Blog Warfare - Top Principles of War Applied To Blogging
Top Principles of War Applied To Blogging
Since your objective is to make money online and your army is your blog lets get your blogging skills into combat shape with a quick remedial bootcamp. I’ve taken out a copy of my old Army field manual (FM-3 Military Operations) and you’d be surprised as to just how much military strategy applies to blogging (and to life). With over 200 million blogs on the net [figure by Technorati] trying to make money online you’ll need survival skills to rise to the top. Lets get started.
The Environment of Blog Operations:
Chapter One - Purpose. To get the obvious out of the way lets survey the blogosphere battlefield - Some extreme blog basics. You have a blog and you want to make money online therefore you will need to monetize the blog and get traffic flowing. A monetized blog without traffic earns nothing so a quick recon to locate visitors is in order. Here they are.
Chapter Two - Unified Action. Your traffic, as discovered in chapter one, is under heavy siege by other blogs and none of it is reaching you. A good commander knows that you must evaluate all options before committing to an action, it’s time to commit. Of your five major options only three use minimal resources therefore they should be considered the most efficient in sustaining a long term campaign. Your articles are well written, keyword rich, original and on topic masterpieces but none are breaking through and it’s time to change that.
Chapter Three - Strategic responsiveness.
Install tracking immediately and use it between posts. Google analytics is the most widely used service right now so I recommend it however I strongly recommend having a secondary tracking system in place. Review “The Best Blog Tools for 2008” for some options (and share yours if its not there!). Some of the parameters and dynamics that you are looking for are obvious such as where is the most traffic coming from, why, to what page etc. Some of what you need to look for is less obvious. I personally look for blogs that have left trackbacks and have sent a visitor my way. Any competitor that sends a visitor your way is an ally even if they were bashing you in their post. You’ll find these blogs by scrolling down to the bottom of your “referral sites” list in analytics, they’ll be the ones who send a handful of visits at most. Take the time to leave a response for your allies. Remember to keep all contact short, positive and be sincere.
Chapter Four - Economy of Force.
Yes, economy of force is in the manual, section 4-13 I believe and it’s important. You are the heart of your blog and your only true constraint is time. Your force is found in the articles you write. The economy of your force can be measured in the amount of time you spend working on the blog between posts.
If you answered yes to any one of those imagine how many more articles you would have written and visitors who would have benefited if the time was spent on writing. By all means leave comments galore on your favorite daily reads but call it play time if you get zero comments on your blog in return for your efforts. A good soldier, like a good blogger, is taught to become efficient in every movement. If you want to make money online blogging treat it as a business and become efficient, play time destroys your economy of force.
Chapter Five - Dominate Land Operations.
As covered in chapter one the blogosphere is multi faceted and to make money online you will need to become dominant at what you do. If quality content is your strength, aim to be the best on your topic. If schmoozing other bloggers to send you freebie traffic is your strength, also known as linkbait, concentrate the majority of your energy on that. If you are a code monkey, make your blog stand out as completely unique. Whatever it is you do best, and on whatever subject that is, return to it constantly as your bread and butter. When you’ve mastered it and become recognized for mastering it, raise another skill to the same level.
That doesn’t sound like very balanced advice and if making money online isn’t your goal it’s not. A balanced approach guarantees average results which guarantees that you won’t be in the BIG money, only the top few make that. Since you are here to make money online this war principle applies in spades. Winning the war requires dominating at least one aspect of it. When you consistently win the war by dominating one aspect you become recognized as such and that creates a detterent against others who would challenge you on that subject or tactic. I consider Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.com dominant on blogging advice. I consider Brett Tabke of webmasterworld.com dominant on webmaster issues. John Chow of JohnChow.com has cornered the evil market by getting rich while Google banned. Jeremy Schoemaker of Shoemoney.com is great at finding and marketing new opportunities. I can name a lot of sites I’d give runner up nominations to but ultimately if I want to succeed at blog warfare I will steer my blog clear of those masters on their best subjects.
If you commit your blog to being the best in an area where the best are already established, be prepared to work harder, create better content and most importantly find a way to blindside them in a manner that leaves YOU as best in the eyes of your visitors. Unless you have a formidable ally who can help you convince the masses I’d suggest choosing a smaller goal to begin with.
Victory online is judged by the appearance of victory and not by the victory itself.
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