“Free Interview Webinar with Tsh Oxenreider from SimpleMom” plus 2 more |  |
- Free Interview Webinar with Tsh Oxenreider from SimpleMom
- Disable Comments for a Better Blog
- Should You Use a Third-Party Commenting System on Your Blog?
| Free Interview Webinar with Tsh Oxenreider from SimpleMom Posted: 24 Jul 2012 04:32 PM PDT
I know many of you know Tsh already as her blog has a big readership and those of you who followed the ProBlogger Tourism Queensland trip that we did earlier in the year will know that she was one of the winners of that prize. I have to say that one of the highlights of that trip for me was having the opportunity to meet and get to know Tsh (we even got to do our first scuba dive together). There are some people whose approach to blogging you just click with – Tish was one of those. I learned a lot from those chats and wanted to share some of what she’s done with ProBlogger readers. About TshTsh began blogging in 2008 on Simple Mom so has only really been at it for 4 years but has not wasted her time since then. Simple Mom is a productivity blog for home managers which she describes as ‘like Zen Habits wearing an Apron’. Since 2008 Tsh has grown her blog incredibly – not only in terms of audience and influence but in other ways. In those four years Tsh has anded a publishing deal and released a book, released a successful eBook, started a podcast, expanded her blog into a blogging network (currently 6 blogs with numerous writers and editors), spoken at many events and gone full time as a blogger. In many ways Tsh is living the dream that many bloggers aspire to yet she’s one of the most grounded and humble people I’ve met in this industry. She blogs with authenticity, passion and a genuine interest in her readers. In this week’s webinar I will be interviewing Tsh about the last 4 years and what she’s learned. We’ll cover:
There will also be time for Q&A with attendees. Note: this isn’t a ‘selling’ webinar. We’re not going to pitch you anything at the end – it’s purely a chance to meet Tsh and hear about her approach to blogging. Register for the RecordingThe most commonly asked question that I get on these webinars is whether we will be recording them for those who can’t make the live webinars. The answer is YES. However to get the recording you need to register for it. All registered people will get an email about 24 hours after the webinar with a link to the recording. Note: registering doesn’t get you on any email list or lead to any ongoing emails. It purely gets you into the call and access to the recording. International TimesI know this time won’t suit everyone – we’ve made it a little later this time to make it more accessible to people in Asia but I understand those of you in Europe are going to struggle to make it (which is why we offer the recording option). Here are the times in a few parts of the world:
I hope to see you on Thursday/Friday (depending where in the world you are)!
PS: if you’d like to be notified of future ProBlogger webinars (we do them every 2-3 weeks) please add your email address to our notification list here. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Free Interview Webinar with Tsh Oxenreider from SimpleMom     |
| Disable Comments for a Better Blog Posted: 24 Jul 2012 01:07 PM PDT This guest post is by Greg McFarlane of Control Your Cash. Feedback is great, right? Your honor, if it pleases the court, I'd like to contend that that's a leading question. The answer to it might be "yes," but not unequivocally. Steak is great too, but not in the middle of church. Providing a forum in which people are allowed to say nothing of consequence might be a good idea, but the positives outweigh the negatives. Want to make your blog instantly better? Disable comments. If that sounds as blasphemous to you as rib-eye during the offertory does, keep reading. My blog's schedule is regular—a new 1000-word post every Wednesday, another one every Friday, a carnival every Monday, and a pithy one-liner every day of the week. Of course I link to fellow bloggers out of necessity, including dozens of times in every carnival. In the past, whenever I did I'd usually receive a comment from the other blogger, thanking me for the link. That would be the comment in its entirety: some variation of "Thanks for linking to me." These comments and their brethren did nothing to propel the dialogue. Dialogue, as in people exchanging ideas and insights. As opposed to sentiments. I mean, I thank people every day—waiters, bank tellers, the woman who lets me in when I scan my membership card at the gym—and not once have I felt the need to broadcast that gratitude to the public at large. It's a private thing between me and whoever's extending me a courtesy. I don't need to share my politeness credentials with the world. The thank-yous were in addition to the comments that said "I agree with that one point you made," and that perhaps included an anecdote that no one beyond the commenter's family would ever be interested in. In toto, most of the comments on my blog came from fellow bloggers with an agenda, and that agenda was getting links. 98.2% of the comments were effectively meaningless. That number isn't intended as hyperbole to prove a point, either: it's the product (well, the quotient) of a real calculation. The remaining 1.8% were worthwhile contributions—offering data that challenged a point, or enhancing a position my blog had taken, etc. Finally, the morass of comments became too much. I tired of seeing the same people saying the same things, which they did mostly out of obligation. ("He linked to my blog. If I make a show of gratitude, he'll continue linking to my blog.") So I took a deep breath, followed my head rather than my instinct, and shut comments down. And I've never looked back. You call that “engagement”?!This sounds counterintuitive. Why not engage as many people as possible? You engage them by giving them something to read. But why not engage them in as many ways as possible? Because you're the one offering the content. They're just using it. In recent years it's been trendy to synthesize those two fundamentally opposite roles, producer and consumer, but it doesn't apply here. It's tough enough to interest readers in what you have to say. Why attempt to interest themin what other readers have to say? Readers whom you have minimal control over, and who probably aren't as erudite and certainly aren't as committed as you are? For a lay reader, a non-blogger who just wants to visit my site for tips and information, the familiarity with which the other bloggers referred to each other and me in the comments was intimidating. By turning off everyone’s ability to comment, I no longer have to worry about new readers feeling that they've stumbled into a private club by mistake. For the commenters with blogs of their own, it's not about the content. It's about the form. They're really interested in getting another link, the comment serving to improve their Alexa scores however incrementally. That's their problem, not mine. There are also considerable aesthetic reasons for killing comments, assuming you're not a fan of cacophony. Do we really need more angry expressions of political opinions (The Huffington Post)? Or insults concerning each other's sexual shortcomings (YouTube)? Or disjointed spelling and unconstrained grammar (just about everywhere)? The comments on some popular blogs have degenerated to the point where the commenters make a game of openly mocking the author, who doesn't even bother responding. From a third party's perspective, it's kind of amusing. But if it were my blog, I'd be incensed and embarrassed. Left untended, the blog I referenced has been overrun with verbal weeds that are now poking through the tile and have compromised the entire landscape. Better to just pour on a few gallons of herbicide and finish the job. Continuing with the artless flora analogy, how many of the comments on your site count as hydrangea blossoms anyway? Is anyone really going to miss them? On almost every blog, the comments and commenters add zero value. They might add value for the commenters, as the innate human desire to see the public presentation of one's name and opinions is a strong one. But comments are typically an affront, an annoyance, or at least an inconvenience to the only people who should matter to you—your readers. What do you mean? My commenters are my readers. Yes, if someone's commenting, then by definition they're reading. But practically all of your readers just read and then move on to some other activity, rather than bothering to leave a memento of their visit. The commenters are a motivated and not always rational few. This goes beyond blogs, too. Read the comments on the stories on your news site of choice. Have you even seen an astute one? And if you did, was it worth sifting through the hundreds of illiterate ones? Put your readers—and your blogging—firstIt bears repeating: your readers come first. They took the time to find you and do you the honor of absorbing what you have to say. Shouldn't you make it as effortless as possible for them to continue to do so? Personal development uber-blogger Steve Pavlina figured this out a while ago. He hasn't allowed a comment in seven years, and explains why: “A large volume of feedback gets overwhelming at times, and it has a tendency to exaggerate the importance of certain issues in my mind. Well below 1% of visitors ever post a comment.” He adds that it also freed up lots of his time. Nothing to moderate means more time to concentrate on other, more critical aspects of your blog. Or even of the rest of your life. It wasn't the negative comments that convinced me to extirpate the entire species. It was all the comments. Although the negative ones were plentiful. A few years ago, no less an authority than IT publisher Tim O'Reilly outlined a prescription for reducing if not eliminating them, by creating the Bloggers' Code of Conduct—seven commandments for being courteous online, which ought to be intuitive, but if they were then people wouldn't choose to be uncivil in the first place. O'Reilly's first four precepts are as follows:
If you disable comments, you can handle all four of those in an instant. If something has the potential to cause so much trouble that esteemed authors are codifying ways to combat it, why tempt fate? I still keep trackbacks, which I love. With them, people can express their opinions of my blog without me being the one to provide the forum for it. My life has gotten far less complicated and my blog far more streamlined since I decided to go commentless. Try it yourself, and you'll be surprised how little you miss those pesky fragments of thoughts. (Postscript: Yes, I'm aware of the irony that you can leave comments on this post. ProBlogger is different, obviously. Let's just say that the recommendation to disable comments doesn't hold for globally influential blogs whose very purpose is to engage bloggers and have them exchange ideas.) Greg McFarlane is an advertising copywriter who lives in Las Vegas. He recently wrote Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense, a financial primer for people in their 20s and 30s who know nothing about money. You can buy the book here (physical) or here (Kindle) and reach Greg at greg@ControlYourCash.com. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Disable Comments for a Better Blog     |
| Should You Use a Third-Party Commenting System on Your Blog? Posted: 24 Jul 2012 07:06 AM PDT This guest post is by Syed Balkhi of WPBeginner. If you’ve been blogging for anything more than a few months, you probably have come across blogs using third-party commenting systems like Disqus, Livefyre, Facebook Comments, Intense Debate, and more. You may have asked yourself, “Why do other blogs use these systems? Are they helpful? Should I use a third-party commenting system on my site?” I have used both the built-in WordPress commenting system and a third-party commenting platform for an extensive period of time. In this article, I will share the pros and cons, from my personal experience, of using a third-party commenting system, and point you to some of the plugins that I use to extend the power of built-in WordPress comments. Pros of third-party commenting systems1. Single login (authenticity)There are a lot of trolls on the web leaving anonymous comments. By using a third-party commenting system, you can require the user to register before the comment, and so cut down on trolling. If you’re using a popular third-party commenting system like Disqus, Livefyre, or Facebook Comments, then the chances are that the user already has an account with those services. Users can surf from one website to another while staying logged in to the commenting platform, and this allows them to easily track all of their comments—and those of others—throughout the blogosphere. 2. Expanded social media presenceAlmost all third-party commenting platforms offer some sort of expanded social media presence, Facebook Comments being the leader because it gives you the viral aspect. Your users’ comments can be posted on their walls, as long as they leave right the checkbox checked. Other platforms allow users to integrate with Twitter and Facebook. Livefyre, in particular, allows the user to tag their Facebook or Twitter friends within the comments. This tagging sends a tweet or Facebook message to their friend(s) notifying them about your post. 3. Spam controlRequiring a commenter to log in to comment virtually eliminates the chance of a spam bot attacking your site. 4. Increased engagementMost third-party commenting platforms claim to increase engagement. Some do it by making your comments appear in real-time, simulating a chat-like feel within comments. Others allow users to easily subscribe to comments via email to keep up with the conversation. Cons of third-party commenting systems1. Change and frustrationWhile the concept of using one login across all websites sounds noble, it doesn’t always work. If your current commenting system doesn’t require user registration, then your users will likely be frustrated when you introduce a new system. This change “forces” them to create an account with a third-party service to leave a comment on your site—and that may seem as if they’re losing their freedom to comment on your site. This can drive some of your most loyal users away. 2. Lack of controlIf you are the kind of blogger who likes to fine-tune and tweak every aspect of your blog, then third-party comment systems probably aren’t for you. You will lose control over most aspects of your commenting platform in terms of formatting and design by adopting these systems. Your users will also experience slower page loads while the third-party commenting platform loads (especially during maintenance and occasional server outages), which is totally out of your control. Last but certainly not least, you will not be able to add features, such as lead-generation option or comment policy text links, without mastering the commenting system’s API. My choice: default WordPress commentsAfter using a third-party commenting system, Livefyre, for over a year, I decided to switch back to the default WordPress comment system. While I could go into the excruciating details about why I switched away from Livefyre, the main point was the cons outweighed the pros. I wanted more control over the look and functionality of our comments, and I also wanted to keep our users happy. Lastly, I was able to replicate just about every advantage of a third-party commenting system using WordPress plugins. So let’s go through that pros and cons list again, and see how it caused me to switch to WordPress comments.
As you can see, I was able to get almost all of the benefits of a third-party commenting system that people want while still using the built-in WordPress comments. Not to mention that I was able to customize the look of our comments, so they look good and are in keeping with out site. Do you use third-party commenting systems?Despite my experience, third-party commenting systems work perfectly for some bloggers and their blogs. I’d be interested in hearing your experiences of using a third-party commenting platform—or choosing to use the default system that came with your blog. Syed Balkhi is the founder of WPBeginner, the largest unofficial WordPress resource site that offers free WordPress videos for beginners as well as other comprehensive guides like choosing the best WordPress Hosting, speeding up WordPress, and many more how-to’s. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Should You Use a Third-Party Commenting System on Your Blog?     |
This Thursday evening at 10pm US Eastern time (international times below) I will be running a free webinar with a blogger I’d love you to meet – Tsh Oxenreider from 
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