One of my favorite bloggers is Tim Ferriss, the author of The 4-Hour Workweek. His book has been on the New York Times Bestsellers list for almost two years. His blog is one of the most-read on the Internet. Tim has become famous for challenging the status quo.
Recently, he posted a video of his presentation at WordCamp San Francisco, a conference for WordPress bloggers. Though I don’t endorse everything he recommends—and am still mulling some of it over—I found his blog tips compelling and stimulating.
As I listened to him, I jotted down eight key insights. (These are my words not his.)
- Write about what you are passionate about. Don’t pay too much attention to what your readers say they want. As it turns out, people are quite bad at predicting what they like. Typically, what works best—and generates the most traffic—is the stuff that is written out of deeply-felt convictions or emotion. If you can’t seem to get the creative juices flowing, start with anger. What makes you mad?
- Be careful about how you allocate digital real estate. Obviously, people will eventually leave your site. However, you don’t want them to become distracted and leave prematurely. This is particularly true for first-time visitors. Instead, you want to pull them deeper into your site to explore your other content. Because of this, you probably don’t want to include your Twitter feed above the fold.
- Don’t display the post date at the top of the post. Why? Because people place a higher value on newer posts and tend to discount the older ones. This is unfortunate—for them and for you. Unless you are running a news blog, most of your posts are still relevant and valuable. Move the date from the top of the post to the bottom. (If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, you can modify this in your theme’s single.php file.) You can leave the date above the title on your home page, just not the single post pages.
- Test everything and listen to the numbers. There is no shortage of blogging advice on the Internet. But beware of conventional wisdom. Just when you think you have it figured out, you don’t. The web is dynamic and things are constantly changing. What works last year—or last month—may not work now. The only way to know is to test and keep testing. Tim recommends a site called CrazyEggs.com that enables you to see, for example, where your users are clicking on your home page.
- Optimize your posts for SEO. Forget about this when writing the first draft. It will make your writing seem forced and artificial. However, once you are satisfied with your post, run some of your key phrases through Google Keyword Tool to see which have the highest Global Monthly Search Volume. If you can use more highly-ranked synonyms without compromising your meaning, do so. That way, more people will be able to discover your post via Google.
- Practice zero tolerance for negative comments. There is already too much negativity in the world. You have no obligation to provide an audience for snarky people with too much time on their hands. Your blog is like your living room. You are inviting people to come in and have a civil conversation. If they are rude are abusive, show them the door. Make your blog comments policy prominent, so people know the rules before they comment.
- Keep it fun so that you stay engaged. If it is not fun for you as a blogger, you will post less frequently—or not at all. If you stop posting, that’s the end of your blog. So it’s better to write something, even if it is off-topic or silly, than to write nothing at all. Tim gave an example of a post he did called, “How to Peel Hard-boiled Eggs Without Peeling.”
- Break the rules. Don’t listen to people who are not paying you to blog. Nothing is sacred. Experiment. If it sounds like a good idea, try it—then measure the results. If it works, keep doing it. If it doesn’t, try something else.
After listening to Tim, I went back and made some “strategic tweaks” to my own blog. Now I am going to collect the data and evaluate the results.
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Although the date may not be relevant for the post, at least I like seeing it at the top. Then I can get a sense of when it was written and decide if some of the concepts in the post is outdated, even if the post as a whole isn't.
But as you said it's always good to try new things, especially if you measure the difference.
I'd love to hear what your results are.
We can't watch long videos here in South Africa due to government bandwidth restrictions. So special thanks for outlining your 8 points. We really appreciate geting the core take-away points!
woah really? that's a new perspective…I hope those get lifted..
Hi Stephen,
Yep, they have an unlimited amount but they sell it to you per the megabyte! Since they are currently the only company and government own, its a totally corrupt monopoly. Out internet is a fortune and we carefully monitor high file sized things like videos. Really appreciate when a long video has the cliff notes!
I'm going to start doing that when I post video. (I also got this tip from Tim!)
I like the points about keeping it fun and breaking the rules. Although I have heard that playing music on a blog is one of the worst offenders for readers, I have a lot of fun with this feature….coming up with a theme song of the day that goes with what COULD be considered a dull topic: daily homekeeping. By keeping each task light and funny, I've found a very loyal group of readers/participators who stop in every day (some just to hear what song I've picked). It's a perfect example of rule breaking that works for my little corner of the blogosphere.
I immediately will exit any web site that has embedded music that starts playing. I take it as a violation of my permission. You might poll your readers or better yet, use CrazyEggs to see how many are turning it off or bouncing off the page.
Great suggestion on the CrazyEggs, I'll try it. I actually have polled my readers and have gotten a very positive response. If they prefer not to hear the theme song, I always encourage people to subscribe in a reader or via email. I would say that many/most of my readers come by word-of-mouth and have the idea that this blog is interactive and a little silly before they even get there. Since my target audience is women who are facing piles of dirty laundry and cheerios stuck to the floor, I take license to have fun with them.
I simply cannot believe how relevant this post is for me. I have a blog on one host, but I've not been satisfied, especially with scheduled posts not posting at the appropriate time.
So today, before I read this, I decided to explore an alternate blog host and posted the introductory. How timely is that?
Or would you call it a coincidence?
Definition: Coincidence – a small miracle where God chooses to remain anonymous, so if you don't want to see Him you don't have to. But if you're looking, there He is!
I love that definition of "coincidence"!
Huge fan of the combination of text + video. I almost didn’t follow the link while scanning Google Reader on my BlackBerry because the title had [video] in it. Many mobile device users thank you.
I think the date is a critical element for technology or time critical blogs (celebrity gossip, political news, etc). How-to articles shouldn’t be timestamped or have an expiration…. Perhaps a plugin or WordPress modification that enables date inclusion as an optional feature of a post (and/or placement within)?
And please, embedding music is just plain evil. I’ll ditch any site that plays audio without me clicking a play button.
I think I did stumble across a WordPress plugin for modifying where the date goes. However, I hate the overhead that comes with additional plugins, so I just tweaked the PHP code in the single.php file. I know, I know, it's a little geeky, but it worked!
Yeah! I don't know about evil, but embedded music is annoying. It makes my fingers twitch around my laptop pad frantically trying to find the "off" button as I cover my ears with my shoulder and other hand. Is there a point made about music in any of the Blog Tips out there?
I ran a blog post through the Google Keyword Tool to find the highest Global Monthly Search Volume. I added keys words that had a million plus hits.
Blogger only lets you add 200 characters and 20 key words per post.
The best places to use your key words are in (1) the title, (2) the actual post, and (3) your tags. I also put the tags in the posts keyword meta-data in the header. WordPress does this automatically if you use the All-in-One SEO plugin.
When I wrote this post, I originally titled it, "8 Blogging Tips from Timothy Ferriss." However, I used the Google Keyword Tool and discovered that "Blog Tips" had almost five times as many searches as "Blogging Tips." "Tim Ferriss" had twice as many searches as "Timothy Ferriss." So, I changed the title to "8 Blog Tips from Tim Ferriss." I also made sure that I embedded the phrase "blog tips" in the content at least three times. I changed the references in the text to "Tim Ferriss."
These are small tweaks, but they can make a big difference when it comes to getting discovered via Google.
Write about what you are passionate about.
Since you wrote <ahref="
http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/05/creating-wow-prod... WOW Product Experiences (May 2008), I've been convinced that without passion, there can be no WOW.
A year later, I'd add that while I still believe The Passion to Produce WOW is as fundamental to writing a blog as to producing any product, it does not sustain WOW without skill, sacrifice, and experience.
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2008/08/guest-b...
Great suggestions…probably the most practical blog advice I've seen in a while. Thanks for sharing the expert advice and for posting the video.
Do you have any suggestions for building a following when you are totally unknown to the world? On Twitter and Facebook, so many people are out there (and a lot of them have blogs)–how does one make a place for himself or herself?
This is a great question. Everyone starts out unknown. However, the most important thing you can do in my opinion is to write truly remarkable content. If people look forward to what you write, they will tell their friends. It then becomes viral.
I think too often people focus on marketing when they really should start by writing great posts. As David Ogilvie once said, "Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster." Conversely, great product makes the marketing so much easier.
You might want to read my post, "It's the Product, Stupid." It's not about writing per se, but many of the principles still apply.
Thanks for your help–I read your "It's the Product, Stupid" post. And, yes, I am passionate about my content. I believe if people can understand the logic behind the story told in the Bible and understand its main concepts, then they will understand the power they have to meet the challenges they face and will gain confidence in God's absolute love. I want to write as clearly and concisely as I can, so readers will stay with me.
Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. By the way, our tech guy at school fixed my comment problem–thank God!
You bet.
What was the issue with comments? (I'd like to know in case someone else has problems.)
Ken set the permalink setting back to default and that solved my problem. I hope any other problems I have will be as easy to fix. It's great having someone–a real live person–to go to for help.
Another thought for the list–don't make a blog a rant-fest. That's a sure fire way to turn people off. I don't know if anyone has heard about it, but there was an author who got a review she didn't agree with, so posted up what she thought–and the reviewer's phone number–on Twitter. It did come down, mainly because everyone else reacted to it. A few months ago, another author who had trouble getting published posted a diatribe on her blog. The only thing it convinced everyone of was why she wasn't getting published!
I totally agree with that. As an author, you must have thick skin. If people disagree, then at least they care. The best thing you can do is express appreciation for their input. Even negative reviews help sell a book. They capture people's attention and add an element of authenticity.
Just want to tell you how much I'm enjoying your blog since an SCBWI Carolinas member mentioned your Obstacles blog on the Yahoo groups page. You offer such meaty topics that enlighten and entertain. Today's topic was great, even though I'll never do any of it, ii was fun to be educated about blogs.
1.) Make it easy for comments to flow in (no WV), and have your email in your profile so other bloggers can contact you outside the blog's public forum.
2.) Pass out the love as often as possible. Host contests, ask for advice and opinions, be helpful.
These are some of the most useful tips on blogging I've seen, and I tell you I've read a good deal about it already. Thank you!
Great post, except that the link is correct to CrazyEgg.com, but the anchor text is not.
I agree with much of what Tim Ferris said. The 2 things I question are putting the Twitter feed below the fold and putting post dates at the bottom instead of the top of posts.
My experience shows that people like to see dates at the top of posts that are featured on the home page because new posts confirm that the blogger is an active publisher. When we link from newer posts to older ones, the problem of not publicizing older posts is taken care of.
As for the Twitter feed, since it speaks volumes about how involved a blogger is in conversations, it seems nonsensical to intentionally place it below the fold. After all, if a person who comes to my blog would prefer to connect with me on Twitter, I'm just as happy.
I think it's important to meet my readers where they are, not force them to stay on my blog if they'd rather be on my Twitter page, if given the option. I think if you are posting relevant content, readers will generally go back and forth between the two, depending on which they are comfortable with at the time.
Thanks for a great summary!!
Thanks for the useful post. This ramping up to newer technology is daunting for some of us. Any practical, doable suggestions such as this is greatly appreciated.
The first tip I'm going to take is to have fun with my blog. The secont tip that I plan do immediately is check the key words for my title. I had never thought of doing that but it is so logical. Then I will decide the next tips to consider. I can't do all of them at once or I will get overloaded with the technology. One little step at a time toward my own great, fabulous blog.
A J
AJHawke.blogspot.com
A bunch of satirical blog writing tips here where I noticed at least one passing reference to Tim Ferriss… (-:
Great tips
great tips. i have three to add:
* visit other like-minded blogs and leave comments so as to create your blog network
* acknowledge those who leave comments on your posts
* blog in your jammies
Thank you for your thoughts about blogging. I am a new blogger and your thoughts gave me fresh new ideas and preservative about how to blog.