Jade Craven

These are the 25 greatest lessons by going through his archive. He has such useful and comprehensive content that his site can be hard to digest at first. I hope this collection of my favourite 25 things I’ve learned serves as a useful ‘taster’ of this social media and blogging genius.

1. Have plans for using twitter

Chris talked about this further in his post about using twitter at volume. He focused on his goals, the tools he used and when he tweeted. It was a very useful article from the perspective of someone I really respect.

2. Its your story – take the advice but do it your way.

Chris wrote about this in his post about telling your story your way.

Early on in my career I was stuck with peole telling me my way was wrong in chats and in some cases, getting ridiculed. My post count was wrong, my slow launch was wrong.

What I realized was that its my career. Ultimately, i’m going to make mistakes and many of them wil leave money on the table. I loved the comment that “All of humanity is a conversation.”

My sites are a way of having a conversation with others with the intention of improving some facet, no matter how small.

I love this quote. It is a way that encourages you to take your own path, without insulting those whose advice you dont want to follow.

3. Brand yourself using social media.

Chris provided a killer cost about 100 personal branding tactics using social media. It is a must read if you are interested in using online tools to strengthen your brand.

4. Develop a strong personal brand

Chris talked about the reasons you should develop a strong personal branding

The easiest answer is that you might want to be memorable, and you might want to transfer your real world reputation into the online world. A strong personal brand is a mix of reputation, trust, attention, and execution. You might want to build a brand around being helpful (what I hope my brand means to you), or being a creative thinker (Kathy Sierra, for instance) or being a dealmaker (Donald Trump), or being a showman (David Lee Roth), or whatever matters most to you, and also what you are capable of sustaining.

This post was fascinating and has give me a lot to think about. I’d appreciate learning about further interesting personal branding resources.

5. Have consistent blog content:

Chris wrote about this further in the importance of consistent blog content

Should you want to develop a larger audience and transform that into a community, it’s strange, but the more posts a week, the better. It should be the opposite, but the stats don’t lie. More posts somehow drive more attention to your blog.

This quote was fascinating and goes against what many other bloggers have been saying. I’ll be interested in any examples of this.

6.  Be aware of different strategies of inviting more people into your audience

Chris gave 7 strategies to help with this in a problogger guest post. My favourite was the offering strategy.

The Offering Strategy – provide free resources. Brian Solis builds great offerings all over the place, including ebooks, graphics, and more. Offerings keep people around, if only to add to their arsenal of useful things. See also Chris Pearson and his inexpensive WordPress themes.

I highly recommend you look at the post to see what strategies you can apply to your audience.

7. Become a leader

Chris wrote about this further in the power of personal leadership. My favourite tip that he gave was to build a support network

Beyond yourself, it helps to have intelligent supporters who will both challenge you and lend you strength for those rare moments when you use up your own. This comes after building your own inner self-esteem, but before going out to take on the world.

This has really helped me while I’ve been developing my blog and has also helped me grow in confidence. I relaly recommend it.

8. Use friendfeed.

Chris talked about how you can use friendfeed as a collaborative business tool. An interesting post for someone who has many brands to manage, or many sociel media outposts.

9. Use twitter

Chris kindly gave his readers 50 ideas on using twitter for business. This post is jam packed full of useful information. The more I read, the more I learn that twitter is the thing you really need if you want to engage with your audience and build evangelisits. This post gave me ideas I wouldn’t have thought ot.

10. You don’t have to touch every conversation

Chris wrote a very interesting post on this topic. He said

You and I are doing business in Twitter. You and I are doing things on XYZ platform. There are gazillions of other conversations that I’m not touching, that Seth isn’t touching, that Scoble or Kawasaki or whoever the heck you want to put in the *.person.who.should.join.the.conversation should be touching.

But is that really the goal? Or is the goal to fish where your fish are, to do what you plan to do, and to do it well?

This is really fascinating. Early on in my career, I tried to touch every conversation. It made me feel overwhelmed and disconnected. I’ve since narrowed it down to a couple of favourite platforms and expand when I see how it could really improve this.

11. Teach others

Chris gave this advice in superpowers must be taught

If you are learning new things but not sharing, you’re doing a disservice to those around you.

It can be a disservice, but there are many times when it would be in your best interest not to share. You should use your discretion to ascertain what you want to share and what to keep secret.

12. Write for other people

This was a tip Chris gave in an interview on Blogging Rocket. He said that

 this runs counter to what people say about blogging, that it’s personal, that it’s all about finding your voice. I say this: your voice is much more powerful when it’s actually heard and absorbed by others. Why not learn from the start how to do it in a way that gives you a community?

Early in 2009, I did some guest posts for Problogger. They didn’t take off, but I learnt so much from the experience. I will be seeking out further guest post opportunities to see what I can learn.

13. Read a lot

In an interview on Fuel my blog, Chris admitted that he read over 700 blogs a day. This might not be acheivable for all, but reading a lot can teach you a lot about various trends emerging in your niche..

14. Evolve

Later in the interview, Chris said that his biggest mistake was that he was ‘all over the map and not as focused. I’ve since evolved.’ This is something that all bloggers should consider. Many people choose to stay stagnant, rather than finding ways they can grow and improve.

15. Be profilic

Chris is certainly a good example of this! If I’m not reading his blog, I’m checking his tweets or viewing his flickr stream. Being everywhere is a good way to ensure people pay attention.

16. Get a formal email address

Chris recommended that you should at least get a gmail account. I am guilty of still having hotmail, and often get told about how unprofessional it looks.

17. Speak often

I often see Chris tweeting about his speaking engagements and have looked up his keynotes online. It is a great way to expose yourself to a new audience and show how professional you are.

18. Have an effective blog design

Chris wrote about this further in his post about making your blog design work for you. It is something that I recommend to anyone unsure about their theme.

19. Disclosure is key

Chris talked about this in a post about taking your blog seriously.

If you’re doing something to make money, if you have a business relationship with an organization that you’re writing about, if there’s anything that might potential change the way something is perceived were it be to be measured against what you wrote, consider that.

I do think that some people go overboard with their disclosure policy, but it probably does help to clear up any potential misunderstandings. I will be reassessing my disclosure strategy.

20. Make that ABOUT page rock.

Chris identified this as one of seven blog improvements you can make today.

If you’re not shy, add a picture. Add a name. Tell people who makes this thing, what you’re into, and hint at how one might do business with you, should business be your goal.

I’ll be researching about pages over the coming weeks and will be reporting back about useful ones. I’d love to know of your favourites!

21. End With a Question

This was a tip Chris gave about writing effective blog posts.

This isn’t a gimmick, but it works really well. I ask the community (you!) what YOU think, because often times, you’ll add something way better than what I started with. It’s also a great reason to swing by and check out the actual page, instead of just sticking in the reader IF the topic is worth it to you.

This is something I’ve been experimenting with and have had some success. I’ll be looking into what type of questions do best.

22. Put on a Performance

Chris gave this blogging tip when talking about performance and your audience

You’re on a stage. You are creating stories. No matter how you view your blogging and podcasting, that’s what you’re doing. When you cook up that next PowerPoint deck for a meeting, think about that, too. It’s the same thing, sliced differently. There’s no reason to treat it differently.

I agree that everything on the internet is stage – including your tweets. You should try to make sure your performance adds value. 

23.Don’t Sell, but Don’t Be Shy

Chris wrote about this further in basic blogging suggestions.

A blog isn’t about the hard sell. Let’s accept that. Yes, we’ll be suggestive. Yes, we’ll be persuasive. We’ll give you tastes of what you might receive if you buy the whole deal, but if it’s just a place for selling, we’re not reading. There has to be passion and interest and information flowing through there. Sure, you can help us find where to buy things. But maybe try to mix it up a bit. Don’t pretend like you’re not selling, because that can seem awkward, too, but if you can, consider the last few posts you’ve written and see whether or not it’s time to sell to us again.

 This is something that I’ve struggled with, to my detriment. I’ll try to write posts that are packed full of value as well as being monetized.

24. Keep a Scratch Blog

Chris discussed this in conquering fear of blogging

Whether you’re just starting out, or even just sometimes not sure if something you’re thinking about is right for your blog, consider writing it to some place else. Consider using a Tumblr blog as a “scratch” blog, a place to write stuff that’s not fully formed, or that you’re concerned might be taken wrong. You might not even brand the site, maybe not even make it publicly visible.

I think that this is very useful – even if you already have a strong blogging presence. Its a way to test your ideas with a smaller audience.

25. Do a photo your of your town

Chris also recommended:

Take us on a photo tour showing us 5-7 things that would make a new visitor to your town happy to see.

While not a great post it can create compelling internet stuff to add a personal perspective to your blog.

This type of information can be really useful on your about page. It can also be used to get local press interested in your work.