inter:digital strategies

From the Aviva Directory: 21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch. This catalog of valuable advice is definitely worth reading, so I’m going to make this an interactive reading…let’s see how I did!

There’s a lot of good advice in here, and I’m going to go ahead and confess to all the warts of this site (in re: this article, that is) as of this date. After reading this, of course, some changes might be in the making!

Note: I’m not going out of my way to quote or reference the post itself. If you want to know the details of what each point is discussing, you’d better read the original post.

1. The First Impression

   Well…not really. There are several additional pages on this site, but I couldn’t say that any of them are explicitly about me. I think there’s enough information here that I’m certainly not anonymous, by any means – but I haven’t necessarily gone around being particularly inviting.

2. Don’t get seen naked: Never launch a blog with fewer than 5 posts.

   Got this one covered! When I launched this site in March, I had about 30 blog posts already published. So go me!

3. Make sure a link to your RSS feed is available above the fold.

   Nope. Once again, I suck.

4. Make RSS Easier Still

   Ummm…no. This isn’t going well, so far…

5. Offer an email version of your RSS feed

   Man, I’m losing it here…

6. Put chicklets in your template

   Alright, I’m on the line on this one. I don’t, literally speaking, have any social bookmarketing chicklets. Instead, I’m using Ekstreme’s Socializer. I’ve wondered from time to time about the effectiveness of this: the services themselves are much better known than the Socializer, and the graphic intensity of the services draws attention more easily. Still, the possibility is there – I’ll take half credit.

7. Be your own promoter.

   I should do better at this. I rarely submit any of my own work to Digg, don’t maintain my del.icio.us account, etc. So, another missed opportunity for me.

8. Leave highly valuable comments on other blogs in your niche.

   I do make comments on other blogs – and I’d like to believe that they’re valuable. That, of course, is an objective judgement I’m not entirely prepared to make. I could make more comments, but I generally go by the rule of thumb "only comment if you have something to say". I think that’s worthwhile.

9. Reload quickly

   Hmmmm….this one is a bit hard to determine. I don’t think it’s really relevant to me. I didn’t launch with a bang, since my personal business goals entail a gradual ramping up of profile and experience – quick buzz isn’t particularly what I need right now. (A 36 hour day, on the other hand – that I could really use.)

10. Include tons of outbound links in your posts.

    I don’t know about "tons". I’m fully in favor of linking frequently as appropriate: but this particularly advice smacks of over-exuberance. I link well: I find sources which are relevant and interesting and cite them. That’s good enough for me.

11. If you have something to give, give it away!

    What I give away is what’s in the blog: I don’t particularly have anything else. Although, on my other blog, I do have a couple of free PHP/MYSQL scripts which I make available for download.

12. Start real relationships with bloggers in your niche

    I think so: I have real professional relationships with some, and at least some semblance of more casual relationships with others. In some ways, I find this suggestion subtly distasteful: but the key is in the term "real". If it’s a real relationship, then you’re sincere: you’re not just creating some synthetic friendship for business reasons.

13. Submit your blog to blog directories

    Yeah, I suppose. I did that to a couple of directories early on, then lost interest…

14. Submit your blog to general web directories

    I suppose I’ve done that, too. Not extensively, but to a few key places I thought were worthwhile.

15. Leave your blog’s URL as your signature when you participate in forums.

    Yep.

16. Use your URL in your email signature

    Sometimes…

17. Myspace or Facebook members: put a link in your profile.

    Done it.

18. Submit guest posts at other blogs.

    Again, something I’ve done for my other blog, but not with this one.

19. Ask friends for feedback on your site.

    Definitely something I should do – I never have, and I’m sure that this site suffers because of it.

20. Go "Real-World" with other bloggers.

    Thankfully, we’re not talking "MTV’s The Real World", here… I’ve never yet met, in real life, anybody in this industry. Nobody. Not a sausage. In my defense, however, when I started the blog I was living in Austria, spent a month on vacation in Europe, and have only been operating the site in the Twin Cities (Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, if you don’t know) for three months. I’ve been busy!

21. Dress up your comments

    In cute little doll dresses? No, more by clearing and preventing comment spam. Got that handled – to the best of my knowledge, there are no spam comments anywhere in this site. Moderating comments is the most certain way of preventing that problem, and is what I do on this site. If the blog received more comments, of course, this would quickly become unmanageable.

And that’s it.

Rand McCarley, of 14th Colony Scout, lists his 13 reasons web sites fail, following up on Todd Malicoat’s You Wear a Suit to Work, but let Your Nephew Design Your Website?. Both posts are getting at the same important point: professionalism is a critical part of web site development.

Your website is no less a reflection of your business than your physical location is or than your are yourself in a business meeting, and the design and detail of your site should be given just as much thought as any other aspect of setting up your business.

Although there are certainly vast differences in the visual impact of a site which can be appropriate, there are certain common factors which all sites should have in common. Rand lists a great number of these issues: but they all come down to one thing – the essential mistake a business can make with their website is not thinking about their customers throughout the development process.

Taking a few of Rand’s points for examples:

3. Quitter’s choice. These site owners started and got frustrated that things weren’t happening fast enough or they got too busy or [insert a whole list of excuses] and quit.

7. Stale abandonment. The site is out of date and out of touch. Some stuff may not work anymore causing errors. This is akin to having a busted window but the breeze you feel is the viewers rushing out.

13. Glad that’s over. Thinking the site is launched and won’t need tracking, adjustments or follow-up. Every site is a work in progress no matter how complete it is for the moment.

Anybody making these mistakes? The common theme: not thinking about the customer. Your website is about you: but it’s not FOR you. Always approach your site as if you were a customer. Try and put yourself in their shoes: if you knew nothing about your company except what’s on the website – what would you do?

Language is an important aspect of optimizing a website. In many cases, the way you pitch your sale is far more important than what you’re saying. You can’t avoid the issue – making certain your visitors understand and remember your site is absolutely critical.

Kevin Potts, of GraphicPush, wrote the other day about making a prospective client remember your pitch. In it, he points out that you can use fancy words, politically savvy speech, and all your business expertise to make your point – but, when it comes right down to it, the most memorable statement might be:

I make your shit look good so it sells more stuff.

Short, to the point, and says what you do.

Your website needs to consider memorability in addition to any other sales pitch. Granted, cursing at your visitors is possibly not the best tack to take. However, grabbing their attention and seizing the opportunity to make certain they’ve noticed you can be the best thing for your business.

So, what about your site can really seize attention? Obviously, there are "better methods" and "not-so-good methods". You could fill your site with pictures of scantily clad bikini vixens. (Ooh, I’m going to catch some "unique traffic" now.) Of course, this may not be the most appropriate way to move custom-designed office furniture. On the other hand, it may be very effective for selling surfing supplies. Considering your market is pretty critical.

It’s an unfortunate truth that being obnoxious is a great way to catch somebody’s attention. Using pop-up ads or slide-in ads, animated ads – any of these will grab the attention of your visitor. They may be very obnoxious, but they can serve the purpose you need. There are good ways and bad ways to implement them all, however. If you are so obnoxious that you chase your visitor away, you’ve lost your market. But, if you give them an easy way to stop what’s bothering them (close advertisements or stop animations), then they’re more likely to let it pass – and you’re one step closer to making a sale.

Remembering your site is one of the reasons a good domain name is critical. If people are struggling to remember your site’s address (What was that url…digitalstrategy.com? Internetstrategies? Digitalinternetstrategies? Hmmmm…) then they’re less likely to come back. A big part of what makes a site successful is being remembered.

But the core of catching attention and keeping it needs to be in the content of your site. Writing text filled with industry buzzwords and technical terms is a great way to make your site disappear from my memory in 30 seconds. A text laced with unfamiliar terms is keyed to be forgotten. Copy which features well-known, common terminology to explain a task will be much more easily remembered.

Getting visitors to your site is a pretty minor part of effective internet marketing – keeping them there and bringing them back are also important challenges.