Dot Conf presentation 2012 Kirstie McDermott - 25 things I learned from 5.5 years in the Irish blogosphere

2. 1
Find your USP
(no, not your USB)
•Love your subject
•Passion shows, and it attracts fans
•Stick with it – readers will be happy to
grow along with you
•Be quirky
•Offer a twist on a standard format - in
a sea of baking/music/book blogs, how
can you make yours shine?

3. 2 Resist the temptation to diversify
•It's often a 'just cos' thing
•You get a bit bored or blocked with
what you're bogging about, so you start
writing about new, unrelated subjects
•Can be PR-led
•But why were your readers logging on
in the first place?

5. 4 Watch your tone
The 'I' voice is important
Be friendly and funny
Be colloquial – Irish people love Irish
content
Engage readers with stories, use
anecdotes
Never lose sight of quality

6. 5 Be consistent, topical and timely
Set yourself achievable goals
Decide to blog 1,2,3 times a week and
stick to it
Be on time with news and trends
If something happened a week ago,
leave it

7. 6 Schedule and plan
Your blog will suck up every second of
every minute of every day of every
month of every year if you let it
Organise yourself! Use tools like
Wordpress Editorial Calendar
Schedule content ahead of time
Aim for a mix

9. 8 Cultivate your source material
Is your blog self-directed?
Can you use PR firms?
Follow influencers in your area on Twitter
Add relevant feeds to Google reader, use
Google Alerts
Immerse yourself in your subject
Subscribe to ezines, relevant directory and
industry sources

10. 9 Respect those sources
If you've seen something elsewhere and use
it, credit the originator
Don't think it's important? It is!
The blogging vs print debate is reductive
and silly if you're stealing all of Vogue's shoots
for your fashion blog, SANS CREDIT and then
claiming blogs will take down magazines

11. 10 Listen to your readers
What do readers want?
What are they asking for?
Keep an eye on comments and feedback and
do more of what gets lots of engagement
Keep an eye on social shares
What's a hit? What fails?
Know your reader

12. 11 Listen to Google
Learn to love Google Analytics
Take measurements – sometimes you
might be surprised that comment-free
posts are strong search returners or
shared frequently
Try not to turn into weird woodland
fetish site

14. 12 Yep, you can make money
Google AdSense is designed for blogs
Get smart about placements, custom
channels and filtering out the ads you
don't want
Affiliate networks like Awin and
Commission Junction
But don't expect to get rich quick. Or,
er, ever

15. 13 Because you're worth it
You've built your traffic, reputation
and brand awareness
Now it's time to start getting some
revenue back
It's not work unless it's being paid for

16. 14 The 'No-Budget' bleat
We want you to hang yourself off a
balcony backwards while in the nip,
whistling Dixie, live blogging it and
giving away 56,000 products for our
client you'll have to pay to post out
yourself
PS: we've no budget

17. 15 Think about titles and keywords
Clever puns work well in newspapers
and magazines, but are shag all use for
search return
Make sure to get the subject of the
post into the title
Make sure to mention the product in
the first paragraph

18. 16 There's no such thing as 'just' a blog
post anymore
You need to think of the whole 360
It's a Tweet
It's a Facebook status update
Make sure your blog has good social
share buttons
Are you using Google+?

19. 17 Twitter and Facebook work
You need search traffic and SEO is vital, but
a multi-pronged approach is best
It's the having lots of eggs in your basket
approach
Auto-tweet your posts using Twitterfeed or
Dlvr.it
Use images on Facebook for more traction

20. 18 Pinterest is the new big referrer
Want to drive more traffic?
Pinterest is yer only man. Or woman, as it
turns out
Link to images, as opposed to uploading
them
Add a link to your site in the description
Watermark if you're very concerned about
dissemination

21. 19 Make friends
There's a social aspect to blogging that can't
be underestimated
It's a hobby that can grow into a business
But it can bring you a whole new circle of
friends and that enriches your life on another
level too

22. 20 But don't be a douche
The web offers you amazing opportunities
to market your blog and social media tools
are one of the best ways to do it
Aim to not be that person who leaves
asinine comments on posts they haven't read,
purely so they can leave the link to
sparkznshinepoodlesnglitter.blogspot.com at
the end
No one likes that person

24. 21 Make the most of the resources out
there
Blogging can be a total money pit
You can feel you need a DSLR camera,
Photoshop, special lights, a studio, amazing high-
end gadgetry – you don't
Online resources like Plixr for photo editing,
Mailchimp for free lists up to a set amount,
Problogger and Copyblogger are all great, and
zero pee
CMS' like Wordpress and Drupal are free

25. 22 Never stop learning
Stretch yourself constantly
Don't know CSS? Go on – give it a go
 Learn basic photo editing
Find out what all those buttons do on
your camera
Experiment with a video or two
Plan into the future for things you
might do next year

28. 24 Yes, give out your stats
They're not precious pearls
Magazine and newspapers are
circulation audited – so why shouldn't
you be?
Important metrics are page
impressions and unique visitors
Hits are meaningless as a measure

29. 25 Learn how to say no
The biggest and best lesson to learn
It will make you a better blogger
Learn that you own your blog, not a
PR firm and you can say no
Not everything can or will be a fit

30. Thank you!
@kirstie