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Saturday 17 March 2007

6 Things Problogger Doesn't Have

If your reading this blog you are probably a reader of Problogger. Being a blogger and not reading Problogger is like trying to play Beethoven’s' Pathetique on the piano, from memory, with out ever hearing it or reading the music. It’s impossible! It is therefore clear that Darren Rowse has great power at his fingertips. He tries to help us with words of wisdom, with his slogan 'helping bloggers earn money' and for all intents and purposes he does. But what doesn't he have on Problgger that he should?

A way to make money directly with Problogger.
There are no products to sell and no affiliate program to join, although he recommends several. Ultimately though Problogger is Darrn Rowse and there are other ways to make money using his sites. Namely Text Link Ads of which he is a co-founder. You can spend money there or you can make money as a publisher or affiliate. So there goes my first idea out the window.


A forum!. Bloggers could discuss the latest Problogger post and Darren could watch over them, occasionally sending a cryptic message from heaven, otherwise known as The House that Google Bought.


sounds like the land of milk and honey doesn't it?
No, sadly not. It doesn’t take much thought that this probably wouldn't work very well. The main reason is that I’m sure Darren is busy enough, without moderating and regularly posting on what would be one of the most popular forums on the net. However, he could always recruit a team of Probloggers to help him do this/do it all for him, which I could see working....


An official Problogger charity!
Rather than The House that Google Bought and I'm a six Figure Blogger, there can be posts about, 'The houses for the homeless that Google bought' and 'six figure African-saving' (if I can say that). I'm not asking Darren to just give all his money to charity, but with so many readers Problogger would be a great place to raise money for charity and raise awareness about certain good causes.


A directory of blogging niches?!
I would go into more detail but this is an idea of mine, which is currently 'in the pipeline'. Believe me it will be more useful than it sounds with what I have in mind! (Darren if your interested I’m sure we can negotiate me telling you everything...i.e. if you ask I will tell you :p).


Tutorials for template/theme alteration/design.
We all know the importance of layout and having and original look to our blogs. What a lot of us don't know (including me) is how to design a brand new template from scratch. However this is such a major task a whole new site would be needed and Darren often says this techie stuff isn't his forte. Anyway, I would love a section on 'theme/template alteration', where there are posts on nifty yet simple things we can to do personalise our blogs. There would need to be posts covering the different types of blogs, i.e. a section for Blogger blogs, Wordpress blogs etc. It’s a pretty big task but I think Darren would be up to it. It is also relevant because the quality of the layout is directly related to earnings potential.


A precise earnings report each month.
Ok so this isn't exactly Darren's style, but actually knowing how much a successful blogger made from what company is a great inspiration to everyone isn't making that much. Just look at JohnChow.com, he has been an inspiration to thousands of us because of is open display of his earnings. (I couldn't exactly write an article about Problogger and blogging for money without mentioning John Chow could I!). I'm not demanding to know about personal finances, but it's just something to think about.


So those are the 6 things Problogger doesn't have, apart from a couple he shouldn’t anyway. Pick which one you think it should have the most and start making unreasonable demands for it to exist. On second thoughts don’t do that, but who is with me on the official Charity idea?!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hiye thanks for adding :)

Good info as well hehehe

Anonymous said...

I guess as regards the charity thing;

a: After You ;-)
b: Christian chap that Darren is, he probably already does, but 'doesn't like to talk about it'.

Nice post though Matt, it's a shame that a spellchecker doesn't pick out 'bogs' when you meant 'blogs' eh?

(Do I win pedant of the week?)

608 said...

Lol Chris, thanks Ive fixed the bogs/blogs issue (I hope!).

ok - about charity

I would If I was in his position (if I had an amazinly succesful blog). I am not accusing him of being uncharitable because as you say I don't know everything about him.

It is just an idea that could raise alot of money.

Anonymous said...

Have you mailed him Matt? I think at worst, he wouldn't reply, at best...

You might have to be prepared to match him percentage wise though.

Darren's an advocate of bloggers emailing each other in a non-spammy fashion, so why not?

608 said...

Yeah I mailed him the day I wrote this, he hasn't repliled. Maybe he classed my email as spam who knows :( or maybe he just hasn't got round to it yet.

Anonymous said...

Hi there - nice post. I'm traveling at the moment so this will be brief - however 3 of the things you mention are already in development - can't say which though :-)

Stay tuned!

608 said...

Hi Darren, thanks for stopping by.

really?! 3 of them! wow I'm entrigued... you couldn't even drop me a hint, I 'wont tell no-one' ;P

Anonymous said...

shhhh :-)

Anonymous said...

Actually, the three things aren't that much of a secret if you've been a long time reader of his. (One of them might be figured out even from posts of the past week or so!)

However, I'm loyal to his wishes to keep them shushed if that's what he wants! ;)