Tag: blog strategy | Danny Brown

This is a guest post by Randy Milanovic, Principal of Kayak Online Marketing, and takes a look at a changing shift in how content is being presented.

A few months back, I noted that a handful of prominent bloggers were switching?things up and taking their content straight to Google+.

As a behavioural change,?I found it interesting; as an online marketing practice, it wasn?t something I was?willing to try.

G+ isn?t the only alternative to blogging, though.

Lately, another set of well-known bloggers ? including our host Danny here on this blog, and Shelley Pringle of Polaris Marketing and PR ? appear to be refocusing their efforts into an email newsletter.

In?Danny?s case, it appears he hasn?t quite given up blogging entirely, though his?posts seem to be shorter and mainly feed into newsletter subscriptions.

If shares and comments are to be viewed as social proof, the number of these?on Danny?s site?has dropped significantly from what were showing with his pre-newsletter?articles.

I assume of course, that Danny?s readers are opting to read the?newsletter rather than engage online. Nothing wrong with that. But what about?getting visitors to his website?

Has he built enough of a following that he doesn?t?need new traffic? That new prospects will ignore the drop in social proof? Or that he?doesn?t need any more clients? After all, last I heard, he has a day job, a young?family, and a real off-line life.

So, is it time to consider trading your blog in for a newsletter like Danny and Shelley did?

Before I get to my own answer, let me start with what I think are the obvious?reasons for doing so.

The Benefits of a Newsletter Approach

A newsletter generally takes less time than a blog (due to reduced online?engagement) and involves a different communication pattern. If you?have a large list of subscribers, there is value in being able to go straight to?them without making them click through to your individual articles.

I wouldn?t be surprised at all if Danny is getting great results and is happy with?his decision. But it?s probably not the same call I?d make for myself, or my?clients, in the near future.

There are a few simple but important reasons why.

The SEO Value of a Blog

For an email newsletter to work, I believe you already need to have a large number of?subscribers.

Blogging, on the other hand, ties closely into website building, social and search?engine optimization, which are about developing a bigger audience and platform as?you go. No matter how optimized your newsletter might be, it isn?t going to?help you rank on Google or the other search engines.

As an aside, though, one benefit to this approach I see is that it removes the?temptation to tailor your content around search engines rather than people. I?would call that a net positive, at least in terms of creating compelling content?that people actually want to read.

Blog Posts Attract Visitors

Even going beyond the search value, fresh blog posts give readers a reason to?come back to your website again and again, while email newsletters generally?don?t (with the exception of a click through to a specific landing page or longer?article).

Generally speaking, good things happen when people go deeper and?deeper into your website, so I would be hesitant to give up anything that draws?them in.

The Perception of Email as Spam

Because most email newsletters are overt sales pitches, subscribers tend to?ignore or unsubscribe from them. That means you could be seen as guilty by?association, even if your articles are timely and insightful.

The simple fact that?people expect them to be sales-oriented might work against you. It?s not lost on?me that blog notifications are emails.

That said, when I get a blog notification,?I?m typically expecting it.

The Time Factor

A lot of people get way too many emails already.

And so, while it might take?them the same amount of time to read a blog post as it would to read your?newsletter (not likely, as I?d expect a newsletter to be ?more?), one is?something they seek out for answers and information, while the other could be?perceived as an interruption.

Problems With Deliverability

Not only do email newsletters need to be CASL-compliant, but lots of popular?email services (like Gmail) aren?t friendly to newsletters.

This could result in you having your messages blocked or inadvertently marked as spam or (gasp!)?promotional, or have all the images blocked, or possibly never get to their inbox?due to security measures blocking image- and link-rich content, which is usually?associated with porn or drug spam.

The Ability to Touch on Multiple Topics and Campaigns in a Blog

In most cases, a series of newsletter emails will need to follow a similar theme?or topic. Blog posts do, too, but can be a little more varied to fit different?themes, campaigns and time-frames.

In that way, I think they have more utility?to appeal to different audiences or marketing personas over time, and, they can?be referenced months and years into the future.

Even with these reservations, I want to be careful to point out that I don?t?necessarily think using a newsletter instead of a blog (or?emphasizing?a?newsletter instead of a blog) is a bad idea.

It’s more on why marketers?should be careful about jumping away from a strategy that is proven to build?your online presence.

But is that the last word on the subject? I?m not sure. I?ll be watching Danny, Shelley and?others as they navigate the newsletter approach.

Who knows, maybe they?ve?figured something out that we haven?t yet.

About the author: Randy Milanovic is an entrepreneur, marketer, and author of the books 21 New Rules of Content Marketing and 10 Crucial Strategies for Turning Your Online Presence Into Something Your Company Can Actually Use?.

He blogs about online marketing,?SEO & social engagement topics. A Stage IV Cancer Survivor, Randy has been featured as a?Social Media Today?Best Thinker, and has also been profiled by Financial Post Magazine, under FP Entrepreneur Nov 4/14 (pg 84).

You can read more from Randy on the Kayak blog, and connect with him on Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Keep up and blog on There’s a bit of a debate as to how often you should blog if you want to have a successful blog and grow the community around it.

Some folks will say you need to blog every day, or every other day.

Others will say once a week.

Others will say only blog when you have something useful to say (I’m not too sold on the last one – one person’s definition of useful is another’s definition of crap).

To be honest, there’s no right or wrong answer. Or at least, no standard right or wrong answer.

There is a right answer for you, however, and that’s the one you need to look at.

Questions and Answers

Blogging’s a funny beast. It can be personal; it can be corporate. It can be funny; it can be sad. It can be a sales tool; it can be a simple connection tool. It can be written; it can be media.

Simply put, blogging is in a world of its own when it comes to set parameters. You can’t say what works for one blogger will work for another; it just doesn’t roll that way.

What it does do, however, is make it easy to choose how often you’ll blog by asking two must-know questions before you start.

Are you passionate about the topic?
What time can you realistically allocate?

These are just two questions, but they offer the best idea for you as to how often you’ll blog. If you’re not passionate about your topic, blogging will soon become a chore, and once something becomes a chore… Well, we all hate chores, right?

If you can only allocate a few hours a week (and this includes promoting your blog and responding to comments on the post), then you’re probably only going to post once or twice a week. An hour a day would see you post daily; a couple of hours a month, you’d probably only be able to blog bi-weekly. (These are just rough stats – they don’t necessarily relate to your timescales).

So these questions kind of dictate how often you might blog.

It’s Not Worth It Then, Is It?

Now, depending on who you read and who you listen to, if you’re posting infrequently then you’re never going to grow your blog or get the readers/subscribers you’re after. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Not necessarily.

I blog pretty much every day. I don’t do it just to “get more readers” – I’ve never had a subscription run here and I don’t plan on having one, ever. I’d rather grow my readership and subscribers organically as opposed to giving faux reasons why you should subscribe.

Instead, I blog as frequently because I genuinely love blogging. I love the interaction with you; I love being able to bounce ideas off each other; I love being able to offer an alternative take on something and then invite you to offer yours.

My friend John Haydon blogs a little less frequently, but still pretty regularly. Chris Garrett, co-author of the ProBlogger book and owner of the popular new media site ChrisG.com, has been posting fairly irregularly over the last few months.

Now. Take a look at this chart from Compete.com, which shows the monthly traffic for all three sites over the last 12 months.

As you can see, while there have been dips and gains, Chris has the most traffic, while John and I have swapped it back and forth as to where the higher traffic has been on a given month.

The blog that posts less is more “popular” than ones that post either daily, or more frequently. Kind of blows the whole “post every day” argument out the water.

So.

Listen to you, and write for you. Everything else is a bonus – readers, commenters, community, subscribers. Get what feels right for you, and that comfort will come across in your blog.

And that’s when it starts being fun. And when others see it’s fun? Well, there might just be no stopping you then…

photo credit: markhillary