If you’ve read anything about increasing your blog traffic, there’s no doubt you’ve heard at least one piece of tried-and-true advice:
People love lists.
In fact, I bet you’ve heard it so much that you don’t want to hear it anymore. I bet you want to hear something new. I bet you want to challenge the status quo.
But before you do …
I noticed sidebar of Copyblogger.com the other day, where it lists the most popular posts on the site. It’s a list of what I would assume are the top 30 posts on the site.
For those of us who read blogs, write blogs, comment on blogs, and blog blogs, it’s easy to take some simple things for granted. Like succinctly answering the question of “what is a blog.”
I found myself in this very situation recently. I’m proud to say I helped a group of extremely smart people at my office launch the company’s first blog, HealthyScience.net. The idea was simple: we have a lot of people here who really, REALLY know their stuff when it comes to glyconutrients and nutrition in general. So let’s share the love and get the great content out there.If you know anything about getting content about nutrition as a network marketing company through all the legal and compliance obstacles, you know this is no easy feat. We’ve certainly got some improvements still to make, but I’m extremely proud of the team’s quick success.
Interestingly, I was shocked at how many people (OK, executives) didn’t really have a handle on what a blog was when I originally brought it up. I mean, the idea of blogs being a new thing is SOOOO 2006. But sure enough, I found myself getting blank stares at the really good stuff in my presentations (tossing out mandatory blog presentation statements like “content is king,” “build authority,” etc. – you know the gist) because just the pronunciation of “blog” was getting too many snickers and rolled eyes.
It hit me that all of this stuff we’re doing in the echo chamber is still not as obvious to a lot of the folks we’re selling the ideas to these days.
Numbers with dollar signs are our favorite measuring sticks. There’s no denying that making money is hands down the most prominent measurable seen today. But I’m convinced many people measure profits and sales not solely because that’s all they care about, but because it’s the easiest way for them to measure success. With so many people concerned with it and keeping an eye on it, it becomes a great scoreboard.
But what if money isn’t the most important thing you should be measuring? Hang with me: I’m not about to get all sappy and anti-capitalism on you. I’m actually offering a simple paradigm shift that should possibly preface the involvement of the accounting department.
What if your business isn’t ready to make money yet?
HelpMeFred passed along a funny article from AdAge title The New Media Lexicon Decoded. Here are a few of my favorites:
OK, I haven’t passed along some great links in a LONG time, so here’s to catching up. This stuff is really, really good.
Is Social Media Marketing reaching its tipping point?
For the past eight weeks or so, I noticed a HUGE upswing in the amount of social media marketing posts. For example . . . .
The Middle Zone Musings has hosted a most excellent and fun series known as Blogapolooza 2009, where bloggers from all over have been submitting their top lessons learned from 2008. It’s a great way to discover new blogs. I managed to get my post in just under the deadline, and you can read it here [...]
Here is the third and final installment of my interview with Phil Bernstein, Portland’s Finest Media Rep. Be sure to read the entire interview here. Brett Duncan: I’ve been told that talk radio is usually better for advertising, simply because listeners are more used to just hearing people talk, so they’re less likely to change the [...]
Andy Sernovitz has just machine-gunned out these great nuggets of blogging principles. Read them all; it’s mandatory. On comments On writing style On focus More on comments On workload and editing On blogging tools On design and layout Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
This one’s got me thinking; thanks Hugh: “I call this The Cocktail Party Rule- what’s true at cocktail parties is also true in marketing: “If you want to be boring, talk about yourself. If you want to be interesting, talk about something other than yourself.” Boldness can sometimes be the clearest sign of insecurity. [...]
