Monthly Archives: March 2010

Blogging: Content, Traffic and Discussion

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Update 8/6/10: I’ve been picked up by a friend to guest-write on his company’s blog. You can find the full article in three parts over there. Blogging in a Nutshell: Part 1 – Content, Part 2 – Traffic, Part 3 – Discussion.

There are two primary objectives for blog articles: make a point and encourage discussion among readers. For business, there is a third objective: self-promotion. The key to any blog you already know: original quality content. With original content your blog will draw an audience; said audience will revisit your blog which will foster discussion around your content.

Users can find the information they want and able to dismiss irrelevant content faster; users also are able to bore easier: with tons of resources at their disposal, users may spend a few seconds skimming through headlines and paragraphs of content before abandoning your site. For example, at this point in my answer, if the content you were looking for is not outlined or easy to find, attention spans are lost. The challenge is in creating and frequently providing content that will keep the attention of your audience. The key component to the solution is in planning. There are three types of articles your blog content should be focused on: multi-part series, weekly industry-relevant single posts and ad hoc one-off content.

The first key thing to remember is that you’re creating solid original content. Your content will entice viewership and greater viewership means more opportunity for discussion. The second key point is having a variety of content. By having three types of posts – regular, one-off and right-now – the content provided to viewers varies in format enough to be interesting. All three types are essential: regular content allows users to depend on and expect large-scale content in digestible segments; weekly content allows users to count on and expect relevant regular content; ad hoc posts are the backbone for fresh content in their frequency and tangential relevance.

The final challenge when focused on writing a blog is scheduling: when do you write content and when do you post content? Many blogging platforms have the advantage of being able to set the date and time for content to post (similar to full-blown newswires). This works to post content at a previous date and time as well as scheduling when a post will go live in the future. Briefly: the only reason I would justify launching content at a previous date is to establish credibility during the initial launch of a blog – allowing for simulated longevity of content upon the blog’s launch; however this would demand future posts to link and reference the pre-dated posts. The latter scheduling concept is more pertinent: create content that will be posted at some date in the future. Newspapers used to have multi-editions per day: early morning, mid-morning afternoon, late afternoon and evening, sometimes more; Associated Press often posts out a flurry of articles at 1:00am each morning. Creating content now and planning for a story launch is a perfectly acceptable means of communication through your blog.

Goals for your blog, while not covered in detail here, should include the frequency of your posts. Before you launch your blog, you must have content. You should be prepared to launch your blog with three weeks’ worth of content: one set of content for the week prior to launch date, one set of content for the week of your launch and a final set of content for the week following your launch. At a minimum, the regular articles should be scheduled and finalized a week ahead of their launch. This way, if your new content is delayed a day or two subscribers are not affected. By writing content at least a week ahead of time, you allow yourself the flexibility to accommodate your real life. Real life happens: car breaks down, mother-in-law comes to town, and your dog ate your first draft. While your readers’ real lives may affect how often they are able to read your content they have no empathy or mercy if they are expecting your content and it’s not available because your real life happened. Your blog lives and dies by its content, no content means no life.

You should must have at least one article per week. Two would be a better minimum: one article on Tuesdays, launched at about 1p PDT, and one article on Fridays, launched at about 11a PDT. As discussed earlier, you can write the articles ahead of time and schedule their release through your blogging software, but having your core articles release consistently at the same time each week will allow users to ‘expect’ when your communications will be released.

The simplest ways to distribute your content are easy, low cost and steps you should take any way to help build your brand (even if you do not write a blog). First, create a dynamic sitemap; most blogging platforms will do this for you. WordPress, for example, has a series of plug-ins available to automatically publish a sitemap that can be consumed by Google (and other major search providers). Next, claim your blog on syndication sites like Technorati and Google Blog Search, it’s simple to set up an account and both services will pull your posts about as frequently as you post, so your newest content will always be syndicated. Lastly, any social networks (anywhere) that exist to support your company, blog, content or articles should be referencing your material, or (if you don’t manage said networks or blogs) post quality comments in their content linking back to your original material. Having related content will help readers genuinely interested in a topic to find your blog.

Will Qualcomm and WiMAX ensure Sprint’s survival?

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Not a week has gone by since I outlined my fears of Qualcomm’s involvement with bidding on spectrum in India and a new article from Rethink Wireless crosses my desk describing in brief and obscure details how Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor will be featured in Sprint’s first WiMAX handheld released in the US.

In that linked video, one of the highlights is animated wallpapers, which makes me discount any of the remainder of the content in said demo because functionality, connectivity and price are far more important than animated wallpapers. “I didn’t pay $600 for this device so I could have animated wallpapers.”

So does my fear of Qualcomm interfering with WiMAX’s chances of success -despite Clear’s horrible network deployment and pricing structure- change with respect to Qualcomm’s chipset being used in WiMAX-enabled handhelds? Not for a second. In fact it’s further enforced as Qualcomm would become a choke-hold on WiMAX versus LTE technology. At any point Qualcomm could decide to jack up pricing for manufactures making WiMAX devices to further promote LTE technology. (This would take place in a world where LTE was being marketed, deployed and supported better than WiMAX, which is entirely possible (and probable) given the poor direction Clear’s taken to support WiMAX.) I would add that Qualcomm’s business model shouldn’t just be to just sell as much as possible: even if WiMAX is losing the battle against LTE, Qualcomm shouldn’t just continue to sell chip sets to WiMAX-handheld manufacturers because they’re requested, Qualcomm should focus on championing a use of their chip set for a given technology. If that’s LTE (or WiMAX) then they should focus on making the chip sets and product offerings as incredible and capable as possible for that technology.

Fear asides, I wonder if good things will be coming from Qualcomm, despite the my sometimes frustrating experience with the company.

Using the cell phone as an educational device

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My initial thought relates to how you may be considering delivering your content to users. Additionally, what are your initial thoughts on the demographic of your audience? What types of devices are you thinking of: smart phones and high-end phones, or family-friendly devices that would be lighter on the price scales? In any media-delivery platform, audience is a key factor to consider.

Here are a few scenarios to consider.

Let’s focus on a group of 7th graders in science class. They are given an assignment to catalog the various types of flora and fauna in the school’s courtyard with pictures, descriptions and quotes from their textbook. A practical application on a mobile platform would be to take pictures with built in camera, apply ad hoc description of textures and details of the photographed object and upload the picture and preliminary data to the course website. From there, the class or teams or individuals edit their data from the field in the course website and all of the data for the assignment is captured into a single science-class-based catalog of the school’s courtyard. In this scenario, the application delivered through the mobile device would be an MMS or website based application with the assistance of a web based interface. This kind of application would be accessible to all types of cell phones or mobile devices.

Another scenario would focus on a young professional. They are trying to prepare and cook dinner for themselves based on the ingredients that are lingering in their fridge. A practical application on a mobile platform would be to use an application or website to search for recipes that involve the aforementioned ingredients. When a recipe is chosen, the user has the ability to play a series of videos on how to prepare, cook and present the different elements of the meal. In this scenario, the application delivered through the mobile device would be a native application to the phone or through a website based application with a supported video output. This kind of application would be accessible to high-end cell phones or mobile devices.

Many of the people that already responded have highlighted another key factor to consider: presentation of the educational content. Are you considering whole courses available through the cell phone or just supplements of information to textbook- or classroom-based style of learning? I would agree with others here that there may be some resistance to taking certain types of courses through a cell phone or mobile device. However, Tomi Ahonen had noted in a keynote last winter that in Japan over $82 million work of books are purchased and displayed on mobile devices. This would imply that the mobile device is a sufficient platform for delivering static educational information. The next challenge might be to make the educational information interactive: for the user of the content, or for the community built around interest in the same content.

In short, I would recommend deciding on your audience first and then how to deliver your content to the user base. The complexity of your audience and content factors will help determine the type of application needed to educate the users and if that application has a practical means to be delivered through a cell phone or mobile device.