The Last Post : Sundown at CommonSense

Sunset - Photo: AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker

CommonSense With Markk -- my very first blog launched in early 2006 -- has gone past its sell-by date. The time has come to send it to pasture. This is it, folks! Finito.

I hate to do it but I'm not going to feel nostalgic or sentimental about it after almost two and a half years of blogging on this site which, at one time, was going places. But since the Google PageRank slapfest late last year, things have not been the same like the "good old days."

I felt great with CommonSense when the going was good. It rose to PR3 in about four months after its launch and at one stage it attained PR5 before Goog started the slapfest. As is commonly known, writing paid posts has its downside - and that had incurred the wrath of Big G.

I'm taking this action now because the Google jive has started again and I'm not expecting Big G to show a benign smile on this blog. I've seen the little green thingy fluctuating in the last couple of days. Don't know when it will settle down but now I'm packing up here, don't care much for PageRank now where this blog is concerned.

Although I tried to plod on I found the task too tiresome and it was like a millstone hung around my neck. I soon realized that you can't be running two personal blogs -- the other being The Next Post -- at the same time. As it is, it's already tough for some bloggers to churn out post after post and making sure the stuff you write are not crap or fluff.

There's a lot of disadvantages in having a name like CommonSense With Markk. It's too personal and there's not much you can do to broaden its scope. I don't know what you all think but that's what I have learned through three years of running a couple of websites and a number of other blogs. I supposed if you treat blogging as just a hobby then it's fine to stay with it and continue posting at your own pleasure.

If I had wanted CommonSense to continue, I could, but reality check tells me I have to devote more attention to those other sites of mine. They are going to take up a lot of my time in the days ahead.

From here on, you can read future postings of mine at TheNextPost.

I have taken CommonSense With Markk off of the MyBlogLog site. I would like to thank all those kind bloggers whom I had crossed paths in our blogging journey for visiting this blog, especially those who had entered into some kind of communication with me and came back often to leave appreciated comments in my posts. If you happened to read this and has a blogroll link or any other in-post links to this site, please take the necessary action to avoid broken links.

Also, I have terminated my web hosting account for CommonSenseWithMarkk.com and have switched my URL back to Blogspot where this site will be left to dry under the blogging sun! I'll be doing some "house-cleaning" for a while (don't know how long it will take) and then if the weather is right, I just might press the self-destruct button for this site. Kaboom! Meanwhile, enjoy.

Adieu.

Of Zen And Blogging

I'm not one for pretentious mission statement like this..."I blog, therefore, I am". When I see this I cringe. When you travel far and wide in the blogosphere, you're bound to come across all sorts of idiosyncrasies coming from bloggers. Tricks and treats are everywhere.

Let's face it, there's always the good, the bad and the ugly side of blogging, being the "free-wheeling" kind of space that the blogosphere is today. But let's look at the brighter side of blogging where the dissemination of information is freely given.

Bloggers who don't hold back in sharing their knowledge are the ones that really make the whole blogging experience something to be appreciated and worth the time spent doing it.

It's a positive attribute -- and spreading the goodwill can only be good and beneficial to the blogging community.

The best part of blogging, especially for those seeking to enhance their blogging experience, is to be able to build a community and network with people who have similar interests.

If you have achieved the status of celebrity bloggers you can establish your credibility as an expert or thought-leader in your field. What else can they be but to be leaders of the pack.

When these bloggers write a post, the flood of comments that pour in says a lot about their popularity and status. They get tons of RSS and email subscribers. They are usually on top of major blogging issues.
Some of the qualities you find in these bloggers are that they know how to use personality, opinions, expressions as a way of drawing readers to read their content.

In blogging you got to know the art of writing for blog readers. These so-called thought leaders do have some tricks up their sleeves, and they know how to use them and keep us coming back for more.

Recently, Maki of Dosh Dosh wrote one of the most profound articles on blogging -- "The Secret to Building a Popular Blog" -- which is so comprehensive in its presentation it caught the attention of many bloggers. The lengthy article -- a brilliant piece of work, if I may say so -- created a huge buzz.

What Maki's detailed article boils down to is that you can overcome the barriers by spreading your wings to build a popular blog. It's all about following the right process, using strong tools, and applying smart networking to reach your objective.
The kind of blogger you are...
Author and blogger Seth Godin may prefer to switch off "comment" on his blog. Kumiko's blog at CashQuests did the same for a spell but decided to switch "comment" back on again. They have their reasons for doing what they did.

For Godin, he took a lot of flak for his surprising view that he no longer wanted to see comments on his blog. One irate blogger put it down as "a movement among the self-impressed in the blogosphere to toss up walls around themselves to avoid having to interact with the unwashed masses."

Some bloggers are so choosy about commentators that they put up "comment roadblocks" so that they can filter those people who come over to their blogs by requiring them to register first. No matter what excuses these bloggers give, they are just a big turn-off for most visitors who will most likely not come back again.

The very fact that we blog is to build bridges with other bloggers. If you're a blogger and keeps a "closed door policy" a better place to be would be a mountain cave. As they say, blogs without links are not blogs, they are the creations of arrogance and vanity.

Then there are other bloggers who behave like snobs. You can try to be friendly with them by leaving comments on their site but they never reciprocate in kind. For whatever reasons, you might think they feel you're not good enough to mix with them. Or basically, they prefer to stay within their own clique or kind.

Linkbaiting is another form of blogging trickery that some bloggers venture into to attract traffic. It can be effective but usually it is looked upon as something associated with "underhand tactics".

Can We Be Zen-wise In Our Blogging?
Bodhidharma. Woodcut print by Yoshitoshi, 1887

From a holistic point of view, would it be right to link that meditative word "Zen" with "blogging"? Copyblogger took that holistic approach when he wrote about "Zen And The Art Of Remarkable Blogging".

Brian Clark succinctly expounded in that post that "blogging and Zen are closely aligned".

Of course, he was not trying to teach you Zen Buddhism as pointed out by him. He was writing that post to "provide some insight into effective blogging, or, at a minimum, gets you to think differently about your current notions regarding content and the attention you seek with it."

He went on to discuss "The Four Noble Truths Of Blogging" -- (1) Get over your "self"; (2) Free your mind; (3) Detach from results; and (4) It's up to you.

Zen comes from the Sanskrit word Dhyana. It means a meditative state in the Buddhist tradition. Zen practice is a state of mind. It is about self-development, about experiental practice which helps us to see life directly and to act with wisdom and compassion.

Zen encourages practitioners to learn from teachers and other students to better understand how to attain truth through direct experience. The blogging community offers a similar environment," writes Brian Clark.
Would you follow the Zen path to successful blogging? Is there such a path in the first place?

How NOT To Be A Blogging Snob

Here's my two-penny thought. I'd like to get it off my chest. Sometimes you might wonder what makes bloggers do what they do? You know, like blowing your own horn, paying lip service to big-time bloggers, sucking up to some famous names, professing organic chemistry in blogging (whatever that is), pumping up the numbers, confining themselves into cliques, and yada, yada.

We have a phrase in journalism for someone who seems to think that he or she is way above all the others in terms of skills and ability and so on. Such a person is dubbed as God's gift to journalism. So can we dub some bloggers as God's gifts to blogging?

These are very interesting observations but I guess without these show-stoppers, the blogosphere would be so much duller.

A few hours back I had received my latest email newsletter from Yaro Starak and he was lamenting the fact that there are also "cowboys" who blog wild with rage and have no compunction in shooting anyone down "with highly charged emotional accusations."

Well, Yaro had been on the receiving end of such negative comments in his blogging career, but he has learned how to deal with these cowboys. If your blog comes under attack he suggests you respond in a cool manner "without anger, with no negative emotion..." This will show your maturity and demonstrate your credibility.

Now, we all know the blogging experience for most of us is to practise "openness" and try to accomodate friends we encounter online and other readers who come a-visiting. Put it this way: We always like to leave the door open.

But wait a minute, have you ever come across this?

If you would like to exchange links and be listed here, kindly use this contact me form and provide me your blog details."

Gosh, that's not leaving the door open for visitors. Why are some individual bloggers so snotty? They want you to fill up some silly forms plus your blog details before you can get to know them.
Hey, just let me leave a comment and you can drop by my blog and say hello, too. It's that easy and no hassle. Who knows...we can become friends and swap links!

They want links and yet they put up all kinds of barriers. In my opinion, this is a turn-off. By and large, I would think they are usually self-centered, snobbish, and they think other bloggers owe them a living.

Who needs these red-tape bloggers? Perhaps, they can go fly a kite!

Lowdown On My 'Monkey Business'

If you have been noticing some funny goings-on over at my MyBlogLog's home page for CommonSense With Markk, please keep your cool.

I've been asked why some of my postings kept on repeating themselves under the Lastest Content column for RSS feed.

For example, you can see that my latest post "Rumblings About Guest Blogging" is showing up three times, and the posting before it, "It's The Year of Blog Re-Design!," is giving you double vision!

Okay, let's cut down to the chase. Here's the lowdown.

Firstly, let us understand that I'm not spamming my ownself or anyone for that matter. I'm sure you have seen worst in the MyBlogLog message column.

The heart of the matter is this: I've been making or rather re-configuring my blog's RSS feed and re-jigging a number of other things that relate to this site. I've moved from Blog.spot to my own domain name.

I must admit I'm not a technical genius like some of you clever bloggers. So I'm not sure whether I've done right or wrong in my tweaking. I pray everything will turn out hunky dory though.

I've also gone nutty with my tweaking at my secondary blog The NextPost. Talk about itchy fingers and all that!

Why all this sudden monkey business? Preparing for Blogging Armageddon?

Don't panic! The reason: I'm preparing my blogs before the Google PageRank hurricane hits. It's good that there's still no sign of it yet. But better make hay while the sun shines!

And just a little hint: I've been busy trying to set up a couple of blogs over at everybody's favorite haunt - WordPress. Talk about some bloggers leaning solely on WordPress and others banking their hopes on Bloggers.

I'm all for both - 50% here, 50% there. And never the twine shall meet. But that's another blogging tale to tell next time around.


P.S. To those who are linking here, please change the URL to http://commonsensewithmarkk.com. Thanks.

Amazing CTR Data On Sponsored Content

How often have we read on some blogs where the writers discuss sponsored posts as something that you should not touch with a 10-ft pole. With their noses in the air, they brush off such contents on your blog and arbitrarily assume that nobody read them or click on sponsored posts.

Understandably, what they are saying is that they are "pure bloggers" and cannot afford to lose credibility by indulging in this sponsored post circus.

They demand disclosure from bloggers who are into these online writing opportunities. They frown on the buzz created by these posties on products and services. They even hinted at boycotting blogs that do such posts.

In their own language, these posts are worthless and won't do any good to your blog. To a certain extent, that's quite true. And it applies to bloggers who can't write without stumbling upon their grammar and spelling. They leave a black mark on their own blogs and generally project the wrong impression of paid posts.

But this will soon be taken care of as more sponsors are demanding better quality posts and posties are expected to brush up on their language. And, of course, there are many bloggers who have written top-notch quality posts as well.

Now here's the big surprise that will sound like sweet music, especially to advertisers. A study recently concluded by PayPerPost has revealed that sponsored posts deliver a 10.545% average ctr (click through rate).

What does that mean? In plain language, the amazing data tells us that sponsored content is being read and driving traffic to your site. It's a revelation.

The study indicates that people are clicking on sponsored posts, and "they click through at a higher rate than any other media." Some posties have clicked on their own posts and bought items themselves. It shows they are also potential customers.

The study collected data from more than 40k bloggers and 8k advertisers - and that says a lot about the naysayers who are just ranting in the wind.

QuickShot: Your Guide To Interesting Posts

You Wanna Make A Breakthrough In Blogging?

Remember the headline in the famous Avis car rental ad?

"We're Number Two, but We Try Harder."

That was the position taken by America's second-ranking car rental company to create a consistent top-of-mind awareness with their prospective clients.

As a potent marketing tool, "Positioning" is considered a powerful marketing concept that will carry the message across to prospects in the battle for the mind and market share.

The same concept could be applied to blogging if you want to make something out of it.

The fact that some of the bloggers are now at the top of their niche can be attributed to how they positioned themselves and by dint of hard work had reached the upper echelons.

Wanna Be An Online Entrepreneur?

Okay, there's no stopping you from having a fling as an online entrepreneur. With blog setup as easy as eating apple pie, believe me, anyone can give it a shot. Make it or lose it, that's up to you.

There's nothing like rolling up your sleeves and digging into it...but please be aware to have a plan that involves some marketing strategies, positioning and a sense of tech savvy to make it work.

Blogging, as you'll soon discover, is not a static past-time. You can slack but it won't do your blog justice if you wanna take the northbound train to RanksVille. You gotta move it!

They all say knowledge is power. But without action, knowledge is stagnant.

QuickShot Can Be Your Guiding Light

From now on watch out for "QuickShots," an intermittent posting from this blog that will tip you off on interesting, informative articles coming from other blogs. I believe this will help bring to the attention of some bloggers useful information that they may have missed.

For a start, here are four tip-offs:

* Over at Problogger, Darren Rowse has got some new revelations about his earnings from Amazon.com. He has noticed "an upswing" in earnings in recent months. If you're an Amazon Associate, I'm sure you would be keen to know what's the secret behind it all. Who wouldn't want to be in the same boat as Problogger?

* Malaysian blogger Daryl Lau has been working overtime over at How To Earn Money Blogging. He's making headway with his brainchild, the "Bidding Directory." And he plans to start running a contest that "will benefit everyone." You wanna know more? Hop over there!

* Joshua Dorkin over at Time For Blogging just got his middle finger slammed by a door and got lay off typing for a while. But just before that little mishap, he did a post about why you should keep your blog pages up to date 'cos it's good karma for your blog.

* The Article Writer is asking "What Are Your Writing Specialties?" As a freelance writer, Matt gets offers to write articles on various subjects.

According to him, his writing strengths include the following: aviation, personal finance, automotive, human interest, and generalized topics among others.

But when he was asked to write about wedding dresses, he was just stumped. So his latest post is asking for other freelancers who might be interested to take on writing projects which he can't do himself.

How Hot Is Your Blog? Lukewarm? Cold?

Hot blog or a 'blog' of ice?


Have you ever wondered why your "just hot from the oven" blog is not that sizzling hot after all over a period of time?

If you're looking for ways to retain your readership, keep them coming back and gain more readers, maybe you need to step back and take another real, good look at your blog.

We know that building readership is a damn tough task, especially for nascent bloggers. Unless you have no compunction about taking the link farm route which is not advisable in the first place, what else can you do to improve your blog's standing or popularity?

I know what I'm saying is nothing fresh from the oven, it's just that Modern Life, a UK information blog about the World Wide Web, has this latest post: What's Wrong With My Blog?

Without further much ado, let's dig into all the reasons that Modern Life has listed for nascent bloggers. They tagline it as "A guide to common pitfalls, mistakes & faux pas in blogging."

Here's the list:

• Ensure you have enough content
  
• Clarify your blog's topic - diversify or focus on a niche if necessary
  
• Accept that some topics are just too marginal
• Controversy doesn't wash well
• Don't use a default theme if you can avoid it
• Consider your blog's brand
• Update often, but don't let quality suffer
• Ensure linkability
• Don't over-monetize
• Make sure your SEO is up to scratch
• Patience, patience, patience!

That's right. According to Modern Life, patience is "the most important piece of advice for new bloggers...It isn't going to happen overnight." To get to the details of the above list, you can visit their site and digest all you need to know.

However, I would like to add here that I may not agree to a couple of their wisdom thoughts but this I'll keep to myself. A thousand apologies!

Meanwhile, Problogger has picked up this one, too!

Over at Problogger, Darren Rowse has posted this question: What's Wrong With Your Blog? With reference links to a question that's not that new after all on his blog. If you check it out, there are tons of comments out there.

Being one of the top ranking blogs has its advantages. With due respect to Problogger, my honest take is that a top ranking blog can touch on any topic and the majority of the blogging world will rush in to make comments. Some constructive, some are just ingratiating themselves, others just spam and cleverly disguised. Go to any "big-time blogs" and you'll always see the usual suspects rushing in to supply their regular quotas of such comments.

Remember the days of the Cold War? It was a joke then among the publishing fraternity that when Soviet Union President Leonid Brezhnev coughed or when China's Mao Tse-tung coughed, the whole world shook!!!

I guess this analogy can apply to present-day so-called "big-time bloggers" as well. We all know who the rest are. So when they coughed (aka write a post of great relevancy or otherwise), the whole blogging world shook (aka the usual suspects and nascent bloggers start to flock at their gates).

Normally I don't drop by just to leave a comment unless it's a blog where I have developed a kind of rapport. But I do drop in, even at Darren's blog now and then, when I feel an urge to find out what's new over there. Same with the rest. Well, it all depends on the post topic, I guess.

Allow me to quote this comment coming from Mary-Helen Ward, an Australian woman who has a blog mainly about knitting. She posted her comment in Problogger's blog regarding the above topic:

I think that one of the downsides of blogs is the advent of celebrity bloggers. Within various parts of the blogosphere, a few bloggers who are mediocre writers with nothing much to say have somehow attracted huge followings, attracting hundreds of hits a day and adoring commenters. This hasn't happened to me (yet), so it may be that I am just jealous. :)"


If I'm a top problogger and write a post like this, can you imagine how many comments will appear here? Go figure.

Looking For Heavy Traffic?

Think this article will be of help to those who want to see greater flow of traffic to their blogs. As you all know generating traffic to a new blog or website can be a real pain if you're in the dark.

How To Build Traffic To Your Blog

By Priya Shah

With the growing interest in blogging as a means of online promotion and branding, a lot of marketers are starting blogs to promote their opinions, products, books and services. But a blog is like a website. "Write and they will come" isn't exactly a magic formula to bring in traffic by the boatload.

If you need to promote your website in order to build traffic to it, you need to promote your blog as well.

Here are some ways you can become a well-read and influential blogger.

1. Write Posts That People Will Want To Read
This should be common sense, but many marketers tend to forget that their readers are real people and that you need to use the principles of online copywriting to make your headlines and copy interesting to your readers. If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by returning to your blog regularly.

Make your posts conversational, pithy and topical. Keep them short and stick to one topic per post.
Write often and regularly so that both readers and search engines visit your blog more often.

2. Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines
I cover this topic in detail in my article on "Search Engine Optimization For Blogs" http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-seo.htm

But here are the most important rules to follow to get your posts listed for keywords of your choice.

* Make sure your blog URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for
* Use your primary keywords in the title of your post
* Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post
* Use your keywords in the anchor text of links in the body of your posts

3. Submit Your Blog and RSS Feed To Directories
If you publish a blog you should submit your blog and RSS feed to big directories like Yahoo and Dmoz, as well as the numerous blog directories and search engines.

Here is the best list I've found of places to submit your feed or blog, compiled by Luigi Canali De Rossi, who writes under the pseudonym Robin Good.

Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Another list of sites to submit your Blog. http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm

4. Ping The Blog Services
There are a number of services designed specifically for tracking and connecting blogs. By sending a small ping to each service you let them know you've updated your blog so they can come check you out.

Bookmark the Ping-O-Matic ping results page so you can visit it and quickly ping a number of services with a single click.
http://pingomatic.com

5. Build Links To Your Blog
I recommend the methods here as the best ways to get links pointing to your blog

* Link to your blog from each page on your main website
* Trackback to other blogs in your posts
* Post legitimate comments on other blogs with related topics
* Offer to exchange links with other similarly themed blogs and websites

6. Edit Your Blog Posts Into Articles
One of the best methods for promoting your website is to write articles and submit them to article directories.

The suggestion for extending this to edit your blog posts into articles and submit them to directories came from the coach at "Explode Blog Traffic" who also has other noteworthy suggestions at his blog here. http://bloghit.blogspot.com/2004/11/how-to-explode-blog-traffic.html

You'll find an extensive list of article directories here http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/write-articles/submit-articles.htm

7. Create Buzz About Your Blog
Creating a buzz about your blog posts and topic in the local and online media will give your marketing a viral component.

* Create a controversy around your blog or it's topic.
* Distribute bumper stickers or other merchandise with your blog's URL and tagline.
* Write a press release about something newsworthy and tie it in with your blog topic.

8. Capture Subscribers By Email
It may seem strange for a blogger to send out updates by email, but email is still the #1 choice of most people who want to receive news and information.

Using a free service like Bloglet to manage your subscriptions is easy and it allows your subscribers to manage all their subscriptions from one interface. http://www.bloglet.com

However, if you want more control over your list and don't mind mailing out the updates yourself, you can use an autoresponder system to capture and follow-up with subscribers.

RSS responder is a new script that allows you to keep in touch and follow-up with your subscribers without the hassle of email. http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/rssresponder.htm

These tips should give you a good start to building your blog traffic.

About the Author: Priya Shah is a partner in the search engine marketing firm, SEO & More http://www.seoandmore.com Request the whitepaper Boost Your Search Engine Visibility With Blogs And RSS http://www.seoandmore.com/blogs-rss/