You’ll notice this theme is more ad-heavy than the last one. I’ve debated this with myself for over a year, talked to numerous other bloggers and read what yet more bloggers have to say on the matter. What I’ve decided is that since I am easing out of online consulting side and back into real life (hopefully soon and hopefully in the USA), I shouldn’t feel bad about try to make a living from my primary website. My plan to make up for this is go back to writing here more frequently like I’ve done in the past, as well to hopefully add screencasts and soon start giving away free ebooks. In other words, to offer quality information in hopes that you, the reader, won’t mind the ads too much.

Topicwise, I’ve decided to broaden back to what I’ve had in the past, not just focus on visual media. So for the meantime, I’ll be covering blogging/ writing, freelancing, productivity, mind mapping, web tech, learning + knowledge, visual media, social media, link building, and other relevant topics. Because I’m a hardcore “generalist,” my intent is to cover several aspects about building a presence online and promoting yourself, as well as the means and methods of producing text and visual content and getting your work done.

Currently I’m writing weekly at FreelanceSwitch and FreelanceFolder, and daily at Performancing, as well as building up a new film site (more on that later). The list below is reverse chronological and covers back to late January (after I’d stopped posting to this site).

1. FreelanceSwitch – How to Save: A Short Guide for Freelancers. This article covers why it’s so important for freelancers to save, and the types of saving to consider.
2. FreelanceFolder – Jump-Starting Freelancing Productivity: Working Smarter. Do you find yourself working long hours at home? Maybe you’re spending too much time on each project. Why not try working smarter by spending less time on something, and taking breaks or working on something else in between.
3. Performancing – How to Podcast Using SplashCast or YouTube. Add some still images to your audio podcast.
4. Performancing – A Beginner’s Podcasting Guide.
5. Performancing – Why I Love WordPress.
6. Performancing – 9 Podcasting Tips.
7. Performancing – Niche Monitoring: A Simple River of News Using Embedded Timelines.
8. Performancing – Better Web Information Presentation: 10 Timeline Tools.
9. Performancing – WordPress Hacks: Moving a Static HTML Site to WordPress.
10. Performancing – Why I Hate WordPress 2.5.
11. Performancing – WordPress Hacks: Using Custom Fields to Auto-Embed YouTube Videos.
12. Performancing – What’s Wrong With the Blogosphere?
13. Performancing – Can Other Bloggers Get Book Deals?
14. Performancing – Research Tools: From River of News to Techmeme Clone – Part 3.
15. Performancing – Jazz Up Your Site: 28 Ways to Use WordPress Custom Fields.
16. Performancing – WordPress Hacks: Techmeme River of News Clone – Part 2.
17. Performancing – WordPress Hacks: Build a Techmeme River of News Clone – Part 1.
18. Performancing – WordPress Hacks: Upgrading Versions.
19. Performancing – WordPress Hacks: Build a Photo or Movie Poster Gallery.
20. Performancing – Problogging Tips: The Value and Structure of Comprehensive Content.
21. Performancing – WordPress Hacks: Build a Web Directory.
22. Performancing – Practical Blogging Tips: Finding Information For Resource Articles.
23. Performancing – WordPress Hacks: Adding TinyMCE Editor to the Prologue Theme. —- buggy
24. Performancing – 11 Skills That a Freelance Blogger Should Have.
25. Performancing – Practical Blogging Tips: Build Comprehensive Content.
26. Performancing – Problogging Tips: Get Smart, Leverage Your Research.
27. Performancing – Problogging Tips: Follow a Budget.
28. Performancing – Should You Blog For Yourself or Freelance?
29. Performancing – 48 Unique Ways to Use WordPress.
30. Performancing – A Short Guide to Writing 4+ Large Resource Articles Each Month.
31. Performancing – Monitoring Multiple Niches With a Personal Dashboard: Joining a Niche Conversation, Pt 7.
32. Performancing – Advanced Feed Mashup: Yahoo Pipes By Example, Pt 2.
33. Performancing – Monitoring Multiple Niches With a Personal Dashboard: Joining a Niche Conversation, Pt 6.
34. Performancing – 8 Tips For Building Multiple Niches: Joining a Niche Conversation, Pt 5.
35. Performancing – Yahoo Pipes By Example, Part 1: Mashing Up Multiple Feeds.
36. Performancing – Yahoo Pipes By Example: Basic Functionality.
37. Performancing – 5 More Tips on Increasing Blogging Productivity.
38. Performancing – Why Should Bloggers Use Yahoo Pipes?
39. Performancing – Joining a Niche Conversation, Part 4: Making Your Blog Stand Out.
40. Performancing – Joining a Niche Conversation, Part 3: Don’t Be Afraid to Edit Archived Blog Posts.
41. Performancing – New Opportunity For Tech-Savvy Bloggers: Remote Digital Coaching.
42. Performancing – Joining a Niche Conversation, Part 2: Idea Generating for Bloggers.
43. Performancing – Joining a Niche Conversation, Part 1: Determining the Top Blogs in Your Niche.

Why read them? Well, there are several reasons, inferred by the topics mentioned above. However, they are also examples of “mini” and “medium” sized linkbait articles. Linkbait is one element of link building, as is deep linking. In hindsight, the titles are not necessarily the best, and some are more consistent than others, but if you want a short course on link building and how to write linkbait, study these articles. I apply many of the same techniques as for bigger linkbait articles that have produced as many as 80,000 pageviews in less than a week (thanks to social media promotion).

1. 11 Pros and Cons of Promoting Your Business Online. Doesn’t matter if your business is offline or online. You can promote it online. Here’s the good and bad of online promo.

2. 5 Simple Steps to Building a Company, Identity and Brand. A brief look at building your business brand.
3. 5 Things Not to Do on Your Business Blog. The title says it all.
4. 7 Stages of Setting Up a Business Weblog. A business weblog goes through several stages, from idea to maintenance mode.
5. Improve Your Site’s Look With 15 Easy Tips. Here are some relatively easy tweaks to improve the look of your website or blog.
6. Better Websites: 10 Article Research Sources. Stuck for what to write about? Here are ten idea sources I use regularly.
7. Reasons to Build a Business Online. If you’re thinking about running an online business, here are reasons why you might want to.
8. Worthwhile Free Applications For Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs. Bootstrappers fundamental skill is leveraging minimal startup capital into successful revenue. Here are twelve software applications to help you along your way.
9. Essential Skills For Entrepreneurs. Whether you’re bootstrapping or not, you need certain skills for entrepreneurial success. Here are six of them.
10. Seven Characteristics of Highly Successful Entrepreneurs. In addition to having certain skills, successful entrepreneurs also bear specific characteristics. Here are seven.
11. Being an Expert Online Entrepreneur. Some people say that to be an expert at something, it takes 10,000 hours of involvement and learning. But in the online world, that’s a lifetime. How do you establish yourself as an expert in an online endeavor?
12. 5 Ways To Increase Your Wealth. You’ll know most of these ways to increase wealth, but there may be someone out there who doesn’t. Or maybe you just need a refresher.
13. 5 Reasons To Get Out Of Debt Fast. Besides the obvious, here reasons to get out of debt.
14. Nomadic Entrepreneurs? Even today’s online entrepreneurs travel, whether for pleasure or business. Some people are even alternating work with extended vacations: work a few months, travel a few months, rinse and repeat. Despite the benefits and freedom of such a lifestyle, here are a few things to be aware of.
15. Case Study: Bootstrapping an Online Information Business. There are many legitimate online professions. One such is an information business, which can be bootstrapped from little or no capital using free or inexpensive software.
16. 21 Ways to Promote Your Startup Business. Need to promote your new business? Here are 21 new media and old media ways that you can do so with little or no capital.
17. Benefits and Hazards of Working from Home. Working from home, whether for a salaried job, for freelancing or for a business startup has pros and cons.
18. New Media Ways To Raise Capital. Need cash for a startup? The Internet has become a “great leveller”, providing some enjoyable ways to earn money part- or full-time. Here are seven ways to raise cash for your grand idea.
19. How Entrepreneurs Brainstorm. A brief review of seven options for brainstorming.
20. Should Your Business Website Have a Blog? Not all businesses with a website also need a weblog. Here are some issues to consider.
21. Moving a Business Online. So you have a bricks and mortar business and you feel you might replace or supplement it with an online ecommerce site. Here are a few suggestions to ease the transition.
22. 7 Motivations to Start Your Own Business. You’re thinking of starting your own business but you’re not sure if it’s the right thing to do. Here are seven things that motivate others to start a business.
23. 20 Ways to Finance Your Business Startup. Of course, just deciding to start a business isn’t enough. You have to finance the operation, even if you have to bootstrap. Here are a number of ways to come up with financing, some of which you may not have considered.
24. Optimize Your Work-at-Home Time With 22 Simple Schedule Tweaks. If you’re working from home, there might be a lot of distractions. Here are some productivity tips, a few of which are unusual.

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The rule is simple: the more concepts you introduce in a blog post, the more it behooves you to add some visual structure. I have had a lot of experience in the print medium, including newspapers, magazines, and a book, and spent many years researching the elements of typesetting. Many of the ideas are not being carried over to the online world but really should be. Research and personal experience both seem to show that we have less patience for longer articles online than in print. To that end, here are some suggestions for making your blogging more readable.

1. Use bullets.
   Titles offering “X Reasons” or “X Ways”, etc., should have a numbered bullet list. it’s courtesy and helps readers find each item. It also says you care enough about your readers to actually follow through. Even if you simply forgot or were distracted, etc., readers will likely think you’re just too lazy to bother.

2. Deliver on your promises.
   If your article is called “5 Ways To Do Something Or Other”, you had better provide those ways, and clearly. Some bloggers only talk about the “ways” but don’t clearly list any of them. Imagine how few readers will come back again after you do that. You are not delivering what your title promised. Sometimes, all this requires is bolding the appropriate text for each item, even if you do not use a bullet list.

3. Write articles, not just blog posts.
   Just offering blog post summaries of something someone else wrote will not get you regular readers. Web Usability and Design expert Jakob Nielsen of Nielsen Norman Group suggests business websites at the least write indepth articles, not blog posts. While I disagree with him that blog posts have no value, whether summaries or short articles, I do agree that you need original and indepth articles as well, especially if you are running a blog promoting your business.

4. Use headings for articles/ longer posts.
   In HTML, there are hx heading tags from h1 and up to, I believe, h9. Try using h2, h3 or h4 headings to partition longer articles. What you use will depend on your blog theme’s CSS code. For example, on this site, I’ve tweaked my CSS code to display a full-width underline under each h3 heading. It gives an article a bit of visual breathing room, making content less dense-looking. Readers appreciate this, whether consciously or not. On other sites I write for, where I cannot access the templates, I may use h2 instead of h3 because of the way CSS is defined. If you don’t feel like tweaking CSS code, try each of h2-h4 and determine which one is most visually appealing. If that doesn’t work, try bolding your headings. [I'll try to post a brief screencast in the near future on how to tweak your CSS to customize headings.]

5. Make your writing accessible.
   Accessible blog writing entails not just spelling and grammar, but visual factors as well.
   • Is there enough “white space” in your articles? Tweak your CSS to provide enough vertical “leading” space between lines of text and paragraph blocks. If you’ve never written for print, this may be a new concept to you. It’s probably also the reason why so many younger bloggers think it’s okay to use “fluid” blog themes. It’s really not. Not if you want to offer longer articles. The human eye can only easily take in about 4-5 inches of text in width. Beyond that, and you start forcing head movement, causing neck stress and eye fatigue. Typesetters for print are trained in such things. In the blogosphere, your blog platform and theme together are your typesetter, and unfortunately, they sometimes fall short.

   • Do you use bullet lists instead of big blocks (where appropriate)? You can substitute standard circular bullets with a simple custom icon, if you prefer.
   • What about adding visual content such as images, diagrams, charts, and videos? Don’t discount the value of eye candy. We humans are very visual creatures, and adding a suitable though not necessarily complicated diagram, often helps drive home the point. Memory experts say that concepts are remembered more efficiently by either associating music and visual elements simultaneously. Imagine reading a very long article in print with no visual components. Do you think you’d remember everything? Maybe, maybe not.
   • Vary sentence and paragraph length. This offers both visual variety and allows readers to absorb concepts more efficiently.
   • Make sure your screen font isn’t too small, and that the font color contrasts well against the background. There are older eyes out there and while you may want to stick to Curt Cobain’s comment about not trusting anyone over thirty, you’ll be there someday, if you’re not already.
   • Write like you speak. It’s okay to introduce uncommon words, but if you start sounding academic in every sentence, probably only academic types will read you, if that.
6. Link out.
   I am firmly of the blogging school of thought that linking out to other sites is ultimately a good thing. My feeling is that it says you trust your visitors enough to decide whether or not to come back to you for more great information and become regular readers. In a nutshell, it offers them either a different opinion or supplementary information. If they had to find those references on their own, they may not have bothered because there may be thousands or millions of false results to wade through in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). You’ve helped them by filtering information. (This is why I disagree with Jakob Nielsen that short blog posts can’t have value. You can offer much value this way.) What’s more, if you are linking to relevant pages on “quality neighborhoods” (i.e., high authority websites/ weblogs), some search engines will reward your page with a higher authority at some point in time.

7. Link in.
   Deep-linking should be a crucial part of your blogging strategy. If you are not linking back to at least two relevant posts in your own archives, in each new post you write, you need to change that ASAP. You provide an opportunity for newer visitors to find further relevant content, and search engines reward your site for doing this. (I’m simplifying; there are other factors such as using suitable anchor text, which I’ll get into in a later post.)

By “following through” and adding a bit of structure to your blog posts, you’ll find that you do not need to write indepth articles all the time. You make the most of your content, offering readers an easy way to absorb the concepts you put forth. Not doing so exhibits laziness, no matter what your “real” reason may be, and turns off readers whether they realize it consciously or not.

Thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Do you have any other suggestions?