Personally, I’ve had a revival of sorts, in my interest levels when it comes to blogging. What probably caused it all was my New Year resolution to focus on creating content that’ll help stir conversations within our marketing community. So I decided to enumerate the 5 lessons I’ve learnt to beat the blogging blues. (Inspired by a problogger post)
1. Focus on topics you care about: One of the major decisions I made this New Year was to focus on marketing content that I really CARE ABOUT. Out of that decision arose my content on 5 topics closest to my heart — customer evangelism, community marketing, web 2.0 marketing, corporate blogging, and events.
2. Be current: Google reader has been a godsend in tracking blog posts that interest me or the community. It has also helped me find the most current content that I can blog about and ignore blog posts that are 3 days or older.
3. Ask questions: This has probably been the most enlightening thought. In order to stir conversations, it’s important to stop pontificating, step aside and ask the community their thoughts. I realize the blog post is just a trigger to gather the thoughts of the community and resolve unanswered questions on marketing.
4. Keep it simple & short: When I started I crafted essay posts, but a nudge from good friend, Jeremiah, and I soon realized that short, pithy posts is the best way to craft blog content. The long essays do not help trigger conversations.
5. Ignore rankings: This has been the toughest to ignore, but don’t focus too long on rankings. The only reason I check out rankings is to monitor the pulse of the marketing blogosphere. Your best resources in this area are, of course, our friend Mack‘s Top 25 Marketing Blogs and the recently launched Todd And‘s Power 150 Marketing Blogs. See, I can’t ignore em!
Bottomline: RESPEK as Ali G would say. The fact remains that your content is of some value add for readers to spend their valuable time on. Keeping that in mind definitely helps run this Blogging Marathon.
Do you’ve your own personal mantra for blogging?
Filed under: Miscellaneous
Mario Sundar's Speakeasy 
Don’t forget…
#6
Be personable & human;-) I personally don’t mind including limited details about my private life in a post..I just don’t want ALL details to be out there for anyone to see…
To be honest, I think that it can be difficult for “newer” bloggers to get noticed. I do think that there’s a first-mover advantage for folks that have been doing it for a few years & that many of the “old-timers” don’t always have the time to reciprocate back for the newer folks (commenting on their blogs, linking back to what they say, etc.). I do think that some of the communities online also take on their own personality after a bit – something that might might blogs more “insulated” down the road.
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D!
I think that’s definitely an important criterion. Take all successful bloggers like Scoble or Guy Kawasaki and that comes across easily.
Imagine receiving 100s of comments or emails. You definitely have to prioritize whom you respond to and that’s surely a challenge some old timers face.
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I think Damon’s contribution is important. A blogger really needs to be “human”. There should be a face and personality for every blog, and it is that personality that attracts your readers back everyday.
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Hi Mario,
“Imagine receiving 100s of comments or emails. You definitely have to prioritize whom you respond to and that’s surely a challenge some old timers face.”
Yeah, I feel sorry for those guys;-) Two guys I admire in the space:
Michael Arrington
Robert Scoble
I think they do an admirable job of responding to as many comments as they can. A limiting factor for them is being able to engage in communities other than their own – largely due to the fact that they have such large communities of their own.
If you want a blog that I would recommend, I would recommend Noah Kagan’s at okdork.com. His stuff is very funny…
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Yes, Kian, a blogger definitely needs personality but that coupled with content is what makes for a killer blog.
Damon,
I think Noah has an entertaining style. Actually, I’ll probably meet w/ him this Thursday at the social media event. Are you going to be there?
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