I just got of the phone with a client who asked me how he can effectively respond to readers of his blog who keep asking for free help. In this case it was an issue of readers who were asking for personal assistance, which would cause extra work for my client - Work for which he'd not earn money. Additionally, he indicated that sometimes he just does not have the time to respond properly (or at all). How do you diplomatically say "no"? How do you turn such requests into revenue generators? How do you manage numerous requests as your blog grows? One obvious approach is to ignore requests from your blog readers. That's a 100% solution to saving time and improving productivity. However, in my opinion it's not an effective approach for several reasons. Notwithstanding this approach will almost certainly damage the reputation of you and your blog. It would also reduce traffic as there'd be no valuable communication with your community. And to be blunt, that's just plain stupid. If you're not going to listen and communicate with your community, why even have a blog? For blogs that are more established (having greater readership) one good way to respond to ...

Your domain name is an important (and critical) feature to your blogging success. Without a registered domain name, nobody would be able to access your web site. Additionally, to ensure your maximum exposure (search engines and the like), your domain should be: easy to remember be related to the content reinforce your branding not easy to confuse easy to spell All too often someone has spent the time to thoroughly research their domain name and had someone register the name on their behalf. Another scenario is that the developers have researched and registered the domain. But what happens if the relationship breaks down or the developer’s business closes? I’ve often encountered domain name issues , as well as mediated such disputes between clients and their former site or blog developers. Invariably the scenario involves a breakdown in communication in which the rightful owner realizes that they don’t have control over their domains. In other cases the domain name is held for ransom and in others the original developer is no longer in business, among many other scenarios. Recently I was contacted by a client who needed more cost effective and responsive hosting. The primary issue at hand was that the original developer had passed away and there ...