It’s been one month since I launched The Indie Virus from a hotel room in Austin, TX. Looking back, it’s flat out amazing how one little idea can have such a powerful impact in such a short time. Simply put, I cannot believe all the wonderful things that have come about as a result of this experiment, and hopefully, you too will be inspired by what you read here today. Whether you’re blogging for business, pleasure, extra income, or plain old ego-stroking, you can learn a lot from the facts behind The Indie Virus.
April 2006
April 10, 2006
Viral Linking, Technorati Manipulation, and Blog CPR - 4
April 8, 2006
Improve Your Blog’s Metrics in One Easy Step - 30
How long do people browse your site when they visit? Less that 15 seconds? For me, this was the overwhelming average for the first four months of this site’s existence. What’s worse, typical visitors were only visiting one page of the site, almost never clicking through to an internal page.
These crappy metrics were a major motivation behind the layout of my new design, and now that I’ve got a few weeks’ worth of data, I’m pleased to share some foolproof information that I think will help you make a bigger impact on your visitors.
April 6, 2006
When Marketing Goes Wrong. Waaay Wrong. - 5
Fear. Marketers use it all the time to get your attention, toy with your emotions, and loosen up your wallet. It’s considered one of the most effective marketing tools because it typically evokes such strong natural reactions in humans. Therefore, it’s no surprise that tons and tons of companies attempt to take advantage of this by utilizing motivation by fear in their advertising.
For the most part, ads of this nature come off okay (albeit sheissty), but occasionally, someone will flat out miss the mark. And I’m talking by a freakin mile here, people.
April 5, 2006
Why Blog Marketing Needs Sex Appeal - 8
Blogs are the new media, but you already knew that. Unfortunately, you’re a huge minority in the big scheme of things, as most of the population (in the US, at least) still doesn’t even know what a “blog” is, exactly. Old media is hesitant to view us as credible, and only a handful of bloggers actually make headlines in news outlets that don’t make a habit of covering internet-related issues. To me, it’s clear that bloggers simply haven’t had that breakthrough moment that takes them from local club phenom to international superstar.
Why are we so underrepresented in traditional media?
The blogosphere has a crappy PR department, that’s why.
April 2, 2006
I Temporarily Failed the Blogosphere, and Old Media Failed Me - 6
I feel like a critical asshole today, but at least I have a place like this where I can put my thoughts into words. I mentioned on Wednesday that I was expecting to be featured in an article about geeks in the April 2nd edition of the Louisville Courier-Journal, and today, my expectations became reality - sort of.