Guy Kawasaki combines his knowledge of evangelism and marketing to come up with 10 ways book authors can “evangelize” their blogs. He’s been blogging for 120 days, so he should know what he’s talking about, right?
Here’s the short version:
1. Think “book” not “diary.”
I.e., you wouldn’t market your diary, so think of your blog as a book someone would want to buy, not a private spontaneous outlet for your feelings.
2. Answer the little man.
Imagine a little man sitting on your shoulder, reading everything you write, and write for him. I’m not sure why it’s important that it should be a little man.
3. Collect email addresses.
… When I started this blog, I sent out 10,000 email announcements. … You may not have the ability to collect email on this scale but collect them nonetheless. For example, when a bozo includes you on a large carbon-copy email, mine the addresses. However, don’t buy address lists or spam people (I define “spam” as sending email to someone who has never sent me one) because for email promotion to work, you must know the recipient–or be known by the recipient.
He may not be a spammer but he comes close enough for me.
4. Collect links for blog rolling.
5. Scoop stuff.
I.e., “find cool stuff first.” I didn’t find this entry first, by the way. I saw it at Buzz, Balls & Hype, which does have some cool stuff for writers on it.
6. Supplement other bloggers with a followup entries.
I.e., comment on other people’s blogs.
7. Acknowledge and respond to commenters.
8. Ask for help.
I.e., ask your readers to provide content for your blog.
9. Be bold.
10. Make it easy to join up.
Some of this stuff is obvious to anyone who has been following blogs for a while, and some of it is kind of obnoxious. I don’t aspire to be this popular and would hate the process and probably the result. But then, he’s trying to climb to the top of Technorati and Amazon at the same time. Extreme measures are called for.
