Josh Klein Web Strategy is a blog about creating websites that are worth caring about -- websites that matter to people. If you want instant updates, please subscribe.
July 1st, 2009 by Josh Klein
This is Part 2 in a 3-part series called How To Write a Blog Worth Caring About.
Introduction
A while back, I started this series inspired by the revelation that I was approaching blogging in a shallow and ultimately ineffective way, having adopted supposed “best practices” that actually amounted to internet marketing dickishness.
Today, I’m following up with Part 2: Writing a blog worth caring about. This is the meat of the series, but my advice is the least tactical for reasons you’ll understand in a minute.
As a refresher, the 6 features of a blog worth caring about are:
- A strategy with clear goals
- Content that doesn’t suck
- A layout that maximizes your strategy
- An optimized squeeze page
- A feedback loop
- A rabbit hole
Can’t remember what these features are? Go back and read part 1. What follows are the 6 rules for making sure you write “content that doesn’t suck”. The rules are:
- Have a voice
- Be original
- Be useful
- Be consistent
- Be fucking classy
- Break all the rules
Before we get to the rules, let’s talk about the big picture.
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June 13th, 2009 by Josh Klein
My first post on this blog was one year ago, on June 10th, 2008. Today, I’m going to talk a bit about the past 12-months here. The following is self-reflective and self-indulgent — and more about administrative stuff than web strategy — so you have permission to skip it and write mean things in the comments (maybe).
I expose some details about traffic, subscribers, and my blogging strategy. If you’re curious about the inner workings of the blog and my process with it, read on.
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May 19th, 2009 by Josh Klein
Matt Daniels picked up on a 2007 study from Penn State (that we both missed) about the effect of brand awareness on the evaluation of search engine results [pdf].
Matt sums up the relevant point nicely:
In the study, participants searched for terms on Google, Yahoo, and MSN, but the researchers modified the sites so that identical search results were presented. Participants were asked to rate the accuracy of the search results on each site.
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May 18th, 2009 by Josh Klein
I’m going off-topic today to tell you about two really cool iPhone apps you need to check out from my buddy Greg Elliott.
First up is Synchstep, which automagically matches music to your pace, so every step lands to the beat. If you jog to music, this is a sure way to get that life-has-a-soundtrack experience. For now, Synchstep is FREE.
Unfortunately, you need a jailbroken phone (boo Apple!) until the new iPhone comes out over the summer. You can learn about jailbreaking here. If you aren’t comfortable with that stuff, just sign up to get updates for when the iTunes store version is out.
The other app is B-BOT, which Greg did in collaboration with Tristan Eaton of Thunderdog Studios and Peter Cortez (who were part of the national media team that got Barack Obama into the White House). This one lets you make some wicked characters using Tristan’s unique style of art and assign them to your contact list.
As you can see, my B-BOT has a pretty kickass grill. This app works for any iPhone; click here to fire up the iTunes store
May 12th, 2009 by Josh Klein
Search engine optimization is about making your website worth caring about so people want to link to it. That’s why most of my time here is spent talking about making non-shitty websites.
Still, there are some quick things you can do to optimize your pages and create your own “link neighborhood” when you launch a fresh site. I want to share some of my super-secret essential tips and tricks (shh, don’t tell anyone).
1. Pick a domain name that matches your primary keyword.
2. Get other important keywords into the secondary page URLs using mod rewrite (or a platform that supports it, like Wordpress).
3. Make sure every page has a unique title and H1 tag that matches your primary keyword objectives for that page.
4. Make sure the homepage links to most, if not all, other pages (at least to start).
5. Make sure every page links back to the homepage and many other secondary pages using appropriate anchor text.
6. Register on every social media site that makes sense for you (using this list). Include a link to the site in your profile. You can see how I have done so at Twitter or LinkedIn. It helps if the username you choose is a primary keyword.
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May 11th, 2009 by Josh Klein
As we get close to the 1-year anniversary of Josh Klein Web Strategy on June 10th, I’m getting ready to make some exciting changes I hope will make this blog even more useful to you. With that in mind, I would be forever in your debt if you could take a few minutes to answer 4 questions in the comments below.
Pretty please!
If you’ve never commented before, now is a great time to start. You will affect the way this blog works.
- On a scale of 1-10 (where 10 is most likely), how likely is it that you you would recommend this blog to a friend or colleague?
- How did you hear about this blog?
- What led you to become a subscriber, versus just reading an article and leaving like everybody else? (or, if you’re not a subscriber, what would it take to convince you?)
- What do you hope to see here in the future?
Reading in RSS or email? Click here to get to the comments.
(Note: These questions are stolen directly from the smart Eric Ries)
May 5th, 2009 by Josh Klein
We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for four videos that I consider formative in my own approach to business. If you don’t get the hullabaloo around this web muckety-muck, I hope this hour will shock you into action.
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April 14th, 2009 by Josh Klein
When I talked about the attention gold rush, I wish I had put it as succinctly as Noah Brier did today:
Terry Heaton makes a point I’ve been trying to articulate for years: “The problem is that the distribution of content isn’t the real problem for media companies; it’s the growing ability of advertisers to reach people without media companies.”
Or, put another way, it’s the ability of brands to be their own media companies. If the Official Google Blog was a newspaper, it’s subscriber numbers would put it in the top 10 for daily circulation. Not only does that mean Google has less need for advertising, but it also means they have less need for media coverage generally.
Noah calls this direct to consumer (which has another meaning in pharmaceutical advertising, but ignore that).
Here’s another example: Johnson & Johnson has plenty of parenting products to sell, so they made Babycenter.com, now the go-to place for new parents.
How many people really see, let alone pay attention to, an advertisement?
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April 7th, 2009 by Josh Klein
Note: This is a point of view on Twitter’s place in your business strategy, not your social life.
As of this writing, I have about 1,200 followers on Twitter and have tweeted about 2,500 times. It’s driven 707 visits to my blog for 2.73 pages per visit and 2:48 time spent on site (both +40% over the average traffic source).
I give this as proof that I have tried, even indulged in, Twitter. I continue to use it, but have reached the conclusion that Twitter isn’t a big deal.
For a moment, allow me to be an obtuse misanthrope (what else is new).
Social media gurus are exuberant Twitter fanboys, and the sheer volume of buzz around the platform is all the proof you should need that expectations have surpassed reality. Or do housing prices really always go up?
The hipsters are just as bad, whining about the existential uselessness of it all. In this day and age, Americans still watch 200 million hours of TV commercials every weekend. How can you worry about what people are doing on Twitter?
I endorse a middle path of participatory skepticism.
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March 11th, 2009 by Josh Klein
If you aren’t already familiar with what web 2.0 is, start here and here. Required reading.
The world is in a tizzy over web 2.0.
I know you feel as dirty as I do using the web 2.0 buzzword, but it’s the most convenient way to refer to the new way the web works, the new way people behave, the new way to do business.
Even people who aren’t web geeks get it by now, if my clients are any indication. The prescription is standardized: write a blog, tweet, connect on social networks, let visitors add user generated content, be transparent and honest and real.
It’s all about the people, man.
Look, I’m not a fervent detractor of web 2.0, nor am I an apologist. I think we can be more nuanced than that.
The strategists say “join the conversation”, myself included. We glaze over the far more important point: you can only be a part of the conversation if you have something worthwhile to say.
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