“5 Lessons I Learned About Blogging in Queensland #QLDBLOG” plus 1 more

5 Lessons I Learned About Blogging in Queensland #QLDBLOG

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 01:04 PM PDT

This guest post is by Rebecca Cooper of simpleasthatblog.com.

It's hard for me to believe that just three short months ago I was in sunny Queensland enjoying the sites and attractions across the world from my homeland of Canada. Being chosen as one of the ten bloggers to go on this once in a lifetime trip was exciting to say the least! I was thrilled for the adventure and equally as thrilled to learn what I could about blogging while there.

Though I've had a blog now for over five years, I'm relatively new to the idea of monetizing and was feeling ready to take my blog in a new direction but I needed some help to get there.

Amidst helicopter rides over the Reef, ocean kayaking and zip lining through the rainforest, we had the chance to sit through two blogging workshops with Darren and the open discussion and interactions between all the bloggers was so helpful and really opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities in this world of blogging!

Besides the obligatory Koala and vegemite souvenirs I brought home for the kids, here are a few blogging tidbits I brought home from Queensland with me.

5 Things I learned about blogging in Queensland

Blogging buddies are the best: Discussing blogging with other bloggers is a lot different than chatting on the subject with my husband, who does not blog. So very different!
Make products prominent: If you want to sell ebooks, or other products for that matter, make them easy to find. I had links to my ebooks on my blog’s sidebar, below the fold, and I was only selling a handful. It was recommended I move them to the top of my sidebar. I was so surprised to see my ebook sales more than double just by doing this. It’s something so simple and obvious to some, I'm sure, but I told you, I'm new to this monetizing thing, remember?
Write with intent: One thing that really stuck with me from Darren's blog workshops was to ask myself what is the one thing I want my readers to do after they read each post. I find myself asking this question before I hit publish, now. Whether it’s to have readers purchase a copy of my ebooks, have them subscribe to my RSS feed, or simply to feel inspired, with this intent in the back of my mind as I write, I've found my posts being more driven and accomplishing better what I want them to. I find myself writing with more intent.
Editing published content is wise: Going back and adding to past content is okay. I learned a few things about what I should have done in past posts, so I fixed them. I went back through my past photography-related posts and provided links to my ebooks, for example.
Believe: One of the biggest things I took away from my experiences in Queensland is to be confident in who you are as a blogger. Believe that you have something to offer, that your content is valuable. That belief in yourself really does shine through.

While I still have a very long way to go in growing my blog and monetizing it the way I'd like to, the things I've learned and the small steps I've made so far have certainly made a difference.

Sitting down with the other bloggers and doing an open critique of each other’s blogs was one thing I found especially helpful during the workshops and I came home with a list of goals and ideas I can't wait to implement in my blog!

What new ideas do you have on your blogging to-do list? Let us in on them in the comments.

Rebecca Cooper is a mom, blogger and photographer from Alberta, Canada. When she’s not busy taking care of her four kiddos she enjoys crafting, running, being outdoors, taking photos and blogging about her family’s adventures at simpleasthatblog.com.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

5 Lessons I Learned About Blogging in Queensland #QLDBLOG

Why I Switched Blog Hosting Companies (and Who I’m With Now)

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 07:02 AM PDT

One of the most common questions I’m asked about how I run my blogs is, “What web host do you use and recommend?”

Over the past ten years I’ve used around eight different hosting services, ranging from the very early days of relying upon free host Blogger, through to my more recent use of Amazon’s Web Services. The challenge has always been that my blogs have constantly changed in terms of what they require, given new designs, added features, and growing traffic.

As a result, we’ve had our fair share of nightmares: numerous periods of blogs crashing due to load problems, and a couple of security issues that required a lot of time, energy, and money to resolve.

In the last six months, I’ve made a switch in the hosting of all of my blogs, which has resulted in the most stable period for my blogs in the last decade.

The switch was to move over to Synthesis—a managed hosting service created for WordPress users by the team at Copyblogger Media.

A number of things attracted me to Synthesis:

It’s designed for WordPress: All of the hosts I’ve used over the years were certainly WordPress-compatible, but when problems arose and I sought support it sometimes became apparent that WordPress was just one of many many platforms that they could work with. As a result, functionality and processes were sometimes were clunky, and to get set up well, I often had to bring in experts. The Synthesis team knows WordPress inside-out. Not only have they designed a service that works with it from the ground up, they’ve been very supportive in helping iron out some bugs I’d not been able to resolve previously.
Genesis support: I had recently moved ProBlogger over to the Genesis framework, which is also created by CopyBlogger’s StudioPress team. While they’ll host non-Genesis sites, their familiarity with it gave me confidence. I’m moving dPS to Genesis in the short term too, so I’m excited about having everything running on compatible and well-synced systems.
Security: I’ve had my fair share of security attacks over the years, so finding a secure host was key for me.
Support: I’ve got people on my team who are able to offer support on some levels, but the Sythesis team have added to this incredibly—particularly when it came to migrating from my old host to their services. Being in Australia isn’t an issue, either—their support desk is open 24/7 and their response time is super-quick.
Expense: This is the first server switch that I’ve done where I ended up paying less than I was with the previous service. While I’m sure you can get cheaper services, for the features you get, I find this service very reasonable in comparison to what I was paying. View their pricing plans here—plans start at $27 per month.

All in all, my blogs are now faster, more secure, and more reliable, and they’re experiencing just a fraction of the problems that they were on other system. I sleep a lot easier these days with Genesis and Synthesis!

Disclaimer: I am a proud affiliate for Synthesis and Genesis. They are two of the few services I use and have no hesitation in recommending.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Why I Switched Blog Hosting Companies (and Who I’m With Now)