Reading a certain person’s blog I can’t help but wonder how they were accepted to the 9 Rules Network. The only conclusion I can come up with is that some of the rules have been rewritten. I will try and explain these new rules to you.
In order to have a wildly popular blog, you must use one of the more well-known blogging software packages such as WordPress or Typepad. Bonus points if you use WordPress.com and pay to have it styled your way. Double bonus points if you use Habari.
The next step to having a wildly popular blog is content. Now, it used to be you had to have great content in order to have a great blog. Not anymore. All you need to do is post a quick blurb of your own thoughts then blockquote some other article and link to it. Usually, the other article is from a more popular site than your own. Send out a trackback or a pingback to the more popular article. If you do this, you get visitors without having to do much thinking of your own.
If your site covers specific topics and your goal is to have people read your blog, then one would assume you have a target audience. Do you know who your target audience is? Target audience at 9 Rules
That leads me to the next one.
Along with linking to posts on other websites you should link to posts on your own blog. While writing a new post is a surefire way to get people to your site, linking to older posts on your site helps ensure that they stick around a bit longer to browse other pages of your site. Not only does this practice allow visitors to find out more about you, but it builds your ego because it looks like people are genuinely interested in what you have to say. After all, you are a genius because you are blogging on the particular topic, and might have blogged about this topic before.
Did I forget to mention ads? ^
Creating what I call Captain Obvious posts is another way to generate more traffic. An example of this kind of post is one that talks about something that is very obvious, such as saying that a WordPress plugin is still doing what it is designed to do. How bout that?!?! This plugin that was written to perform this specific task is still performing this task, even months after it’s release. Amazing! Of course, these posts can cover any topic with any headline such as United States located between Canada and Mexico or Chicago won the football game because they scored more points.
The next rule to make sure you have a popular blog is having a really annoying signature at the bottom of each post. This ensures that the post was, in fact, written by you and not some impostor. This could be anything from typing your name or a tag line, parting words of wisdom or a quote to an actual digital signature. This will make the reader think, “Oh wow, they must be important!” ensuring that this reader will come back time and time again to see how important you are. After all, you must be. You tell us as much as possible.
Now, if you follow these rules, and then constantly hound people to Digg your post, you will be on your way to blog stardom.
Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. – George Carlin
New Rules of Blogging
Reading a certain person’s blog I can’t help but wonder how they were accepted to the 9 Rules Network. The only conclusion I can come up with is that some of the rules have been rewritten. I will try and explain these new rules to you.
In order to have a wildly popular blog, you must use one of the more well-known blogging software packages such as WordPress or Typepad. Bonus points if you use WordPress.com and pay to have it styled your way. Double bonus points if you use Habari.
The next step to having a wildly popular blog is content. Now, it used to be you had to have great content in order to have a great blog. Not anymore. All you need to do is post a quick blurb of your own thoughts then blockquote some other article and link to it. Usually, the other article is from a more popular site than your own. Send out a trackback or a pingback to the more popular article. If you do this, you get visitors without having to do much thinking of your own.
That leads me to the next one.
Along with linking to posts on other websites you should link to posts on your own blog. While writing a new post is a surefire way to get people to your site, linking to older posts on your site helps ensure that they stick around a bit longer to browse other pages of your site. Not only does this practice allow visitors to find out more about you, but it builds your ego because it looks like people are genuinely interested in what you have to say. After all, you are a genius because you are blogging on the particular topic, and might have blogged about this topic before.
Did I forget to mention ads? ^
Creating what I call Captain Obvious posts is another way to generate more traffic. An example of this kind of post is one that talks about something that is very obvious, such as saying that a WordPress plugin is still doing what it is designed to do. How bout that?!?! This plugin that was written to perform this specific task is still performing this task, even months after it’s release. Amazing! Of course, these posts can cover any topic with any headline such as United States located between Canada and Mexico or Chicago won the football game because they scored more points.
The next rule to make sure you have a popular blog is having a really annoying signature at the bottom of each post. This ensures that the post was, in fact, written by you and not some impostor. This could be anything from typing your name or a tag line, parting words of wisdom or a quote to an actual digital signature. This will make the reader think, “Oh wow, they must be important!” ensuring that this reader will come back time and time again to see how important you are. After all, you must be. You tell us as much as possible.
Now, if you follow these rules, and then constantly hound people to Digg your post, you will be on your way to blog stardom.
Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. – George Carlin
WordPress 2.1 Release Candidate 1 Released
Ryan writes that WP 2.1 RC1 has been released with some new changes for users including autosave, draft pages, and others. I’ve upgraded my site to 2.1 so if you see anything broken, let me know. It seems pretty stable to me and I’m looking forward to the targeted release date of 2.1, which is January 22nd. Good job WP developers. I’m liking the new features.
I Feel Like an All Star
Why do I feel like an All Star? Because I’m preparing myself for 2009. What’s up with 2009? Well, that just happens to be the year the great city of St. Louis hosts Major League Baseball’s All Star game! It will be great for St. Louis, Cardinal fans, and sports fans in general. 2007 just got here and already I can’t wait for 2009.
I agree Mr. Selig. read more here
A Fresh Look
If you are reading this via the feed, you might want to hop on over to the site and check out the new theme. I thought it was time for something that was a bit more simple, yet eye-catching. I think this theme works well. It’s very simple, minimal image usage, yet at the same time it’s very elegant and professional looking. I have been modifying it a little, adding the recent comments plugin to the sidebar, as well as a link to the feeds. I’ve also changed the way the theme handled the title of the site and page/post. The other way seemed a bit backwards to me putting the page name/post name before the site name, e.g. About Me-piece of shep instead of piece of shep- About Me. Also, the sidebar is not widgetized yet. I was thinking of widgetizing it but I think that would just spell trouble because I’ll just continue to add more and more stuff to the sidebar and the goal here is for simplicity. I think I may keep this theme for a while.
Technology and Education
I was browsing this HNN.us page and saw my history blog listed (though, my last name is spelled wrong) and found quite a few really interesting blogs that I have since subscribed to. One of my favorites to read is A History Teacher. Two recent posts I thought were excellent. I hope one day I will be able to incorporate the technology that this history teacher uses in my classroom. I think much can be done using the web to further students’ understanding of not just technology, but also social studies. Who says the computer lab is just for English class?
This reminds me of a professor I had in college who would not let us use the internet for resources in writing our term papers. He concluded that the internet was full of false information, which to some extent, it can be, but this teacher shows how it is truly a valuable tool to be embraced, not shunned. I can’t wait to see what kind of activities I can come up with when I get into a classroom. There is so much out there that will help students learn in unique and creative ways.