Archive for the 'Blogging' Category

Stuck On Repeat

Published
by
Matt
on Oct 26, 2007
in Blogging and Communication
. 0 Comments

I know this page is beautiful, but if you're into feeds, you can subscribe and get all this ANM goodness right in your feed reader. And hey, do you love comments? I know I do. Feel free to let me know what you think!

Does anyone else feel like the same things are said over and over again in the blogosphere?

I understand that a key part of blogging is self-expression and that everyone is entitled to their opinion and view on a topic, but sometimes it just feels like the same old, same old.

I think if you look at some of the most popular and highest quality (notice the separation - the most popular aren’t always the best) blogs out there, the one thing they do exceptionally well is create new content that adds value to peoples lives. Why does someone love icanhascheezeburger.com? Because people love animals, and people love laughing, and on top of that, ICHC delivers new content, albeit in the same form, constantly.

It seems, to me at least, that too many people have interpreted the sage advice of “have a consistent message” to mean “have the exact same message consistently” and that’s not a good sign. I know it’s incredibly difficult to come up with great new stuff, especially if you’ve got a lot else going on. I used to post at least 3 times a week and it’s become 1-2 now if I’m lucky. So I feel your pain on that one. But please, don’t just rehash old ideas and content.

I think the blogosphere needs a new motto, how about, “If you can’t say something new, don’t say anything at all.”

A Revolution? Be a DIY Editor-in-Chief

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 9, 2007
in Advertising, Analysis, Blogging, Communication and New Marketing
. 0 Comments

“Revolutionary” is a word that gets thrown around a lot, so you’ll understand my hesitation in using it. However, something is happening now that just might fundamentally change the way people get a lot of their information.

Every morning, my Dad wakes up, grabs his coffee and spends about half an hour reading the newspaper before work. The Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of the Philadelphia Inquirer, has decided what might be important/of interest to my father. And not only my father, but most of the newspaper readers in the greater Philadelphia area.

Every morning, I also wake up and grab my coffee, but instead of paging through the newspaper, I fire up my laptop and spend 30-45 minutes going through the new posts in my RSS reader. And who decided that these stories/posts would be important or interesting to me? I did. I didn’t have to worry about the greater Philadelphia area. I didn’t even have to worry about the rest of my family. Just me. I’m my own Editor-in-Chief.

This could be a revolutionary change. No longer do you have to let someone else decide what matters to you, now you control what information you recieve. Love the NY Times’ book reviews, USA Today’s entertainment news, and the Wall Street Journal’s economy reports? No problem. As DIY-EIC you can create your own media outlet.

The impact of this on marketing is huge. As people become more selective, they might not be interested in the entire paper anymore, but the segmented content that matters to them. Pretty soon, RSS feed advertising will become a more efficient and effective way of reaching people compared to traditional media outlets. As the feeds become more segmented, targeting audiences will become easier, for example the NY Times already has 67 individual feeds.

If you’re trying to stay ahead of the game, then you can’t ignore the power of RSS and the growing number of DIY-EICs. After all, if you don’t understand the way that people are interacting with their media, then how can you expect to reach them?

ASAP

Published
by
Matt
on Jul 5, 2007
in Blogging, Communication, Interaction Marketing and Marketers
. 1 Comment

At this writing, over 25,000 people subscribe to Darren Rowse at Problogger.net. According to Technorati, Seth Godin’s blog is the 12th most popular on the internet. They are web-celebrities. The rock stars of our age. Yet when you write them an email, not only do they write back, but usually within half a day. They must get hundreds or thousands of emails a day, yet I get responses quicker than when I email most of my friends.

If someone cares about you/your company/your blog enough to write you an email, then you should care enough to write them back as quickly as possible.

To end this with a question to all of you: How accessible/responsive are you? How long does it take you to respond to the average email? Do you treat business letters different than fan mail/comments?

The power of J.

Published
by
Matt
on May 23, 2007
in Blogging, Marketers and New Marketing
. 3 Comments

If you type your name into Google, where do you come up?

It depends on a lot of things. You could be lucky, like my friend Andrew Barbaccia, and have an uncommon name and a solid web presence. You could be very unlucky and be named Seth Godin (unless you are the Seth Godin). Most people fall somewhere in between.

There are a lot of Matt McDonald’s in the world. That’s a tough search engine battle to fight. As it stands right now, if you type in “Matt McDonald” into Google, this blog comes out in the 66th spot. That’s the 4th result on the 7th page, which is not so great. However, If you type in “Matt J McDonald”, I come out number 2. I can deal with that. So what’s the difference?

The “J”.

I decided I wanted to fight smart, not hard, so I started using the “J” in everything I did. Now when people think of me, they can think of “Matt J McDonald”. One letter moved me up from 66th to 2nd.

Sometimes there’s no use in breaking down the door if the window is unlocked.

What’s your “J”?

8 from the ProBlogger Group Writing Contest

Published
by
Matt
on May 12, 2007
in Blogging, Marketers and Web Sites
. 3 Comments

Well the contest has come and gone and I can honestly say it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever participated in. Close to 900 bloggers sent in their own top 5 lists and they were all posted on ProBlogger. I took some (read: a lot) of time looking through all the submissions and decided to share these 8 with you. Not only are they relevant to this blog, but they’re also good posts with a high degree of writing quality. Look for more in the near future.

-Your Small Business Is Worth More Than A Free Email Address at Return Customer

-5 Little Known Ways You Can Increase Your Emotional Intelligency at Tune up your EQ

-Top 5 Internet business blogs by Chris Sandberg

-High Fives and other small moves with big impacts by Andrew Barbaccia

-Top 5 Business Start-up Myths at Business Opportunities and Ideas

-Top 5 Mistakes Made When Naming Your Website or Company at The Chitika Blog

-5 Ways to Capture Attention Like a CEO at Career Ramblings

-Top 5 Internet Marketing Mistakes at Internet Marketing Monitor

Mobile? Why not?

Published
by
Matt
on May 11, 2007
in Blogging, Marketers, New Marketing and Web 2.0
. 0 Comments

According to the .mobi mobile emulator: “1.3 billion people will connect to the internet via mobile phones by 2008.”

So why is it that most popular sites don’t have a .mobi equivalent, or at least a mobile friendly version. Andy Moore’s Wordpress Mobile Plug-in is a great tool that allows your blog to automatically be converted into a mobile friendly format if it detects a mobile browser. It only takes minutes to configure (I’m still working on the colors) and allows you to offer content in a whole new medium.

Why aren’t there blogs out there that are designed strictly for mobile view and use? Short blog posts and snippets of information seem to be perfect for mobile viewing and might be all someone needs to spark an idea.

.mobi is probably going to be big. Are you ready?

To check out the mobile version of www.mattjmcd.com just type it into your mobile browser

No excuses

Published
by
Matt
on May 1, 2007
in Blogging, Marketers and Web Sites
. 0 Comments

There is absolutely no excuse not to have a web page.

I’m not saying that everyone should go out and rent a dedicated server, hire a web development team and spend thousands of dollars developing a highly intricate site, but you at least need an online presence.

This idea has been mentioned before by Ian at Conversation Marketing and Seth Godin on his blog and both of these guys are dead on.

There are no more excuses.

Price isn’t a factor anymore. This domain name cost me $6 and my web hosting is $5 a month. Wordpress, along with other blogging platforms are free. There’s no web development costs.

Expertise isn’t a factor anymore. Using templates you can create a fully functional page in Wordpress in under an hour. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece or a beacon of technology as long as it’s you.

Stop wasting time. Go get some space now and make a page. Feature information about you or your business. Make it easy to get in contact with you. The internet is a powerful interaction tool. Let it work for you.

8 Rules for the Rookie Blogger

Published
by
Matt
on Apr 26, 2007
in Blogging and Interaction Marketing
. 1 Comment

Starting a blog is a great way to interact with your customers, but it can be a bit daunting. Here’s my rules for the rookie blogger.

1)Do your homework - Unless you are inventing a topic, someone else already blogs about it. Find them (technorati), read them, RSS them (Google Reader).

2)Be Involved - Make smart, insightful comments on the blogs that you read. If you add something to the discussion and include your link on the byline you can attract some readers.

3)Don’t be shady! - Blogging is about communicating and writing NOT link-whoring. Write good stuff and you will attract people. Try to cheat the system with shady link swapping and you won’t.

4)Link out - Bloggers have a lot of great stuff to say. If someone says something you like, don’t be afraid to give them some love. They might just return the favor.

5)Be meticulous - Write, re-write, re-write the re-write, until it’s just right. And then spell check. Twice.

6)Tag on - Make sure to tag each post, it’ll help with organization and SEO.

7)Spread the word - Post your link in forums, submit your link to big open directories (DMOZ), E-mail your friends, Make a Squidoo Lens, Link to it on your MySpace Page. Send out press releases.

8 )Evolve - Never get complacent, always be creative and look for new ways to improve. Don’t be afraid to change.

Further Reading:
ProBlogger - Ultimate guide to getting lots of link love
CopyBlogger - How to attract links and increase web traffic
Seth Godin - How to get traffic for your blog
Guy Kawasaki - 120 day wonder - How to evangelize your blog
CopyBlogger - Zen and the art of remarkable blogging