Increasing the readers of my blog

I read Fred Wilson's post about his blog today and was humbled by his numbers : 50,000 readers per month and about $30,000 in ad revenue that he donates to charity. That's an average of 1,600 readers and 80$ per day (I'm not trying to be exact). This information got me very interested in the statistics behind other blogs that I read now ... and for that matter, what tool(s) are best used to discover this information (other than Technorati).

I have my work cut out for me -- I'm currently average about 150 readers per day.

Organization 2.0

While I was at web 2.0 conference last week I was reflecting upon the organizational structure of web 2.0 companies....and of Judy's Book in particular.

I think that smaller is better. Basically, in my mind I want to keep the organization size of Judy's Book under 20 people. Why?

A few reasons: First, small organizations run better. I am reminded of when I was running abuzz and shopping for new office space in the Watertown, MA area. I entered a class B office space as a prospective tenant...and met the 65 year old owner of a publishing company. The owner had a hot tub in the middle of his office.  He told me his company did about 5 million in sales and that he had some 50+ people. I also remember him telling me that the optimal size for a company was 18. He said, "You needed enough people to get something done but not enough to add in additional organization middle management layers." I've never forgotten this little anecdote. In part because the advice made sense to me, in part because he had a hot tub in the middle of his office, and in part because his publishing company was most known for fart books -- ahh, the gas we pass.

Second, I've been watching a bunch of very successful 2.0 companies (thirst seven signal, forty three things) who have organizations sizes of between 10-20...and that is right where I want to keep Judy's Book until such time that I HAVE to grow beyond that. Smaller is better for lots of reasons -- the company is more nimble, flexible, and effective.  Ultimately, there's less bureaucracy.

So, for now, I'm trying now to keep my company at this level -- this isn't a hard and fast rule. But for now, I think organizations 2.0 will be smaller than their earlier predecessors.

webmaster world: tactics matter

I'm in the second day of webmaster world conference and sitting in a panel conversation on "buying links" . I've had a busy day taking notes on the very tactical AND very useful topics of Internet marketing . I can't organize the notes real time into a coherent post at this time -- but the topics include the how-to's of link shopping, keyword selection, duplicate website content, page rank, search engine optimization and so on. These topics are the stepping stones of building a business online -- for the price, this conference is so much more valuable than the web 2.0 conference I was at last week and I have to say there are a lot fewer CEO's and brand name professionals here.  Interesting. I wonder why....Iv'e found it super useful to dig into the details of the tactical. It illumates the strategic quite well.

I am taking away at least a dozen concrete action steps that we at Judy's Book should be doing today.

Top 100 bloggers on technorati

The conference started with Guy Kawasaki asking for ...."prostituting" for links to his blog. He wants to climb from 46 to the top 10 bloggers on technorati.  This list is here. He wants 2000 links to come from this conference so he can climb ahead of some of the republican bloggers....The list is worth looking at if you haven't looked at it. Engadget is #1

SEO and big search

I just lost an entire post from the Google and Yahoo panel. The post was lost due to typepad draft and save mode...grumble, grumble.

My memory of the panel is as follows:

  • Yahoo does lots of SEO and SEM -- just in a bigger and more complex fashion than most companies
  • It's just marketing and it's all about ROI. SEO does very well in generating SEO.
  • Google does no SEO (according to Google). It's all about creating great products for the user.
  • One other note: Yahoo has a SEO group but Google doesn't.
  • Speed matters a lot. It's the first thing users notices about a site and if it's just a little bit off a user notices immediately.
  • Navigability - Make a site that is easy to know where you are, to get back there, and to share with a friend.
  • Usability -- use underlined links (we don't do this that well at JB). Keep pages simple and understandable.

My original notes were much more detailed but alas....they're gone.

webmaster world key note

Guy gave the key note. If you haven't heard guy, he's worth listening to. Engaging speaker. Below are my notes. Already I like this conference more than web 2.0 -- I got a chair in which to sit.

The art of innovation - by guy kawaski

  1. Make meaning -- People of pure heart innovate. When you make meaning you make money. It's not about selling your company for 1.6 BB, but rather creating meaning for a set of customers. Eliminating some wrong doing in the world -- and in the case of guy, it was eliminating MS-DOS at Macintosh.
  2. Make mantra -- Wndy's mantra should be healthy fast food. Nike is Authentic athletic performance.  Fedex is peace of mind. ebay is democratize commerce.  These mantras explain why the compnay exists. It's not about mission staements with words like leadership, partnership, and creativity.
  3. Jump to the next curve -- it's not about improving something 10%, but rather improving something 10x. He told a great little story about ice harvesters -- and how they were put out of business by the refridgerator companies. Not one ice harvester became a referidgerator because they stayed on the same curve.
  4. Roll the dicee -- Deep (fanning reef), intelligent, complete, elegant, emotive
  5. Don't worry, be crappy -- version 1 menas you never have to say your sorry.  Ship then test. Ship revolutoinary stuff, with items of crap in them.
  6. Polarize people -- don't be afraid to piss people off. Some people will love it and some will hate it. Guy watches t.v. and loves tivo.
  7. Let a hundred flowers blossom -- Take your best shot at who your customer is...but then plant fields of customers. You don't know who your best customer is....aldus pagemaker saved apple.  Apple had no clue what it's customers wanted ...but aldus did and showed apple who it was. Go to your evangelists and ask them why they use your product.
  8. Chrun, baby, churn -- your product must  constantly improve 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and evolve etc. Innovation is not an event but rather a process. You must listen.
  9. Niche thyself -- A 2x2 matrix.... ability to provide a unique product or service...value to customer...How are you unique and of high value to your customer.
  10. Follow the 10-20-30 rule -- as an innovator you have to pitch for money, approval, sales, employees etc. 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font. These are the guidelines for the presentation .
  11. Don't let the bozos grind you down -- it can't be done, shouldn't be done, etc. Just do it.

Great opening. Lots to think about.

Got this at our door

This is  a test -- there is no emergency.
This flyer and empy box have been delivered to your household as part of  a test exercise in emergency preparedness. There is no ermergency NOW.

For this test, this empy box is meant to represent emergency medications that would prevent people from becoming ill in a bioterrorist attack.

Glad to see Seattle preparing....kind of a screwed up empty box in a screwed up world.

getting over the blog writing hump

Yep. I struggled with this early on with my blogging....and still struggle with it some now....somewhere I started to get clued in. Writing each day is part of it. Taking risks is really where the good blogs go....and where I need to go more. Keep at it...you'll get there and when you do sometimes you'll be clever and sometimes you won't....

On 11/8/06, a friend wrote:

Andy,

Nice work on the blog lately. It's hard to build the habit. I've been struggling with it. Always feel like I need to say something clever. I guess the key is just writing something every day...

Day 2.0 of web 2.0 is better than 1.0

Just heading into lunch time break but this AM was much better than yesterday. Even though I'm still sitting on the floor -- I've found the google lounge which has unlimited supply of vitawater and M&Ms -- two good things to make sitting on the floor more comfortable. In addition, I no longer expected to sit in a chair at this conference i.e. my expectations are lower.

There were a few interesting presentations today. I'll leave you with two observations.

First,  Amazon is awesome and growing. They're web services stuff is only getting cooler -- I think they're looking at making the one click into a web service! This would be awesome for ecommerce ....in addition, I know they're coming out with a deals web service in the next week or two. This isn't public but trust me the information comes from a reliable source.  I think it's something that we're likely to work with at Judy's Book

Second, Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley presented. This is the second time I've heard her present. She's a data machine. I found her first presentation on the state of the internet compelling -- and today's 15 minute presentation wasis no different. She throws lots of incredibly interesting and detailed data down your throat -- the feeling is much like drinking from a fire hose. However, she's great ....and the numbers surrounding the state of the internet are even greater. Two thoughts for you -- one is video, video, video....and second is the investment banking community's observations of the world is really interesting for an entrepreneur -- listening to the perspective was useful in getting me to pull my head of the trees and try to see the forest. I'm going to dig more into her presentation later tonight. It's online and I encourage you to search for it and look for it....if I find it I'll post the link tomorrow.

Until later...that's it from web 2.0 conference