One of the things I’ve enjoyed about ProBlogger in the last 12 months has been that I’ve ‘met’ (virtually of course) a large number of amazing bloggers who know a whole heap more about blogging than I do in a variety of areas. I’ve been experimenting with finding ways to highlight some of them lately in a number of ways other than the traditional linking up way.
For example during my Blogging for Beginners series I had approached a few good bloggers to contribute pieces. I was very happy with what they came up with – so much so that it made me realize that there are some aspects of blogging that others are probably better positioned to write about here at ProBlogger than myself. I see my own strengths as lying in monetization, SEO and in some of the conceptual stuff – but am weaker when it comes to the technical side of things.
As a result today I approached Aaron Brazell with the idea that he start a weekly (at this point) column on ProBlogger that tackles some of your more technical questions.
Aaron won’t be a stranger to many of you – he’s already written three popular posts here (10 things you should know about WordPress 2.0, Tag, You’re It! Leveraging Tagging for Your Blog and Kick Your RSS: Jumping on the Syndication Bandwagon) he’s also the blogger behind Technosailor and is one of our b5 bloggers (editing our Sports Channel).
So expect to see Aaron’s first post shortly (within the hour). As I say he’ll be looking at more technical aspects of things and will be posting on a weekly basis to start with. If you have questions/suggestion for him to write about feel free to leave a comment in his first post and if you have comments on the idea of adding a second blogger to ProBlogger I’d love to hear them.
Ugh… Darren… Where did you dig up that photo? ;)
Good stuff.
For a technical neophyte such as myself I am looking forward to some of the more technical aspects of blogging being demystified.
aint google a scary place Aaron!
Mate… All you had to do was ask! :p That’s ok… I’ll live with it. ;)
Excellent partnership – looking forward to seeing how it evolves, and reading the more techie stuff too.
If I shave my head can I post on ProBlogger too?
Ok, dumb joke.
Looking forward to your contributions Aaron!
[…] I’m excited this morning. Darren approached me about doing regular writing over at his site. Darren and I think a lot alike and that’s only become more apparent as I’ve gotten to know him these past 4 or 5 months. But we approach blogging in very different ways. […]
goodie
Hey Darren and Aaron,
I agree about the picture (joke).
Good to see Aaron contributing on the tech side of things. If only he could help us unfortunate Blogger users. (another joke).
Hope the venture continues.
Joe
I can help you…
…to get off Blogger. ;)
No personal offense meant, Darren or Aaron, but I read Technosailor for Aaron’s word and Problogger for Darren’s. Why’n’t you start baldblogger.com or sumthin :? (Sorry, shavenheadedblogger.com just doesn’t have the right quality.)
Welcome aboard Aaron! Maybe now Darren can get an extra 15 minutes of sleep a day. Darren, man. You guys gotta leave some blogging topics for other bloggers to write about :)
Actually, it was a post by Aaron that inspired me to switch my Beer Haiku Daily site from Blogger to WordPress. I completed the move last week and I’m never looking back.
There was some hardship, I had to change the url and lost my pagerank of 5. Since it was on Blogger I can’t set a 301 redirect (that I know of) so I can’t salvage the old links and PR. But the new features – like owning the domain, advance posting and many more will make up for it in the long run.
If I can give one piece of advice, it is not to start off on a domain name you don’t own. Spend the $8-$9 on a domain name and find some cheap hosting. I found a place that charges $1 dollar a month with an automatic no-brainer install of WordPress.
Even if you give up blogging after one month (like the vast majority of new bloggers) you are only out about $20. If, however, you find yourself becoming successful you are in control and in a much better place to grow without disruption.
Good luck and Cheers!
@Captain Hops: If you haven’t deleted your Blogger account, why not:
1. Have a big message on the front page (hell, on every page) informing visitors of the new address.
2. Whack in a timed meta tag redirect to the new site (warn them it’ll happen)
3. If you’ve got web server access on your new host, override the 404 page to attempt to map their redirect from one of your old Blogger pages, to a matching one on your new site (if you ported your old posts over)
Just started my own business-focused blog at http://www.cashcampus.com/ftt and I’m looking forward to reading your articles!
David Askaripour
http://www.cashcampus.com/ftt
Ahhhhhh…. Thanks for changing the picture of me Darren. Much more true to life. Mad Scientist like. :D
Aaron Brazell joins Problogger
Aaaron Brazell, of b5media fame, has joined Darren Rowse’s Problogger as a columnist.For example during my Blogging for Beginners series I had approached a few good bloggers to contribute pieces. I was very happy with what they came up with…
Oh crap .. I was gonna comment and make fund of the picture, but after reading #15 .. I guess this is the GOOD one :) Where’s the old one? C’mon!
But kidding aside, hey! Congrats… Darren needs the weekly day off so he can take better pictures for local newspapers. ;p
Buried in the depths of hell, I’m sure.
Actually… he probably dredged it up from thekatrinaphotos.com which was a photo album from my trip to Mississippi in September to help my company with cleanup efforts after Katrina at our ship yard.
[…] This post has been submitted by regular contributer – Aaron Brazell […]