Anniversary Week - Bueller? Bueller?

Today’s blogging learnings relate to interaction. The lessons are best characterized as being similar to a magnet – there’s an attractive force, with both positive and negative elements.

Attractive Force

Blogging has revealed personal interests that have attracted learning opportunities, even from people who already knew me pretty well. Through people sharing information prompted by blogging, I’ve learned about:

• Playing with Legos - both serious and silly
• The HTML code to open a hyperlink in a new window (target=”new”)
• Threadless T-Shirts – an intriguing business model and the funniest t-shirt I’ve ever seen
• The ins and outs of doing an hour radio show
• Gas, KANsas – I kid you not!
• Keri Smith and her book meant to be wrecked
• The Benrik approach to “Changing Your Life”
• What brands we’d miss

And that’s simply a sample of the varied and very cool stuff others have shared because of blogging.

Positive

I’ve received much positive feedback about blogging via email, comments here, and personal conversation. Through Google Analytics, I can see hits worldwide – audiences I’d never reach. One regular reader commented recently that there are “some very good posts” here; I asked him to let me know which ones since it’s tough for me to pick them out! The most intriguing comment was from a Chicago reader reminding me the blog earns me one minute of his time every day and that "counts for a lot." It certainly does, and I sincerely appreciate it!

Negative

The negative is we still haven’t uncovered how to get more of you participating in dialogue and sharing the blog with others, especially via posts or other web references. As a group, you seem fairly quiet online, at least around here.

Blogging how-to’s suggest regular, strong, original content as a growth key. We have regularity, but if you see modifications to content or style that would compel more of your own participation, getting your thoughts would be great. In one comment, Chris Reaburn pointed out similarities between indie bands and bloggers in this regard. You are the "small initial audience" and through the level of interaction you create, you can directly impact the work.

Feel free to exercise your influence by sharing thoughts on three questions to help shape the blog in the next year:

• What topics have been most beneficial to you either professionally or personally?
• What do you think about featuring shorter posts – do they still offer enough worthwhile information? (Results to the recent poll suggest that brevity is still preferred; Creative Quickies were at the top of the preference list.)
• What are your suggestions for continuing to grow readership?

Thanks in advance for any comments you provide. And here’s to another year’s worth of sharing strategy and innovation ideas!