blogs (or books). Their opinions are widely respected. And they often coordinate their marketing to help each other grow.

In the blogging niche, it's people like Brian Clark, Darren Rowse, Chris Brogan, and Sonia Simone who, of course, all came together to form Third Tribe. In real estate investing, it's gurus like Bill Bronchick, Ron Legrand, and Robert Kiyosaki.

It doesn't matter what niche or topic you point to; you'll find an inner circle. And if you want serious traffic and by serious, I mean thousands of visitors per day the fastest way to do that is to convince members of the inner circle in your niche to promote you.

They're not going to come find you

The odds are you're not going to publish a post some day that makes all of the insiders in your niche want to know you. If you want their help, you have to proactively build relationships.

The bloggers who bypass the glass ceiling don't just do it by publishing more or better content than everyone else. They also do it by working behind the scenes to build friendly relationships with people who can help them.

The question is, how?

That's the last piece of the puzzle. And it's one that I stumbled across totally by accident.

The key to building a popular blog

Late one night, I was working on my blog and just so happened to get an IM from Brian Clark. I'd been hanging around in the Teaching Sells forums for a few months, not only soaking up the content, but answering questions from other members. Little did I know it, but I'd caught Brian's attention, and he reached out to me.

I really like what you've been posting in the TS forums. How would you like to do a guest post for Copyblogger?

I was stunned. Copyblogger was quickly becoming one of the most successful blogs in the world, and I didn't think I was anywhere close to being ready to write at that level. But I wasn't going to miss the opportunity, either, so I agreed.

A week later, my first post went up, and it was the highest traffic day in the history of my new blog.

It wasn't thousands of visitors, no. I still had a lot to learn about writing a really strong post.

But it was an eye-opener.

Brian's help didn't stop there. He gave me invaluable advice on how to grow my blog, and he started connecting me with power users who could help promote my posts on Digg and StumbleUpon.

Within a few weeks, I was up to an average of 2,000 visitors per day, and I had hit the front page of Digg, bringing me 20,000 visitors within a few hours. I was euphoric, and there was no question Brian's generosity with his connections and advice were the key ingredient to making it happen.

So I started to wonder. What if I did more of this?

I started to guest post wherever I could, and before long, I was getting so much traffic that my server started to crash, and I had to switch hosting companies. Performancing even nominated my blog for the Best Business/Money Blog in the world.

I felt like a genius, like I'd discovered the cure for cancer or something.

But then I started to look around. I wasn't the only one guest blogging. People like Leo Babauta, Chris Garrett, Sonia Simone, and Dave Navarro were doing it too.

And they were reaping incredible benefits.

That's when it occurred to me: the best way to build a relationship with anyone is to give them something of value. It's the whole principle of reciprocity. It goes back not just to the work of Robert Cialdini, but to the good old Golden Rule.

And what do popular bloggers need more than anything else?

Great content.

Why guest blogging is such a powerful strategy

It's hard to fathom when you're a beginner, but running a huge blog is a lot of work.

You have to come up with something brilliant to post every day, or you risk losing the attention of your audience. No vacations, no holidays, no calling in sick. You have a huge crowd of people waiting to hear what you are going to say next, and it had better be good.

Many popular bloggers publish guest posts just because it gives them a day off. Someone else can take over the show, and they can take a moment to relax and regroup. It's not laziness; it's a creative necessity.

And it's also a big opportunity for you.

Not only does guest posting give you a chance to connect with a huge audience, but it also makes you a sort of understudy. The blogger begins to care about you and how you're progressing, and they'll go out of their way to help you grow.

The result?

Lots and lots of traffic.

Look into the history of almost any popular blogger, and you'll find they guest posted for other popular blogs. In fact, go through the list of 30 bloggers to watch in 2010, and over half of them have written for Copyblogger alone.

It's not a coincidence. It's the way the blogosphere works.

Everyone talks about building a relationship with your audience and that's critical. But few talk about building those relationships behind the scenes. Not sucking up or trying to exploit anyone, but making yourself useful and valuable.

Becoming a contributor to their success is one of the best ways to build your own success. That makes guest blogging a smart strategy.

Stay tuned and I'll give you some quick tips for exactly how to do it.

About the Author: Jon Morrow is the Associate Editor of Copyblogger. Get more from him on twitter.

The following is a guest post from Jennifer Kutz, account manager at LEWIS PR in San Francisco. To connect with Jennifer, be sure to follow her on Twitter. If you're interested in writing a guest post at The Future Buzz, please read the guidelines.

Until I was approximately 25, basketball was my top priority. Since the 6^th grade I played the game nearly year-round, my teenage years a blur of traveling summer teams, after-school practices and early morning workouts culminating with a college scholarship and a brief stint on a Bay Area semi-pro team.

These days, my court time is limited to once- or twice-weekly rec league games, along with youth coaching when the schedule permits. My career at a public relations agency has taken basketball's place in my life as the activity that dominates my thoughts and where most of my largest goals stem from. That being said, my time playing hoops has had an undeniable effect on how I do my job in several ways I wanted to share with you today.

1) One star does not a team make

For as long as I played basketball, it's amazing how long it took me to understand this one key tenet. For years I thought if I could just score enough or play well enough we would win. Not only is this false, believing I could carry' a team actually had a detrimental effect on how well my team as a whole played. There were many times I blamed myself for losses or failed when trying to do too much during a game (e.g., taking 3-pointers or dribbling the ball up the floor- not my strengths, to put it mildly).

Working at a PR agency where teamwork is critical to the job, there is a similar tendency for people to think they can do it all. There's a reason more than one person is assigned to each account, and everyone has an important role to play. Remove one and the balance is thrown off the best teams have people working behind the scenes, setting the stage for the star's' success. If there's no one to pass him or her the ball, a star will quickly lose the designation. As a side note, in great teams, everyone shares in success not just the star.

2) Success and growth require the taking of risks, and failure

Everyone has seen those players that hesitate and think too much on the court. They end up making more mistakes rather than less and play not to lose' rather than aggressively pursuing victory. It took me years to accept that in order for my game to progress I had to try new things and experiment, which inevitably resulted in failures and successes.

The same can be said of working in PR, or any job that requires creativity. New ideas coming up with them and executing on them are the crux of many marketing jobs. There is much to be said of relying on tried and true methods to get the job done. But ultimately, truly innovative ideas are what make the difference between great campaigns and mediocre ones and risk is inherent to real innovation. Prepare yourself for failure do your research, practice obsessively, be ready to learn something from every mistake and you will never truly fail.

3) Your teammate's success is your own, so cheer them on

There's a reason the high-five was invented. We all need a little encouragement from our comrades when working to reach a common goal. As easy as it is to do, giving a co-worker a pat on the back can make a world of difference and is not seen often enough in agency life. We're all in this together, so let's make the most of it and tell each other good job every once in awhile. Plus, it's just good karma.

4) The making of a great player takes more than hard work

You can never possibly prepare yourself for everything that happens during a game. That's why people keep playing sports throughout their lives. I've been playing basketball for 20 years and still see something new every time I step on the court the game will always be a fascinating challenge for me. Practice can only get you so far- the best players have that extra it' factor that enables them to think on their feet and react using instinct as opposed to what the play tells you to do.

The same can be said of working in the communications field. The one thing you can be sure of is that you will encounter a question or situation you've never faced before. The ones who successfully navigate these scenarios are people who have not only worked to acquire the basic skills all marketers need solid writing and verbal skills, creativity, and drive but they also have the flexibility and problem solving skills that allow them to adjust on the fly and tackle new challenges head on.

5) Humor is critical

This one doesn't need much explanation, but as simple as it is sometimes it takes awhile to really sink in. Basketball, like PR, is not emergency medicine, fire-fighting or some equally vital job to be done in our society. While they can frequently become all-consuming and feel like they have life-or-death importance, sports and most office jobs are not solving world hunger, and sometimes it's important to step back and see the big picture.

Even if the very worst happens like you lose the biggest game of the season or an important client- a strong team will still be OK in the end; albeit with a bruised ego or a smaller bank account. Keeping it light and having some perspective can go miles to make our jobs easier to manage, and ultimately more fun and fulfilling. After all, marketing and PR (and our hobbies) are what we're truly passionate about.

The views expressed in this post are Jennifer's, and not necessarily the opinions of LEWIS, or of any of the clients LEWIS represents.

image credit: Paul Matthew Photography via Shutterstock

What Basketball Taught Me About PR is a post from The Future Buzz