SOB Business Cafe 05-26-2006

Filed Under Audience, Great Finds, Successful Blog | 12 Comments

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Take the test with Dr. Deborah Serani to find out the basic psychology of being a customer. It’s quick and surprising.

Oystein, the Advice Librarian, explains how and why (and where to go) to use images to kickstart your writing.

Advice Librarian Kickstart Your Writing using images

Kyle Bunch at Blogebrity shares the consequences of interns blogging. Follow the links. It’s fascinating.

Keith introduces beggr, a new way to monetize your blog.

Related ala carte selections include

Ohad has one invitation left. Will you be getting paid to play games too?

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like.
No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Editing: Just Some of My Very Different Thoughts

Filed Under Audience, Marketing, Successful Blog, Writing | 2 Comments

Power Editing

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
– Mark Twain

In the Successful Blog Cafe last week Rob at Jamdo’s article offered advice on how to strip out excess words in your posts to increase keyword density. That’s good editing advice. In fact, much of editing is taking out ALL of the words that you don’t need.

Words that Writers Don’t Need

As bloggers, we write in a conversational tone, but conversation moves fast and easy. We can correct if someone doesn’t understand what we’re saying. They can interrupt if we’re going on, and on, and on, and on. We’re likely to notice if our audience walks away while we’re still talking.

Unfortunately, we don’t have those luxuries when the words are written. More written words don’t necessarily build more bridges and rapport. Additional words can get between the reader and our message. Here are places I go to remove extra words that creep in while I’m writing. Read more

Stats: A Question?

Filed Under Audience, Business Life, Motivation/Inspiration, Strategy, Successful Blog, Tech/Stats | 18 Comments

When you check your stats,

are you thinking about numbers

or are you thinking about people?

Just wondering . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Turning Reluctant Readers into Loyal Fans

Filed Under Audience, Branding, Design, Marketing, Successful Blog, Writing | 13 Comments

In just a brief one-twentieth of a second–less than half the time it takes to blink–people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site.

–Kamakshi Tandon
REUTERS, Internet users judge Web sites in less than a blink
Jan. 17, 2006

We’ve got less than a blink to grab a reader’s attention. The reader clicks in. Looks. Decides and then . . . and then what? . . . Do they stay or do they leave? If they stay, did what they see lend our words more credibility or did it take some away?

Design, curb appeal, packaging–whatever you call it–it’s what brings customer-readers further into our businesses and our blogs. They recognize what works for them and what doesn’t. If it doesn’t, they’re gone so quickly that even our stats programs don’t know. Try the Blink Test if you want a baseline idea of what your readers are seeing before they blink.

What about reluctant readers, undecideds who decide to stay a little longer? What can we do to convince them to stay? Better yet, how can we turn them into fans?

Capturing the Attention of Reluctant Readers

In educational publishing, we have a euphemism, “reluctant readers.” It’s used to describe kids who, when they see a textbook, they turn away to find their inline skates. When I write on literacy, they are my favorite customers to write for and about.

I don’t much like that euphemism applied only to those kids because I’m constantly having to remind other teachers that,

. . . we’re all reluctant readers and becoming more and more so. If you’re a skeptic on this point, try reading the tax code–or any “have-to” document on your least favorite subject. You’ll wish that there were something more to see than long columns of endless text, something to break up the boring words.

With more and more ways to spend our leisure time, even television shows are becoming bulleted lists.

Reader Support as Part of Your Brand

Those kids we call reluctant readers do leave their inline skates to read what they’re interested in–things like books on extreme sports and the latest gaming websites and blogs–if they’re made right. Here’s what you can take from educational research to catch the attention of normal, everday reluctant readers. You can use it to brand your blog as a worthwhile source of quality content. It’s one more way, that you can make customer-reader support a resounding part of your niche brand.

Use sub-heads liberally. Sub-heads break the text into shorter bits. Subconsciously that not only tells me what this bit is about. It also says I only have to read this far and then I get to breathe again. People not only like subheads, search engines like them too.
Use everyday words. A big vocabulary doesn’t bring us closer together, it sets you apart. The word use is a fine one, use it. Don’t set it aside for utilize. That makes me, as a reader, stop to wonder whether you mean something different from the what use would have said. Anything that stops a reader works against your message being heard.
Use pictures, images, art, and color to enhance your message. Do this with care. It’s easy to distract. Place only one or two images. Place them where they add value to the text. Try to put images where you’d expect to find them. If you’re not sure ask a customer-reader to give you feedback on how you’re doing. Remember that design seems easy, but it’s not.
Take the time to write something short. The point here is to make every word count. Read your post over to take out all of the words that you don’t need. Be lethal. It’s amazing how many extra words you can find when your quest is to go looking for them. A few sentences ago, I turned this into two posts instead of one.
Use typographic cues, such as bold and italic, to show what’s important. Be consistent and try not to make everything important. If you use underlined text to show what is a link, don’t use an underline for anything else. If you make everything important, then you’ve really said that nothing is.

Each of these points are about helping reluctant readers like me figure out quickly what’s important and what’s not, so that when I’m done reading what you wrote. I feel like we’re both smart.

Reluctant Readers to Loyal Fans

Ever read something that made you feel like the writer was saying something you always thought? . . . or something that just made you feel smart for reading it? Bet you went back to see what else that writer had to say . . . .

But then, you knew all this. You have a favorites list. You know what it takes to make a fan. I’m just offering some hints on how to get the undecideds to come in, so that you get a chance to do just that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Success in a Blink and a Blink Test
Business, Blogs, and Niche-Brand Marketing
How to Code Accessible Links–Part 1
What Is Content that Keeps Readers?
Audience is Your Destination

GAWKER Design: Curb Appeal as Customer-Centered Promotion

Filed Under Audience, Checklists, Design, Marketing, Successful Blog | 2 Comments

The Qualities of Great Curb Appeal

Great design is branding that whispers. Like a house with fabulous curb appeal, a uniquely-inspired stained glass window, or the fine lines on a fabulous car, design is promotion that draws you nearer. It entices customers or readers to come closer–to see for themselves what’s being offered.

Don’t think for a minute that looks don’t count. First impressions tell customers that a business understands who their customers are and that the business knows what their customers are looking for. GAWKER understands curb appeal and uses it to deliver customers to their own front door.

Product is the what and the how. Product is the content and the quality that gets customers coming back. But whether it’s a blog, a bistro, or barometer, product is nothing if it never gets to a customer. If no one comes to read it, or dine there, or buy it. Then how can you say that the product is good?

That’s where design–curb appeal–comes in. Design is the why and the romance. Like quality product, good design starts with the customer. It tells the customer what this product is and who it’s for. Design done well makes the promise that the product keeps. It says, “Come here, and try this. You won’t be sorry.” If the product is quality, you’re not sorry. You’re delighted you tried it.

Gawker and the Curb Appeal Checklist

GAWKER passes a Curb Appeal checklist with flying colors.

The name of the product, GAWKER, is big, bold, and colorful. GAWKER speaks to the audience that the product is made for. Cover all but that word–GAWKER–and you still know this blog is not meant for your grandmother’s golf team or your little brother’s playschool. GAWKER looks and sounds slightly irreverent and obviously self-content.
All things on the page speak to 21-34 year old, mid-high to high income professionals. GAWKER shows their achieving, metro-readers an environment they’re comfortable with, one that says, “you belong here with us. We speak the same language. We do the same things.”
Even the ads make readers feel cool. As the New Yorker pointed out, you won’t see pharmacutical ads in GAWKER, because all GAWKER readers are “young and beautiful.” At least, that’s how they want to see themselves.
In other words, you can tell by looking, that GAWKER has one BIG IDEA–CELEBRITIES ONLY–Content and Customers. You’ll read about them and feel like one too. No confusion here. Customers know right away whether this is their gig or not. GAWKER doesn’t waste your time if you don’t want what GAWKWER”s got.

In terms of the curb appeal the closer a reader gets, the better GAWKER looks. GAWKER has mastered brand-niche marketing.

Promise and Product Perfectly Wed

As a reader, I find exactly what I expected–the jazzy, snarky, celebrity gossip that makes me feel like a slightly smarter, sharper celebrity than the folks being talked about. GAWKER passes the test because everything they do says they know who their customers are. That knowledge shows in every detail of their product. The promise and product are perfectly wed.

The key to GAWKER-level design is knowing your customers so well that your customers can see themselves in every detail of what you do. Top-notch design and product-driven packaging require complete attention and constant awareness of customervalues and customer needs.

When was the last time you checked in with your customers about the curb appeal of your blog or business? Are you sure your product and promise are perfectly wed?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Google Measure Map Tracks Readers

Filed Under Audience, Great Finds, Guest Writer, Successful Blog, Tech/Stats, Tools | 17 Comments

Guest Reviewer: John Hamman

John Hamman, at the Ladder Project, has a fine review of Google’s newest purchase, Measure Map. Measure Map is a focused, real-time stats program for blogs that measures visitors and links, comments, and posts. Click the screenshot to get to John’s thorough and timely review.

The Ladder Project Article on Meaures Maps

Measure Map’s Features Look Attractive

This screenshot takes you to the Google blog discussion of Measure Map.

It’s good business to ask questions about our readers. Will Measure Map have the answers?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Success in a Blink and a Blink Test

Filed Under Audience, Checklists, Design, Marketing, Strategy, Successful Blog, Tips | 21 Comments

In 2005, Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book “Blink.” introduced the idea that we make make decisions about people and things almost instantaneously– long before we do the cognitive thinking about them.

Last week, Reuters reported that Canadian researchers have found that people make just such decisions about Internet sites, deciding in less than a blink whether they will stay or click away from them. Here’s a link to the article.

I wonder what Reuters was thinking to write an article so short that you miss the whole thing if you blink?

A Blink Test

Before you blink away, you might try this the next time you bring up your blog or web page. Try to see your blog as if it were one you’d never seen it before.

1. Close your eyes for a minute. Then open them once the page is up.

2. Pay attention to where your eyes fall first. Is that where you want them to?

3. Look at a blank wall or a blank piece of paper for a minute. Then look back again. What attracts or distracts you? Does anything make you want to stay or leave?

Use what you find out to make sure your blog gets a “yes” in that first blink.

THIS JUST IN:
Gary an SOB over at Blogoplex did a test on several blogs including this one . . . Click through to read his blink test results. See whether you agree.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Re;ated articles:
Blog Promotion: Checking Out Curb Appeal
Five Design Basics to Never Forget
Blog Design Checklist
Great Photo Resources to Support Readers

Blog Improvements by Chris Garrett

Filed Under Audience, Basics, Marketing, Successful Blog, Tech/Stats | Leave a Comment

Chris Garrett offers a great post on Quick and Easy Blog Improvements over at Performancing. He features Sumeet Jain’s in-depth NoFollow article and gives hands-on, “use-right-now” advice that’s well worth checking out. I’m particularly taken with Number 4 which says:

Show your most popular or best posts – a new visitor to your blog needs help in deciding if this is going to be a blog they want to return to. Show them your best and brightest content. There is code available for WordPress and it is really easy to do on Drupal using the statistics module, others will have plugins or you can hard code it into your template.

I like a guy who cares about readers.

Thank you, Chris.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

How to Code Accessible Links–Part 1

Filed Under Audience, Guest Writer, Links, SEO, Successful Blog, Tech/Stats | 16 Comments

Cas read my article on how to code hyperlinks and in the comments shared some discussion about the importance of accessible links–a topic which had come up earlier in Successful-Blog conversations. In my usual fashion I invited Cas to write on the subject and she took up the challenge. Her response was to do a series of articles on accessible hyperlinks. I, for one, am so glad she did. She really does know so much more about such things than I do. In fact, she knows so much more that I asked her to start by just clarifying for me what is it that makes an Accessible link. –ME “Liz” Strauss

How to Code Accessible Links–Part One: The Basics
by Cas of Brightmeadow

Liz has already written a great article on how to code hyperlinks. I’d like to take this one further and show you how to code accessible hyperlinks. If you are happy with how to manually code hyperlinks, then we can continue. If you aren’t, or feel like you need a bit of a refresher, I do recommend you read the article. We’ll wait.

Ok, ready?

What is an accessible link?

Web accessibility is about making your website accessible to all Internet users (both disabled and non-disabled), regardless of what browsing technology they’re using. An “accessible link” therefore, is simply a link that imparts as much information to as many users as possible. It enables the reader to preview the link, making an informed decision about whether to follow it or not, and helps to differentiate between links that may share link text but refer to different targets

So why should I worry about accessibility?

Not everyone views the Web in the same way that you do – accessibility is not just for disabled users. It is for the many potential readers who might be browsing your site on a dial-up connection, using a screen-reader, using a mobile device with a small screen, or using a text-only browser such as Lynx. By making your website accessible you are opening it up to a much wider potential audience. Making something accessible for humans also has the side effect of making it more accessible for search engines. If you make a living through your site, happy readers, and happy search engines just make good sense.

Not convinced?

Not convinced that this is necessary? Turn off the images in your browser, and then the stylesheet, and see if you can still successfully navigate your website and get meaning from your content. What you see now is roughly how someone with visual impairment, or a text-only browser, views your website.

Internet Explorer: Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Multimedia > Show pictures (uncheck)
Firefox: Tools > Options > Web features > Load images (uncheck)
Opera: Tools > Preferences > Multimedia > Show no images
Stylesheets: View > Page Styles > No style

So how do I go about making my links accessible?

It really isn’t that hard. If you’re already manually coding your links, making them accessible is just a case of putting in a few extra bits of text.
This how-to is in three parts, and will walk you through what you need to know:

How to code an accessible hyperlink
How to code an accessible image
How to code an accessible embedded hyperlink

Throughout this article I will be using http://www.foo.com as an demonstration. Simply replace this, and any other exemplar text with the particulars for what you are doing.

How to code an accessible text hyperlink

Basic code

Just to remind you what the basic hyperlink code looks like:
<a href=”http://www.foo.com”>Descriptive Link Anchor Text </a>

The TITLE description – how it works

It is the TITLE attribute that makes a link accessible. It is inserted after the URL but before the first closing angled bracket and contains descriptive text, enabling the reader to ‘preview’ the link. This in turn allows users to more accurately guess where the link will take them, and make a more informed decision about whether or not they should follow it. Roll your mouse over this example link and you will see what I mean. The text that appears by your mouse cursor is the preview.
Example link

Accessible code

<a href=”http://www.foo.com” title=”Descriptive text” >
Link anchor text will render like this: Link anchor text

When to use

Every hyperlink should have a TITLE attribute.

A few notes

The descriptive title can be any text you want, though to make it as accessible as possible, follow these simple rules:

It should say something about the destination of the link.
It needs to be between 3 and 80 characters long. A single sentence is normally sufficient.

–Cas and Liz

The Complete Series
How to Code Accessible Links
This one: How to Code Accessible Linksâ€“Part 1
How to Code Accessible Linksâ€“Part 2
How to Code Accessible Linksâ€“Part 3

Announcing the SOB Directory

Filed Under Audience, Community, Marketing, SOB Business, Successful Blog | 5 Comments

To All SOBs and All SO-Wanna-Bs

Successful Blog is not just getting a new design. It’s changing to become even more focused on success, community, and our readers. That means you’ll be seeing content changes and new content features as well as spiffy new design and production values.

I’m prepared to announce the first change right this minute.

Though the old Successful and Outstanding Blogger page is still under cover. It’s now also undergoing a change of it’s own. No longer will it just carry a simple list of links as an honor roll.

Announcing the SOB Directory

As a service to our readers and our community, we’re turning this page into a directory. Each Successful and Outstanding Blogger’s link will expand to carry both the blog logo and a description of the content readers will find when they visit your blog. So the SOB directory entry for my business blog would look like this.

ME Strauss skews the world wondering about crayons, conformity,heroes, yo-yos, idiosyncrasies, and that person reading the paper at Starbucks. Enjoy storytelling that brings back memories.

What to Do

If you’re already an SOB, send me your blog description. I’m happy to do the rest. You surely have one that you’ve used for some directory listing hiding on your computer somewhere. Take it out and dust it off. No worries about your logo. Unless you want to switch the one I have. (The logo restriction is 60 pixels high.) Then e-mail me at lizsun2@gmail.com.

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, take a post home with you to share Successful-Blog ideas with your readers.
Just link to that post on this blog and write your own insights to “add value” to the conversation.
Then e-mail me at lizsun2@gmail.com with a link to your post.

That’s all there is to it. I’ll feature your logo with a link and you’ll get your SOB badge for your blog. Then your logo will be part of our new directory.

OR contribute an outstanding idea about how we might add value for readers to Successful- Blog.

Even more exciting changes that serve your needs are sitting right there on the horizon. Can you see them yet?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
What Makes a Great SOB?!

keep looking »

Successful Blog

You're Only a Stranger Once

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

Power Editing

Words that Writers Don’t Need

Capturing the Attention of Reluctant Readers

Reader Support as Part of Your Brand

Reluctant Readers to Loyal Fans

The Qualities of Great Curb Appeal

Gawker and the Curb Appeal Checklist

Promise and Product Perfectly Wed

Guest Reviewer: John Hamman

Measure Map’s Features Look Attractive

A Blink Test

How to Code Accessible Links–Part One: The Basics by Cas of Brightmeadow

What is an accessible link?

So why should I worry about accessibility?

Not convinced?

So how do I go about making my links accessible?

How to code an accessible text hyperlink

Basic code

The TITLE description – how it works

Accessible code

When to use

A few notes

To All SOBs and All SO-Wanna-Bs

Announcing the SOB Directory

What to Do

Search

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How to Code Accessible Links–Part One: The Basics
by Cas of Brightmeadow