Successful Blog

Creating Reader Evangelists

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From Book to Reality

Last year, I read Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell’s book, Creating Customer Evangelists–a business bestseller. The concept, touted as a breakthrough, was really common sense. It seemed like a breakthrough because most businesses weren’t doing what it said–taking advantage of the fact that some customers are plain crazy about them. What Huba and McConnell explained was how to capture that enthusiasm and channel it for the company’s benefit.

We have our blog fans, our daily readers–the folks who think we hung the moon. They are the part of our audience closest to us. They are influencers–people who can change minds and influence others to see our blog the way they do. They’re a natural bridge to get the word out to other readers. How can we tap into the way they feel about us? How can we make it easy for them to share their excitement with others?

At his site, Micro Persuasion, Steve Rubel has thoroughly covered this subject for us. He’s taken Huba and McConnell’s thinking and translated it for use in the blogging world. I’ve brought you a taste.

Steve offers six blogging points that echo the six points in the book. Since Rubel writes for a marketing/business audience, I’ve slightly edited his words and added my comments in italics after each.

    1. Use your blog to solicit feedback from your readers and then act on it. It makes total sense. If you want to engage your evangelists you have to be engaged yourself.

    2. Blog your best ideas. The thought here is not to hoard your best ideas. Get them out there. Let your evangelists use them too. They’ll come back to you ten-fold.

    3. Find, listen, engage, and empower your blogging influencers. Everyone wants to feel a part of something bigger than they are. Let your influencers be a part of what you do in every way that you can. Encourage participation. The more they feel they belong, the more they will bring friends along.

    4. Blog with a higher, holy calling. If you have a passion about what you’re doing, other’s will at least pay attention. Many will become passionate too.

    5. Blog away trinkets, credit, and links. Be generous of mind and of spirit. People remember and respect generosity. It’s a statement of character. It also gets their attention.

    6. Show your readers that you’re their greatest fan. Anything I add would be redundant.

Steve also provides links for more articles he recommends. This button will take you to Steve’s article, “Creating Customer Evangelists” from October 20, 2005.

This is one of the best I’ve seen on the web. Read it. Print it. Keep it. But before you go . . . leave me a comment too.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

1.3 Audience Synchroncity

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Interview with Indie
His Blog: The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy
URL: indeterminacy.blogspot.com
His audience: persons from all walks of life who like to read quality fiction–bloggers, high school and college students, people in the creative arts, and people who work with language in their jobs–his blogroll reflects his audience
Thing to note when you visit: the interactivity; the connection between Indie and his readers; the quality of the content; the special features and unique ideas

1.3 Audience Synchronicity

1.3 Audience

Indie has two English-language blogs and a Polish-language blog. Click the screen shot to see his satellite blog–Indeterminacies of Synchronicity. It’s this second blog that provides the venue for the feature that engages his audience in writing their own flash fiction stories each week. Each story posted there is rewarded with a link. The Polish-language blog offers translations of selected stories for a smaller segment of his audience.

Indie’s respect for his readers shows whenever he talks to or about them.

Indie, who is your audience?

I’ve been greatly surprised by the type of people reading my blog. In a nutshell I think of them as the blogging elite. I’ve received feedback from artists, musicians, authors, editors, stand-up comics, company CEO’s, psychotherapists, lawyers, professors and other high level professionals, many of them authors of intelligent blogs themselves. This is, for me, another sign of success. Not too long ago I noticed I had some referrals from an online university class in which the professor asked the students to analyze a flash fiction story of their choosing. He had included my URL as an example of flash fiction, a genre which I incidentally knew nothing about until long into the existence of my blog.

All this attention has been especially gratifying, but also intimidating. I hope I am able to keep up whatever it is that caught their interest.

How do your readers find out about you?

People have found me by accident, through links, random referrals, by word of mouth, using search engines and probably other ways I can’t imagine. I followed all the instructions for promoting one’s blog. I entered myself in all the directories and search engines, I use several traffic exchange programs, I comment at other blogs I find interesting (though these days I have hardly any time left for reading other blogs), I have a description and keywords list included in my blog template, which probably helps improve my search rank for various terms. Lately I’ve been presenting my blog at Blog Explosion’s blog battles. Also, many visitors seem to show up through image searches, which probably goes with the territory of having so many photo posts.

What do they like best about your site?

According to the feedback I receive, people like the idea of what I’m doing (pairing found photos with stories), even if they do not enjoy my writing. Others seem enthusiastic about the pace at which I post stories (five a week at the moment), as well as enjoying the stories. Others enjoy the interactivity or the fact that I try to answer all my comments. On weekends I post a photo without a story and invite my visitors to contribute their own story. I then post my take on the photo the Monday after. Those stories have all been collected at the companion blog indeterminacies.blogspot.com, including links to their respective authors. A few bloggers have been kind enough to write reviews about my project. I’ve linked to them on my front page, and would refer you to these for a feeling about what other people see in my blog.

Indie’s audience is made up of blogger readers from all walks of life. They could be the same people who read our blogs. It’s hard to miss Indie’s connection with his readers. I suspect that even with the great photos, stories, interactivity, and sense of community that the biggest attraction for readers is Indie.

What brings readers to your blog?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

1.2 Indeterminacy of Purpose

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Interview with Indie
His Blog: The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy
URL: indeterminacy.blogspot.com
His initial purpose: to match photos with short fiction in a writer’s photo blog
Thing to note when you visit: the interactivity; the connection between Indie and his readers; the quality of the content; the special features and unique ideas

Indeterminacy of Purpose

1.2 Purpose

Every one of us was a new blogger once. One day we’d never heard of a blog. The next day we had. That was the beginning.

In this part of the conversation, Indie shares how he decided to start a blog and determined what it’s form and purpose would be.

Indie, what made you start the blog? How did you decide on its purpose?

I first found out that blogs existed early in 2004 and had a vague wish to start my own. But I was uncertain as to what it could be. I thought the world could do without another online diary. At the same time I discovered the phenomenon of finding photos via file sharing programs. By summer I had further vague ideas of starting perhaps a photo blog with my own photography, or perhaps a short story, novella, or even a novel built around a series of photographs I had found via p2p. I’d written a few short stories before, but writing had never been a major part of my life. In fact, writing had always been such a painstaking process to me, I could not imagine writing anything longer than a few pages. Despite the verbose answers I am giving here, brevity of expression is one of the concepts I admire most.

My catalyst for beginning the blog was stumbling upon the site 10eastern.com, which had received lots of attention for it’s gallery presentations of found photos, as selected by the site’s proprietor. Until then I was skeptical about the acceptance of a blog which used found photos–photos which were sometimes unintentionally shared.

I greatly admire the stories of John Cage written for his Indeterminacy project, and all of a sudden I realized that the best way for me to do my project was not with a long story wrapped around a series of photographs, but daily one-minute short stories in the form and perhaps style of John Cage’s stories. I believed it would be possible for anyone to have at least one good idea per day. That’s how it all fell into place.

Blogging can keep us so involved day to day, that we forget to stop to see where we are. There was a reason we each started blogging. How has that purpose changed over time? Is our purpose still our guide, or have we lost sight of it?

Knowing the purpose of my blog makes it easier to make decisions about what belongs and what does not. I want to keep enough focus so that when readers return, they’ll know they’re on familiar ground.

My personal blog’s purpose is to offer readers a place to get away from the world, share a few stories, and wonder about things. What’s the purpose of your blog?

Like the bloggers who blog them, every blog needs a purpose in life.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

1.1 Meet Indie

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Interview with Indie
His Blog: The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy
URL: indeterminacy.blogspot.com
Location: Europe
Genre: Writer/Photo Blog
First post: Friday, August 13, 2004
His audience: persons from all walks of life who like to read quality fiction–bloggers, high school and college students, people in the creative arts (artists, writers, stand-up comics, musicians, designers) and people who work with language every day (lawyers, therapists, professors, teachers, editors, company CEO’s)–his blogroll reflects his audience
Thing to note when you visit: the interactivity; the connection between Indie and his readers; the quality of the content; the special features and unique ideas

Meet Indie.

Indie

Indie’s an American blogger, living in Europe. He’s the first interview because his blog shows how quality, creativity, and attention to readers can turn a basic template into a memorable blog. Indie gives his audience a flash fiction story five days a week. He also has made the writer’s blog interactive.

It’s hard to miss the sense of community on this blog. The folks who hang out here are having fun. Indie has both a factual and an intuitive sense of who his readers are and he clearly connects with them. It comes across in their comments and his responses. His writing voice is authentic and engaging. Just listen to his answer to my first question.

Indie, how would you define a successful blog?

Since you selected me as a “successful blog,” I had hoped that you would tell me what the definition would be. . . .

In my case, I call my blog a success because it fulfills my personal feeling for aesthetic and expression. The stories are all short, which gives me time to read and correct them until everything sounds “just right” to me. My feel for what is “good writing” is probably a composite of my years of voracious reading. I never posted anything that I did not think was up to my standard of quality. In this respect I can call my blog a success.

About six weeks into my blogging I received a flattering comment to one of my stories from Anonymous which describes, by process of elimination, that person’s idea of a successful blog. The comment left me stunned and . . . I hope I deserved it.

    “That’s great! All of your stories are good. I get so sick of the intellectual web people who think they’re the next … some one…. They love to attack gods and people and things. They like cynicism for the sake of cynicism. They usually have some Japanese sounding name, and a Nietzsche quote in their signature. They want desperately to be “thinkers” and “uber” and different and cool, but there is something fundamental that they just don’t get. I find 95% of blogs and stuff on the web to be like that, 95% of the stories and fiction to be entwined with some bitter little agenda.”

Three of my stories have been included in the quarterly E-zine Practically Creative which is another sign for me that I am on the right track.

Indie proves that success has many definitions. We’ll be talking with him all this week. If you haven’t experienced his blog, I encourage you to. There’s a great chance you’ll find something that sparks an idea that works for you.

Have questions or comments for Indie about his definition of success or what you’ve seen on his blog? Feel free to leave it for him here. He’ll be stopping by all week to join the conversation.

Tomorrow–Indie’s Audience–why they come, what they like, how they find him, ideas for interactivity, and more . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blogging Lite Checklist NEW/IMPROVED VERSION

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UPDATE:

In the article, 10+1 Qualities of Bloggers and Our Readers, the third bullet was

  • Bloggers love to disrupt the status quo.

Well, sometimes this blogger does, and sometimes she doesn’t. She sure doesn’t like to stir things up, when she doesn’t know she’s doing it.

A new blog comes with a learning curve, and this one came with an audience. I just showed what happens when you try to make friends with your readers just a bit too fast. Even with experience, it’s an easy thing to do. In fact, it might be easier because you know once the hellos are over, the real conversations start.

So if I might say one thing,

I’ve read the checklist over again. I agree with Richard. It has problems with the tone. The beauty of blogging is that I can fix this immediately. So I’m going to edit the checklist, but let the comments on the original stay just as they were.

Blogging Checklist For Emperor Penguins

1. Turn on the printer and print out this checklist. If you don’t have a printer. Don’t try to turn it on. STOP HERE. I know that you’re an Emperor, but there’s some things that you can’t do. Bloggers are friendly folks. Ask a blogging penguin to print it out for you.

2. Find your blog. If you cannot find your blog, get help from a blogger friend. If you do not have a blog, STOP HERE. This is a blogging checklist, you need a blog. But if I might speak freely, Emperor sir, getting started isn’t hard, and mistakes shouldn’t worry you. In fact, as a penguin you might find it familiar. Writing for a blog can be like etching things in ice . . . nothing on a blog is set entirely in stone. The rewrite of this list just for you is perfect proof of that. 🙂

3. If you found your blog, I fear, Emperor, you must go back and start with number 1. If you’ve forgotten what you’re doing or why you’re doing this STOP HERE. You might be like me and don’t do well with printed documentation. Go ahead and try a little experimentation.

4. Check off number 1, if you actually did it. If you did not, you ARE an EMPEROR penguin after all, STOP HERE. With all your penguin followers, you might consider another way to blog. Do what the mainstream media do–hire a ghostblogger.

My apologies to the more-enlightened Emperor Penguins. The time alloted for this checklist has expired. We’ll have to continue another time with the rest of this checklist. . . . 🙂

ALSO NEXT WEEK:

An Interview with INDIE

about his successful blog from Germany,
The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy (Say that three times quickly.)

Go visit to see what makes it tick.

See you then!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Tips: Writing Clearly

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Guest Writer: Hanni Ross

Recently I’ve been thinking about how important it is to be able to get your point across well. I’m not particularly good at this myself so have been doing some research.
In my research I stumbled across a powerpoint presentation entitled “How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily“.

You might be wondering what this has to do with Successful Blogs, but I think that it’s important that you take writing for your blog as seriously as you would take writing a newspaper article or even a book perhaps. It’s important to have a reliable method and to be organised with both the planning and writing of the article and in conveying the message you would like to get across.
The presentation touches on the writing process itself and breaks it down into five steps:

  1. Planning (deciding what & how to write)
  2. Drafting (getting it on paper once)
  3. Revising (getting it on paper better)
  4. Editing (fixing spelling, grammar, typing)
  5. Formatting (choosing typefaces, layout, etc.)

You probably spend a lot of time considering your entries anyway, but perhaps it’s worth putting in just that extra minute or scrutinising your writing process just that bit more to see how you can improve.

If you have a good writing process then you’ll produce good work; you’ll start to develop a style which you’re readers will recognize and feel reassured by.

Further than that, take a closer look at the article itself, are you Writing to be Understood?