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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

ProBlogger - Latest Posts

Posted: 30 Dec 2008 06:02 AM PST

With the end of 2008 hurtling towards us many bloggers are beginning to cast our minds forward into the new year ahead to set goals, make resolutions and come up with strategies and plans to grow their blogs in 2009.

While looking forward and planning to improve your blog is something well worth putting time aside for - I’ve found that you can drastically enhance the forward thinking that you do by doing another step first - reflecting upon the past.

The mistake that many bloggers make in only looking forward is that they often fail to capitalize upon and build upon lessons that they’ve already learned.

An Example

I spoke with one blogger this morning who I think illustrates this perfectly. I won’t name him as I don’t want to cause embarrassment but he emailed me to tell me about how he was about to completely relaunch his blog in the coming days. He’d put up a holding page where his old blog had been, was going to launch a completely new design with new branding, he was changing the name and tag line of the blog, was going to change his posting frequency from 3 posts a day to 2-3 posts a week and most strikingly was changing the topic of his blog quite significantly.

When I emailed the blogger back to ask his reasoning for the drastic change of his blog he responded by saying that ‘it’s time for a change’. He reflected that he thought his readers might be bored and he himself wanted a change. His reasons didn’t go much beyond this.

Now don’t get me wrong - there’s nothing wrong with reinvention and changing course with your blog - what this blogger is doing could be a very smart move - but a smarter move would be to do a little reflection on how his blog had been going, identifying what was working and what wasn’t and building upon the good stuff - instead of effectively knocking it all down and rebuilding on the rubble.

How to Reflect on the Progress of your Blog

So how does one reflect upon the past experience of their blog in order to work out how to evolve it and build upon its strengths to go forward?

Below I’ve begun to develop a list of questions that a blogger wanting to do some reflection upon their blog might use to undertake such an exercise. By no means is this list exhaustive and by no means am I suggesting that bloggers ask each one - some will be more relevant than others depending upon the blog, its stage in the life cycle and the goals of the blogger.

I would recommend bloggers wanting to do this type of reflection set aside at least a few hours to do this exercise (or a series of hour long sessions over a few days). That might sound like a lot of time but the lessons that you learn by doing this could make any planning you might do for 2009 and beyond much more effective. For some of these questions you will probably need access to your blogs metrics/stats package but for many you might find it less distracting if you were offline with a pen and paper.

General Questions

What goals (formal or informal) did you have for your blog in 2008?
What goals did you meet?
What successes did you have that you didn’t set goals for?
Which goals didn’t you meet for your blog in 2008?
What failed on your blog in 2008? What mistakes did you make?
How have you innovated in 2008?
How have you invested in your own learning as a blogger in 2008?
What do you want readers of your blog to ‘DO’ after reading your blog?
Do Your Readers actually Do what you want them to do?
Would YOU read your blog?

Traffic

How did your traffic change in 2008?
What was the biggest source of traffic in 2008? Why was it big?
What types of traffic didn’t grow in 2008?
Take some time to analyze traffic sources including search engines, social bookmarking, other referring sites, direct traffic - are they trending up or down?
Where did you promote your blog in 2008?
Did the promotion pay off?
What search terms are people typing into Google to arrive on your site?
What seasonal traffic was their in 2008?
How many pages were people viewing on your site per visit?
How much time did you put into building traffic, promotion, marketing, SEO in 2008?

Content

How many posts did you write over the year?
Which months did you write the most posts and which did you write the least? Why the ups and downs?
Which posts had the most traffic in 2009? Why do you think that was?
Which posts got the most comments? Why might that have been?
Which posts were linked to most by other sites?
What topics most energized you in 2008?
Which posts drained you most?
What type of posts have you been writing lately (voice, style etc)? How long are they?
How much time did you put into writing content in 2008?
Are key pages (About page, Contact page, Advertise page etc) up to date?
What calls to action did you have on your blog in 2008? Did they work?
What ‘need’ does your content fulfill for readers? What problems does it solve?

Community

What recurring questions did readers ask in 2008?
How have your RSS subscriber numbers changed?
If you have a newsletter - how are subscriber numbers to it changing?
Are comment numbers from readers increasing or decreasing?
How much personal interaction did you have with readers in 2008?
What other ways are readers interacting with your blog? (polls, guest posts, forums etc)
Have you kept up with moderating comment spam in 2008?

Your Niche

Is your niche/topic/industry growing or shrinking?
What topics within or around your niche are growing and gaining momentum?
What are other blogs doing well in your niche?
Are they growing or shrinking in terms of traffic and reader engagement?
What are other blogs in your niche ignoring or doing badly?
How were your interactions with other bloggers this year?
What social media sites, forums or other types of sites are ‘hot’ in your niche?
Does your niche/topic energize you?

Design

How does your blogs design look?
Is it dated, confusing or ‘broken’ or is it attractive, functional and engaging?
Is there clutter anywhere on your blog?
Does your blog load fast?
When a first time reader arrives on their blog what impression would they get?
Would a first time visitor immediately know what it is about and how to use/navigate it?
What complaints have you heard most about your design from readers this year?

Monetization (if this is a goal for you)

How much did your blog earn in 2008?
Are your earnings up or down on previous years?
What sources of income does your blog have?
How did your income change over the year? Why did it change?
What lessons did you learn about what methods of making money works best on your blog?
What didn’t work in 2008 when it comes to monetization?
What are other blogs and sites in your niche using to monetize their blogs? What affiliate products are they promoting? What ad networks are they using?
What advertisers are running campaigns in your niche?
What type of affiliate programs have worked (and not worked) on your blog? What type of offers do you readers respond to?

Technical

Is your blog platform up to date?
What features/widgets/tools are readers using on your blog?
What features/widgets/tools are readers not using on your blog?
When was the last time you backed up your blog?
Is your hosting sufficient for your blog? How much downtime did you have in 2008?
What features do your readers ask for or complain about on your blog?

OK - as I say above - these questions just scratch the surface as to the type of reflections that a blogger might do on their blog. I’d love to hear other questions that you’d also ask.

Next week, after you’ve had a little time to do some of this reflecting, I want to follow this post up by outlining a process that I use for planning and coming up with strategies for a blog. Stay tuned to the ProBlogger RSS feed to get this update.

Paper Money - A US Real Estate Bubble Blog

S&P/Case-Shiller: October 2008

Posted: 30 Dec 2008 09:35 AM CST

Today's release of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices for October confirms a worsening of deterioration seen in the nation's housing markets with ALL of the 20 metro areas tracked reporting significant year-over-year declines and ALL metro areas showing large and even shocking declines from their respective peaks.

Further, there continues to be a notable re-acceleration of the price slide with the 10-city index dropping 2.08% and the 20-city index dropping 2.16% just since last month.

Also, it's important to keep in mind that today's release was compiled using settled home sales data from transactions that had gone under agreement in the August to October time-frame, many well in advance of the historic levels of financial collapse seen throughout the fall.

In all likelihood, we are now firmly sliding down an even more momentous slope of home price declines as the continued economic crisis and dramatically accelerating unemployment work to both crush consumer sentiment and force panicked mortgage lenders to continue to tighten their lending standards.

As the housing decline goes "Up-Prime" a larger and much more damaging population of homeowners will face historic levels of financial stress the outcome of which is, at the moment, very hard to calculate.

The 10-city composite index declined a record 19.06% as compared to October 2007 far surpassing the all prior year-over-year decline records firmly placing the current decline in uncharted territory in terms of relative intensity.

Topping the list of regional peak decliners were Phoenix at -40.56%, Las Vegas at -39.28%, Miami at -38.26%, San Diego at -36.44%, San Francisco at -36.15%, Los Angeles at -34.36%, Detroit at -32.23%, Tampa at -30.51%, Washington DC at -26.35%, Minneapolis at -20.69%, Chicago at -13.71% and Boston at -12.76%.

Additionally, both of the broad composite indices showed significant declines slumping -24.97% for the 10-city national index and 23.42% for the 20-city national index on a peak comparison basis.

To better visualize the results use the PaperEconomy S&P/Case-Shiller/Futures Charting Tool as well as the PaperEconomy Home Value Calculator and be sure to read the Tutorial in order to best understand how best to utilize the tool.

The following chart (click for larger version) shows the percent change to single family home prices given by the Case-Shiller Indices as compared to each metros respective price peak set between 2005 and 2007.

The following chart (click for larger version) shows the percent change to single family home prices given by the Case-Shiller Indices as on a year-over-year basis.

Additionally, in order to add some historical context to the perspective, I updated my "then and now" CSI charts that compare our current circumstances to the data seen during 90s housing decline.

To create the following annual charts I simply aligned the CSI data from the last month of positive year-over-year gains for both the current decline and the 90s housing bust and plotted the data with side-by-side columns (click for larger version).

What's most interesting about this particular comparison is that it highlights both how young the current housing decline is and clearly shows that the latest bust has surpassed the prior bust in terms of intensity.

Looking at the actual index values normalized and compared from the respective peaks, you can see that we are still likely less than half of the way through the portion of the decline in which will be seen fairly significant annual declines (click the following chart for larger version).

The "peak" chart compares the percentage change, comparing monthly CSI values to the peak value seen just prior to the first declining month all the way through the downturn and the full recovery of home prices.

In this way, this chart captures ALL months of the downturn from the peak to trough to peak again.

As you can see the last downturn lasted 97 months (over 8 years) peak to peak including roughly 43 months of annual price declines during the heart of the downturn.

Notice that peak declines have been FAR more significant to date and, keeping in mind that our current run-up was many times more magnificent than the 80s-90s run-up, it is not inconceivable that current decline will run deeper and last longer.

Question of The Day - Is Paulson Delusional?

Posted: 30 Dec 2008 05:27 AM CST

As of mid-December Treasury Secretary Paulson was "…expecting no other major financial institution to fail…"

So, what about yesterday's GMAC rescue?

That was $6 billion of "fresh capital" direct from the Treasury Department.

Was Paulson delusional, just trying to manage PR or is a $6 billion rescue just small potatoes at this point?

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

ProBlogger - Latest Posts

How to Write Fast

Posted: 29 Dec 2008 06:19 AM PST

Alisa Bowman from projecthappilyeverafter.com shares some tips on writing fast.

So you haven't quite monetized your blog. That means you're still working 8 or so hours in the non-virtual world for that paycheck. You may also have many other time commitments. They are called marriage, parenthood, friendships and Twitter.

With all of these variables vying for the same 24 hours, how do you follow Darren's advice and blog at least every day?

You have a few choices.

You could stop sleeping.
You could give up the family and friends.
You could learn how to write really fast.

If you're tempted by option #2, I can't help you, but I wish you the best of luck with that. If you want to know more about option #3, keep reading.

I first learned how to write fast when I was on deadline as a newspaper reporter. I, at times, had just ten or so minutes to crank out at least 800 words. These days I blog 4 to 5 times a week at projecthappilyeverafter.com, twice a week at Capessa.com and two more times a week at savorthesuccess.com. I also write guest blogs and magazine articles, and I ghost and co-author books.

All told, I'm typing somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 words a week. Yet, I spend only 6 to 7 daily hours in my desk chair. Over the years I've developed this 6-step system for writing fast.

Step 1: Know what you want to say before you sit down. As soon as you finish any blog, start thinking about your next one. Think it over as you walk the dog, while washing dishes, or even while staring at the ceiling at 3 a.m. What will it be about? What do you have to say? Go over lines in your head. For instance, at 3 a.m. last night, I heard the line, "Throw up on the screen." You'll hear it again, too. Real soon. Promise.

Step 2: Pick the basic format you will use to organize your blog. Most blogs fall into one of the following organizational templates:

Q & A – Someone poses a question and then you answer it.
Tips: You start with a couple paragraphs of explanation followed by a list of tips. This "how to write fast" blog follows this format, only the "tips" are "steps."
Story: Once upon a time something happened to me, I learned someone from it, and now we're at the end.
List: This might be a list of great websites, great books, or great people to follow on Twitter.
Quiz or Test: You pose a series of questions or offer a check off list that allows the reader to figure something out.

There are other formats, too, but the key to writing fast is knowing and perfecting a few. That way you can create them quickly and easily.

Step 3: Throw up on the screen. (Told you.) Start writing and don't stop until there are no words left in your head. Don't stop for typos. Don't stop for grammar. Don't stop because you lose your train of thought. Insert quick notes as you write, such as CHECK NAME SPELLING, FIND URL, or WHAT IS THE WORD I WANT HERE? I use that last one quite frequently.

Step 4: Read your blog from beginning to end. Fill in holes. Tinker. Replace your all caps notes with real text.

Step 5: Read out loud once or twice. This will help you catch typos, pinpoint really awkward writing, and help you tighten things up.

Step 6: You're done. Post it.

I just followed these steps for this article. So far I've been writing for 10 minutes.

What's your best advice for speeding up the writing process? Leave a comment.

Alisa Bowman writes about the ups and downs of marriage at projecthappilyeverafter.com. She's also the relationships editor at Capessa.com. Follow her on Twitter @alisabow.

Tags: Writing Content

Money, Something you need to know about Internet Marketing Forums

Hey Money,

In my latest blog post I explain a very ugly truth in regards
to Internet Marketing forums such as the Warrior Forum.

If you are a member of any public Internet Marketing forum
I highly recommend you take a look!

Here it is:
http://getresponse.com/click.html?x=a62a&lc=XlpN&mc=3&s=i9Yn3&y=4&

And as always, I provide live, followed links to all regular
commentators, so be sure to let me know what you think.

To Your Success,

Josh Spaulding
7217 Winslet Blvd.
Indianapolis
IN 46217
United States
--
To unsubscribe or to change your contact details, visit:
http://getresponse.com/unsubscribe.html?x=a62a&m=tP7B&r=3w3Q&s=i9Yn3&t=f&y=U& Continue Reading ...

Paper Money - A US Real Estate Bubble Blog

More Pain, Less Gain: S&P/Case-Shiller Preview for October 2008

Posted: 29 Dec 2008 07:35 AM CST

As I had noted in a prior post, given their strong correlation, the home price indices provided daily by Radar Logic can be effectively used as a preview of the more popular monthly S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices.

The current Radar Logic data reported on residential real estate transactions (condos, multi and single family homes) that settled as late as October 24 appears to indicate that price declines are continuing in virtually every market while accelerating notably in some.

Clearly, the impact of the recent stock market crash and ongoing economic crisis is bearing down on both consumer sentiment and, more fundamentally, credit availability resulting in a significant pullback in spending on homes and other costly purchases.

As the economic fallout continues, look for more markets to experience a reacceleration of price declines.

Phoenix, Miami, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are clearly continuing their historic price slide as the number of distressed sales climb and buyer sentiment relents to the recessionary conditions.

Boston, Denver and Chicago all appear to be following the typical seasonal pattern of increasing prices during the high transaction months of the spring and early summer and price declines during the fall and winter but it is important to note that prices are clearly trending lower.

Washington DC is an nearly perfect example of a market that has broken down under the strain of the housing bust showing price declines even well into the early spring where it's normally strong seasonal pattern typically brings increasing prices.