Content Strategy

Creating content for a website isn't enough - making your ongoing content development work requires strategy. From editorial calendars to information architecture, strategic content creation increases the power of websites.

SEO for Bloggers – Simple Discovery Tricks

December 21, 2010 by Ian Leave a Comment

One of the things analytics nuts love to obsess over is the effectiveness of our posts.

Which ones have the most clout, where did they get it from? Is it better to have more comments, or more tweets? Does traffic help?

The answer is yes; all of this helps. Comments, traffic, tweets, inbound links – there are a lot of things that give pages weight. But, as our sites get more traffic and tweets and so on – how do we tell, in an ongoing way, which of our pages is doing better than the others over all?

Here’s a trick; do a google search for the headline of your blog. In my case, it’s my name.so I searched, no-caps, no-quotes. Here’s what I got;

Interesting, yes? A post about Google Buzz (which happens to be riddled with musical references) that got a sidelong mention on an industry podcast, followed by one about Facebook which has seen a decent amount of mentions, followed by the most spam-addled article on my site.

What’s missing; the most mentioned post I’ve ever had, the most commented post I’ve ever hard, and the most linked-to post in my archive.

Then, I tried something different. Because we’re looking specifically for my site, rather than the various higher-powered social media sites carrying my name through my profile, I searched for my name – and added my domain behind it.

Notable: the layout is much the same, but now carries some additions; namely, the Screwdriver article which is still my top search driving piece, my most recent non-throw-away post (this review of the awesome Standard Theme 2), and a very thoroughly-commented on post about Google and China. All of these have seen strong authority signals – but none of them have had the same mix of reaction.

By searching your way through your Google Analytics (you DO use an analytics program, right? Don’t make Uncle Avinash angry), and your blog’s admin interface, you should be able to pick out the weight and mix of things lending authority to the top pages these kinds of searches return.

Verdict? The mysterious ether powering your page ranks relies on a clearly diverse mix of authority signals.

The things we bloggers think of as clear indications of “victorious posts” are not the same as what search considers a winning mix of authority. Taking advantage of easy metrics and hacking your analytics are both important to figure out what’s working from more angles than just the social media connection.

Now – grain of salt time. A one-off experiment like this tells is very little, other than that some unexpected pages have high authority metrics. What will prove more interesting is, in 2 months, I plan to repeat the experiment with some better recorded metrics about the posts I’ve written between now and then. If the same unexpected results appear again, then we’ll really have something to think about.

Your assignment; replicate my experiment, report what you find. You’ll probably be surprised.

Video Saturdays – Outcomes vs Effects

December 11, 2010 by Ian Leave a Comment

There are two ways to approach anything:

Either build a system so simply that there are no obvious flaws, or build a system with such complexity that there are no obvious flaws.

Take a gander at this Rube Goldberg machine.

It pours a bottle of beer into a mug. Simple, right? But that’s the outcome – a full glass. The operations are high in count, complex in their appearance, and all very precise in their execution. They all contribute to a simple outcome – so most of them are, really, unnecessary, aren’t they?

But what if we consider their explicit value, rather than just the explicit outcome? You can hear the people laughing – you might laugh yourself. You’ll never drink that mug of beer, but you can still enjoy the pouring of it in a way that far outstrips just watching someone fill their cup.

There’s value there… Right?

Notes From #blogchat – Open Mic November

November 28, 2010 by Ian 4 Comments

Open mic night! Yowza! Let’s go!

Open mic night is always a little frantic – it’s hard to believe that in the six plus months I’ve been participating in #blogchat’s monthly free for all, it’s ramped up in intensity pretty regularly.

Thankfully, some regular troopers like Margie Clayman and Prosperity Gal decided to lead the charge and get the festivities going early. It made for some good headspace before the chat opened officially.

When I keyed in, the chat was already full of advice for dealing with the full force of the conversation. Here are my tips;

I have TweetDeck for PC open all the time anyway – I use a #blogchat search column, and my reply column to monitor the chat and participate whenever I can. I always give precedence to replies.
I also have a browser window open – either Firefox or Chrome (more often lately it’s Chrome) with an open WordPress draft for notes.
I try to find images beforehand if possible, to save on the back end of producing my Notes From posts.
I tile the windows, so I can see the conversation going as I make notes.

And that’s it. Tweetchats – any online event coverage – is difficult from a one-screened device (just wait until I can justify a two-screen desktop, instead of just a laptop) but efficiency is one of the keys to making sure everything runs smoothly. That, and not worrying over typos.

Of course, efficiency doesn’t mean catching everything.

Here’s what happened on my end of the night’s festivities.

@SbuxMel asked if it were stuck up to have a Facebook page for your blog – a great question. Personally, I think providing people with alternative connection points is a good idea, assuming you’re clear about your intent there. If I were setting a page up for this site, it’d be really clear that it were only an alternative to RSS subscription, to make connecting easier.Not everyone Likes pages, just like not everyone subscribes by RSS – or even by email.

@HeidiCohen brought up an interesting statistic – apparently 74,583 new blogs are made every day. That’s a lot of ham sandwiches and lolcats, people. Lots.

There was a lot of back and forth, as usual, about the best ways to blog – writing series, guest blogging and so on. How to find topics, whether monetizing a blog is wrong – all good questions, many of which were previously covered.

@BillBoorman did make a good distrinction though – if you’re looking to monetize a blog, how you go about things depends on whether you want to make money because you blog, or make money from the blog itself. It’s nuance, but it’s important. You can split the difference and do both – but that takes a lot more effort and time, to make sure you’re not crossing anyone’s acceptable lines.

Bill also asked how one measures the success of a blog – I want to see this as a full night’s #blogchat topic. There are so many possible ways to measure success – it’s complicated, and personal. And important. Success at any task is a good thing – but first you have to know what to call success.

Mack made a comment about content reflecting a blogger’s unique expertise – I couldn’t agree more. With so many thought leaders out there, the UVP is getting more important and harder to define at once.

One more important note – echoed by a number of people was the wish for more comments. How do we encourage people to join a conversation? Start one! @KyleMcShane and @MargieClayman both cropped appropriate comments seconds apart about responding to comments and keeping the conversation lines open. This couldn’t be more true. Making sure you’re not writing in the declarative unless you expect no comments, or are discouraging comments on a given blog post is one of the black belt secrets not enough people practice.

Anyone can make a statement. But can you learn to ask questions?

@MatthewLiberty mentioned that some people spend more time reading and researching than blogging – his advice is that (as Seth Godin says) you have to ship it. I agree. If you have a blog and you’re not blogging, you’re not a blogger.

Blogging is about more than just making entries. Developing thought over time, consideration for your readers, even a vague attempt at growing a community – it takes a long time for some people to get themselves into a position of rhythmic value creation that actually inspires connection. This is why conversation is so important – developing the “two way street of engagement” (as @thekimschneider says” is all-important.

Halftime.

Conversation moved on to Kout scores, Twitter Grader, Website Grader and so on – the unanimous word from many experienced bloggers was that metrics aren’t important, that writing with ever-increasing passion and quality are. I agree and disagree – but we’ll get into that later on.

Margie Clayman asked about premium blog themes – on which I’ll be speaking later, actually. For those returning, I re-launched my site on Standard Theme yesterday morning. To put it simply; even being acclimated to WordPress development and having built my last five themes from scratch, Standard was a better experience all around. But this is not a shill.

I’m seriously enjoying @MatthewLiberty’s stream – go follow him if you’re not already. He made mention of the difference between planning and research and that was it. New favourite voice of reason.

Also, as usual a font of wisdom, @tc_geeks suggested that, for those of us who have an email subscription option, writing a blog post thanking people for subscribing via email will be particularly apropos. Email subscribers will see it in their inbox, and everyone else will be reminded they could be subscribing by email Truly, another black belt blogger manoeuvrer. Bravo.

And then it was 9pm!

As usual, so much insight. I’ll make a transcript available as soon as What The Hashtag lets me get one ready or someone shares one.

What have you got to add? The theme seemed to be quality content, quality site, and quality conversation – how can we advance any of these things?

Photo by Geir Yngve Tro.

Are you branding too early?

November 26, 2010 by Ian Leave a Comment

The world of personal branding is a big deal lately – everyone wants to be visible, unique in their own not-so-far-from-the-box way, but at the end of the day, differentiation counts for more than global recognition. Branding – in the big picture sense – is better for recognition than differentiation.

Look at a business – in fact, look at many businesses – whose entire customer base resides within a fifty kilometre area. They’re all around you. Corner stores are perfect examples. Go check one out, if you haven’t for a while – the closer to being a prototypical hole in the wall the better.

Look at the merchandising theory in small businesses.

What’s near the front of the store? What’s at the back? What do you walk past to get to the staples, like milk and flour? What’s on their counters – other than lottery tickets, cigarettes (depending on location) and a few small snacks as impulse items?

Is merchandising theory branding? No. It’s merchandising theory. Is a unique set of hours branding? What about the shirt the cashier wears, uniform or not? These are all elements of branding, but they are not The Brand. The ways one business does these things (if, and only if they’re intentional) compared to another is differentiation – but it’s not branding.

Branding is a theoretical promise. It says “this, and this, and all of this I/we am/are – these things are our core, and that’s what we deliver to our clients.”

Is a good blog theme branding? It’s probably closer to merchandising theory, especially if you’re selling services, products, or affiliate items.

Are the posts you publish on your blog branding? Maybe – but I’d guess that even if you plan very far ahead (in the scale of years), you’re still just process-communicating, which isn’t in and of itself branding. It’s a component, but not the entirety of branding.

Is your demeanour on a social network branding? It might be – but it’s far more likely that, unless you’re highly intentional about how you present to others, you’re just being yourself. Transparency and authenticity may be big buzz words these days, but it amounts to Know Thyself – and that’s not branding.

So what, then, is personal branding?

It’s all of these things. All put together. Communicated in a way that’s cohesive, consistent, creative way that clearly differentiates you and your business at a fundamental level from others in your area – whether that’s geographic area, service area, or global business vertical.

The key thing to remember about branding is that it’s a puzzle – the picture only comes together if the pieces fit together cleanly, the message is transmitted clearly, and remains consistent over a long period of time.

Stop worrying about your personal brand. Produce the best work you can, over and over again, and communicate the qualities of that work as a promise to do the same for all future clients.

Image by Kevin Dooley.

Rethinking Leadership

November 23, 2010 by Ian Leave a Comment

Some leaders are great because we mesh with them on a personal level. Some are great because they generate momentum for their cause. Still others are great because they advance the very paradigm under which their industry operates.

Which of these leaders is hard and fast the best?

Good leaders deliver a power that is impossible to fake. Those they lead are enhanced with every interaction, feel the investment of time and energy from the leaders, and become forces of nature. Good leaders invite Discipleship, and make of their followers Apostles – envoys of empowerment and personal effectiveness.

Can thought leaders do this?

Not alone. We bandy about the term Thought Leader pretty freely – but I’ve grown concerned that because so many people are becoming thought leaders (not inherently a bad thing), finite, measurable leadership is being slowly forgotten. Conceptually, leadership will always have huge merit – but the direct skills needed to lead individuals, or groups, still require a certain personal attention. You can’t learn to really lead without having had a great leader to learn from.

Leadership is important. We should be sharing our leaders with others.

There are some things we can only learn from direct Discipleship – studying under the masters, and finding out how they not only ship their ideals and their work, but how they deliver consistent excellence. Some things, in the same way, we can learn best from indirect study – the way we do when contemplating the work of real thought leaders like Kierkegaard, Tacitus, the Stoics – just to name a few.

So I’ll pass it back to you – who are your great leaders? Those you’ve worked with, or perhaps studied under? Philosophical leaders, direct report managers, executives – tell us all what influence they’ve been on you.

Start now. Recognize your leaders. Here, or elsewhere. Let’s learn together.

Image by Better than Bacon.