Make Your Blog Shine Through the Smog

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Thousands of new blogs are created every day. In a sense, this is a sign of a very cool thing about modern technology. Anyone can grab a seat at the table; if you want to publish your writing on the Internet, it's easier than ever. The problem, of course, is that the table is now so large, and we're not really seated as close to one another as people make out. Even when we're yelling, our voices my not be heard.

So how can you take your blog to the next level? How can you make your work really stand out? We're going to take a look at some tips that can be considered by new bloggers and by those who have already got a bunch of material and a few readers.

Guest blogging

There are two ways you can go about guest blogging. The first is to see if other bloggers are willing to submit a post to your blog; someone, perhaps, who is a bit more established in your given niche than you. They'll probably expect payment – and you should be willing to pay them - but it’ll be worth it for the extra attention boost you’ll get, as well as the improved ‘legitimacy’ with which you’ll be perceived.

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You can also look into submitting posts for other blogs. This could be another blog in your niche, or you could consider hitting a little higher up the food chain and seeing if a bigger publication would be interested in a post you’ve created. This helps a lot with networking and exposure.

Other mediums

A lot of bloggers are beginning to use YouTube more and more. This is because YouTube can be a more consistent means of earning money, though it’s also because so many fans love to watch opinion-based content through the medium of video. Vloggers are becoming more popular than ever, so it’s certainly worth considering a YouTube channel to go with your blog.

If you think you have enough readers hooked, you should think about physical publication. Some would claim that books, journals, and magazines are dead media that no-one invests in anymore, but this simply isn’t true. A lot of popular blogs have turned to the creation of an occasional magazine issue as a means of earning additional revenue. Start thinking about original magazine content and experimenting with a magazine cover maker to get some inspiration.

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The e-book hook

E-books are something else that a lot of writers are using to grow their blogs. The likes of The Daily Wire, for example, hook passers-by to their mailing list by offering a free download of an e-book by Ben Shapiro, the founder of the website and a bestselling author.

If there’s a topic that will excite a lot of people, one which you’d like to write about without worrying so much about people getting tired of using their scroll wheel, then consider writing about the topic across at least forty pages or so then turning it into an e-book. This will really show your dedication and expertise and will help you take your blog to new heights.

#SAGeeks - A Life of Geekiness

I've been pretty geeky my whole life. From playing video games for as long as I can remember, to old photos of me reading Spider-Man comics as a kid, to pretending to be all my favorite superheroes with my brother and my friends when we'd play outside as kids. I've always been obsessively into the things I love, wanting to know everything I can, and always appreciated learning and doing well in school. I was kind of awkward and quirky, which led to me not having the best time making friends, but I could at least always escape in the worlds of my favorite video games.

Life was hard for me at times because of my geeky tendencies. I'd sometimes rather engage in my own personal interests then go out and do anything else, or care to connect with other people based on what they were into. I eventually grew to appreciate my own enthusiasm for what I was into, and work to appreciate the same energy and passion in others. People love to talk about what they're into, so I found a way to connect and make friends even if we didn't share my niche interests.

Reading books like Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth and Nerds helped me come to terms with my geeky personality. It wasn't a flaw, like I felt for so long (especially during my hormonal teenage years). It was an asset I could use to my advantage. I could showcase my geek pride in my office and it would help me, not hinder me. There were other people who struggled like me, I wasn't the only one.

Creating this site and being a part of programs like Rutgers Geek Week and connecting with professionals in higher education who care about this stuff has really helped me develop as I continue through the early phase of my career. While I don't know what the next few years will exactly look like, I at least have a lot more confidence in myself and have a positive outlook for the future.

This #SAGeeks series will seek to shine a light on others like me who live an especially geeky life and work in the realm of higher education and student affairs. They geek out about a lot of different things; theater, board games, professional wrestling, comics, and much more. They'll talk about the highs and lows of being geeks/nerds and proudly featuring your passions. You'll hear from professionals all over the country. I encourage you to reach out and geek out with them!

Also, shout out to my editors Jenn Osolinski and Lynne Meyer who approached me with the idea in the first place. And check out my resources page for more geeky goodness.

Book Review: The Year Without Pants - Wordpress and the Future of Work

This 2013 book by Scott Berkun explores his journey into the unique workplace culture behind WordPress, which powers a huge amount of the blogs and sites on the internet. Coming from his previous experience at Microsoft, Berkun comes in with an outsider's perspective on how a bunch of people all over the world can work together remotely to help power twenty percent of the web (comes out to be millions of websites).

To put it simply, I really enjoyed this book. It has some great insights into what makes teams and companies work. Everything from workflow, culture, to relationships is covered here through stories and a sort of journal of Berkun's year at WordPress. I highlighted so many things from this book. While Berkun is certainly relative about why the workplace culture behind Wordpress works and its limitations, he has a lot of great general thoughts about management, teamwork, and getting things done. These can be taken by anyone to help them do better with whatever they do. Not every company can have everyone work remotely, not every company can simply mash together their business with how WordPress works, but there are plenty of solid insights here.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Trust is expensive to build and easy to destroy, which is why it's rare."

"The fundamental mistake companies that talk about innovation make is keeping barriers to entry high. They make it hard to even try out ideas, blind to how much experimentation you need to sort the good ideas from the bad."

"This is the advice paradox: no matter how much advice you have, you must still decide intuitively what to use and what to avoid. Just as there is an advice paradox, there is a data paradox: no matter how much data you have, you still depend on your intuition for deciding how to interpret and then apply the data."

"Your model of the universe can be a perfect model of the past, but the past is not a reliable predictor of the future because there is no such thing."

"The culture in any organization is shaped every day by the behavior of the most powerful person in the room."

"It's a great bullshit test of any boss who says, 'X is important.' If she doesn't match that statement with resources, she's incompetent, insincere, or both. If it's important, prove it."

Also, I will accept the irony that I writing this review about a guy working at WordPress on my SquareSpace blog (I used to use WordPress). I really enjoyed the platform and still use it on other sites I write for. I would use it again since the blogging part of it was great, but I wanted some more functionality out of the rest of my site, so I left. Nevertheless, Berkun's experience working at WordPress really captured some of my frustrations that I've had working as a full-time professional and some of the aspirations I'd have for organizations I'd be a part of.

I highly recommend you check out this book! You can find it at any of your favorite book retailers.

Thanks for stopping by!

2015 Year in Review

My life in 2015 went in some very cool directions, some planned, others were happy surprises. 2015 was the second full calendar year of this blog (started in April 2013) that had my first guest contributors, my first eBook, and just continued to grow the audience of the blog as a whole. I had over 10K views in 2015, which is fantastic as a milestone itself, but also a sizable growth from the year prior. I also hit 1K followers on Twitter, which was a nice milestone to celebrate for myself as I work to continue to grow the audience for this blog and the podcast (which had an awesome year too!). I look forward to continuing to improve the blog (like the recent layout redesign) and bring some new folks in to help with some of the stuff I can't do as well as they could, like graphics and writing about different things.

2015 had some cool things happen for me personally too. I did some adulting like starting a retirement account (!). I also traveled to a bunch of cool places I had never been before for both work and pleasure. I went to Tampa for ACPA 2015, which I presented at with my fantastic colleague, Krista Klein, which was really cool. I also visited my friend in Chicago over the summer as well as seeing Boston when my partner was interning in the area. I lastly had the trip of a lifetime for me going to San Diego Comic Con for the full experience, which was a dream come true. I took a bunch of photos and I will cherish the memories I made on these trips. I look forward to continuing the momentum I've had for the past few years of traveling to new places for various reasons. It's always a lot of fun!

2016 is looking to be a big year for me. My partner will finish up school, we'll both be getting new jobs and moving to a new area together after that (at the latest), and my brother is going to be getting married, just to name a few things. Hopefully there are more milestones to come for the blog, the podcast, and for me personally. I feel good about 2015 and what I accomplished and am looking forward to 2016!

Thanks to everyone who visited the site and helped sustain this effort. It means a lot and I appreciated all of your continued support!

Guest Blogger

Hey everybody, I just wanted to highlight two other blogs where I have just started writing a blog a month (at least). Socialnomics and The Student Affairs Collective.

I've only been writing for a few months now but I've done more specific posts on those sites so I just wanted to spotlight those.

Thanks for your support! Have a great day!