Faced with time off work and a challenge to attract new readers on a traditionally slow day, MyBlogLog Sunday seemed like a good event to tackle. In week 3, judging by the comments at least, it still does!

The Content Blogger’s Sunday Challenge

For many content-based bloggers, Sunday is a bad day. Those folks working 6 days a week, have had enough of surfing the net, and it is a tall order to expect people to read the same stuff on their day off that they do at work. So numbers drop. Do you resign yourself to the lull, or do something about it?

The trouble is, for most bloggers with a job, Sunday is often the time to relax too, so who wants to take on a project for a special Sunday? Well, bloggers who don’t work 9 to 5, 6 days a week! That would be me. Sunday isn’t too precious. Putting 3 and 3 together, I went the MyBlogLog route and devised a plan which should benefit all concerned.

What is MyBlogLog Sunday?

Some quick background, MyBlogLog is a community for bloggers. We all have an icon and a widget. If you visit a site that is involved in the community, invariably your icon appears as a “latest vistior” in the widget in the sidebar.

For the past 3 Sundays at about 10.30am, it has been really interesting to visit the sites of the last 10 bloggers to appear on the face widget thing in The Pisstakers side bar. I spend quite a bit of time looking through and reading posts and most importantly, digest the About Me post (if there is one) on each blog. I then put together a post with a thumbnail and a few priceless words about each blog. Although I only write 3 lines, I think they give a fair reflection of the blogs in question.

Who benefits, if anyone?

The experience is beneficial for everyone involved, I think.

For the bloggers, they get a few deep links from The future PR8 Pisstakers!!!!! Hopefully a bit of feelgood. And if they win the prize (like Polliwog’s pond just did) for referring traffic to our site in the following week, they get some gummi bears and a review too. And I have posted all about the event on MyBlogLog, here, and on our site, which I am sure has added something to the exposure of the participants. And, you get the idea…

For me as a plain simple surferI can have the mindset that “you better get my attention fast”. And I get to discover some really hot blogs I would never find, normally.

For me as a reviewer, it is revealing too, to look more carefully at how these random blogs are put together. There are some amazingly clear and perfectly formed themes out there, as well as some real dogs, especially those mile long slow-loading widgetty word press blogs! There are some brilliant writers too, and some who spell badly enough that they should consider declaring in big letters that they aren’t native Englsh writers!

At the end of the day, it has been encouraging and there must surely be some connection between the life of MyBlogLog Sunday and a 30% rise in traffic – spread over the whole month.

I’d like to congratulate bobbarama for being chosen as our comment friday winner.

He has been an active commentor for the past few fridays, so I thought we’d give him a break. This doesn’t mean we don’t expect him next friday!

We were held to under 20 comments last friday, but that’s partly my fault as I didn’t get the post up in time. We are putting our son on a sleeping schedule, it’s not fun lol.

Thanks for all the comments, if you are running a comment friday on your blog, let me know.

I do it, Bob down the road does it and from time to time I’d expect you do it.

That’s right I’m talking about the long post.

It may be you’re just really enthusiastic about the topic you’re writing or the topic itself may deserve the length. The other week I wrote a particularly long post (a lot of my posts are quite long but this one more so than others). It was a subject that I’d been thinking about a fair bit and I wanted to get my thoughts out there.

A delightful lady commented on the post mentioning that she usually doesn’t read such long posts but managed to make it all the way through this one. The reason why was simply the article was interesting to her.

Your average reader may not be as willing to go down the long post path with you even if they are interested in the content. So how can you help your chances? The answer may be as simple as headings.

Why use headings in your longer posts?

A heading helps the casual reader by visually marking particular sections and ideas. It means that within a glance the reader can see what you are talking about and find their way around. Most importantly it breaks up long stretches of text that are miserable to read on the computer screen.

The thing is headings also help you the writer as it will contribute to you keeping to the topic being discussed and if you write your headings before instead of after they can give you a roadmap to get your ideas down.

Things to remember when writing your headings.

• You have to set them apart from the rest of the text. Do this by bolding them or perhaps using the html tags such as h2 h3 etc.
• Use the same format throughout the post otherwise it will just become disorganised looking.
• Don’t go nuts on the headings either – too many will look silly and contribute to an unreadible post.
• Make sure the headings are self-explanatory. I could have used the heading tips instead I wrote things to remember when writing your headings so anyone would know what this section is.

Looking back at my post.

In my original post I didn’t use headings to help readers and I wonder how many actual readers I turned off from the post. I did however have some graphics that did help break up the text but the next time I have something like that on my mind (and I think I may have another in me for sometime later in the week) I’m going to definitely use headings and see if there is any difference in the comments.

Try it out on your blog with your next lengthy post and let us know if you notice any difference in the writing or the response!

Here is a common question that I have seen asked many many times before – Whats the easiest way to make money online. Here are some of the methods I have been playing around with recently:

ExoClick is a PayPerClick advertising network. I did a little experiment with ExoClick about a week ago and made $2 with basically no effort in a day. It took no time at all to make the $10 payout level but low and behold, they didn’t bother paying and deleted my account. This is one I think you should stay away from.

MyLot will pay you to start and join in on discussions. They use an algorithm to calculate your earnings based on your level of participation. But the easiest way to earn is through Referrals. You will get 25% of your referrals earnings. There is nothing quite like passive income! Although I have only made a dollar or so at MyLot, I definitely enjoy the community feel of things. I have heard of quite a few people making reasonable amounts from MyLot.

PayPerPost is one of my favorites. In order to join your going to need a blog that is 3 months old. And if you’re planning on making any real money you’re going to need a quality blog with good content. They segment out the “crap” blogs (I would say 99% of blogs) based on Alexa, Technorati and Page ranks. I have made over $100 from just a few posts and the top earner has made over $8,000 this month. They also have a good affiliate program and the popular “Review My Post” program too.

Agloco is another revenue sharing concept. However, no one has made anything from it and no one knows if anyone will make anything from Agloco. From my experience, I would say that Agloco isn’t going to be profitable and will soon go bust. But then again……I really don’t know.

Flimble is probably the quickest way to earn a few dollars. They will pay you to register with sites like the ones I have listed so far. Earnings are paid instantly and its a great incentive to join some good sites. Of course you can pay people to sign-up at Flimble as well. This is probably an even easier way to make some passive income.

Some Others

Helium – From what I have seen and heard, this site isn’t worth the effort. You can write the same sort of stuff at PayPerPost and make a lot more.

SlashMySearch – Refer a few people to this site and the earnings will start start coming in. This a revenue sharing site that pays you to search.

RazzleDazzleAds -Ok this is a site that I own. It pays you to read ads and review products. Its just starting out with only around 200 members so it would be great to see you join. You will also earn by referring people.

FriendFinder – Why not cash in on the Internet Dating. Its now a very big industry and many people have made decent amounts from the affiliate program.

You can check out my other blog FeelingFeint.com

Haven’t heard about Comment Friday?

Comment friday is a fun and simple idea. Leave us a comment about anything you want. By leaving a comment, you will have your blog visited by me, and you may even get a link out of it. I will select a blog from the comment list to be linked to and have their link on our blogroll, until next friday.

As comment friday becomes more popular, you are also going to get a few hits. Not only am I visiting blogs, but other people are checking you out as well.

Last Friday we had 20+ comments and we chose Jon Lee as our winner. This week I am hoping we get 30 comments!
Let’s make that happen!

Recently I’ve read a few articles on Displaying your Feedburner Subscriber Count. DoshDosh and I Help You Blog (two blogs I feed read daily) recently participated in a meme about it. The gist of their articles discuss why you should or shouldn’t display your feedcount. And if you do decide to display that count, make sure you have a nice amount of subscribers.

I never really saw the problem. I think thought displaying 40 or 50 readers was good. I mean think about it, on top of the average 200 unique visitors we get per day, that’s about an extra 40 people just reading our content, per day.

Good right? Wrong.

What about visitors who don’t usually read blogs, but found yours? They typically know nothing about RSS Feeds and Feedburner. Most websites don’t use them, I didn’t even know what an RSS Feed was before I started blogging.

So to those readers what does it mean? What does the feedburner widget displaying “40 Readers” mean to them?

One of our readers saw it as how many visitors we’ve received:

Our Reviews “Blogs have to be punchy to score and move up the ladder you have 46 views maybe if your content had a little more grab and interest itr would have more readers “andrew oneway4marketing.com Get your own reviews, free traffic at

By thinking we only had 46 readers, that already discredits our content. After reading that review, I immediately removed our feedcount widget, and made it easier for people to subscribe to our feed. I’m sure Andrew wasn’t the first person to be turned away from our feedburner count, but he will be the last.

Before you display your feed count make sure you are making the right choice. If you aren’t, it can cost you readers.

Rhys from The Gospel According to Rhys has been chosen for the next Blog about your Blog author interview. I have asked Rhys a series of questions about some personal things, blogging and blog about your blog. I hope you enjoy the interview.

First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, I am a 23 year old Welshman from Colwyn Bay, and after graduating in 2004 with a degree in Computer Science and a brief spell in a call centre, I am back working in my home town as a website designer.

Are you married? Girlfriend? Boyfriend?

Alas no. I have been single for about a month now, though I have a jack russel and a wii, they keep me entertained.

What do you do when you are not blogging?

I am a big fan of my local football/soccer club Colwyn Bay, and I do help out occasionally through fund raising things (though not as much as I’d like). Away from football I enjoy video games (with Entropia Universe, Retro Gaming and my brand new Wii being my favourite things), drinking real ale, pub quizzes, and generally anything technology/internet related.

What is your favorite blog to read besides your own?

I’m afraid I actually don’t read as many blogs as I used to! My favourites are eruanna.net and mcgechan.co.uk, largely because both Han and Guy are both very good friends of mine (Han I met through our respective blogs). I am also a big fan of Simply Me, Fanboy Creative, and Meatpaddy

Let me ask you a few questions about your blog.

When was your blog created?

Originally, I started blogging on 30th May 2002, however I have been at my current blog since October 9th 2004, switching to WordPress on New Years Day this year. So, take your pick! I like to say I’ve been blogging for nearly 5 years. It sounds more impressive.

Why did you choose your blog topic?

Largely because I needed to talk about myself. The whole reason I started blogging was largely due to my competitive streak. About a month before I started I read an article in a Web User magazine that explicitly stated “With the exception of this blog (it was a link to a personal depression blog) and bloggers who happen to be in the right place at the right time, the majority of them were boring.” At that point, I thought “I’ll show you!”. Unfortunately, Blogger – who at the time were a young startup – was undergoing “major server upgrading” and would “not be accepting any new signups for two weeks”, so my dreams of literary world domination were put on hold.

Since then though, the blog has become a vehicle for what I want to say to people. My friends and family read it, and just last night my mum thanked me for my mothers day post. So I guess my audience dictate what I write about, though they don’t admit it.

What do you enjoy most about blogging?

I love the buzz you get when a post just hits. The best one was when one of my posts was on About.com, and the traffic, the adsense clickthroughs and the comments take weeks to go down. The best one I’ve had recently was the community that has developed around my post for people who have British Gas Boilers. Just the fact that people are actually listening and taking note to what you’ve said.

I’d personally love for one of my posts to get on digg front page, that’d really be special for me. Then I know a lot of people will be reading it and obviously enjoying.

Do you have any new upcoming projects or ideas you want to announce?

Ermm…there’s one which is in my head that I’d like to keep secret at the moment. One thing which I’d like to run on a weekly/monthly basis is The Website Visualization Gallery, which could be interesting. I’ll see how many submissions I get in the next week or so.

What is the best feature on your blog?

The community, without a doubt. My blog isn’t for everybody, I must admit, but there are a good few people who like it, and like it a lot. For my birthday this year we had a impromptu blogmeet in London, which was amazing. I know people who read my blog better than some of my real life friends. It has given me so much blogging, and long may it continue.

What do you rely most on to get traffic to your blog or website?

Google and feed clickthroughs. Google in raw numbers (though this has improved a lot since I optimized my site for search engines), feed clickthroughs for quality traffic.

And the final series of questions, a little bit about Blog About Your Blog

How did you find us?

I was asked by you to come and join! I think I was one of the first (some may say in terms of frequency “the worst”) writers on here. It was through the toplist that I got to know the people behind this blog though.

Yeah, the toplist used to be really good for us traffic wise, now the big boys are on the front page.

What do you like most about BAYB?

The sheer anarchy about it! Seriously, it’s so nice just seeing pretty much a free reign on posts. Of course, should hate filled propaganda be published then that’d be removed, but by and large you’ve got a good set of writers here, and the sheer diversity of them makes this blog a must read.

What new feature would you like to see?

I don’t know actually! Already you’ve ticked off a lot of the boxes that took me near on 5 years! I dunno, I suppose the one thing that you haven’t done yet is set up a myspace! Of course, it’s not for all blogs, but it could build up more of a community around here.

I don’t know about a myspace page, but we could possibly make a myspace community.

What do you like the least?

Well, it’s greatest strength is also the weakness. The best thing about it is that anybody can write anything. The bad thing about it is that anybody can write anything.

Who have you chosen to be the next one interviewed?

Well, seeing as he’s achieved a book published, which is one of my dreams, I’ll have to go with Chad Gramling. I’ve read his blog a few times, and it entertains me, so lets see what he has to say.

Thank you for the interview, I’d definitely love seeing more posts from you at BAYB. You can see Rhys last post about his adsense cheque here. If there is something you want to ask Chad in the next interview, please submit it by commenting on this post or emailing me at ff_n_stuff@yahoo.com