Category: Blogging

Trying to know who your audience is online is really hard. You don’t have subscriber data like a magazine or newspaper has. You can run a poll, but any opt-in poll will have skewed results.

You can figure some things out however by the behavior patterns of your users. Here are things I’ve observed over time about readers on my site:

1. They don’t comment much. There isn’t much to say about a photo and unless you’ve been to a destination it is hard to add anything to the conversation.
2. They don’t use LinkedIn. Or perhaps to be more accurate, they do not use LinkedIn as a platform to share content. My LinkedIn traffic was so low, I ceased putting a button on my site.
3. They don’t have blogs. Most of my commenters do not fill out the URL section of the comment form. They are not necessarily content creators.
4. They don’t use Google+. Like the LinkedIn button, I took the +1 button off my site. I’ve gotten very little in terms of traction on Google+.
5. They do use Facebook. Facebook has been blowing up for me. My fan page growth had been increasing and the number of shares and likes I’m getting has been going up too.

All these facts fit a profile for a very casual, normal internet user. They are not bloggers, power users or influencers. Most of the people Klout tells me I influence have very, very low scores (yes, I know Klout is stupid but we are talking about scores below 20 and it is just one data point which confirms the others.)

In the last week I’ve had two posts which have gotten over 100 Facebook shares in under 24 hours. Neither were controversial or big pillar articles.

Contrast this to a recent article by Brian Solis:

• 513 retweets
• 218 LinkedIn shares
• 35 Facebook shares

Brian writes about social media, marketing and business. His audience are internet savvy people who are probably content creators. He is crushing on LinkedIn and Twitter but his Facebook shares are less than mine. As far as I can tell he doesn’t have a fan page and hasn’t turned on subscriptions for his personal page.

For his audience, I think what he is doing makes sense. I think everyone needs to figure out what their audience is using and optimize for that. I’m guessing a business site like Tnooz.com might have better results with LinkedIn, even though it is also travel focused.

Add to this another tidbit that I’ve heard from some people which I think makes sense: The more options you put on a page, the more confusing you make it for a user. Putting every single social media button on a page makes it more likely that someone will do nothing rather than share it.

I’m even considering removing the retweet button if I find that people aren’t using it. My hunch is the most people are retweeting directly in Twitter, not from the button.

The data is telling me to double down on Facebook. I’m probably going to implement Facebook comments in the near future. I have only heard good things from those who have adopted it.

Play to your strengths, don’t promote your weaknesses.

I’ve given a lot of thought to the differences between traditional writers and bloggers. I do think there is a difference, but the primary difference isn’t in the actual content they produce. A piece of good writing is a good writing regardless the medium through which it is conveyed. Online does allow for more flexibility in the types of content which can be produced, but good is good.

The primary difference lies not in the story they create but in the meta-story.

What is a meta-story you might ask?

Most bloggers have some sort of meta-story behind them which the real appeal which is what really attracts followers. It usually can be summarized in a sentence or two and can fit into the description field on your Twitter account.

My meta-story would be something like: I’ve been traveling around the world for almost 5 years and have visited over 100 countries and territories.

While I try to create good content, I know it is the meta-story which hooks people. A meta-story can be being a celebrity (why else would people care about what Justin Bieber has to say?), something you’ve done, something you are doing, something you are going to do, something you are, etc.

I’ve had dozens upon dozens of people send me emails and tweets saying things like “What you are doing is so cool!”, “I wish I could be you!”, etc. Those are all responses to my meta-story not any particular piece of content.

A typical freelance writer will usually offer a meta-story which is only of interest to editors and other writers (I’ve written for X, Y and Z publications). Even if they do have a compelling meta-story, there is no way for the reader to act on it and follow the person in print.

Content can bring people in, but your meta-story is what is going to hook people. YOU are the ultimate content. All your content must spring from you.

In my niche, travel, where I go and what I do is just as much part of my content as what I write and the photos I create. Going to exotic places and doing interesting things is part of the mystique. If all I did was go to all inclusive resorts in Mexico, it wouldn’t be very interesting.

Ask yourself; when someone visits your site, how quickly can they figure out your meta-story? How succinctly can you tell it?

A while ago I launched an online forum on my site. The spam problem eventually became so great that I closed off adding any new members and just let the site sit.

The spam was really ridiculous. I tried using captchas and other things, but the bots are just too smart. Nothing worked.

Last week, on a whim I revisited the forum and decided to upgrade the vBulletin software that was running on it.

I screwed up and accidentally deleted everyone’s account and all the old posts. I was pretty frustrated at what I had done, so I just left the forums alone because I was heading off to the Galapagos Island for several days.

Someone later posted a hint for checking to see if your site was hacked. I did a Google search for “Site:everything-everywhere.com viagra” and sure enough something came up….and it was a forum post. I thought I had killed all the posts.

It turns out in those few days when I was in the Galapagos, over 15,000 spam comments were posted to the forum. FIFTEEN THOUSAND!!! Porn, gambling, viagra, you name it, it was on the forum.

Needless to say, the bots were hitting my forum hard even though it had been offline for months.

I went in, deleted all the users and all the posts. I then tried to set up some of the built-in anti-spam protection, which didn’t do so well last time.

I noticed that the new version of the software had a new option. Instead of using captchs, you could ask a simple question. This time, I stayed away from the captchas and asked users: Which is bigger, 7 or 77?

The spam completely stopped. 100%. If I go to the forum now, I can see many bots still hitting the server, but they can’t register anymore.

I was amazed at how effective asking a simple question could be against bots. Moreover, if bots should ever figure it out, I just have to change the question to something simple and it will probably work again.

Over the next month I’ll be attending my final 2 conference of the year: Blog World Expo and World Travel Mart. They are totally different audiences and I’m going to them for totally different reasons.

I’ve attended a lot more conferences than normal this year. This was on purpose. I come to the travel industry as an outsider. Not just an outsider, but an outsider who hasn’t gone through any of the traditional gatekeepers which let people in or out.

One of the things I’ve learned this year is what conferences to attend and what I shouldn’t attend. I attended the New York Times and LA Times Travel Expos this year, but I probably wont be going back in 2012. I got a lot of value from the Canadian Media Marketplace and my assistant Amy will be attending VMEX this year for me. Events which are targeted directly towards journalists are FAR more productive than the consumer oriented ones like the NYT Travel Show.

I have the following conferences at least tentatively listed for 2012:

• TBEX
• International Pow Wow
• Canadian Media Market
• VEMX
• PRSA Travel
• Blog World
• SATW
• World Travel Market
• Adventure Travel Summit

I’m almost certainly not going to attend all of these. I’d be amazed if I attend even half of them. Having an assistant you can trust to represent you makes a huge difference. I’ll give priority to conferences where I’ll be speaking.

I will probably not be attending SXSW again. I was there this year and I really didn’t see the point in it. I didn’t accomplish anything in terms of business. I suppose if you want to ass kiss social media gurus or technology bloggers it can be fun, but other than that I don’t see what I’d do again. I’d need some specific reason to go this year. If you actually register for the actual conference (which I didn’t do) it is incredibly expensive.

One thing I’ve never understood is people who go to conference and then bitch about not learning anything. I don’t go to conference to learn. Anything you need to learn you are going to learn online before you ever go to a conference. You go to conferences to meet people.

In getting ready for both Blog World and WTM I’m spending some time looking at the list of speakers and exhibitors. Before the conference, I’m going to have a plan for who I want to meet and what I want to achieve. If you don’t do that, I really think you are just wasting time and money in attending a conference.

I’ve often said that for blogs like mine, audience is more important than traffic. I define audience as the people who will hear what you have to say next, not just what you had to say in the past. If you are getting good SEO traffic on an article you wrote years ago, that isn’t your audience. It could be, but it isn’t until you convert them.

I’m really all about conversion. Getting people to make a 1-click commitment to hear more from you in the future. They might want to hear more from you via RSS, email, Twitter or Facebook. It really doesn’t matter so long as they like you enough to want to hear more.

The best method is almost certainly email and that is one area where I have been lax in last few months. I’m going to be coming out with a host of products over the next few months, so getting my email list in order is now a top priority for me.

The first thing I did is set out to find an intern to help me compile the newsletter every 2 weeks. It actually isn’t that big of a job, but with all the other stuff I’m doing I’ve let it slip through the cracks one too many times. It is primarily compiling a list of what has been on the site the last 2 weeks.

The second thing is increasing the raw number of subscribers. I have a bunch of plans for this including putting a signup form in my new iPhone app, coming out with another free ebook, and some other things I’m not going to divulge at this time.

I’m also going to be upping the content in the newsletter. I’m going to be coming out with a multipart series which will be be releases every few days after someone signs up for the newsletter.

Basically, I need to make the newsletter on a par with the blog in terms of the attention I give it.

I think there is enormous potential in boosting my subscriber base if I can give this the attention it deserves.