[Video] Why You Should Start Blogging Today

The funny thing is, I just started blogging today :)

Congrats and welcome to the club :)

Hi Aaron

Good introduction to blogging video. It's only when I set up a new blog that I realize how many extra social bookmarking channels seem to spring up from month to month.

We've had some fun setting up widgets and blidgets for our blogs and I'd recommend doing this to anyone who sets up a blog as it will generate some extra traffic (I find SEObook blog Google widget very useful).

www.widgetbox.com and www.springwidgets.com are a good starting point as well as Google's own tools.

For anyone starting out I'd also recommend www.feedburner.com They make it very easy to ensure that your blog is as accessible as it can be.

For those using Google Adsense, Feedburner also help you to set up ad boxes on your feeds.

Keep up the good work.

Hi Dave
Thanks for the kind words and the widget suggestions. I need to look into the widget sites more.

I generally am not a fan of ads in feeds (unless they are marketing more of your own content or are overpriced brand ads) because traditional ads in feeds get such a low CTR.

Hi Aaron

To be frank, we only have one that has been set up with ads in a feed and haven't had much experience with it yet, so I will take your words on board. Thanks.

You make friends, "meet" people, people who will do things for you without expecting anything in return.

I'm just setting up a weblog about webdesign and online marketing. This post couldn't come at a better time.

Thanks alot Aaron

Hehe, Nice video tut!!!

Sheesh... I just looked at your browser toolbar search box. "gaming degrees" ;)

Oops. I probably should have edited that out. I was thinking about creating a site in that vertical but am still undecided.

Great video Aaron!

The quality of the vide is great in my opinion, keep up the good work!
I just started my blog last weekend, so its funny that you posted this now. I use Mybloglog, and Feedburner so far. Mybloglog has definently helped to drive a few visitors so far and I also like the feature from Feedburner that gives bloggers an easy way to offer an email subscription to the our blogs.

Guess I'm not the only 1 that saw "gaming degrees", guess when we see something like that from someone like you it gets our curiosity up.

1 question, I think I read that SEO/marketing blogs are losing their effectiveness. Was that you? I have read so much on SEO/marketing in the last 2 months that I can't remember who said what.

Anyway, thanks again for what you do.

I think that the value of blogs and blogging have not gone down, but more that the markets are so saturated that unbranded unoriginal copy and paste style me too blogging is not an effective strategy.

For every person sharing original thoughts there are 100 or 1,000 people typing words, but putting no thought into what their keyboard spits at the screen.

Nope, you didn't talk too fast. Yes, you covered the essential elements and benefits of blogs. I find it hard to think of things to write about on blogs, I'm sure I am not the only one. I need to get the creative idea juices flowing or something.

Aaron, thanks for the great intro. I like the way you integrate different media in the blog. The video was very heplful and informative.
Chris

Hi Aaron,

General Impressions:

Clarity: Very Good. You keep getting better and better. Try to slow down when you are explaining a concept-as much as you can afford to do so without compromising your presentation.

Information Density: To someone who is new to blogging it might be a bit too much to absorb at once. Actually, you could do a whole video series on blogs alone. I believe you intended this video as an airplane view of the benefits of blogging and not so much a technical overview.

Tips:

Highlight Key Points on a Slide:
Consider putting up some of the key benefits (points) on a PowerPoint slide to show during the video. This will help emphasize the points you are making. Rather than staring at the static SEO BOOk web page for the first few minutes, the audience can partake in looking at a slide with a summary of the key points. One to two points per slide.

Relate new technology ideas (ie..RSS Feeds) to the non-tech audience using analogies:

For example: Feeds are like radio channels you tune into to hear the latest updates or news. You can subscribe to a channel (feed) and get the latest information delivered to your email/news reader such as Google Reader without having to visit this site/blog.

----Why go the extra step? You may have some marketers/site owners in the audience who are still making the transition to the online world of marketing and social media.

Resources:
Towards the end of the video, remind your viewers of the link to the SEO Book blogging resource you included in the post. In addition to the SEO book blogging resource, consider highlighting other resources to explore: how to setup a blog, choosing a good blogging platform, etc. These points could be shown on a slide at the end of the presentation or included as part of the post. This will satisfy the "what's next" question in the viewer's mind. Those who do have a blog can directly reference the tips in the SEO Book blogging resource. Those who do not have a blog can refer to other resources you recommend and consult the SEO Book blogging resource.

Keep up the good work.

Rafic

Thanks a lot for the great feedback Rafic.

Hi Aaron,

I have a minor suggestion which I think will significantly improve your videos. It’s the kind of thing that would be much easier to explain with my voice, but I’ll do my best to explain by typing...

Here’s the issue: Very often when you’re making a statement, you raise the pitch of your voice at the end of your sentences. This makes the sentences sound more like questions than statements, or like you’re unsure of yourself or are seeking the listener’s approval.

For example, if you simply try saying the sentence "This is a computer." while keeping your voice pitch steady at the end, or even lowering it, it will sound like a statement, and like you’re confident in what you’re saying.

Now try saying "This is a computer?" while raising the pitch of your voice when you say "computer". You’ll see it sounds like a question, or that you’re unsure whether it actually is a computer.

Raising the pitch of one’s voice is actually how one let’s a listener know that one is asking a question instead of making a statement. Just listen when other people are talking and you’ll realize it.

In the video above, first thing you say is "Hi, this is Aaron Wall, and this is a free marketing video?" (since you raise the pitch of your voice it sounds like you’re asking us if it is a free marketing video) and then you say "...I would start by creating a blog?" (again, you sound not confident in what you’re saying due to raising your pitch when you say "blog". Instead, try keeping your voice pitch steady or dropping it when you say "blog") ......and so on throughout the video.

I hope you can understand what I’m getting at.

I think your blog and your book and your tools are all fantastic.

Justin

Hi Justin
Makes sense. I also had another person told me that I was making this mistake and they said it made me sound "valley girlish".

My new strategy to get past that is to record in smaller chunks. Which seems to be working well on some of the members only videos I have made so far.

I am not sure what it will take to train myself not to do that when recording longer videos, other than perhaps using the pause button often.

Did you see the video at the bottom of this page? Did I do much of the questioning pitch change in it? Or do you feel it is a bit better?
Cheers,
Aaron

Hi Aaron,

Yes I found that it was better. Most of the time during that video your statements sounded like statements. I counted 15 occasions in that video (3 of them in the first sentence) where you raised the pitch of your voice when making statements.

Here's the first sentence, with the "questionized" words capitalized: "Hello this is Aaron WALL, and this is a video about getting the most out of the SEO Book TRAINING PROGRAM, and the internet marketing COMMUNITY?"

I want to mention again that all your material has been quite helpful to me and I find all your blog posts very insightful, including the ones that aren't directly about SEO. I think your brain is much superior to mine, and I am humbled that I am able to offer you a bit of advice to improve the videos :)

I think I know why I raised my pitches on those occassions

• in spite of my name being short and easy it always gets misspelled or missaid...like I get called Eric all the time. One time, after 12 hours of driving I checked into a hotel. And they said that they had a room under Erin Wall.
• With the other words (training program and community) I think I was trying to emphasize them...I guess I need to figure how to emphasize words without sounding like I am asking a question.

Thank you for your feedback. Maybe I should take some voice classes as well.

Hi Aaron

This is Troy Jones and I found the video very informative. I want to mention again that all your material has been quite helpful to me and I find all your blog posts very insightful, including the ones that aren't directly about SEO, I can take this information and start my own blog. This helps me a lot.

Thanks