In the early days of Web 2.0, most informal leaders in virtual communities were geeks. Chaps like Robert Scoble and Michael Arrington. They made the hypes, determined the agenda. But lately, they’ve become less influential. Why is that, you ask? Well, because the opinion leaders from the mass media have found their way to Twitter and Facebook. They’ve gained thousands of online followers in a couple of months.

Let’s have a look at the Twitter Top 100 for example. In the early days, geek visionaries like Pete Cashmore, Guy Kawasaki, Chris Sacca, and Leo LaPorte dominated the list. But when you browse to the Top 100 now, this is what you’ll see:

Twitter Top 100 on Twittercounter.com

The ‘real life’ celebrities have taken over. Web 2.0 used to be a democratic answer to traditional media. Everybody could be an influential. Even some grumpy lawyer. Yet now the inequality has also reached the domains of Facebook, Twitter and the likes.

Sure, everybody has their own medium, their own publication channel. But most of them get ignored. The Oprah’s of the world have gently adopted the role of the early adopters used to have. If you’re famous in real life, you are so online. And if you’re not. Well, enjoy your niche.

We still have micro celebrities though

That doesn’t mean the web is exactly the same as television. We still have the micro celebrities. People who are the conversation leaders of their niche.

Want to see weird stuff? Try Kottke. Discussing the future of news? Head to Jeff Jarvis. Juicy gossip? Perez Hilton is your man. Questions about tech? Ask Zee.

The micro celebrities get the most trackbacks/ retweets, always have the most commented blog posts, and get invited to conferences to speak. In their niche, they’re world famous rock stars.

Google has all the answers - and seminars - you need... Or not?

How to become such a celebrity?

How to become such a micro celebrity? Guide your community. Interview its members. Fight the status quo, disagree with the general opinion in a well-mannered and constructive way. Go to as much meet-ups as possible. Give the crowd a face and become the face of the crowd (read more about that: ,,How do I get attention?”)

The time of online influentials is behind us. Kawasaki and the likes have become influentials in their niche. That niche used to be whole Web 2.0 crowd. But no to worry, the early adopters will find another medium and give a spin to it. That’s the beautiful evolution that comes with this digital media age.

Let’s start with inspiration for stories. How do you write articles that people find interesting? The answer is actually quite simple: tell the stories you used to tell in bars while having drinks with friends. Those are your best ones.

That’s exactly what my buddy Renato Valdés Olmos did. He’s a designer from Amsterdam who has his own agency and a start-up with which he wants to kill business cards. Although he’s incredibly busy, Renato recently started a blog. I loved his first three stories.

Renato (l) and me. Photo by Steven van Wel

Not that I hadn’t heard those stories before. I remember Renato’s last story from a binge drinking session in October 2008. At some point he said: ,,Pull my skin”. Which I happily did. The skin of his arm was incredibly flexible. ,,That’s because I lost a helluva lot pounds”, Renato said. Then he showed me a pic on his driver’s license. The difference was stunning. He used to be seriously overweight and did not even remotely look like the handsome chap who I was getting drunk with.

13 months later, Renato wrote down the story for his blog. It’s only his third article so far, yet it already attracted 30 comments from visitors.

So whenever your blog needs a boost, write down the best stories of your life. And don’t forget to include what other people can learn from it. Renato for example, posted some no-nonsense tips about how to lose weight.

What’s going to be the first bar story featured on your blog?

1. Go over the top

The first one is actually a mind-set. Your personal blog is your little slice of digital heaven. It’s all yours, and you can do with it whatever you want. So go wild! Go over the top! Show your readers who you are. Here are three examples. From a flash-based rich application to the LSD trip of Matt Mullenweg. The third one is by a datavizualisation guy, as you can tell by the background.

Nalden.net

Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress

Edial.nl, a blog by a dataviz guy

2. Hire a professional for your brand

Unless you’re an artist yourself, I advise you to hire a professional for your brand. Whether that’s a cartoonist (see Yoast) or a designer (see this blog). He or she will give you that look can’t be beaten by some fooling around with Photoshop.

Cartoon of Wordpress guru Yoast

How modest! My own logo

3. Work that header

It’s all about first impressions on a personal blog. You want to present yourself, and just like in real life, other people will make their first – and terribly important – judgment in seconds. So seduce them above the fold and work that header. Here are some examples:

Chris Brogan, right in your face

Screenshot Chrisbrogan.com

Don’t know Chris Brogan? Don’t worry. His name, his expertise and his face are the first things you see when visiting his blog. Nice to meet you too. Brogan has also included a list of pages on which you can get to know him better. You wanna know his life story, contact info, best articles, or would you like to spend some money on him? It’s all there, right in your face.

Same goes for the blog of cartoonist Hugh MacLeod. Those four things make him interesting, so take action!

Buy my art, wine or book and subscribe

You got me confused, Mr. 'Talking of Design'. Yet I like it!

Thanks Istok Pavlovic, all my questions about your blog are answered in the header.

Jeffrey Sarmiento has a lift off

4. Smashable elements

Maki

If you read online marketing blogs regularly, the magna image of the right will probably remind you of a specific blog. Right, Dosh Dosh. It only has one article every week or so, yet this blog by Maki, a Philosophy student in Toronto, is hugely popular. Partly because his style is so recognizable. For example, he adds a magna illustration to every post. That’s some really smashable stuff.

Seth Godin's bald head is smashable (that sounds weird).

5. Show off that book for instant authority

Have you written a book? Please bring it under the attention your reader right-away. Don’t be modest. It gives you instant authority. Ebooks count as well, as long as you have a cover and testimonials, a little switch in people’s mind will tell them that you’re an author, and thus should be taken seriously. Learn from Tim Ferriss:

The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

6. Can’t live without the bio

Sure, tell those readers who you are. Better yet, tell them why you’re interesting. People see so many Twitter profiles, LinkedIn invitations and whatnot every day, so you’ve got to stand out. I work for a well-known quality newspaper in Holland, so that’s one of the first things you’ll see in my bio. And don’t forget to make it look good:

Bert Timmermans

Hi Darren Hoyt!

Douglas Menezes is a cool dude

Juan Diego Velasco says: have a seat and read my bio

7. Popular Posts

In the last bio-part I mentioned that it’s important to convince folks you’re interesting. Another way to do this is showing your popular posts. Even if they don’t like your avatar, people might click on a popular article. In the end, thousands of other readers did that as well. So why not giving it a shot.

When browsing to dutchproblogger.com, this is the very first thing you'll see

Read more: What Every Blogger Needs to Know About Categories

8. Facebook Fanbox: these people love me!

A Fanbox gives your blog a soul. In one glance, new readers can see that they’re actually not alone. There are at least ten pictures of smiling people in there who love the stuff the blogger writes. How about that? So start one, promote it, and give it a good spot in your sidebar.

Read more: Give your blog some soul with a Facebook fanbox

9. Get a second look with your picture

Your blog is personal, so why not revealing your face to the crowd. Use a stunning pic and people will either feel connected or aroused. So find a friend who happens to be a professional photographer as well and get your picture taken. Here are some examples:

Ok, everbody's using polaroids today, but if well executed, it still looks great

Patrick de Laive wants to make sure you'll remember his face

When reading the columns on the blog of this Dutch newspaper (where I work), you can't miss the writer's face

10. Time to connect

Assuming you want as many readers possible, you’ll need to connect with the guys and gals who pay your blog a visit. Like Kevin Kelly said: all that it takes to make a living out of your passion is a thousand true fans. How do you get them? Well, by connecting with them. What’s the easiest way to do that these days? Twitter! Yes! So, show a tweet, or two.

Meagan Fisher show her last tweet on Owltastic

Jeffrey Sarmiento and his latest tweet

That INDIE Dude uses a comic balloon in the header

Read more: Develop a Twitter Landing Page

Have I missed an aspect of personal blog design? Please let your fellow readers know in the comments!

• A fanpage gives you a good overview of who your readers are. As you might know, on the average blog only one percent of the readers comments on posts. With a Facebook fan page you’ll make a fair amount of that other 99 percent visible. And that helps, especially during those lonely rainy Sunday afternoons.
• You can aggregate content that is relevant for your blog (but didn’t make it to a blog post). Like interesting links, videos, or random thoughts. Basically anything you’d post on Twitter. A lively community around your blog will be the reward.
• More promotion: people’s activity on a fan page will show up in their feeds. Hello there, new friends!
• It looks great when people hit your page for the first time. ,,Wow, all these people are fans? I better read this stuff then!”
• It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside

Fans are fun. Photo: Roger Marshutz

• You’ll have less comments on your blog, since people will comment on Facebook.
• It will look silly the first day. Check out my box in the sidebar, only five fans. I love them though.

Did I convince you? Head over to facebook.com and look up the application ‘Ads and pages’.

Hence the Houellebecq ref. It’s a grand writer, a modern thinker, and it’s very fashionable to love him (sorry ’bout that). So that might just be the reason you kept on reading. ,,If this guy knows Houellebecq and is going to talk about him, I might as well pay attention”. I referred to something greater. And it worked.

This attention-getting strategy came to my mind when walking in the New York Halloween Parade. My friend Edial Dekker and I breached security so we could see all the smashing costumes from up close. Yet all of a sudden, we were in the middle of the spotlights. People shouted at us, took pictures, interviewed us. A group of beautiful Chinese girls opted for a group hug. Edial and I had only applied some weird make-up to our faces, and that was about it. No weird costume, no weeks of work. Yet we felt like rockstars.

Why? Because we’ve referred to something greater. We’ve painted our faces just like the Joker. That was enough to get everybody’s attention. We were now representing a hugely popular movie character. ,,I really like the actual Joker”, a slightly geeky guy told us. And every five minutes or so, people shouted the Joker’s most famous quote at us: ,,Why so serious?” (We weren’t really serious btw, we acted like lunatics).

Jokers on a roof in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Photo Allison Maggy (click for her website)

In a way, during that Halloween night, we profited from a multi-million dollar campaign of a Hollywood blockbuster. We had associated our appearance with the brand ‘Joker’, which was a guarantee for a great Halloween night.

How can you use that for your blog? Simple. By using examples that people like. I did it in this post with the band MGMT and in this presentation with LSD & the sixties. Or like Copyblogger did with this Quentin Tarantino Guide.

So, how are you gonna use it?

Let me start with a basic assumption: you blog to get your ideas and stories under the attention of others. If you’re not and treat your blog as a diary or personal archive, that’s perfectly ok. The idea behind this post though, is that you want to get your word out.

I'm sure this musician wants an audience. Photo Flickr / Guido van Nispen

Blogging is all about telling stories and having conversations, I’m with Blom on that one. There’s only one difference between Blom and a lot of other bloggers: he already had a reputation, a personal brand as you will. For those of you who are not from Holland: before Blom started blogging, he already was an influential in the Dutch music and new media scene. With such a great track record, you never have to start from scratch.

A lot of beginning bloggers don’t have such a large network. When I started blogging, I was studying communication science. Just like 300 others that year. In order to get attention, I had to use certain strategies. Like video taping an argument between the Dutch prime-minister and a famous tv journalist. Or interviewing the 100 top marketing bloggers about their blogging adventures.

For beginning bloggers who don’t have an impressive track record yet, branding strategies are of the utmost importance. Otherwise you’re just blogging for yourself.

So if you’ve just started blogging: think of non-intrusive ways to get attention for your blog. Don’t spam your influentials, always keep in mind that you have to add value for others. Interview them, write a post in which you share your best tips, do something extraordinary.

But most of all, take the advice of Blom for granted. Write those beautiful stories. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to think of some techniques to reach the people you want to inspire.

Want to read more?

• Here’s how I interviewed the 100 top marketing bloggers.
• If you’re Dutch, Blom’s personal blog is here. Not from Holland? Read the posts I’ve written about him on this blog
• An excellent post about personal branding and getting attention on Skelliewag: How to Start (or Start-over) Building Your Personal Brand
• The Blog Promotion archive on Problogger.net

• Firstly, there’s Twitter. Short blurps are reserved for that microblogging service now (unless your name is Seth Godin).
• Thanks to 3G dongels and rather impressive wifi coverage all over the world, we can blog wherever we want.
• The boundaries between journalists and bloggers are becoming more blurred by the day.

So, how does that affects us? Here’s some advice from investor Chris Sacca, writer Jeff Jarvis, and Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg. They were all at The Next Web and showed us bloggers the way to go.

Chris Sacca about how you should use Twitter

Chris Sacca at The Next Web Conference. Photo Flickr / Anne Helmond

There are 700 people in this room. If you were standing on stage, you would be quite nervous: shaking a bit, maybe with a dry throat. When having such a large audience, you will sure try to entertain or inspire them. We tend to forget that we have a large audience on Twitter too. So before you tweet ask yourself: am I providing value? Will it put a smile on someones face? Am I expanding someones horizon? Otherwise, don’t write it.

Jeff Jarvis about the new role of journalists

Jeff Jarvis at The Next Web Conference. Photo Flickr / Anne Helmond

Newspapers will die, there will be chaos. Yet news will return as a new, more complex, ecosystem. Hobbyists will cover news – alongside with bloggers and journalists. Today, journalists are thinking: Oh my God, this is too much clutter. What they should do is offering tools to the new community of news makers. Journalists can become educators. They can train the community and will find news there. It will be their new role.

(Thanks to Matthijs van den Broek for taking notes)

Matt Mullenweg about how traveling can make you a better blogger

Robin Wauters interviews Matt Mullenweg. Photo Flickr / Anne Helmond

My office is wherever my laptop is. As long as there’s a wifi connection, I’m able to connect to everything I need for my work. (..) As soon as I get somewhere I tweet or blog about it. I always get replies from locals, offering to show me around. That leads to great experiences. Like the other day, I found myself singing karoake songs with some Hongkong locals till six in the morning. Although I travel a lot, I hardly see any of the touristic highlights. I rather work in a local café.

Imagine how inspired you’ll get by all this traveling.

But wait, there’s more.

When you’ve got a room full of geeks, you can be pretty sure the event will be well covered. Here are some of the best pieces written about The Next Web:

• Interview With Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg: “Blogging Is Not Slowing Down” - on TechCrunch by Robin Wauters
• Again, by the great Robin Wauters: Interview With Andrew Keen At The Next Web 2009: “Web 2.0 Is F*Cked”
• Jim Stolze is the kind of guy we need in these times of information overload. He went offline for a month and learned how the web can make us a happier person. Here’s his advice.
• My former liveblogging buddy Anne Helmond wrote an excellent post about Andrew Keen’s keynote: “Web 2.0 is dead, long live Twitter”

It took me a while to find out that I should have killed that darling rule as soon as I started blogging. Sub headers in blog posts have a totally different meaning than the ones in newspaper articles. They have to lure the leader into the article, keep him reading, since his attention is gone as soon as your article gets a little boring.

A t-shirt my buddy Renato Valdés Olmos designed

• Trying to explain everything. Now I just link to articles that concern the subject
• Using popular words and “I”. Blogging is about writing in a conversational style, so yes, I do use “I” and “me” now.
• Staying away from marketing techniques. When you’re a blogger, you’ll have to come up with ways to get people to click on your articles in the RSS reader and Twitter. Writing catchy headlines and lists posts are examples of that.
• Acting like the reader doesn’t exist. One of the most interesting aspects of blogging is the discussion below the articles. So yes, sometimes you’ll have to ask the reader something in order to get a reaction.

On the other hand: when you’re a blogger, you can learn a whole lot from journalists.

Combine the new blogging approaches with some good old journalistic values – like fact checking, hearing out both parties, good argumentation, hunting for your own news, and did I mention fact checking? – and you’ll have a blog that stands out from the crowd. It will be a blog that a) is personal and engaging and b) stands for great quality and trustworthiness.

The most bloggers just post stuff as soon as they’ve read it somewhere else. So really, how hard is it to differentiate from them?

Development & Design

1. WebDesignerWall: Wordpress Theme Hacks

Every time when I adjust one of my blog’s design, I refer to the WordPress tricks from webdesigner Nick La. Conditional tags, Feature post highlighting, and thumbnails – I owe them all to Mr. La. Scan the article quickly and refer to it whenever you spice up your blog design.

• Visit the WebDesignerWall for WordPress tricks that spice up your blog

2. Smashing Magazine: 10 Killer WordPress Hacks

Same story here: this is also a good guide to the better Wordpress code editing sessions. Especially since this article contains dozens of links to other valuable development posts. Save it in you Delicious for when your blog needs a make over.

• Visit Smashing Magazine to maximize your blog with some nifty hacks

3. Yoast: Wordpress SEO

Some bloggers would argue that search engine optimization (SEO) deserves a special category. I don’t. Only when I’m building a blog, SEO features in my to-do list. Wordpress guru Joost de Valk wrote a handy check list for this. Follow all his steps and don’t worry about SEO after that. It’s about the content people.

• Visit Yoast to find a guide to excellent Wordpress SEO

4. Smashing Magazine: The Secrets Of Grunge Design

Have another look at this blog design and you’ll understand why I’ve featured this grunge post by Smashing Magazine. When working together on the Dutchproblogger.com design with Odilo Girod, I’ve sent him a couple of these posts. I loved the grunge trend, but wanted an original twist to it. Odilo knew how to handle this request and came up with the powerfull design you’re looking at right now. That’s the challenge in blog design: adopt the trends you love and blend it with your own style.

• Visit Smashing Magazine for a grunge design gallery

5. Pro Blog Design: 10 Things to do After Installing WordPress

Darren Rowse, the original problogger from Problogger.net, has set up many side blogs. Have a look at TwiTips to see what I mean. Whenever he spots an extremely popular subject, like Twitter, a blog is created quickly. If you’re like him, refer to this handy Wordpress checklist on Pro Blog Design by freelance webdesigner Lee Munroe. He describes then steps you’ll have to take anytime you’re installing a Wordpress blog.

• Visit Pro Blog Design for a Wordpress installation checklist

6. Rubiqube: Adding Tabs to Your Blog Sidebar

As you might have noticed, the sidebar of this blog is pretty simple. I like it that way, since you won’t get distracted when reading an article. Yet sometimes a blog desperatly needs widgets like “Most Read” and “Recent Comments”. This post on Rubiqube introduced me to a way to prevent chaos in the sidebar. The answer? Tabs! After reading the article you can easily add tabs to your blog with the scripts from the Yahoo! UI Library. You can check out how I’ve used them on the frontpage.

• Visit Rubiqube for a tutorial on widget tabs

7. Nettuts: Build a Featured Posts Section for WordPress

When working for blogs who welcome ten news posts to the frontpage on a daily basis, one starts searching for ways to highlight posts. At least, that’s what I did. And many others, which explains the magazine trend. Major blogs like Mashable started looking more similar to print magazines in 2008 and this trend will probably continue. If you feel like you should at least welcome a major aspect of the magazine trend, go for the featured post. Never let that great post be topped by a short news article. Nettuts offers a step by step tutorial.

• Visit Nettuts to learn how to build a Wordpress featured posts section

8. Pearsonified: What Every Blogger Needs to Know About Categories

The good thing about hundreds of probloggers sharing their best practices, is that you don’t have to come up with everything yourself. Imaging examing and reviewing every damn aspect of blogs. If that was the case, I would had have to come up with the great categories strategies by Chris Pearson myself. Now I can just read them on Pearsonified and apply plus adjust them to my own blog. Best lesson from the post: “By giving users a list of categories to browse on your site, you are creating a psychological conundrum that usually leaves them with a severe case of analysis paralysis.”

• Visit Pearsonified for a great take on blog categories

9. Smashing Magazine: Footers in Modern Web Design, Creative Examples and Ideas

Ok, this blog doesn’t have the most original footer, so why is this post featured in the list? Well, because it shows how far you can take blog design. It’s a fantastic playground, where you can do whatever you like. Especially in places like the footer. It’s a jungle out there. The article also represents the excellent job by Smashing Magazine editors Vitaly Friedman and Sven Lennartz. They have an eye for small trends in blog design and highlight them in a fantastic and thorough way.

• Visit Smashing Magazine and witness blog footers fueled by, uhm, LSD?

10. Wordpress Codex: Template Tags

All the articles mentioned in the Design/ Development section of this series are focused on Wordpress. It’s simply the best blogging platform out there – mainly because of its seemingly infinite customization options. The Wordpress Codex’ Template Tags page represents that for me. Template tags are used within your blog’s Templates to display information dynamically or otherwise customize your blog, providing the tools to make it as individual and interesting as you are. Browse through them and finetune your blog during a rainy Sunday afternoon.

• Visit the Wordpress Codex and spuice up your blog with Template Tags

Workflow

11. Zenhabits: The Dirty Little Secrets of Productivity Bloggers

“I’ll be the first to admit it. I take naps. I sometimes take a day or two off and feel unmotivated. I will let tasks pile up,” writes Leo Babauta, author of the Top 100 blog zenhabits. He’s part of an online elite called productivity bloggers. These folks pump out high-quality content in an amazing speed and throw around terms like “reached x thousand RSS subscribers in four days” and all that. Although they provide the blogosphere with lots of effective techniques, don’t get all shook up by them. They’re human. Hence this post.

• Visit zenhabits to read more dirty little secrets about Gina Trapani and the likes.

12. ReadWriteWeb: RSS Reset, Dump Your Feeds for a Month

Are you tired of the same old stuff flowing through your feeds? Do you feel like you’re not coming any further than Darren Rowse’s writings? You realize there’s more stuff out there and appreciate diversity, but your stuck in your RSS Reader. ReadWriteWeb’s Corvida has a solution: dump all your regular feeds for a month and start working with aggregation sites. Smaller quality blogs will allow you to venture into unexplored territories.

• Visit ReadWriteWeb for a refreshing approach on RSS

13. Problogger: How Batch Processing Made Me 10 Times More Productive

Do you recognize the following scenario: you spent all day running around and working only to wonder in the evening how much you’ve really done? Problogger Darren Rowse comes to the rescue. In June 2008, he wrote a post describing a technique that has increased his productivity levels incredibly: batching. He organized his working life in such a way that most of the activities that he does are ‘batched’ in one way or another. He has discovered that many ‘urgent’ things can wait and in fact to make them ‘take a number’ and ‘get in line’ brings order to mess. Please read this post, as you’ll definetly become more productive. I promise.

• How Batch Processing Made Me 10 Times More Productive

14. The Four Hour Work Week: Interview with Gina Trapani, Founder of Lifehacker

In March 2008, Bestselling-author Tim Ferriss from The 4-hour Workweek interviewed the founding editor of Lifehacker.com, Gina Trapani. She made some interesting remarks on the flexibility of the Getting Things Done approach: “To some degree, I reject the super-structured, old school of time management thought, (..) From 10:45 to 11:15 check email,” etc. As a “web worker,” by nature I embrace serendipity and tangents, and like to keep myself open to working on unexpected things that excite me, even if they’re not in the plan. (..) At the same time, I think a lot of web workers like me can take this to the extreme, and need a dose of structure and limits in their day.” Food for thought, especially when you’re a blogger.

• Visit the Four Hour Work Week for a down-to-earth approach to GTD

15. DutchProblogger.com: The self-destructive tendency of bloggers

Take a moment and think about the worst posts you’ve ever written. Got some? Alright.., now go back to the moments you were writing those low-quality posts. Back then, you were probably blogging to fill up space or meet an (imaginary) deadline. Right? Never do that! Only blog when you feel inspired. Otherwise you’ll wind up with poorly-written stuff. And when you do feel inspired, write more than you need to.

• Visit this other section of my blog to prevent self-destruction.

16. Bomega: Hiatuses Increasing Aversion Effect

Serial Internet Entrepreneur and founder of The Next Web Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten thinks the reason most new bloggers stop blogging because of the Hiatuses Increasing Aversion Effect. That’s his own theory, and it basically comes down to the habit of raising the bar for yourself – based on a feeling of guilt. Recognition of a problem is the first step to a solution. So when you’re new to blogging, you might wanna take a moment to read this short article.

• Visit Bomega to learn how to battle the Hiatuses Increasing Aversion Effect

17. Web Worker Daily: GTD for Bloggers, The Art of Stress-free Blogging

The GTD standard work is David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. I’ve read it, and you’ve probably read the book too. Some techniques Mr. Lifehacking describes aren’t suitable for bloggers. Their tough schedule, pressure for getting scoops, and the endless comment moderation require different approaches. Hence Leo Babauta wrote an article for Web Worker Daily in which he describes how you can adjust GTD to blogging. Read and learn.

• Visit Web Worker Daily to learn how to apply David Allen’s to your blog

18. Lifehacker: Top 10 Tools to Get Blogging Done

“Writing your blog should be a fun way to stretch your mind and stay connected to trends, friends, and the greater world, not another computer task that takes far too long to get done. But that’s exactly what it can feel like if it takes you more time to find your post ideas, tweak your markup, and make everything look right than to actually get your thoughts down.” Being somewhat experienced at this blogging thing, Lifehacker editors have pinpointed a few tools and tricks that make their posts go faster and smoother. Firefox hacks included.

• Visit LifeHacker for some nifty Firefox hacks and plugins to improve your blogging

19. Dutchproblogger.com: How to process blog-related email Getting Things Done-style

David Allen shares some good email techniques. Yet when you’re a blogger, checking your mail is a slightly different story. So I started thinking about a good way to process my mail, and this is what I came up with.Every time I open a blog-related email I ask myself – like Allen commanded – ‘Can I do this in 2 minutes?’. If so, I do it immediately. If not, I use a handy Label system that prevents from going nuts over email.

• Visit this other section of my blog to find out how you can process your email

20. Locus Magazine: Cory Doctorow, Writing in the Age of Distraction

Earlier in this list I mentioned an interview with lifehacker Gina Trapani. She advised bloggers to go in a closed mode when writing. BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow elaborates on that with an article in the Lotus Magazine of January 2009. He writes: “We know that our readers are distracted and sometimes even overwhelmed by the myriad distractions that lie one click away on the Internet, but of course writers face the same glorious problem: the delirious world of information and communication and community that lurks behind your screen, one alt-tab away from your word-processor.” Here’s how to prevent that.

• Visit Locus Magazine to learn how to write in a closed mode

Publishing

21. Problogger: 13 Questions to Ask Before Publishing a Post On Your Blog

In the haze of blogging, there’s always a chance you miss an important aspect that might boost the popularity or usefulness. Luckily, one of world’s most expierenced bloggers has made a checklist with thirteen questions to ask before publishing a post on your blog. Print it, frame it, live by it, and only violate one of the rules if you do it purposely.

• Visit Problogger and print the blog publishing checklist

22. Copyblogger: The Richard Branson Guide to Making Money With Blogs

Copyblogger Brian Clark is famous for his great headlines (I’ve also included a tutorial on headlines by him) and witty posts. The one I’m including in this problogger list, is actually quite short. It would be a great idea to frame this one as well and hang it right next to Problogger’s 13 questions post. Helped by a quote from Richard Branson – I wanted to be an editor or a journalist… but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going -, Clark hopes to give you a vital insight.

• Visit Copyblogger to learn from Virgin’s mastermind.

23. Problogger: 69 Questions to Ask to Review Your Blog

American computer scientist, researcher, and visionary Alan Kay once said: “perspective is worth 80 IQ points”. Look back every once in a while to not lose perspective. Problogger Rowse gives you a helping hand by publishing a longlist of questions you can use during the review process. Save a Saturday for this and think of topics like traffic, content, your niche, design, community, money and technical. Make sure you translate these thoughts in action point and improve your blog drastically.

• Visit Problogger, read the list and spend a day on reviewing your blog

24. 43folders: What Makes for a Good Blog?

Blog company SixApart asked 43folders’ Merlin Mann what his favorite blogs are. As Mann started thinking about the blogs he has returned to over the years — and the increasingly few new ones that really grabbed his attention — he wants to start with, ironically enough, a list. So Mann compiled one with points he thinks help make for a good blog. Like “Good blogs reflect focused obsessions” and “Good blogs make you want to start your own blog”. Great read – for monthly review.

• Visit 43folders for an inspiring list that should characterize your blog

25. Copyblogger: How to Write Magnetic Headlines

“Your headline is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader. Without a headline or post title that turns a browser into a reader, the rest of your words may as well not even exist,” that’s how Brian Clark starts this tutorial for writing great headlines. On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. That’s why he helps you with templates for effective headlines and tips on finding inspiration and keywords for that incredibly important line.

• Visit Copyblogger to learn how to lure people to your blog with headlines

26. Dosh Dosh: How to Say Nothing in 500 Words (A Lesson on Writing)

The ability to write well is important for anyone who has ever needed to arrange words together to convey ideas or opinions. Well, I think bloggers fit that profile easily. Maki, a Philosophy student in Toronto, is the man behind Dosh Dosh and knows perfectly how to grab people by using the right words. He writes around one post every month and manages to attract thousands of readers with them. Why? Well, partly because he takes the side of the argument that most of the citizens will want to avoid. He also slips out of abstraction. Want to get know more of Maki’s tricks? Read this article.

• Visit Dosh Dosh for some excellent writing tips

27. Kurt Vonnegut: How to Write With Style

Kurt Vonnegut was a prolific American author with a clear opinion on writing with style: “Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing. If you scribble your thoughts any which way, your readers will surely feel that you care nothing about them. They will mark you down as an egomaniac or a chowderhead — or, worse, they will stop reading you.” Use the following tips by Vonnegut to give your blog a recognizable and fine tone of voice.

• Visit VonnegutStyle to learn writing from the master

28. The Four Hour Work Week: 7 Reasons to Subscribe

There are tons of articles out there telling you how to boost your number of RSS subscribers. Useless, as the answer is pretty simple: write great content. What’s more valuable, is introducing people to the RSS phenomenon. There’s a huge group of Internet users who are not familiar with the time-saving reading technology. Timothy Ferriss knows how to convince those folks, as you can tell by his RSS page. He highlights the advantages and encourage people to “test” RSS. Click and learn.

• Visit The Four Hour Work Week to see how a perfect RSS page looks like

29. DutchProblogger.com: How to get true fans, pick a sentiment

In order to win fans of your blog, pick a certain sentiment and let that echo back in every post you write. I got this idea when I admired the psychedelic pop group MGMT at Lowlands, one of Holland’s most popular music festivals. A friend and I discussed why we thought this band rocked. My friend said he liked the lyrics, which concern topics like freedom, hedonism, anti-establishment, and the use of mind-altering drugs. MGMT represents a lifestyle a lot of urban kids secretly crave – but don’t dare to adopt. By listening to MGMT’s music, thousands fans – including my friend and I – have the feeling they actually are part of this revolutionary wave of kids. This shared sentiment is an important part of MGMT’s recent success. Apply this lesson to the tone of voice of your blog. I did it as well.

• Visit this other section of my blog and learn what my sentiment is

30. Wired: Secrets of the 7 Basic Blog Posts

When reading a lot of articles about how you should blog, which formats are the most effective, and how many words you should limit your post too, the stress can become too much. Is there any room left for creativity? Sure! Just don’t take everything too seriously and preserve enough of your own style. Lore Sjöberg proves this with an article on the Wired site. He writes: “In the spirit of oversimplifying things so that you can smugly shove human endeavors into pre-labeled slots, I’d like to present my own, contemporary take on this premise: the Seven Basic Blog Posts.”

• Visit Wired and learn that you shouldn’t take all publishing tips too seriously

Inspiration

31. GapingVoid: How to be creative

It has been twenty years when Hugh MacLeod started drawing his “squiggly” cartoons and a decade when he decided to draw them on the back of business cards. It was the consequence of a “creative bug” he had. For him, this bug led to a lot of great work and experiences, yet this isn’t a guarantee that it will turn out successfully for everyone. After all, it IS a bug. So in 2004 he decided to write a piece called ‘How to be creative‘. A great read! Especially his remark that creative people should have a “sexy” and a “cash” job helped me a lot. Some work you do is just for the sake of paying the bills, the other is for fun – it’s your creative outlet. When I build a blog for a company, I just do it to pay for my groceries. When I write a post on this blog, I do it because I love it.

• Visit GapingVoid to “learn” how to be creative

32. BoomTown: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Learned to Love the Blog: Goodbye Dead Trees!

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. Halfway 2007, she said goodbye to printmedia and focused on her blog. At the beginning of 2008, she wrote: “I think it is safe to say that I will probably never write another thing professionally for a print publication and will spend the rest of my career–such that it will be–publishing online only.” Though I don’t agree with her “dead trees” comments – news papers are here to stay -, her story about blogging is inspiring.

• Visit Boomtown to read more about a journalist who turned her back against print media

33. TechCrunch: Six Months In, And 600 Posts Later . . . The Worlds Of Blogging and Journalism Collide (In My Brain)

Before Erick Schonfeld started writing for world’s largest techblog TechCrunch, he already covered startups and technology news for 14 years. After six months of blogging, the former journalist wrote: “The journalist in me has been avoiding this post (too navel-gazing, too self-absorbed), but the blogger in me can’t help it. Media is changing—how it is produced and how it is consumed. The worlds of blogging and journalism are colliding and I want to get some thoughts down on this transition before I forget what the old world was like or feel too comfortable in the new one.” He then continues describing the growing influence of blogs, his 24/7 addiction to blogging, and the mantra of the TechCrunch crew: “We live or die by how fast we can post after a story breaks, if we can’t break it ourselves”. A must-read for every (tech)blogger.

• Visit TechCrunch to read the blogging story of editor Erick Schonfeld

34. Liako.Biz: The makings of a media mogul: Michael Arrington of TechCrunch

In December 2008, Technologist Elias Bizannes wrote an extensive article about the success of Michael Arrington, the man behind TechCrunch: “Compared to his peers/competitors, he joined the game quite late, and yet he is absolutely smashing them. Same software in some cases and same focus. The question is, what did Arrington do that others didn’t?” The analysis by Bizannes is both interesting and motivating. You know the deal, sort of the American Dream kind of thing. Hard work and luck.

• Visit Liako.Biz to find out how just a man managed to build one of world’s largest blogs.

35. Sitepoint: Blogging Isn’t Dead, But Linking May Be Broken

In October 2008, the blogosphere was stirred up by gossip blogger Paul Boutin. In a successful attempt for some linkbait, the Valleywag correspondent announced the death of blogging on Wired.com. Thousands of emotional articles from angry bloggers followed. Sitepoint’s Josh Cantone put aside his emotions and wrote an excellent post about a phenomenon that IS threatening the blogosphere: information silos. Some blogs have stopped linking to other sources and focus on previous work instead. Cantone wrote: “The blogosphere was built on links, and it if wants to avoid the death that Boutin so prematurely announced, bloggers must continue to link to one another and not create silos around their information.”

• Visit SitePoint to learn about the consequences of information silos

36. The Blog Herald: More Tips for Conference Blogging

I’ve done a lot of live blogging at The Next Web, the European tech blog. Although the last gig, Le Web with Boris, was some good old geeky rock ‘n’ roll – my best live blogging experience took place at The Next Web Conference. I teamed up with Anne Helmond. We chose a good spot in the front, sat down next to TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld and blew the blog away. We covered every talk and session out there. Want to know about our secret? Read Anne’s post on The Blog Herald and some tips on the very blog you’re looking at right now.

• Visit the Blog Herald for some excellent conference blogging tips

34. OnlineJournalismBlog.com: Starting a blog? 12 ideas for blog posts

Having a popular blog is great. But starting one is pretty damn difficult. Most people complain about a lack of inspiration. Well, here’s Paul Bradshaw to the rescue. This British blogger is currently writing a chapter on blogging for a book on online journalism. It includes twelve typical blog post types to kick start ideas. It includes “Blog an event”, “Suggest an idea”, “Pick a Fight”, and, here’s the best one, “Let someone else post”. Paul is a great guy who left an impression at the international blog conference in Amsterdam, BLOG08. He knows exactly how to maintain a personal blog. So if I were you, I’d click on the link below.

• Visit OnlineJournalismBlog.com for some inspiration to get started with blogging

35. Lost Art of Blogging: The Homeric Way of Blogging: Storytelling

“The Lost Art of Blogging” must be one of the best names ever made up for a blog about blogging. It has a certain sentiment, sounds like an adventure movie, and presents the blog immediately as a place where experts write. You expect writings like these: “I feel like the storytelling element in blogs is growing ever thin, with more and more blogs going on a more blunt approach, way too direct and to the point. I read a lot of marketing and tech blogs, and while they’re very good, they don’t really have substance; they all feel somewhat the same. I’ve noticed the same thing in most niches, too.” The writer then mentions Homer, the ancient Greek poet, and continues with some practical tips (all accompanied by examples of Homer). Classic stuff.

• Visit The Lost Art of Blogging to learn how storytelling can enrich your blog.

36. BBC News: Bedtime for Gonzo?

“Championed by Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer and Thompson himself, New Journalism blurred the old distinctions between journalism and creative writing”, wrote the BBC when Hunter S Thompson past away in early 2005. During the Sixties and decades after that, Thompson practiced the art of Gonzo journalism. “Where Tom Wolfe politely declined an acid tab in his iconic Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Hunter S Thompson denied himself nothing.” He went all the way for his stories – of which Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the most well-known. I think that we, bloggers, can learn a lot from this great writer. Thompson showed us how to combine creativity with reporting. And that’s exactly what blogging is about.

• Visit the BBC to read Hunter S Thompson’s story

Comments

37. The Guardian: What is the 1% rule?

All the bloggers immediately know what I’m talking about if I start complaining that readers don’t comment. A famous study by Jakob Nielsen in October 2006 showed that only one percent of a blog’s visitors contribute to the comments section on a regular basis: “In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action”. The Guardian has some background you have to know before reading on.

• Visit The Guardian to get to know the problem with comments

38. Dutchproblogger.com: Getting readers to comment by writing an unfinished blog post

Tempt people to comment by leaving things out. Make sure your blog post has an open ending, don’t give away everything you have to say. An article is only complete when it includes a discussion with visitors. During that discussion you can give away your last arguments in order to discover the opinions of your readers.

• Visit this other section on my blog to learn why less is more.

39. Problogger: 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog

As you’ve read in the above post, only 1 out of every 100 readers comment on your blog. Luckily, Darren Rowse knows some techniques that have helped him tremendously the last couple of years: Invite Comments, Ask Questions, Be Open Ended, Interact with comments left, Set Boundaries, Be humble, Be gracious, Be controversial, ‘Reward’ Comments and Make it Easy to Comment. To give you an idea, this actual post attracted 626 comments.

• Visit Problogger for ten proven techniques to get those visitors talking.

40. Lost Art of Blogging: The Comment Etiquette: The Guide to Proper Blog Commenting

“Commenting has been used as a promotional tool for years and guess what, it still works like a charm. However if you truly want tot harness the fruits of blog commenting you have to know how to properly do it.”, writes young internet entrepreneur Tibi Puiu on The Lost Art of Blogging. He outlines a few unwritten principles of proper blog commenting, that are based more on common sense, then on any particular social skill. He’s right, commenting IS a great way of getting more exposure. Don’t approach it like some sort of spam, but follow the advice of this young rock star.

• Visit The Lost Art of Blogging to see how you can use commenting for promotional purposes

Please don’t hesitate to share articles about blogging which have been of tremendous value for you!

Animations student Joscha van Deijk knows how to draw an ubercool cartoon. This king of cult is a walking library of modern entertainment who can translate his passion to the drawing boards.

By daylight, Sander Ritman helps the elderly. When the sun sets, Sander roams the bar of Amsterdam with his guitar and poems. Students of the University of Amsterdam recently awarded the gifted storyteller as most popular poet.

They’re two of my most creative friends. Guess what I asked them to do?

I love to surround myself with persons who have creative minds and an entrepreneurial spirit. People who do stuff, who want to share stuff. Almost everybody loves some attention for his work, let alone feedback. So I tell those hip folks a blog is a perfect platform for that.

This article will function as a personal standard piece on your blog as a platform. From now on, whenever a friend or foe starts a blog – I’ll send him this post to get started. It’s a work in progress, so your suggestions are more than welcome.

Maybe you’re a more advanced blogger and this post tells you nothing new. In that case, see it as a holy duty to share your knowledge in the comments.

First question: WHY would you want to publish on the web?

I could go on forever telling you why you should want to publish on the web, but let’s sum it up in two points.

• You meet like-minded people, some of them can change your life (job offer, best friend)
• Publishing leads to more creativity, an audience works stimulating

A blog as a platform

One of the best-known personal branding experts in geek country is Chris Brogan. He recently wrote a post titled “If I started today“. You’ve guessed it right, he describes what he would do when today was his first day on the social web. One of the most important remarks in Brogan’s piece is his determined advice to use a blog as the platform for all your online activities. Based on that assumption, I wrote this post.

Amsterdam blogs, do you? (Photo by Boris, cartoon by Hugh)

Why a social network doesn’t suffice

I know a girl who makes beautiful drawings, she publishes them on Flickr.
A curly acquaintance is an aspiring film maker, I regularly watch his work on Vimeo.

Though the decision to publish their work on a dedicated network is a smart one, they’d get more from aggregating it on a blog. Here’s why:

• Unlike a profile page on say, Flickr, you can give a blog its own face. The possibilities for customization are endless.
• There’s hardly a technical barrier for a blog. Every visitor grasps what you’re doing there – whether it’s your little brother, grandma, professor, or a potential client. A Vimeo page might look quite abstract to them.
• Like Loren Feldman said at BLOG08: “The most important thing in your digital life is your personal blog. Not Facebook, not any of the stupid groups you belong to. Your blog is your little slice of heaven and nobody can fuck with you there. [..] So connect with your niche and put all your energy into it”.
• Conversations are scattered all over the web. Your admirers comment on a Flickr page, Facebook wall, and Twitter account. Aggregate them on your blog to collect all the feedback and praise. Read here how.

What belongs where

My sister is currently shooting a documentary in Nepal. Every once in a while, she writes a lengthy blog post and enriches it with photos from her Flickr account.

Here are some other tips on how you can aggregate your online creations at your personal platform, your blog.

I tweet so I exist
Resist the temptation of posting short updates on your blog. That’s microblogging, so save it for Twitter. Only post articles that really define you and contain your unique knowledge. Telling folks you had lunch with your best friend isn’t gonna get you any RSS subscribers. Put it up on Twitter and aggregate those messages in your sidebar with Twitter Tools. This plugin also automatically notifies your followers whenever you’ve posted a new article.

• Learn more about the use of Twitter on The Lost Art of Blogging

My friend Sacha Post making photos in a church in Monselice

Shooting life?
Upload your photographs on Flickr. If you want to include just one picture, browse to the photo page and click on “All Sizes”. There’s the code you’ll need. You can also make a cool slideshow and embed it in your posts. Share Flickr photos in your sidebar with the specially designed badge.

Place your videos on either YouTube or Vimeo. The first one can be considered to be the international standard, the second is the more artsy alternative. Use Viper’s Video Quicktags to publish them on your blog.

The list is rather long…

• Presentations go on Slideshare
• Your resume on LinkedIn
• Bookmarks on Del.icio.us
• Your events on Upcoming
• etc etc etc

Aggregate and add value with articles

Aggregate all your digital publications in your little slice of digital heaven. Then add value by writing thoughtful blog posts in which you share specific knowledge about your work or passion. And most of all, don’t hesitate to contact me when you’ve any questions. I’m always looking forward to meeting new people who have a passion for what they do.