Bounty

One of the more interesting differences between paper books and web pages is trust.

We trust paper books to have a fairly well-defined kind of information.
Books usually have a quite well-known manner of presentation.
Given cover/jacket, Summary, and marketing, the book is effectively static.
You can trust a book to be and do what a book is.

Blogs are different; there are far less constraints to presentation.
Content, too, has no guarantee of consistency.
And, although both receive marketing, blogs get less of it and for good reason.
Blogs are more of a gamble.


You can, then, think of your readers as seeking buried treasure.
Marketing simply becomes a treasure map.
And your job is to reward them for finding you blog.


Be bountiful!

Apathy

One of your greatest informational foes will be apathy.

This can come from site visitors.

Whether due to excessive information
- or lack of apparent relevance -
you can most-easily lose viewers through their lack of interest.

Likewise, this can come from YOU.

There will always be moments when you

• don't wish to contribute
• no longer care about your niche
• find other things more important

Your single-greatest asset is regular, genuine, fresh content.
Your voice is created, daily, through your shared thoughts.

Choose never to be apathetic!

Argue

This is the last in the series of posts on innovation.

Looking for a way to promote creativity and stimulate the neurons?
Talk!

All four of the other innovation tools are solitary in nature.
This one is social - find someone to speak with!

Pick a topic about which the both of you are passionate and share.
Nod your head and engage them about aspects with which you both agree.

Stand your ground about points upon which you disagree.
Be considerate, speak your position well - but engage!

The point here is that innovation can come from impassioned interaction.

Let today be an opportunity to get energized and excited about your niche!
Communicate with peers, neighbors, friends, and others.

Argue!

Value

Implicit to the point of blogging is the idea of value.

There are different kinds of blogs; some are public, others aren't.

The ability to draw eyes is specifically associated with the value provided.

You could simply be journaling your own thoughts.

Value there would be the capture and dissemination of your voice.

You could be reviewing car dealerships.

Value there would generally be found in your offering a distinctive, useful perspective.

Again, it would be the capture and dissemination of your voice.

You could be sharing yarn and knitting patterns.

Value might be in how the patterns fit together and perhaps unique kinds of thread/yarn.

So, too, would value be provided through asserting your unique identity.

It is also true that the absence of voice removes value.

Without a reason to stand out, to identify and provide a unique voice, value is lost.

One could even say that genuine value ceases to exist when voice absent.

Provide value.

Tags

You may have noticed that each of these blog posts has several tags.

These are important:
Search engine discovery is impacted through their use.
Blog users can identify those posts associated with their own interests.

In addition, they can be thought of as an opportunity to establish two lists:
Collections of posts associated with specific content
Areas of interest that have not yet been given their own write-up.

Ultimately tags help organize information.

Please use tags each time you post!

Paring

One of the other things that blogs are about is the absence of content.

Paring, as an expression of focus, is important:
Choosing what NOT to include has a direct impact on your message.

Another aspect of paring is word-choice.
Each of the posts on this blog are titled with a single word.

This helps with post-focus.
It helps filter my idiolect, establish my scope, and direct my post.
It also helps YOU, the reader, prepare to absorb the post.

I will leave you with the standard business-case joke/riddle conveying this:

There are two rules to succeed in business.
1. Never tell everyone what you know.

Focus

The core to a well-crafted blog is focus.

The blog itself should have an over-arching theme (a meta-focus, if you will).

Each post should also have a specific focus (though it can be comprised of different elements).

In addition to focus, posts should:

• be recurring (providing regular content adds highly-desirable value)
• have your voice (people visit YOU, not your posts; so put YOU into it)
• have an occasional call to action (powerful engagement of readers is powerful)
• be sticky (this helps readers retain information)