Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

Why I’ll Only Use Postmatic for WordPress Blog Comments

It takes a lot for me to be completely won over by a new product out of the gate, never mind make me a staunch supporter of it from that very same gate.

Usually, I’ll find a bunch of things I don’t like, and use that as an excuse to look for another solution, or one that does the stuff the one I’m looking at doesn’t.

Now and again, though, the actions of the developers or creators of a product make you forget what’s missing, and instead make you focus on the very cool stuff that’s included in the current version.

That’s exactly what happened with the Postmatic WordPress plugin that enables blog comments by email. And now, I really can’t see myself using any other option.

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

When Jason Lemieux, the co-founder of Postmatic, first reached out to me about his product (I think it was on Twitter), I’ll be honest, I didn’t really have the time or inclination to check out another plug-in.

For one, I was tired of content and commenting. Not so much content and commenting itself, but the myriad of commenting systems I’d already tried out and had left for various reasons.

Livefyre, Disqus, Inline Comments, Google+ Comments. All with their strengths, all with various reasons to go with one over the other, and all with the same problem – they don’t play well with each other when it comes to leaving a comment.

You want to leave a Livefyre comment, you need to create a Livefyre account or sign-in with social log-ins (unless the blogger allows guest commenting). Same with Disqus.

You want to leave an Inline Comment, the reader needs to be aware Inline Comments are actually available. Since comment bubbles only appear after a comment is left (unless you want intrusive comment boxes after every single sentence), Inline Comments are invariably missed by readers.

You want to leave a Google+ comment, you need a Google+ account. Not only that, but the notification system is poor, since you don’t know people have commented on your content unless you’re tagged in that comment. You can imagine some of the stuff that could appear on your blog with that in mind.

So, four comment systems, four reasons to sigh. So, yeah, when Jason reached out, I initially wasn’t interested.

But, fair play to him, he didn’t give up, and reached back out at a time when I was ready to look at commenting options again, especially given how I want to turn this blog into a very personal destination, where conversations are the driver of the content as much as being the other way round.

And I’m glad he did, because Postmatic has made commenting fun again, and reminded me of what it used to be like when blogs were the hub of conversation, versus the multiple social channels that blogs fight for attention with.

Why Postmatic Should Be on the Radar of Every WordPress Blogger

So, you should be getting the gist that I’m a fan of Postmatic, even in its early form (the product is just coming out of beta). Given that there are alternatives to the commenting solutions mentioned earlier, why the big love for Postmatic in particular?

Simple – it’s made by WordPress lovers for WordPress lovers. Specifically, WordPress blog comment lovers (although it does a good job with email delivery too).

Postmatic WordPress Blog Comments by Email

Because my whole mantra with this blog has always been about the conversation, and for everyone to have the same voice when it comes to commenting and sharing ideas, Postmatic’s main goal strikes a chord with me.

Engaging in meaningful, timely conversation online is out of reach for too many people, especially in the blogosphere. We have created blogs for so many organizations that publish thought-provoking and essential content, but it often goes overlooked and under-discussed. Last spring we started thinking about how to change that. And so it is that we made Postmatic.
Jason Lemieux

Based on what I’ve seen on my own blog since initially installing Postmatic, and from comments of others I’ve recommended Postmatic to, the team behind the plug-in are well on their way to meeting that goal, and more.

As I mentioned in my initial post back in February, it takes a little getting used to, to not only reply to a blog post by email, but to leave a comment, and continue leaving comments, by email too.

Ever since blog commenting became more open source, we’ve needed to jump back to a post to leave a comment, and then sign up for notifications if we wanted to know if anyone replied to us. That kind of behaviour is ingrained in us.

So, flipping the mindset to commenting via email takes a little leap of faith – but the benefit to us, as bloggers and commenters, is worth it.

Especially with the new features from the recently public version.

More Than Just Comments by Email

While Postmatic’s methodology is sending a blog post out by email, then inviting people to leave a comment by simply hitting “Reply” to that email, it feels like it’s more than that simple premise.

Probably because it is more than that, intentionally or otherwise. When chatting with Jason about some ideas regarding future additions to the plug-in, I mentioned that I see Postmatic more as an engagement optimizer than a simple comment plug-in.

Because that’s exactly what Postmatic does – it not only encourages more comments and engagement by removing the technology barrier to leaving comments, it optimizes how that looks and feels for both commenter and blogger.

Since my initial look at Postmatic in February, the team behind it have added a whole slew of features to ensure a seamless and, more importantly, user-friendly experience for reader and blogger alike.

Seamless Integration with Any WordPress Blog

As long as you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, and you use native comments (or even wpDisquz, which supports Postmatic integration), you can get Postmatic set up in minutes.

Because Postmatic uses email to reply to, and receive, new comments, your existing native WordPress comment styling isn’t touched. All that changes is you have a little box below the comments to sign up for Postmatic comment replies, and you’re good to go.

If you currently use another solution (like Livefyre, or Disqus), and you decide to switch back to that from Postmatic, your comments are there ready to import back into that platform. Try that the other way round, without getting some weird leftover Livefyre or Disqus styling in return.

Moderation via Email

Run any blog with comments activated, and you’re going to come up against comment spam. It’s the bane of every comment system, even with the various filtering, moderation and blocking features around to combat it.

Postmatic makes it really easy to moderate via email, even when on the go. As a moderator, you can use “Approve”, “Trash” or “Spam” as a reply to a comment notification and Postmatic takes care of the rest.

Again, a bonus if you don’t have time to jump into your WordPress dashboard (or third party comment system admin area) to quickly moderate spammy or abusive comments.

Responsive HTML Email for Posts, Comments and Invitations

While the free version of Postmatic offers a perfectly functional email notification system, it’s when you jump up to the premium version that the design really kicks up a notch.

Using the Postmatic Premium template, you can add your own header, end of email widgets (for promotional banners, email sign-up, or anything else you’d normally put in a WordPress widget), and footer template.

This lets you have a branded email and comment reply notification that is immediately recognizable as yours – and it’s all responsive, so will look good on any display.

Email Notification Throttling

When I wrote about Postmatic in February, the post ended up getting over 200 comments. 100 of these came within the first couple of hours of the post going live.

Now, while this is great for engagement, you can imagine what that must look like for someone’s Inbox, especially if you leave the conversation for the day, then come back to your email in the morning only to see your email clogged with comment notifications.

Enter Postmatic’s notification throttling, one of the new features that a lot of early users of Postmatic – probably commenters more than bloggers – have been asking for, and a great addition to make the user experience even more enjoyable.

If a post gets more than six comments in an hour, Postmatic will pause notifications and instead send out an email that advises the post discussion is taking off. The post commenter/subscriber then gets an option to leave it on pause and resubscribe to the conversation at a later time, or rejoin there and then.

It’s a slick implementation that puts full control into the commenter’s hands – if you rejoin, you know what you might be getting yourself into. If you no longer want notifications, you won’t get them.

Past Commenter Invitation and Email Provider List Migration

I mentioned earlier that I see Postmatic as more of an engagement optimizer than a commenting solution, and their “past commenter invitation” option is part of that.

When you switch Postmatic on, you have the option of sending an email out to people who have commented on your blog before, but may have dropped off the radar.

You can send a personalized invite out to those folks, advising of your switch to Postmatic and inviting them back to the conversation, with the promise of never contacting them again if they don’t reply (click to expand).

It’s a great way to reach out to members of your community that may have slipped out of sight. This also lends itself to migrating your existing email list subscribers, if you also want to use Postmatic to deliver your content.

Instead of sending a blast email out to everyone, Postmatic determines those that have taken an active action in a certain timescale on your existing list – click, open, forward, etc, – and only sends an invite out to those people.

It’s another way of showing respect to subscribers, and keeping spam out of the inboxes of email users.

So, Postmatic is Perfect, Then?

These are just some of the new features that Postmatic is offering, now they’ve moved out of beta. There’s also:

Guaranteed email delivery and seamless Jetpack, Mailchimp, and MailPoet list integration
Almost instantaneous comments (within 6 seconds of sending the email)
Social sharing within email using multiple supported sharing options
Better privacy for all users
URL support when commenting on a blog natively, so your username/name links back to your own blog/site
Full control over commenters and comment history, and more

I’ve also been fortunate to have a look at what Jason and the team have coming down the line in the next few weeks and months when it comes to even deeper integration between comments, blogger and readers, and they’re pretty damn exciting.

With all that being said, Postmatic isn’t perfect – yet. Some of the core things I’d really like to see are:

Email and comment analytics. Currently there’s no way to know how many people opened your email, forwarded, replied to comment, etc. While that’s not too important from a commenting angle, it’s an important requirement for email lists. The team have mentioned this is in the pipeline – it’ll make a big difference.
Video embeds inline. If you have a video embed in a post, the Postmatic email template doesn’t pick it up. Instead, there’s a message that says, “This format is not supported by your email client”. While it’s not super important, it does mean you need to click through to the post to view, which dilutes the “reply by email” benefits a little. In fairness, most rich media content creators and subscribers prefer RSS for this, so it’s less of an issue than it could be.
Weekly digests. Currently, I run a weekly newsletter versus instant updates, as do many other bloggers I know. Postmatic doesn’t support this format – however, this is something else that the team are working on, and hopefully it’ll be here soon as an option.

In the grand scheme of things – with perhaps the exception of the analytics – these are minor quibbles in what is otherwise an awesome plug-in and experience.

And, to be fair, Postmatic isn’t positioning itself as a replacement for the Mailchimps and the Awebers of the world – yet. Instead, they want to make the process of blog post to email to reader to comment-by-email to ongoing engagement as smooth as possible.

In that regard, they’ve succeeded in spades.

The Proof is in the Engagement Pudding

While Postmatic doesn’t offer analytics for comments, etc., at the moment, there are other options out there that you can install, if you want to track the change pre-Postmatic and post-implementation.

One of these is Graphical Admin Report, that shows you behind the scenes statistics about growth of your blog, including comments. Using this, I ran a comparison of my own blog’s comment count for the six months between November 1 last year, and April 28.

The first three months – November, December and January – are all pre-Postmatic. The last three months – February, March and April – cover the period since I switched Postmatic on.

Despite the plug-in doing a weird right-to-left comparison, you can see for yourself how effective Postmatic has been at increasing comments and, by association, engagement on my blog.

Even the lowest of the comment count for Postmatic (for this month) is still more than the highest comment month in the previous quarter (November).

This rise in engagement seems to be happening elsewhere, too, once Postmatic is installed. A couple of bloggers I introduced to Postmatic, Jens-Petter Berget and The Jack B, have seen an increase in comment numbers since installing, and are good examples of the way Postmatic can increase engagement when introduced properly.

Because it is a mindset change, as well as a change in behaviour, and as humans we’re often not good at that – a good introduction by the blogger helps ease readers into the change.

Wrap your head around it though, and email commenting makes so much sense.

We already do it, anyway – if we use Livefyre, Disqus, Jetpack or native comments, we get an email notification telling us of a new comment or reply. And we still have to jump through another hoop to comment. Postmatic removes that hoop and leaves you to spend that time more effectively.

As the title of my post says, when it comes to WordPress blog comments, it’s the only solution I’ll use on my blog moving forward.

For a blogger that cares about engagement and true interaction with his readers, that’s the highest possible endorsement I can give.

You can check out Postmatic, and get a free two week trial of the Premium option, here.

Does Your Tagline Tell Your Story?

Mention tagline to someone, and invariably they’ll connect it to a business tagline and how that business benefits you, the end user.

And that makes sense. After all, a tagline is one of the first chances your business gets to make an impression on a prospective customer or employee. Get a great tagline, and it can jump you way ahead of the competition in just a few words.

Think of the very best taglines, and how their simplicity stays with you long after your first touch-point with them.

Three brands, three taglines, three instant impact messages. Nike’s “Just do it” slogan is so ingrained into our everyday lives, we know what the words are referring to when we hear them.

LG’s promise of life being good when you own their products talks to our desire of less work, more enjoyment and personal moments. And everyone knows the Apple “Think different” campaign as one of the reasons the brand has built up one of the most loyal customer bases in the world.

What makes these taglines, and others like them, work is that they avoid clutter and confusion. Instead of trying to be smart, all three of them remain simple, because that’s all that’s really needed.

You get the message right away, and that high impact reaction is all the brand needs to start your love affair with them.

But it’s not just businesses that can benefit from taglines.

You Have to Be More Than the Words You Create

If you take a look at my home page, you’ll see a large image of a serene scene, with the tagline “there’s more to life than social media”.

While I wouldn’t claim to be as creative as the people that came up with the three examples highlighted above, it’s a simple message that tells you what this blog’s goal is – to go beyond social media and provide the type of personal content that I hope connects with the reader.

I changed that tagline about 6-8 months ago, if I recall – it used to be “The human side of media and the social side of marketing”. While that tagline related to the type of content I was putting out then, it’s not the case today.

Since changing the tagline, I’ve had quite a few people reaching out to tell me it’s one of the reasons they dug into the content once arriving on the home page. Their reason for doing so? It’s not salesy, and it connected to their wish to read content that wasn’t just about social media, or marketing, etc.

Given that’s the direction I wanted to move this blog in, that was music to my ears.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Your tagline needs to tell your story. How well are you telling yours? #branding” quote=”Your tagline needs to tell your story. How well are you telling yours? #branding”]

It also showed the importance of having a good tagline for your blog. Much like a business uses a tagline to create interest around their product, your tagline needs to create interest around you.

Whether it’s on a blog, or the little bio that’s on your Twitter account, or even just the way you interact with people when they ask you what motivates you, it needs to be clear, punchy and true to you and your goals.

Is Your Tagline Really About You?

To highlight just how important a good tagline is, and why its message needs to be conveyed on first touch if you want a second chance, I’ve gathered up some examples of how my friends and connections are highlighting what they do.

I’d love for you to share in the comments after this post what the tagline says to you, and whether it made you want to know more, either about the person or business.

I’ll then ask the folks whose taglines I’m using to pop over to read your thoughts – it’ll be interesting to see if your initial reactions marry to the goals they have for the tagline. Note: this isn’t a “critique”, I’m curious to see how people read taglines differently, based on perception and background.

These are a mix of business and personal taglines – over to you (if the image is too small, you can click on it to expand to full size).

How to Build a Loyal Blog Community With the Power of Give

One of the conversations that often arises when talking about blogs is community, and?how to both grow and reward loyalty.

Making sure your blog community knows you appreciate them helps in several ways – there’s two way respect between blogger and reader/subscriber/commenter, as well as opportunities for advocacy?and blog growth through referral.

One way to do this is to offer exclusive content to blog or newsletter subscribers – a free ebook or white paper, for example.

Of course, that approach on a blog would mean that to really benefit from exclusive content, your readers/community would have to be subscribed to a newsletter or email subscription. Which would then negate the rest of your readers that don?t subscribe this way, but still show loyalty by coming back time and again.

So what ways could you reward on your blog, for both subscribers and everyday visitors/readers?

Loving Your Blog Community

Face it, without a community a blog is nothing more than a broadcast platform. Your community nurtures the growth of your blog; it helps share with others; it defends if needed; and it keeps you growing as a blogger by sharing great insights in the comments.

It doesn?t matter if it?s a personal blog or more business-oriented ? community is the real king (sorry, content lovers). For business blogs, community is the relationship to the sale ? look after it and look after your business.

So what are some of the ways to reward a loyal blog community?

Exclusive Content

As I mentioned earlier in the post, this would normally be via a newsletter or email subscription, so may negate some of your readers (although it?s a great way to build an even more loyal community on subscription too). Some of the things you could offer might be:

A free ebook;
White papers;
Solid business advice not normally seen on your blog;
Discounted offers on affiliate programs.

There?s a lot you can make exclusive to really say ?thanks for being part of my community?. You?ll have a better idea of what would appeal to yours ? all you need to do is put that into action.

The Freemium Model

Because exclusive content needs an exclusive outlet to really make it work, you run the risk of excluding the readers that visit every day, comment and are as just as important a part of your community as subscribers.

So how do you make sure that you?re not ignoring them and focusing on your exclusive content?

Episodic content. This can work in two ways. You can either write a series of educational posts on topics your readers would find useful, or you can offer the first chapter of any ebooks that exclusive content subscribers receive. That way, ?normal readers? still receive value and can decide whether to expand into the subscription option.

Actionable content. Want to be seen as a thought leader or serious blogger in your space? Then offer action points that anyone visiting your blog can take away and make work for them.?John Haydon does this all the time when it comes to non-profit advice, while Jon Loomer is one of the go-to guys for Facebook marketing tactics you can use regardless of business size. Help others; help you.

Highlight your community. Another way to reward your community is to give them some reader love. By coming to your blog every day and commenting or sharing you, your community is helping you grow awareness of you. So do the same for them. Have them guest post on your blog, or post about someone from your community?when you feel they might appreciate a pick-me-up. We all like to feel appreciated; make sure your blog community knows you appreciate them.

Protecting Your Community

Growing your blog community is the first part; but it doesn?t stop there. Just as your community nurtures you and helps you, so you need to do the same in return, but take it to an extra level ? by protecting them.

Think about it ? if someone?s taking the time out of their life and schedule to read and share their thoughts on your blog, the very least you should be doing is making sure it?s somewhere that they want to hang out, and feel comfortable doing so.

Make it clear you won?t tolerate abuse to your community. One of the best things about any blog is the comments section ? so many great thoughts and ideas can come from here, and new friendships can be made. So making it a safe haven is paramount ? protect your commenters, protect your blog.

Have a comment policy. Not only can a comment policy?help you set both guidelines for new visitors, as well as assure your current community you have their best interests at heart, it ensures there are no grey areas as to why a comment was removed. It’ll also show new visitors your blog is a safe haven from trolls and bullies – something missing from a lot of online outlets today.

These are just some examples of how you can use your blog to reward the people that make it what it is. There are a ton of other things you could do?? the main thing is you?re at least doing something to reward your blog community.

After all, they reward you just by stopping by each time ? thanking and looking after them is the least you can do, no?

There Are 24 Usable Hours in Every Day – How Are You Using Them?

This is a guest post by Jaclyn Aurore, a New Adult fiction author who – in the name of full transparency – also just happens to be my wife.?

Well, it?s been a little while since my last personal blog post. Not bad by my standards?

I bared my soul on that post, and I was hesitant to write again. What could I possibly say?

But then it occurred to me.

Time Management

I am a wife, mother, dog-lover, author, analyst, publisher, editor, and now beauty consultant. I am also learning to drive, taking classes, hosting parties, managing websites, blogging more (or trying to), working out, and finding time for old hobbies like reading (for fun, not work).

When I took on this new business endeavour (becoming a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant – now Senior Consultant, woot woot!), the first thing my husband asked was: What will you give up in order to make the time?

My answer was simple: Nothing.

Why should I give up anything? I want to be the woman who does it all, quite simply because I can.

When people ask me how I do it, I usually say, ?I don?t sleep.?

But the truth is: time management.

Why Do We Need to Fill Free Moments?

I?ll just keep bolding that. It deserves to be right on out there multiple times over. Truthfully, it?s more than time management, it?s multitasking. I don?t rest.

When I have a free moment, I fill it with something. While my kids are eating dinner, I am cooking for my husband (he comes home later, so I cook for him separately). While I?m eating my lunch, I?m reading or writing.

To quote one of my favourite movies (bonus points for anyone who guesses it):

There are 24 usable hours in every day.

I?ve done this for so long now that it?s second nature.

The other day, I had an epiphany. Why do I need to fill free moments? Why can?t I just live them?

[clickToTweet tweet=”Why do we need to fill free moments? Why can?t we just live them? #life” quote=”Why do we need to fill free moments? Why can?t we just live them? “]

Here?s how it happened. I was doing a driving lesson, and while waiting for my instructor to set up pylons, I had a moment to spare. There I was, sitting in a parked car with the engine off. Alone and silent. This would be an excellent time to check my email or my text messages even, but I purposely left my cell phone at home.

All I could do was wait.

In the five minutes, I tapped the wheel, fiddled my thumbs, and hummed a little. I felt antsy. It felt like I was wasting time. To calm myself, I closed my eyes and focused on sounds. I heard birds chirping, wind blowing against the car, and the sound of traffic faintly in the distance? and then nothing.

Silence. My thoughts stopped, my breaths were there but silent, chaos ended. For one brief moment, I had peace and zen.

It was glorious.

In order to be successful in all the things I do, I need to manage my time wisely. Yes, there are 24 useable hours in every day, but I can make time for five minutes of peaceful silence? and so should you.

Try it. See if it doesn?t make the rest of your day more enjoyable!

A version of this post originally appeared on Jaclyn’s blog.

About the author:?Jaclyn Aurore is the author of?The Starsville Saga (Starting Over, Standing Up, Giving In, Hanging On, Leaving Behind), and has recently published the stand alone fantasy,?My Life Without Me.?Among the other hats she wears, her favourite are that of??wife? and ?mother?.?When she?s not redecorating her home in Ontario, Canada,?Jaclyn can be found?at Williams Coffee Pub, caffeinated beverage?in hand, working on her next novel.?You can learn more about Jaclyn and her books on?her website?and?her Facebook Page.

Can You Tell Your Story Without Using Words?

Over the weekend, I took my daughter Salem to the local library, where we played games, made little toys, and read books together.

My wife was at an event all weekend with her publisher company, and my son was playing at the weekly sports curriculum at our local community centre.

Given my daughter loves her books at home, the library was an obvious choice for us to hang out while Ewan did his sports thing (the fact it’s in the same community centre didn’t hurt).

As we were browsing through the books in the children’s section, we came across a shelf marked “Wordless books”. On it were several books where, as the shelf sign suggests, pictures replace words to tell the story.

Salem chose The Boy and the Airplane, by Mark Pett, and we sat down on one of the little sofas and began to read. Or view. I’m not sure what the right term for the activity of going through a wordlesss book would be.

And it was magical.

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words, And More

Before picking up the book, I’d heard of Mark and his reputation as a writer and illustrator. As an introduction to him and his work, The Boy and the Airplane had me wanting more.

As Salem and I turned each page, the story of a young boy’s attempts to retrieve his stranded toy airplane from the roof of a house held the two of us enthralled.

Boy and the airplane — The Boy and the Airplane – Copyright Mark Pett 2013.

Even though Salem is only three, and isn’t quite at the stage where she can read for herself, the book’s beautiful illustrations made sure she understood what was happening.

When she saw the images above, she looked to me and said, “He’s happy.”

When the boy’s plane landed on the roof in the image below, her demeanour changed and she said, “Oh no, boy sad.”

Boy and the airplane on the roof — The Boy and the Airplane – Copyright Mark Pett 2013

As we made our way through the book, and the various things the boy tries to get his airplane back, we shared little looks and words with each other, and what the boy was going to do next.

When the boy finally resolved his problem (and I won’t spoil it for you – seriously, get out and buy the book, even if you don’t have young kids!), Salem looked at me and said, “Aww, that was a good story, daddy.”

And it was. And it showed how a simple book, with hand-drawn pictures, could tell a story many other books would need several thousand words to do.

How Does Your Story Get Told?

One of the things we’re constantly being told online is that we need to “tell our story” to connect with those we want to connect with – blog readers, business customers, potential employees, etc.

And it’s true – after all, if we don’t connect with the person or business that’s looking to attract and retain our attention over the countless other options?out there, why should we bother?

As a tool to help foster these connections, storytelling is a great tactic to have in our arsenal. Of course, it can be easier said than done.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Can you capture the hearts of your audience without using any words to do so? #storytelling” quote=”Can you capture the hearts of your audience without using any words to do so? #storytelling”]

My friend Mark Evans, one of Canada’s leading tech and startup advisers, has a new book out, Storytelling for Startups, that looks at this in more depth.?In it he shares examples of how storytelling can work for pretty much any brand.

Gini Dietrich believes this too, and often shares examples of how storytelling has helped shape a brand’s voice and direction.

So, it’s clear – storytelling can play an important role in any goal we may have when it comes to growth.

The question is, of course, how does your story get told? Is it through words? Pictures? Videos? Testimonials? Employee advocacy?

There are many ways for a story to be told, but only one way for a story to be heard – and that’s through the eyes and ears of your audience as the path to capturing their hearts.

Much like Mark Pett’s wordless book, get that part right and you’ve almost won the battle before it’s even begun.