Friday, May 20, 2011

Geeky Blogger Stuff and a Threat!

Help me, or I'll rip Mike's head clean off! I swear!
Ok, now asking for advice from my fellow bloggers. I will list my methods and tools below, and ask for your suggestions and feedback. What I’m looking for is help to be better at this, beside being smarter, a better writer, or more imaginative, which is not going to happen. Ha.

Anyway, here is is:

Purpose Tool Notes
Post editing and creation Windows Live Writer I know there are alternatives, including using the native Blogger post editor. What do you use? WLW does a really good job, I think, but I’m interested in trying something else.
Scheduling posts Blogger post editor and/or Windows Live Writer Both have the ability to schedule publishing a post, so if I was a good blogger, I’d write a bunch, then have it post them when I want. Any other ideas
Campaign planning Google calendar Ok – I’m just starting this now. I realized that to be more effective and create themes and series like the good guys (Mokuren Dojo, Ikigai, Martial Development, etc.) I need to plan more. How do you do it?
Metrics Feedburner and Google Analytics Use anything else? There’s so much I wish I knew, but don’t really care to learn unless I could make time or do a course/tutorial.
Site design Standard Blogger templates, but modified. Suggestions for something cheap or free? Advice on my current layout or design would be appreciated and may win you an autographed t-shirt. It would be old and sweaty, too! Smile
Advertising/monetization Adsense I haven’t cared all that much about making money on this, but a enough to take the wife out to dinner every month would win me some points. How do you go about direct advertising. I think my stats can show a strong following and good numbers, but what’s the best advertising method, in your opinion.
Posting ideas RSS and email, news I use feeds almost exclusively, but is that the best way? What do you do?
Promotion and social networking (same?) Our facebook page, and some Twitter Ok – I do little with Twitter for this, but am interested in learning to be more effective promoting on FB. Any ideas?
OK, so I’m baring all of my “secrets” and asking for your help. What advice can you give, even if you don’t blog. Is there something that’s really annoying, besides my writing? If you like, please respond here in comments, or if you want a conversation, let’s hook up on Google Talk chat or send me an email.


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5 comments:

BSM said...

Have you considered a WordPress.com blog? You can import your Blogger archive. It also has quite a few nice canned templates. I prefer mainly for the widgets. Even with canned template you can customize your background image and image header (usually).

-B

Craig said...

Don't do it, Nathan. Don't listen to Darth Patterson! Reject the dark side!

Seriously...although I like Blogger, there are times I wish I was using another platform. Like today, when I seem to be one of several thousand bloggers whose posts are being rejected. GRRR!

Nathan, I have a response coming your way. As usual for me, it's too big for a comment.

Craig

Nathan at TDA Training said...

I think Darth is tempting me strongly. I was trying some scheduled posts today as well and had to post now, rather than Saturday. Not cool. But, I'm betting those types of things can happen with almost any platform.

On a serious note, Bob, my only concern now is that I never did a custom domain, and will have to go through the pain of moving. I can leave this up, but how does that work? You can email a link, or post it here in case it may help someone else.

As far as Wordpress, it does seem to be on another level, but I'm going to wait until I see what the new Blogger platform can do for me. If it's not a big improvement, I may move.

Craig, I really appreciate your email. I will be going over it later, and hope to pick up something I can use to improve.

Thanks to you both!

Matt said...

Hey Nathan! Thanks for the shoutout.

I'm a native wordpress user and have been from the start. It's intuitive to use, and with a little bit of photoshop and html you can get a nice and unique template.

In regards to planning and posting, I generally live on the edge. I don't write many ahead of time because a lot of my posts come from whatever I'm feeling at the moment. However, there are bigger 'events' that I plan like giveaways and topical series. I don't use any real tools for that, just arrangements with any external companies.

You're one the martial arts blogging seniors, and your stuff is great so I'm pretty sure I can help you find some advertising dollars. Drop me a line at ikigai108@gmail.com and we'll chat about it.

Nathan at TDA Training said...

Hey Matt,

Great to hear from you, too. I think unless there's something quite drastic in Blogger improvements, I will be making the switch shortly. Bob from Striking Thoughts has the same opinion, and your blogs' clean and professional looks both are a big part of the reason for that consideration.

I will shoot you an email - have pulled any advertising in an effort to clean things up, and plan for the future, and "relaunch."

Thanks Matt!