There are plenty of tactical lessons to learn — and many places to find them around the web — but I want to share a big strategic lesson that’s more important:

Ranking highly in search engines has nothing to do with SEO. Here’s why.

Premise 1: A link is the only way to navigate the web.

This is not hyperbole.

If there were no links from the page you are reading right now — and no one had been shouting URLs at you from the television set — you could not go anywhere else on the web, including other pages on my site.

I think the reason people miss this so often is that we perceive the basic unit of the web as a web site.

The web isn’t made up of sites, it’s made up of pages. The characteristics that connect pages into what we think of as a web site — a common group of links as navigation, the same domain name, similar designs — are illusory.

This isn’t semantics; it’s a technical reality. Any geeks out there know I’m talking about the stateless HTTP protocol (you can point to AJAX and Flash as a counterpoint, but practically speaking, those just don’t matter enough).

The illusion of the web site has practical reasons — for both humans and search engines — but the “home page” as a traffic gatekeeper is an antiquated idea.

The reality is that everything is one link away from everything else. Two pages are “next to” each other whether they belong to the same web site or not.

This means a search engine result page is just a collection of pages being placed next to each other, and you’ve got to make every one of those pages attractive.

Premise 2: Every link is a word of mouth recommendation.

The web is a giant word of mouth machine. People only get to your website through one of two ways — you paid someone to recommend you (an ad), or you were recommended naturally. Either way, the recommendation manifests as a link.

Every link is a choice to recommend a page, including on search engine result pages (SERPs).

Ranking highly in Google is the result of Google recommending you be “placed next to” the result page for a term someone has searched for.

You don’t need to be an SEO guru to understand that Google wants to recommend the most relevant results to a searcher’s query. Find out what people are searching for in your topic (Google Keyword Tool is a good place to find out), and come up with a way to give them what they want.

Google uses an algorithm that aggregates human judgment instead of an editor, but the result is still a word of mouth recommendation.

This is not a system you can game.

4 key strategic takeaways:

1. Word of mouth is the only thing on the web.
2. Search engines reflect the collective word of mouth momentum leading to your page. Forget SEO and think WOMO … er, word of mouth optimization.
3. Optimizing for search can only be done by optimizing for humans. Translation — you rank highly in search by being worth caring about. If you optimize according to today’s SEO best practices to the detriment of human appeal, prepare to be left in the dust. Anyway, when Google goes away, what will you have left?
4. Consider the synergies between pages you control, whether they live on your site or not. For example, every social media profile is another web page to make worth caring about. In search ranking, this matters.

Let’s switch modes and get tactical.

You don’t need to read a word of SEO technical jargon to know that search is about links. To understanding “linking strategy”, we turn to the great Groucho Marx, who once said, “I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member.”

If it’s easy to get a link, that probably means it’s not a link worth having.

There are plenty of quick fix ways to dominate the search engines that will be useless in the long run — or get you removed from the index — and the long run is only a few months. They all involve treating search engines like they do something other than aggregate link word of mouth in order to make contextual recommendations.

So a word of warning: the short term tactics are what some SEO experts talk about because they want you to pay them to consult for a few weeks. You’ll see a nice ROI and pay them handsomely. Who cares if you crash and burn later?

To be fair, some of these tactics are standards compliant best practices that you should implement, but they’re marginally important compared to the big picture strategy. The only long term strategy involves making a website worth caring about, and that has nothing to do with search engines.

So here’s the search engine ranking lesson:

The things that actually work in the search engines are precisely the things you would be doing if search engines didn’t exist.

This may not be a useful tip to the SEO crazies (you know who you are), but to the rest of you who look at your website holistically, I think this is refreshing. After all, you do care about what happens after someone from search reaches your site… right?

I know this isn’t what some people want to hear. They want to know the easy way, as if there has to be one. Unfortunately for them, sometimes the things most worth having are the hardest to get.

It’s the people, stupid.

P.S. - This idea has been swirling around in my head for awhile, but I wasn’t inspired until I started reading the SEO 2.0 blog. SEO 2.0 is basically about how to avoid being an SEO dick (or an SEO 1.0 if you want to be nice about it).

For full disclosure, I didn’t know SEO 2.0’s Tadeusz until he called Josh Klein Web Strategy one of the must read new blogs of 2008, but I’m writing about him because his blog is smart. OK, maybe a little of both.

Due credit to Tadeusz for the inspiration.

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

Ranking highly in search engines has nothing to do with SEO

Related posts:

1. Debunking the Social Media Myth: A Framework For Social Media Strategies
2. 8 Ways to Get Your Visitors to Buy
3. 10 Rules For Driving Traffic Using Forums
4. Facebook is not a social network. No, really.

• Part 1: Features of a blog worth caring about
• Part 2: Writing a blog worth caring about (forthcoming)
• Part 3: Promoting a blog worth caring about (forthcoming)

Introduction

I recently wrote about my laser-focusing of this blog on making websites worth caring about. Blogs are a particular kind of website that only work if they’re worth caring about.

Blogs need to be more than search-optimized words and the latest flashy widgets, so I’m going to walk you through the recent updates I’ve made to this blog distilled into lessons for any blog.

In part 1 of this series, we’re going to talk about the necessary features of a blog:

• 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

None of this has to be perfect the day you launch your blog — start blogging now, read this post later — but when you begin to get serious, this is how to get your ducks in a row.

1. A strategy with clear goals

You need a good reason to be doing something as hard as making a website other human beings will want to visit.

A blog is like a Mom & Pop store. If you only wanted to sell stuff, you’d open shop in a crowded mall. But there are other factors, so you rent a quaint little building and slowly build loyal customers.

The problem is that your blog is like a Mom & Pop store in the middle of an empty forest. People need a powerful reason to bother coming.

You need a web strategy.

This blog began as an experiment in practicing what I preached about search engine optimization, so I didn’t care if anyone showed up. I wanted to take a site from non-existence to the #1 result in Google as quickly as possible.

Thinking tactically was fine as an experiment, but I lacked any strategy.

I had to sneak past Wikipedia, Boing Boing, TED and 5.3 million others, but I won the #1 spot after 3 months of work and realized, to my horror, that you people were actually reading the site. I needed to go back to the drawing board and come up with my reason d’etre.

You need that reason to be blogging — and goals to focus on — or you won’t be able to make anything worth caring about.

I now blog for several reasons:

• To spread an Idea: making better websites — websites that matter to human beings — is good for business and good for the Web. Stop making crappy websites.
• To learn — to commit myself to thinking about ideas at the level required to explain them to others. I blog to get better.
• To build a podium. This blog puts me in a position to direct attention — human attention and search engine attention — to things that matter to me (until I abuse that power). This is the 21st century gold rush.
• To build authority. When friends — and friends of friends — have ideas for websites, they talk to me. Strangers use my contact form to ask about consulting (only they’re not really strangers, they’re readers.)
• To be my resume and legacy. This blog is not on a 10-month plan; it’s on a 10-year plan.

2. Content that doesn’t suck

This blog was not particularly thoughtful when I was just gunning for Google rank. The blog didn’t start to evolve until I began thinking about what human beings wanted to read.

Your blog will only be worth caring about if you are the anti-suck. I write articles as if my great-grandchildren will read them some day — because they will (an idea from the brilliant and inspiring Gary Vaynerchuk.)

When I wrote about avoiding marketing on Digg, I bashed the things I call “Top 10 Ways Ducks Quack” posts. Write something of substance and take it through multiple drafts before you hit publish. Merlin Mann says to pick a person you respect and act as if you’re writing to them.

He also says “blog posts are written, not defecated.” Gross, but true.

I’m not a great writer, but I’m trying my hardest.

Part 2 of this series is about writing, so you’ll hear plenty about this soon. Make sure you subscribe to get more details in your inbox when that part comes out.

3. A layout that matches your strategy

Reading a website is not like reading a book. Words share attention with menus, browser buttons — especially the Back button — and every other widget or option on the page.

An effective blog layout leaves off distractions so visitors will do what you brought them to your page to do.

If you make websites and haven’t read Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, you’re crazy.

You need to minimize friction (same meaning as in physics) and highlight calls-to-action (”BUY NOW” is prototypic.)

Social media drives traffic to my blog. In social media, posts have to build popularity from scratch, so this traffic is fleeting. My strategy requires that I turn visitors into subscribers.

I care about every person who reads my articles, but I cherish any person willing to let me bother them every time I write something new. That’s a humbling relationship to have with a stranger.

I have a page to subscribe for updates, but I also want to remove the necessity of reaching that deeper page. I’ve added an email sign up form in the top right. I’m not satisfied with it — I need to make some aesthetic changes to make it pop — but the idea is to make it the primary call-to-action.

What have I removed? You won’t find any mention of the projects and brands I work on. I’m not looking for consulting work right now, and you won’t subscribe to my blog because I namedrop.

Maybe subscriptions aren’t your primary call-to-action, but the point is the same: emphasize that which matters most by de-emphasizing everything that doesn’t.

What can you get rid of?

4. An optimized squeeze page

Traditionally, a squeeze page is the landing page meant to “squeeze” the email address out of a visitor in a direct response campaign in order to build a list. I mean something different.

You’re building an audience, so you want participants and subscribers. (If you’re selling something, you want orders.)

People can wander around your blog all day without subscribing. You need a page that squeezes them to take action. For most blogs, that means an about page.

Writing an about page is harder than it looks. You’re writing sales copy on the product called You. Skellie has some of the best advice on writing an about page. You’ll also see some parallels between my about page and Brian’s over at Copyblogger. When all else fails, borrow from someone smart.

The about page is the most important page on your blog because it tells the reader:

• what the blog is about
• who the blog is for
• what the reader will get out of it
• why you’re worth listening to

Many subscribers join from my about page. I also try to attract direct emails. Can you see how it squeezes for both? If I didn’t encourage people to email, it could be even more effective at generating subscriptions.

5. A feedback loop

Reader feedback is what makes you better and grows your blog. It’s a loop because you leverage the input in shaping your output.

An off-site example: Darren at Problogger picked up on my opposition to Digg.com, leading to an influx of subscribers interested in blogging — perfect timing for writing this series.

An on-site example: At the end of every post, I ask my readers to rate the article, respond on their own blogs, leave comments, share with friends, or subscribe.

(I added the rating system, outbrain, earlier this month, so I need your help rating old articles.)

It’s worth thinking about different ways your readers can improve your blog. Focus on the methods that add the most value to other readers.

I recommend the comment system Disqus. It supports threaded responses and lets readers create an account to manage comments across all blogs that use the system (a quickly growing number), turning posts into individual threads of a giant discussion board.

(The only problem with Disqus is it won’t import my old comments.)

6. A rabbit hole

Most of the time, a squeeze page isn’t enough to get subscribers; people need to care first. Blogs need a rabbit hole for Alice to fall down.

Examples of rabbit holes are when:

• you try to watch a video of a kitten on Youtube and end up watching 10 more kitten videos.
• you look up “Abraham Lincoln” on Wikipedia and end up learning about “mercury arc valves.”
• a reader finds one of your posts and reads the next 10.

You need to make it easy for people to become hopelessly engrossed in your content. Here’s what I’ve done:

• added an engine (YARPP) that recommends articles at the end of every post.
• made the blog mobile-friendly (check it out on your iPhone).
• improved search.

Search is an especially important way to find content. It shouldn’t be easier to find something through Google than your own site search.

Yoast has good ideas about making blog search better. Here’s what I’ve done by following his advice:

• By default, results were ordered by date. Now, they’re ordered by relevance.
• By default, results showed the standard excerpt. Now, they show the excerpt most relevant to what you were searching for and highlight the term where it appears.
• If you misspell your term, it tries to correct you.
• If there are too many results, it tries to refine your query.

I’m not convinced I’ve gotten search completely figured out, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Appendix: Plugins

Here’s the list of Wordpress Plugins that help make the features on this blog possible:

• All-in-one SEO Pack
• Contact Form
• DISQUS
• Easy Tube
• Feedburner Feedsmith
• Google XML Sitemaps
• MobilePress
• outbrain
• RSS Footer
• Search Excerpt
• Search Reloaded
• Search Suggest
• Wordpress Automatic Upgrade
• WP-Email
• WP-Print
• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Stay tuned for part 2 in a few weeks, where I discuss writing your blog. That means subscribe people!

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

Features of a blog worth caring about

Related posts:

1. Websites Worth Caring About

In an email this morning, my Mom informed me she was saving today’s front page of the New York Times, adding it to her collection of only two other issues: the JFK assassination and 9/11.

Today is that kind of day.

Barack Obama is the President-elect of the United States of America. I’m not overwhelmed with excitement so much as relieved and exhausted. I had emotionally committed to this outcome as inevitable, as cosmic justice.

I won’t dog you with my ideology; this post is simply a marker. On October 15, 2008 — during the third and final presidential debate — I twittered:

I so rarely have the feeling of watching history as it actively unravels before me.

Thank you for obliging me.

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

Barack Obama elected President of the United States

A new project called Democratus will let ordinary folks share their ideas and build coalitions around the policy issues they find most important, directly connecting with each other and local politicians to petition for change.

In other words, it opens up the conversation about government beyond politicians, lobbyists, and activists, so anybody can share his voice and leave a transparent digital trail. And I’m just skimming the surface.

I think this is the use of computer technology that would most impress our founding fathers, barring a kickass round of Halo 3. It’s time to bring back the user-generated part of government.

Democratus will be a website worth caring about, and it needs your help; they’re applying for a grant from the Knight Foundation and need votes. It’s free, and will take you less than 5 minutes. Here’s what to do:

1. Register with the Knight Foundation.
2. Read more about the project.
3. If you believe in the project, vote by clicking the stars (5 is a good choice!) and leave a comment.

I love the pun on the name Democritus, the ancient Greek philosopher who first suggested that all things originate from a vortex of tiny, indivisible particles.

I am not affiliated with Democratus (except spiritually).

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

Social Media in Government: Democratus

Related posts:

1. Debunking the Social Media Myth: A Framework For Social Media Strategies
2. Build a Media Channel with a Forum
3. Facebook is not a social network. No, really.

For those who aren’t familiar with Digg, here is a snippet from the about page:

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg.

That requires some translation. Here’s what it really means:

Digg is a place for 18-24 year old males to read about internet gossip. From the smallest local news rags to the wittiest satire websites, Digg surfaces the stuff most entertaining to our users as determined by our staff of editors.

I’m not trying to be a negative nancy — Digg can be entertaining and informative — but it has little to no value for directing attention to websites of substance, whether you’re a marketer or not.

I’m operating under a couple key assumptions. First, your website is not about liberal politics, internet piracy, or conspiracy theories. Second, you care about your website.

Here are 3 reasons to stay away from Digg:

1) Digg is not meant for websites of substance

Digg doesn’t try to deliver worthwhile content, just entertaining content. Think of it like the National Inquirer, not the New York Times. Don’t try to swim against the current just to get traffic from Digg, because chances are it will be unqualified.

More importantly, don’t dumb down your website; that’s a terrible strategy for anybody.

2) Digg users are in browse mode

Digg’s purpose is to be distracting. Digg users are in a state-of-mind that bounces them from page to page in search of a momentary sanctuary from whatever was previously occupying their attention. Unless your website’s purpose is “distract yourself here,” the value you provide will not be aligned with a Digg visitor’s expectations, and they will leave.

Again, visitors referred by Digg are highly unqualified because they’re not interesting in doing anything. It’d be like corralling a horde of anti-war protesters into an Army recruitment office; it doesn’t matter how many you can get, they’re not going to join.

3) Your time is better spent elsewhere

It’s not that you’re never going to get someone from Digg to take whatever action your website encourages, but the conversions are so low you should concentrate your efforts elsewhere. You’ll also save yourself the hassle of being outed as a marketing hack trying to pollute an extreme anti-commercialism social site.

Ah right, there is that.

Get real

Look, there are no shortcuts in promoting your website. Find the people who matter on forums and, you know, talk to them. Or take a step back and actually create a considered marketing strategy, including advertisements to the people actively searching for the product or service you provide.

And stay away from Digg.

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

Marketers: Stay Away From Digg

Related posts:

1. Debunking the Social Media Myth: A Framework For Social Media Strategies
2. Facebook is not a social network. No, really.
3. Features of a blog worth caring about

These are the chew toys that have made me sad and tired and cynical.

I’m using (or butchering) the words of Merlin Mann, a writer whom I respect, who has been on a recent campaign to make blogs better [skip to 5:20 in].

It got me thinking. See, I read plenty of blogs about making and promoting websites. I bring the best stuff to my clients — and write about the subject — so it’s my job to be on top of what’s going on.

It can get depressing.

The atmosphere reminds me of the one leading up to the dot-com bust. The web seems like easy money, so entrepreneurial-minded people are trying to cash in their get-rich-quick cards.

For blogs in particular, everything is about driving traffic and readership, being perceived as a niche expert, and upselling leads on a product or service. Eyeball theory all over again. Bubble 2.0.

I’ve always been skeptical. My first post here was about how much harder it is to figure out “which to” than “how to” given the abundance of talking heads. I cautioned against The Bandwagon.

Too many people see newfangled tech as some kind of philosopher’s stone that turns everything it touches into gold. News flash: you’re not Midas, and making websites is not chrysopoeia. It would be an apt analogy to compare this misperception to a cause of the 2008 financial crisis:

There is an orgy of optimism surrounding sophisticated tools that allow for the wide distribution of shitty assets masquerading as something worthwhile.

In other words, it has become progressively harder to differentiate between what is worth caring about and what isn’t.

As my readership grew beyond friends and family — and I started checking my traffic stats daily — I started to slip into that irrational exuberance. The articles here didn’t always reflect my toeing of the dark side, but my marketing strategy did. I wanted more traffic, so I networked on Twitter, commented on widely read blogs, and built a readership in Stumbleupon.

None of it was satisfying and it sucked up a lot of time I could have spent on stuff that mattered. But the worst part is that it worked.

These tactics bring you traffic and money. But making a little bit of money has never been hard (just get a job).

Traffic is a drug. You start talking and someone listens, so you get louder and more people listen. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to write a blog about the Top 10 ways Ducks Quack just because someone will read it.

When Technorati came out with their 2008 State of the Blogosphere, there was some controversy surrounding their claim that blogs with over 100,000 unique visitors per month were pulling in $75K+ in revenue. Fred Wilson, another guy I respect, revealed his blog with 150,000 unique visitors per month was pulling in only $30K (for charity).

Few are willing to admit that not all traffic is created equal.

The beauty of a blog is that it changes over time. I had a strategy when I started writing here, but not a real mission. That led to an execution that measured success in the wrong way. But now I think I’ve got it.

I’m passionate about using the internet to redefine our world. That’s why I’m here.

This is a blog about creating websites worth caring about — websites that matter to people. Not coincidentally, these are the websites that make money.

This all translates to a few tangible changes that will take place here over the next few months. I’ll bring up the changes as they occur. The agenda is not entirely clear, which is the point. Let’s see where this goes. Thanks Merlin.

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

Websites Worth Caring About

Related posts:

1. Features of a blog worth caring about

All they had to do was click on your about page, or that product sales page, or the hire me button, but they didn’t get that far. They didn’t do whatever it was you made this damn website for in the first place.

They abandoned you.

Don’t be mad, it’s not their fault. Somehow, you repulsed them.

Let’s fix that. Let’s cut your bounce rate. Let’s get them to do whatever it is they’re supposed to do on your website … because it sure isn’t to visit one page and leave forever.

What is Bounce Rate?

If a visitor bounces (just so you know, I get a huge kick out of saying bounce … like “yo, let’s bounce” only in a really nerdy way), it can mean only one of two things:

There was a major electrical outage, someone spilled milk on the laptop and fried it, they got dropped from their crappy Time Warner internet connection…

or, far more likely:

You didn’t provide your visitor with an obvious and desirable next click for achieving his intended action.

There is plenty to say about the “obvious and desirable” part, but that’s for another day. Let’s get laser-focused on the “intended action” part.

Your visitor wanted one thing, and instead you gave him something else.

You can only give your visitor what he wants if you know what he wants. Luckily, he tells you by the way he reaches your site.

Hint: it ain’t through your homepage.

I think this is one of the most important concepts in web strategy.

See what I did just there? The way I wrote the above link made it clear you should click if you want to know what web strategy is.

I could have linked you to the homepage of my site, but it made more sense to link you to my article “What is Web Strategy and Why Should You Care?”

This page will have a lower bounce rate for the people clicking the link … which matters a lot if it costs me money for clicks.

This subtlety is what makes the web so awesome.

The web is flat! Forget homepages, think landing pages.

Excepting complex web applications, every page on the web has an exact address reachable from anywhere else. It takes one click to go from any page to any other page using the address bar or good ‘ol hyperlinking. The web is flat.

Or, to return to our familiar architecture metaphor: while websites might have a front door, visitors tend to pour in through the windows.

These are called landing pages. Here’s your friendly “no-doi” definition: A landing page is any page on your website where a visitor might arrive from outside your site.

Because of how complex the web has become, it’s easy to forget that websites aren’t the building blocks of the web … the basic unit is still a web page.

In some ways, this is a con: you have to be prepared to make a good first impression everywhere on your site.

But mostly this is a pro, because you can funnel visitors to different places based on their intentions, and make those places really, really, really relevant

Match Visitor Intent with Relevant Landing Pages

Whether you’re publishing a link, advertising in the search engines, or just inviting an individual to visit the site, try to tease out the visitor’s purpose and give him the most applicable landing page.

If you run an education consulting website, and a person Googles “how to create a math curriculum,” you want that person to reach the article you wrote on the subject, not the about page where you pitch your consulting service.

Only if you satisfy the visit’s purpose will a visitor do what you want.

So here is your actionable advice:

To lower your bounce rate, match the things leading people to your website to the most relevant page.

And here’s a huge secret that’s not-so-secret:

It works in reverse, too. Write landing pages to match the things people want.

Soon, we’ll talk about some different ways to put this into practice. Make sure you know when those articles come out by subscribing to the blog.

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

Lower your Bounce Rate with relevent Landing Pages

Related posts:

1. 8 Ways to Get Your Visitors to Buy
2. 10 Rules For Driving Traffic Using Forums
3. Ranking highly in search engines has nothing to do with SEO

I want to offer a word of caution, and 5 rules to do it right.

Social networks have existed since the origins of human communication. I speak with some people directly, and others through their connections, so I have a network of social ties.

In ancient times (the 1990’s), we maintained our social networks through silly things like emails, phone calls, and parties. Then websites started to pop up that allowed us to stay in touch with our friends… a lot more of them. We decided to call them social networks.

This misnomer has plagued us since.

Facebook is not a social network. It’s a platform for people to host a web version of their social network. Calling Facebook a social network suggests a singular, regimented set of individual connections, which is simply not the case.

In other words, Facebook plays host to millions of individuals’ personal networks.

This may seem like a useless semantic argument from a web insider, but this matters.

So-called “social networks” are not magical. The same strategies for success apply there as with any kind of word-of-mouth between customers and their close network of friends.

Which is to say, most people’s “social network strategy” is akin to relying on blind luck that people will love them enough to rave to friends.

Naturally, this is only half the story.

There are important measures to make sure you facilitate the word-of-mouth when it happens, but the key insight is that you’re more likely to go overboard than you are to take advantage of the low-hanging fruit.

And don’t forget cost. This ain’t free!

Don’t be lured by the illusion that free-of-charge means free-of-cost. Those who succeed spend tons of time working within the space, or spend plenty of money making their organization worthy of word-of-mouth.

Here are the 5 social networking rules to follow:

1) Get over the novelty

People talking to their friends through this new medium has vast sociological implications. For most businesses, that sociological change is completely irrelevant.

At a fundamental level, social networks are just another way people communicate directly with friends.

2) Social networks aren’t right for everyone

People talk about businesses worth talking about. Duh. Unless you’re worthy of word-of-mouth, flooding a new channel is a waste of time.

Not every successful business is a word-of-mouth business. Don’t feel obligated to overwhelm your existing strategy with a new direction.

That being said… we can all agree that word-of-mouth businesses are the best businesses out there (another duh). Maybe you should be one?

But don’t confuse your social networking strategy with your business strategy. Deciding to be a business worthy of word-of-mouth is a much larger decision, and requires a whole different mindset.

I happily encourage you to be a business worth caring about.

3) Be present, but get out of the way

The first step for success is just to be there. Be listening to what people are saying about you and make it easy for people to spread the message by giving them resources like stories and pictures.

But mostly, get the hell out of the way. If people want to talk about you, they will.

Talk to your passionate fans, give them what they want, and ask them to tell people. The rest is out of your control.

People build their social networks, it’s theirs, so get your grubby hands off it. Interrupting people who are busy ignoring you is a surefire way to lose them.

Please understand that 15-25 year old Facebook users are largely anti-establishment, anti-consumerism, anti-corporation, and anti-authority. Proceed with caution and extreme honesty.

4) If you must advertise, be highly relevant

There is not overwhelming evidence that inappropriately targeted Facebooks ads are any more effective than setting your money on fire and stomping on it like a rhinocerous. Admittedly, I haven’t yet seen any field research on that. If you’d like to fund some, contact me.

Strictly targeting by demographic is useless because Facebook users aren’t in the buying state, discovery state, or any other mental state where they would give a hoot about you.

Facebook users are in the socializing state.

If you have something relevant based on their socializing, they’ll be ready to hear what you have to say (and the demographic targeting will be absurdly effective).

5) Be a human being

Being human is a rule of business in general (people buy from people), but especially true in the faceless anonymity of the web.

If you’re a giant faceless company, you better pick someone to be your point person on social networks. I’ve heard titles like Community Manager and Outreach Strategist.

If you’re a small company CEO or individual, for goodness sake, don’t pretend you’re not!

More than ever, being small and personal is a distinct advantage in business. Overwhelmed with modern economic life, attention scarcity, and constant subjugation to big business consumerism … we’re refreshed by the human approach.

Sorry to go off on one of my sociology rants, but the 21st century will be about personal, local, and organic (in all of it’s meanings). Get started now.

Here’s the thing

I think there is nothing more important than being a business worth caring about. For all sorts of philosophical reasons, I think life is too short and precious to separate business success from your personal satisfaction and connection with society.

So-called social networking websites make it more PROFITABLE to be this kind of business because when people tell their friends, the message spreads farther and faster.

It is more economically feasible to transform your business into a word-of-mouth business now than ever before.

And that is the reason Facebook is still worth caring about.

So says every business professional worth listening to.

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

Facebook is not a social network. No, really.

Related posts:

1. Debunking the Social Media Myth: A Framework For Social Media Strategies
2. 10 Rules For Driving Traffic Using Forums
3. Marketing using Credible Signals to Close Tough Customers
4. Build a Media Channel with a Forum

Alas, I’ve begun with the end of the story. Let’s start at the beginning.

I sometimes struggle to explain my profession in less than 6-seconds at dinner parties. I dread boring conversations, so any answer I give must also answer the unspoken follow-up, “and why should you care?”.

But in less than 6-seconds.

My answer could easily be, “I make websites.” But that suggests I craft the pixels and code, for which I rely on my talented partners. My job mostly consists of the parts before and after the “making”.

People outside the web industry largely misunderstand the process of creating websites. (They hire a “freelance web designer” with a scope of work that doesn’t match her skill set, and are only willing to pay for features that would lead to a website better left unmade.)

Thankfully, I’ve figured out what to say.

By letting you in on my answer, I also want to clarify the purpose of my writing. Why should you read this blog?

My about page explains what I hope you and I each get out of it, but there is also the question of why the content itself matters.

There are a couple versions of the answer. The final one is going to be the 6-second soundbite. But first, the long answer exists because understanding web strategy requires understanding what a website really is.

No, I don’t think you’re stupid (you’re smart enough to read my blog!), but I think most people’s preconceived notion of a website is wrong.

Websites are not beautifully designed word documents that link to each other (what most people think). Websites are not even like desktop applications you use (what most web-savvy people think). Websites are like the physical spaces you inhabit (what I think!).

By way of explanation, an aside:

Public Spaces Define Human Interaction

Check out the following talk. Within, James Howard Kunstler laments the abandonment of architectural sophistication in American suburban sprawl. He’s a riveting speaker. It’s worth 20 minutes to watch.

For our purposes, the most important point Kunstler makes is that, “your ability to create places that are meaningful, and places of quality and character, depends entirely on your ability to define space.”

(If you’re reading via an RSS reader, you might have to click through to the page to view the video.)

I’ve butchered the quote. Kunstler actually concludes the thought, “with buildings,” but I need to make a point about websites, okay?

There is a sharp contrast between the abysmal despair of a street corner in suburbia bordered by Walmart, Target, and Chucky Cheese, and the expressive character of a lively town center lined with shops, restaurants, and bars.

Places that are not meaningful, or of quality and character, create miserably depressed inhabitants, which is both a sociological problem (if you read this blog for the warm fuzzy feeling) and a business problem (if you read this blog to learn web biz).

The difference is the “active permeable membrane”. Don’t worry, even Kunstler admits he sounds like a jerk.

“Active” means people are doing things there. “Permeable” means people and things go in and out of it. “Membrane” refers to it having boundaries (even if the boundaries are permeable).

The physical layout of the space determines how people use it and whether or not they want to be there. For the bottom line of the shops making business in the space, this is the stuff of life or death.

Translation: the architects and planners of a space determine the success or failure of the businesses that occupy it.

Hold that thought.

What is Web Strategy: the long version

Every website is a blank slate. It will (probably) occupy 1 unit of “space”, a particular domain name, but otherwise it is primordial ooze, an empty lot.

A web strategist’s job begins like a real estate agent trying to fill an empty lot. He must answer questions like:

- Who are the people who will use this building?
- What do those people want us to build here?
- What should we actually build here?
- How will our building be affected by our neighbors?
- What will our neighborhood look like in 10 years, and how do we plan for that future?

Then the web strategist’s role changes to that of architect:

- What sorts of things should be in this building?
- How should people behave here?
- What is the path people take from the entrance to their destination?
- How should the building be laid out?
- Where can we optimize a visitor’s experience?

And finally, the web strategist returns to the role of real estate agent:

- How will we let people know the building exists?
- Where are the people we want inside now?
- And if people don’t like the color of the wallpaper, let’s measure that and maybe just change it later.

Naturally, there is a whole team involved in this process, too:

The engineer helps determine what is viable, then directs the team who builds it (like a web developer).

The interior designer makes the space visually compelling (like a web designer).

The copywriter… um… okay there is also a person who writes copy for websites. The copywriter also needs to be a ninja-like SEO expert in disguise and a master salesman.

And then regular people come and occupy the space, and do all sorts of insane things you never predicted, so you have to continue to test and optimize on the fly.

After all, websites are public spaces. But buildings are hard to change where websites are not.

Why you should care about Web Strategy, and the soundbite definition

It’s hard to build a bad public space in the physical world. You still need an architect to plan it, an engineer to make sure it actually works, and everybody else. It costs millions. Yet for all this trouble, it can still looks like an 8 year-old made it out of chewed-up Legos.

Lots of websites are like this. Businesses drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on bad websites. Dozens of people (some smart) work their asses off, yet the final product turns out as a steaming pile. They tell lots of people about it with a launch campaign, but the people quickly stop coming.

It can also be easier to build a bad website because you can do it on the cheap. After all, your 15 year-old nephew is a computer wiz, right? Here’s the problem:

Even the crappiest of the crappy physical public spaces are seen, passed through, actively shunned. They may not be worth caring about, but at least people make that choice.

Bad websites are completely invisible.

There is no actual space occupied. There is no stray foot traffic, no passersby, no curious explorers and experimenters. If your website is a shitty public space, it will fail to occupy even an iota of another human’s attention budget.

Worse, even if you somehow trick people into coming (translation: advertise), they will leave as soon as they discover the ruse, and no one will return.

So what does a web strategist do? A web strategist figures out how to get people to visit your website, take some desirable action or actions, and build an ongoing relationship with you. He acts as both real estate agent and architect, both marketer and product developer. In many cases, there is an additional dash of entrepreneur to define the business model.

Web strategy is the process of planning a successful website.

Now, how to start an interesting dinner party conversation? What’s the 6-second soundbite?

I’m a web strategist. My job is to make websites worth caring about.

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

What is Web Strategy and Why Should You Care?

This week, I’m pleased to bring you an interview with social media thought leader Patrick O’Keefe. As the recent author of Managing Online Forums, and founder of the iFroggy Network, Patrick has a decade of experience developing and managing community websites.

Preface: Online Communities as a Web Strategy

If your visitors can discover consistent and new information daily, they’re more likely to return. If visitors form relationships with each other conducted through your website, they’re more likely to return. If they can use your site as their own platform for success, they’re more likely to return.

Online communities of all stripes can achieve these goals, from mailing lists to social networks. But forums are at the center.

The golden egg of web success is getting your visitors engaged to the point that they become invested in your success.

A key benefit of running a forum is the creation of “user-generated content” that builds on top of your own content, agnostic of your bottom-line costs. Your visitors can expand your site for you

And consider the opportunity for reaching customers.

In your business model, there is probably a wide net at the top of your sales funnel for “leads” or “awareness”. You probably reach those people by advertising where they congregate: on other people’s media platforms.

Maybe it’s about time you built your own?

Patrick O’Keefe on Building and Managing Online Forums

Josh Klein: What’s the business case for running an online community? Is it only a tactic for ad-supported content networks?

Patrick O’Keefe: There are different ways to look at a community from a business perspective when revenue is one of the goals. The first is the one that you refer to, an ad-supported model. There are display ads, of course, in various shapes and sizes with numerous ad networks accepting communities these days.

But, advertising can take different forms. For example, a classified ad system that requires people to pay a certain amount of money per thread. An example of a system like this is the SitePoint Marketplace, which charges for each thread or listing posted. One thread may not add up to much, but when you consider the volume that they are doing, you can see that they are adding a solid amount to their bottom line

A majority of communities tend to be focused on a particular niche, very specific or fairly general. Sports, a specific sports team, the martial arts, programming, PHP, parenting, health and fitness, model airplanes, television, a particular TV show, and most anything else you can think of that people can discuss or receive help with.

There are companies out there that sell products to that niche and would like to reach your audience. Advertising on your site has value.

You can also sell premium memberships and merchandise. Premium memberships allow members to contribute a nominal amount per month or per year and receive various community related benefits, like enhanced profiles. Depending on what you do or how big your company is, you could offer other discounts, like coupons, advance sales and things of that nature.

But making money directly from the community isn’t the only way to generate revenue. There is value in the community itself, in creating a community around your brand or organization. If you sell products or services, having an established community of fans can help you to sell your products. If they are on your site, they are generally interested in what you do. They are interested in your products.

You have a captive audience, ready to look at your products and hear your announcements. SitePoint can be an example again here – I’m sure they sell many, many books to community members.

If you can create a community where not only you are interacting with your customers or fans, but they are interacting with one another, it can be highly beneficial to you, can create a sense of loyalty to your brand, and give people more of a reason to hang around your website.

Josh Klein: So you invest your time and resources to build a community, and you expect your customers and fans to interact with each other. But suddenly, your community members are talking about things you didn’t expect them to discuss. Maybe they’re discussing your competitors, or even saying bad things about you. What happens if your brand “loses control” of the conversation?

Patrick O’Keefe: It’s important to have good guidelines that are evenly and fairly enforced, to ensure that you don’t lose control. You’ll want to figure out things like the discussion of competitors or critical comments about your company, before you actually launch.

You can go in different ways, but generally speaking, when you launch a community for your company, you tend to be launching a community where people will discuss your industry. Blocking competitors from mention, on a wholesale basis just because they are competitors, isn’t usually a wise thing to do.

If you are going to run a community where people can discuss your product, you have to be ready for not all of that to be positive.

Josh Klein: The forums you run didn’t spring up as components of a larger brand; they are their own brands. What got you involved with forums in the first place? When did you decide, “I’m going to quit my day job and create a network of online communities?”

Patrick O’Keefe: It’s probably important to note that I started managing online communities when I was 15, so I didn’t really have a day job to quit. I don’t know if it was any particular moment or thought. My first site with a domain name was iFroggy.com, which was a web portal. It was a lot of static content and I felt that an online community was a natural extension of that. As I got into it, I discovered that I liked it, and that led to me refining my efforts, creating more communities and gaining more experience.

Josh Klein: Compared to the way most established businesses build their web presence and online brands, your approach was cavalier. Yet your network is as strong as ever. Do you think there is too much “planning paralysis” for people considering building an online community? Do you recommend to “just do it” (then iterate and refine)?

Patrick O’Keefe: Yes and no. If you have seen the episode of The Show with Ze Frank on brain crack, that’s what I mean by yes.

But before you launch a community, you do want to give it proper thought. You want to ensure that you have specific goals of who you want to be and want to attract, as all of your decisions should fall in line with that. You also need to make sure that you are able to support the community financially. Proper planning is important, followed by execution and action.

Josh Klein: Say you’ve planned your perfect community, you’ve executed on your plan, and your community is thriving. Actually, it’s growing like kudzu or a really bad rash. You weren’t ready for such wild success. How do you scale the community and extract yourself from the minutia so you can continue to build the business?

Patrick O’Keefe: It’s important that you develop a solid community staff, so that things can be pretty much taken care of when you aren’t around. You do this through picking good people and training them. You want to be able to leave your community is good hands, so that you can go away on vacation (for example) and not have to worry (too much) about the community.

Josh Klein: Where do you find a staff? Are they volunteers brought up from the community, or outside hires?

Patrick O’Keefe: Generally speaking, staff members come from the community and they are volunteers. You want your most exemplary members to join your staff. Not the most popular members, necessarily, but the members who are following your guidelines, kindly helping people and setting an example that all members would do well to follow.

Staff members represent you and your site, so it is important that they be good. Don’t promote people thinking you can fix them and don’t promote people that aren’t already setting that example.

When you are just starting the community and don’t have a member base to choose from, you may want to bring on good people that you know who have an interest in the subject that your site is based around.

Josh Klein: It seems like there is a real chicken and egg problem with any organization relying on so much user-generated content: if the only attraction were the thriving community, there would be no reason for the first members to join. You need to get an online community past that difficult stage before reaching critical mass, or it will die before it has a chance to live.

How would you advise someone with no previous community to leverage get those first ten, fifty, then hundred active members?

Patrick O’Keefe: I think it’s all about appreciating any and all growth you have and working to keep it, if those numbers are that important to you. Start with a few people – even if it’s just you, a family member or coworker, and a friend or two who have an interest in the subject.

Just keep talking, keep fostering discussion, and keep promoting the site. And, with work and some luck, it’ll attract more people… and more people… and it’ll grow that way.

You have to start somewhere. You start with one, then you add one, and then you add one and… it goes a little like that. Don’t expect it all in one day, but don’t be discouraged by supposedly slow growth.

Josh Klein: Thanks Patrick.

This is a post from the Josh Klein Web Strategy blog.

Build a Media Channel with a Forum

Related posts:

1. How To Choose Marketing Tactics That Work
2. Debunking the Social Media Myth: A Framework For Social Media Strategies
3. 10 Rules For Driving Traffic Using Forums
4. Who Needs Virtual Reality? Give me Augmented Reality