Article Make Your Blog Worthwhile published on April 20, 2010 Making your blog more scannable will help engage readers, but it only helps longterm if the content is worth reading in the first place. When I read a blog for the first time, I'm evaluating it primarily on the basis of whether it seems smart—that's what will get me to come back. What "smart" really means can vary, but there are some general practices you can follow that will help your blog get (or stay) that way. Read Now About
Article Week 750 by Christopher Butler on April 12, 2010 Three new projects kicked-off, three new agency partners, a trip to New England, and surprise creme brulee! All of this happened in our 750th week... Read Now About
Article Fractured/Focused by Christopher Butler on April 8, 2010 In my last weeknotes, I mentioned that I had purchased an iPad. The iPad seems to be a polarizer of sorts—for many reasons, but one in particular that interests me most—in that it limits the extent to which you can multitask. You can play audio and browse the web at the same time, but you cannot play audio and watch a YouTube video at the same time. If you are signed in to Google chat and then, even just briefly, open another application, like iTunes, you will be signed out of your chat. The iPad will stop the browser's connection to the web. At first, I found this a bit frustrating. But I'm already seeing benefits to this limitation in certain contexts... Read Now About
Article Week 749 by Christopher Butler on April 5, 2010 This past week was a blur! Plenty of standard operational stuff happened, as usual, of course, but since I tend to think with strong visual accompaniment, I offer this weeknotes entry in pictures. Topics covered: the wonders of video chat technology, internet enthusiasts, ten-year anniversaries, and yes, the iPad... Read Now About
Article Guiding Your Blog Out of the Wilderness by Christopher Butler on March 31, 2010 Have you started to get the feeling that you're a lone voice, crying out from the wilderness? You've been blogging for a few years now, but nothing seems to be coming from it. You've tried all kinds of ways of promoting your content, but nothing seems to work. Readers just aren't sticking around. The truth is that no promotion method is going to make your blog a success. Sure, the right luck with social media might get you a spike in traffic, but until your content truly captures the attention of readers, no single spike will turn in to lasting engagement... Read Now About
Article Prospect Experience Design Screencast: Using Keyword Data to Improve Your Site published on March 23, 2010 This is the final installment of a three-part series about search keywords and how they relate to your website. Today we will discuss how to use keyword data to make decisions that will improve your website.Brian Chiou and Jillian Kuhn will be hosting these collaborative screencasts regularly, focusing on topics that are important to you and your website. Read Now About
Article Week 747 by Christopher Butler on March 21, 2010 Mark and I took a trip to New England, which of course took me off of my normal schedule such that I did not keep notes for the remainder of the week. This time, I'll have to rely upon my memory, which will probably result in a brief weeknotes entry as the trip was the highlight of an otherwise blurry five days. I've also thrown in some philosophizing... Read Now About
Article Prospect Experience Design Do your calls to action give visitors a logical plan B? published on March 17, 2010 Chances are, you know the exact questions potential clients get hung up on before they're ready to commit to a sale. Sharing the information that answers these questions at the right time becomes a standard step in your sales processs because an educated prospect is your best shot at a successful sale. The same rules apply to the prospects viewing your website. By placing well chosen links to additional information to answer these questions, you give visitors the tools to answer these questions for themselves. These 'Plan B' paths for those not ready to take the leap and sign up/buy/register are called "Secondary Calls to Action (CTAs)." Read Now About
Article Week 746 by Christopher Butler on March 14, 2010 I'm sitting at my desk by the window, with the morning sun lighting the room, eating a bowl of that kind of much-too-healthy cereal and reflecting upon the past week. On the desk is a plant, grown just from rooting a small clipping, that has since completely filled the old peanut butter jar it began in. It grows in a fractal pattern, and since I don't know its proper name, I call it the fractal. Since it lives here on my desk, where I tend to leave the things I bring home from work and then retrieve the next morning on my way back, I greet and inspect it at least twice a day. It's growth pattern has become the image my mind retrieves when I think about how ideas progress—one matures and produces three, which then each produce three more, and so on. One becomes many... Read Now About
Article Unfinished by Christopher Butler on March 12, 2010 In my last post about mad scientist bloggers, I was exploring the idea of a way to approach blog writing that is true to form for some people, and also true to the format of a blog. This one continues the idea a bit... Read Now About
