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What’s new with your blog?

The fact is, Prince has always been a marketing genius as well as a musical prodigy. He knew to juke when everyone else was jiving; zig when the crowd was zagging.
Here’s the man himself on his early approach:

Times were different back then,” Prince explains. “I wouldn’t stand out today if I was brand-new and came like that. But see, back then nobody else was doing that, and I knew that would get me over. I didn’t dress like anybody, I didn’t look like anybody, I didn’t sound like anybody. We still try to do that. Why do what everybody else is doing?

“Bowie and Madonna, even if it wasn’t good, we still talk about it because it was something new. That’s a beautiful word.”

What’s new with your blog?

 

Is it “Fucking cool!”?

But that got me thinking – what does “passion” boil down to? Where do you begin? Kathy and Dan have many more eloquent and well constructed thoughts on this on this, so I figured I would bring it down a notch on the maturity level, away from any hint of intellectual discourse towards a raw, gut feeling:

“F**king cool!”

That’s where passion begins. Those are the words I want every user of my product to utter. Ideally followed up by something like:

“Dude, you have to check this out. It’s so f**king cool!”

I don’t want their reaction to be a measured, rational, dispassionate analysis of why the product is better than the alternatives, how the cost is more reasonable, feature set more complete, UI more AJAXified. I don’t want them to pause to analyze the boring feature comparison chart on the back of the box.

I want “f**king cool!” Period.

 

There are now 100,000 new blogs coming online every day. If you want to be successful, your blog better be “f**king cool!”

Most aren’t. That’s why:

“Most blogs have precisely one reader - the blogger themself” - Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Tagged: Blogging |

The art of blog is of vital importance to the Web. It is a matter of links and bait, a road either to prosperity or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

1. Regard your readers as your students and they will link to your from the deepest valleys of the Net.

2. He who wishes to blog must first count the cost. When you engage in blogging, if good posts are long in coming, then reader’s attention will grow dull and their fervor will be dampened. If you blog 5 times a day in the beginning, you will exhaust your strength. Regarding post frequency, think quality over quantity. Again, as blogging is a marathon, the resources of the Blogger may not be equal to the strain. For if your mind is dulled, your ardor dampened, your strength exhausted and your mental treasure spent, other bloggers will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. . . In blogging, then, let your great objectives be links and readers, not post frequency or lengthy post.

3. If your target is interesting at all points, link to him. If he is in superior traffic, bait him. If he is unaware of you, seek to add value in his comment section. If seeking his links, select the best page. When giving feedback, do it correctly. Attack him where he is unprepared, add value where you are not expected.

4. The Blogger who wins the readers makes many calculations about his headlines before the post is written. The Blogger who loses Readers makes but few calculations beforehand and speaks constantly of himself. Thus do many calculations lead to success, and few calculations to failure: how much more so for no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that one can foresee who is likely to win or lose Readers.

5. If you make a mistake out of haste or misjudgment, Apologize quickly and publicly. Do not simply delete the offending post. Do not entrench yourself in a losing position. Better to admit you were wrong quickly and make amends, than to dig the hole of your own grave.

6. To link and bait in all your posts is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in both winning new readers and retaining existing ones.

7. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of SEO that can thoroughly understand the profitable ways of carrying it on.

8. The great bloggers of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat by consistantly writing great and informative posts, and then prepares for the opportunity to gain search traffic with SEO.

9. Bestow links without regard to page rank, direct readers without regard to previous value but on the value of the post you are referencing. Send readers away to other great posts liberally and they will return more fervently and more frequently than if you try to hoard them. In blogging, the tightest grasp is with an open fist.

10. Send your troops to Digg Great Posts, To Vote on Netscape, to Comment on Reddit and to bookmark on Delicious that they may recruit more readers to your following. Ask that they link to your posts of value so that you may return the favor when the opportunity arises.

Tagged: Best Posts, Design, Link Bait, blogging |