Thanks, sueczech.wordpress.comIt happens to the best of us. Do everything you can to have the right blog post at the right time and…
Thud.
You’ve seen your visitors drop in half. Or worse. Overnight. You thought you’ve struck a chord but…well, you thought wrong.
Here, though, are 4 tried-and-true tactics for getting over the slump hump.
1. Stop writing.
In other words, don’t do it yourself. We love guest bloggers (HINT) but we’ve had even more luck with special series. The one we did called “So You Really Wanna Write a Book?” had twice as many visitors on day one as our interview with Chris Brogan did in 2010.
We love writing here at HQ. We think we’re good at it. BUT…hey, I had a confidant tell me last week that I “could use a lesson in sentence structure,” and I “overuse hyphens.” Maybe I needed a break?
Maybe you need a break? The alternative…
2. Write MORE.
When we wrapped up a client engagement in the Energy industry last October, we made a new mantra that we called “The Chicago Way.”
Blog Early. Blog Often.
Not to sound like the Motivational Gurus who will tell you that you’ll miss all of the shots that you don’t take…but if no one is seeing your writing, perhaps it’s because you aren’t doing it enough.
Guys like Brogan can help you – even if you don’t want to buy his Blog Ideas service, that’s okay. See the kinds of things that he, and others, are talking about. Apply that to whatever niche it is you’re operating in, or want to be operating in.
3. Get Personal*
Stories are great. Stories that actually happened to you, or inspiration from something you’ve watched happen or from people you met – those will get visitors, IF you can tie them into something, again, people can use.
There’s a big asterisk (*) because a good chunk of people get this WRONG. Here’s how they mess it up:
Bob’s Musings from Suburbia OR
Random Thoughts from Rachel’s Life
Some of you may be guilty of doing this in the subhead of your blog – so the 9 seconds of attention span we have (according to @SallyHogshead) leave me spending the first 6 seconds trying to figure out if I know you from somewhere, then the last 3 trying to find out if you’re worth my time.
People don’t want to read something random, and they don’t want your musings.
Trust me on this – we got tons of visitors on Tuesday, but we wouldn’t have had the COMMENTS if the personal story was random, or a series of musings. We tied it into business and what we’ve learned. BUT, also…segue to Tactic 4:
Not only aren’t they geographically in the same spot as me, they are demographically in different spots, too.
To tease this out even further, I had to step out of my own neighborhood online and build relationships over the days, months, and years. Some of this gets done by picking up the phone, some of it by commenting on other people’s blogs, and some of it by paying the karma bank here and there.
Follow these 4 Tactics and…well, while no one can guarantee more traffic, this type of thing has worked for us.
On one side of The Free Line is information that you get for free. On the other side, information you pay for. Pretty simple.
Information marketers such as the uber-successful Eben Pagan like to talk about “Moving The Free Line.” Instead of giving away a nickel’s worth of information, give away hundreds of dollars worth of information. Then, the theory goes, you can sell thousands of dollars worth of information. (Or, if you’re Pagan, tens of millions of dollars of information.)
But there are a couple of rockstar types – actual rockstars in this new digital world, not just guys or gals who say they are rockstars – with, arguably, completely different approaches to The Free Line.
Chris Brogan. Most things he touches turn to gold – he wrote a best seller called Trust Agents, and he’s constantly out there speaking and meeting with people. (Gee, he even has a Small Business Newsletter.) (And he gave us one of the more popular posts from the Area 224 blog last year; an interview you can read here.)
A Brogan Approach to The Free Line – a $9.97 a month blog advisory service. Which is interesting because, as someone who has been out there in the blogosphere since before it was called that (1998, according to his site), there is a TON of information out there from Chris, about blogging, that you can get for free.
Here, The Free Line is moved way into the expensive category, and the “Pay Line” is at under $10 a month. So the value here is not just in the how-to you’ll get from the newsletter, but in the fact that Chris Brogan is aggregating his own information, sharing with you the good stuff in regular intervals, and using the service to help “coach” you along.
So, when we learned that Ferriss was coming out with a new book called “The 4-Hour Body,” we pre-ordered it. So, apparently, did about a zillion other people, as the book is now number 4 on the Amazon best-seller list.
A Ferriss Approach to The Free Line – One concept in his newest book is called “The Slow Carb Diet.” Given my own age and newfound need for middle management, I am diving in with both feet and giving this diet a whirl.
Now, Ferriss has always been a proponent of “the companion site” – where anyone with a copy of the book can login and get so much more information than is found in the book. Worksheets, tools, links, those sorts of things. NOTE: “anyone with a copy of the book” meant, in the case of The 4-Hour Workweek, a password would be something like “the fifth word in the third chapter.” If you can’t find that somewhere, you probably don’t deserve all of the “free” content.
What intrigues this cub reporter about The Free Line for The 4-Hour Body is the Slow Carb Cookbook. Cookbooks are a unique animal – and another one that has changed because of the onset of the Internet. This one, available via instant, free, PDF download, is one that could be dressed up in hardcover and sold in stores for $20.
What he’s giving you is less of a cookbook and more of The Manifesto to the Slow Carb Movement.
Your Own Free Line
Where do you draw the line? How much do you give away? How much is free?
Maybe you’ve got a $30 E-Book, but you need to explain to the world that you can deliver on $3000 worth of content first.
Maybe you’re a high-priced consultant and you charge hundreds an hour – but you need to demonstrate that you are indeed worth that much.
In any event, don’t be afraid to draw The Free Line – and figure out when to move it, what to hold back, and how much to charge for your expertise.
Photo has nothing to do with Karma; it's blood sausageSome things pay you back with interest. Others?
Two awesome posts from different parts of the world got us thinking: is there an Online Karma Bank? Are you rewarded at some point down the road – just for being “nice” online?
Post 1:The Delightful Marian Schembari. Learn 3 Ways to Be Nice Online. Lesson? Karma Bank exists. Must pay into it often. Returns will come – but maybe they’re already coming, if you relish the smiles along the way. And puppies.
Maybe, to put all this into perspective, a little “Empathy.”
I’m a big fan of Empathy – even if I don’t practice it as often as possible.
There will be people you don’t agree with. There will be people whose mere presence annoy you.
But, if you put yourself in their shoes…maybe it’s you?
Or, I should say, maybe it’s me?
I THINK you want to get my [INSERT LATEST THING HERE]. But it could be the last thing on your list.
I THINK you are interested in what I have to say. But I may not know enough about you to make that guess.
I THINK…
So, I’m not going to withdraw from your ledger on the Karma Bank if you’re not interested in the latest thing…maybe I can help you, maybe I can’t. Maybe you need it, maybe you don’t.
Flipside? See Marian’s ideas (which follow nicely with Scott’s general theme of not feeding trolls).
And don’t hold it against me if I’m not joining you on CityVille.
Here's our logo, copyright us.We have studied our 2010 Traffic in depth. Here’s what we found…
We looked at sources, looked at headlines, looked at click-through rates. Here are 5 things we learned:
1. Have a List. See the headline above? “5 Steps to…” is a great way to put a post together. Our second most popular post from 2010 was one that listed “40” things learned by this reporter upon hitting an age with a round number in it. (Read that here if you’d like: https://area224.wpengine.com/40.)
2. Be topical. The most popular post last year* was one that talked about the Gap logo kerfuffle. But our take on the topic was that Gap threw the creatives under the bus, and should have stuck with the logo a little longer. Oh and “logo” does not equal “brand.” Oh and no one ever decided not to shop somewhere because they didn’t like the logo.
3. Start with “How to…” That Gap story was enormously successful for us because it started with the words “How to.” And, two of the other top 5 posts from 2010, the ones along the “Buzzword Watch” theme (see below), had “How to” right after the “Buzzword Watch.” People love to learn, and if you back up the “How to” with valuable information, you’ll get repeat visitors.
4. Have a Theme. No, not THAT kind of “Theme.”
For the uninitiated – “Theme” is what WordPress calls its templates. The one we use is called Thesis and we love it. [DISCLOSURE] Affiliate link follows – if you get it for your blog, we get a little bit of cash.
Back to point 4 – the “themes” that worked best for us in 2010 followed along with this idea: “make fun of buzzwords.”
“Innovation.” “Engagement.” “Game Change(r).” Each one of those posts was viewed in excess of 275 times. While that may not seem like a ton, considering the bulk of the traffic for each came in one day…that’s pretty respectable.
5. Use Traffic-Generating Keywords and Logos. This makes sense, but it’s NOT what you think. The traffic-generating keywords that worked best in 2010? “Gap.” “Etsy.” “Quora.” Also note that they were “in the news” (see above) and we borrowed their logos (or, in Gap’s case, their proposed, then-scrapped, logo).
Oh, and the asterisk (*) above? Last week, we told you that the most popular post from 2010 was this one, an interview with Chris Brogan. It was wildly popular – on the day of. But that was studying just Google Analytics traffic, and matching it to day-of numbers.
It took us a little while longer, but adding su.pr traffic stats, studying the analytics more, we were able to come up with numbers that give us a more accurate picture of 2010.
What can you do with this info?
Well, first of all, know who you’re writing for. We write for the marketing, public relations, corporate communications, advertising and creative industries, with a focus on startups and “emerging brands.” We study those industries, see what’s happening, take the pulse of our contacts, and write from there.
If you’re writing to position yourself in your industry — maybe it’s a B2B blog, or maybe you’re in a medical or technical field — you can still follow the same advice above.
Take cues from others — there’s a site covering your industry; if not, maybe yours should be the site covering your industry.
You’re not looking for MORE traffic, you’re looking for BETTER traffic. Having things like the right Theme (like Thesis) can help with your SEO. Using Twitter and Facebook and su.pr certainly help with reach. Add those to your arsenal, no matter the reason for your blog.
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