Knowing when to take a rest was a really hard lesson for me to learn.

Knowing when and how often to post is also a hard lesson.

The good and bad of blogging is that the more you do it the more and better results you get for your efforts. Read = you get more traffic.

Of course, that means you can fall into the temptation of more, more, more!

I did.

The Blogger's Sabbath Day

At one point I was writing 15-20 articles a day, every day. Every every day. Day after day after day. Month after month after month. While also teaching a double full-time load online and teaching in the physical classroom as well.

And I noticed, that the more I wrote, the more and better results I got. So, I wrote more and more. Addictive to say the least. Compelling. Not to mention physically exhausting. But still I did it.

When I was desperate for a day off – to attend a swim meet, or a concert by my sons, I wrote double the day before or after but still got online to do the social bookmarking thing as necessary. It was hard.

Then one day while attending worship services (I am a Christian so you will ALWAYS find me in a worship service on Sundays – then working before or after), the preacher said something in his sermon that hit me hard.

“You know. You can do more work in 6 days than you can in 7. Give God his due.”

Ouch! But from the very next week, I resolved to take 24 consecutive hours off at least one day each week. And I did. And, and … things got even better!

Sure as shooting, spending less time, I could get more done. What do you know?

So, here’s my question – When is your day off from blogging? And how do you spend that time?

Want to make money online? Start by reading this series – How to Blog for Money and Traffic.

My daughter, Mia Mei, has her own blog. She writes there somewhat regularly. What can I say? They don’t make 4-year olds like they used to.

Yesterday she wrote a post “How to get to car engine, um, Carnegie Hall.”

It got me to thinking about what I have learned from Carnegie that has helped me to be a better blogger.

Andrew Carnegie and the Blogger

Carnegie made a killing in oil and steel after coming to the US at the age of 13 and getting a job as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory for $1.25 week. I used to work for $1.25 an hour, but never that cheaply for a week. But, then at the time, I could buy gasoline for .25/gallon. Let me see…I worked for 5 gallons of gas (more…)

Should I podcast? Should I video cast? Or should I blog? You know. Write. Hit publish. Rinse and repeat.

Blogging beats podcast beats video

Podcasts are cool. Unless you sound like me - tweezers on the nose, all nasally.

Videocasts are cooler unless you look like me. I mean, most people if they had a dog with a face like mine they’d shave the dog’s butt and make him walk backwards.

Blogging – the coolest. Just write. And hit publish. Images and links, too, of course.

But what is really cool about blogging is that it is searchable. Findable. Search engines can’t search video and podcast content. These mediums work best… ONLY work?… when they are embedded into a blog post and surrounded by searchable text.

Bottom line…. blogging wins IF you want to be searched out and found. Podcasts and Videocasts are what you serve up AFTER the reader gets there.

In short, nothing is better than the written word when it comes to wanting good search engine optimization.

• • This is an exchange with one of the members of TheTrafficProfessor that I thought worth sharing (with minor editing). It will definitely save you time (if you are doing your own writing) and money (if you’re outsourcing content).

    It answers one of the most basic and important questions a blogger will ask.

    What is the optimal length for a blog post?

    ————-

    

    December 22, 2011

    Sue Anderson LaPointe

    • Hi Bill
      Hope you’re doing great, and getting ready for a wonderful Christmas.

    Got into a bit of a blogging conversation/debate and was telling another writer about how much I’d changed my blogging process since your course. He’s got a mentor ….., who’s swearing by 2000 word posts, which seems nuts to me.

    I told him about your idea of frequency, and he replied: “If Bill Belew built his sites in 2005+ era, that strategy would have worked. And now that his sites are *already* authority sites from before, it doesn’t matter what he posts because it’s already an authority site. But he’s mistakenly projecting past Google conditions onto today. A new site won’t rank with that same strategy that way have worked even just 5 years ago. So the question is, did Bill Belew start these sites back then or did he start them very recently?”

    I think your sites are more recent, but didn’t want to answer incorrectly. Also, figured that might be a great question to answer on your blog! and in the marketing.

    Hugs and all warm wishes -
    Sue

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Bill Belew

  • I started back in 2006. Still…2000-word posts are great but they are not for Search Engines. Ask yourself how many times you have searched for something and found it in the 400th or 1000th or 2000th word section of an article. Doesn’t happen. SEO = a balance between what appeals to a real person and what appeals to a search engine. 2000 word articles don’t have much appeal to readers either. Invariably when you do a search, find the link you want and click on it, the very next think you do is scroll down to find out how long the article is…if it is too long, you go away, right? This is called Bounce. And the higher the bounce rate, the worse the SE findability. The ideal length for a blog post is something that will fit above one click of the scroll. Make sense?

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Mike Maunu

  • In addition, not all the blogs were started then and many of Bill’s students only started in the last 18 months and they are getting the same results based on the lower word count.

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Sue Anderson LaPointe

  • THAT is fantastic news, then… because I’m getting totally hooked on these little 200 worders  Totally makes sense for readability – If I want to read 2000 words on something, would rather read 10 posts on it than one post. I’m in the process of creating blogging packages for my writing clients based on this and was SO hoping/then glad to find 200 words will get it done!
    Thank you guys for getting back to me so fast.
    HUGS!
    Sue

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Bill Belew

  • 200-300 words will suffice. Each blog posts generally answers one question. It never takes 2000 words to answer a question unless you are a preacher…. 

• 

  December 22, 2011

  Sue Anderson LaPointe

  • Lol. True that!!!!! I’m loving how much easier it is to blog like this. It’s actually getting done rather than languishing months between posts!!!

    ———

I knew a preacher once who’s favorite line was “If you aren’t you, who’s going to be you?” I am not sure what that had to do with anything in the Bible, but that is a different story.

I am in the process of reading Ronald Reagan’s memoir. Yeah, I know. He has been gone for a while.

One of Reagan’s best friends on the world stage was Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher has a famous quip that I think helps define voice for a blogger.

I am a Christian and totally unashamed of the fact. I do not welcome controversy but sometimes it finds me. And, I will not shy away when it comes to defending my faith. That’s not the point of this post, however.

I wrote an article – The ABCs of Evolution.

Wilby reciting the ABCs of Evolution

And, oh my goodness, the atheists came out of the woodwork. Traffic for the post zoomed and with that income as well.

The atheists (they hate me. This puzzles me because I do NOT hate them. I just think they are wrong about a few things.)

Many people commented at the above post – I reckon they were atheists because of the content of the comments. They then posted a link in “we hate fundies” and “Christians are do dos” and other such sites. So much so that those people came to yell at me, too! They even blamed my (more…)

One wonders what it takes to be a successful travel blogger.

Some wonder what it takes to be a successful blogger in any niche.

Travel blogger Wilby discovers traveling light

Problogger Wilby knows the answer…what it takes to be a good travel blogger, what it takes to be a successful (choose your niche) blogger.

1. Experience counts. Lots of bloggers what to claim authority in their chosen niche when in truth they just read and regurgitate stuff from elsewhere on the net. A real travel blogger has experience. NomadicMatt is a good example of an experienced travel blogger. He has a good following but could use some SEO help.

2. Sitting in a chair counts. It’s one thing to have the know how and (more…)

One of the key characteristics of a problogger is, well, and this may be a ‘duh’ factor, but I say it because you’d be surprised at who writes about what under auspices of being the expert.

Problogger Wilby and Super Mario Bros

Example: I have seen some really big people giving diet advice.

Here’s an image of Wilby getting into character.

No contest, Mario Bros was one of the pioneers in video gaming.

I confess, I have NOT played a video game, and I will date myself here, (more…)

What a difference a preposition or lack of one will make.

Problogger Wilby passing the Big Apple, um, passing through.

Earlier this year, Problogger Wilby was invited to the Big Apple to do blog training.

I followed up that visit with a couple of posts including this one -

Blogging about the Big Apple

There are probloggers that cover all sorts of niches.  I do believe someone could make a living blogging about New York City. Gosh, they could make a living blogging about not a few niches within that amazing city.

But to do that, a problogger would indeed have to get into the city deeply…much like Wilby is doing in this image.

Wilby didn’t pass the Big Apple. He passed through it.

Oh, the image was created by an amazing illustrator  - Benjamin Belew.