ComHacker.org

by Patricia Mayo

Of course you’re not. What, you - afraid to read a blog post? Pshaw. No way. Couldn’t happen.

Photo by Sophie

Yet if I had titled this “Ambiguity Aversion” and just left it at that, I bet you wouldn’t be reading this right now. That’s because of a hard-wired fact of humanity - we’re fully-trained trained skeptics of anything unfamiliar.

And I’m willing to bet that if I didn’t tell you I’m about to detail how to overcome ambiguity aversion to increase any metric, you probably wouldn’t read beyond this point. But since I just did - well, let’s move on, shall we?

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Trisha, @mayobrains on Twitter

by Patricia Mayo

It is possible to make money blogging - but it doesn’t happen the most obvious way.

Photo by Jay Lopez

I actually make a good chunk of my income blogging.

However, if you look in my sidebars, I don’t have ads. Not a single one. No sponsors, no donate buttons, no Entrecard. This site isn’t in any kind of traffic rotator schemes. I did an affiliate promotion once, but the results were so crappy you’re not going to see that again.

This is all very much on purpose - because the concept of “problogging” does not work if all you have to offer are your words on one blog.

I just had a look at some stats (every blogger’s favorite obsession) and realized, as of today, ComHacker is officially 1 month old - and I can’t believe the response this blog has already received!

First and foremost - thank you. Thank you profusely. Thank you incessantly for these absolutely jaw dropping stats (to me, at least).

The Stats

From February 11th to March 25th, I just had a “coming soon” image for ComHacker. Honestly, I needed something to point at for the guest post at ProBlogger, because I knew it would be a big kick start for just about anything.

Interestingly enough, ProBlogger only directed a grand total of 147 visitors YTD (Google sent more traffic than ProBlogger). The real meat and potatoes has come from StumbleUpon, with 1,510 YTD uniques.

However, those 1,510 uniques isn’t even half of the total. That means someone has been spreading rumors, a lot of someones, actually - and I just want to say… THANKS!

by Patricia Mayo

The numbers are down. Conversions just aren’t happening. You feel at your worst and it’s starting to affect everything you do. You want to give up, but is it really time to go back to the drawing board?

I hope not, because that is exactly where I stand right now. My problem - the ad copy is too effective!

by Patricia Mayo

“Just say it.”

Yesterday Seth Godin noted two statements he found annoyingly over-used in his own writing - “just” and “sort of.”

While I applaud him for his self-analysis (honestly I think that’s how The Man is still likable and hasn’t let the fame get to his head) - ridding of commonly used phrases in your writing just willy-nilly can be hazardous to your readership.