blogging

The Weird Thing I Want You To Do On My Blog

This is a guest post by Michael Schechter.

I’m noticing a pattern lately: ?the moment that a blogger starts to monetize his or her site can usually be tracked back to moment the content begins to suck. The minute that optimization becomes the priority, creation tends to quickly take a backseat. It’s not a perfect theory, but it is quickly becoming a common one.

Now, I’m fairly new at this whole blogging thing, but I have a pretty clear call to action on my site: I want you to read the crap I wrote on the page, with the desired reaction being that you derive value from said crap. If you really found it useful, who knows, maybe you’ll even comment. Apparently, this is wrong and I just don’t get how things work.

Apparently, I need you to engage, to end on a question no matter how obvious and patronizing it is. I need an offer to get you to sign up for my email newsletter, to get you to trade your first born for an ebook. I need to coerce you to come back, because apparently compelling you just isn’t going to be good enough.

I don’t want you to get me wrong; I’m not against making money. I love money… a lot! Hell, I may even throw in an affiliate link or ten on my site. ?What I am against is those making money at the expense of their audience. I’m against those who care more about you clicking a link than reading the words on the page. In other words, I’m naive, and that is just fine with me.

It’s been sad to watch once-great bloggers leveraging past trust in exchange for future dollars. We used to get your A-game for free, but now you expect us to pay for a subscription to your 8th website (you know, the super secret one where you really put all of the “good stuff” now) for the watered down version. Worse yet, we fall for it every time. Even those of us who should know better (Read: Me). We want to believe, badly, that the trust we once put in you is still worth it today.

I don’t see things changing any time soon, so for now, the best advice I can offer is the same steps that I am trying to adhere to myself: ?unceremoniously unsubscribe your attention from anyone who is working harder on selling you than teaching you. Take that time and start writing about something you care about. Pour yourself into it, even when no one is reading. ?If and when people do start reading the crap you put on the page, don’t ever take that for granted.

So am I alone, or do you see what I’m seeing out there? Damn, there I go with the patronizing question and I didn’t even monetize…

About the author: Michael Schechter is the Digital Marketing Director for Honora Pearls, a company specializing in freshwater pearl jewelry. He writes about all things digital over at his blog, and you can connect with him on Twitter at @MSchechter. He also knows his way around a fine single malt scotch.

image: The Sun and Doves

The Mind-Numbing Banality of Sameness

When you start blogging, you usually do it for one of two reasons – you have something to say and want to share it, or you read other blogs and enjoy how they can be used for growing a brand; a business; a mindset; and more.

Often these two criss-cross with each other. Other times they’ll work alongside other goals – to sell products and services; to act as a lead generation platform for your business; or to be a place where your “business voice” can be relaxed, and you can be just another person.

Because of this, blogging is one of the longest-running and most popular forms of social media (regardless of what the Twitter and Facebook faithful would have you believe).

Of course, the problem with any form of popularity is that it can often be connected to banality and sameness.

Longevity and The Power of Oomph

When I first started blogging – oooh, many years ago – the landscape was very different.

Bloggers were viewed as quirks of nature, and/or frustrated writers. Yet some of the best writing around was being published, since the attention span didn’t have to be geared towards 140-characters or compete with a thousand social networks. Because of this longer attention span, the quality over quantity issue was never in doubt.

Now, though, as many bloggers look to grab book deals and be seen as the go-to-guy for sponsored posts and brand advertisements, a lot of blogs have become part of the sameness malaise.

Honest viewpoints are being diluted and replaced by points of view that are geared towards satisfying the masses, as opposed to being a strong opinion that cuts through hype and spin.

Bloggers that were very different ten, five and even just one year ago are now rehashing the thoughts of others, or offering lazy posts knowing that the title and pop culture content will attract the social shares that makes the blogger seem important.

Plus ca change.

Newness and Introspect

Thankfully, there are some great voices around that are countering this blandness.

They write from the heart, and they write non-fluff viewpoints that can often make you feel both uncomfortable and wanting to shout a “Hell yeah!” in equal measure. And to me, that’s what great blogging is all about.

It’s bloggers like the ones mentioned above, and those who I’ve watched turn from great to good to meh, that’s made me think about this blog in the last few weeks.

While a large part of this blog is steeped in social media and how it can be used in the bigger picture (personally or from a business point of view), at heart I’m a storyteller (or at least that’s my goal).

I like the human angles of social media, and how it can play a big part in shaping people’s lives. It’s one of the reasons behind the tagline of the blog.

But, to a degree, there’s only so much you can say about social media before it just blends into all the other social media blogs that are out there. Some are good; others, not so much.

And, while it might be nice to have tens of thousands of subscribers – and it’d be fairly easy to attain this with popular and continuous Top 10 or List posts – that’s never been a goal here.

I’d rather have the involved community that’s here as opposed to ten times the subscribers but a less questioning community.

So. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be doing a lot of thinking about how this blog continues. Like I say, I’m big on human stories and storytelling in general (something that an imminent ebook will probably show).

Social media is just one part of how people use the web – and I’m more interested in the people than the tools.

I thank you for being with me so far; and here’s to you still being interested enough to continue as I look to really define this blog’s position. Here’s to moving forward.

image: juco

Why a Blog Disclaimer Is Just as Important as a Disclosure Message

Last week, I spoke with Joe Hackman about blogger ethics and transparency (you can listen to the podcast here), and one of the things we chatted about was the topic of disclosure.

My belief – and something we instill into any clients that have a blogger or social media outreach program in place – is that you need to offer full disclosure whenever necessary.

Professional relationships, sponsorships, financial or physical gifts, etc – basically, if you or someone you represent benefits from your blog post, you need to disclose that relationship.

Yet just as important as disclosure – and, perhaps even more so, depending on the circumstances – is the topic of disclaimers, and when you need to have that on your blog (or other social interactions).

What You Advise Isn’t Always What You Know

A good example of the need for a disclaimer is over at a post by Julien Smith, entitled How to Lose 20+ lbs in January 2011. In the post, Julien talks about? a diet regime that’s worked for him and some friends he’s helped lose weight (Chris Brogan is one of these friends that Julien is helping to lose weight).

As part of the diet, Julien recommends some of the following:

Cut out sugar and flour from your diet.
Intermittent fasting (in the post, Julien advises that he’s been fasting for 16 hours a day for the last three weeks).
Read books and educate yourself on fitness and health.

It’s advice that’s clearly worked for Julien, and is (probably) working for his friends. And that’s great. Yet the post also has some issues, and ones that should have been addressed in it.

The Problem with One Size Fits All

While it’s great that the diet and its tough-looking regime work for Julien, the post implies that the same advice will work for everyone. The first words to the post are, “This is probably the only diet post you will ever need.”

Further in, the post also makes the request to, “tweet this out and subscribe to the blog below with your email address.” This is to ensure that people who “need this kind of information, but… don?t know where to get it” can get the latest health tips direct from Julien (at least that’s what I take from that request).

It’s these words, along with the premise of a health post that doesn’t segregate its audience, that need a disclaimer (at the time of writing this post, there isn’t one) – because Julien is not a nutritionist or a physician. Julien’s reply to one of his commenters that questions his diet is a little bit worrying: “A degree does not make anyone right, nor does a lack of one make one wrong.”

Except in medical science, where a degree would be pretty important to show you know what you’re doing when dealing with someone’s life, no? And this is where a disclaimer is needed (and not just Julien’s post, but any like it).

Liability versus Responsibility

Say someone follows Julien’s advice. And say they have a reaction; or become ill; or collapse through hunger while fasting. Say they feel faint at the wheel of a car, and cause a crash.

“But I thought I’d be okay – I was following the advice of a blogger who the diet worked for.”

Okay, that’s maybe a little blase, but you get the drift. At no point in the post does Julien mention he’s not a dietician. Nor does he advise you to consult your own dietician or physician first. Nor that women have different needs than men, and children are different again. Age is also bypassed.

If there had been a disclaimer in the post advising this, then it’s making sure that you take precautions when starting the regime in question.

Because there isn’t one, Julien could potentially be liable for a lawsuit, particularly if someone has a serious reaction or something else, based on following the post’s advice. And it’s something many bloggers fail to take into account when writing.

I don’t know Julien, but he seems a good guy and not one to offer false advice randomly.

Yet – like any blogger – he has a responsibility to not only his blog’s community, but the fly-by first time visitor as well. Yes, we need to take personal responsibility too, and that can’t be discounted. But often we get into a relationship of trust with the blogs we read (especially one written by the co-author of Trust Agents), so we trust their words.

The problem is, the law doesn’t always take blind trust into the equation where liability is concerned…

image: whatnot

Out With the Old…

… And in with the new, as the saying goes. Seems kinda apt for some of the changes coming this way in 2011, at least as far as this blog is concerned.

In the next few days, I’ll be putting the new design live on here. Built from the core WordPress platform, it’s the first time I haven’t used any premium theme framework and instead gone for a custom design. The makeover is being handled by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics in L.A., and having seen what she’s done in the development area, I’m really excited to unleash it, so to speak.

The new design is just part of the makeover, though.

A couple of months ago, I launched For Bloggers By Bloggers as part of Bonsai Interactive Marketing’s online projects. The aim – to (hopefully) offer some of the best blogging tips around for bloggers of all shapes and sizes. Since launch, the site has continued to grow – from subscribers to unique visitors and Alexa ranking. That’s in no small part to the awesome bloggers that have been kind enough to join me and make up our core author team.

Because of the focus of For Bloggers By Bloggers, it means that any blogging-related posts will be appearing on there from now on. I’ll still cross-post the odd one or two here, but For Bloggers By Bloggers will see them first. If you’re interested in learning more about growing your blog and everything around it, feel free to check us out.

There are some more collaborative projects on the way from Bonsai Interactive, one of which we’re really excited to bring you, especially with the people that we have involved in it. My business partner Troy Claus will be heading this project up, and we’re looking to launch it in early 2011 – if you’re a small business owner, it promises to be something you’ll definitely want to keep your eyes open for.

As for this blog, I’ll be concentrating more on you – your use of social media, how you can use it in your marketing, your customer service, your employee culture and more. But at the same time, it won’t use the term “social media” all that much – it’s simply a toolset and/or mindset, depending on your take, and as such we’ll talk about the tools and the mindset needed around them. Think organizational development and you’ll get the idea.

Then there’s also a little thing called 12for12k relaunching and producing a global charity event for the latter half of next year…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog so far. It’s been a great experience getting to know you and reading your viewpoints in the comments. You’ve made me think about some of my points of view, and how we can all work together to both ask and answer questions.

I hope you’ll continue to do so in 2011, and feel free to use the subscribe options in the right sidebar to keep up-to-date with everything that’s happening next year and beyond.

Cheers!

Everyone Is Someone’s Child

Sometimes, through anger, we see our own frailties. Or maybe not frailties – but definitely nuances that could be shared better.

The last few days has taught me that, as I’ve been pretty angry on this blog. Although, to be honest, I don’t see it as much anger as it is passion.

I’m passionate about how business should be run; how people should be treated; how ideas should be received. But that passion can sometimes blinker my view, and that can then be mistaken (rightly or wrongly) for anger.

But… passion and anger can tread a very fine line with each other, and that then leads to possibly hurting others. Which goes against everything I believe in to start with.

Today, a couple of posts made me realize that my passion may have overstepped the line and molded into anger instead.

Critic or Caustic

Someone I admire a lot is Jennifer Fong, and she posted her take on my recent post about bloggers not being able to stand the heat. In Jen’s post, she recalls the sage words that if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all.

While I might not agree with that completely – sometimes we have to say things that won’t be liked – Jen makes a great point about how these things could be said. Part of Jen’s post that stood out to me was this statement:

I think we sometimes forget that whether you?re an A-lister or a D-lister, we?re all still people. People with feelings.

If I’ve written something that resulted in someone like Jen writing something like that, that makes me stop and think on how I’ve portrayed something.

The other post was from Chris Brogan, who responded to some criticism he’s had in the last few days (one of which came from my blogger and heat post). Chris makes some valid points about criticism, and why some matters and some doesn’t. But what stood out for me from Chris’s post was this comment from his wife, Kat:

In the end guys, it’s just a job. We all go home at the end of the day. We hold our kids and/or our partner and smile and relax. It reminds us why we work hard and why it matters.

There’s more to Kat’s comment, but that part stopped me dead. Because I’m a father, and a husband, and it made me remember a simple thing.

Everyone is Someone’s Child

Or father. Or husband. Or wife, or daughter, or son. And sometimes we forget that. When we criticize, we forget that it’s not just the person we’re criticizing, but everyone around them.

Sure, a blogger has their community to rally around them when the shit hits the fan, and that’s great – that’s what a great blog should have. That tells you you’re doing it right.

But behind the scenes, a wife or a little kid is watching their loved one take heat. It may well be justified heat, but how it’s given can mean the difference between, “Oh, another one of your readers complaining – ah well” to actually upsetting the people behind the blogger. And that’s wrong.

So.

Like I say. I’m a passionate person, and I can’t – won’t – change that. It’s how I was brought up, and it’s how I (mostly) am away from here. If I see something – or someone – I disagree with, I’ll continue to offer an opposing view, and the reasons why. Any other approach would be cheating both myself and you.

But how I share my opposition?

I’ll be remembering that everyone is someone’s child. And I’ll be trying not to upset the parent from now on. If I slip up, feel free to be the first to remind me of this post.

Sound fair?

image: paloetic