DISQUS

Still have not figured out how that easter egg works on your site, the tiny smiley face under your blog header.

Congratulations. Naked Conversations and Wikinomics are two of the most important books on the new web.

I am getting ready to launch a Publicity Wiki to initiate a collaboration project on free and low cost PR and publicity stunts for small businesses. Primary beneficiary will be my company, but others will also gain insight.

I have described it in my "open source publicity wiki for small business" in the wiki here.

Here is the link I"m trying to nav to:

scobleizer.com/linkblog/archives/4311

Sorry for the OT, but your link blog archive, a post that linked to me, is not working.

It's taking me to the home page, instead of the post where you linked to me.

Any clue as to what happened?

P.S. That smiling Easter egg on your blog, under the title, is not working.

I have been clicking it for hours now, and it still has not deleted the entire internet.

Color me odd, but I don't see why any blogger would waste a single second with the boob tube. HDTV...big deal.

The blogosphere is far more interesting. YouTube has plenty of visual motion entertainment, like Lisa Nova, Wonderdog Dave, Mr. Angry, Male Restroom Etiquette, etc. plus great music videos by Allen Ginsberg, Pavement, Stereolab, Merzbow, etc.

There are very few things on TV worth watching, and movies are all the same:

(1) man has gun
(2) man meets girl
(3) man shoots gun at other man
(4) man romances girl

THE END

If you can embed your URL in the comment signature:

Name
Mail
Website

...then DO NOT add your a tagged blog URL again, at the bottom of the post.

That will look spammy.

Niche blogs and mass blogs are very different.

A niche blogger, focusing on a specific topic, may not care about getting 10,000 hits a day from Harry Potter worshiping Junior High dork males.

But for a mass blogger, who needs tons of traffic so as to increase the odds that some chumps will click on his dumpy text link ads and Amazon widgets, traffic numbers are important.

If you get 247 comments per post, are the comments adding relevant content or just knee-jerk agreements? Are you prepared to interact with all these comments, at least once per 20?

Most bloggers who whine about not getting traffic or comments usually sit around, too lazy to post comments on other blogs or email other bloggers with valuable insights, good questions, or vital critique.

There are many factors involved, and it depends on the type of blog, the intended audience, the blogger's goals for the blogs, and so on.

Hi Robert, "electrica" is the WordPress handle for Vaspers the Grate (oh no, not him!)

What I dislike most are the post titles that convey absolutely no sense of what the post content is about. While it's fun to do weird post titles now and then, to add variety and humor, we must remember search engines and RSS/Atom feed readers.

Skimming a list of post titles, users tend to not waste time looking at a post with a stupid, hyperbolic, or nonsensical title, unless it's so bizarre it pulls you in, like my "Blog Psychosis" or "Blogs and Murder", but they still have relevance and meaning, a user can quickly assess the possible value of the post.

If bloggers use titles like "In the midst of mourning" or other typical journalistic BS, they can't complain about low traffic numbers and no comments.

But book chapter titles and newspaper article titles are generally well written and we can learn from them.

My biggest complaint with online newspapers is lack of hyperlinks in the editorial content, and relegating comments to a stupid discussion forum, that generally gets very low traffic, rather than the more effective comment function at bottom of post/article.

Interact with your comment posters, reply swiftly to their remarks, within the thread itself.

Chris Locke said some of his most popular posts had weird, funny, or even bizarre titles. Be careful with that, though. Mysterious titles are generally counter-productive.

Do not imitate those ad guys who use "teaser" or clever titles that have no obvious meaning or relevance. The post title should advertise the content and make it immediately clear what the post is about.

Web users and blog readers are In A Hurry. They don't usually have time or patience to play guessing games.

Post title writing is a real art and carries a lot of weight in driving traffic and getting comments.

Asking your readers for their opinion (use the word "opinion") is also a good policy, not in every post, but now and then.

Matt Mullenweg told me early on, when I first started blogging about 3 years ago, to interact with other bloggers.

Posting comments at other, relevant blogs is a terrific way to get comments at your own blog. It's business karma, y'know?

Provocative post titles, lists ("12 Signs of Blog Burnout", "5 Fatal Blog Design Errors"), and challenging content.

PayPerPost is blogwhoring. It destroys the web of trust and credibility of the blogosphere. The issue is not monetizing a blog, it’s the hidden or blatant commercial motive of the paid opinion.

If your boyfriend started saying he loves you, a lot more than usual, then you find out he was part of, say, a university experiment that paid him $20 each time he expressed love to you, would you not be annoyed and disappointed?

Same thing in the blogosphere. Nothing wrong with monetizing your blog, as long as you keep the 9 core values of blogging in mind.

Very funny. As I develop programs for API design, testing, and promotions, I will keep this in mind about the audience I'm reaching.

Speaking of your blog's characteristics my friend, why don't you have a sidebar link to Podtech? Just curious.

Companies must safeguard sensitive information of employees, customers, suppliers, etc. In this digital age, there must be swift and severe punishment for offending parties, make an example for others to fear.

We know that IT integrity and enterprise security is cursory, it's a low priority at most companies. Good example is the tolerance of dangerous, dubious, and dumb user behavior, from some misguided sense of fostering good "morale".

Companies allow sloppiness, especially in areas where the CEO and top executives are clueless. Nothing less than a corporate revolution can correct this and other problems.

Now the vision is the decision.

You forgot some vital aspects, that I will now cheerfully supply to enrich this nice blog.

(1) Design is the first most important aspect of any web site according to Stanford Persuasive Tech and B.J. Fogg, PhD. If it looks porny, amateur, ugly, sleazy, childish, etc., users will bail out in seconds and never return.

(2) Rich, Rare, Relevant Content.

(3) Matt Mullenweg told me his main secret is to interact with the blogosphere, reciprocal commenting, posting comments at other blogs, emailing other bloggers with important info or advice, etc. Be good neighbor in blog community.

(4) Variety. Unexpected surprises. Experiment.

(5) Multi Media: podcasts, video player embeds, photos, art, cartoons, graphs, charts, etc.

(6) Fast response to comments posted at your own blog, interact sincerely and politely with your readers.

(7) Upfront profile or About Me, and upfront Contact info or web mail form.

(8) List of "most popular posts" or other relevant intriguing categories in sidebar, along with Recent Posts and Monthly Archives.

Just a few tips on aspects that I think are crucial.

Pay Per Post is blogwhoring, like artificial Word of Mouth buzz agents, a paid enthusiast activity.

To accept money to blog about products you actually don't use or like, etc.

Your readers need to learn how to embed a link into their comments without *breaking the layout*, heh. Called a tags.

I print out each post as I post it, or in some cases, after a few subsequent edits, revisions, whatever. Updates to the post itself, within the post.

Print em out fellers. Or transfer them to disk I guess. Any suggestions Robert on offline blog preservation?

Cluetrain mentality or old economy, there is no in between.

Cluetrain, Gonzo Marketing, Naked Conversations, and Net Gain clarify sufficiently that we are pioneering an interconnected realm.

Now the blogger acts as a bot. We run around the net, finding relevant info or entertaining content, and we re-mix, re-blog, and re-distribute it.

The blogger is an infobot, a knowledged daemon, a subservient messenger, weaving a web of intuitive omniscience.

It's clear to everyone that linking in blog posts is what we do when we're not lazy.

We link to provide a fast, easy bridge to a relevant or substantiating site or web page or whatever online.

The #1 User Reality is that they're in a big hurry. Users are impatient, stressed out, multi-tasking, and skim-scanning.

We must NEVER slow down or put obstacles in the path of a reader. We must facilitate and expedite information transmission and information trails. Linking is discretionary, but the more you link, the more you build the map of human knowledge and expertise.

Failing miserably in front of the world is what CEOs are afraid of, when it comes to blogs and video blogging.

I see the blog moving toward a web conferencing platform, not static text posts, but podcasts and video.

But CEOs must be brave enough to go ahead and make some public mistakes as they experiment in the new media.

If you fail, but were trying to connect with your constituents, your stakeholders, your customers, I think the public will not only be forgiving, but you will increase your humanity, your credibility, tear down the wall of hierarchy and elitism, ala naked conversations.

Hi Robert. What is your opinion of vlogs, particularly CEO vlogs?

You are talking about some woman who used to be at some vlog platform or service or whatever the heck it is, but what you could really treat us to is your insights into CEOs or entrepreneurs and Video Blogging.

Who cares about Rocketboom and talking heads?

What matters is how each of us, all hardcore bloggers, can mutate into the new vlogospheric realm of Show and Tell.

Do you not agree?