Marketing my blog

I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve last blogged. I’m not saying that that’s necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it might actually be a very good thing. It sure has saved me a lot of time. And for anyone who was tempted to visit this site during the past week, I’m sure it’s been an equally great savings of time and effort.

This got me thinking. Should I take advantage of this absence of content on my blog? Is an empty space under the current date appealing? Might this be something that people might actually need? Could this be a favorite feature, the blank page? Should I rename my blog something like “A blog for the busy professional?” How about this? “Hey you, I’m offering a blog which you can visit in record time. Add one more blog to your list of blogs visited, and feel great that you have not wasted any time at all.”

Marketing my blog has never been an interest, much less even a thought these past many months. But marketing seems to be the world we live in. We’re inundated from the time we crawl out of bed to the second we click off the TV at night with pleas and plugs and pushes to notice others that we might otherwise try to ignore. At home, I’m buried with piles of junk mail that accumulate faster than I can toss them, my phone rings almost constantly with people on the other end that I have no interest in talking to, people selling expensive money in the guise of “helping me.” The hard and soft sell is everywhere. Those clamoring for our attention are ever-present. Some get heard others do not.

I was intrigued yesterday afternoon by a sight that made me think about the importance of relevant marketing. Some local fixtures had put a new spin on their craft. I was driving just north of downtown Minneapolis and the usual street beggars were working a busy corner, one block east of the freeway and one block west of four notorious dives, including Stand-up Franks and Irv’s Bar. The industrious, ingenious entrepreneurs had made some new signs for the unusually warm January Friday afternoon. The signs read “Why lie / Need Beer.” It first brought a smile to my face and a chuckle inside. I tried not to be judgmental over the fact that they missed a question mark in their first line. But then I noticed that I have never seen so many windows rolled down offering help. Maybe it was a response to what people perceived as honesty, or maybe it was that those in the cars could actually relate better to those on the street corner holding the signs. Seeing someone with a sign proclaiming homelessness might actually widen the gap between the driver and the walker/stander. And then the bit about “God Bless,” might actually make people uncomfortable. But hey, yesterday right there in front of me, is a guy who just needs a beer. He’s just like me . . . , (except for the fact that I don’t touch the stuff. Not that I personally abhor the sludge, but it would seriously cut into my coffee and Dairy Queen budget.) But for most of the driver’s around me, they were probably racing home to pop a cold one. Maybe that’s why I saw a high five between one of the encounters. So maybe these guys had struck a chord with the motoring crowd, especially on a sunny Friday.

But back to my idea of marketing my blog for those who don’t have time to actually read blogs. It could be a place to go with low commitment on the part of the reader. How 21st century is that? It would provide no controversy, no guilt, and no challenging ideas. It would have no tempting links. It would provide service on the par of a McDonald’s drive thru.

I suppose I had something valuable going this past week (silence, white space, peace), but now the weekend has come and I’ve screwed it up. I’ve written a whole lot of words, and they’ve been provided with not even one lousy picture to break up the monotony. Oh well, maybe I should go read some marketing books.