AdaptiveBlue: 10 Tips on Building A Beneficial Company Blog
Tara Anderson
· 1 year ago
Thanks for the tips Fraser. I feel that I've fallen into a bit of a blogging rut and this post came at just the right time.
Fraser
· 1 year ago
You're welcome. Looking forward to more posts from you. You'd think with all of the writing that you're doing in other areas of your life (how goes that stream?) you'd be in the writing groove for blogging.
jonknight
· 1 year ago
Right on the money, Fraser. The blog is an important part of any presence, personal or professional. Sometimes it's hard for me to get the right equilibrium, but that's simply because I'm riding multiple wave-crests. What's good for this month may be naive next month. I'm constantly running, trying to keep up with, filter through and understand everything. We all feel that way, I imagine, and it wears us down. It's easy to let the blog "go". But it's not wise, or even prudent.
@Tara: It seems whenever I feel like I'm getting in a blogging rut, I'll end up publishing a piece that has immediate appeal and is a perpetual draw for new visitors. A great example is the piece I did on Fake IRS Emails. I literally threw it together using an email I found in my Yahoo mail junk folder, almost out of spite, because I hadn't written anything that day. Right after I published it, I un-published it, knowing it wasn't the quality of work I wanted anyone to see come from me. I thought I had gone a bit far with the humor, which I didn't really find humorous anyway. But I had nothing else that day, so I put it back out there, unchanged. I'm pretty sure that's the single most viewed page on my site, or at least in the top 3. Interestingly, to me at least, that was the 1st piece I used a different color in my quotes, something I am beginning to do alot lately. So in a way, it was a ground-breaking piece of work (for me).
I wish all I had to do each day was to write and publish the blog.
jonknight
· 1 year ago
oops did i say that out loud? (really i didn't mean to!)
Fraser
· 1 year ago
hrm... different colour for the quotes huh? maybe it's something I should play around with.
after investing time and energy to build up a site it really is a shame to let it "go". I'm still not sure what's the best approach though - to let it go when the time is right or to struggle through and continue to write (and risk accelerating the erosion of what you've built).
jonknight
· 1 year ago
there's no "whitespace" on my blog (wha!??), so i was looking for a way for quotes to stand out a bit....(#390000)
(putting on my farmer hat) out here in the rolling hills of north tara-lina the dirt is full of red clay. without tending, every cleared field will erode . it's the tending of the soil that stops the erosion, the planting of seeds, the cultivating of crops.
i have stood alongside my brothers and sisters on the dam of a pond, knee deep in water threatening to wash us away, and fought the torrential rain that threatened to destroy the reservoir for our crops. in one night we nearly lost everything to erosion, but we fought it, for hours in the early morning darkness. we outlasted the storm. the pond is still there.
Alex Iskold
· 1 year ago
Well said Fraser, and well done on BlueBlog!
After all these years I am still learning and evolving the sense of what it takes to build a community.
jonknight
· 1 year ago
Alex, I find it hard to believe you don't see how well you do understand it. You were the 1st contact I had with AdaptiveBlue and I was so impressed I still haven't shut up about it. The reason is simple: You were a real person, who took a personal interest in me.
Social networking is perhaps the oldest of human traditions. It is the basis of all civilization, all history. And at its core is that simplicity, people taking interest in people. From what I can see, the whole team there not only understands, but actively practices this fine tradition.
I consider all of you friends, not just "friends".
Alex Iskold
· 1 year ago
Thanks Jon! We do our best around here and you are a huge part of it!
johncass
· 1 year ago
Thanks for this post, it is really good. I especially liked the tip about engage, engage, engage. I had thought about dropping people I know a note, but not writing a post asking a question, except when answering someone's existing post. I was thinking there are a lot of examples of people asking a series of personal questions to a lot of people, I'm going to combine your idea with that and try asking 3-5 people serious questions.
Fraser
· 1 year ago
Hey John, thanks for dropping by. I definitely recommend asking serious questions in a personal manner. Be sincere and personable, those are traits that can't be faked and are appreciated by all.
When you start to care about the people who read your stuff, they start to care about you.
johncass
· 1 year ago
that's good advice, especially caring about other people who read your stuff.
All Comments
@Tara: It seems whenever I feel like I'm getting in a blogging rut, I'll end up publishing a piece that has immediate appeal and is a perpetual draw for new visitors. A great example is the piece I did on Fake IRS Emails. I literally threw it together using an email I found in my Yahoo mail junk folder, almost out of spite, because I hadn't written anything that day. Right after I published it, I un-published it, knowing it wasn't the quality of work I wanted anyone to see come from me. I thought I had gone a bit far with the humor, which I didn't really find humorous anyway. But I had nothing else that day, so I put it back out there, unchanged. I'm pretty sure that's the single most viewed page on my site, or at least in the top 3.
Interestingly, to me at least, that was the 1st piece I used a different color in my quotes, something I am beginning to do alot lately. So in a way, it was a ground-breaking piece of work (for me).
I wish all I had to do each day was to write and publish the blog.
(really i didn't mean to!)
after investing time and energy to build up a site it really is a shame to let it "go". I'm still not sure what's the best approach though - to let it go when the time is right or to struggle through and continue to write (and risk accelerating the erosion of what you've built).
(putting on my farmer hat)
out here in the rolling hills of north tara-lina the dirt is full of red clay. without tending, every cleared field will erode . it's the tending of the soil that stops the erosion, the planting of seeds, the cultivating of crops.
i have stood alongside my brothers and sisters on the dam of a pond, knee deep in water threatening to wash us away, and fought the torrential rain that threatened to destroy the reservoir for our crops. in one night we nearly lost everything to erosion, but we fought it, for hours in the early morning darkness. we outlasted the storm. the pond is still there.
After all these years I am still learning and evolving the sense of what it takes to build a community.
Social networking is perhaps the oldest of human traditions. It is the basis of all civilization, all history. And at its core is that simplicity, people taking interest in people. From what I can see, the whole team there not only understands, but actively practices this fine tradition.
I consider all of you friends, not just "friends".
When you start to care about the people who read your stuff, they start to care about you.
-Omar