The Lasting Benefits of The Long Tail
- By Cory
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I've been reading Chris Anderson's excellent book The Long Tail. (Yes, I know, I'm arriving late to this party!)
There are so many implications to what I'm doing online with The Long Tail.
But the immediate one that occurred to me was the Long Tail of Blogging.
Here's my personal experience with this ...
On my main blog, I have written more than 600 posts to date. Only half of those posts were written with search engine traffic in mind. (I learned from trial and error.)
After one year of blogging, those 600 posts, I now get 60% of my traffic from Google alone.
The bulk of that 60% traffic is going to older posts, single posts -- those on the Long Tail of my blogging trail.
Although some of those posts account for maybe one unique visitor a day at best ... but group them together and it eventually will add up to some really great traffic and momentum.
And here's the kicker ... I wrote those posts once ... and I'm still reaping the Long Tail benefits of them months later.
Moral of the story: Post good, broad content in your topic niche consistently, with search engine traffic in mind (i.e. writing titles with phrases that people are searching for) ... and ride your own little wave.
I sure do love the Long Tail ...
October 23, 20085 Reasons to Blog Your Own Book
- By Cory
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Blogs are perfect for helping you write the book you've always wanted to write ... but just haven't.
Here are 5 ways I think blogging your book rocks:
1. You know someone is reading it (even if it's your mom). Still, it helps knowing someone at least might be reading it for motivation's sake.
2. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. This is the mantra that got me through my final year of my bachelor's degree and I've savored its wisdom for a lot of things. The same principle applies for blogging your book. Thinking about one big massive project overwhelms me. But chipping away at that thing one post at a time ... well, that helps put it all in perspective.
3. Build a readership for your book. If you want to write a book and aren't building your email newsletter list to announce the book, I think you're missing a great opportunity. Think about it ... you pitch your book idea to a publisher and tell them you've got 1,000 built-in potential readers of your book on your email newsletter!
4. It helps get you found in the search engines. Once
your book is actually in print and you begin to sell it on your
website, you'll want people to find you (through your topic's keywords
aka buzzwords) in Google and Yahoo! A blog is a great way to start
talking with them about it! 
5. Once it's finished, you can sell it online. The web is a great place to sell your book (or ebook). If you're blogging your blog and getting content up regularly, you'll have a great platform to peddle your pulp.
