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Blog Advice from Winnie the Pooh

Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 11:00AM by Registered CommenterJessica Ek in | Comments12 Comments

Sometimes you find the best ideas in the strangest of places. And while some of the thoughts may not be new, thinking about them in a novel way can give you just time for reflection you need to truly take them to heart and incorporate them into your daily life. One place where I find such wisdom is Winnie the Pooh and if you take another look at this childhood icon, you may find that he has a lot to say about the project you’re working on now. I give you the Blog of Pooh.

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like ‘What about lunch?’”
Blog readers stop by for a quick snippet of information. Let’s make it easy on them. Now is not the time to pull out the flowing prose, but instead a chance to reach out to someone and offer an idea. If they like what you wrote they will come back, and if it’s easy to read in a short period of time, they will be more likely to enjoy it. Plus, shorter words are more popular search terms, so using them can be more helpful for search engine results.

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
This is a poignant reminder to branch out from your own URL every once in a while. Become a participating member in the Internet community and comment on other blogs. If you make really interesting comments elsewhere, readers will follow them like bread crumbs back to your site.

“If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”
While visitors may not have fluff in their ears exactly, there may be a reason they aren’t hearing what you’re saying. Don’t be afraid to blog again on the same topic, just in a different way. Sometimes it takes creativity, patience, and persistence to really connect with an audience, but if you have an important message, it’s worth the effort.

“It gets you nowhere if the other person’s tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation.”
This one may be less obvious, but another issue, especially with blogs, is that someone may not get all of the message. A reader could do a search and surf onto your site at any point and they may not stay long. You have a short period of time to grab their attention and turn them around. If you have a blog entry that builds off of a previous entry, be sure to add an easy link back for anyone joining in the middle. Also, make sure there is an easy to spot About page that can be accessed from anywhere on your site and can quickly orient a new visitor.

“‘I don’t see much sense in that,’ said Rabbit.
“‘No,’ said Pooh humbly, ‘there isn’t. But there was going to be when I began it. It’s just that something happened to it along the way.’”
It’s always good to have a plan. And sometimes it’s a good idea to stick to that plan. Other times, you drift away from the original goal when you have latched onto a better idea. The trick is to know when you’re headed in the right direction and when your new direction just doesn’t make sense. The key here is to look for feedback from your audience about what they want to read and connect that to what you can tell them. If you are writing about your area of expertise and you have a strong audience base; that is the ideal direction.

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Reader Comments (12)

I am a devote fan of the Toa of Pooh! Consider the most powerful force on Earth, it is water. Water always takes the easiest way and makes the biggest impact. BTW, will the Te of Piglet be making a posting?
Love you services and response time, check out my blog and let me know if you have any suggestions, comments, questions or witticisms.
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June 28, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterTracy Lindsay
Wise words indeed (and entertaining too - bringing back childhood memories!).

I think the points you make are pertinent. With regard to the last point, I follow Winnie the Pooh's advice by using StatCounter and the traffic log on SquareSpace to carefully monitor which pages my readers visit (and which ones they don't!), how long they stay and where they move onto from my pages...and I try as much as possible to adapt to their wishes and desires...sometimes perhaps even making them remove that little piece of fluff in their ears! ;)
June 28, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterPixel-Pixie
lol Excellent references to a great child hood memory there and believe it or not it makes more sense then most things in life.

=0) maybe your still a child at heart jessica what with been able to create such a connection.
June 28, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterResonate
Excellent post, Jessica. Not for the first time in my life, I bow before the wisdom of Pooh.
June 29, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterJulian Gough
Excellent post, Jessica. Not for the first time in my life, I bow before the wisdom of Pooh.
June 29, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterJulian Gough
THis info has been useful 2 me.thk u!
July 1, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterCHIA HUI TING HEIDI
Lovely!
July 1, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterHuib
Too Cute!!
July 3, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterMeredith
I know this is totally off-topic... but, any news as to when we'll see e-commerce functionality? I am just dying to see that.
July 10, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterHarold
This is such a cute artical. I sent it to everyone i know!
July 17, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterChelsea 4 ever
I never realized how a childhood book could teach me and help me to understand so many things in my life after 40.
July 19, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterStill Learning

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