“Blogging”

Recently, I realized how imperative it is to link back to yourself. I knew it was important but I didn’t realize how much so. In looking back over my analytics on my sports blog, I realized that unlike on this blog, the bulk of my readers are new people. That’s not necessarily a good thing. It’s not bad…cause I have quite a few regular readers. But, it does mean that there is work to be done in terms of reader retention. And while you have people on your site, one of the best things you can do is introduce them to other stuff you’ve written via linking.

In order to do a better job linking back to yourself, you have to either remember what you wrote (which is impossible for me!) or find a way to ensure old posts are at the ready. I’m interested in hearing other people’s techniques for doing this.

Mine?

One, I am cleaning up my tags and categories so that everything becomes easier to find for me and for the reader. Secondly, I am manually listing out every post I’ve ever written and putting them in an Evernote notebook (more on the many wonderful uses of Evernote later) so that I can easily retrieve for linking back (and also for posting on twitter, sending to other web sites etc etc).

So yeah, if I have any readers left here (and analytics SAY I DO!! That there are 1K unique readers who visit this blog every month!) I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and how you’re making sure you’re linking back to your favorite blogger!

I used to do a lot of job posts on media strut but they got kind of boring. So maybe I’ll just do the cool job posts…

I ran across this one for Rue La La, an online shopping site that many of my friends seem to be familiar with. I also see the site tweeted about quite a bit. I suppose its in the vein of sites like HauteLook and MyHabit where you sign up to receive notifications for discount sales–much of it high end. They describe their company like this:

The companys mission is to partner with these innovative and sought-after brands (currently over 500 of the best and counting), offering them a powerful online sales and marketing opportunity by introducing them to a highly motivated Member base and enabling them to move merchandise in a private selling environment. And Rue La La does so with one key mantra ” it respects and maintains the core integrity of each and every brand with which they partner.

And here’s a highlight from the job listing:

• Identify trends taking place in viral marketing, blog and social networking communities
• Work with PR , Social Media, and Creative teams to ensure alignment of all initiatives across all channels
• Collaborate with internal and external creative resources to define a unique and distinct brand voice that reflects the brands attributes of Rue La La
• Develop content guidelines, branding guidelines, share best practices/feedback and offer guidance for social media efforts with local and national social media teams
• Experience & Requirements:
• 4-5 years post-college experience in social media or community management or digital public relations for consumer industry

 

For more info and details on how to apply, visit Mashable.

When Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington and execs at AOL announced that AOL would be buying Huffington Post for $315 million dollars a lot of people were surprised. In the media world, people wondered if this was a good investment for the Grandaddy of the internet, and whether HuffPo would lose its original appeal of being disassociated with media giants.

To address those two issues, in my opinion, this is a great deal for AOL, and HuffPo has been connected to large media industry for at least the past 2 years if not more. The change to HuffPo’s original “value” was made a long time ago when Huffington decided to expand her core set of leftist writers beyond an original hand-selected few. From there HuffPo became a breaking news and tabloid paper no different from TMZ or any other scandal-driven site.

The reason this is a good deal for AOL is because 75-80% of AOL’s current profits come from people who have had AOL mail for a long time and believe that they still need to pay AOL $25 a month to continue to be able to access it. For many subscribers, that’s $25 a month on top of whatever they’re paying to their internet service provider—Comcast, Time warner etc.

Unfortunately, relying on customer ignorance isn’t really a failsafe plan, and HuffPo provides a pretty cutting edge route into the future—free aggregate content distributed through multiple channels, high click rates, and aggressive pursuit of ad dollars. As you can see, there’s every reason to believe their business strategy will still rely on ignorance, just contributors instead of customers.

What the hell am I talking about? I’m happy to explain.

Huffington has built a $300 million media empire off the backs of people who write for free. The excuse that many bloggers and writers give when writing for free is that it gives them exposure. I certainly am aware that “exposure” can be a form of payment, but there are limits. You have to be choosy especially if your eventual goal is to freelance write fulltime.

On a site like HuffPo which is crowded with content, readers rarely click through to links contained in posts or their skimpy author box. When you visit HuffPo it feels like you’re being attacked with information. If you follow my pattern when I visit the site you click from article to article paying little to no attention to who wrote what. Some exposure that is!

If you’re interested in reposting your work on HuffPo or anywhere else for free, that’s not a terrible idea. Reposting can bring some benefits (for example, it can increase the number of sites linking into your blog which can improve your traffic ranking) and it takes precious little time to send a few quick pitches and pastes text.

But to maximize your time and impact, I still say cling to old rugged Writer’s Market book. As a writer, your biggest concern should be two things: 1. Building a strong byline and 2. Making money.

If I’m trying to decide between submitting original content or altered reposted content to Huff Po OR some local or small magazine that pays $50, I choose the magazine. Most people know by now that almost anyone can be published on a site like Huffington Post while even small magazines have editorial standards and require some bit of expertise in the area in which you’re writing. Further, that $50 that you get from the magazine can be used to buy ads on blogads or some other site. There’s more exposure to be had advertising on a low traffic but relevant-to-your-niche blog than there is by having a couple posts on a crowded site.

Besides, if you plan to live off your writing you need to be submitting to publications that are likely to reject you if you suck. Rejected pitches and articles can be signs that your writing isn’t progressing. You don’t want to spend a huge amount of time blogging for free for other sites only to find out that when you want to be published your writing just isn’t there yet.

Plus, when you’re building your byline keep this in mind: Most of the people you need to “impress” with your byline are pretty aware of how to tell a publication or web site with editorial standards from a blog that lets anyone post provided they have a controversial topic or a lot of twitter followers. Whatever your goal is, pursue a byline that helps you get there. Don’t just go for what appears like a valuable idea.

You know the old saying, time is money? Well, it really is to writers.

It occurred to me as I was nosing around and checking out other bloggers stats (hee!) that Media Strut is now 6 months old. Almost a year ago, Necole of NecoleBitchie told me that a year mark is the true test of a blog. Most people quit after 3-6 months. This explains why 99% of blogs I click on have a post that says “Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while…”

Anyway, Necole told me that a year is about the time that a couple things become clear:

1. Whether you will continue to produce high quality content.

2. Whether you actually are serious about blogging (and you certainly don’t have to be).

Given how successful Necole managed to make her blog within a year and half or two, I appreciated her passing that little gem along to me. It’s quite possible without her telling me that I would have quit by now.

A blog has growing pains–provided you care whether or not it’s successful.  You have to find your individual voice. You have to find purpose and direction. But most of all, you have to find some damn readers. I mean unless your intention isn’t to speak to anyone in particular, but just to insert your voice into the stratosphere.

Well my goal wasn’t to yell into an empty hallway. And due to the fact that I am a confirmed quitter, I’m happy that Media Strut has a steady readership of about 5K unique visitors per month. Most of you return more than once during the month. I like to think we are growing together, and I’m excited to see where this blog will be once it hits the year mark in August.

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