Triune Designs Blog: Web Design, Development, & Marketing

I received some advice from my most trusted friend today: “your blog posts are too long”… Yikes!

Well, I have to admit that I have known about this problem for a while; however, it is a tough habit to break.

From this advice comes this week’s lesson on how to write a blog. Avoid verbose blog posts. Essentially, do not use twenty words to make your point when 10 will work. Here are a few reasons why:

• Research shows that reading on a computer is significantly slower than reading print. Be respectful of your readers’ time and keep your article short.
• Attention spans have gotten shorter and people are not wiling to spend a lot of time reading.
• Today, the majority of people scan web pages rather than reading them. Long posts will reduce a reader’s ability to fully scan your post.

So, to heed the advice I received, I leave you with this: take care of your readers by keeping your blog posts short and to the point. Leave all the unnecessary fluff for someone else’s blog.

2¢ – Your two cents
Do you struggle with long posts?
How do you keep your posts short?
What other problems do you encounter when you write your posts?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I would love to get your two cents on this post.

Do you like the photo in this post? It is courtesy of m00by’s events on Flickr.

I believe 2009 is going to be the year of the blog. Blogging and social media as a whole are continuing to become more popular and are now becoming essential tools in a businesses’ marketing arsenal. So this week’s recommendations provide some predictions for blogging in 2009 and information on how to become a better blogger.

Social Media Predictions
Mary Fisher is a blogger at Spinfield. According to her bio she used to be a newspaper reporter, and you can tell in her posts. She does an excellent job writing and I find her posts to be both enjoyable and informational. In this post, Mary provides six predictions on the state of social media in 2009. Here are a few of her predictions along with some of my thoughts:

Blogging Goes Mainstream – In 2008, many companies still needed to be convinced that blogging is beneficial. In 2009, blogging will be recognized as an economical tool for sharing information about organizations and products.

I completely agree. I think blogging really is going to take off this year. Dare I say that blogging might even become fashionable in 2009?? I guess we will have to wait and see.

The Rise of Blogging as a Profession? – Gone are the days of having an intern or just anybody regularly post articles about your company. Writing quality and legal concerns demand an increase in writing skill and professionalism.

I am not sure about this one. I agree that professionalism and good writing skills are important for business blogs. My concern, though, is the emphasis placed on hiring an outside professional blogger to write for a business blog. I wonder how much transparency is lost by hiring an outside writer to handle a company’s blog posts.

Budgets will be Saved – Reflecting the economy, lower marketing budgets will require creativity on the part of marketing departments. Limited marketing funds will continue to shift away from traditional media to more economical social media.

I agree that social media marketing is great given our current economic situation because of its low-cost nature. Almost no money is needed to start a web marketing campaign.

The problem a lot of people will encounter when they attempt web marketing is the amount of work it takes to maintain a solid campaign. This factor alone will weed out a lot of businesses who are not truly committed to web marketing and are not willing to put in the effort.

Beginners Welcome
The beauty of blogging is that it really does not take much to start – just a blogging platform and a few thoughts. Therefore, the barrier-to-entry is quite low. All are welcome to the world of blogging. Becoming a better blogger, though, does take some work. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of posts providing advice to people who are just now entering the blogosphere.

Our blog, for example, provides information on how to write better blogs. Another such blog (ProBlogger) does the same. I recently read one of his articles that provides a summary of posts to help the beginning blogger. I included a few links here. If you are new to blogging I highly suggest reading them to help you improve.

Introductory Posts

• What is a Blog?
• 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers – Is a Blog Right for You?
• How to Choose a Niche Topic for Your Blog
• Choosing a Domain Name for your Blog
• Blog Tools

Tips for Writing Content for Blogs

• Useful and Unique Content
• Post Length
• Granular (One Topic) Posts
• Using Titles Effectively on Blogs
• Scannable Content
• Basic HTML Tags
• More on Writing Content for your Blog

(Note: It should be noted that I first found this great blog post at ChurchCrunch before I had checked my Google Reader. Therefore, I am going to give ChurchCrunch a thumbs-up.)

2¢ – Your two cents
Did these links help you? Are you new to blogging? If you are new to blogging, what is the one thing that you feel you need to learn to get better? If you have been blogging for a while, what is one thing you would tell new bloggers to help them improve? Where else would you suggest looking for advice on how to write a blog? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I would love to get your two cents.

Do you like the photo in this post? It is courtesy of Nic’s events on Flickr.

I just read a post on ChurchCrunch that talked about 50 great examples of blogging goals. I have to say that agree with a lot, but I also disagree with a lot of them as well. Here are a few of John’s examples.

Bloggers who I believe set great goals. These bloggers…

• want to increase their consistency and/or frequency of writing posts (Devakishor, Hardgainer Transformation).
• set a goal to write a certain number of posts per week (Slavi, Hardgainer Transformation, Daily SEO Blog).
• set a goal to learn more about their specific subject matter (Slavi).
• increase the amount of original content they publish (Devakishor).
• increase visibility through various social media websites (Devakishor).
• set a goal to start video blogging (Hardgainer Transformation) or write an eBook (Geek Entrepreneur).
• get more involved with other projects (Daily SEO Blog).
• write a guest post for three blogs (Geek Entrepreneur).
• I would love to see some more sustained conversation going on (Sean P. Aune).
• set goals to put more effort and time to become a successful blogger (MayUOnline).

Bloggers who might have set problematic goals because they seem to focus solely on the numbers. These bloggers set goals such as

• daily unique hit: 4000.
• daily hit: 6000.
• page views: 5,000 a month by November 2009.
• unique visitors: 1,000 a month by November 2009.
• increase subscriber base to 10,000.
• I am hoping to increase my average over this year, and though I am still seeing slight growth, it won’t be easy. I will again shoot for a 50% increase, and hope to do this through writing more general appeal posts that result in better search engine traffic.

My Disclaimer
Before I continue, let me provide a disclaimer. Most of these blogs probably have a higher following than this blog. They probably have a larger amount of traffic than this blog. Therefore, they could be considered more successful than this blog, so I provide these thoughts with a huge level of humility.

Are You In the Circle of Trust Influence?
Stephen Covey provides us with a great concept in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. According to Covey, you have a Circle of Concern (CoC) and a Circle of Influence. Our Circle of Concern contains our “wide range of concerns – our health, our children, problems at work, the national debt, nuclear war.” (pg. 81). In contrast to this is our Circle of Influence, which is a smaller circle inside the CoC. The Circle of Influence contains those concerns that we can actually do something about. (pg. 82). Where you end up putting most of your time and energy determines how proactive (and eventually effective) you are.

That was a long set up, but it is important to help explain why I liked the first set of goals and disliked the second set of goals. The former list shows bloggers who are focusing on their Circle of Influence. They are working to blog more consistently and with better quality. They desire to increase their knowledge in order to be better thought leaders. These bloggers are setting their goals on what they can really change (or influence).

The latter list concerns me because their goals deal mostly with items outside of the Circle of Influence. These bloggers are looking to the numbers game, which they really cannot change. How many hits are they getting? How many unique hits are they receiving? How many subscribers do they have? The problem is that the bloggers cannot really change these numbers no matter how hard they try. Their focus is on things outside of the bloggers’ ability to control.

One risk of setting these types of goals is that they can cause the blogger to become too generic for their own niche market. Another risk is perceiving their work as a failure if they do not meet those specific numbers. What if your blog had a huge impact on a small number of people. What if that small group of subscribers are truly devoted followers that are part of a community you lead? According to these goals, your impact on others and your community is strong; however, since you only achieved 3,000 unique visitors instead of 4,000, your efforts appear to be a failure.

2¢’s – Your Two Cents
So, I leave you with these questions. What are your blogging goals for 2009? Are your goals focused on the numbers or are they focused on what you can do to make your blog better? Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts, and why? Do you have any thoughts or experiences that support or disprove this post? How do you live your non-blogging life? Inside the Circle of Influence or outside of it? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear your two cents.

Photo courtesty of Carla216 on Flickr.

I will let you in on a little secret about effective web marketing. Come closer so I can whisper it to you. Okay, that is better. It is all about the community. Yes, writing blog posts with search engine optimization in mind is important. Yes, participating on Twitter is valuable. Yes, participating in social networking sites is important. However, the common denominator for all of web marketing is building and maintaining a community.

Building A Community Using Your Blog
Building a community is pretty obvious for social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn). What may not be as obvious is how to create a community around your blog. Obviously, writing consistent blog posts is the start of building your community. If you are not writing consistent, freshly updated content you are not giving your community a reason to stay involved and come back. Therefore, this should be your first priority. (Note: If you are not writing frequent blog posts then stop reading, go back to your blog, write a quick and thoughtful post, and then hit the publish button. Come back whenever you are ready; I will be happy to wait.)

Respond To Your Commenters
So, now we know you are writing frequent posts for you blog, well what now? It is time to connect with your readers. First, respond to the people who comment on your blog. We can be honest with ourselves. Almost all of us are not the Seth Godins and Chris Brogans of the world. (Chris has so many people trying to contact him that he hired a personal assistant just to handle the email… wow!) Therefore, you are not getting so overwhelmed with comments that you cannot take the time to respond. If possible, respond to every comment that someone leaves on your blog. Sometimes, you may only need to leave a little “thanks for commenting” message. Other times, a more thoughtful response is better. It all depends on what the commenter writes. Regardless, always stay mindful of engaging with the people who are choosing to participate with you.

Ask Some Questions
Ask questions in your blog. Instead of only preaching and teaching to your audience, engage with them. Your audience looks to you as a thought leader in your given area. That is one of the reasons they read your blog; however, that does not set you up to just stand on your box and tell everyone how things should be. Engage with your audience by asking them questions. Can they add anything to what you wrote? Do they have differing opinions? Have they experienced anything like what you just wrote? Find out, and in the process empower them to get involved with the discussion.

Enhance Your Discussions
Use a commenting system plug-in to enhance the discussion. As you can see, I use Intense Debate as my WordPress plug-in of choice. If Intense Debate members comment on my blog they will see any responses I make to their comment. As a result, there is a higher probability of them continuing to stay in the discussion and come back to leave more thoughts. I have seen this process happen many times on quite a few blogs. There are many other benefits of using Intense Debate and I recommend this as one of the top three plug-ins you need to add to your blog.

Visit Their Website
Your commenters have taken the time to read your blog and add a comment to your website. You have responded to their comment on your blog. Now for an added touch of community-building take the time to look at their blog. Read a few of their posts and if you can, make a comment or two. It will only take you a few minutes to do this, but it may be one of the best (and underutilized) ways to develop loyal readers. People love to receive comments so reward them with some comment love. The one-way street now becomes two directional and it shows that you are interested in them. Giving back to them can pay huge dividends for you in the end.

I like to think of blogs as group discussions instead of keynote speeches. The blogger is the moderator of the group and will work to initiate the discussion instead of merely talking to the nameless, faceless crowd. So get out there and engage your audience.

2¢’s – Your Two Cents
Do you engage your audience? What other methods of audience engagement do you use? What commenting system do you use, if at all? What other metaphors can you create for blogs as discussion starters? Have any of these techniques worked for you? I would love to hear your two cents.

Photo courtesy of striatic

I have a couple of recommendations for some good blog advice and web marketing reading for this week’s BB&P post. This week we are giving a shout-out to John’s (a.k.a. human3rror’s) blog over at ChurchCrunch. We also point out a good discussion on how you can use different criteria for Google’s AdWords to become a better PPC advertiser.

Want to be a good blogger?

Whether he has notoriety or not, John is one of the best bloggers you will find. (If you want a list of reasons why I believe this call me, email me, or ask in the comments.) Therefore, if John provides a list with best practices for creating an effective blog I would listen. That is the reason I am including his post on this week’s recommendations.

As you read his post, you should ask yourself the following questions.

• Does your blog have a voice?
• Is your (and your company’s) personality coming through the posts? Hint: if you have a blog that is Big-Blue-stiff then the answer is probably no (think IBM of the 80′s and early 90′s).
• If someone is reading your blog posts, can they immediately identify your business passions and obsessions?
• Are your posts well thought out and (mostly) grammatically correct (hint: avoid stream of consciousness writing)?
• Are you trying to create a successful blog? Honestly?

Read on for more his valuable good-blogging advice. The original article came from 43Folders.

Google Adwords – Gaining more precise control over your keywords

I usually do not advise most people to use Google Adwords. With that said, Google created a great program to try and increase traffic from search engine results for those that are willing to pay a little money. The PPC option has allowed businesses to target specific groups of people, thus making advertising slightly more effective. My advice; however, usually directs businesses to put their efforts into creating stronger organic search engine result first. I could go on, but this is not the point of my post today.

A forum topic I recently found provided advice on how to make Google Adwords even more effective: include negative keywords with your keyword matches. If you currently use Google AdWords or are thinking about it then I would recommend checking this out. You can also view Google’s AdWords support for more detailed information on this topic.

A quick example from Google’s AdWords support:

Say you bought the keyword “blue mercedes car” on broad match. Here’s how the different versions of the negative keyword “fast blue” would affect this ad.

1) -fast blue (Negative)
POSSIBLE SEARCHES:
blue mercedes car – WOULD SHOW
blue fast mercedes car – WOULD NOT SHOW
mercedes fast car – WOULD SHOW
car blue mercedes fast – WOULD NOT SHOW
fast blue – WOULD NOT SHOW
blue fast – WOULD NOT SHOW
fast blue mercedes car – WOULD NOT SHOW

Read more from the web marketing forum.
Read more from Google Adwords support.

Your two cents
What did you think about John’s post concerning good blogging? What would you add to the list of effective blogging techniques? Do you think your passion shines through in your blog posts? Do you ever use negative keywords during your Google searches? Do you use Google AdWords? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your thoughts.

My wife and I just ran in Charlotte’s Thunder Road Marathon this past Saturday. It was a grueling battle between man and nature to see which one would be victorious… okay, not quite. It was a serious challenge and it was fun, but maybe not quite a grueling battle.

About a month ago as we were rounding out the last portion of our 18 mile training run I came up with this list that provides some useful tips on how to be a successful blogger (or marathoner).

Break things into manageable chunks
In a marathon, a runner has to travel 26.2 miles. There is no doubt that is a long distance, but what helps is to break the run apart into smaller-sized chunks. The obvious follow-up questions is how do you break up your specific individual behemoth? That depends on you. For the marathon, my wife and I set it upon ourselves to only focus on reaching the next mile marker. We did not let ourselves think about the remaining miles ahead. It worked for us.

Likewise, for this blog, I break the massive goal of writing countless blog posts into manageable chunks. One day is spent providing useful links, two days are spent on writing specifically about web marketing and blogging, and one day is spent trying to get feedback from this community. These mini-goals make it easier to focus on a small amount of posts instead of hundreds. It works for me. Try a few different techniques and find what works for you.

Your gait will improve over time with repetition
If you are not writing a blog, but are interested in starting then jump in. If you are new to blogging, but are worried about how it comes across or whether you are doing it right then do not worry. There are some successful ways of creating a good blog, but for now do not worry. Just start writing.

Blogging is very similar to running a marathon because of the repetition required. Our training for a marathon started months ago. Over that time we logged hundreds of miles of training runs. What I noticed was that my running gait changed over time. My body learned how to adjust to running longer distances. Likewise, over time your blogging will become better. With repetition you will find your blogging voice. You will become a more confident writer. Things will get easier for you because your mind will adjust to becoming a blogger. Believe in the power of repetition and practice, and just get out there and do it.

Find good bloggers and learn from them
Three things helped my training for a marathon: (1) my wife had run two prior marathons so she knew how to train and what to expect, (2) we read some marathon training books, and (3) we read some running magazines. These were essential to our preparation for the day of the race.

For a new blogger this advice is important: read other people’s blogs. Find good bloggers and learn from them. What do they do right? What do they do wrong? How do they engage their community? How does the community respond back to the blogger you are watching? You can learn a lot from participating in other people’s blogs. Additionally, find some web marketing or social media bloggers that provide advice on how to get better. They are on the front lines of web marketing so they should know a lot of great techniques for making your blog better.

Be prepared for the mental games
This key was probably the biggest shock for me: the strength of the mental games. Be prepared to put down the mental games. When running long distance my mind constantly wanted to tell me how far I had to go before finishing. Then my mind told me I might as well stop instead of trying to finish. I had to put the mental games to sleep.

In the beginning, blogging will be no different for you. With the exception of a few circumstances, your new blog will not attract a single person. In fact, you will probably have a hard time getting your own family to read your blog. Your posts will sound like you are at the end of a cave where you are only talking to a wall with the accompanying echoes. That is tough! The mental games will begin creeping up. “Why continue?” “You should stop writing; no one is reading.” “You have not gotten a single comment in weeks, is this worth the trouble.” “You are wasting your time.” You must put those mental games to sleep. A blog takes a lot of time to develop; a community takes time to develop. Some blogs may take months to gain momentum, some longer. Be patient, continue to write your posts, and engage with the online community (via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Your own community will develop over time through perseverance.

Give credit when it is due
We have all had to do it in school: create a works cited page or bibliography. Therefore, I know you have a little practice in giving others credit when it is appropriate or necessary. Bloggers also need give credit to others, the method is just a little different. The best way to give others credit for ideas, quotes or just plain talking about them in a blog is to add a link to their website or blog. This is also a very simple way of engaging the online community. Adding links are so important to maintaining the health of your blog. Make sure you do not neglect them.

In training for a marathon there are multiple people a runner can thank for help along the way. For me specifically, I would like to thank Judy and Allen (Asher’s grandparents) for watching Ashe on countless Saturdays during our long training runs. I would also like to thank Michele for setting up the training schedule, keeping me motivated, and for basically dragging me across the finish line when I was way past the point of exhaustion. I never would have run or finished the marathon without her.

Your thoughts
So, what are your thoughts? For those of you who have blogged before, do these sound like things you have battled? For those of you who want to blog, but have not, what is holding you back? Do you have any other sports similes for blogs? Please leave your thoughts below. I look forward to reading them.

Today, I have two good blog posts I came across last week. These two articles were written by some very good social media/new media authors. I recommend you take the time to go to their blog (in the links below) and read the full articles. It is also worth your time to add their blogs to your favorite feed reader.

You were born with a personal brand by Lisa Hoffmann (@LisaHoffmann)
Lisa is a local Charlottean and she is doing her best to put the Queen City on the social media map. Essentially, her blog covers all things social media.

In this specific post, Lisa talks about how each one of us has a personal brand. I had never actually thought about this fact, but she is quite right. While reading Lisa’s article I reflected on an associated fact: individual personalities come out in web marketing. Therefore I believe it is a good practice to think about your personal brand as you continue to market your business. In social media, the two are closely tied together. The post also provides some good examples of personal branding. Read Lisa’s article.

Why I am not on LinkedIn by David Meerman Scott (@dmscott)
Simply put, David is the web marketing master. If you plan on doing any type of web marketing I highly recommend you read his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR. He also has a great e-book (in pdf format), that you can download for free, titled The New Rules of Viral Marketing.

The article I recommend is from his blog (webinknow.com) and it discusses why he is not on LinkedIn. The article does not say that you should not be in LinkedIn or any other type of social media. Rather the article addresses the fact that we cannot possibly be involved in every single social media platform available and still be effective. David provides a great analogy between social media and cocktail parties in order to reinforce his argument. Read David’s article.

After you read the articles give me some feedback in the comments below. Do you agree with my recommendations? Do you disagree with them? I look forward to reading your thoughts.