How to Not be ‘That Guy’ in the Blogging Community

November 27, 2013 by Mike Stenger

Every crowd has “that guy” or “that gal” who are often the subject of annoyance, and the blogging community is no exception. Here is just a small lists of don’ts, and we’d love to hear some of your annoyances in the comments below…

Don’t Ask To Exchange Links

If you have a good or decently ranked blog, chances are you’ve received requests to “exchange links,” which is basically a fancy way of saying promote me on your blog, and I’ll promote you back. Link exchanges happen all the time, and is often to help with SEO even though Google has openly commented on such practices. Other times, it’s just to try and get free promotion.

However, it’s an incredibly ineffective approach, and 99 percent of the time, the site that someone wants linked is complete crap. Back in the day, I remember getting requests for sites that had absolutely nothing to do with my own. If someone naturally enjoys your blog, and/or is inspired by something you write, they will link to you. That’s not always the case though, and asking to “exchange links” is a quick way for someone to exchange your email for something more important, like a chain email from their Aunt Betty. [Read more…]

Blogging Like a Rockstar with Chris Ducker

November 21, 2013 by Mike Stenger

Chris Ducker is an entrepreneur, and Founder/CEO of Virtual Staff Finder and Live2Sell. In 2010, Chris ventured into blogging, and quickly became the outsourcing authority. In this interview, we talk about how he amassed a large following, the biggest blogging mistakes and more.

You’ve been very successful in business, most notably with Live2Sell, and it wasn’t until 2010 that you got serious about blogging. Were there tips/best practices that you applied from the business world?

Being original is number one in business. If you want to do anything in business now, you’ve got to be as original as possible because it’s becoming more and more complex. The second thing is just be consistent in what you’re doing whether it’s a podcast, building out a YouTube channel, or creating a blog.

I decided to make a quality design of the blog (Virtual Business Lifestyle) apparent from the outset. I didn’t want it to look just like any other blog out there. I wanted to try and stand out, and be as original as I possibly could. When I first started Virtual Business Lifestyle, I was blogging three times a week pretty religiously for almost a year, and it certainly helped to drive more traffic to the site, increase opt-ins, and overall get the blog in front of as many people as possible. [Read more…]

Geek Out with ForeverGeek’s Kickstarter Store

November 14, 2013 by Mike Stenger

Founded in 2009, Kickstarter is one of the world’s largest crowdfunding sites, with over 51,000 projects successfully funded, and nearly $900 million raised. It, like many other similar sites, has helped thousands of people make ideas or concepts a reality. Our sister site, ForeverGeek, covers exactly what you’d expect: geeky news from Doctor Who to cool gaming setups.

Last week, ForeverGeek launched its Kickstarter store, and here’s the basic idea:

While you may like to get in early and fund projects yourself, there is something to be said about being able to make purchases and receive the goods without waiting for the Kickstarter campaign to end, production to finish, and shipping to commence. That’s why we took it upon ourselves to look at Kickstarter to find cool projects that have been successfully funded and ready to ship their products. [Read more…]

How Google+ Hangouts Can Enhance Podcasts

October 29, 2013 by Mike Stenger

Google+ Hangouts enable anyone to host a group video chat, and with the On Air component, anyone can record and stream live to their YouTube account. When I first joined Google+ on its second day of existence, Hangouts really stood out. While, let’s be honest, a lot of the functionality of Google’s own social network is similar to Facebook and Twitter, no other social network offers such a robust group video chat tool…for absolutely free.

In the early days, the service had its ups and downs. There would be crashes, performance issues on Macs, and were even some cases of Hangouts On Airs completely failing to record. Yeah, not something you’re happy to find out after having an hour long conversation that’s now in Internet purgatory. However, those days have quickly been left in the dust, and Google+ Hangouts are more robust than ever.

In the past several years, bloggers have really embraced podcasting. With faster broadband connections, including affordable mics and high quality webcams, many have also incorporated video. While you can use a service like Skype to chat with guests, it comes at a price. You have to buy software to record conversations, the connection quality can be hit or miss, and video chat with more than two people requires a paid Premium account. [Read more…]