Jason Unger

Your Blog Needs You, Not Just Your Words

Posted by junger - 12/29/08 at 11:12:03 pm

There are just some blogs I hate reading. Specifically, ones written by people who write like

• they have authority, but don't.
• they're experienced, but aren't.
• they've perfected the system, but haven't.

Somehow, the blogosphere has turned in to a world where people have to find a niche and they have to be a leading voice in it, even if they come off as complete phonies.

Don't waste your time. It's not worth it. I've tried.

You can learn all you want about a particular subject, re-package and relay that information to an audience, but if there isn't a piece of you in it, you're unlikely to succeed.

Are You Opening Up to Your Readers?

While the Internet is truly an amazing way to learn, it's even better at connecting with people.

Blogging gives you a way to share your stories with a community of readers. It gives you a way to connect with people across the world. And it gives you the opportunity to show a different side of your personality.

There are a number of things I've written in this blog and others that I don't normally share offline. It's not because of any particular reason — it's just that the medium allows for you to organize, manage, and edit your thoughts.

My goal here is to share my experiences, pass along what I've learned, and interact with you. I won't sit here and tell you that you should do the same, but you at least need to be honest with yourself — and your readers.

You can't truly connect with your readers if you are not sharing your experiences in your posts. If you have no experiences or thoughts, what are you writing for?

Your blog needs you, not just your words.

Is Your Content Valuable?

Posted by junger - 12/11/08 at 08:12:17 am

As you're reading information online, ask yourself: what is this worth to me?

Would I

• actively find out more about the topic?
• sign up to get more information like it?
• pay money for it?

If you answered 'yes' to at least one of those, the content has value to you.

But as a Web publisher, you can't be sure that your readers recognize the value your content has unless you treat it valuably.

How Content's Value Has Changed Completely

The Internet has democratized information. It's a beautiful thing, right?

Well, not for traditional publishers. Control of information has been their domain for hundreds of years.

Newspapers are going belly up. It's not going to get any easier next year, and it will hit certain places much harder than others.

Now that information is available from millions of resources, much of the actual content has lost its value. It's not a rare resource, dominated by a few in power. Anyone can produce it.

Giving Your Content Value

So how do you give your content value?

For small Web publishers, your content has to achieve certain goals or you won't succeed. Even if it's not about making money, it has to serve a purpose.

Your content could:

• Build a community around a product (ex. The Mint Blog)
• Grow a brand around yourself (ex. Robert Scoble)
• Market your offline services or products (ex. any freelance writer with a blog)

How to Make Money From Your Content

As forecasters expect online ad spending to decrease next year, you need to understand that pageviews are not going to pay the bills.

Even if ad spending was going up, users would still ignore ads unrelated to their online goals.

In order to make money from your content, you generally have two options:

• Charge for it
• Treat it as marketing materials for your paid products

Charging for content? Are you serious? Yes. Charging for content can be an extremely compelling business model IF you are creating the right content and, most importantly, targeting the right people.

Most people are not going to pay to read the Wall Street Journal online, especially because the information is available through other outlets.

But if you're a business owner, would you spend $100 to attend a specialized online training or business summit that will make you more money? Of course!

Targeting the right niche with information that will make them more profitable is, in itself, a profitable venture.

Use Your Content to Market Your Product and Services

Instead of charging for your content, use it as marketing for what you do get paid for.

Let's look back at the three 'free' ways to give your content value:

• Build a community around a product
• Grow a brand around yourself
• Market your offline services or products

Each of these use your content to make you money.

If you sell a product, you want a thriving community of users, critics and evangelists.

If you are a talking head or consultant, you need to build up your brand in order to establish your expertise.

If you are a freelancer writer or designer, you need to show off your skills.

Treating your content as marketing does not, however, mean it should be a sales pitch. Like all other information, if it isn't useful, your users won't respond.

What's Your Content Worth?

You're already producing content. But why?

The next time you sit down to write something, measure the value of your content. If you're not getting anything out of it, then your readers aren't either.

For more, follow me on Twitter or sign up for email updates or via RSS.

5 Unique Ways to Use WordPress (Not as a Blog)

Posted by junger - 08/28/08 at 10:08:36 pm

WordPress is easily the most intuitive, user-friendly blogging software available today.

But did you know you can use it for other types of sites?

Here are five unique ways to use WordPress besides as a blog.

A Content Management System

Like most Web sites that use a content management system, WordPress allows you to create static pages outside of the reverse-chronology setup of blogs.

Whether you're creating a page of resources, links, or non-date specific information, pages are the best option for timeless content on your site.

But what about your site's home page? WordPress allows you to set any page as your site's main page. In WordPress 2.5 and above:

• Log in to your dashboard
• Click on "Settings" and "Reading"
• Under "Front page displays," select "A static page" and choose the page you'd like to use

Using WordPress as a CMS is increasingly popular, especially because it doesn't require tech-savvy users.

A Job Board

If you're looking to start a job board using WordPress, it can be done.

Sorel Mihai, one of my favorite theme designers, has created JobPress, a WordPress Job Board.

JobPress allows for both free and paid listings, depending on your preference. Charging for listings is easy (view the settings page) and integrated with PayPal.

Other features include:

• Job categories
• RSS feeds for listings
• Categorization by part-time, full-time and freelance.

Check out more about JobPress here.

A Storefront

Yes, you can sell products using WordPress.

Check out the Market Theme. It's a great-looking, minimalist theme that focuses on highlighting the products you have to sell and helps you sell them.

Features include:

• Support for PayPal and Google Checkout
• Affiliate support, if you have no products to sell
• Compatibility with WordPress MU

Check out more about the Market Theme here.

A Portfolio

If you need a place to show off your work, WordPress makes a great portfolio.

Two great Portfolio themes are Sharpfolio, a free download from WEBRevolutionary, and Sorel Mihai's Portfolio theme.

These two themes work a bit differently — Sharpfolio works more like a "typical" WordPress site, while Portfolio has a custom settings page.

A Classifieds Site

DailyWP's Sorel Mihai comes through again with Classipress, a complete package for managing a classified ads site.

While there are some third-party plugins that attempt to do what Classipress offers, none of them do it right. Classipress requires no additional plugins, so everything works perfectly together.

Check out more about Classipress here.

Surprise: Your Users Don't Have Time For You

Posted by junger - 08/27/08 at 09:08:13 pm

Your readers have better things to do than read what you have to say.

Don't believe me? Try these facts on for size:

• 79% of your readers scan text; they don't read it
• Reading on a screen takes 25% more time than on paper
• Intro texts are skipped by 2/3 of users

That's all according to Jakob Nielsen's research, as conveyed during Usability Week 2008 in New York.

Why don't they have time for you? They don't think you're useless, but they care more about themselves. Who can blame them?

Your readers come to you to get a specific piece of information, and then they move on.

So to keep them around, you should bury what they're looking for, right? Wrong.

Give them what they want — right away.

3 Tips for Fast and Easy Comprehension

To make you content easier to digest, use these three methods:

• Lead with the conclusion.
• Shorten your sentences. Use one thought per sentence.
• Visually separate key points with lists or bold.

Old media writers are horrible at this. They bury the lead somewhere in the third or fourth paragraph. Each paragraph is more than 3 sentences long. And the conclusion is at the end.

Don't worry about "giving away" the ending before the reader has done any work. That's not how they see it. Remember: you are not your users.

If you consistently deliver the information that your readers want and how they want it, they'll be back.

Make them happy. Give them what they want as quickly as possible. Or they'll choose someone else to give their time to.

In New York For Usability Week 2008

Posted by junger - 04/10/08 at 07:04:55 am

I'm gonna make it there. Well, actually I'm already here. In New York, that is.

I'm spending Thursday at the Writing for the Web seminar of Usability Week 2008.

Put on by the Nielsen Norman Group — yes, as in Jakob Nielsen, the guy who provides a ton of super-informative content in his Alertbox postings — Usability Week has four stops throughout the world. Well, it's silly for me to talk about it — find out more about it here.

While I can't credit all of my Web knowledge to the stuff Nielsen teaches, I've always found a way to improve my delivery with his research.

I'm hoping to get a little more "formal" education on content presentation and publishing, considering pretty much everything I know I've garnered through experience doing it … not formally learning about it.

Even though I only graduated from college 3+ years ago, it's not like there was a Web journalism path. The only Web publishing class I ever took consisted of people learning Microsoft FrontPage.

Yeah, exactly. The name of that program just shows how little Microsoft (and many still today) understand about how online publishing.

PS. To my friends in New York who I may not have told I was coming in to the city, I apologize — but I'm only here for the day and driving back home when I'm done tonight.