content

Sometimes We Need to Say Screw You to Content Rules

Remember the good old days of blogging? Come up with something to say, write it down, hit Publish, and onto the next piece whenever that came to mind.

Now we have to worry about content authority, author rank, Hummingbird, content overkill, content optimization, etc, etc.

It seems we spend so much time worrying on the presentation, we lose track of the real reason we blog.

Love.

Love for the content; love for the experience; love for the audience; love for the?reason to publish.

Sometimes we need to say “Screw you, content rules”, and Just. Hit. Publish.

You Don’t Have to Be Epic Every Time

For the last two days, I?ve been sitting at my computer itching to write something epic.

Looking at the blank screen, thinking of words I can write to convey the feeling I have inside that I need to share something epic and life-changing.

And I come up blank.

I have an inkling of what I?m about to say, and then I ask myself how it will end.

How the words that precede the final sentence will be strong enough to hook the reader to guide them to the last sentence that will, undoubtedly, change their lives.

And I come up blank.

I imagine the story I?ll tell to convey a lesson, personal or business. I imagine the memories I?ll revisit to open up demons, to help others fight their own and make it to the other side.

I imagine the emotion I?ll invoke to make readers think this is one of the most amazing blog posts they?ve ever read, and ever will.

And I come up blank.

And that?s okay ? because we?re only fooling ourselves that everything needs to be epic.

[clickToTweet tweet=”When we produce #content, we tell ourselves it needs to be epic every time. But does it?” quote=”When we produce content, we tell ourselves it needs to be epic every time. But does it?”]

Everything we put out for others to consume is already epic, because we?re opening ourselves up to critique, belittlement, and crushing disappointment if others don?t like it.

And we continue to do so, even when harsh voices tell us not to ? because all we really need is our own validation that we did the best we could, every time we hit Publish.

So embrace the blank screen. Embrace the empty mind. Embrace the still keyboard.

Because sooner or later, the next epic chapter of that which is uniquely you will be live for everyone to see.

And that, my friends, is truly epic.

Why the Real Driver of Traffic is Content That Matters to YOU

Run a Google search for ?how to grow my blog? or ?how to get more traffic to my blog? and you?ll find millions of results with all kinds of tips and tactics to grow your blog traffic.

Heck, I?ve been guilty of this myself in the past, with advice on using Stumbleupon to increase your traffic and how to use the web to find content for your blog (and grow it in the process).

And you know, some of these methods will work, and bring you extra traffic, and boost your Alexa ranking, or whatever metric you?re using to gauge your blog?s growth. But does it really matter?

By focusing on the traffic, you run the risk of losing focus on what really matters ? the content.

By focusing on the traffic, you begin to write for Google and that direction is rarely a good one.

By focusing on the traffic, you write for what you think should be said instead of saying what should be written.

Simply put, by focusing on the traffic, you?re forcing yourself to adapt to different viewpoints that you don?t believe in, to capture the search of the day or the soundbite that might, just might, make your content go viral.

The problem is, while you might get the traffic, your limitations will be on show.

Targeted Content and the Failure to Deliver

By focusing on traffic, you?ve just become another cog in a highly greased content wheel, with a million other wheels trying to spin and gain traction at the same time.

You slip into the lazy creation of posts that proclaim, ?The Top 10 Lessons to Learn From??,?Be Awesome, Be You, Be Great??, ?Why Brands Should Do This, But Not That?? and other attention-grabbing headlines that promise much but deliver little.

You don?t really care about the content ? you care about the new eyeballs, and the boost in traffic, and all the wonderful social shares that you?ll get.

The problem is, by putting traffic first as your goal, your content?s slipping, until the traffic you crave so much notices that you?re not really adding anything new and doesn?t bother coming back.

[clickToTweet tweet=”By putting traffic first as your goal, your #content suffers” quote=”By putting traffic first as your goal, your content?s slipping away from you.”]

So now you think of new ways to target content, and you focus on that, all the while forgetting the real driver of traffic that matters ? content that matters to you.

The Reality of Delivering

I get it. You want traffic, you want subscribers, you want social shares. You want your blog to be hugely popular. So you automate, you curate, you build tribes, all in the hope of getting the needle pointing upward on your traffic charts.

But what?s the end result?

Do the tribes bring traffic or just add shares and nothing else? Does the traffic stay or does it bounce and never come back? Do the subscribers click open your emails or have they forgotten you exist?

Because while you?re focusing on the traffic, the reality of delivering content that deserves traffic seems to be the number one thing missing in blogs that try too hard. This goes for both personal and professional/corporate blogs.

People are smart. They know when you believe in what you?re saying and when you?re saying things you don?t believe (but can turn the wheels on the traffic bus). They know if you?re in it for the quality of thought versus the quantity of shares and high bounce rates.

And then there?s you.

Are you really satisfied with the higher traffic spikes that give you a quick buzz, until you need to start the process all over again to get new buzz and new headlines?

Are you creating for your legacy or creating the fallacy of one?

Are you numbing your own brain as well as the eyes of your readers by the focus being where it is (traffic), versus where it should be (content)?

Chasing web traffic over quality content to drive the traffic is kinda like the first time you see a porno ? exciting for a moment, but a false representation of the deeper picture behind the moans and slappy noises.

The Content Choice is Yours

By writing this post, I realize the irony of falling into the same category as all the other blog posts that ask what?s really important, traffic or content, and why can?t you have both?

The truth of the matter is, you can ? if you?re willing to give up empty metrics for real ones.

How the finished article makes you feel;
The feedback you get from it;
The real goals that are met by its premise;
The ratio of repeat visits versus new ones;
The continued growth of your thinking versus the dearth of your creativeness.

It?s easy to ignore all of the above, and believe that traffic is the route of all success, internally as well as externally. And you know what ? maybe it is. If so, I wish you well on your path.

Personally, I?m going to support the bloggers and brands that prefer the quality route instead. Perhaps I?ll see you there?

Does Your Blog Really Need to Provide an RSS Feed Anymore?

Back in 2010, I published a blog post about the choices bloggers gave?when it came to how readers consumed their content.

The gist of the post was simple: should it be via RSS, or email?

My own take was bloggers should offer both (remember, this was at a time when RSS was still the #1 choice for bloggers to distribute their content). In the comments section after the post, the majority of commenters thought email was the better option too.

– I?m with you 100%! The blogs I never, ever want to miss (including yours) are ones I subscribe to via email. In addition to making sure I don?t miss anything this also allows me to read at my leisure and if I get swamped for a week or so I know which posts I still have to read. Michelle Mangen.

– Maybe it?s the Boomer in me, but I only read?on a daily basis?the blogs of those to whom I can subscribe via email, or perhaps on a blog roll. I realize, of course, that I may be missing out on some good reads; but the blogger is missing me as a subscriber. Ken Jacobs.

Even back then, both bloggers and readers were seeing the value of email, and (perhaps) the diminishing return of RSS. The thing is, though, it didn’t seem to matter – Google Reader was king and RSS feeds were the currency of any blog worth its salt.

Man, how times do change.

Alas, Google Reader, I Knew Thee Well

In March 2013, Google announced it was closing down its Reader service. For most content creators who had built a healthy subscriber base via RSS, this came as a bit of a shock.

In Google’s own words, however, perhaps it shouldn’t have been as big a shock.

We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We?re sad too.?There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we?re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.

When the company behind the leading RSS solution says use of its product has declined, you know it marks a change in how we, as readers, consume content. Perhaps it’s the other part of the statement that says more, though: “We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.”

As a long-time user of Google Reader, both as a provider of content and a consumer of one, the user experience was a major pain in the ass. Yes, you could create folders based on topics and categories, but if you subscribed to a lot of blogs, even that minimal filtering option soon became overrun and clunky.

As content moved into a cleaner, richer experience – both on the web and (increasingly) on mobile – RSS feeds and the way they’re curated became less attractive.

For me, I’d even say RSS feeds are pretty much redundant, and not worth the effort of trying to grow.

Email = Investment, Trust and Loyalty

Think about the one area you spend most of your day, personally and professionally. It doesn’t matter what job you’re in, or what social media channel you prefer over the other, or what smartphone you use – the one thing we all have in common is email.

Our inboxes rule us. Whether it’s getting notifications about a friend’s update on Facebook, or confirming tickets, or replying to a question that can’t wait until you get to the office, our email inbox is still the most-used direct communication tool we use.

It’s one of the reasons I switched my commenting solution (and soon-to-be subscription solution) to Postmatic. If it doesn’t matter where and when people are accessing email, because it’s second nature and easy to do, doesn’t it make sense to use that as your primary content distributor, conversation starter and loyalty builder?

Why would you want to continue using a clunky, increasingly-irrelevant piece of technology like RSS feeds that offer less value and less return for your content investment?

Looking at my own analytics for the last 30 days, I had just under 16,500 sessions (Google’s new name for visitors). Of that, guess how many came via RSS? 10,000? 5,000? 1,000?

Chance would be a fine thing. What I actually got, you can see below.

A whopping 335 sessions, or just over 2% of all traffic for the 30 day period. Worse still, the bounce rate is atrocious – RSS readers are simply reading the article and leaving my site (when/if they actually visit).

While I’ve never really used my blog as a lead generator (so I’m not particularly bothered about bounce), for any content creator looking to use their blog as a business creator, that bounce rate would be a major stumbling block.

What makes this lack of traction stand out more is when you look at some of the other traffic drivers – in particular, Twitter (which is ironic, given a recent article about Twitter’s own lack of value for traffic).

Even in the image above, you can see automated Twitter feeds (where blog posts are aggregated by RSS-to-Twitter) accounts for almost the same amount of traffic as a dedicated RSS solution like Feedly.

When you dig a little more into the analytics, you can see Twitter actually blitzes RSS out of the water.

Direct traffic from Twitter accounted for almost 1,250 visits – almost 10x the amount from my RSS subscribers. Add in the indirect traffic using Twitter’s link-shortener, and you can see why Twitter is a better RSS solution than actual RSS feeds themselves.

In the direct stats, almost 2,500 of the 3,044 total is from my email subscribers – beginning to see a pattern? If you want quality traffic and trust in your content, RSS is not going to get you it.

RSS = Really So-over-it Syndication

Okay, it’s a play on words for what RSS actually stands for (Really Simple Syndication), but for me personally so-over-it would be a better choice of words.

Anyone can subscribe to an RSS feed. One click of the mouse, done. And (more usually than not) forgotten. When I stopped using my reader account a few years back, I kid you not – I must have had about 500+ blog feeds in there. Do you think I regularly visited them all?

Hell no – as Michelle Mangen mentions in her quote at the beginning of this post, the blogs I wanted to really subscribe to were done by email – and that’s been the way I’ve subscribed for the last 4-5 years.

There are multiple benefits to this:

Like I mention, anyone can subscribe by RSS. Doesn’t mean squat. Giving someone your email address, though, and trusting them not to take advantage of that? That’s the kind of investment you want in your content.

Email subscribers are more adaptive to change. When I recently changed my email and RSS subscription methods, I shared an update post via both email and RSS. 81% of my email subscribers updated their subscription – 81%. Guess how many RSS subscribers updated their feed? 9% – quite the difference.

The best relationships are those one-to-one interactions you get when someone replies to your blog post with an email about how it made them feel. I’ve had some of the most personal and powerful conversations via email after a post has gone live – RSS could never hope to achieve that.

When Google Reader closed its doors, I lost 6,500 subscribers overnight. 6,500! Now, given, many of them may not have visited anyway, but you take away 60% of a blog readership overnight and see what happens. Another reason I refocused my energy into email.

Content is changing. How we consume content is also changing. We don’t need “traditional” RSS anymore. We have social channels, as well as sites like This. and Flipboard, to aggregate and syndicate.

But they’re all external, and you’re competing for space with thousands of other like-minded souls. Email, on the other hand – you have these eyeballs, and they’ve chosen you over the competition already.

Now might just be the time you consider dumping that good old blog RSS feed for good or, at the very least, stop promoting it as an option to subscribe (you’ll see that I only offer email subscriptions in the box below this post).

After all, is it really doing you any good?

A version of this post originally appeared on the Wood Street Inc. blog.

52 Content Marketing Experts Share Their Top 100 Content Tips

What made you click through to read this post (unless you’re reading this via RSS and already know what’s coming)?

Was it because you’ve read other posts of mine, and trust me to deliver on the premise shared wherever that might be? Was it because someone shared it on Twitter, Facebook, etc., and you trust their shares, so you automatically share too?

Or was it because of the headline, and the easy quick-fix yet often vapid information that headline suggested?

If it was any of the above, you’ve just been suckered – yet we allow ourselves to fall for this kind of click-and-bait trap all the time.

I Clickbait, Therefore I Am

Back in July 2013, leading inbound marketing and analytics company MOZ published an article titled 5 Data Insights Into the Headlines Readers Click.

In it, some interesting – and, to a large degree, sad – stats were shared.

On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest (I wonder how many 8/10’s shared this post based on the headline…).

Traffic can vary as much as 500% based on the headline, according to traffic results from viral video site Upworthy.

36% of readers preferred to click headlines with numbers in them, while only 15% would click a “normal” headline.

Sensing a pattern here? For the most part, many readers aren’t even caring what the content may be like – it’s the headline that drives them to a site (or not).

[clickToTweet tweet=”It’s called content for a reason – why are we allowing headlines to destroy it? #content” quote=”It’s called content for a reason – why are we allowing headlines to destroy it?”]

This isn’t really anything new – newspapers have been trying to outdo each other with creative headlines for years, to garner the sale from the rushed commuter over the competitor’s publication.

The problem is, the success of headline attraction and clickbaiting isn’t just turning consumers of content into lazy sharers, it’s also turning the content creators into frauds that care only for eyeballs, versus providing the quality content these same eyeballs clicked over for in the first place.

This post could be viewed as a [deliberate] example of that.

But… But… Where Are My 100 Tips and 52 Experts?

Anyone that’s read this blog long enough, or is connected with me anywhere online, will know the contempt I generally have for the majority of list posts.

You know the type – “The Top List of Marketing Blog Top Lists”, “The Ultimate Guide: 50 Ways to Increase [INSERT ANYTHING HERE]”, “The Top 100 Online Web Users Any Web User Should Follow Online”, etc, etc.

Now, don’t get me wrong – some lists do offer value, and are crafted with love and care, and actually share real reasons why these lists exist.

And then there are the rest…

The problem with these lists is that they’re so clearly designed for link-bait reasons and link-bait reasons only, all while being?disguised as a vacuous attempt at offering useful information.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Admit it – most list posts are nothing more than vacuous attempts at popularity contests.” quote=”Admit it – most list posts are nothing more than vacuous attempts at popularity contests”]

It’s not just bloggers desperate for traffic either – it’s so-called reputable publications that are falling into this malaise. You only need to look at the crappy Forbes “Top 50 Social Media Influencers” list that makes the rounds every year (sometimes more frequently).

When the author of these posts admits there’s no real science behind the list, and it’s essentially based on how noisy these “influencers” are online, you know the traffic whores have won.

I’m also not a fan of the term “content marketing”, which regular readers of this blog will know. So, the idea I’d write a post that shares 52 content marketing experts and their 100 top tips is… yeah….

Which brings me back to my opening question.

We Deserve What We Click

If you clicked on this post with no prior knowledge of my content, and whether it’d either be a fit for you or, more importantly, actually deliver on the headline’s promise – why?

If it was because of the headline only, how often have you been disappointed by the subsequent content that failed to discuss what the headline promised?

If it was because you reshared it from someone whose other content you frequently reshare without reading, don’t you ever wonder what it is you’re recommending to your followers, and how they’ll perceive you if the content is crap?

If it was because it somehow ended up in one of the automatic curation tools you use to share content, when did you last vet the content and make sure it was the stuff you wanted to be associated with?

If you recognize any of the reasons above, is that really something you want to continue being known for? Has quality control really disappeared, and now you just want your own shares to be reshared because the title looks sexy, and the more reshares your own shares get will make you an “influencer”?

If so, be careful what you wish for – there’s only so much wool you can pull over peoples’ eyes before they get wise to you.

We frequently complain about the quality of the content on the web today, and how a lot of it sucks compared to “the golden age of blogging” 5+ years ago.

The thing is, if we’re sharing and clicking crappy content filled with lies and false promises, we’re simply reinforcing the value of that crap and its raison d’etre.

Be better than that – your audience deserves more.

An experiment for you – click the tweetable below, and then see how many of your friends/connections retweet it. Then ask them if they read the piece first. See how many fall into the 80/20 headline rule.

[clickToTweet tweet=”This is probably the best list of content marketing tips from experts I’ve read! #content” quote=”This is probably the best list of content marketing tips from experts I’ve read! “]

(And if you really do need to read 100 tips from 52 content marketing experts, you can find that here.)