David Risley dot com

Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Blogging

Driving Behavior, Not Conversation

From my observation, I think there is a very important strategic component of blogging that too many overlook.

I preface this whole post by saying that it depends on your intentions. If you want to ultimately make money with your blog, then pay close attention. If you just want to get high comment counts and some fans, then this post might rub you the wrong way. Or at least give you another way of looking at things.

So, here it is… Click Here To Continue Reading »

Guest Appearance on The Metropolis, with Deborah Shane

This afternoon, I was a guest on The Metropolis, a show on Blog Talk Radio hosted by Deborah Shane.

It was a lot of fun being on the show. We touched on a lot of different aspects of blogging successfully and we also talked about trends. The full show is an hour long, and I thought I would just embed it here so you can have a listen.

I hope you enjoy, and if you want to subscribe to Deborah’s show, you can do that right here. She does the show every week, live on Blog Talk Radio.

The Measurable Benefits Of Guest Posting

This is a guest post by Andy Walton.

Many blogs accept guest posts for one very obvious reason – free, quality content is obviously appealing to their owners. And speaking as an author, it’s healthy for the ego to see your work on a high profile and well respected blog. But what are the quantifiable benefits and how can you measure them?

I will not offer any guidelines on how to write your guest post, as David has already written a full guest post checklist. Instead I’ll focus on how to monitor the results once published.

We’ll investigate the impact of a guest post I wrote on a medium size blog (an Alexa traffic rank of 30,000). The post for this experiment was related to our newly launched website, and aimed at increasing awareness. The results were measured one week after the post was published.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll focus on 3 key areas: Click Here To Continue Reading »

Ten Years In The Military Taught Me [Blogging]

Click Here To Continue Reading »

Can You Post TOO Much?

There is no doubt that posting frequency is a huge contributor to traffic growth for your blog. Most hobby-bloggers tend to have the problem of not posting enough. And it shows in their traffic.

Not posting enough harms your growth because you are not in front of your potential readers often enough. You get forgotten and essentially need to recreate the relationship with each and every post. You are also not providing Google with enough “juice” for good indexing.

It would be easy to assume, then, that the more you post, the better. After all, if not posting much is bad, then posting a lot is good, right? Is it really true?

Yes And No

From a pure traffic standpoint, high post frequency undoubtedly works. In other words, take the human being out of the equation and it works. When you look at large-scale blogs like TechCrunch, Mashable or Gizmodo, it is clear that high post frequency works.

But, these blogs have something very important in common: Multiple Authors.

They also have a second thing in common: they talk about technology.

And here is my point:

• The work load is split up.
• These blogs are in markets with a lot of news, thereby justifying a high post frequency because there is always plenty to talk about.

Not all blogging markets can sustain a post frequency like that. Quite simply, you’ll run out of stuff to say! Either that, or your drive for quantity over quality will make your content less useful and more like filler. Click Here To Continue Reading »

9 Ways To Stand Out In A Crowded Blogging Niche

There are a lot of bloggers out there besides you. Many of them are talking about the same things you are. Yet, they have the same goals.

Have you ever felt like you just weren’t unique enough to really stand out?

How can you stand out from the crowd?

I thought I would just toss out some ideas on this off the top of my head:

1. Be a pattern interrupt. I go into more detail about the pattern interrupt here, but it all comes down to being different than the rest of the people who talk about what you talk about. For example, Jordan from Not A Pro Blog talks about blogging like a lot of people (including me), but he comes in as a comedian. He epitomizes a pattern interrupt for this market. What can you do that’s different?
2. Offer something different. When it comes to people who offer products, what can you offer which stands out from your competitors? For example, if everybody in your market does digital goods, perhaps offering something physical will make you stand out in a good way.
3. Guest Post – A Lot. Guest posting is an AWESOME way to get yourself out of the crowd and onto the radar of others in your market. The key is to produce quality posts and to submit them to blogs with some kind of perceived authority in your market.
4. Have a unique design. Having a high-quality design for your blog which backs up your personal brand is important. That personal brand (when executed correctly) is what makes you stand out in any market, but your blog’s design has to back it up. People need to arrive on your blog and know what you’re about in a few seconds.
5. Say Something Different. Controversy is a pattern interrupt in its own right. So, if the majority say “left”, try saying “right”. If they say “up”, try showing why “down” is better. Routinely present another side of an issue.
6. Be Consistent. Nothing kills your blog’s success more than posting very rarely. You’ve got to be consistent. Since most blogs out there are not consistent, you can stand out right there just by being more consistent.
7. Start that mailing list. If you have no email list, or are running a feed-only list like that offered by Feedburner, you’re really dropping the ball. And here’s the deal… most of the bloggers out there are not collecting email addresses. That’s their mistake, but you don’t have to join them. In fact, by building a list, you have a resource you can leverage in product launches and even just to drive traffic to your own blog. Major way to stand out, because you’re building community outside of just your blog. Oh yeah, and I recommend no other tool for this except Aweber. Period.
8. Add Personality. Some niches are filled with people who are, well, boring as snot. How can you add personality to an otherwise unexciting subject? Can you add humor? Can you change the viewpoint?
9. Network with The “Big Wigs”. Who are the people who are considered the “A-list” for your particular niche? Well, start networking with them. Twitter is an even playground, so you can start there. Don’t hound them or be needy (that’s annoying), but just be a regular networker. Reply to their tweets. Interact. Then, you can take the relationship to email and see where that takes you.

Do you have some other ideas? I’d love for you to share them below.

Do You Have Any Blogging New Years Resolutions?

We have reached 2010. And if you’ve read my free report on ProBlogging in 2010, you know I’m pretty excited about it.

Most of us make some resolutions for the new year. I always do.

Have you made any blogging new years resolutions for 2010? If so, what are they?

What are your plans? Income goals? Traffic goals?

My plans are coming together and I’m hitting the ground running in January. I’m going to be working to vastly increase my brand in the blogging space this year. I’ve got some product launches planned. I’ve got plans to expand my reach beyond this blog (more on that when the time is right). I may be working with some others on some joint projects. I’ll likely be doing more guest posting and more webinars for my subscribers.

Now, your turn. Post your comment below.

Beyond Blogging – A Review

Last night (at midnight) my friends Nathan Hangen and Mike CJ launched their new book, Beyond Blogging.

Now, I’ve seen several ebooks that are full of interviews. In fact, most of the time, the author didn’t do much of the actual writing – they just copy/pasted what the interviewee said and called it a book.

Beyond Blogging is not that kind of book. The book does have tons of input from a lot of big names in blogging:

• Chris Brogan
• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Chris Guillebeau
• David Risley (yeah, funnily enough)
• Penelope Trunk
• Chris Garrett
• Darren Rowse
• Pete Cashmore (from Mashable)
• Jonathan Fields
• Shama Kabani
• Michael Dunlop (from IncomeDiary.com)
• Steve Pavlina
• iJustine
• Brian Clark (of Copyblogger fame)
• John Chow

But, Nathan and Mike went over and above. They took the interviews and digested each of them into actionable advice. This is no copy/paste job – this book is the real deal. Each interview has a biography as well as the author’s analysis of what makes these personalities successful as bloggers.

After all the profiles and analysis, the last section of this book brings it all together into the common elements of all of them. What made these bloggers successful? What did they do right? What did they do at the beginning?

When I began really taking my blogging seriously, I read and studied others who were successful at it. It only makes sense, right? Beyond Blogging brings many years of combined blogging experience and success into one content-packed read which is sure to give any blogger several “aha moments”. In fact, the only way you won’t learn something from this book is not to read it.

On a personal basis, it is an honor to have my name on the list with these other fine bloggers. I’m glad I could help. But, more importantly, this is a fine book.

I recommend it to you wholeheartedly.

Nathan and Mike… fine work, my friends.

2 Bloggers Doing It Right

As we head into the Christmas holiday, I thought I would end off the week by featuring two more bloggers who are doing it right.

Corvida Raven

Corvida is young tech blogger who discusses social media and all things tech. She really is the consummate blogger and networker.

I believe she first crossed my radar back when I was a more frequent participator at FriendFeed. She was consistently networking with some of the other leading tech bloggers. She also used to be a writer for ReadWriteWeb, another blog I read.

Today, she writes on her own blog, SheGeeks. She also co-founded EverythingTwitter and she is also on the SocialGeeks RoundTable Podcast.

As for what she’s doing right, her content is obviously stellar. But, I would best sum her up as an awesome networker. One time, for instance, I made a comment on Twitter about Facebook Connect. It spiked her curiosity, so she DMed me and asked if she could talk to me on the phone about it. Because I knew of her, I said OK and in less than 5 minutes she and I were talking on the phone. Absolutely no back off. There are so many people who would be shy about reaching out like that.

Corvida is connected with the players in tech blogging because she realizes the power of personal networking.

You can check out SheGeeks.net and follow @corvida on Twitter.

Jordan Cooper

Jordan just recently came onto my radar. In fact, I think he is literally brand new to blogging. So, I’m sure I’m about to surprise the hell out of him by featuring him here. His blog absolutely cracks me up, though. It is called Not A Pro Blog. It is an irreverent look at blogging, social media & marketing.

Jordan is a stand-up comedian, with 15 years of experience in the field of entertainment. He isn’t new to the tactics of marketing, however. His first blog post was on December 2nd. His numbers aren’t high. But I can tell the guy gets it.

Jordan is bringing his comedy background to the world of blogging. This is something new this market hasn’t really seen, and I really think he could kick ass in all the right ways. I consider myself a new fan, Jordan.

As a sampler, here is his video opt-in teaser for joining his email list. Hilarious!

Check out Not A Pro Blog, and you can follow @notaproblog on Twitter.

4 Bloggers Doing It Right

There are a lot of great bloggers out there and I think it is only fitting to point them out.

These first four are each people I’ve met. They are good at what they do, and each provides examples of right things to do as a blogger.

Erica Douglass

Erica blogs about success. She talks about blogging, business and self-improvement. I really appreciate her style. She provides a lot of value on her blog, but she also brings her personality to the table.

The number of things she does right is, well, high. She uses images to highlight her posts (something I really need to be doing more myself). She makes effective use of her email list to drive traffic back to the blog. She understands the power of relationship marketing. And, she creates products to sell.

She’s also a helluva nice person. She and I met in San Diego in April, where we and a small group shared some extremely overpriced sushi.

If you want to see how it’s done, check out Erica.Biz and you can follow @ericabiz on Twitter.

Nathan Hangen

Nathan came onto my radar earlier this year when he began to comment on this blog and did a guest post. We started interacting on Twitter, then in October we met up at BlogWorld. It seems that, since then, I’ve been seeing his name all over the place! In just the last few weeks, I’ve seen him guest posting on the likes of CopyBlogger and Problogger.

Nathan focuses on lifestyle design, with a focus on how to use the Internet to design that lifestyle. I enjoy reading his unique take on things.

What is Nathan doing right? He is producing great content. He clearly realizes the power of networking and connections. He is actively working on creating products, and the guest posting he is doing is putting him on lots of radars across the Internet.

You can catch Nathan Hangen’s blog, or follow @nhangen on Twitter.

Mike Crimmins

Mike lives here in the Tampa area, so I first met him at one of my internet business mastermind meetups that I host here in Tampa. Once we met and he told me about his blog, it immediately stood out to me.

It is about coffee. I repeat, COFFEE. It is one of those topics that would just never have occurred to me to dedicate a blog to. Not only does he make it work, though… he REALLY makes it work.

I like Mike’s writing style, too. The little injections of coffee humor are fun, almost as if he knows it is funny to have a blog about coffee.

But, it does great traffic and I know he’s making money with his blog. So, he’s doing it right.

Mike is active on Twitter. His content is well written. His blog is branded very well for his topic. His list opt-in box is well located. His blog is obviously a niche blog, but I think he hits the nail on the head with his approach.

You can check out Daily Shot Of Coffee, and follow @shotofcoffee on Twitter.

Lisa Morosky

Lisa is my virtual assistant and that’s how I met her. I put out a call for a VA on Twitter and she replied (along with many others). But, Lisa stood out because she exhibited a true interest in blogging. In other words, she wasn’t just going to be executing orders I gave her… she CARES and shows it by doing it on her own.

Lisa has really exploded since I first met her. She is still a VA for Bloggers, but she is busily practicing what she knows on her own business. She is even setting up a new membership site over on SpendLessOnLife.com (not to launch until January).

Lisa is doing a lot of things right. She is posting good content. She is running a great newsletter for her mailing list (I’m on her list and I enjoy it). She is out there in the social media space, making connections constantly. And she’s straight-up witty. I think its awesome.

You can check out Lisa Morosky’s blog, and follow @lisamorosky on Twitter.

Nominations?

Do you have somebody you’d like to point out as a blogger who is doing things right?

Submit your nominations in comments.