16 Comments to “Blogs Aren’t Books — Not Everyone Starts Reading on Page 1”

1. November 11th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
   HART (1-800-HART) said

   Great topic Liz.

   I am constantly looking at my “REFER” stats .. which I have on every blog of mine …. (see http://www.petlvr.com/blog/refer/ as an example) .. I don’t have to log into my server .. no complicated graphs .. I just see what people are looking at and which page they go to. I often click it to see what they see .. Also, my stats on the bottom of my blog is on Sitemeter and set to public view so I also don’t have to log in to any private stats like statscounter etc. If I see an unusual or even recurring page on the refer stats .. I can see how long people are sticking around on the sitemeter stats.

   PS> Here’s where you get .. REFER .. highly recommended for the not-so-serious-but-kind-of-curious type site owner!

2. November 11th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
   ME Strauss said

   Hi HART,
   I had heard something about that program REFER, but I didn’t know what it was called. I think it’s pretty nifty. I’m more than “kind of” curious about such things.

3. November 12th, 2006 at 4:48 am
   Hans said

   Hello Liz,

   At last the exams are over.

   Hey Liz, considering only how good the past content is, isn’t enough. I think the present discussion should also be brought to the past when required. By this, I mean when someone just land on some of your pages in the past then do the other visitors know about it to participate also? I think past stuffs should be kept as fresh as past discussion.

   That’s why I think the latest comments is a very good idea in achieving this. Would you think so?

4. November 12th, 2006 at 6:46 am
   ME Strauss said

   Hi Hans!
   How happy I am that your exams are over! My wishes are that you did wonderfully well. It’s a pleasure to see you!

   I agree that the past pages in our archives can be kept as fresh and often can be brought back in our conversations. Visitng thosse past pages is also a great way to get ideas to write about.

   And of course, when we write about those new ideas that were inspired by doing that, it’s often easy to incorporate the page from our archives that inspired the new page.

5. November 12th, 2006 at 7:02 am
   Carl Chapman said

   Hey Liz! Great points. I have been guilty of forgetting to put links in stories to make sure that my readers can find related posts irrespective of their point of reference or entry to my blog. The same advice goes for your feeds. Remember that not everyone who reads what you write is getting it from your site, they good be getting it from your feed.

   Also, I didn’t know when I wrote about cloning that I was also talking about you.

6. November 12th, 2006 at 7:08 am
   ME Strauss said

   Hey, Carl,
   Good Morning!
   Great that you know to make those intra-blog links, even if you’ve overlooked a few. When you make them be sure to use strong anchor text to point to the place where folks are going. Search engines give more juice for real words, like you used in the link above with “cloning,” than they do for a link that is anchored by the word “here,” as in click “here. ”

   This writer is a clone for a living, but my price for SOBs is a budget rate.

7. November 12th, 2006 at 7:36 am
   Carl Chapman said

   My you are up early this Sunday morning!. Nice to see you. I may have to take you up on your ‘cut rate’… sometime.

8. November 12th, 2006 at 7:40 am
   ME Strauss said

   That’s what makes the Perfect Virtual Manager so perfect. I’m smart, strategic, and experienced. I’m right inside your computer whenever you need me. I’m always smiling — check that picture! . . . and you get to write the job description.

   How much more could a guy want from a manager?

   Don’t go there — it’s too easy — besides words online last forever.

9. November 12th, 2006 at 8:40 am
   TechZ said

   I think this is why About pages are so useful, they give a new reader a place to go to know you even if your blog has been around for years and years.

10. November 12th, 2006 at 8:51 am
    ME Strauss said

    I hadn’t thought of it that way, TechZ. That is another great reason to keep an About Page and to keep it fresh and timely. You’re always thinking and adding value. I’m going to hire you any second.

11. November 12th, 2006 at 9:11 am
    Kammie K. said

    Morning Liz!

    Thanks for always providing such insightful info…I was just having a conversation with a friend about business and marketing..and she was saying another friend of ours could read up on some Entreprenuer mags…I was like, “It’s challenging tho, cuz you don’t know what you don’t know. So how do you know what to ask for help with if you don’t know what you should be asking?”

    Your post just re-affirmed that for me. There is always another angle, spin or perspective with which to view our blogs and businesses. Thanks for the wisdom nugget!

    Kam:)

12. November 12th, 2006 at 9:49 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hey, Kam,
    What a nice greeting for a Sunday morning! Yeah, we’ve all got so much we don’t know. That’s the part I like best. It means we’ll never, ever be bored . . . always something new around every corner to learn.

13. November 13th, 2006 at 8:30 am
    Scott said

    One effective way I’ve found of including older articles in recent discussion is to include a list of ‘favourites’ in the sidebar.

    A dilemma arises when revisiting these yourself though - do you edit the original content or merely tighten up the layout and design?

14. November 13th, 2006 at 8:36 am
    ME Strauss said

    Scott,
    My personal approach is to see how broad the disparity is between then and now. If the content there still stands readable and relevant I leave it alone. I fix any obvious design distractions. I’m not looking to re-create only to make landing pages welcoming.

    Look for more on this today.

15. November 13th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
    Successful Blog - Blogs Aren’t Books, But Revising Is Still Revising: 6 Gating Questions to Make Revising Easier said

    [...] How far do you go? Some were written way back when. Do you edit the content? Do you change the design? Scott of 99 shades of grey asked those very questions this morning. [...]

16. November 13th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
    Blogs are not like books said

    [...] - Not everyone starts reading on page 1 - this article written by Liz is worth reading. < Leave a comment >   [...]