Google This: I am not having Brad Pitt's Love Child

All those who labor over their blogs either learn or intuit a few simple guidelines about their endeavor:

1. Post frequently.
2. Write stuff that matters to you and your audience.
3. Be consistent in style, presentation and intent.
4. Be fresh and engaging.

This all makes sense. Blogging is supposed to be a conversation, not a diatribe, a community instead of a hermitage. So you gotta keep 'em coming back for more.

After 173 posts comprising over 500 pages of original content (in essence, after writing a book in public) I have learned all those lessons first hand. I can watch my traffic numbers spike and dive as I employ (or forget) those maxims.

But those "guidelines" can also be creativity killers. Having to stay on top of a post every day, or every couple of days, really does me in. People like Sumser and Dubs and Jason are just so damn good at it that it is easy to forget that it is almost super-human to create fresh, interesting and relevant content frequently and consistently.

Today I am going to put up three posts: this one and two others. This one is short and quick and will probably get some traction. The other two are long, drawn-out and boring and will be read only by B-school shut-ins who really don't care but need to look smart in their next Porter class. I should break these two longer posts into little nuggets and be pithy and irreverent, but I really don't have the time, and while I am here and engaged, I want to get all this stuff up and online (and forget about it).

I wouldn't have considered this 4 months ago, but a significant stint of radio silence on my part, coupled with some rigorous analysis of my site traffic, leads me to the conclusion that a significant part of the value that I am adding to the blogosphere (if there is any) is that my articles are crawled and indexed and available when people type in a search on Google (and sometimes Yahoo). It's not as sexy as having a regular readership, and it certainly fails in the area of building a conversation and a community, but at this point being Googled is about the best I can do.

Keywords: sex, Tom Cruise weds Brad Pitt, Britney Spears gives birth to Brad Pitts illegitimate love child, did I say sex yet?, Angelina Jolie, naked

Thanks for reading!

Comments

[Double Dubs]

First of all, thank God you're not having Brad Pitt's love child.

Second, I'd like to formally recognize you as the smartest guy on the HR blogosphere. It really doesn't matter how often you post - you pack many times the value into each word you write.

Thanks Jeff.

[CJ McD]

I would agree that your blog is extremely smart and valuble. If I may gush a bit- briliant.
I think everyone in business, employer or employee will benefit from reading it.
I do.

Sincerely, CJ McD