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From the monthly archives:

January 2007

A Good Headline Alone Can Drive Serious Traffic, Even if the Content Sucks

January 31, 2007

Brian Clark said it so many times. The headline can do everything.

Today, as I checked out what’s hot in Digg, I found a disturbing entry on the top 10 in Technology: 10 Most Misspelled Words in Blogs. The writer says that there are ten misused words “in blogs” that cannot be picked up by spellchecking. These ten words are:

  1. Your/You’reSeated Writer
  2. Then/Than
  3. Its/it’s
  4. To/two/too
  5. Were/where/we’re
  6. There/their/they’re
  7. A/an/and
  8. Off/of
  9. Here/Hear
  10. Lose/Loose

Hello, is anybody home? Is this an issue specific to the blogosphere? Absolutely not! Seriously, these are 10 most commonly misused words in writing (period). Perhaps, if we wanted to get picky, these are the ten most misspelled words in informal writing (since second-person is not used in formal writing), though there really is no statistical evidence to even support the author’s claims.

So why did this blog get Dugg? Personally, I don’t think the post itself adds any value for me. But obviously, the writer did something right. In the most specific case, the writer used a list post. The “attention-grabbing power” of this particular headline worked because, as Brian says, “Any headline that lists a number of reasons, secrets, types, or ways will work because, once again, it makes a very specific promise of what’s in store for the reader.” Second, adding “in Blogs” to apply these misspellings to something that’s popular today helped attract user’s attention. Apparently, writing about blogs does pretty well in social media.

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Coping with the Winds of Change

January 21, 2007

Return to Sender MailIn the fifteen years since I became an active online user, I realize that only once did I make a drastic change in my online life — an email switch in 1999 when I canceled an online service. When possible, I try to avoid making it difficult for people to find me, as I can totally relate to the disappointment that people who call my cell phone looking for Nancy feel when they realize that I am not her. (I’ve had my cell phone number for six years and counting, but people still call for Nancy to this day.)

A few days ago, I reconnected with a very old and very good friend of mine. Since he is slightly “older” than the MySpace/Facebook generation and hadn’t discovered the appeal of online networking, I couldn’t locate him, but fortunately I was able to find him through a younger sister who is active in these communities.

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JackFM and its Relationship to Blog Popularity

January 11, 2007

JackFMOne of my favorite radio stations is WCBS 101.1 Jack FM, a hot New York radio station that boasts the slogan “Playing what we want.” This radio station covers just about all genres from the last 40 years or so, which is vastly different from the other popular radio stations in the New York metropolitan area (Z-100, which plays today’s hot songs, covering mostly the newest rap and pop; 103.5 KTU which plays dance radio; Q104.3 which plays classic rock; and 95.5 PLJ which plays mainstream alternative rock and pop).

I’m a person of unique and diverse tastes, and I like a wide variety of music. However, I’m inclined to keep my radio tuned in on Jack FM because it generally combines all four aforementioned radio stations, thereby appealing to my eclectic tastes and ultimately to a wider audience. In local stores, I often hear Jack FM being aired through the company’s stereo system for likely the same reason. Jack’s appeal is often related to an element of surprise, and I’ve heard on numerous occasions that many listeners still tune into Jack even if they don’t like the current song because the next one could be from a different decade and genre and would be much more preferred by that particular listener. Jack’s popularity has prompted for other similar stations to be established in other cities as well (and it didn’t start in New York).

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If You Don’t have a Blogroll, Will MyBlogLog Cut It?

January 10, 2007

My blogroll needs work. There are just too many blogs that I read that are not represented there. Ultimately, I intend to make a post similar to Lee’s excellent resource (though definitely not as extensive) covering the blogs I read in the Search Marketing community (and a little beyond for those who are interested).

And then I read Andy’s addendum to LifeHack’s six blog improvement tips, where he states that it is helpful to add a blogroll. Granted, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen such a comment, and in light of recent events revolving the famous widget of the blogging community, I can only wonder: is MyBlogLog, which I personally feel should be used more as a community rather than just a widget, a suitable blogroll replacement? After all, I am slowly adding myself to the communities of blogs I read (including Andy’s — but for the record, I did that well before this post!).

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Crappy Site Design, Great Content: Is This Poor Social Media Optimization?

January 9, 2007

Really Ugly DogThe phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” has been brought to a brand new level on the World Wide Web.

Consider the mindset of your users. A penetratingly ugly website design can negatively impact your site and visitors, despite the fact that there may be great content — and especially if you’re a relatively new player in Internet Marketing.

I’ve encountered a few sites, including those of family members, that have been begging for a good Internet Marketing campaign. And I’d like to help. However, I personally feel that these sites don’t necessarily only call for good marketing. Many of these sites need something else. Upon looking at website design and usability, I realize how these two important elements truly go hand-in-hand with a successful campaign that can really translate traffic into results. In today’s day and age, a successful website needs incoming links, the ability for people to want to talk about your site — and to be acknowledged among peers.

Cameron recently discussed how social media optimization focuses on more of an “on-page” effort which entails “improving the design and usability of the website so that it becomes more compelling to users” [emphasis is mine]. A relatively new site needs more than just good content to be compelling. Design and usability are key.

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