If you hire me to help plan and launch your blog, you’re going to spend some portion of the first three months learning how to write for one. And among the first lessons you’ll learn is how to write a great headline. I’ve spent years understanding what makes for a great headline and likewise, spend a fair amount of the first quarter of your blogging campaign showing you how to do it as well. Writing a great headline or title for a blog post is a craft; make no mistakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Trust. It’s not a very nebulous term. Yet in social media circles, it has lost some of its shine, some of its clarity, sort of the way Stairway to Heaven and Free Bird have due to overuse and overexposure. Trust, as a concept is, nevertheless, a fairly easy idea to digest. In much the same way we allow the time-tested, the reliable and the faithful access to our fragile and emotional squishy parts, consumers allow brands access to their wallets, if again, trust is and has been present.

Easy right? Not so much. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m beginning to see online marketers trend away from forcing social media down the greenhorn’s throat. This is wonderful news, because it shows that we’re likewise beginning to stop a bit of our own shouting too. As online evangelists, we sometimes lose sight of how noisy we can get when we’re waving the social media flag to signal the troops. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m concerned about the purity of the conversations undergone in blog comments. I’m concerned that many are not all that pure after all. I’m finding that often blog commenting appears to be something akin to a bunch of people not-so gingerly exchanging business cards and PowerPoints and even worse, trite and banal ass-kissing.

Yawn.

What if hundreds of comments on a blog you love were actually nothing more than a mirage? The post was terrific, but the post’s comment mojo was less the result of the post’s quality and more the result of self-important opportunism and profiteering? What if the 100 comments can be reasonably likened to a pack of hyenas scrambling to snag a bite of the feast the author has laid out by virtue of her blog’s popularity? Popular blog, popular blogger, hmmm? Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, a friend and I grabbed lunch at that wildly popular, 2.0 eatery, Chipotle. Yummy. Anyhow, as I was devouring their killer and yes overpriced guacamole, my lunch companion began telling me of his plans to launch an online portfolio for his creative works. I said, “Cool. Why?” He went on to explain that the site would showcase his creative brawn as an artist and creative director. Said my friend, “It’s a place to point people who may be interested in my skills.” So I said to him again, “Cool. Why?” And he smirked, noting my snarky approach to emphasizing my original question.

I said, “well, if you’re going to go through the work of putting up a site, why not fully realize the idea first, ultimately making more of your site than a typical online display case?”

Read the rest of this entry »

I read a great piece by Chris Brogan the other day dealing with the concept of using a blog as a loss leader. Quick aside: Chris is scary prolific. I say this because I sometimes fear that the high degree to which social media evangelicals like me invoke Chris’ name could subtract from the credibility he richly deserves.  I mention him often because simply put, there’s no quit in this guy. He’s a freakin’ machine and that makes him valuable to me.

Ok, disclaimers out of the way, we press on.

The post I’m referring to can be found here and it’s very informative. Chris does a terrific job discussing this idea, so I won’t be covering that topic specifically, but I will be dove tailing off of it. Read the rest of this entry »