blogging

If We Lose the Right to Opinion, We Lose More Than Just Page Views

Back in 2009, I published a post about online watch sales company Melrose Jeweler?s.

The post dissected a press release Melrose had put out, suggesting how the actor Owen Wilson had been saved from suicide by seeing his wonderful Rolex watch, and realizing life was worth living.

Ridiculous, right? Not to Melrose, who positioned themselves as resellers of authentic Rolex watches, and used the news release to show just how awesome Rolex is, and why people should buy from their online store.

(Note: Rolex was never affiliated with Melrose, as has since been publicized by a subsequent lawsuit and the closure of Melrose.)

My original post was an opinion piece, and pretty scathing, questioning the ethics of Melrose and their publicity team. Shortly after the post went live, I received a Cease and Desist letter from Melrose?s lawyer, requesting I take the post down as it was harming his client.

I refused, and instead published a rebuttal post that took apart each of the lawyer?s ?statements?, and advised that the post would remain online, as is, as an opinion piece backed by facts.

I never heard from either Melrose or the lawyer again.

For me, that experience with Melrose showed the growing ?allure? of blogging and social media ? the ability for businesses to be challenged?on questionable practices, and be held to a higher standard.

It also showed the growing gap between bloggers and journalists, and why content consumers turned to blogs as opposed to print journalism.

While journalism was often red-taped by editorial decisions and boardroom approvals (based on what political party had the bigger sway with the owner of the paper), blogs could offer stronger opinion pieces that could go straight for the jugular, if you like.

A recent decision by French courts, however, could see the future of opinion pieces, and holding businesses to better standards, become redundant. Or worse.

Opinion Is Great ? As Long As It?s Positive

French fashion and literature blogger Caroline Doudet wrote a scathing review of her experience with the Il Giardino restaurant in the south west of France. Much like any blogger worth their salt, Doudet optimized the post title and content to rank in Google?s search algorithm.

Indeed, her post ? entitled ?The Place to Avoid in Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino? ? ranked so well it came up fourth in search results when Google users searched for that particular restaurant.

It was this placement ? and the accompanying review published by Doudet ? that upset the owner of the restaurant, who promptly sued and took Doudet to court.

In the ruling over the case, the judge ordered Doudet to amend the title of the post, so that it was less inflammatory, as well as pay the restaurant owner $2,000 in damages.

Following this ruling, Doudet actually deleted the post completely, but warns of the precedent this decision sets.

This decision creates a new crime of being too highly ranked on a search engine, or having too great an influence. What is perverse, is that we look for bloggers who are influential, but only if they are nice about people. Source.

That last sentence is particularly telling, both for bloggers and brands alike.

The Neutrality of the Web and the Betterment of Brands

The last few years has seen the rise of bloggers as a prominent feature in any brand?s marketing strategy. This can range from promotional or sponsored posts to working with influential bloggers in a certain field to work through crisis or emergencies.

The trust that bloggers have built with their audiences is hugely attractive to brands looking to reach those audiences ? it?s essentially one of the warmest ?leads? you (the brand) will have with your demographic. Get the relationship with the blogger right, get the approach to the audience right.

Much of this trust in the blogger stems from the fact the audience knows the blogger has their best interests at heart, and won?t shill for the sake of a few bucks.

Trust, after all, is the currency of any successful blogger.

If we get to the stage where that neutrality and power of opinion is removed because a restaurant owner didn?t like a review, or a brand didn?t like the fact a blogger only gave their product a mediocre review, then we?re taking a major step into losing any kind of protective layer between brands and questionable practices.

While the case of Doudet isn?t expected to set a legal precedent currently (it?s classed as an emergency order that?s causing harm to another party), that?s not to say it won?t be used as a weapon in the battle between brands controlling what?s said about them, and the content creators that are determined to hold these brands to a better modus operandi.

The signs are already there.

Review site Yelp has seen cases of reviewers being sued for their postings, while a bishop sued a blogger for an article where the victim claimed defamation, while the defendant claimed it was satire.

The latter example may be a more clear-cut one: after all, if you break the law, expect the consequences. However, the examples of brands suing against reviews and opinions that don?t offer a rainbows and unicorns view of their service or product is a troubling one.

[clickToTweet tweet=”If we lose the right to opinion, we lose more than page views and comments. #pureblogging” quote=”If we lose the right to opinion, we lose more than page views and comments.”]

If we lose the right to opine based on fact and experience, and instead are forced to remain silent or face the consequences, we lose more than just a few page views and comments ? we lose the very fabric of what makes the web what it is today.

The only winners when that happens are the brands that have something to hide ? the good brands already use negative opinion to improve their service and product.

Surely that?s something we all want, brands and bloggers alike?

More Blog Subscribers and Comments? Better Use Postmatic!

Ask any blogger what their two main wishes are for their blogs, and eight times out of ten* you’ll probably get “more comments” and “more subscribers” as the answer.

*Note – eight times out of ten is not a scientific discovery, although it may be.

Especially for bloggers who thrive on engagement, more comments means more goals met. More comments also have a way of increasing subscribers, because if a reader leaves a comment, it means they’ve enjoyed the piece. If they’ve enjoyed the piece, it stands to reason that they’d want to subscribe to get more of the same content.

So, yeah: comments and subscribers.

The problem is, in recent years, many bloggers have complained (some rightly, some not so much) that blog comments have started to dwindle, as more readers took their discussions to other platforms, more often than not Facebook and Google+.

To counter that, third party comment plugins like Livefyre and Disqus offered workarounds – Livefyre’s SocialSync feature pulled in tweets and Facebook comments, while Disqus allowed you to tag Twitter users.

Then there was Comments Evolved, that allowed you to display comments from Livefyre, Disqus, Facebook, Google+, alongside your native WordPress comments. Unfortunately, while that plugin was useful, it stopped being supported.

However, much like many third party plugins (especially ones that have social network support built in), performance of a blog could be impacted, as Twitter and Facebook API calls slowed down response times.

Add to that the recent announcement by both Livefyre and Disqus that sponsored comments and ads would be appearing alongside “normal comments”, and the negativity these announcements received, the need for a solid native WordPress comment solution continued.

Until Postmatic came along, that is.

Postmatic? What’s That, Then?

While many other plugins offer a “unique” spin on how they approach blog comments, Postmatic actually delivers on that promise.

Instead of having to comment via the web (although that’s still possible – more on that later), Postmatic allows you to get a new post by email, read it, and then comment on that post just by hitting reply to the email you’ve just read.

If you want to try it for yourself, simply leave a comment below this post and see what happens when other comments come in!

It’s so simple, you wonder why no-one has really thought of this sooner (there was a stripped down version of this for Disqus, but it was only for admins).

As well as being simple, it makes perfect sense.

Think about it – where do you spend most of your time during the day? A good bet would say email (perhaps second only to Clash of Clans) – so if you’re spending so much time in email, why wouldn’t you manage all your blog post interactions that way too?

In Postmatic?s own words,

We raise engagement by reaching your audience where they are – in their inbox. Except now with Postmatic, they can comment back and keep the conversation going just by hitting reply.

As a user of Postmatic since February this year, I can 100% agree that engagement levels have increased, as shown by the chart below.

As you can see, in the seven months prior to installing Postmatic, my comment count per month averaged 149 comments per month. In the seven months since implementing Postmatic, that jumps to 312.

That’s more than doubled my average comment count!

My posting schedule over these 14 months has remained pretty consistent (with the exception of one post per month more in May, June and July this year), as did my social shares – so how come Postmatic grew my comments and engagement when other plugins didn’t?

Simple – people felt comfortable commenting on my blog, because there were no extra hoops like social log ins, account creations, passwords, etc., to jump through.

Additionally, because Postmatic enables commenting by email, people could truly post a comment or reply whenever they wanted – at their desk, at the supermarket, at work, even while lazing at the beach having a cold drink (as I did, numerous times, over the summer).

However, as much as Postmatic raises engagement, there’s so much more to them than that.

Grow, Deliver, Engage, Value

Postmatic’s goal is simple – to reward bloggers for the love, sweat, time and money they put into their content.

To that end, they’ve created a four pronged approach so bloggers can focus on the specific area(s) they want to improve. While each area can work individually, it’s when you combine them that the magic truly happens.

1. Grow

It’s not just engagement that Postmatic grows. Pretty much every blogger also wants to grow their subscriber numbers, whether that’s via RSS subscribers or – more usually – email subscribers, and Postmatic delivers here too.

While there are a bunch of plugins like Optin Monster and Bloom that can help grow your email subscribers already, Postmatic offers a free alternative called, simply enough, Postmatic Optins.

While not as feature-intense as similar plugins, Postmatic Optins offers four flavours of optin forms: Popup over the page, Slider, Top Bar, and After Content.

Between them, these four options cover the most popular optin forms for email lists (with the exception of Exit Intent, which is scheduled for a future update).

As you can see, they don’t look too shabby either.

Each optin has five basic colour options, to help blend into your theme design better (you can also edit them via CSS). Additionally, the copy is fully customizable and supports HTML, so you can create very customized forms specific to your email list goals.

Not only that, but for the pop up and slider optins, you can choose when these display – after a set amount of time, after the reader scrolls to the end of a post, or after they leave a comment.

While there are only four optins at the moment, they more than cover the needs for the majority of bloggers looking to grow email subscription numbers.

In addition to the Optins, Postmatic also has a pretty cool Import and Invite set-up. The import option allows you to import subscribers from MailChimp, Mailpoet, Jetpack, and Subscribe to Comments Reloaded.

With the invite option, you can invite past commenters, commenters who are subscribed to replies but not posts, email lists and more (Postmatic do a great job of ensuring bloggers don’t abuse this option with clear wording around best practices).

2. Deliver

Not only does Postmatic help you grow your subscribers, it also delivers your posts directly to them.

Much like Feedblitz, Feedburner, and Mailpoet’s email delivery service, Postmatic sends out each new post by email to your subscribers. The free version of Postmatic sends the post via the mail service of your web host, while Postmatic Premium uses Mandrill and/or Mailgun, depending on network traffic.

While the free version of Postmatic is more than adequate for email delivery of your posts, it’s when you make the jump to premium that the service really shines.

As well as guaranteeing delivery of your email, the extra features and options available to premium users makes the current $9 per month per site a steal.

The ability to customize the header and footer of your email, using either images or widgets (Postmatic adds email widgets to your standard WordPress widgets).
The option to differentiate widgets depending on whether the email is a new post delivery, or a comment reply email.
Support for other third-party plugins, like Social Warfare sharing, and Skimlinks affiliate links (more on that later).
The ability to spam, trash or approve a moderated comment, all from your email.

However, in addition to the features above, and the comparisons in the image above, the key difference between the free and premium version of Postmatic is how the posts are delivered.

If you’re used to receiving posts from Jetpack or Subscribe2, you’ll know the basic look and feel of these emails. Nothing particularly wrong with them – just that they lack the bells and whistles of other email services (branding, images, etc). This is the same for the free version of Postmatic.

Postmatic Premium, on the other hand, converts your post, with all its formatting, to email-compatible HTML and wraps it in the customized template you’ve created with your own images and widget areas.

The result is a beautiful, uncluttered, content-focused email template ? with the added bonus that your subscribers can leave a comment (and reply to future ones) all from the comfort of that very same email!

3. Engage

As I mentioned earlier in the post, one of Postmatic’s main goals is to grow the engagement around a blog post. As highlighted by the chart showing my own blog’s engagement growth, this is a goal Postmatic are more than delivering on.

Other bloggers that have switched to Postmatic have also shared how it’s helped their own blogs when it comes to comments and engagement.

However, the mindset to comment via email can still be a big one to overcome – after all, we’ve commented via the web for so long, it’s become the only way we know.

While Postmatic quickly becomes second nature once you’ve actually used it, the team behind the plugin also recognize that some commenters will still prefer web commenting, which is why they’ve released Epoch.

Pronounced “epic”, Epoch can best be described as a comment plugin that offers the best features of Disqus – real-time commenting, Ajax loading – while solving some major long-time complaints about native WordPress comments, like page cache support and CDN support, all while remaining SEO-friendly.

Because of the light design of the plugin, it doesn’t eat up resources the same way a Disqus would. Nor should you have any loading issues when trying to post a comment – anyone whose ever seen the little spinning circle of Disqus loading doom will appreciate Epoch’s approach here, especially on mobile.

Since Epoch supports Ajax commenting, every comment left on a post via the web will appear immediately, with no reloading of the page. You can see Epoch in action on this blog – just leave a comment if you’re reading this on the web.

While Epoch is a standalone plugin and can be used on any self-hosted WordPress blog, combining it with Postmatic sees some pretty cool stuff happening.

No matter if you’re commenting on the web, or from your email, every comment is updated in real-time. So, a web user could be leaving a comment, and a new one from an email subscriber could appear on the post – all without disrupting the web commenter.

Oh, and remember the Postmatic Optin option of the Slider or Popup only appearing after a comment has been left? If the blogger has Epoch activated, it will fill out the name and email part of the form, and the reader only has to click the subscribe button – how’s that for frictionless subscriber growth?

Epoch has three style settings when it comes to the look and feel of the comments on your site.

To help you choose which one is best for you, the plugin’s settings asks how much you’d like Epoch to take over that look and feel – “Completely”, “Use my typography and colours”, and “Minimally”.

Completely is Epoch’s own styling, and is the one that most resembles your typical third-party comments style like Disqus.
Use my own typography and colours is the best of both worlds, inasmuch that your own font and link colours will be used, while the style of the copy will closely resemble your existing comments.
Minimally simply gives you all the features of Epoch, while using your existing comment style. However, there may be some glitches based on your theme’s code, so this option may or may not work for you.

My own preference is for using my own typography, as per the image above, but I also use the Completely option on other sites, and it’s an excellent alternative for anyone that prefers the Disqus approach to styling.

Epoch recently came out of beta, but already it’s shaping up to be an excellent commenting option, and one that promises to make blog comments more fun and less complicated again – which is no bad thing at all.

4. Value

The last part of Postmatic’s four tiered approach to helping bloggers meet their goals is the question of value.

When you think of the word value, and its use around a blog, what do you think of?

Monetizing a blog?
The value a blogger brings to his or her readers, commenters and subscribers?
The value of a blogger to brands?
Sponsorship opportunities?

All of these, and more, are actually the definition of value when it comes to a blog. Think about it – you read/subscribe to a blog because of the value in the content, and the expertise that blogger brings.

You’re also happy to support that blogger through affiliate links, because of the value the blogger brings in recommending only products that would be valuable to you.

As a blogger, you might feel that the readership and engaged community you have built trust with is an ideal one to help you become a trusted partner for brands looking to do right by their customers.

All of these goals can be met by Postmatic.

A blogger grows their list, helping to add to their value to a brand or affiliates/sponsors.
A commenter grows their circle of connections, and feels their thoughts are valued more.
A blogger thinking of a community membership site can use Postmatic to deliver exclusive, behind-the-paywall conversations and value all from email.
Because of the approach to privacy Postmatic takes, commenters and subscribers can be more confident that they won’t be spammed, nor will their information be used for third parties and retargeting, making the relationship between blogger and subscriber more valuable.

These are just some of the ways value can be built via Postmatic.

Additionally, they recently announced the support for Skimlinks in Postmatic emails.

Skimlinks is a pretty slick way of working with affiliate links.

If you think Skimlinks is a good fit for your content you sign up on their site.
Install a javascript snippet on your blog (or use their WordPress plugin) and you’re done.
The next time you write about a product or service that has any sort of affiliate program, Skimlinks will intercept any clicks on links in your post, track the sales, and share the commission with you.

Skimlinks work from within Postmatic emails so tracking affiliate sales happens both on the web and in the inbox.

Now when you send an email out, the Skimlinks aren’t just restricted to your website. Couple this with some other vendors Postmatic are hoping to announce soon, and you should be starting to see why Postmatic is a developer to sit up and take notice of.

So, Should YOU Use Postmatic?

Uh, why have you read this far is you’re not interested?? 😉

Seriously, though, I can’t recommend Postmatic enough. I’ve tried pretty much every comment system around – Livefyre, Disqus, wpDiscuz, G+, Jetpack, Echo, IntenseDebate, etc., and Postmatic beats them all hands down (especially now they have Epoch).

Their Optins make it easy to grow subscribers, without the extra cost of other, more popular plugins.

Their support is second-to-none (seriously), and their willingness to listen to their users (and the readers of their users), to add new features and support for other plugins, is something all WordPress developers should take notes from.

Are they perfect? Not quite (but they’re close).

You won’t currently get analytics around your emails, but then Postmatic isn’t (currently) meant to replace a Mailchimp or AWeber. Instead, it’s about raising engagement, all while delivering beautiful emails that allow comments to start the moment a post is received.
The Optins don’t have analytics like Bloom does – but then, Bloom is premium and their analytics are fairly basic. Besides, it’s easy enough to use Google Analytics to set up tracking subscription statistics.
There’s also no weekly digest of emails – yet. However, if that’s something that you prefer over instant delivery of posts, look out for digests in the next major update of the plugin.

Postmatic keeps the features focused and the experience tight, with a major focus on getting people talking about your content, which means they don’t charge hundreds of dollars for the service like others do.

While the free version is fine, ask yourself this – if you could meet your goals as a blogger when it comes to subscribers, comments, brand partnerships, affiliate sales, membership site opportunities and more, would you be willing to spend just $9 per month for that?

I know I would. And did. And I haven’t looked back since.

A version of this post originally appeared on WPKUBE.

Should You Care About Losing Blog Subscribers?

Yes. No. Maybe. It depends. I know ? crappy answer, right? But each one can be applied to the question of losing blog subscribers and if you should care or not.

After all, as bloggers, we?re more often than not told that ?it?s all about the list?. This usually refers to an email list, and why building one is important for your blog?s growth.

I?m not going to get into the ?do I need a list or not?? question – there are plenty of other blog posts dedicated to that topic already.

No, for this post, I?m going to assume you already have a list. Additionally, I?m going to talk about subscribers to your blog, as opposed to subscribers to your newsletter, as there is a difference and for many bloggers, their blog subscription list is the only one they?ll have.

So, with that in mind ? should you care about losing blog subscribers? Let?s dig in.

Yes ? Your Subscribers Are Everything

When you start blogging, you might have many goals. Some of them could be to make money; some could be to share your thoughts with others; and some could be just to have a platform to get your writing mojo on.

Either way, to succeed in any of these goals (with perhaps the exception of the last one), you need readers. And, if you get readers, you want them to turn into subscribers.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Anyone can click a link on Facebook or Twitter. But it takes commitment to subscribe. #blogging” quote=”Anyone can click a link on Facebook or Twitter. But it takes commitment to subscribe.”]

After all, anyone can click a link on Facebook or Twitter and come over to read your stuff. But it takes commitment from a reader to want to follow your content religiously enough to actually subscribe. They?re saying they prefer you over the millions of other bloggers out there.

Because of that, you should care on losing them, and take steps to find out why they left.

Look at the content you wrote just prior to them unsubscribing and see if it?s a valid reason (perhaps a different tone or style from your normal stuff).

Email them and thank them for subscribing up until then, and ask if they?d mind sharing why they left.

If you are changing the style of your blog, and you see subscribers leaving, create a poll and ask readers their thoughts on the new direction.

By being pro-active on understanding the reasons for the unsubscribes, you can take the action needed to halt the slide.

No ? It?s Your Blog and People Don?t Need to Read What They Don?t Like

The best bloggers (at least for me) are the ones that polarize opinion and question everything. Of course, that doesn?t mean you need to be an asshat in all your posts ? just don?t follow the herd when it comes to your opinion.

For example, if you?re blogging about blog tips, try and steer away from making every post a list one about the Top 10 this or a Best 20 that. Sure, list posts are great traffic generators and, when done well, can offer a great resource. But often they can be overdone and offer little.

Instead, share your lessons and how the most unlikeliest of sources can teach you about blogging.

https://bobwp.com/teaching-pigs-to-swim-the-rise-of-the-emotionally-intelligent-blogger/

Or, if you write about social media, ignore the standard ?Why Google+ is great for business? posts and offer a rebuff on why the platform is struggling to be relevant for the majority of businesses out there.

By offering your stance on popular topics, especially if the stance goes against the popular grain, it helps you stand out as someone to listen to, since you clearly don?t buy into the hype of the Johnny Popularity bloggers.

Of course, the ?problem? with this is that people don?t like to hear they may be wrong, or the platform they put the most love into isn?t as great as they want it to be. This is where you often lose blog subscribers ? but that?s okay.

When you lose subscribers like this, it?s for a clear reason ? you believe one thing and they believe another. Sure, you could try and persuade each other the merits of each other?s point of view and, sometimes, this works.

But, for the most part, people can be stubborn ? and no-one benefits from a protracted discussion that clearly isn?t going to be resolved.

So, let your subscriber go. He or she clearly won?t enjoy your content if it?s against their beliefs; and you?re not going to enjoy the constant jibing from them because you don?t see eye-to-eye.

Let them find a blog that?s more suited to their stance, and leave you to write for the readers that actually want to be on your blog, because these are the ones that will be your biggest ambassadors as you grow your blog.

Your Turn

Of course, like any opinion piece, there?s no right answer. Well, except mine? Joke!

But the question of blog lists and subscribers is a big one, and one that has no definite right answer. After all, we all have separate goals on what we want to achieve with our blogs.

So, how about you? Do you bite your nails each time you see an unsubscribe and wonder what you did wrong? Or do you shrug, smile, and carry on as normal?

Share your own thoughts and experiences below – I’d love to hear your take.

A Blog is Exactly What We Wish It to Be

When I first started blogging “seriously”, it was a continuation of a public relations blog that I had, back in my early solo consultancy days.

The goal was simple ? to share thoughts and ideas on social media and where that fit in the business world.

For the first six months or so, I was probably way too myopic for my own good ? everything was based around social media in the purest form: Don?t do this; be like that; it?s all about the conversation, blah blah blah.

And you know, perhaps at that time it was okay to write about things that way. But everything?s fluid ? we need to keep moving. Staying in the same place leads to boredom and stunted knowledge.

Looking back, I probably listened to and read too many kumbaya social media blog posts and bought into the mantra.

I come from a traditional marketing and communications background, where everything is set in stone and the relationship to the sale is a true and trusted path.

Yet this path doesn?t allow for too much veering off to try new things, so seeing the risks people were taking (or appearing to take) in social media was a bit liberating.

However, it soon became apparent that these risks weren?t truly born with any business acumen ? it was more from a ?I?m pretty popular with this stuff I?m saying and I?m just making shit up ? maybe I?ll keep this up a while!?

Once that realization kicked in, the tone of my blog changed quite a bit and I was determined to make my little part of the web one that?s always evolving, and letting its vision, voice, whatever you want to call it, be shaped by the readers and commenters as much as it was by me.

Thankfully, that?s worked so far.

Being Wrong is Okay

Most people hate to be wrong. Most people hate to admit they?re wrong even more. For many people, admitting you?re wrong is a sign of weakness.

And if you?re a blogger and you admit you?re wrong, then why should the community you?ve built up hang around?

Yet it?s okay to be wrong.

In fact, we need to be wrong more and celebrate that fact ? because it?s the only way we grow.

I?ve written posts where I?ve been cocksure in my belief that the opinion stated in it is the right one. Heck, perhaps the only one. But, of course, that?s bullcrap.

None of us have all the answers. Hell, very few of us have a decent amount of answers when it comes to most things.

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So why do we feel we should be right the majority of the time when it comes to our opinions?

The biggest learnings I?ve taken from my own blog is when someone comments on a post and completely blows my point of view out the water, whether from their opinion or from backing it up with facts and statistics.

Does it make me look an idiot? Sometimes. But ignoring the better opinion or statement when it?s right there in front of you and everyone else that reads the post is more idiotic.

If we truly want to grow as people, whether personally or professionally, we need to be open to other points of view. If we?re putting our thoughts out for the world to see, we really need to be open to other points of view.

Otherwise, why even share in the first place?

The Fallacy of Numbers

We get so wrapped up in numbers at times.

At Christmas, we want more presents than we got the year before ? same goes for birthdays.

In high school, we want to lose our virginity at a younger age than our friends (and then have more girlfriends/boyfriends than them). At work, we want to get bigger raises and more recognition than our colleagues.

And yet, numbers are so superficial.

Sure, they may make us feel better and enable us to have a better ?life?, but that depends on your definition of what a better life is (for me, it?s being able to spend evening and weekend time with my wife and kids).

When I first got serious about blogging, I was so wrapped up in checking the numbers that everyone says matters ? new subscribers, new social shares, unsubscribers, comment count, etc.

And, sure, I still afford a little smile when a new subscriber joins, since that offers an opportunity to get to know them in the comments and see what makes them tick.

But this concentration on numbers hurts us. Just as chasing more presents at Christmas turns us into spoiled brats, so does chasing blog numbers turn us into the blogger we don?t want to be.

We start writing generic list posts, just to try and hit that viral social share gold.

We stop being opinionated and lose the voice that attracted readers in the first place.

We write linkbait and ass-kissing posts so the highlighted folks will come by, say we?re great, share and then maybe, just maybe, invite you to their next conference.

Do we really want to be that blogger? Is that why we started in the first place, and continue when others stop?

By all means, care about how your content is perceived ? but don?t let the numbers rule you.

Now when I get email alerts that tell me someone has unsubscribed and they offer the reason why, it simply tells me we?re not a good fit anymore and they?d be better catered to elsewhere.

And that?s okay, and the way it should be.

A Blog is Just a Blog

We hear so many people (and I?ve been guilty of this) telling us what we should do when it comes to our blog. ?Build your list!?; ?Cover it with ads!?; ?Sell shit!?. And, yes, we can do all that.

But we don?t have to.

[clickToTweet tweet=”The great thing about a blog is that we control what it is and what it does for us #pureblogging” quote=”The great thing about a blog is that we control what it is and what it does for us”]

As I mentioned earlier, blogging has taught me that being wrong is okay. It?s also (I believe ? feel free to disagree!) made me a much better writer and thinker than I was six years ago.

Simply put, blogging has enabled me some wonderful opportunities, for which I?m eternally grateful.

It?s allowed me to meet some of the funniest, smartest, humblest, caring and downright awesome people, either in the comments, discussions around the web, or at speaking events I?ve been invited to because someone was kind enough to read something here and ask me to come out and speak.

But, at the end of the day, a blog is just a blog.

Don?t let anyone tell you your blog needs to be about this, or you need to do that, to make it a success.

I know people who don?t give a crap if their blog is read or not ? it?s an escape valve for their innermost thoughts and fears, and just getting it out of their system into something physical makes their lives easier.

A blog is what we wish it to be ? and every choice is the right one, for us. It can be world-changing globally; it can be world-changing personally.

And isn?t that all that really matters at the end of the day?

One to One Blog Consulting? I’m Your Huckleberry

For the last 8 years or so, I’ve helped a lot of friends and family dive into the wonderful world of blogging, both for personal and professional use.

Many have been put off blogging up until then, thinking it was either something we did in solitary, or something that they had little time (and even less inclination) to do so.

Once they jumped in, though, and set realistic goals based on what they wanted from blogging – from a place just to put down thoughts and encourage others to chime in, to using a blog as an awareness and lead generation platform – they loved it, and haven’t looked back.

I’ve tended to stay away from “teaching” blogging to a wider audience up until now, primarily because I didn’t feel the need to offer it. In the last 3-6 months, however, a lot of readers, subscribers and online connections have asked if I ever do hourly consulting/teaching.

And that actually made sense to offer. So here we are.

Why Trust Your Blog With Me?

Good question, and one that I’m not going to come back with a hundred reasons pointing to this reason, or that one, or blah blah blah.

Instead, I’ll simply say I’ve been blogging for about 15+ years now – it’s been one of my passions for a long time, and remains so even with all the naysayers that say “blogging is dead, social media is the new content king”. Yawn.

In that time, I’ve probably shared thousands of hours of advice, tips, ideas, and content to give you some insights into how to start, manage and nurture a blog.

This has included premium content, as well as consult for agencies and brands looking to take their own brand message into more content-driven direction.

The one thing that’s stood out over these years is that while tips and advice are helpful, it’s only when you get down to the real one-to-one consulting/discussion that we can really start to work on what your goals are, and where they can be met (some won’t be, and that’s okay).

Because of this, I’m only going to be offering two very specific options:

An initial consultation, where we can chat about what your goals are, I can give you some advice right off the bat about the changes needed to make those goals happen, and where you might need further consultation down the line. Cost: $80 USD

An ongoing consultation, where you choose how often you wish to work together, what each consult should help you on, and where you’re ready to take the reins yourself for the next phase in your blogging journey. Cost: $100 USD

And that’s it. No one-size-fits-all course; no downloads; no “Follow these ten steps and you’ll be a blogging superstar” message.

Instead, you’ll get honest feedback and direction, as well as the support of someone who truly cares about your goals, and how you’re going to meet them (and which ones you need to put on the back-burner for now).

If that sounds like something you’re interested in, awesome – just use the form on my consulting page, and let’s get started. Make sure to enter your blog’s URL in the “Notes” section so I can review before our Skype or Google Hangout.

And as a welcome offer, use the code INTRO20 on your payment screen for a 20% discount.

I look forward to working together.

If you have any pre-sales questions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below and I’ll be happy to answer them.