Look, read, and learn.
-http://www.neonscent.com

Since this tip is from me, I’ll naturally know the exact meaning:

Look at others’ blog design.
Read others’ blog posts and emails.
Learn from others from blog posts, emailing, etc.

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Today, I will be posting blogging tips every 30 minutes from 9AM-9PM (I’ll try) from the Blogging Tips Meme for the Blog-a-thon 2007. They won’t be in an exact order; and are chosen randomly. Sponsor me and help children!

A complete list of the Blogging Tips posts will be added here once the Blogathon is over! Come and support me! (Leave comments, donate, blog about it!)

The Blogging Tips meme that I’ve started is spreading like wildfire (like Brown Baron said).

While adding the links from the pingbacks and trackbacks that I’ve gotten, I noticed that there were quite a few careless bloggers out there that didn’t care to check and double check their links!

I fixed the links for them on my meme post, but when bloggers get tagged, they copy it directly from their blogger friend, and not usually from the starting post (if they even know it).

Here were some of the mistakes I found:

1. Missing the http:// header on the link. This links back to the original blogger’s blog. (e.g. The link “neonscent.com” coming from the URL http://www.neonscent.com will turn into the link http://www.neonscent.com/neonscent.com.)
2. Manually inserting the URL but for getting to actually link. This doesn’t count as an incoming link, and the main point of memes is to increase incoming links! (e.g. Incorrect: http://www.neonscent.com; Correct: http://www.neonscent.com)
3. Including the “-” hyphen in their link. This also doesn’t count as an incoming link; the link would go to “hyphen URL” which would display an error page, unless you linked to the right page but with the wrong anchor text. (e.g. Incorrect: -http://www.neonscent.com; Correct: -http://www.neonscent.com)
4. Linking pattern change. This might or might not be a mistake (I didn’t correct it anyhow), but some bloggers didn’t follow the linking pattern and wrote their blog name for the anchor text instead of the URL. (e.g. NeonScent instead of http://www.neonscent.com) This makes your link stand out, but doesn’t do much good to your blog; who knows what readers might think?
5. Not following instructions. This is basically the most important thing in memes beside getting more incoming links. In my Blogging Tips meme, some people didn’t read the instructions or misunderstood, but anyhow, some bloggers starred their own post or erased other blogger’s stars. A big mistake.

Smart bloggers read here:
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“A form of expression (not using `like’ or `as’) in which a quality or characteristic is given to a person or thing by using a name, image, adjective etc normally used of something else which has similar qualities, etc.” -Dictionary.com

Do you use metaphors to write your articles?

Some metaphor posts… (Leave a link to your metaphor post to get linked)

• 7 Things Playing In A Rock Band Taught Me About Business from Smart Wealthy Rich
  
• The People of MyBlogLog from Bloggrrl

I realized that I haven’t written a metaphor post yet, so you can be expecting one very soon. :)

There are lots of different search terms and keywords out there that people sometimes stuff into their articles. (Keyword stuffing gets you excluded from searches.) I’m curious about the search terms or keywords that have generated traffic for you this month.

The search term that has generated the most traffic for this month (for me) is… buy me a beer from the WordPress Plugin: Buy Me a Beer. (Did you come here from this keyword?)

So I’d like to know which are your blog’s ‘favourite’ keywords. :)

I’ve seen a lot of bloggers and people out there that make common grammar mistakes. (Of course, some of those are typos, but they’re still mistakes.)

1. They’re, There, and Their. They’re is the shortened version of “They are”, for example, “They’re not very smart.”, which means “They are not very smart.”
   There is a place. “There is my blog!” means my blog is in that place.
   Their means something belonging to someone. For example, “Their blog is growing.”
2. I.E. and E.g. They both are latin terms (but I won’t go into that), and mean a similar thing.
   I.E. means “that is” or “in other words”. For example, “I like coffee shops, i.e. Starbucks.” Means, “I like coffee shops, (that is, Starbucks).” (when written out fully)
   E.G. means “for example”. For example, “I like going to lots of places, e.g. coffee shops.” means when written out fully, “I like going to lots of places, for example coffee shops.”

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There was some hype over certain topics such as “The No-Follow Move” and “[Insert Company Name] has Acquired [Insert Company Name]” (There was the Youtube acquirement, the PhotoBucket acquirement, etc.) Those posts are seen around so much that people start to get bored and a 30% chance of reading the whole post appears out of nowhere.
While most bloggers browse around the blog-o-sphere and knows what’s happening to the web, some bloggers/readers only know one or two blogs that are tech related, and rely on those few blogs to give them a report on the web.
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If you have not done so already, read Part 1 of Fake Comments and Insightful Responses to Fake Comments to follow up on this post.

In the last post about Fake Comments, I’ve discussed how to identify fake comments, and what readers will think once they’ve established that you make fake comments. In this post, I will talk about what you should to if you have made fake comments in the past, what you should do in the future, what you should to do gain comments, and various other points.

Fake Comments in the Past (Over last month)
All bloggers have ups and downs. The past is the past. There is no use dwelling on fake comments in the past.
If a reader has contacted you asking about your fake comments, apologize about the comments and say you were trying to see if more people commented on posts with comments. (that is the truth)

Others Doing Fake Comments
This may be a not shock to you, but you are not the only blogger that has thought of doing fake comments. (Learn how to identify fake comments)
The best thing to do is contact them directly and warn them about their fake comments. (Give a link to this article if you want) Do not be conceited; make it clear that you are only trying to help. Most bloggers appreciate help. When others succeed, you succeed. If other bloggers do not move forward, you would not have competition, therefore you would not succeed. They might also warn you the next time you make a mistake. (and there you have a new friend!)

Gaining More Comments
Rather than write fake comments, why not use other ways to gain more comments? Here are some of the ways you can gain more comments:

• Post comments on other blogs. Posting comments on other blogs in the same league as you (around the same status; same number of visitors) helps you make more blogger friends, which may help you in the future stages of your blog.
• Guest blogging. Guest blogging brings more exposure to your blog. You can find a blogger friend and guest blog on each others’ blogs. That is always a good trade. Make sure your post is good quality.
• Posting in forums. Join in a crowd, post regularly (i.e. once a day, etc.) so that people know you; have a unique thing about your posts. (more information about identity)
• Get WordPress plug-ins. The Top Commentators encourages your readers to comment regularly, getting a link-back on your site. The Recent Comments WordPress plug-in is nice to have, but is not necessary.
• Reply to comments. Even if you know that the reader is not going to check back for your comments, reply to them to let your readers know that you care about the comments that they leave.
• Offer give-aways. Some blogs have recently been holding a [Number]th Comment contest. Those have been successful on the most part.
• Ask questions. Asking questions encourages readers to respond. [Short] surveys and polls also work.
• Ask for comments. What can be easier than asking for comments directly? (Ask a question and tell readers to respond by leaving a comment, etc.)

Those are some of the ways you can gain more comments. If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments area so I can add them to this list.

I got a lot of responses for Fake Comments Part I, and I want to share some with you. I’ve picked some of the interesting or more insightful ones. (I’m sure you don’t want to read responses like, “No I don’t.”) The author of the comment is linked.

Angie Hartford said:

Fake comments are kind of like voting for yourself in order to win the Miss Congeniality award in the Miss America Pageant.

jerrydrussell said:

If you wrote a fake comment, then you’d have to answer said fake comment, which would lead to answering the reply…..

Ack.. Makes my head hurt. It’s the blogging version of time travel paradox

Brown Baron said:

I think the best advice for that would be to just keep writing. The comments will come eventually.

teddY said:

Hmm well sometimes when I get no comments for a post I’ve spent a lot of effort writing I got tempted to write fake comments so as to attract others to leave comments. But I’ve never done it before because thinking twicee about it, leaving fake comments is just meaningless. You can deceive yourself that someone actually left a comment but then you can’t hide from others - because the writing style is almost identical, unless you’re really good at impersonating others’ styles.

I completely agree with what Brown Baron said: “…just keep writing. The comments will come eventually.”

Thirft Shop Romantic said:

No, that’s sort of sad. It’s like Mr. Bean sending himself Christmas cards.

incinq said:

Kind of related… I have run across other community project blogs, where I’ve suspected that the “anonymous” entries (usually confessional in nature) are fake/written by same person.

stoneman said:

Not “fake” comments, but I sometimes add a comment as a kind of footnote with additional information. I sign it with my own Blogger initials, so it should be pretty clear that I’ve added the information myself.

dharmagypsy7 said:

I read somewhere that getting the first comment is the hardest and when you have comments it means people are reading your blogs so some have resorted to leaving comment count up than what it is.. i.e

0 Comments but you put in the value of say 10 comments. This will make it more likely that the person will click on the comment box because other people have commented on it.. but of course when they go to the comment box.. there’s no comments…

I guess you can just leave comments for yourself. That would work too.

SiteProPlus said:

Do more women write fake posts than men?

BrentD said:

The amount of shocked and negative feedback to this question leads me to believe that most of the respondents are very serious people with very serious blogs. But what if you have a very humorous blog? What if you are not trying to provide technical information or punditry, but instead trying to entertain?

I have a couple fictional characters who post on my blog and who occasionally heckle me in the comments when I post in my name. They all track back to my site however, so any diligent seeker of Truth in Blogging can tell in an instant what’s “really” going on.

I put a lot of effort into this personas, so I do not consider them fake.

Just fictional.

thereyoucome said:

Isometimes post comments to make sure the commenting function works well, because it seems long time no comments, and sometimes comment as a footnote, all in my comment ID.

BrentD, I agree with you to some extent, just like a scene often used in comics, an angel side and an evil side of you, or a strong side and a weak side of you, they can play debate on a thing you’re not decided or not certain.

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Have you ever written fake comments for yourself or someone else? If you haven’t, would you want to? Let’s look at what fake comments can do for you.

While writing fake comments can be enticing, it would also be somewhat obvious that some of your comments are fake.

The Author name and URL give a hint. When a lot of comments coming from one or more people without URLs, people become suspicious. People have tried to bypass that by creating various social networking accounts, but it would also be obvious if most URLs came from social networking sites.
In some situations, someone has posted your blog in a forum, so people go comment for a specific reason, but that is rare. Most people comment if they have a blog, for promotion and exposure.

Details in comments and writing style also leave hints. For example, a comment like this:

That is a great image. Turn the “Screen” option on when vectoring. Turn it off when writing text. Other than that, keep it up! Looking forward to seeing your work again!

versus

I totally love that! Make more!

People can tell if it is your writing style or not. Your writing style would be similar to the posting style, and the vocabulary would be similar.

Comment length goes with detail, but generally when bloggers fake comments, the comments would be short, unless only one or two comments are faked.

So once readers recognize that comments are faked, what will they think of you?

• You do not have a large amount of comments; thus faking them
• You want more comments
• You want to look good
• You are “evil” and probably have done other dishonest things for your blog in the past
• You have too much time on your hands
• You cannot manage your time well enough, and depending on your blog topic, will make you loose readers
• You cannot think sensibly

These are just some of the points that readers will think of you once they find out you are faking comments.
In Part II of Fake Comments, I will be discussing what you should do if you have faked comments in the past, what you should do in the future, what you should do to gain comments, and various other topics and questions related to Fake Comments.
Subscribe to my RSS Feed to know when it comes out!
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