Target's Dumb Move Just Put A Bullseye on Them From Bloggers

I saw this morning that Target has responded to a recent request from a blogger about an advertisement complaint by saying: "Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets."

The ad complaint aside, this response from Target was both interesting and surprising from an organization that seems to be on the forefront of cultural awareness and at least quite conscious of what people think about them. Anyone remember when they dropped "Christmas" for the more politically correct "holiday?"

The fact of the matter is that bloggers could be Target's best friends. Target does what it does well and could get extended mileage out of that by harnessing the power of bloggers. These ladies are a perfect example of that. They love Target.

What Target is likely thinking is that they don't have the personnel to respond to numerous blog posts and inquiries each day. I contend that Target can't afford not to engage bloggers. Target says they only respond to traditional media, but traditional media is increasingly following bloggers and becoming bloggers themselves. This entire story was picked up by The New York Times for crying out loud. Target talked to them of course...so it's a case in point. Bloggers can (and do) generate mainstream news.

I expect Target will take some heat from the blogosphere on this move. Kind of ironic they may find themselves in the cross hairs of bloggers given their logo. Target should do a couple things here:

1. Start a Blog ASAP - If Target starts a blog now they'll have the forum for a public response in the same medium as the criticism. Likewise they'll be prepared to address future blog requests on their own blog. This particular story would have been easily addressed on Target's blog if they had one and they wouldn't have had to concede if they disagreed with the ad complaint. The issue isn't about agreeing with critics, it's about engaging them at all. One blog and a part-time blogger could solve a lot of their problems and also make them better prepared to respond in the future. And that's just the reactive help a blog brings. There's a vast opportunity for Target to be proactive and positive with a blog, but that's a whole other blog post.

2. Be Open and Honest - Here's the thing about blogging, it's a great medium that facilitates conversation and understanding, but if you're not telling the whole truth, you're going to wish you never said anything at all. I don't think Target is trying to hide anything here, but this point is more about the tone and approach they should have when/if they start blogging. As long as they respond openly, honestly and candidly, people will see they don't have anything to hide and that they're willing to address concerns.

The rule of thumb is that when you're silent or avoid questions people will assume the worst. When you address an issue head-on and quickly you don't give it enough time to get a full surge of momentum. A well timed quick response can squelch an issue altogether. At the very least a quick response shows a willingness to address an issue publicly.

3. Ask for Help - If Target doesn't understand how to get a blog started or how to respond to blogs, they should find someone to help. From a technical side, any blogger they find will be useful to them regardless of what their own blog is about. Someone with news or public relations experience is a bonus. This is just another reason why public relations people have a better mindset for new media marketing. It's all converging both in medium and strategy.

[HT to Chris Abraham for this story]

Two Types of Blog Posts: The Meal and The Snack

If you have blogged for any time at all you have inevitable wondered about blogging frequency. You've probably asked questions like: Am I blogging enough? Am I blogging too much? How many blog posts should I write each week?

I've heard blogging referred to as "feeding the beast" and that once you start you must keep on feeding it. I agree generally with that idea and encourage bloggers to post a minimum of once a week. In my view that's the bare minimum to show that you're regularly active. This is not to say that if you post once every other week your blog is without value, but you can probably expect that people will learn your posting cycle and will check you blog about as frequently as you post. So don't be surprised if your traffic is sparse and you only post twice a month.

On the other end of the spectrum are blogs that post 20-30 times a day. The average person probably won't hit anywhere near that. Conventional wisdom (if there is such a thing for blogs) has said for the last few years that the more you post, the better off you are. That's true to a degree if you consider that every blog post is another hook in the water for people to find you through Google searches. It also shows that your blog is very active, which is a great thing for readers to realize.

The downside to these massive posting blogs, however, is that they create pressure on new bloggers to feel like they're failures if they don't blog often enough. Also, that type of blog can overwhelm readers because if they miss two days of posts they'll have 50 posts to sort through just to catch up. They'll skim the headlines at best in that situation or may bail on the blog altogether out of a sense that the time commitment required to read the blog is more than they're willing to give.

I look at blog posts in two ways: some are meals and some are snacks. A meal is a well thought out post that has some meat to it. It doesn't necessarily have to be long though it very well may. A meal is a post where someone comes away feeling like the time invested in reading the post was well worth it. A snack, on the other hand, is a quick thought, idea, funny video, link, etc. to provide ongoing value to the blog's readers yet without the time commitment as a meal. Whereas a meal blog post may take a minute or two (or more) to read, a snack may only take 10 seconds.

I personally try to make sure I serve up one meal a week and at least two snacks. Some bloggers seem to have their own working combination of the two. Seth Godin, for instance, serves several meals a week with a few snacks in between. Lifehacker, on the other hand, is virtually all snacks while bloggers like Mitch Joel and Jeremiah Owyang seem to serve up a meal with about every post. Each blogger needs to find the right meal to snack ratio for his blog but I've found that with this understanding of two types of blog posts, new bloggers especially feel empowered to begin blogging without any unnecessary pressure. For me it's a mental gauge for the type of posts I'm going to write over the course of an average week.

You May Not Need A Website, Just a Web Presence

Do you remember the good old days when someone wanted to promote their product or company online and some intrepid individual would say, "we need a website!" Once approved, that would start the ball rolling to find the right person or company to build that site for them. Until the last few years that was really the only option you had for an online presence. Now, however, that's not the case at all. Blogs have emerged as a free (if you choose to get a free one) and easy to use tool that gives you a web presence in many ways equal to traditional websites.

What got me thinking about this was that I met a guy this weekend who said something similar to what I've heard many times over the last few years. He's looking for an inexpensive website and, as I've done several times in the past, I told them it wasn't necessary. What he's really looking for is a web presence, not a full blown website. He just wants an online destination where people can find out about his business. In my view, a blog is a great alternative for his web presence rather than getting a website.

So, when do you need a website and when could you use a blog instead? Here is a short list of items that would likely require you have a website:

• You have a lot of information to communicate (whether in volume of information or complexity of information)
• You want a highly visual and/or Flash driven web presence
• You need an ecommerce engine/shopping cart
• You need a secure login area for some people but not everyone
• You want a fully customized web presence (in design and function)

If any of the above apply to what you're looking for I recommend you talk to my friends at Anthology Creative or New Fangled Web Factory. Both companies can give you any of that (and much more too.)

If, however, you're just trying to get an online presence so people will learn something about what you're selling, know, or offer, a blog is perfect for you. Blogs now do many of the things people have only thought could be done with websites. For instance, if you wanted a website because you were looking to incorporate video or audio, a blog can do all of that. If you wanted a website that's branded for you, a blog can do that. If you wanted a website you can control instead of paying someone to update it for you, a blog can do that. If you wanted to show pictures or a variety of other visuals, a blog can do that. If you wanted to be found in Google searches, a blog can do that (and in many cases better than traditional websites too.)

The idea here is that getting a web presence is no longer just for the people who can pay to have a website built. A blog is available to anyone. You can have one up and going five minutes from now if you choose to. You own web presence is no longer an issue of accessibility or price, but is really an issue of strategy and convenience. Strategically a blog may be all you need so you can save the money you would have spent on a site and put it elsewhere. From a convenience standpoint, you may just prefer to pay someone to take care of you online presence for you, and if so, that's really what you're paying for.

The bottom line is that if a blog will do, why get a standard issue website built and pay the $3,000-$10,000 to do it? A blog may very well be your best strategic choice. It will almost always be the cheaper choice.

Yes, Blogging Can Launch A Non-Tech Business

A little over a year and a half ago I met a guy named Scot Justice. He was working as the CFO of a company but had dreams of starting his own CPA firm. I was just beginning to put legs on all I was learning about new media/web 2.0 at the time and Scot was the first person I'd shared this new perspective with formally. I didn't know much but I was already convinced there was something significant to be had leveraging the new media.

As we talked I told him what I was learning he got really interested in the possibility of blogging as a basis for starting his business so he launched the Virtual CFO blog right away. It was a way for him to begin establishing an online presence and building a base of credibility and validity to distinguish himself from all the other online competition and it worked. A few months ago Scot had the opportunity to formally launch CPA for Small Business and he's up and running now with clients who are finding his site and blog and choosing him as their virtual CFO. Here's part of a note he sent me so you can hear it in his own words:

By following your Web 2.0 advice, The Virtual CFO Blog is currently ranked number one under the Google search for “virtual cfo”. Having our blog ranked this high has allowed us to demonstrate our expertise in small business accounting and financial management to a larger pool of prospective clients than could have been reached through traditional marketing means.

Last month, we gained two new business clients who have a large online presence. Both told me that they chose CPA for Small Business as their public accounting firm because our website and blog demonstrated that we were tech savvy and would understood the accounting and financial management needs of e-businesses.

I should note that I'm going to start doing business with Scot when tax time rolls around. It only seems natural that my accountant is a blogger. Congratulations on the early success Scot.

Case In Point: How Feedburner Responded Via Blog

There are few organizations that shouldn't be blogging. Yes, I know that last week I said there are five characteristics of organizations that shouldn't blog, but I firmly believe every organization should do it and then deal with the other issues they have. That being said, Feedburner is a great case in point of why an organization should have a blog:

Over the weekend there was an issue with Google's Feedcatcher service and it basically messed up everyone's Feedburner subscription numbers. For bloggers who use Feedburner (like me), it's a constant gauge to see how how many people have chosen to track what you're talking about.

Now if you don't use Feedburner or aren't a blogger you may be thinking this is no big deal. The fact of the matter is, however, that tracking RSS feeds is one of the only reasons Feedburner exists, so when it can't track feeds their main service isn't working right and all the people who expect it to give them timely and accurate stats are going to see something vastly different. That's a big deal to many bloggers because they (and I'll include myself here) want accurate stats at all times. In this case it wasn't even Feedburner's fault, yet it still was their company who would be getting all the questions so they recognized the issue and wrote a blog post about it Sunday morning as a means to communicate to people what the problem was.

This was a win for Feedburner because they showed they're attentive to people's needs and proactive in giving information. The blog was simply the most logical place to get the message out. If your organization doesn't have a blog yet, how would you have responded? Would you have been able to proactively communicate the issue on a Sunday morning just as easy as any day of the week? Feedburner did.

Five Organizations That Should Not Blog

I find myself recommending blogs on a regular basis. I think it's a great idea for almost every organization but I have also realized there are organizational characteristics that would lead me to say they shouldn't blog. Here's my list of those who should not blog (or use other social media for that matter):

Organizations that don't trust their employees. If your organization doesn't trust employees then a blog strategy will constantly be plagued by the legal department's involvement or management trying to control the message. If the organization doesn't trust the employees to represent them well without micromanagement, don't start blogging.

Organizations that don't want to hear bad news. Blogging and other forms of social media are inherently interactive and conversational. Once you decide to jump in you should prepare to respond as needed. If a corporate blogger gets negative feedback or criticism on a service, product, strategy, etc. the right thing to do is respond truthfully and candidly. That doesn't necessarily mean a concession either. The organization's blogger can totally disagree with the the feedback without being disagreeable. What this interaction shows is that the organization isn't afraid to hear and engage people even when it can be negative. If you're not ready for this, don't start blogging.

Organizations that want absolute control over their message and reputation. Organizations can't, and never have, been able to control what people say about them. To think otherwise is foolish. New media tools allow those conversations that may have previously been private to be more widespread and more easily discovered. If your organization is determined to control every message about it and is under the delusion that it can also control what other people say about it, don't start blogging, it will only create frustration when the facade of control begins to crumble.

Organizations that create by committee. I have been a part of numerous "writing by committee" situations and almost every single time the final message is so diluted from the original intent it becomes a shell of what it could have been. Blogging by committee is not good for at least two reasons. First, it will take forever to get a post done by the time you get everyone involved and consider their revisions and debate what should stay and what should go. Second, it will very likely not be a candid, fully engaging post, but rather something diluted. Contributors to a blog are good, committees are not. It's not a bad thing to have multiple bloggers for a single blog as long as it's clear to all that the blog was set up that way. If your organizations writes by committee, however, don't start blogging.

Organizations that are slow. One of the true benefits to blogging is that you can create a post in a matter of minutes so there is a wonderful opportunity to respond quickly to a situation in the event that it's necessary. Depending on the industry, response time can make or break how a something is perceived. For instance, if an company had some negative press they could use the blog to respond quickly and provide their perspective. By doing so, the blog post will be part of the news and balance the original negative story. Without the blog the organization will issue a less timely press release if they respond at all and possibly miss a window of opportunity. If the organization isn't prepared or comfortable with a quick response then they will not be fully utilizing the blog. If your organization is stuck on slow, don't start blogging.

Don't Kill Your Blog

I heard recently of an organization that created a blog for a large event they were having. The blog drew a significant audience quickly in the weeks leading up to the event and also saw a surge of traffic and comments in the days following the event. It was a successful blog in almost every way possible, but three weeks later the blog was dead (meaning taken offline and totally inaccessible.) Why? Apparently since the event was over the organization decided it wasn't worth keeping around.

Never mind the fact that the organization just created a valuable asset to communicate about future events (not to mention this was a quick and cheap way to do it.) Never mind they created a great platform for conversations and feedback about the event which didn't exist previously (and now doesn't again.) Never mind they had a huge opportunity to engage the readers with other product offers that they would almost certainly be interested in. The fact is, when they killed the blog they killed multiple opportunities with a highly focused and interested niche of their customers who were prepared to give them their undivided attention. They killed a feedback opportunity, a sales opportunity, and a promotion opportunity.

The bottom line is this: don't kill your blog. It's too easy to maintain even if only at a minimal level and almost always too valuable to kill.

How to Seth Godin Yourself

A while back someone asked me if I knew of Seth Godin to which I responded with something like, "Heck yeah, I think he's remarkable." After we talked a bit he asked me how I thought he could "Seth Godin" himself...meaning he was wondering about the secret to Seth's seemingly widespread success through unconventional means and how could he replicate it. The person I spoke to has developed himself as a brand in his area of expertise and sees Seth as a model to follow for further growth. I agreed with his take and gave him the following thoughts on how he might be able to Seth Godin himself (without shaving his head):

Seth leverages his blog. Blogs are unique for many reasons:

• Blogs have tremendously positive effects on Google rankings because the content is updated regularly and therefore shows Google it's more active than a static website thus ranking it higher.
  
• Blogs allow your ideas to be easily distributed by allowing people to reference specific posts and talk about them on their own blogs (thus beginning the word-of-mouth marketing).
• Blogs give you an immediate forum to expand your base of readers, post new ideas, coordinate a meet up on the fly, get feedback on an idea, or respond to critics quickly and informally.
  
• Blogs let people connect with you through comments (though Seth actually doesn't do this on his.) With a blog people get to talk back to you and you can listen but don't have to respond to every comment. It allows you to get valuable and immediate feedback in a way you can't (and won't) get on a standard website or email newsletter.
  
• Blogs give you an opportunity for greater to . If a well known blog posts about your blog it will take the awareness to an entirely new level. Though it's possible one could do that without a blog, it seems like bloggers prefer to link to other blogs because they want to reference something specific most of the time and blogs make it possible.
  
• Blogs are accepted as more authentic than traditional marketing. With so much marketing today people have natural filters and defenses up to deflect the barrage of ads. Those defenses drop when reading a blog that they respect so if a blogger talks about you, people are more accepting of the idea and more willing to respond or research it further. They're taking the blog post as a personal recommendation from the blogger rather than a professional promotion by marketer.
  

Seth leverages his audience. He knows he's making the most of his base by always giving them something. He knows that if he gives away valuable ideas long enough he buys the person's attention, respect, and time. He then strategically asks the audience for things from time to time but not in a pushy way, but more like "Hey, I'm doing this and if you want to participate here's what you do..." He displayed this recently with a good idea to promote his new book, The Dip. In essence he told people he would fly to speak to them if they coordinated groups that would purchase five books each for admission. He made the offer and left it up to his readers to take him up on the offer.

Seth limits his accessibility (but is highly accessible in other ways.) Seth is interesting in that as a high profile guy, he answers all of his own email and does it rather quickly. He writes numerous blog posts a week as well. People feel like they know him and he accomplishes that through both his personal email responses and frequent blogging. To see Seth, however, you have to be part of a select group but that doesn't mean he selects you, it means you select yourself. He uses exclusivity to his advantage by teaching seminars to small groups and charging a premium for those seminars. That creates the best possible opportunity for him to make money off the event yet also create demand for those who didn't get in on the seminar and want to get in next time.

Seth focuses on quality. Seth believes that if anything is remarkable (reference Purple Cow) it will be talked about (reference Unleashing the Ideavirus) and then people will buy it. Quality is the key rather than a mediocre product or service with a razzle dazzle marketing plan.

So to sum it up: You can Seth Godin yourself by building an audience, leveraging that audience at key times, limit some forms of accessibility, and wrap the whole thing up in high quality and remarkability.

Is a blog successful with only a handful of readers?

Last week I posted a template for defending the success of a blog and I still have some thoughts on this. There is a prevailing attitude in some circles I've been in recently that a blog for business uses must establish success metrics before the blog is started. As I stated last week, the only reason I can imagine this number is even important is that the organization wants to know how and when to determine that the blog is unsuccessful. That being said, let's look at a scenario that shows why an arbitrary blog success metric just doesn't make sense.

Let's say our example company, Slug Works Incorporated, is interested in a corporate blog but wants to establish metrics of success before they get started. As with any good company, Slug Works Inc. measures all new projects from the outset to determine whether the goals are met in the end. Slug Works management creates a quarterly SWEAR (Slug Works Evaluation of Attainment Report) which is distributed throughout the silos departments to review progress.

Slug Works has decided not to put too much pressure on their blog so they have determined that there must be at least 25 readers from outside the company who are reading the blog regularly. They know they can track this through RSS feed subscriptions and some other services like Blog Flux.

After six months of blogging they decide it's time for a significant evaluation. The marketing Sluggers and performance analysis Sluggers prepare a SWEAR and conclude that the blog is unsuccessful because it hasn't achieved its goal of 25 regular readers. They see that only 12 people actually seem to be interested in the Slug Works blog regularly. They decide to shut the blog down and conclude that blogging is useless because it couldn't even reach half of their moderate goal.

What the Sluggers didn't realize, however, was that they never determined the quality of the readers. They didn't consider that reaching a quantity of readers (in this case an arbitrary quantity of 25) means less than the quality of readers (people who would add to the discussion about their company and extend positive exposure for the company.) In their case, 6 of the 12 regular readers of the Slug Works blog were bloggers themselves who would post about the company from time to time and link back to blog posts on the now defunct blog. Each of those 6 bloggers had relatively few readers of only 12 readers themselves. Though that doesn't seem like much exposure at first glance, the cumulative view reveals that the Slug Works blog had an indirect influence over an additional 72 regular readers by virtue of these other bloggers. When added to the 12 readers the Slug Works blog already had (including those 6 bloggers), the total direct and indirect regular readership is 84 people which is more than three times their original goal. Where the Sluggers saw failure they actually achieved success. Had the Sluggers realized this they might have a different perspective when they look back at the blog and SWEAR.

Template for defending the success of a blog

I was in a situation recently where I was asked to determine how we would measure success for a new blog project for one of our clients. Though the client was generally in favor of blogs there was still a bit of skepticism about their usefulness and ultimate payoff for business purposes. I was peppered with questions about:

• establishing how much traffic the blog would generate
• how many comments the blog would receive per post
• how many RSS subscribers we could expect
• how many links would be generated by other bloggers
  
• how many links would be sent to the client's website
• how much revenue could be generated with the blog

Fortunately these questions were in an email so I had some time to think about the best way to respond and I ended up with the text below. Since the blog is brand new for this client there is really no way to predict what kind of success the blog will have. I also knew that wasn't going to be a satisfactory answer. I believe statistics are very important for a business blog but my concern was that the client was going to weigh this infant blog down with expectations that would kill it before it was really up and running.

All of this got me thinking about what an unsuccessful blog would be. After all, that's what they were really asking. They really wanted to know when they should pull the plug on it and consider it a failure. I know of a few other bloggers and blog advocates in corporations who are dealing with this same issue right now so here's a template version of my response to the client should you find yourself needing to defend the development a blog in the future:

Dear [company representative]
You have asked some very important questions about determining the success of the new blog. Given the relative new nature of blogs within [company], we don't know what kind of numerical impact the blogs may have on website traffic, content distribution, or the business as a whole. We are tentative to even speculate on what the numbers might be. From a marketing perspective, blogs are another venue for [company] to provide meaningful content to [target customers] who are looking for [company's services].

Though we don't know what the numbers of success looks like yet, we do know what an unsuccessful blog will look like. An unsuccessful blog will have zero readers, no comments, no RSS feed subscribers, no posts that can be found on the first page of a Google search, no links from other bloggers, and no new awareness of [company's] attempt at positioning itself as the best [company's services] resource online. If it is unsuccessful under this definition after six to nine months, the blog should probably be closed due to inactivity and lack of interest.

Thanks for the email. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

PR Firm Strikes Out Promoting to Bloggers

Earlier this week I discussed whether PR professionals are better new media marketers than traditional marketers. I still contend that PR pros have the better mindset for new media marketing. The variable, of course, is whether the PR pros have taken the time to understand the new media culture. I have seen one such case in the last few weeks where a PR firm didn't (and likely still doesn't) understand new media. Here's what happened...

On August 6, I received a "Blogger Alert" in my email from a "full-service media and public relations agency founded in 1994 to 'restore faith in media,' provide 'value-added P.R. that defines values' and give Christian messages relevance and meaning in mainstream media."

This "alert" was an HTML email sent with the following headline:
CREATE A "CULTURE OF STEWARDSHIP" IN YOUR CHURCH

The email was to notify me of a new 30-day small group stewardship study by a well known church stewardship consulting firm and that this product now has a promo video on YouTube and GodTube. Nine days later I received another email from this same organization but this time it wasn't a blogger alert, rather a standard news release.

So...where to begin...ok, here's the beginning of my issues with these emails:
1. I don't know this PR firm. I have heard of them but have never talked to anyone from their organization.
2. I don't recall ever signing up for any news alerts from this organization. I don't see anywhere on their website where I could sign up for news alerts if I want them so I assume I never signed up for anything. Both emails I received from them had links to unsubscribe from their list, but how did I get on it to begin with?
3. What do they want from me? Both the alert and news release didn't say what they want me to do if in the off chance I am actually interested in what they are promoting.
4. Is this really newsworthy? So an organization created a new product and they posted a video on YouTube and GodTube? Is that it? Am I missing something else here?

I have to admit these emails really frustrated me because they're coming from a Christian PR firm that just seems lazy. I really hope it's simply a case of ignorance and that they will learn there are better ways to promote to bloggers. In an effort to follow up a little ranting with a little help, here are some things for new media marketers (PR folks or otherwise) to keep in mind when they want bloggers to promote something for them:

• Remember that bloggers are individuals not organizations. If you want a blogger to promote something for you, you MUST build a relationship with him or her before you do anything else. It's the most important thing you can do.
• Be direct. If you want something, don't beat around the bush. The blogger is already expecting you to ask for something, otherwise you wouldn't be emailing him or her. Bloggers are generally pretty nice folks. They may turn you down, but if you're direct and personal they will still probably respond (and not write a blog post about how you don't know what you're doing.)
• Don't be a spammer. When you send an email blast to bloggers you're spamming them. Spam is unsolicited bulk email. From time to time I get personal emails from organizations and individuals to mention something on this blog. If it's a personal email I try to always respond. If it feels canned, fake, or otherwise less than authentic, I delete it. If it's a bulk email I delete it also...except in this case when it just seemed like it was time to talk about it on this blog.
• Bloggers would rather make and break news than react to news. Give us a chance. Don't give bloggers the scraps. Was the fact that this client has a video on YouTube really newsworthy? If you already know it's not newsworthy in mainstream media then don't bother sending it to bloggers either.
• Study the individual blogs you hope will work with you. If you have never read the blog that you want to use, don't email the blogger. Take some time to at least read the most recent four or five posts and look through their archives to see what makes the person tick. You will almost always find something that you can relate to what you're doing...otherwise why do you want that blogger in the first place?
  

Blog Maintenance: Checked your blogroll lately?

If you're a blogger you've probably got a blogroll. If you've been blogging for a while, chances are your blogroll has gotten pretty lengthy as you've traded links with various bloggers. I've been blogging for over a year and had 31 blogs I was linking to from my blog. It struck me tonight that it's been a while since a viewed a few of them so I decided to start going down the list and here's what I found:

• Dead Blogs - Two of the blogs don't exist anymore. The guys shut them down for various reasons.
• Dying Blogs - One of the blogs hadn't been updated since April. It's on life support at best.
  
• Departed Blogs - One of the blogs had a new address and I was linking to an old blog.

Needless to say it wasn't speaking well for my blog upkeep to be linking to dead, dying, and departed blogs. The dead and dying blogs were removed and the departed blog now links to the appropriate address. A few of the existing blogs are close to hitting a month of zero blog posts so I'll check on them again over the next few weeks. I don't know when I'll officially put them into the "dying" category (and therefore remove them from my blogroll) but if six weeks have passed without a post I think it's fair to say the blog is dying.

So when is the last time you went through your own blogroll? Are you linking to any dead, dying or departed blogs?

Free eBook - Pastor's Guide to Web 2.0

Several months ago I was asked to put together a resource for LifeWay Christian Stores that would explain web 2.0 to pastors (and other church staff people). The booklet was used as a promotional giveaway at the recent Southern Baptist Convention in San Antonio. Today I learned that the resource is now available as a download. You can get it here. If you want a physical copy of the giveaway booklet I'd be happy to send one to you while my small supply lasts (if you'll cover the postage). Feel free to email me for that request.

Be sure to drop by the LifeWay Envelope Services new blog, Do More Ministry. They sponsored the development of the booklet and are providing the free download.

Here are the booklet chapter titles...

Web Two Point What? A Pastor's Guide to New Media
1. Are You Ready for Web 2.0?
2. Stats: The Growth of Web 2.0
3. What is Web 2.0?
- The Technology Shift - 6 Categories of Web 2.0
- The Content Distribution Shift
- The Culture Shift
4. Seven Strategies to Effective Blogging
5. How to Respond to Attack Blogs
6. Should I Use MySpace?
7. How to Create a MySpace Page
8. Drinking From the Fire Hose

Can people leave feedback on your site?

I've been doing some research recently on website development and best practices. The other day on eMarketer I found some interesting information that confirmed something I suspected: online reviews written by fellow shoppers help convert consumers who research shopping decisions online. 60% or respondents of their study prefer sites with peer-written product reviews and only 14% did not trust such reviews.

In the case study, top-rated products converted at a 49% higher rate after Petco added customer reviews to its site. Shoppers who navigated through the ratings section spent 63% more than shoppers using other navigation. The average order size of Petco shoppers who read reviews and shopped using review ratings links was 40% higher than that of the typical shopper.

Beyond the shopping implications to having feedback built into a website, think about the power of comments on a site. The new online culture is one of inclusion, collaboration and participation. Comments on a site allow that to happen as good as anything available to you. It doesn't require much from the user and the perceived value is huge. Even if they never leave a comment at least they know they can (and that you're open to hearing from them.)

Where can you build feedback mechanisms into your site? If you blog and don't have comments turned on consider changing that. If you're worried about spam at least moderate the comments or better yet, just incorporate the security image function that most blog tools have built in.

U.S. ranks sixth among global blog readers

There was an interesting post on Micro Persuasion today about the percentages of people from North America and Western Europe who read blogs. The post references the actual study done by comScore.

Below is the chart with the breakdown, but it's interesting to see that over half the online population in both Canada and Spain are blog readers. What surprised me most was that the U.S. was so far down the list coming in sixth behind the previously mentioned Canada and Spain as well as France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. I'm not entirely sure what the full missions implications are here, but it seems like an opportunity for America's churches taking mission trips to any of these countries to begin with a blog now...and this study even tells you the blogging platform you should use depending on the country.

My only other question now is how do some of the South American countries rank? I hear blogging is big in Brazil.

Sonic on Blogging?

...it's actually pretty funny and scary how close it hits home to the heart of a blogger...

Six Things Make a Blog Successful

I mentioned last week that I ordered several new books and a few days ago while reading Seth Godin's "Small is The New Big" I came across an interesting segment. He says there are six things that a blog should have to really work:

• Candor
• Urgency
• Timeliness
• Pithiness
• Controversy
• Utility

Now, he's not saying that a single blog should have all six of these, but what he does seem to be saying is that the more of these elements incorporated into a blog more often will lead to its success. In the book he created this list specifically for corporate blogs but it seems like a good list for all current and future bloggers.

The Five Books I Ordered For My Birthday

Birthdays are a funny thing as we get a little older. Nobody's too sure what to get you if they even want to give you a gift at all. I hate when I get asked what I want because I know I don't really need anything in particular and the things I want are a little too pricey for a mere birthday gift. Last week my wife had a surprise party for me and that was a great gift (she also got us tickets to the John Mayer/Sheryl Crow show coming up...another great gift). I got to spend time with a bunch of friends and it was really fun but apparently everyone thinks I really like Starbucks because I racked up nearly $100 in gift cards to Starbucks. I think I'm covered for a while. In fact, I'm more than covered...so here's an idea for a little free coffee to someone reading the blog...the first person to email me who wants to meet up for coffee here in the Nashville metro area (at the Starbucks location of your choosing) just has to ask (fourthbill@gmail.com) and it's all yours. We can talk about anything you want. What do you think? You, me, and Starbucks for free!

Ok, back to what I was actually going to post about...I got a gift certificate to Amazon.com (thanks M,K,E,&SE) and some cash so I promptly spent it all on five books. My friend Randy said a while back that he always likes to see what books people are reading...so I'll share five books that I'll be reading soon...

• Purple Cow - This is a Seth Godin book that I read a few months ago but I had borrowed it from Chris and since I obey all borrower rules and returned it promptly after completion I don't have it anymore. It's good enough that I knew I needed my own copy.
• Small is the New Big - The latest from Seth Godin
• Naked Conversations - Robert Scoble's book about blogging
• The Long Tail - This is a big deal...and I need to know more of what it's all about.
• The Search - We all want to get better Google ratings don't we? I hear this book has the goods.