I’m a blog pusher by trade. As such, it’s expected that I would know how to do basic things like correctly formatting my posts and setting up my RSS feed so it works. If you saw I couldn’t do that on my blogs, you’d have GREAT reason to suspect that I’m not who I claim to be.
I’m in the middle of developing a course called “The 8 Week Blog Power Launch“. To be honest, I’m developing the course as a way to relieve some of the “customer service” I’m providing to my blog clients. When it’s finished, I’ll be sharing it with others just because it’s been almost as much work as supporting all of my combined blogging clients, which is a lot like herding cats!
Anyhow, one thing I encourage course participants to do is to subscribe to the RSS feeds of other blogs. (I subscribe to a lot more than I list in my post The Best Making Money Blogging Advice.)
My iGoogle page is full to overflowing, so I began visiting each blog listed there to see if the blog was still worthy of a place on my page. To my HORROR I found one blog by a self professed blogging consultant that was obviously composed in Word and then copied and pasted directly into the post… Word coding and all! (Ordered and unordered lists do NOT make the jump from Word to Wordpress well AT ALL!)
Now the question…Should I out him here? He’s pretty wicked with his wit and I’m sure outing him would provoke an attack. His blog has more readers than this one… but not more than my Virtual Impax blog according to Alexa. Should I try to make a mortal enemy to boost traffic here?
I’ll be honest, if I had my The 8 Week Blog Power Launch product ready to sell, I’d out him. But I don’t and my time should be spent in compiling the feedback which continues to flood in from beta testers. (The most recent, “Don’t assume we know how to do anything!”… GOT IT!)
On to the next blog on my list. (I really should be working on the power launch stuff… I know! I’m calling this “research” to justify my procrastination.) This one is a competitor of sorts – well, he claims to be a blog expert as well. I noticed his RSS feed hasn’t updated since I subscribed. I click on the site. Oh, he’s been very busy creating content for his blog… just none of it is appearing on his RSS feed. Oh, he wants to sell you his services of setting up your blog for maximum performance though and will charge you handsomely to do so.
Again, I could out him. I’ve found that people who claim to have expertise they don’t possess get VERY touchy when their rookie mistakes are posted for the world to see. Another mortal enemy to engage in verbal battle… it would be a GREAT excuse to ignore the additional content I need to create to bring my course participants up to speed….
By the way, blogs whose RSS feeds I’m still subscribed to include (in addition to the four I listed in the post above) include:
- Court’s Internet Marketing School because it really is a blog which serves as a school for internet marketing!
- The Writer’s Manifesto by Monika Mundell because, she’s the greatest.
- Andy Beard because he IS the original blog guru!
- Itty Biz because Naomi always makes me at least smile if not laugh.
- Liz Strauss at Successful Blog because she makes me think.
- Catherine Lawson because she tells it like it is.
- Daily Blog Tips because Daniel knows his stuff!
These are the blogs whose RSS feeds will remain featured at the top of my iGoogle page. These are each blog experts WORTH following. I’ve launched over 100 blogs and I STILL learn something new at least weekly from each blog listed above!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Kathy – Thanks for the link. I love the other blogs listed and it’s nice to be included among those I admire.
As for outing the consultant you mentioned – that’s a tough one. I don’t think I would do it, because if you make a mistake – even a small one, it could backfire.
It’s difficult, I know, when you see someone in the same field making a bit of a hash. But even if a customer complains to me about the shoddy workmanship of a competitor, I’ve usually found it best not to join in.