Georgina Laidlaw

The notions of pillar and evergreen content aren’t exactly news to bloggers—we know that’s where we have some of our best shots of nurturing rapport and loyalty, and building repeat readership. It follows, then, that we should hone our pillar-content-writing skills. Today I wanted to look at a key type ...more

Putting aside grammar, spell-checking, and similar post QA techniques, editors commonly rely on a suite of tactics to help boost the communications value of content. They’re easy to apply, and don’t take a whole lot of expertise or time. Perhaps you can (or do?) use them to hone your posts. ...more

Ali’s recent post discouraged us from forcing creativity. If you don’t feel it, she said, don’t write. Yet Gretchen recommends sitting down and writing every day, because you’ll get in a rhythm and stay connected to your material. Well, which is it? Should you force yourself at your blogging, even ...more

Consider these two ideas: tennis and your lounge room. These ideas appear disparate. Tennis? My lounge room? So what? Put a Nintendo Wii into the picture. Now you have a frame—or context—for the two ideas. Within the frame provided by the Nintendo Wii, tennis in your lounge room makes sense. ...more

How do you define what a “blog” is? Back in the day, a blog was a weblog—an online journal. This definition had connotations of timeliness, of narrative, and of a personal focus. But these days, blogging has expanded. Bloggers may be hobbyists or corporate CEOs. Blogs may be personal or ...more

Scribe SEO‘s special Step Up deal is about to close. If you haven’t taken advantage of it yet, time is running out. According to Scribe, “SEO is not rocket science … You know you have to create valuable, reader-focused content, and also: You’ve got to do keyword research. You’ve got ...more

For the beginning blogger who has limited experience, but lots of enthusiasm, Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps makes an ideal primer. Written by Annabel Candy, from Get In the Hot Spot, this twelve-chapter ebook (lucky thirteen, if you count the bonus chapter) touches on all the basics, from choosing ...more

This week, Google unveiled an upgraded Feedburner stats package that provides real-time data on clicks, views, and podcast downloads. For the social media fanatics, the Feedburner team add that, “if you use the FeedBurner Socialize service, and your platform uses PubSubHubbub or you ping us when you post, you can ...more

At this year’s Blog World Expo, Darren joined with Brian and Sonia from Copyblogger for the keynote presentation, entitled The 7 Harsh Realities of Blogging for Bucks. As Sonia explained, these seven “crying babies” of blog monetization are worth noting and understanding. But as the keynote speakers address each of ...more