On the Web with Kim Vallee » Blogging TIPS

What an Editorial Calendar Can Do for Bloggers

Kim Vallee — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:34:28 +0000

The way that lifestyle blogs, magazines and the style section of newspapers manage their editorial calendar is not that different after all. It’s true that blogs tend to view their editorial calendar on a short time basis versus the yearly scope of traditional media. It is probably due to the fact that bloggers talks about what is hot right now. But when we think about it, bloggers also work on a yearly calendar. Holidays, seasons and the timing of new collections often dictate when we will discuss many topics.

Aim for Better Content

First of all, planning a 12-month editorial calendar is useful if you want to run monthly series based on specific topics. Think about how magazines design an issue around one main topic. Letting your readers know in advance that some of your posts will concentrate on a topic can generate a buzz. The same is true if each day of the week is allocated to a specific type of post. Both methods can help you grow the right audience.

Brands or readers have a better idea of when and which stories to pitch you. It gives you more time to research and to develop outstanding posts, to find experts that will deliver inspiring interviews or answer key questions. It can help you to determine who can be a guest blogger. You can plan ahead the events that you wish to attend. In short, an editorial calendar can make you more efficient and will enable you to focus on what you are doing, and on where your blog is heading.

Planning an editorial calendar does not mean that you give up the spontaneity that bloggers are known for. Many posts will continue to be about what inspire you today or will highlight your opinion on what is making the headlines on the blogosphere. As your blog matures, you need to find the right balance between planning and the inspiration of the moment; especially when you hire writers.

Can Increase Your Ad Revenues

You can potentially make more money because the advertisers will be able to align their ads with the monthly topic. This could lead to more effective results and increase your chances that the advertisers book more ad spaces. Your sales team will be equipped to reach out to the best suited advertisers for your audience. They can suggest to host specific giveaways, run contests, and other promotional campaigns. Finally, it sends the message that you are serious about what you are doing.

And like anything else, you will get better with practice. If you find it hard to write at a set interval, developing an editorial calendar will push you towards consistency. Every blogger does not necessarily need to keep an editorial calendar. This post was about exploring if that can be a good idea for you. For the ones who keep an editorial catalog, I’m curious to know how you develop your editorial calendar and which tool(s) you use to maintain it.

+ photo: Action Cahier by Behance

Why I am going back to reading RSS

Kim Vallee — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:28:44 +0000

It used to be that the first thing I did every morning was to visit Google Reader. It has not been the case for a long time. With Twitter and Facebook, it seems that I, as many people, relied less and less on my RSS subscriptions. I think it is a mistake because we are missing out on great stories. We need a balance between the random finds on Twitter from the people we follow and the insights of blogs we trust. This is why I decided to go back, after I made some changes to my subscriptions.

Why did I stop in the first place?

The problem with my RSS subscriptions was that it was out of control. It grew by 1000 posts a day. I did some Spring cleaning. I dusted off the blogs that I do not feel are relevant to me. I plan to continue to purge blogs as I go to maintain the number of daily posts at a manageable level.

Too many posts is the reason that people quit their RSS. Look at the statement that Apartment Therapy published last week. They acknowledged that they were writing too many posts. They cut it down to 40 posts a day, which is still a lot to read.

Use Twitter, Facebook and Your Blog as a team

Look at when a tweet and/or a note on your fan page can be enough information for your readers. Then, use your blog as a way to expand on or to introduce fresh ideas. Explore how they can work together to enhance the level of relevant information you provide to your readers.

What about you? Are you still using a RSS reader?

Why You Need to Preserve Your Blog History

Kim Vallee — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:43:11 +0000

I started to blog in January 28, 2005 with a blog that was called Flair et Style. My first post was about Dwell, the modern architecture and design magazine. I wrote exclusively in French at the time. In fact, I produced two blogs before I switched to the language of Shakespeare.

It is not for reminiscences that I tell you that. It is because I just migrated my closed blogs to WordPress. They were on an obsolete blog platform called Subtext. We will depart from old servers. We must transfer everything that we want to keep online. Since my husband, Jerome Paradis, developed a converter from Subtext to WordPress, it was easy for us to migrate the data. I simply lost the look and feel of the original blogs. It is all right! My goal is only to keep the content alive.

Why it is Important to Keep a Trace?

Think about what you want to do if you stop to write on a blog. Do you wish that the blog lives forever on the Web? For me, it is important to maintain the presence of my first two blogs as a proof that I had two years of blogging experience before I launched At Home with Kim Vallee. A new reality of social media is that part of your CV is publicly available on the Web. This is why I preserve the traces of what I accomplished.

Keep it Simple

Like I said earlier, the important thing is to preserve the content, not the container. I opted for a basic, free WordPress theme that I tailored to the minimum.

I took me a few minutes to tailor Typebased from Woothemes for each site. I do not need any bells and whistles that are common today. I simply created an image for the title, modified four elements on the CSS and configured my sidebar. Voilà! I keep my blog history alive.

MORE:
+ Flair et Style par Kim Vallee
+ Actualiser l’art de recevoir

Why I Refuse To Support IE6

Kim Vallee — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:40:42 +0000

Internet Explorer 6 is a very old (it was released in 2001) and buggy browser that caused and is still causing many headaches to Web developers. I took the decision to not support Explorer 6 when I started my At Home blog in 2007. I did it before You Tube, Google and many other mass market sites decided to phase out the support of IE6. In fact, I never checked to see what my blogs look like in IE6.

I still refuse it today even though a WP tool would ease the pain in supporting IE6 for my blogs. I take this stand because I believe that we should promote technological advancements. Supporting IE6 would be against my principles.

Before you make a decision, check out your statistics on Google Analytics. I checked this morning and, to my surprise, 15% of readers viewed my site with IE6. Still their average time on site and page views are slightly lower (only 2 and 6% lower) than the average for the site. I guess my IE6 readers are used to see it the way it is. These statistics reinforce the fact that the extra work to supporting IE would be a waste.

March 24th, 2010 update: After I wrote this and my husband showed me my blog on IE6. The glitches are so little that I know why it does not impact the visitors.

+ photo: IE6′s slowly death on PC World

Bloggers Need a clear Editorial and Advertising Policies

Kim Vallee — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:29:59 +0000

March 8th, 2010 Update: ”Bloggers are not slaves of brands” was the original post title.

If you run a blog, you probably notice a surge on the number of brands that wish to either buy coverage on your site, ask to write a guest post for free or for money, or my “favorite”, the ones that offer you a link exchange buried I do not know where on their ecommerce site because they work on their link building.

With all the social media books and gurus that tell businesses that they can seek coverage from influencers, any bloggers with a certain level of popularity see the good and the bad. The goal of this post is to talk about the best practices.

I do not think that all the brands do that to exploit bloggers. Many, including PR and marketing professionals, are clueless when it comes to approaching bloggers. Others listen to the advices from the wrong people. The rules are clear with traditional journalists but defining the best practices is still in the making when approaching social media influencers and bloggers.

In light of these facts, I think that bloggers should take the initiatives to be treated the way we deserve. My advice to every blogger is to think about your values and to clearly determine what is acceptable for your blog. Then, write down a policy that you will publish on your blog.

For a while now, I published my editorial policy. I also have a comment policy that is more there to explain the fair use rules of comments to merchants, marketing staff or PR people that seem to think that blog comments are free classifieds. Any business should know that unsolicited promotion on comments is not playing fair.

With the current boom, I needed to put a stronger message. But I did not know how to do it until I read the About on Cool Hunting. They started in 2003 and they are way bigger than me. So, I cannot imagine their inbox in the morning. My revelation came when I read this:

Money can buy you a lot of things, but it can’t buy you coverage on Cool Hunting. All of our content is editorially based using the standard of “stuff we like.”

One thing that I learned in social media is to avoid the legal jargon that nobody understand and say the things like they are. They could not have said it better.

+ image: Cool Hunting

Food for Thought on Blog Content

Kim Vallee — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:16:47 +0000

It is the time of the year where I re-evaluate what I am doing on my At Home with Kim Vallee blog. Remember that I told you that you should review what you are doing 3 to 4 times a year. I am thinking about what I will do next to improve the content. Like I said at PodCamp 2009, having a great looking blog is important but what will really insure that readers will come back is superior content that served the needs of your readers.

I go back to the basics and review everything with the current state of the blogosphere. I look at:

How I can stand out from the crowd in my niche?
What the competition is doing?
What is missing in my niche, what angle is not covered by others?
How I can make my content better and more useful for my readers?
What else can I do to grow my traffic?

Books as a Souvenir

This morning, Mitch Joel tweeted about a talk that Seth Godin gave last year about how he used New Media, New Marketing, and New Thinking to Create 10 Bestselling Books. Seth Godin is in the idea business, not the book business. Seth gave away partial content before he published his books. He made the point that his books are, for many readers, a souvenir of their experience surrounding the book. It is more powerful to spread ideas first and encourage people to talk about them. Then, the books become a by-product that fans want to own.

Watching this Seth Godin’s presentation triggered new ways I could do things to further develop my brand. I invite you to watch him since you could probably transpose many concepts into your own industry.

MORE:
+ Seth Godin
+ Seth Godin’s presentation
+ via Mitch Joel on Twitter

My Blogging Tips Sessions at PodCamp Montreal 2009

Kim Vallee — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:35:17 +0000

I had a great time at the second edition of PodCamp Montreal. I am happy with all the sessions I went to. The exchanges provide great food for thought both from the presenters and the participants. People discussed several ways to stay authentic and transparent in CT Moore‘s talk about transparency and personal brand. It was fun that it used Donald Drape as a reference character.

My two own sessions went well. I believe that you should review your blog 3 to 4 times a year and make adjustments. Preparing my Top Tips for Better Blogging session gave me the opportunity to review what I am doing. To answer Julien Smith’s question: doing it helps them and me.

I am also thrilled that our “Top Blogueur” panel was about design bloggers. Social media unconferences are not only for the earlier adopters of social media. Everyone is welcome. But people outside the social media crowd seem hesitant to participate and even more to submit a presentation. Having speakers that are not part of the usual circle is showing that things are changing. If you speak French, you can watch the panel here.

Video of Top Tips for Better Blogging

The sessions were recorded on live streaming, which is not always reliable. A little bit more than half of my presentation was recorded. Since it is the first half, you will not be lost.

PHOTO CREDITS:
+ Eva Blue and Jerome Paradis

Sharing My Top Blogging Tips at PodCamp Montreal 2009

Kim Vallee — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:31:03 +0000

I will be a speaker at PodCamp Montreal that will happen this weekend. In fact, I will be in two sessions.

Top Tips for Better Blogging

First, I will share my Top Tips for Better Blogging at 10 am Saturday, September 19th in room DE-3230. The blog universe has evolved and we have to adapt to the new reality. Based on my experience running At Home with Kim Vallee, my talk will focus on what it takes to create great content. I will tell you what works today to grow your traffic and free ways to monitor the social conversations.

I designed this session for all levels of bloggers. I made it so that recent bloggers can learn and seasoned bloggers can brush up their knowledge. I guarantee that you will learn a few new tricks or that attending will put things in perspective to address to current trends and challenges of the blogosphere.

If you cannot make it, my presentation will be live streamed. See you at 10 am this Saturday.

Top Bloggeur Panel

Right after lunch Saturday, I will be a panelist with the talented Éric Bolduc, Gabrielle Chalifoux and Cindy Laverdière. The talk will be in the language of Moliere (French). Michelle Sullivan will be the host of our Montreal-based design panel.

I am thrilled that lifestyle, fashion and art bloggers are represented at PodCamp Montreal. I said many times that design bloggers should mingle more often with geeks. We will exchange on our approach to blogging, the importance of networking, our strategy to build trust and awareness, plus our views on monetarizing our blog.

Panel ‘Top blogueur’ will start at 13:30 in room DE-3240 Saturday, September 19th. If you live out of town or are unable to go, our panel presentation will be live streamed.

It costs nothing to attend PodCamp Montreal. You simply need to register online first. Check out the schedule to discover the other awesome presenters; it’s should be great! If you wish to tweet about PodCamp Montreal, the official hashtag is #pcmtl.

Read your RSS feeds first thing in the morning

Kim Vallee — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:16:36 +0000

In case you do not know him, Jeremiah Owyang is one of the best-known social media analysts. I enjoyed reading his blog Web Strategist. His blog talks about social media for business, therefore I do not read him than often. But I do since once in while you get good advice that can apply to any bloggers.

In an interview he gave to Read Write Web, Jeremiah Owyang told something that makes a lot of sense. He answered a problem I had lately. I struggled to find time to read my RSS feeds. Sadly, I knew about the problem but never took the time to review a typical day schedule to see where I went wrong. I told myself that it must be because I write more posts or pass to much time on Twitter although I had the feeling the problem did not lie there.

Owyang told Read Write Web: “I started my blog as a practitioner at Hitachi. I budget time every morning to read and blog. I do that before I check my personal email or work email. I believe you have to pay yourself first. When you open your email you pay someone else, because it’s usually people reaching out to ask you for something. Taking the time to read blogs, synthesize and add value, that builds your community. That’s paying yourself first.”

When I started blogging and for a long time, I read my RSS feeds first thing in the morning. I then write a post, as it is crucial to have one post out before lunch. I pay myself first. Over the last 6 months, I felt an obligation to open emails first. I received many emails. Most are pitches. I told myself many times that I should revert to my old habit since it helped me grow readership but for some reasons, I felt compel to serve other people first. Not anymore. Thank you Jeremiah for your insight.

Tips on How to Position Your Blog

Kim Vallee — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:43:40 +0000

One thing that is difficult for many bloggers is to define their niche. As the competition on the blogosphere becomes fiercer, you need to position your blog in order to stand out. People needs to quick get what your blog is about and how it is different from the pack.

Whether you talk about one topic or many topics in your blog, you need to find one direction that summarizes what your blog is about.

Give Room to Your Niche to Evolve

If you are starting out, think about how to categorize your blogs in directories. Take my At Home blog. It is a design blog for women well positioned as a stylish living blog. It started in 2007 as a blog about entertaining at home with style. In time, I found out that it is the stylish living aspect that my readers are attached to.

Think about directories

In a real conversation, people would easily describe the scope of At Home. But I have a hard time selecting a category for it in Web directories. Lifestyle blogs are not exactly what I am since I do not cover cultural events or musics. I am not only about food or home decor. I also touch family life without being about kids and parenting. Women magazines are rarely there and when they are, it is often filled by feminist blogs or women issues blogs.

There is also another impact. I consider myself a design blog. But when they are blog awards on specific topics (interior design, food, etc), I realized that people would not instinctively think about my blog. I am not complaining. I am happy with my positioning. I just point it out so you could fully grasp the extent of your decision.

Examine Your Content

Ask yourself that question: Are you mainly

a creator of new content – ex: a crafter,
a collector – blog is about what you like,
a curator – like I am
a news publisher – being the source of all the news about a specific topic
a problem solver
one that inspires people to act or create
a commentator, someone who shares his/her perspectives on issues and ideas, etc…

The content you produce may also influence how you define your niche. Lastly, you need to consider your competition since you need to differentiate yourself.

Remember that helps growth and maintain a readership:

Regularly write posts with original content
Concentrate on being useful for your readers
Be active in the social media community, not just in the blogosphere

For the last point, I refer you to an excellent post about how to get noticed by the right people written by my friend Lara McCulloch of Ready 2 Spark.

+ photo that I took when I went to the after-party of the Social Gaming Summit 2009 in San Francisco

Matt Mullenweg Talked about His Open Source Story to Christian Aubry

Kim Vallee — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:10:36 +0000

This is the follow-up interview realized by my friend Christian Aubry with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. In this second segment – a third is coming – Matt Mullenweg talked about how he started WordPress and how the open source community swelled the popularity of WordPress. It is a case where the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts.

Over and over at WordCamp Montreal last weekend, people talked about the fact that WordPress, WordPress MU and BuddyPress are platforms, an infrastructure of which you can build upon. The added values emerged from what you can do with it. WordPress is used to achieve different objectives, to suit an infinite number of markets and is applied in many creative ways. You benefit from not reinventing the wheel. Instead, you concentrate on how you can serve your community. In fact, this is the main reason why I migrated At Home to WordPress.

Matt also talked about the importance of helping each others. If you think about the unconference movement and about blogging, it is mostly people sharing their expertise for the good of others. At the end of the day, it makes a better world where we feel empowered. Be prepared to be inspired.

You see in the background, a group of partcipants at WordCamp Montreal. A third part of this interview is coming soon. If you are looking for a guy to hire for your video reportage, put Christian Aubry on your short list. He has many years of experience.

A Quick Recap of My Experience at WordCamp Montreal 2009

Kim Vallee — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:48:56 +0000

I had a great time this weekend at WordCamp Montreal. The conversation with the founder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg was inspiring and calming. Matt was really zen while he answered questions from the crowd. In the after-talk, many people pointed out to me his soothing voice. Amongst other things, Matt shares the core value of his company. To give you an idea, check out this short interviewed realized by my friend Christian Aubry.

About Our Presentation

I like going to this type of conference because you always get back from them with some ideas. Several talks gave me food for thought. Plus there is the fact that being a speaker forced me to reflect on my blog design and features. Jerome Paradis and I talked about my migration from subText to WordPress.

We devised the presentation to highlight the perspective of the blogger and the preoccupations of the developer. I am happy because people seemed to appreciate that duality. I made the envy of a few bloggers to have free access to such a talented developer. Without Jerome, I would have never been able to have made this transition as perfectly as he did.

Now that I migrated to WordPress, I can envision the future. What to do next? I started by increasing the width of the pictures on posts. A lot is more to come. And I think it will be exciting for you.

I cannot recall the name of the caterer but the food was excellent. It is the best food I ate in an inconference in Montreal. Thank you to the organizators and the participants for making it a success.

PHOTO CREDITS:
Except for the laptop image, all the images were taken by the extremely talented Eva Blue. I invite you to see her WordCamp Montreal 2009 photo set, you will not regret it.

On the Web with Kim Vallee » Blogging TIPS

What an Editorial Calendar Can Do for Bloggers

Aim for Better Content

Can Increase Your Ad Revenues

You might also like these posts

Why I am going back to reading RSS

Why did I stop in the first place?

Use Twitter, Facebook and Your Blog as a team

You might also like these posts

Why You Need to Preserve Your Blog History

Why it is Important to Keep a Trace?

Keep it Simple

You might also like these posts

Why I Refuse To Support IE6

You might also like these posts

Bloggers Need a clear Editorial and Advertising Policies

You might also like these posts

Food for Thought on Blog Content

Books as a Souvenir

You might also like these posts

My Blogging Tips Sessions at PodCamp Montreal 2009

Video of Top Tips for Better Blogging

You might also like these posts

Sharing My Top Blogging Tips at PodCamp Montreal 2009

Top Tips for Better Blogging

Top Bloggeur Panel

You might also like these posts

Read your RSS feeds first thing in the morning

You might also like these posts

Tips on How to Position Your Blog

Give Room to Your Niche to Evolve

Think about directories

Examine Your Content

You might also like these posts

Matt Mullenweg Talked about His Open Source Story to Christian Aubry

You might also like these posts

A Quick Recap of My Experience at WordCamp Montreal 2009

About Our Presentation

You might also like these posts