Day 5 My Blogging Secrets

Day 5 My Blogging Secrets Wow what a week! Heres a wrap-up: Day 1 relationships Day 2 branding Day 3 abundance mentality Day 4 build community My secret for Day 5 is be wary of technology. Yep, you heard it right. Im a programmer, Ive been in IT for over 10 years, Im a wildly successful internet entrepreneur (:)), and many think Im on the bleeding edge of technology. Notice that I dont have a bunch of widgets on my blog? There are hundreds to choose from, and they are very popular. But I feel that my blog is already quite busy. Plus, I dont want my readers to come and have problems with the page downloading. Heres the real reason: Im slow to adopt new stuff! Might sound funny but its true. You may think that blogging is new stuff. I see blogging as self-publishing. Thats it. The sites to create blogs (wordpress, typepad, blogger, etc.) are just tools to use, and make it about as easy as writing an e-mail. I dont think of myself as a great technologist because I blog just someone that is determined to write something good each day. I think this might be one of the more controversial things amongst bloggers. Everyone wants to put their flickr feeds, twitter widgets, mybloglog gadgets and all kinds of neato things. Id rather help my readers focus on my words. Thats what Im hear for to communicate a message, not bring you to a distracting environment. Ill never pretend to be an artistic layout and design genius like David Armano. But at least I can keep most of the clutter and distraction out of your face. On the other side of the technology consideration, think about how to promote your blog. I used to chase after digg votes. I dont anymore I found it to be a waste of time (mostly because I dont have a tech blog). I know the emurse.com blog does well because of Netscape votes. But I dont have many contacts that are Netscape junkies, so I get no traction there. I want to think del.icio.us would do the trick but for some reason most of my readers (and JibberJobber users) dont bookmark JibberJobber or this blog. So using these social methods of getting more eyeballs has not really worked for me. Over the last few months Ive been messing around with MyBlogLog (even though I dont have the widget, I do have a MyBlogLog strategy) and StumbleUpon. I cant say that I have gotten many (any?) readers because of MyBlogLog, but StumbleUpon has had a significant (did I say hugely significant) impact on my traffic. The hardest thing about the technology is figuring out what is noise (or, a fad) and going with the winners. I have no tech advice here because Ive concentrated more on the message and the community than the widgets. I just go really slow with this stuff how about you? Am I wrong? Should I incorporate other widgetry in my blog?   Ill tell you right now, if I put more time into the widgetry Ill have less time for the content.   Ive made my decision, whats yours? There you go I hope youve enjoyed this week of secrets. I have its really made me think more about what Im doing and my tactics and strategy. Huge thank you to all of you who have commented as Ive learned a ton! Day 5 My Blogging Secrets Wow what a week! Heres a wrap-up: Day 1 relationships Day 2 branding Day 3 abundance mentality Day 4 build community My secret for Day 5 is be wary of technology. Yep, you heard it right. Im a programmer, Ive been in IT for over 10 years, Im a wildly successful internet entrepreneur (:)), and many think Im on the bleeding edge of technology. Notice that I dont have a bunch of widgets on my blog? There are hundreds to choose from, and they are very popular. But I feel that my blog is already quite busy. Plus, I dont want my readers to come and have problems with the page downloading. Heres the real reason: Im slow to adopt new stuff! Might sound funny but its true. You may think that blogging is new stuff. I see blogging as self-publishing. Thats it. The sites to create blogs (wordpress, typepad, blogger, etc.) are just tools to use, and make it about as easy as writing an e-mail. I dont think of myself as a great technologist because I blog just someone that is determined to write something good each day. I think this might be one of the more controversial things amongst bloggers. Everyone wants to put their flickr feeds, twitter widgets, mybloglog gadgets and all kinds of neato things. Id rather help my readers focus on my words. Thats what Im hear for to communicate a message, not bring you to a distracting environment. Ill never pretend to be an artistic layout and design genius like David Armano. But at least I can keep most of the clutter and distraction out of your face. On the other side of the technology consideration, think about how to promote your blog. I used to chase after digg votes. I dont anymore I found it to be a waste of time (mostly because I dont have a tech blog). I know the emurse.com blog does well because of Netscape votes. But I dont have many contacts that are Netscape junkies, so I get no traction there. I want to think del.icio.us would do the trick but for some reason most of my readers (and JibberJobber users) dont bookmark JibberJobber or this blog. So using these social methods of getting more eyeballs has not really worked for me. Over the last few months Ive been messing around with MyBlogLog (even though I dont have the widget, I do have a MyBlogLog strategy) and StumbleUpon. I cant say that I have gotten many (any?) readers because of MyBlogLog, but StumbleUpon has had a significant (did I say hugely significant) impact on my traffic. The hardest thing about the technology is figuring out what is noise (or, a fad) and going with the winners. I have no tech advice here because Ive concentrated more on the message and the community than the widgets. I just go really slow with this stuff how about you? Am I wrong? Should I incorporate other widgetry in my blog?   Ill tell you right now, if I put more time into the widgetry Ill have less time for the content.   Ive made my decision, whats yours? There you go I hope youve enjoyed this week of secrets. I have its really made me think more about what Im doing and my tactics and strategy. Huge thank you to all of you who have commented as Ive learned a ton! Day 5 My Blogging Secrets Wow what a week! Heres a wrap-up: Day 1 relationships Day 2 branding Day 3 abundance mentality Day 4 build community My secret for Day 5 is be wary of technology. Yep, you heard it right. Im a programmer, Ive been in IT for over 10 years, Im a wildly successful internet entrepreneur (:)), and many think Im on the bleeding edge of technology. Notice that I dont have a bunch of widgets on my blog? There are hundreds to choose from, and they are very popular. But I feel that my blog is already quite busy. Plus, I dont want my readers to come and have problems with the page downloading. Heres the real reason: Im slow to adopt new stuff! Might sound funny but its true. You may think that blogging is new stuff. I see blogging as self-publishing. Thats it. The sites to create blogs (wordpress, typepad, blogger, etc.) are just tools to use, and make it about as easy as writing an e-mail. I dont think of myself as a great technologist because I blog just someone that is determined to write something good each day. I think this might be one of the more controversial things amongst bloggers. Everyone wants to put their flickr feeds, twitter widgets, mybloglog gadgets and all kinds of neato things. Id rather help my readers focus on my words. Thats what Im hear for to communicate a message, not bring you to a distracting environment. Ill never pretend to be an artistic layout and design genius like David Armano. But at least I can keep most of the clutter and distraction out of your face. On the other side of the technology consideration, think about how to promote your blog. I used to chase after digg votes. I dont anymore I found it to be a waste of time (mostly because I dont have a tech blog). I know the emurse.com blog does well because of Netscape votes. But I dont have many contacts that are Netscape junkies, so I get no traction there. I want to think del.icio.us would do the trick but for some reason most of my readers (and JibberJobber users) dont bookmark JibberJobber or this blog. So using these social methods of getting more eyeballs has not really worked for me. Over the last few months Ive been messing around with MyBlogLog (even though I dont have the widget, I do have a MyBlogLog strategy) and StumbleUpon. I cant say that I have gotten many (any?) readers because of MyBlogLog, but StumbleUpon has had a significant (did I say hugely significant) impact on my traffic. The hardest thing about the technology is figuring out what is noise (or, a fad) and going with the winners. I have no tech advice here because Ive concentrated more on the message and the community than the widgets. I just go really slow with this stuff how about you? Am I wrong? Should I incorporate other widgetry in my blog?   Ill tell you right now, if I put more time into the widgetry Ill have less time for the content.   Ive made my decision, whats yours? There you go I hope youve enjoyed this week of secrets. I have its really made me think more about what Im doing and my tactics and strategy. Huge thank you to all of you who have commented as Ive learned a ton! Day 5 My Blogging Secrets Wow what a week! Heres a wrap-up: Day 1 relationships Day 2 branding Day 3 abundance mentality Day 4 build community My secret for Day 5 is be wary of technology. Yep, you heard it right. Im a programmer, Ive been in IT for over 10 years, Im a wildly successful internet entrepreneur (:)), and many think Im on the bleeding edge of technology. Notice that I dont have a bunch of widgets on my blog? There are hundreds to choose from, and they are very popular. But I feel that my blog is already quite busy. Plus, I dont want my readers to come and have problems with the page downloading. Heres the real reason: Im slow to adopt new stuff! Might sound funny but its true. You may think that blogging is new stuff. I see blogging as self-publishing. Thats it. The sites to create blogs (wordpress, typepad, blogger, etc.) are just tools to use, and make it about as easy as writing an e-mail. I dont think of myself as a great technologist because I blog just someone that is determined to write something good each day. I think this might be one of the more controversial things amongst bloggers. Everyone wants to put their flickr feeds, twitter widgets, mybloglog gadgets and all kinds of neato things. Id rather help my readers focus on my words. Thats what Im hear for to communicate a message, not bring you to a distracting environment. Ill never pretend to be an artistic layout and design genius like David Armano. But at least I can keep most of the clutter and distraction out of your face. On the other side of the technology consideration, think about how to promote your blog. I used to chase after digg votes. I dont anymore I found it to be a waste of time (mostly because I dont have a tech blog). I know the emurse.com blog does well because of Netscape votes. But I dont have many contacts that are Netscape junkies, so I get no traction there. I want to think del.icio.us would do the trick but for some reason most of my readers (and JibberJobber users) dont bookmark JibberJobber or this blog. So using these social methods of getting more eyeballs has not really worked for me. Over the last few months Ive been messing around with MyBlogLog (even though I dont have the widget, I do have a MyBlogLog strategy) and StumbleUpon. I cant say that I have gotten many (any?) readers because of MyBlogLog, but StumbleUpon has had a significant (did I say hugely significant) impact on my traffic. The hardest thing about the technology is figuring out what is noise (or, a fad) and going with the winners. I have no tech advice here because Ive concentrated more on the message and the community than the widgets. I just go really slow with this stuff how about you? Am I wrong? Should I incorporate other widgetry in my blog?   Ill tell you right now, if I put more time into the widgetry Ill have less time for the content.   Ive made my decision, whats yours? There you go I hope youve enjoyed this week of secrets. I have its really made me think more about what Im doing and my tactics and strategy. Huge thank you to all of you who have commented as Ive learned a ton!