Mike's blog

Here's a confession: Until six months ago, and bear in mind I was a reasonably web savvy sort of guy, I thought Web 2.0 was something tangible! I believed it was a new version of the web which would sit alongside Web 1.0, offering new technologies and using new browsers and software. I know that sounds scary, but I'm guessing there are many, many people out there who think the same. So to help them, let me now explain what Web 2.0 is:

It's a Culture or Style rather than a Platform  read more »

It's been a crazy few days, and high time I caught you all up with what's been happening. On the personal front, not much has changed - we're still struggling and juggling away with the financial balls, although we have some hope in the form of a possible personal loan, which, if granted, will solve the short term problem. I'll keep you posted on that score. It isn't great at the moment though - my wife's birthday is coming up, and I can't see how we can afford to do anything other than have a nice meal at home. I had wanted to get her a new digital camera as her's is pretty old now, and she's a truly excellent photographer, but I think that will have to wait.  read more »

We constantly hear the mantra "Treat your blog as a business", and of course, if we are here to make money from blogging, then that's exactly what we should do. So I started thinking about what exactly that might mean, and that lead me to think about Henri.

Henri owns the hardware store in my village, and he has a fantastic business, despite the fact that there is a cheaper, much bigger DIY superstore a few kilometers away. His business is great because he (and his wife who works there part time) give amazing personal service. Let's analyze what he does and see if we can relate it to giving great service to our blog "customers".

He has Incredible Product Knowledge  read more »

Have Bloggers Created the Perfect Consumer Circle?

As a new blogger I:

Visit old blogger's blogs - which increases their traffic, and I

Comment on their blogs - which increases my traffic, and I

Buy their E-Books - which makes them money, and they tell me to

Create my own E-Books - which makes me money, and I tell the world

"I'm making money!" - which attracts more new bloggers, who then

Visit old blogger's blogs.........

Regular readers will know that this site had a strange traffic "spike" yesterday, which I found out about shortly before bedtime, and which I couldn't explain at the time. Google Analytics gave me the answer this morning and I'm about to reveal all, but first......

It's quite funny that this should have happened on the same day that Darren Rowse posted about a real traffic spike at Problogger - his, at 250,000 visitors was a little higher than my own, but you should read his post, which tells a fabulous story.  read more »

There are any number of "Top Ten" lists out there of the best "Must Read" blogs in any given sector. I recently advised bloggers to be cautious about adding too many RSS feeds, in a post which will soon appear on David Risley's website. So that suggested to me that it might be time to go public on the blogs I most enjoy.  read more »

It hasn't been a good few days, and I apologize for what is likely to be another fairly dismal post. I feel my promise to be honest in this blog is turning into a bit of a cross to bear, but I will stick with it. Strangely the contrast between my off line and online lives is becoming more marked, and I sometimes feel I am bordering on schizophrenia. When I'm blogging I'm immersed in the "High dude!" and "totally awesome" world of Twitter, but then I come back to the reality of my normal business world, which to use Twitter language "Totally sucks, man."

So, what's been happening? Not much really - last weekend I thought I'd found a buyer for my car, and spent all week thinking how good it would be to get it sold and pay off most of the people who need paying up. Then yesterday the guy called me to tell me he wouldn't be going ahead after all, so that little dream died a death.  read more »

Like any new blogger, I kept reading and hearing that I should build "my list" from the very first day, and like many new bloggers, I completely ignored the advice! When you first start out, your focus is on making the site look decent, getting to grips with tons of research and constantly refreshing your Twitter page. There's no time to think about lists with all that action going on.  read more »

When you visit a blog for the first time, where do you go? Chances are, you answered "The about page", and if so, you share that with 82% of people arriving at a blog for the first time. They want to know a little about you, and they want to know if it's worth them investing some time in reading your blog now, and if they should do so in the future. This is your 30 second chance to capture them! Go for it!

Tell them who you are
Give them a little bit of detail about you the person. Blogging is like socializing, tell your reader why they should want to learn more about you.

Persuade them to read your blog
Give them some compelling reasons to read a little bit more. Drop in some snippets about what they might find in your blog. Establish your credentials - are you an expert? If so, tell them why.

Show them how you can benefit them  read more »

If you're on Twitter - and if you aren't you should be! - you need a Twitter landing page for your website. In this piece I will explain why and what it should be like. But first of all, let me explain exactly what a landing page is. It's the page that people "arrive" at on your site. Ninety nine times out of a hundred, you direct them to your homepage. After all, that's the main page of the site, right? The problem is, if you are a blogger, you're sending them straight into the middle of your story. Of course, there's great content on the home page, but people arriving there are reading what you've written this week, with nothing to help them to understand who you are and where you have come from.  read more »