In my bi-weekly(ish) scan through my HitTail.com account, I’m am rarely let down from being amazed at the obscure words and phrases that people use on the Internet … to find MY blog!… This week’s batch includes the following phrases:

• Fishing Cliches
• Elvis made to measure suits
• Hawaiian Catchy Phrases
• Swimming Leaches in Lakes

Now, I vaaaaguely remember using some of those words in a blog post in the past year … I mean, heck, it’s not too often that one weaves the word “leach” into a conversation or a blog post!… The interesting thing about this analysis is NOT the bizarre phrases that pop up in your analytics, but the rich variety of words and phrases used by people all over the world in their effort to find information on the Web.

Here’s the real point; The traffic to our Website has increased over TWENTY fold in the past 12 months due to blogging…. YES, the vast majority of these visitors are folks not unlike the person looking for Elvis suits…. However, I also estimate that the number of “real” prospective customers has increased almost five fold!
Consider this my weekly nudge to get you blogging if you’re not already doing so.… Don’t let this be “the big one that got away” … or get caught “up a creek without a paddle” (gosh, I just love those fishing cliches, don’t you?)

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It was just pointed out that I haven’t posted anything up in almost two weeks…. Although this corresponds with me throwing out my back three times over the past two weeks, it’s not the real excuse.

What reeeeeallly happened is I got so busy with work, my morning schedule of blogging (while eating breakfast) was interrupted…. So, what does this mean? Why should you care?… It’s certainly not the end of the world BUT there is an eye opening factoid that may shock you if you’re an active (or wannabe) blogger;… My web site traffic has dipped for the first time in 10 months!!!!… Not a lot, but it’s a noticable hiccup in what was a linear, upward progression of monthly traffic.

Lesson:… If you’re going to commit to this whole blogging “thang” as a marketing strategy, one of the most important paradigm shifts is to write your posts on a consistant basis!

OK…. I’m rolling again and you can expect my next post to be up in less than a couple of days from now…. … I feel better …. how ’bout you?…

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JohnTP writes a post about more great WordPress plugins. Best of all, these plugins are all designed to increase the likelihood that people will comment on your posts and revisit your blog. Please don’t call me in the next half hour … I’ll be busy installing these!

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If you’ve been reading my blog and were paying attention a month or so ago, you may have noticed those cute little icons suddently appearing at the bottom of each post. I was recently asked “how did you do that? … where did they come from?”… This person didn’t buy my ‘Internet Gremlins’ story so I’ll let them (and you) know about those icons here in a blog post.

Apostolos Dountsis …€“ besides having a wicked cool name …€“ has a site with some great plugins for WordPress. The app for the icons is called the Social Bookmarks Plugin. Check it out!… It’s very easy to install.
What do they do? When you click on them, they allow you to add that post to your social bookmark lists. If you don’t know what a social bookmark list is, read my last post and visit some of these sites (conveniently nabbed from Apostolos’ site);

• Del.icio.us
• digg.com
• FURL.com
• blinklist.com
• Reddit.com
• FeedMeLinks.com
• Technorati.com
• MyWeb.Yahoo.com
• Newsvine.com
• Socializer.com
• Ma.gnolia.com
• Google.com/bookmarks
• Squidoo.com
• BlinkBits.com
• StumbleUpon.com
• RawSugar.com
• Spurl.com
• Netvouz.com
• Rojo.com
• Blogmarks.com
• Shadows.com
• Simpy.com
• Co.mments.com
• Scuttle.com
• Tailrank.com
• Bloglines.com

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Here’s a story from ResumeMachine.com.

Recently we had a server glitch where an order was only partially processed and a wrong boilerplate follow-up letter was sent to the customer…. Needless to say this was verrrrrry confusing to the customer.

What was interesting was, like many customers that become irate (thank goodness we get so few), this person did NOT threaten to notify the Better Business Bureau, nor did he threaten to call his lawyer, nor did he even threaten to file a charge back with his credit card provider…. What he did threaten to do was to blog about this event!!! AMAZING.

I took a look at his blog and guesstimated what kind of reach and impact his post would have and it was significant…. He could indeed cause a lot of damage to our brand if he were to have posted his original thoughts and feelings…. We were able to rectify the situation with this customer by providing an extension to the service and a refund for the inconvenience of it all.

This realization of how he might use his blog as a weapon within a customer service situation didn’t change our course of action … we always strive to make the customer happy at any expense…. However, this certainly does change my perception of how a blog can be used by the consumer!

In this case we were lucky…. The customer let us know that his negative blog post was a potential recourse for him.

Question: How many companies don’t get that warning… … don’t provide the correct level of customer support, and then BAM, they get hit with a doozie of a blog post…. YIKES!

Your customer has a lot more power today than they had in the past!… Before, an angry customer, frothing and yelling at the front counter, could be heard by 3 people all the way over in aisle 11…. Now, they can be heard by 3 billion people around the world.
I hope this shifts your paradigm a bit.

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Jason with the support system specialists at bigWebApps.com commented on my last post and said:

We have been blogging for about 2 months, so connecting with bloggers with more traffic is one of our primary goals.  To achieve our other goals we have determined that this is necessary.  Where the problem comes up is getting other bloggers to accept a trackback without posting something directly related to what their post was about.  So it’s a battle, as you mentioned, to take someone else’s idea and “extend” it to make it your own.

First, thanks for the comment Jason.

There are two BIG categories of business people that belong in the “MUST BLOG” category;  Local service businesses and niche service businesses.  This is not to say that other businesses won’t benefit from blogging, it’s just that these types of businesses are completely missing out on a huge marketing advantage if they aren’t blogging.  Mostly, the decision to not blog is due to a lack of education or a deep fear.

In these cases, I try to educate the client that the biggest reason for them to blog (other than the insane, cost-effective improvement to their site traffic) is they’ll be come “better” business professionals.  By taking up the challenge of extending someone’s idea …€” as difficult as it may be at first …€” a business person will;

• learn more
• network more
• be more visible
• grow more
• succeed more

What more could you ask for?!  We all wish you and your team the best of luck Jason! … EXTEND!!!

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Lyndon Antcliff, over at Cornwallseo.com, gives us a masterful post about his “tips for publishing a great SEO blog.” With the title “SEO Bitchfest”, I just had find out what he had to say. I wasn’t let down. Lot’s of great (deep) ideas in one post.

He begins by commenting on Michael Gray’s suggestion that some SEO people just need to stop blogging. Their drivel just adds noise rather than useful information. At first I thought to myself that this comment is missing the point that everyone has their own spin … their own ideas … their own contributions. It’s this extension of ideas and how it impacts the long tail of search that has so greatly expanded the world of business thought sharing and the value of organic SEO. After reading more, I realized he didn’t miss the point. He pegged it. There truly ARE tons of blogs that are created only for the sake of content dumping and regurgitation. With these low value blogs, there’s no real added value.

So, how do you avoid this trap? Here’s Lyndon’s list of tips. My comments are in italics. You’ll need to go to his post to read all of his comments.

1. Have a goal. Goals might include; increase traffic 100%, network with 5 new industry professionals this month, target 2 new niches, get invited to speak at 1 new event each month, increase newsletter signups by 50% … the list is endless. Notice how the goals are specific and measurable.
2. Publish unique information. Like the Duke used to say, “It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing.” Doo wop, do wop, do wop, do wop. Find your voice. Be bold. Be fearless. Stand out from the masses!
3. You are unique. This is the realization that allows you to pull off #2. If you don’t stand for something powerful and special, you’ll find it hard to differentiate.
4. Read less blog more. A slight adjustment to the wording … “Read ‘the appropriate amount’, blog more”. Someone with 25 years’ experience needs to read less than a newb to stay on top of their game. It’s a fine line, but the point being made is DON’T get consumed by reading other people’s sh…stuff, if doing so impacts your ability to blog your own ideas and slows your participation in the blogosphere.
5. Blog your convictions. Like Mr. Miyagi said in The Karate Kid, “Daniel-san, must talk. Man walk on road. Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk down middle, sooner or later, get squished — just like grape.!” Nobody is moved by conservative or vanilla. STAND for something!

Our focus is not just on SEO. We’re about brand and marketing and creative business development. My point in re-posting Lyndon’s content is NOT to regurgitate … it’s to extend, add value and to get this great message out to the rest of the business world. Here’s some more for you to absorb;

1. Consider your knowledge. A question I often ask people who are initially hesitant about blogging is, “If I were to chat with you only about your products/services and your experience, how long could we talk without slowing down or repeating what you have to say?” The answer is invariably “several days”, or “wow”. In that moment, they realize they have thousands of pages of unique experiential content sitting, untapped, in their brain. The best place for that content is not in their grey matter, but on a blog. Posting for 15-30 minutes every couple of days does just that.
2. Don’t be afraid. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional writer. In short order, you’ll find your voice and style. Jump in, the water’s warm! There’s a belief that a blog without mstakes is too sterile, too contrived, less “real”.
3. Connect with people. A trap new bloggers fall into is posting without connecting. Trackbacks, comments and hyperlinking will expand the value of your blogging efforts by many powers of 10.

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