Netizen

Monday, April 27, 2009

Blogging: Monkey Business?

"We feel so smart when we are talking to ourselves!"
- Hillary Clinton at the Kos Convention 2007

Is blogging a solitary act? Can it be a solitary act? Does it have to be a solitary act? As in, is it monk-ey business? Monks go solo. Well, not entirely true. Sangham Sharanam Gachhami is, to the community I go. But I am talking about the stereotypically stereotypical monk.

It can look like it. A guy/gal sitting in front of a computer in pajamas typing it away. It can look like it at first sight.

But think about it. The best bloggers are those who have something to say. And you can not have something to say if all you do is sit in front of a computer screen and type it away.

You must already know from before you started typing it away, through training, a prior job, career, life experiences, education. You must be willing to learn. You must be alive. You must be living. The online consumption of content, or electronic but not really online in the case of Kindle, is the bedrock of ongoing education for many of us. That counts. Consuming content counts.

Learning and teaching happens. They help.

But my question was more to the social aspects. Is blogging a solitary activity? Is it meant to be solitary? Does it end up solitary despite all our intentions to the contrary? Don't confuse me with the facts! Don't disturb me with people!

Photoblogging is social. Videoblogging better be social. I tried to do the camera thing myself a few years back, and I look dead in the water in those video clips, not my proudest moments. My best video clip of me to date is one where someone else is doing the camera work.

Text blogging itself is meant to be social. And for someone with an active blog, that blog gives you a better feel for that person than anything else they might have online, more so than their Twitter and Facebook accounts, more so than their website.

And many friendships get forged in the comments sections of blogs.

Content Is Queen
Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining
Spamming Om Malik
Digg Button, Twitter Button For Your Blog Posts
Blogging Several Times A Day
Blogging Tips
A Blogger Is Also An Editor
Blog Daily
Where Have You Placed Your Ads?
Sites That Pay You To Blog

Friday, April 24, 2009

ROIanalytics: Internet Marketing

So much of advertising is moving online. But unless you can measure progress or lack thereof, where are the smarts in smart advertising? Businesses need to keep track of leads and opportunities generated from their Internet Marketing efforts.

Internet Marketing is more than running banner ads to build up your brand name.

Your ad online is your shop front. You should be able to engage your customers even before they have showed up at your website. For that you need sophisticated tracking, managing tools. That is where ROIanalytics Pro comes in.

ROIanalytics Pro is an industrial scale marketing tool.

Do you know what your return on investment is? Without that rigor internet marketing efforts are futile.

(This is an advertisement.)

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Content Is Queen

I was going to say Content Is King, but then figured it might come across as sexist. It is like my Facebook/Twitter intro blurb has the word BossManPerson. I could not just say boss. That would be boring. Then I was inspired by my memory of comedian Negin's use of the word bosslady to describe herself. So I opted for Bossman. That stayed for a few weeks. A few days back I changed that to BossManPerson. I hope it is both informative and interesting.

Product/content alone will not cut it. Marketing efforts are necessary. And there are times when marketing rules and product/content is secondary. But at the end of the day, it is product that is queen.

Converting To The Mass Follow Formula On Twitter

Great blogging is primarily about putting out great blog content. Do you have something to say? Can you have something to say? Can you say it well? The second question is something to do with the fact that that niche that you might be most passionate about might not be the most lucrative.

Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining
Spamming Om Malik
Digg Button, Twitter Button For Your Blog Posts
Blogging Several Times A Day
Blogging Tips
A Blogger Is Also An Editor
Blog Daily
Where Have You Placed Your Ads?
Sites That Pay You To Blog

And in many cases content creation happened before blogging came along, before Twitter came along. Some of the people with the biggest Twitter followings just so happen to be celebrities, tech and otherwise. You could argue you create better tweets than Ashton Kutcher, but that dude created his content elsewhere, on that big screen, and he established connections with people there. (My Relationship With Ashton Kutcher)

Blogging and Tweeting is no substitute for your work, whatever line you might be in, and for that matter Facebooking. If you are a student, spend more time with your textbooks than with your Facebook page. Spend more time with friends in person than with them on Facebook. Social skills are necessary, for work and for pleasure.

So content creation is not just about creating great blog posts, and great tweets, and having smart aleck things to say on other people's Facebook walls. Content creation is about doing the best you can do in your workspace, it is about living the best life you can live. It is about your emotional investments in your family, relationships, friends. Because if you do all that, you will have something to say. Content does not come out of life vacuum. Live. Work. Love. Rejoice. Enjoy.

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