I was checking on my widget account and I noticed something peculiar... According to my social media statistics it has 15,492,788 views, 24,706 installs (I am assuming that means embeds) and 52 comments. Those are really strange ratios (LOL). Think about it... 52 friggin' comments? Seriously??? Obviously, I need to work on that aspect of the Ambassadors of Chaos Recording Studio because I have fantastic conversations on ActiveRain but suck regarding Global music chatter. Maybe I should bring those people over here to meet and engage my Activepeeps. Should I start an AR Musical Blog? I'm talking with hubby about it. He thinks I'll crash the servers if I start directing all of my bounce pages over to my Activeprofile (ROTFLMAO).
Hmm... Maybe I should talk to ActiveBob before I do this. The lack of musical comments is really bugging me but I don't want to ruin our bandwidth... ;-)
I know I have been working very hard to promote my iTunes project. We were talking about releasing a couple of new songs as free downloads to launch our upcoming album and are hoping if we do this from ActiveRain they would have to come here to get the next set of widgets and promotional codes for the free-bee stuff. The Outside Blog Minion Report now has swag being created for it to reflect the Gigglefest crew, the upcoming animations for the AR Cartoon Network group (where we will be plopping our music videos, cartoons and Ambassador RE SEO tutorials, etc...)
I have been working on this all year. I own 27 websites, serial comment and blog all sorts of random thoughts all over cyberspace all the time... constantly teasing that it's coming. Now, we're kinda here and the fact of the matter is we don't know what we're doing (LMAO). It really is nice that people are going viral with the word of mouth and widget promotions, but 52 comments? What does that tiny number mean?
Part of my strategy appears to be working just fine because I am certainly being found by people, however, I am not inspiring conversations for a major segment of people I've been branding myself to across global markets. I need help to change that so I am sharing my private thoughts on the matter with my fave think tank, the ActiveRain Real Estate Network. So what if it isn't real estate I'm concerned about marketing right now. This is an "effective branding" question and I want to hear ideas on how to improve and channel the flow of creating a brand more efficiently. One that will inspire more musical comments (LOL). I want to interact and engage with my tiny selection of fans who bothered to comment so more fans will bother to comment.
My writing, music and art are very important parts of my life and sharing it with my friends and the public is a lot of fun for me. It never would have happened if I had not started blogging here because I started back up with the music to make original, creative content for my real estate blog. Looking at my peculiar stats made me realize a lot of people like lurking and viewing what we do... It got me thinking all sorts of thoughts and I have a lot of unanswered questions... What do you do when you suddenly discover social media has the potential to open any door at any given time anywhere in the world if the right person reads or listens and likes you? In this case, the majority of people exposed to my name don't just read me. They listen...
I would like to give them something worthwhile to listen to... I would also love to bring them over here so we can engage them in conversation. I would like to know your thoughts on the matter... I would hate to squander such a stellar social media opportunity. What say you?
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Thank you for an excellent and helpful post. I learn a lot from the Active Rain family.
John Pusa
Interesting and timely post to remind folks to pay attention to the traffic on their web sites/blogs, etc.
I am of the opinion that comments reflect industry connected persons more so than the consumer. However, it doesn't matter. We want those "eyes" on our posts and web sites.
Great information...you always seem to have something in your post that helps me out. Hope you have a great day!
STOP TRYING TO RACK UP POINTS!
READ THE ARTICLE WHICH TOOK HIM A GREAT DEAL OF TIME TO WRITE.
HE WANTS AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION HE WROTE....IF YOU CAN'T HELP HIM DON'T WASTE HIS
TIME JUST GETTING POINTS.
C- I do think most people will read and get the information they need without leaving a comment. The fact that you have such good traffic is an indication you are offering something that people are interested in or curious about. Try a survey to see if that would get you some feedback from the readers who fail to comment.
A musical blog - - - as in "Brigadoon" and "42nd Street"? Just kidding. I love ALL things musical. And there are certainly some musical cats here on AR.
I've been wondering about the same myself, the disconnect between visitors and comments left (not to mention a bona fide lead.) I've changed my point of view and perspective, and am more interested in visitors and exposure, rather than comments. Perhaps those who are visiting are not all "point hunting." I also visit blogs on a daily basis outside of the AR network, and I do not regularly leave comments, but I do take away alot in the form of inspiration.
I've subscribed to your blog. You obviously have so much to offer and learn from. You are leagues further ahead of me in SEO and techie knowledge. Thank you for a great post.
I am jumping in to this post but do not know enough about your past posts to quite grasp this. Could you explain further about the musical aspect?
Your post confused me a bit. I guess I need to go back and read your past posts. I think that it is a great idea to get your personality out in cyberspace. I had a client tell me yesterday that he picked me as his realtor because he like a blog I wrote somewhere else about cooking sweet potatoes! I know he did not leave any comments on that post. He called me instead. So, don't fret about the lack of comments. There are other ways to get feedback that might be much more profitable to you.
John, you are welcome. I learn a lot here as well and have lots of fun (LOL). Club Chaos is my virtual home. :-)
Thank you, Lenn. I am always looking for ways to increase my views. I lurk a lot and don't always comment (although I read as many posts as I can) so I understand that aspect of the virtual equation. Being an unpredictable writer suits me and seems to be working really well with the people who silently follow me about cyberspace. It is important that we monitor our analytics because they can indicate where we need to improve, what we are doing rght and what we may be doing wrong. I know I am doing something wrong and I am hoping as this conversation progresses I will get some helpful suggestions on how to improve my relationship with a higher percentage of my musical viewers.
Rob, I am glad you found something helpful. Thank you. :-)
Sonny, thank you for advocating on my behalf. It is very much appreciated. :-)
Jennifer, I am going to start my Google search for short survey widgets right now. I have yet to do a poll of any kind. I think that is an excellent idea and I hope I can collect some useful data to help me improve my content delivery and engage more people.
Looks like you are doing something right! Thanks for the info.
LOL @ Steve. The cartoons in my head are having a field day with that one (LOL). Think of all the whacked YouTube productions we could create if a few of us got together with a bunch of video cameras and ran amuck in the woods (ROTFLMAO). I seem to recall there being a murder screenplay floating about (Hi Jane!) We could always adapt Paul's novel, eh? :-D
We have got to get our musical peeps organized. Seriously... It will be a blast (LOL). I love The Queen of the Loan and David Saks is amazing. ;-)
Carolyn...
Whew, I get exhausted just reading all of this good stuff.
As far as your question goes, is it really a case of the more the merrier? I have to think about that. Will the Google gods gig us for non-real estate centric content?
I'm not sure. My dad always said that if you wanted to be the best, you had to focus on one thing. Otherwise you are just out there!
Thought provoking post.
Renee, thank you for subscribing. I appreciate you taking the time to read me. I've changed my point of view and perspective on several social media equations as well and also am more interested in visitors and exposure.
I think my comment concerns kicked into high gear when I realized it may not be wise of me to continue to ignore the growing imbalance in my raw numbers. One can skew a statistical explanation to indicate just about any explanation a person wants but one can not escape the raw data as a whole. It is obvious that I have a problem that needs to be addressed and I am hoping people can help me (1) define it and (2) create a plan to improve the ratios.
Girl, is there anything more you can do?
I thought I was over the top on social media sites and blogs. And you have two kids.
I would tend to agree with Lenn that most comments seem to come from industry insiders. It's hard to tell just from the comments who else is reading your material.
Cheryl, I may have to look up an awful lot of links to bring you up to speed. I spoof on so many things I may not even be able to pin point the exact moment it started. Was it YouTube or Mixpo? OMG - I'm having a senior moment (LMAO). I started making music to use on my blog in 2008 and dragged the kids along to have some fun. This YouTube is from Jan 2009. :-)
Amy, my blog is crazy and there are a lot of original musical posts mixed in (LOL). I write about what ever interests me so if you do look it may take you a while to find the relevant posts. Might take a few days, actually (LOL). I started creating them in 2008. I'm poking around for a few useful links to try to bring you up to speed. Four will give you an idea but there are a lot more. This short list may be helpful (I'll work my way backwards to sample from the most recent to mid year):
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1350589/diary-of-a-google-whore-wordy-c-videoblog-11-22-2009-the-alicia-lee-anderson-interview
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1316780/life-with-wee-people-minioncast-where-s-my-podcast-files-seriously-
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1247348/activerain-is-amazing-from-tutorial-spoof-to-independent-record-label-who-knew-
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1217791/queens-county-new-york-usa-tour-of-homes-new-music-from-mommy-and-the-little-minions-
C,
What say you?
You have more energy than at least 3 people. I stand amazed thinking about content for 27 blogs with multiple posts each day... I for one could not do that... I don't think but looking at the question...
"It really is nice that people are going viral with the word of mouth and widget promotions, but 52 comments? What does that tiny number mean?"
In my world 52 comments rock... when I look at the statistics like you are doing and see that people are reading it... your message is getting out there... with so many fantastic posts to look at and read on activerain... some people are just browsing and move on but they did read it. Don't take it personal... and I don't think it is about the music... I think it is about time.
I think there are a lot of musical friends here... Candice D, Gary DiGigorio, TLW and many other dj's... make a group for musically minded activerain friends... and try that direction and see what happens... like minded people will follow and comment. IMHO
Real estate is a jealous master and I agree with Richard about getting too spread out. Time management, a cherry disposition, helpful real estate advice on this platform go along ways. Stealing thunder from another enterprise to help hoist the attention meter...well, everyone has a hobby. Let us know how the conversion goes for you.
Consistency is helpful too in blogging..there are some folks that serve up volumes of pertinent, helpful information. And later there are a series of harsher, sharper edged not comfortable to read ones that cancel it out. People are people. And remember, one out of four of us is mentally ill.
Thank you, Monique. Everyday changes everything... I would love to fnd a way to better balance my virtual resources. There is so much information available on the web it can be hard distinguishing between what is useful and what is not. My strategies have been trial and error (with lots and lots of errors -LMAO). If there is a more scientific or quantifiable approach to organizing my particular brand of blogging madness I am all ears and willing to consider every suggestion.
Richard, I used to want to be "the best", now I just want to be happy and viable (ROTFLMAO). If I do my personal best and fail I've learned to be cool with it, dust myself off and start over. Less stress that way, but still stress involved, so I no longer think of other practitioners as competition - they are just people I will and wont work with depending upon how I am treated. There can only be one number one and no one really knows who that person truly is. It's not like we are comparing 1099s (LMAO). I decided I'd rather eventually be in the top ten percentile (which takes a major investment of time and a lot of very hard work). Because that is a personal goal I'm aiming to connect all of my gifts with the rationale that the whole person is equal to the sum of the his or her parts. Too many Realtors stress being Realtors instead of introducing themselves as a person who happens to do real estate. Our titles don't define us, we define us, so I have a love/hate relationship with real estate and am pretty open about being happy and/or pissed off about what goes on in our industry. I split my time between all of my interests and do not believe they are mutually exclusive so I bring them together and use 'em when someone or something inspires me to create intellectual property BTW, I love your Dad's advice. He sounds like my Dad (LOL). I will aim higher and see where I land. This could get even more interesting (LMAO). ;-)
Missy, I am quirky enough to try (LOL). Life is an adventure that I love to drag my kids along for the ride. :-) I have very few blogs but a lot of bounce pages. If you populate your bounce pages correctly you can use them as an "entry portal" to where you want people to actually go. A bounce site should have five pages or less and not be sticky. You want them to leave in 1 minute or less and when they leave they are going where you send them to go (LOL). That's where you park your advertising, fave links, RSS feeds and teaser content to get their attention and send everyone to your main IDX sites and blogs. Bounce pages are resource links people like to bookmark so they can find everything about you in one spot. If you have ten things you love to do, then devote five bonce pages to them and link them all back to your blogs. :-)
No, no, no I do not have 27 blogs sweetie pie. Carra, I have 27 websites (LOL). Not the same, bay-bay. ;-)
You and Steve bring up a great point. There are a lot of talented people in the Rain and I find so many of my Activepeeps amazing. A lot of my websites need to be redesigned because I have plans for them that require a bit of upgrading. They are simple with pages that load really quick. Minimum widgets is the key.
I also noticed the sites with the hidden counters did way better than the sites with the visible counters. Does that mean some people hesitate to bookmark sites that don't have high traffic numbers or does it mean the appearance of having a lot of visitors gives the false impression that a site is an authority? If you take the counter away from the public will it take the possible stat bias or prejudice away? Hmm... I don't know but I think I have to go hide the rest of my visible visit counters (LMAO). ;-)
Thank you, Andrew. (LMAO)
Kyle, here is the December and October 2008 blog posts by ActiveBrad that got me into using widgets:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/815759/activerain-widgets-the-new-and-approved-html-list
http://activerain.com/blogsview/737748/activerain-approved-widgets-and-script-codes
Kyle, you are very welcome. :-)
We share similar interest, music/real estate, I admire you for keeping up with both. I have only been focusing on the latter.
Carolyn, your thought about the lurkers made me think we should almost have an ability to measure the views that don't comment to know who are the "true lurkers."
AMEN to what Gary wrote!And as long as you've gone to the trouble to hunt up the Brad/widget blogs, I'll go take a look. What do you take for all that high energy?? Maybe you could bottle that and add musical label to the bottle (like those greeting cards that sing when opened). Just another idea to toodle with.
C - You do know that Lisa and I are musicians as well.... We do childrens music therapy for challenged children with Autism and such... We've been doing it for years and have two albums out. Bob Stewart has em too...:-) We love what we do..:-)
Not sure about the mixing of platforms here either... Can't make up my mind about that one.
Best of luck either way.. Just my two cents...
C - Music makes my world a peaceful place. Else-wise I become immersed in Chaos (self inflicted).
Cheers to all your endeavors. Your pace (and posts) keep me energized and aware. Great post (as usual)
Thank you, Lane. I figure if I am going to do it anyway I might as well blog about it. I don't see a need to separate my interests on my blogs since I write to share my day and thoughts. Sometimes I deliberately troll for business, but most of the time I don't or do a soft sell. I've discovered that people Google their interests and if we have a shared interest the potential for being found is greater than if I just wrote about one category. :-)
Gary, I have been exploring all sorts of interesting analytics and widgets. A few platforms generate some very interesting reports as part of their hosting service so what I know about some of my visitors depends upon where I place the content and which scripts are compatible or allowed to run. I have more control over my personal sites but find some packages more convenient.
Sherry, thank you for the kind words and Brad's posts are mad cool useful. ;-)
Robert, I would love to get my hands on copies for the wee people. Will send you an e-mail and see if we can hook up one day soon. That is AWESOME! :-)
Thank you, Claude. I'm cracking up over here about the self inflicted chaos. I'm pretty good at that little habit (LOL). Of course, I have little minions to help me out in that regard so you may have to tack mayhem and madness onto the chaos list (LMAO). ;-)
C- as I said before, keep on writing because you're amazing. I think that a lot of people here at AR who are connected to the RE world will comment if it's pertinent to them and their work. They still enjoy the varied posts you write but may not feel they can contribute anything because you really do cover everything . How about a musical starring the AR Ambassadors?? Maybe "Singing in the Rain" or "RainMan, the Musical"
LOL @ Kathy. Thank you for the kind words and what an interesting idea. I should throw another Skype party and digitally film it (LOL). Might make for a very interesting YouTube. :-)
While you might sweat a little, don't freak. There are sites I have read daily for YEARS and never made a comment. It is the environment.
Lane, very true because I myself an a lurker (LOL). I read way more than I comment on. I just find myself wondering what triggers the moment I or another person decides to comment. Maybe there are just too many variables to figure this out...
C - First I must say.. OMG, I am ah-sticken by you. You truly blow my mind with all that you do. I just don't know how you do it! That being said... if I understand your dilemma, maybe it is based on a different type of audience. Active rain, everyone knows this is a site to express and support and learn so comments fly easily. Too boot, active rain rewards for comments so it encourages people to make comments. Many people would not comment if there was no reward for it.
Maybe the other audience you have that you are asking about, needs to be asked pointed questions so they feel you want them to response. Perhaps they need to be engaged and encouraged to respond. Blogging is something that I was and still am a little uncomfortable with, knowing that... maybe if I was reading or listening to you, I might enjoy it and come back but not respond. However, if I was made to feel your desire was to engage convo with me then maybe my reaction would create a response. Just because they don't respond does not mean you don't invoke thought from them. It just means they have not typed that thought for the world to see. It took me a long time before I would even respond on activerain even with rewards. It is not everyone's comfort zone and it takes alot of practice to feel any level of comfort for many. So perhaps directing specific questions with strong verbiage to indicate you really want that interaction with them, may provide different results.
Just a thought, I hope I expressed my thoughts in a clear way for you to understand what I mean. Writing is a gift that not everyone posses, my worst subject so I completely can relate to others lack of repsonse. It just may take some prodding to get others to partake.
Dianne, awesome. One of my sites lets people fan me and breaks down their locations, what music they are listening to while listening to my song and charts their age brackets. It even has a global map and US map where I know the percentages of listeners by state and country. I can broadcast or individually e-mail the people who fan me. I haven't used that feature but maybe I will start.
Thank you for encouraging me to ask them specific questions. I'm trying to think of a topic that might make for a decent group discussion. :-)
I with you, do what make you smile. You just keep doing what your doing cuz in words of the song ffrom The Who..... Only Love can make it rain...Love Reign O'er me
Oooooo. Diane, I love The Who. I should go Blip.fm that (LOL) :-)
Here is one idea that may help.
Blog on forums where people are fanatical about music. Here is how i would target forums that would get you viewers you need.
Go to google. com. just type in music or songs, or whatever you think appporiate. Now on the top you will see a link called more options. click on this.
On the right hand tool bar you will see many options. Look for the word forums and then click on this. Google immediately finds forums related to the word songs, musci, etc. I would then selct forums with people of greater than 1000 members and start commenting on them. Within 60 days you should see the trageted traffic spike through the roof.
If you need more detailed information send me a message with your questions and i will try to get as mcuh information back to you as possible.
Good luck
neil
Neil, thank you. I am cooking something up right now. :-)