1. Forget your goal – Why did you first start writing your blog?  I started mine as an outlet for my thoughts and experiences on creating/running a business.  Beyond that main goal, I think its good practice for gathering your thoughts and looking back on where your views were at a certain time.
2. Stop reading blogs - I stayed quite insulated in my niche after we pivoted towards Groupon in May.  I gave up RSS a couple years ago, but this past year I just didn’t read many blogs on a consistent basis (sans industry Twitter feed links).  I stay up with a few (very few), but mostly specific posts were sent to me asking my thoughts on something.   Reading other blogs makes it easier to write and being away from content makes it harder to create your own.
3. Get discouraged by the numbers – Maybe your site has very few comments or re-tweets (like mine)… so what.  If you know the answer to #1, you’ll realize numbers may only be a part of your success formula.  For me, the numbers aren’t the key, but it’s easy to get discouraged when they drop.  And they will continue to spiral down if you don’t keep up the posts.
4. Fear your writing isn’t good enough -  I know I’m no Jason Falls (the best writer I know) or Rob May (the original super blogger) and I don’t need to be in their league to accomplish what I want from this site.  The truth is I can’t crank out great content like others, but I can give my perspective and use my own style.  We each have our own writing voice… find yours and sing out loud.
5. Spend too much time window shopping -  There are some very popular blogs with ugly designs and with little “added” functionality.  Content makes those (and our) sites interesting… not your fancy retweet/like/share/post/bleep button.  FYI… I looked at literally hundreds of cool themes for my blog.   Good design won’t make your content create itself.
6. Stay on a content free island -  Much like #1, if you aren’t around those who create content it’s not top of mind you also need to create your own.  I spend time with startup folks regularly because it’s what I’m living and relevant to me.  If you want your blog to be a part of your life it’s easier when you’re around those who have it top of mind.  Note: around doesn’t have to be physically… just checking in with email or IM can do the trick.
7. Write about what’s popular -  I’ve found blogging to be a burden and not something I enjoy to do frequently.  Some of my old posts reflect that as I wrote the same thing you can read 40,000 other places… Twitter, Facebook and the rise of the new web.  If you aren’t passionate about your topic and can’t add value to an old one, spare yourself the time and don’t write the post.  Instead make a comment, link it up on Facebook or retweet someone else’s content.  When you do have something to say it will come much easier.
8. Focus on the micro – I shifted most of my social efforts to Facebook last year and my Twitter stats show I’m going away from there too (less than 50 tweets in Q4).  Posting to those mediums is NOT content creation in my opinion.  Even if you’re super creative, you can’t say too much in 140 characters (hence the MICROblogging name).  If you want to really create content, I believe most social sites don’t give you the means to do so.  Here’s to being a little more macro focused.
9. Create analysis paralysis – I did some super cool stuff in 2010 and had some great conversations with people about many topics.  I’m sure you did too.  Just a recap of what you did, what you said/heard is a great way to kick start your content groove.  One of the reasons I personally don’t write often is I try to compose something big.  I write, edit, re-edit, then save as a draft because it’s taking too long.  Don’t forget you can score a few runs by hitting a few singles.
10. Run the sprints – If you haven’t ran in a long time, I wouldn’t suggest a 5k race.  In the past I’ve written a flurry of posts for a few days/weeks in a row only to not post again for 90 days.  Decide what consistency is needed to reach your goal and you won’t hurt yourself getting there.
11. Bonus… Don’t just do it – I get very frustrated with people who say they’re going to start a business or have an idea and make no progress.  For every resolution, we must make the effort.  Last year, I just didn’t do it.  Plain and simple.  We could all stand to stop the excuses and just hit publish every so often.

I’m sure you have your own reasons why you don’t stick with blogging, but I’ve tried to outline what’s been stopping me.  Hopefully you can relate to a few.  Will I suddenly start posting each week here?  Probably not.  Instead, I’ll likely re-think my goal, determine my consistency and THEN I’ll add a new theme!  Don’t talk about it… be about it.

(Note to my Facebook friends… if you’re reading this as a FB note, it’s because I linked this archaic web site called my blog found at ToddEarwood.com a few years ago to FB.  I used to write stuff over there and just might add some more of these this year.  Don’t stress, I’ll continue to primarily post pictures of my nephew and random things I see, make fun of your Farm Mafia and click “like” on your funny statements.)

From the marketing perspective, I understand the desire to use a term so ubiquitous for message comprehension, but this common software nomenclature become as overexposed as a Hollywood starlet’s love life.

In the web space, there are two camps… those who embrace the term as the “social web” buzzword and others who hate it due to it’s association with companies missing a good business model. If you’re targeting this tech savvy crowd, I suggest you avoid the “dot-oh” label just to be safe.

On a local level, my cable company has abused the term “dot-oh” with their continually lame marketing efforts for cable, broadband and now phone service. Every month they seem to force feed us their increasing numerical “dot oh”, but their offering has no discernible improvements.

Moral of the story… tech consumers (and most others) are too smart and resourceful to hide your offering’s weaknesses behind this cliche. Truly improve your product and your pitch won’t need the crutch of the 2.0 term just to be hip with an audience or explain it’s improved.

101 WordPress plugins – All you WP lovers, this is a great list (thanks StraightPitch)

Web analytics tools – I’m still a fan of MyBloglog, but trying clicky now

You Convert It – I love this site. Convert most files to any format you like including xls, doc audio and video

Social Marker – for you social bookmarking junkies, this site allows you to submit your site once and it automatically sends it out to 32 bookmarking sites. I haven’t used this site, but I know it will be useful for others.

It’s a fact: People would rather do business with people they know–or know of–than with strangers. When you’re introduced to a prospect through a personal recommendation, that prospect has a vastly higher comfort level than, say, a buyer you find through cold calling.

Contacting someone cold is tough and although it can be overcome, it’s not easy. Stop pushing a stranger and start finding a a mutual contact. Get the inside scoop from your contact and ask if they can refer you to the prospect. You can find out what you can do to return the favor. If you don’t have a large network to reach out to, start offering to help others with the ones you do know. Your friends will appreciate a good referral and you’ll be surprised how willing they’ll return the favor.

If you want more resources on referrals, you can check out the 4,000+ links tagged on Delicious.

In my interview with Guy Kawasaki, we discuss how submissions on Truemors get to the top and why some get booted off for blatant self-promotion. Still not convinced Truemors can help, well listen closely to Guy’s insights and you’ll see they apply to almost all user voting sites. (Digg, Reddit, etc).

Jeff also posted about InviteShare.com. A nice service if you have spare invites or want to get “in the crowd”, but I still appreciate the generosity of a fellow blogger’s hookup. I have a few Pownce invites left. If you are interested, post a comment below.

Flickr Photo credit: Eric Willis aka “Superic”

Since my startup requires people to change from paper to the web, this reinforced that a web app doesn’t have to be a complete replacement for an offline alternative. Each web app doesn’t have to pull rss feeds with Flickr photos and allow the user to connect to friends. The popular calendar sites Upcoming, Trumba or 30 Boxes haven’t erradicated the paper calendar market, but they’re taking a piece of the pie by making a product that lets the user do more of what THEY want (not what us web geeks want). Even the best web apps still have viable offline alternatives as seen by the book stores still standing after Amazon changed their world.

As you build your next great startup, remember you don’t have to create the hippest, most feature rich site (seen Dropboks yet?). You just have to find the user’s needs (not always easy), then nudge them along by introducing more features. I know we’re still trying to figure it out with our users, but we know we all must test more features and kill the ones they don’t like!

Last week, I found Yuvi’s post #1 and #2 (he’s a 16-year old from Chennai, India) that has analyzed… no, he did more than analyze, he dissected over three year’s worth of data from engadget.com. By measuring everything from post frequency, comments, incoming links per post, words per post and virtually all other variables, he’s allowing people to infer reasons for Engadget’s success. He’s also charging $2-5 to ask custom questions so he can get a better host(smart move).

Maybe you know your blog traffic or don’t have a clue, but I suggest you take a peek at Yuvi’s methods. He’s done a great job and may shed new light on what you should be measuring to make your blog successful.

Probably you’ve heard of the 80-20 rule or figured something like that yourself. This is generally a rule of thumb, which states than in average 1% of your visitors actually create content, 90% interact with it, and the rest just use it (read, download, etc).

Here’s an example. There’s a message board on (partly) my Russian Rock Portal. There are 5092 members registered at the moment. Among them, there are just 991 members, who posted more than 10 messages, only 299, who has 100 messages or more, 61 person with at least 1000 postings, 5 (!) who posted 5000+ replies, and only 1 (one!) man left more than 10K messages (almost 15 thousands – he’s a great guy and listens lots of music every days and writes a lot about it). You see? 5.87% members posted almost a half of all messages, and about 1% left a third of all messages.

Getting people actually involved in your site versus signing up/visiting is so much harder. As I’ve mentioned before, web users like to be voyeurs first and interactive second. New users like to take tour around and explore and if you’re lucky they’ll maybe even interact. Then you have to find a way to bring them back to your site without badgering them. What are you doing to bring people back to your blog, web site or community?

Flickr photo credit: cschwa17 – shot taken at Pearl Jam concert, not a classroom

So set down your tray and and I’ll explain the five metrics on where you are in the blogosphere lunchroom.

Notes passed in the classroom – In school, all the cool kids get notes passed to them and for bloggers, these are our comments. A blog is meant to be an interactive tool, IMO. Seth Godin maintains a nice table seat despite not allowing comments (he used to). Whereas, Noah Kagan… well, let’s just say he loves them. You’ll always have those regular commenters (we love you!), but it’s not the end of the world if you only get a few. I quickly learned with the city blog we launched for Louisville, most people want to be voyeurs first and interactive second.

Interacting in the Halls – When the bell rings and you have to walk to chemistry class, how many people do you stop to chat with? Better yet, how many stop YOU? With blogs, these are the people who grab your RSS feed and make up your monthly traffic. Feedburner has built a business for tracking blog traffic and rss feeds (among others). I think this is your ticket to upgrading your table position.

Signatures in your yearbook - Did you write something thoughtful in your classmates’ books or did you make fun of them? Both ways can get a response and to grow blog traffic, you gotta show link love. It’s the online way to pat them on the back (agree) or give them a little shove (disagree). Show the love or stir the pot because both ways work.

Weekend invitations – Getting invited to the weekend party was always a big deal. Online these invitations come in the form of social networking. Whether you’re selective (Jory Des Jardins) or you’re adding everyone (Ron Bates), the way you network online can affect your blog traffic. I’ve chosen to be an open networker on LinkedIn and MyBlogLog, but keep my MySpace account more selective. Much like linking to others, both strategic or open networkers can drive blog traffic and help you maneuver to a better lunch spot.

Prom Royalty – Who was chosen as your prom queen/king? I can’t remember who won at my school, but getting that one-time vote was important to some. In the blogsphere, our votes are taken daily at aggregation sites like Reddit and Digg. Don’t be afraid to nominate yourself and be sure to help others if you want to wear the “crown” one day.

Currently, I slink over, head pointed down to my seat enjoying a lactose beverage. I’m building my plan to inch my way towards a better table. And although the cool table kids stand in the same line with me everyday, I swear they get served more fries.