Sometimes you find the best ideas in the strangest of places. And while some of the thoughts may not be new, thinking about them in a novel way can give you just time for reflection you need to truly take them to heart and incorporate them into your daily life. One place where I find such wisdom is Winnie the Pooh and if you take another look at this childhood icon, you may find that he has a lot to say about the project you’re working on now. I give you the Blog of Pooh.
“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like ‘What about lunch?’”
Blog readers stop by for a quick snippet of information. Let’s make it easy on them. Now is not the time to pull out the flowing prose, but instead a chance to reach out to someone and offer an idea. If they like what you wrote they will come back, and if it’s easy to read in a short period of time, they will be more likely to enjoy it. Plus, shorter words are more popular search terms, so using them can be more helpful for search engine results.
“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
This is a poignant reminder to branch out from your own URL every once in a while. Become a participating member in the Internet community and comment on other blogs. If you make really interesting comments elsewhere, readers will follow them like bread crumbs back to your site.
“If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”
While visitors may not have fluff in their ears exactly, there may be a reason they aren’t hearing what you’re saying. Don’t be afraid to blog again on the same topic, just in a different way. Sometimes it takes creativity, patience, and persistence to really connect with an audience, but if you have an important message, it’s worth the effort.
“It gets you nowhere if the other person’s tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation.”
This one may be less obvious, but another issue, especially with blogs, is that someone may not get all of the message. A reader could do a search and surf onto your site at any point and they may not stay long. You have a short period of time to grab their attention and turn them around. If you have a blog entry that builds off of a previous entry, be sure to add an easy link back for anyone joining in the middle. Also, make sure there is an easy to spot About page that can be accessed from anywhere on your site and can quickly orient a new visitor.
“‘I don’t see much sense in that,’ said Rabbit.
“‘No,’ said Pooh humbly, ‘there isn’t. But there was going to be when I began it. It’s just that something happened to it along the way.’”
It’s always good to have a plan. And sometimes it’s a good idea to stick to that plan. Other times, you drift away from the original goal when you have latched onto a better idea. The trick is to know when you’re headed in the right direction and when your new direction just doesn’t make sense. The key here is to look for feedback from your audience about what they want to read and connect that to what you can tell them. If you are writing about your area of expertise and you have a strong audience base; that is the ideal direction.