5 Reasons to be Critical of Other Bloggers - DailyBlogTips |
- 5 Reasons to be Critical of Other Bloggers
- Update About the Touch Typing Experiment
- Check Out The Affiliate Marketing 101 Guide
- You Don’t Want To Be A Jack Of All Trades
| 5 Reasons to be Critical of Other Bloggers Posted: 23 Feb 2010 08:52 PM PST  This is a guest post by Bob Bessette. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here. This post may be considered edgy to some but I am here to say that I am not a rebel. Just read any of my posts and you will conclude that I am not a malcontent, a dissident, or a troublemaker. Probably my biggest fault is my brute honesty so I sought out one of the largest blogs in the universe to get my message across. Daniel Scocco has allowed me the honor of guest posting here on DailyBlogTips so I am taking advantage of his vast audience to speak my mind. I read a lot of blogs and I am growing tired of the mutual admiration society. I think a lot of my fellow bloggers are becoming complacent. We are too concerned with how we will be perceived rather than speaking our minds. We are too concerned that the popular blog owner will be offended if we offer up criticism that comes straight from the heart. We're afraid of being ostracized from the masses of commenters who have nothing more worthwhile to say than "Great Post!", "You hit the nail on the head with this post", or "You are a true inspiration to me and my life!" I think we need to be more critical of other bloggers no matter how big or popular that their blogs have become. Why? Well, let me tell you… 1. We must be true to ourselves If we disagree we should be true to our convictions and speak up! When I was just starting out with my blog I criticized a very popular blogger in the comments section of another blog who was reviewing the popular blogger's book. Before I knew it the popular blogger responded to my comments which I thought was really cool. He didn't respond with vitriol but with an honest reaction and counter-argument. What a refreshing concept… 2. Constructive criticism helps the Author If I write a post I want my readers to be honest in the comments. If they don't agree with either a premise that I made in a post or something I said, I want them to let me know. In fact, it's the critical comments that I remember most because these are the ones that I tend to think about more than the others. Believe me, I welcome any comments on my blog but when someone takes a different stance or offers more information I find this really helpful. I belong to a few different blog forums and recently I asked other members to critique my blog site. I got a number of responses from members praising my site but it was the constructive criticism that I remember and it helped me to make positive changes to my blog. 3. A dialog will be fostered When I criticized that popular blogger back when I started out, I have since been able to foster a relationship with him. I started a dialog that day and it has continued to grow. I think this is the true spirit of blogging. We can foster a dialog with people we have never met but have a common passion. 4. We'll keep each other honest I think that some popular blog owners feel that they can do no wrong. They feel that their words are pearls of wisdom and that their readers are blessed to be reading them. Well, I'm here to say that it's not their fault! It's our fault. It's our lack of being critical at the risk of being called jealous, spiteful, or resentful of their success. We must continue to keep each other honest by offering up our true feelings in the comments and we'll all be better for it. 5. Our blogs will improve! As this New Year begins I have goals for the coming year that are based around my blog as I'm sure you do as well. All of these goals are pretty much geared toward one thing: improving my blog. We need to hear from our readers what they feel is good about our blog and what they feel needs improvement. Ask your readers and they will respond. If we are all honest with each other and give our opinions in a responsible manner then we can all improve as bloggers. In the movie Wall Street the lead character Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, had a memorable quote that was "Greed, for lack of a better word, is Good." Well, I'm here to say that "Criticality, for lack of a better word, is Good!" Let's all be critical of each other, no matter what you feel the consequences may be. Any blog owner who can't take criticism isn't worth subscribing to. Let's step it up this year and be true to ourselves, foster the dialog, offer constructive criticism, keep each other honest, and improve our blogs as a result. Bob Bessette writes a blog called Totally Unique Life. His blog is geared toward practical advice and strategies for life, work, and play. Original Post: 5 Reasons to be Critical of Other Bloggers  |
| Update About the Touch Typing Experiment Posted: 23 Feb 2010 05:54 AM PST  Around six months ago I wrote a post stating that I was going to learn touch typing. When I wrote it I was already using all my fingers to type, but my speed was terrible. I was typing around 30 words per minute…. That is where we left the story. Then a couple of weeks ago one reader emailed me asking how the touch typing experiment was going, so I decided to write an update. The experiment went out very well and just as planned. I had tried to learn touch typing in the past, but I always went back to typing with two fingers after a couple of days because it was easier. Then one day I decided I would learn all the positions of the finger and make the switch for good (which is when I wrote that post). That is, I would not return to two-finger typing no matter what. On the first couple of weeks I felt miserable, typing 30 words per minute. Writing emails was a pain, let alone posts for the blog…. But I started to notice fast improvements, and within a couple of months I was already back to 60 words per minute or so. From there I stopped paying attention to how fast I was typing, but I kept getting faster and faster. How fast? Today I got curious and decided to go back to the speed test. On my first trial I got 100 words per minute. I am guessing that warmed up I could get over 105 words per minute.
Six months ago I was typing at 65 words per minute, so I basically increased my typing productivity by more than 50%! This is probably one of the best skills I have learned in a while, and I definitely recommend anyone who is not touch typing yet to make the switch as soon as possible. Finally, if you are going to measure how fast you type, make sure to not get confused with the number of characters and words you can type per minute. The comparison is always made with words per minute. On my last post there was a guy who wrote a comment like this: “I swear to God! 152 characters per minute! 29 right and 0 wrong“…. Original Post: Update About the Touch Typing Experiment |
| Check Out The Affiliate Marketing 101 Guide Posted: 22 Feb 2010 11:46 AM PST 
I just went there to check the material, and I must say that it is really solid. Jonathan covers pretty much all you need to know to get started with affiliate marketing. He generated over $4 million last year in affiliate sales, so he sure knows what he is talking about, too. Here is a list of the sections included:
You’ll find the sections where he talks about affiliate marketing methods particularly useful, because he goes into details about the techniques he uses, the tricks that he found effective to generate more sales and so on. Finally, he is also having a contest where the two people sending more referrals to the affiliate marketing guide we’ll win an Apple iPad. You’ll get your referral link once you subscribe to the newsletter. Neat promotional idea by the way, huh? Original Post: Check Out The Affiliate Marketing 101 Guide |
| You Don’t Want To Be A Jack Of All Trades Posted: 22 Feb 2010 06:34 AM PST  You probably have already seen a bio like this one on Twitter, LinkedIn or on some other social networking site:
Not sure about you, but when I come across bios like the one above I immediately conclude two things: 1) the person is not really sure about what she wants to do professionally and 2) she is not going to achieve outstanding results on any of the mentioned fields. This concept applies to any aspect of our lives, and he is one offline example to illustrate it. I play the saxophone, and I used to study on a local music school. I remember that we had two sax teachers there. One of them had only played the sax his whole life. The other played the sax, but also played violin, guitar, flute, and a bunch of other instruments. The first teacher was considered a sax master, and as a result he was requested to play around all the time, made a good living from giving private lessons and so on. The other one was seen just as an average player, on all the instruments he played. As a result he struggled to get recognition and financial rewards. You can find similar stories inside the corporate world, too. There are employees who do a bit of everything. They do some marketing work, move to the finance department, then they spend some months working with the human resources manager and so on. But those usually have a flat career. Employees who are very specialized and deliver outstanding results, on the other hand, usually get promoted and reach leadership positions pretty fast. If you want to achieve success, therefore, you must specialize in something and be among the best people who do that thing. Sure there are some cases of brilliant people who were the best doing several different things, but that is the exception that confirms the rule. Great painters only paint. Great programmers only code. Great entrepreneurs only build businesses. Great authors only write. So on and so forth. What about you, do you already know what you want to do? If you do, focus all your energies on it and become one of the best people in the world who can do that. If you don’t know yet, well, figure it out instead of trying to do a bit of everything. The least thing you want to become is a jack of all trades. In fact the figure of speech goes like this: “Jack of all trades, master of none.” Original Post: You Don’t Want To Be A Jack Of All Trades |
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