Honey I Blew Up The Blog
By Rick on Oct 16, 2009 in Internet Marketing
My blog knew things were not good, yet it persisted.
Last night I began deleting old posts from my blog, with extreme malice.
A giant mad-on about the whole blog thing has been brewing in angst and frustration for about a year, and finally I could take no more. Blogging caught fire a couple years back but, like most things webbie, we took it too far.
“Blog clog” has bloated the web and our lives with useless information, distractions, un-requested opinions and advice we don’t need. Most of this clutter and noise is driven by the misguided idea that you SHOULD be writing a blog, when it’s likely that most people should step away from the Wordpress.
Why Blogs Suck
A trip back through my posts revealed how much of what was there was NOT helping my business:
* a news update about some change in my business that, if it were a piece of paper, would have been fed to the shredder long ago – DELETE
* an announcement of some marketing product launch that closed it’s doors soon after or had already gone out of business – DELETE
* a personal post that seemed so “authentic” and “real” at the time, that now makes me look like a sissfied bed wetter with inoperable emotional issues – DELETE
* a post about how yippie-skippy happy I was over a new relationship that became an old sour relationship – DELETE
(NOTE TO SELF AND EVERY SINGLE PERSON): Resist the temptation to Tweet, Facebook, or definitely blabber on about on a teleseminar about anything pertaining to a new relationship or dying relationship and unfollow your exes the moment they want to be “just friends” – sitting in a Facebook workshop on Wednesday I got a live update that “Your Old Girlfriend _______ Is Now In a Relationship!” with a little heart graphic just to amp up the sting a bit. Nice…
* a post in which the information was just obsolete and made me look like a dunce if read now – DELETE
* a post about a Twitter technique that got 25% of all the traffic on my site but had a 95% bounce rate – meaning that thousands of people came to my site – read the post and left without looking at another page on my site – much less opting in or following me. – DELETE (well kind of) This page had a big old link from Mashable so I redirected it to an offer for a Twitter product. So far it hasn’t made a penny even with thousands of clicks. Buh-bye.
* etc – DELETE
That’s One Thing I Hate About Blogs (dead content living on) Here’s the Other = Truly Great Content is Buried, in Chronological Order
Next up I’ll be talking about how I’m implementing a new strategy in my own business. But, for now I am gonna post this to my blog, as it’s hanging by a thread.
7 Comment(s)
By IM & Social Media Connections on Oct 17, 2009 | Reply
LOLLL Rick! Great points, good post!
It’s good for people to note the next to the last one about your Twitter post – that in some cases, it’s best to create a redirect so you don’t lose the traffic built for that link!
IM & Social Media Connections´s last blog ..Building a Niche Site Step-by-Step Day 5
By Rick on Oct 17, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for the kind words. I’m actually working on this doggone site and turning on plugins and found that the comments thing was turned off. So I’m really glad to see you in there commenting and stuff.
I just looked at that link and it sent 785 people to the affiliate offer – with no sales. This is what we call crap-traffic and other than what few stragglers I may end up getting in my funnel – I would be better off to NOT have them show up on my site at all.
Another great testament to HOW we generate traffic, and that we ought to think about how to prepare our visitors – and run off those who aren’t right for us with negative qualifiers. (IMHBAO)
Rick
By Terrance Charles on Oct 18, 2009 | Reply
Nice post Rick, entertaining too. Good point about redirecting your old blog post to something else. I also wanted to note, having a 404 page is something all websites need, especially a blog, I have a custom 404 page on my blog that redirects visitors back to homepage and at the same time has 3 products on it, alot of my sales came from this page alone.
Terrance Charles´s last blog ..Top 100 Most Helpful Twitter Tips…
By Rick on Oct 19, 2009 | Reply
I’m going directly over to sneak a peek at your 404 page. I want to drive that traffic to a 404 that gives visitors an opportunity to decide if they want the ebook I’m offering in exchange for an optin.
Hoping to have that up tonight. Thanks for your comment Terrance!
By Shawn Driscoll on Oct 19, 2009 | Reply
Rick,
You crack me up!
Fave line: makes me look like a sissfied bed wetter with inoperable emotional issues
Glad to see you cleaning up your act! I think creatives need to regularly and ritually purge the past ‘great ideas’ and keep the flow open for new stuff.
I recently cleaned out my office–which to the casual observer didn’t look so bad–and when I was done had carted over 5 feet of paper to the recycling! I put my own height out to the curb. Much of it was last year’s Great Ideas. It’s amazing how quickly time can turn a FABULOUS idea into recycled toilet paper!
Keep on keeping on with your brand of brilliant! I need a good laugh these days!
By Russ on Oct 21, 2009 | Reply
Hi Rick,
I loved this post and did a lot of head nodding throughout all the while feeling a sense of reassurance that I wasn’t the only one with such sentiments,… albeit unexpressed.
I’ve got to say that I do agree about the Twitter traffic being full of tyre kickers and lookers that I doubt could ever be converted into anything substantial even though I accept that some decent relationships can be forged from Twitter. for me the Twitter honeymoon is over and I’m enjoying the freed up time from that cessation very much!
Also gotta say I love your new blogsite and have noted a few distinctions you’ve made with it that’ll probably help me move forward with mine.
About 404 pages,.. I have one that redirects to nowhere and just pokes fun at lost travellers and victims of browser errors (something about it appealed to my warped sense of humour,.. see it here http://reflections160.syntonicsites.com/).
I was thinking of creating a special 404 php loop page that drives visitors nuts and the only way off it is to hit my Paypal “donate” button. The reason behind this is that I make so little from my affilate pages any way and something like that could be a lot of fun and if it worked I’d make hundreds if not thousands from “donations”.
Looking forward to a good read of your “7 Little Choices” ebook that I just downloaded,..thanks!
All the very best to you and Little Dog!
Russ
Russ´s last blog ..Protected: Peaceful Demonstration?
By Rick on Oct 22, 2009 | Reply
Hey Russ – last night on the Ustream.tv broadcast I did because my cable went out (talk about boredom driving work!) @danlopez2012 said a great line about how Twitter is a ton of traffic and no sales.
I find Twitter best for finding relationships that can turn into partnerships – and into clients but in in the Internet marketing “click and buy” way.
I’m in mid hack on my site (just changed the home page to put forth what I’m calling “the deal” we should be making with our clients and visitors. Like, here’s my deal, my offer, (not to buy, but what I have to offer you) – if you want to play – great – if not – that’s good too.
I’ll be doing a thing on 404 pages soon – so be sure to subscribe to this bloggie, which you automatically are after getting the ebook.
RB