Life, Times and Blogging Best Practices

Ooops. 16 days & counting. Time flies when you should be blogging. What is blogging best practice, when comes to posting frequency?

It’s the first issue I raise when the subject of blogging comes up with clients. [With suitably serious look on face] “If you are going to do a blog, you need to be able to sustain it. If you can’t post consistently, then you’re better not starting.”… Um. Mea culpa.

But there is more to best practice than blogging consistently and frequently because, as Hayden Sutherland asserts in his excellent presentation on Corporate Blogging Best Practice posted on www.slideshare.net, “its [sic] not just a ‘Me Too’”.

If I were assessing my blog, as I assess clients’ blogs, I would be noting that leaving a new blog unattended for two weeks wasn’t a good idea.

Failing the best practice test

As it is almost always, it’s a case of “do as I say not as I do”. My goal with this blog was to blog at least three times a week… Well. At least 10 times a month. Again: “Ooops”! It is over two weeks since I last blogged.

What happened? Life happened.

[Warning: excuses of varying legitimacy follow.] It’s been a bad winter for bugs and littlies and toddlers are notoriously toxic. Jo (wife, partner, etc.) went to the doctor with a cough that had hung around for nearly a month and came back with a diagnosis of pneumonia. We flew in Grandmothers from various parts of the country but time became a precious commodity.

Then there was all the other work stuff, the Olympics, other bits and pieces that make us all time poor, the client who offered an opportunity to go heli skiing ;-)… I could and should have posted something. But I fell into the trap of being a little too wedded to a “value not frequency” based blogging strategy.

There is more to blogging best practice than frequency, though.

Listening to a couple of radio show panelists the other day, I nodded along as they agreed there was nothing worse than a blog where posts have a “posting because I should” feel rather than a “posting because I have something to say” feel.

I have already canvassed the ebb and flow of universal insight into web marketing and content. An ebb and flow that influences how often I post because I wait until:

• a) I find something interesting to post about
• and b) have something to say about that something.

Not a bad rule of thumb IMHO unless your blog is more about following/reporting the latest news. But don’t fall into the trap I fell into and set the “something to say” bar a little high.

Useful References For Developing a Blogging Strategy

As I fretted about my neglected blog I wondered what was the latest on blogging best practice when it comes to freqency. A bit of searching and reviewing revealed little that was new apart from Mr Sutherland’s aforementioned presentation. But its a presentation that offers a very useful guide to anyone developing a blogging strategy for their business. I, for one, have bookmarked and downloaded it.

Failing the “no just ‘Me Too’”, I can’t think of anything I would add to the presentation or dispute in it. I would, however, note that SMBs probably don’t have to deal with the corporate politics that can stymy a natural voice and remove the necessary edge from a blog. If you are looking for a set of guidelines for your business blog you may have found it:

The other useful guide/reference on the relationship between blogging frequency and having something to say is an old blog from my ex-boss Stephan Spencer. Stephan’s take on “Optimal blog posting frequency” is well worth reading.

Bottom line: Aim to post frequently — once a week is probably the minimum — but aim to have something to say when you post. The trick is to find the right mix and be consistent i.e. do as I say not as I do.

King Content, Advertising Effectiveness & Adwords Placement

“Content is king” is a tired old phrase. But phrases don’t get used enough to get tired unless they warrant repeated use. And this old friend of web content specialists is ever more relevant even, it seems, with respect to online advertising’s effectiveness. Something to bear in mind when setting up Adwords placement campaigns.

According to e-consultancy’s Drama 2.0, who references two recent studies:

“it may be smarter for advertisers to focus on content, content, content — which really means location, location, location on the internet.”

It is not only the relevance of the content that your ad appears in but also the quality of the content that determines effectiveness.

• Referenced study one (Ipsos MediaCT’s MOTION digital video study) says — as Drama 2.0 notes, a concern for the likes of YouTube — that people will put up with ads in video if the video is off sufficient quality.
  • Advertising in downloaded full length TV shows or sports clips, acceptable to 75 & 66% of people, respectively.
  • Advertising before that 16 second clip of the cat, fur bolt upright, sizing itself up in a mirror, not ok.
• Referenced study two, by the Online Publishers Association, finds that:
  

  “…ads on content sites have greater impact on the overall purchase process, including customer awareness, brand awareness, brand consideration, brand preference and purchase intent[...]“

Makes Sense… Relevance to SMBs?

Makes all sorts of sense to me and is, in some ways, statistical confirmation of common sense and existing reality. You pay more for space in quality publications offline not just because they are quality publications with good distribution but also because the implied endorsement makes readers less wary of your message. Same scenario online.

“So. OK. Yawn. Thanks a lot. If I want my ads to be effective online, I have to pay big bucks for popular/recognized authority sites. Very helpful.” says you, SMB owner with your tight ad budget in mind.

Well, yes. Hang on a minute, though. There is an opportunity/point in this…

Where Does Adwords Come Into This

I spent a bit of time creating a Adwords placement campaign for this site yesterday and enjoying the new control on offer.

Google’s content network is an effective, if flawed, traffic generator. People often ignored it in favour of search results because the traffic was generally less likely to convert and therefore less valuable. In my experience, not always the case. But often the way to lift Adwords traffic conversion rates is/was to turn of content network placements.

The newish ability to see sites in the content network where your ads are appearing opens means the content network is no longer an inpenetrable black hole.

It opens up the possibility of focusing on content network sites that refer valuable traffic. What a change. Now you know where your ads appear and you can target very specific sites. Target those authority/high credibility site for affordable rates. (I will report back exactly how affordable after my campaign had been running.

So, that is exactly what I was doing yesterday. The tightest of tight budgets in mind, going through sites in the content network relevant to my services and checking out sites I wasn’t familar with before adding them to my placements.

And the Tie in With Content Quality and Ad Effectiveness is?

With very little to spend I can’t afford to place my ads on sites that don’t have some credibility. I made sure to read a couple of articles on sites I was considering, which were all content sites rather than service providers.

Seems I was right to be wary and you should be too.

Bottom line: Adwords or otherwise, when you are vetting advertising opportunities don’t just think relevance to your target audience; think quality content.

Added bonus: you’ll be doing us all a favour by helping starve those begged*, borrowed or stolen content based sites whose only raison d’étre is adsense revenue. These sites have been cluttering up the web with poor quality content for too long.

And by the way: Also from e-consultancy, and related to the nexus between website content and online advertising, Graham Charlton’s 12 PPC Landing Page Tips are well worth a reading — nothing too startling there but a useful checklist.

*Freelance writing sites and places like Elance and Guru are overflowing with [embed tongue in cheek] amazing opportunities[dislodge tongue] to write 500 words for one of these sites for $2 or even $3. Lest we forget, Internet marketing is sullied by slave labour just like many other industries.

Web Marketing Insight Catchup

Some days my daily search for Web marketing insight is frustrating other days, well, the insight is in full flood.

First thing:
Turn my laptop on return; to the kitchen [sigh] to get the coffee I meant to bring down to the office; log in and wait for my beleaguered pc to sort out itself ["commmmon!"]; and settle in to read email and RSS feeds because that’s one of the things I offer clients: the latest Internet marketing tactics.

(Know the story of Sisyphus doomed to spend eternity 1. pushing a rock up a hill 2. losing it near the top and 3. repeating 1. and 3.? Well. I relate. But in a good way. The fact that one is never on top of the Internet marketing knowledge hill could be frustrating. Except, constant learning makes life interesting for me.)

Hour later:
Either:

• Hmmmm. Not sure I’ve actually learned much — another five internet marketing information product  pitches, advice I first read in 2001 recycled or repackaged, two more social media sites to consider, etc. That is: a lot of information but no insight.

“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink” Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner

Or:

• Lots of fresh insight to note (fresh water to drink from the sea of indigestible salt water that is the daily flow of Web marketing advice) and not enough time to take it in and share it with others.

Fresh or Worthwhile Web Marketing Insight:

• A reminder from Gerry McGovern that your target audience is more and more fickle every day based on a number of things Gerry has come across on his web travels
• (via Jennifer Laycock of Search Engine Guide) a very droll take on the right way to hire an SEO firm from Ian Dury of Conversation Marketing

(Note, especially: the first point about SEOs that can’t write. The technical stuff matters. But the words deliver the traffic and the ROI. I would say that, of course.)

• “Five Ways to Improve Your Customer Experience” from, Clickz columnist, Heidi Cohen actually offers more than five. Her general theme, understanding and catering to chosen customers’ needs in products, service and company style is one I heartily endorse.

Search Engine Submission Non-service

Search engine submission is a service you can do without.

I’ve always wondered about SEO companies touting submission to search engines as part of their services. Um. There’s no need to submit to search engines. They are in the business of finding and indexing sites. All that is needed is a link from another site.

Picture a boardroom, back room or cafe near you. A group of people is intent on a piece of paper the loudest of the group is writing on. “Anything else we can offer? This list could really do with another bullet.” “Ahh… How about submission? That will give us seven services.”

Be particularly wary of anyone offering to submit your site to hundreds/thousands of search engines for $x. Not so much a service as a scam in those cases. There aren’t that many reputable search engines. Indeed, your ROI on that particular marketing expense might be negative if you end up associated with unsavoury corners of the web.

Why am I thinking about search engine submission?

Signed up with webmaster central today and found myself appalled to find this site — very much a work in progress and not safe for public consumption yet — well indexed by Google. It seems Yahoo! Search has about the half my unfinished pages indexed and MSN Live two pages.

Time to get serious about filling in the sizable gaps in my content!

NZ Search & Social Media Stats

For the last eight years my work focus has been the US online market. Whether I was living in Melbourne, Auckland or Wanaka, the work ended up in an email inbox somewhere in the US.

Now, establishing my own consulting business and working with local clients, my work focus has shifted to spend more time studying local web usage. It’s interesting to be spending a little more time looking at my local web neighbourhood. The Web may be global but its usage varies across time zones and country borders.

Google Dominates NZ Search with  89% Market Share

And there’s definitely a “900 pound gorilla” in the New Zealand search space: combining Google.co.nz and .com shares gives  the non-resident gorilla 89.19% of NZ searches, with MSN’s Live beating Yahoo!  for the search scraps with 4.30% versus 2.23% (source: Hitwise, Search Volume 24 Weeks ending May 31, 2008).

Google can’t boast that kind of dominance in the US where its share is more like 58%.

NZ Social Network Picture is A little Different To US Picture

My latest Hitwise newsletter offers insight into New Zealanders’ use of social networks.  Seems Facebook and Bebo are almost equally popular with 39.87% & 39.15% of social network use and Myspace (still dominant in the US) lagging behind with 7.81%.

Big movers in the US market — photo sharing site, Flickr (101% growth from May ‘07 - May ‘08 to rank 3rd behind MySpace and Yahoo in unique visitors), people search network Reunion.com (77% growth for 5th spot), social bookmarking site Digg.com (90% growth for 11th) and business social networking site LinkedIn (138% growth for 20th) — don’t feature in NZ stats.

My impression [should really take a look] is that Bebo is definitely for a younger demographic — witnessed it causing sibling friction between an 11 year old boy and his 8 year old sister with one laptop to share recently, for instance.

So it seems like Facebook is the place to look if you’re a NZ business thinking about doing something about “this social media thing everyone is talking about.”

Small is Good for Internet Marketing

Mike Moran’s suggestion that web marketing favours small businesses is an interesting one for me as I transition from mainly working with large corporations to working with sme’s.

Moran suggests that the marketing challenges that small businesses face offline can be advantages online.  Not sure that I agree but I do agree that there is a lot more to successful online marketing than having the resources the big players have at their disposal.

Smarts can outgun budget. But often making the most of web marketing opportunities requires a significant investment in time and effort, if not money.

Why does Mike think that small business people have an advantage?

“1. Because you don’t have any money[...]

2. Because you aren’t trying to impress your boss[...]

3. Because you aren’t afraid to fail.”

Not surprised to see that comments are not all positive but I will be checking back to see if anyone else offers an opinion

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