Well, this is new.  For us, anyway!

A bunch of people have emailed ClubBlogger over the last year (increasingly over the last few months) to ask if they could suggest topics or even write guest articles. Up ’til now, we’ve not moved on this, because there are, after all, only 27 hours in a day.

Ok.  ’Nuff said.  If you want to write, write!  The gauntlet is now, formally, laid down (back into the deep language again, sorry – it’s the new coffee).

It might just be a new topic that you want to kick around.  Something you’d like to share with the community.  It might be something related to something you do and want to through it out there.  It might be something you already write about but want our guys to check it out.

It’s up to you. We have a couple of new guys on board already.

What we won’t do is just accept random stuff. It has to be useful and relevant to our community – it goes without saying.  You don’t think you can hit that hurdle, look somewhere else.  But we are excited about this and will work on it with you… who needs time to eat, anyway?

Just to be clear: this isn’t just asking for more comments. It’s a chance to join a new community of writers. We have a certain ‘twist’ We’re only interested in speaking with a few select people about this right now.

If you’d like to mull over a couple of ideas or try to kick things off, do it here. You may be new to blogging. You may be new to business. It’s a jungle out there. Or, indeed, you may have lived in the jungle for years and know all of the animals on a first name basis. Either way, let’s chop it up.

There’s a concept called “friendtors” in the Valley in California. Not mentors, but similar. You get it. And no-one sits in the “receiving seat” very long… they quickly become those sharing the information and putting the arm round the shoulder of others. The web world, particularly the blogosphere, is fast as it gets in this respect. It’s why it’s as lovely as it is

Speak soon. cb

This is a guest post by Meg Stivison from Simpson’s Paradox, if you want to know more about Simpson’s Paradox.com and to hear more from Meg, please subscribe to her RSS Feed.

 Everyone wants to increase their traffic, but bloggers often lose sight of the difference between hits and readers. There’s no bad traffic, of course, but some hits are better than others. Casual one-time visitors are just eyes on your blog, while repeat readers bookmark you or add you to their feedreader, and make checking in for your updates part of their internet routine. Obviously, repeat readers are much better than just eyes on your blog, and as a blogger, your work should focus more on getting repeat visitors and turning casual traffic into fans.If you — like me — are an obsessive stats-checker, you may experiment with changing your posting schedule, article length and frequency. You may find that your readers are much more interested on weekdays, that new Friday-afternoon content gets buried, or that letting days slip by without a post decreases your hits. This is all valuable knowledge but understanding publishing isn’t a substitute for good content.
 
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