In the past week I have been interviewed again a couple of times. Some common questions are starting to come up. It seems that there are a couple of things people know about me. Authority Blogger Flagship Content This pleases me no end. Why? Because these are precisely the things I want to spread! So if these ideas are so close to my heart why don't I talk about those topics more? While I am absolutely 100% confident these ideas work I don't want to beat you over the head with it. … [Read more...]

Attention Age Doctrine is a free report from Rich Schefren. I am sure I won't be the only person you hear about this from. In fact I heard about it myself from Yaro. So why am I telling you about it? It's free - Even though you can be sure Rich isn't giving it away out of the goodness of his heart, the report itself is free Actionable, useful info - This guy knows his stuff and has obviously put a lot of work into putting together a good overview of the state of social media attention and … [Read more...]

You might have seen already that I encourage people to be Authority Bloggers. To demonstrate your expertise and knowledge, build profile, credibility, and trust. A question that comes up a lot is how do you know when you get there? What tells you that you have achieved Authority status? I see authority as a journey, a continuous process. There is no end point. In fact, if you stop working towards it, or feel like you have "done enough", that is when you are most likely to lose … [Read more...]

When kids put together their lists for Santa this year, do you think they will be asking for "an MP3 player", or will they ask for "an iPod"? Did Microsoft have the same impact with the Zune? How is the iPhone impacting competitors phone sales? What would you think of a search engine that did not rank Apple for the term? When you create a powerful brand you not only gain recognition and mind share, you change the rules of the game in your favor. The whole market place has to react, you … [Read more...]

Twitter is a social site based around the idea of 140 character messages, but it has grown to be much more than that. My relationship with Twitter has mutated over time. My opinion of the service has ranged from true believer, skeptic, objective critic, right up to now which I would describe as "cautious optimist". It took a while for me to see any benefit in it but now I think it could be very useful to bloggers when used correctly. Do you use Twitter? Let me know in the comments. Follow … [Read more...]

A couple of times this week I have seen great stories get buried on Digg. It happens and it sucks. The thing is we all tend to think our own story is worthy of getting votes. But in many cases I think the people who complain about getting buried the most secretly know they were trying to game the system. If you have to ask every person online you know for a vote that is probably a good sign that you are pushing quite hard. Digg is actually a lot fairer than people might believe, lousy … [Read more...]

Aaron has a great post about PR agencies in the social media / web 2.o space. Worth a read, if only for the Office Space inspired giggle.  Reading this made my brain connect what Aaron had written with a thought I had been having all morning about authenticity. The attraction of blogging and social marketing for companies is strong. There is a feeling that with a little bit of cunning you can siphon off some of this juicy traffic and pump up your product. A lot of tips and advice out there … [Read more...]

Often clients assume I am always going to recommend blogging but that is simply not the case. I am not going to push blogs as the magic bullet solution because as you know, blogging does not suit every company or individual. In most cases the decision is down to: Will a blog provide significant benefit compared to other tactics? - There are a number of ways a company can market, build an audience, attract search visibility without blogging. While for some companies a blog will be ideal, … [Read more...]

So you will do-doubt have noticed Darren Gave Away $60,000 of Prizes in a Week. You can already see Darrens conclusions, but after reading his list I had a thought I want to share and get your opinion on.The Problogger give-away was a big success I am sure, and Darren has learned a great deal that will make the next much better, but what struck me about the prize bonanza makes me wonder about doing competitions at all.Could competitions be a turn-off?I don't for a minute think Darren lost any … [Read more...]

Last night I was chatting with Brian about his recent article. We were talking about how when people get into online marketing they suddenly become enamored with the technology. Have you noticed that? There is one key to success online and let me tell you now, technology is not it.Yes, the technical side is important and has a very key role to play. Get the technology right without another critical ingredient and failure is guaranteed.What is this magic sauce? People."People" are the key to your … [Read more...]