Guest post by Alex Cristache

The list of blogs and online magazines offering tips and advice has been growing exponentially every year. Even I am the founder of one such “blogging tips” blog.

With all the hype created around this type of blogs and the (in)famous “make money online” blogs, people seem to overlook one significant thing: these blogs offer tips and advice, but encourage you to experiment.

Experiments – Trial and error

The keyword in the phrase above is “experiment”, which is something that too many start-up bloggers understand as a step-by-step implementation of the tips provided by the multitude of “Simon says” blogs out there.

Bloggers are human, and just as in the real life, you won’t find two bloggers that will react the same way in similar situations. Tips should be always passed through your own filter and compared to past events from your own online experience.

To experiment around tips means to elaborate on them, to select not simply the working solution, but the best working solution. To achieve that, you’re likely to pass through a few unsuccessful steps, each telling you where you did wrong and what can still be improved. But you know the old saying: “No pain, no gain”.

Take it one step further

Before you start implementing new ideas, try to take your analysis one step beyond. THINK about the impact of what you’re about to do. Could what you estimate as the end result be in conflict with any of your existing achievements and targets? If so, in what way could you improve or adapt the new idea so that it will perfectly fit in your blog’s general line of evolution.

Don’t be afraid to experiment! Don’t do what “Simon says” or “Simon does”. Interpret and adapt.

Alex Cristache is 27 and has been working for top Romanian web design, development and consultancy companies for over 9 years. Quite impressive for his young age, don’t you agree?

He’s tried a lot up to now: web designer, senior web, print & logo designer, occasional copywriter, web & SEO consultant and project manager. Although he focuses on design, he’s also been working with PHP & MySQL on the side. He also fell in love with WordPress the moment it appeared on the market and changed our lives.

He currently blogs at Blogsessive.com and runs CREATIVEurope, a website bookmarking the best European creative portfolios available.

What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

A new week has just started and I hope it took off wonderfully for all of you. And I’ve got the perfect reading list to help you make your week a little better!

Janelle of Create Business Growth has written about freedom of speech and the lack of it in the online world. We should all think about this a little, as one of my early morning emails told the story of a censored Mixx entry.

Looking for a new way to increase sales? Why not try flagship content? Chris Garrett has just published an article teaching you everything you need to know.

Afraid of falling into a blogging rut? Michael Martine of Remarkablogger has just the tips to help you avoid one.

There’s been quite some debate regarding who should handle social media related tasks within a company. Should it be HR, PR, Marketing or should it be anyone with a genuine interest? The most comprehensive piece I’ve read on the subject is an article by Shel Hotlz of A Shel of My Former Self.

Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz has just revealed a golden rule of word of mouth marketing: not pissing people off and remembering there’s more than your primary target!

All the Marketing and PR professionals thinking of embracing the social media need a few tips and tricks. Chris Brogan has come up with a list with what they should know.

If you haven’t heard the “Content is King” phrase at least once last week, you haven’t been online much. Alex Cristache of Blogsessive shows us how important the kingdom is in the blogging equation.

I’m a proud member of the Generation Y. Not by choice, but by year of birth. And those borne a little before me are Gen Xers. These are the two gens I’ll be spending a lot of my life with, so any statistics on them are of interest. Especially when they are great statistics, like the ones David Wilson has just published on Social Media Optimization.

Hope you’ve found this week’s list helpful and you’ll join me for a fresh one next week!

Happy Monday,
Alina

Picture this! You find out about or stumble upon a really great new blog. You read a few articles and really like them. One of them is actually on a topic you’ve heard of before and were anxious to talk about with someone else. So you go to the comment box and try to post your thoughts. And then it happens: you’re asked to sign in. No matter how cool the blog is, your online time is still limited, creating accounts leads to profiles and to other steps you have to skip. What do you do? Sing in or click away?

I usually click away. If the blog really interests me, I’ll add it to my reader, but I won’t comments, so half of what’s so great about blogs, instant conversation, exchanging opinions and building connections, is completely lost. So here’s a list of reasons not to ask your readers to sign in before commenting:

1. You waste to much of their time. Yes, they only have to register once, but given yours is not the only blog they’ll ever discover, overall it’s too much.
2. While worrying about the password and ID and possibly confirming they account, they might be loosing interest in the actual comment and just click away.
3. It makes you look lazy as moderating comments is not that difficult, especially if you have the additional plugins. The alternative is that you give yourself way too much importance, and in some cases that’s worse.
4. Because it is quite annoying at times.

Conclusion: I really don’t want to create profiles for half the blogs I interact with. And I am not alone. So I recommend moderation instead wih all my heart