What’s More Important for Bloggers, Style or Content? - DailyBlogTips

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What’s More Important for Bloggers, Style or Content? Posted: 03 Oct 2012 03:40 AM PDT Some people believe that good writing will always win out. A good writer will be read, regardless of what they write about. Other people believe that content alone is king. If you have great information, it'll be read – even if the way it's written isn't so good. Personally, I think the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes. On the one hand, content matters: if you have nothing to say, you're unlikely to find an audience. Style won't win out over substance. But on the flip side, content alone isn't quite enough. After all, which post would you rather read? "Ten WordPress Tips" "Ten Easy Ways to Get the Most From Your WordPress Blog – Today" I think you'll agree that the second one sounds much more enticing … even though both posts might have the exact same information. How to Improve Your Content If you know you're a good writer but you're struggling to build an audience, the problem might lie with your content. To improve, try: Asking your readers what they want you to write about. You might be surprised! Focusing on giving value with every post – ask yourself "what will the reader get out of this?" Writing list posts or "how to" posts – these are easy ways to offer something useful. Narrowing down your niche – focus on one key topic area, rather than writing about anything and everything that interests you. How to Improve Your Style If you're packing your posts full of value but not getting much response, the problem might lie with your style. To improve, try: Spending more time editing each post after you write it. Try reading it aloud to get the flow of sentences and paragraphs right. Crafting great titles and gripping introductions that hook your readers and encourage them to read on. Writing in a friendly, direct way, as though you're addressing just one person. Use "you" more than you use "I". Asking a friend to review your post and point out areas where the writing could be improved. I'd love to hear what you think about style vs content. Do you feel that your strengths lie more in one area than the other? Do you prefer blogs with useful, in-depth content, or ones with a great writing style that makes for enjoyable reading? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Ali Luke is a writer and blogger, and author of Publishing E-Books For Dummies. She runs a teaching / community site for writers and bloggers, Writers' Huddle, which has just opened for new members. Join now to take her eight-week Blog On ecourse – where you'll learn all about different post and page types – and to get access to the archive of seminars, mini-courses, and more. All the details are here. Original Post: What's More Important for Bloggers, Style or Content?

Google AdSense for Feeds Will Be Shut Down. Feedburner Next? Posted: 02 Oct 2012 10:02 AM PDT Last week Google announced a new spring cleaning round, which is basically when they decide to shut down services that they don’t consider important or relevant anymore. Normally those are services that very few people are still using, indeed, but on the latest round that was one curious item: Google AdSense for Feeds. I use that product, and make a decent amount of money with it (combining all my sites close to $1000 per month). So yeah after December 3rd that will be gone. I suspect that there are still a lot of people using it as well, as AdSense for Feeds was the main/best method to monetize an RSS feed. Even if you only made $100 per month it was still good money, as it could pay for your hosting fees, for instance. In other words, I don’t agree with Google’s decision. I would rather have them announce they won’t be updating the service anymore or providing support for it, instead of completely shutting it down. But hey that’s life. They probably had their reasons, so let’s accept that. If you made decent money with AdSense for Feeds there’s one immediate alternative: substitute those units with private banner ads or affiliate offers. The shut down of AdSense for Feeds raises another important question, though: is that a signal that Google’s overall plan is to shut down Feedburner? There are many people around the web speculating so. If this is the case such a measure will affect A LOT more people. I am sure there will be alternatives around to deliver your RSS feed, but changing that will be a bit of a pain if you have a large subscriber base. Stay tuned for the next chapter of the RSS saga. Original Post: Google AdSense for Feeds Will Be Shut Down. Feedburner Next?

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