Making Netprints Visible

Perhaps you've returned to this site for another Domino's Pizza story. Perhaps this is your first visit to this Blog, ever. I really does not matter why you came, but I would like to make sure you come back. From a personal perspective, I would like to think that my random mutterings and witty writing style (if you can call it that) are enough of a reason to keep coming back on a regular basis. But how can I tell that I'm accomplishing the goal?

First, if you have not read the Privacy Policy, which is displayed in the administrative column of this blog (to the right on the current template), you might want to read it. It tells you that I might cause a cookie to be put on your machine, to help serve and track which advertisements you click on. Advertisements? What Advertisements?

If you read closely, I used the wiggle word "might" in the opening statement. Since I currently have an advertising supported blog, with an AdSense account, It's not too hard to add this blog to it, once it's approved by the Google content police. If you want to keep your ads, you'd better keep away from certain things - and with the audience that I know exists, I don't consider the Internet or the Blogosphere a place where it is safe to let-loose with the four-letter Anglo-Saxon set of colorful words, or anything that is strictly HBO fare.

Ah, you say. I've got you pegged, Mr. Blog Editor, you're here to earn advertising revenue.
I would not be able to disagree. I've seen the advertisements from Google "If you can Blog, you can Earn" and others like it. I have also read and reviewed a number of successful blogs, with lots of followers, comments, and a vibrant and living community. Yes, I created a blog because I believed that it was a marketable idea, and that means marketable on multiple fronts.


Of course, I did not know what markets my blog would appeal to until I got some kind of feedback. Like many other bloggers, my personal friends were happy to tell me what they think, and I took that feedback and stowed it. I keep looking for more of an indication as to the correct target market. After discovering a site that featured regularly updated fiction, I realized that I had created a daily blogfic that was worth listing, just because there were so few dailys out there. Generally, you're getting paid if you blog every day. Not me. Not yet.


Feedback in the form of a comment is great, but it's not all of the feedback that is out there. Just the fact that people other than I were visiting my blog would be enough. If people like it, they will come back for more, so page impressions would give me a nice counter to see. I thought of putting up a hit counter, like a little odometer, but thought better of it. It seems to be more like bragging than anything else, and my blog was not appropriate for a counter.


Then I got feedback. One of the fiction sites that I listed on had a couple of votes. 3 and 3.5 stars out of five. At least they did not give it the one-star-of-death. Plus, I am still writing. One reader also wrote a review, with feedback that I was able to use. Rather than just comply, making it easier for passersby, I used that same material as the seed for a marketing campaign.


I've been investing a good chunk of personal time on the task of pumping up the reader-base, and if you count visitors to the site as success, then I have had fantastic success. How many of those readers convert to regular readership, only time will tell. However, just like I crave feedback, I have come to realize that my readers might like some feedback as well.


Since the current campaign is via direct-mail, and I hand address each piece and pay proper full price postage, with a stamp, it's about as personal a request as I could ever make. The genius is the fact that it is a post-card, which means it's safe. It can't hold anything, like a suspicious white powder, and can't languish unopened, just with one face down. As soon as you uncover it, you recognize it. It's cheap. It's effective, and it's useful when reading the blog too.


So, here's the reverse-reward feedback. I hope it results in improved retention, as I have not had follow-on hits from the initial target states. Since you're not completely anonymous on the Internet, and are quite traceable, I've loaded my blog template with Google Analytics tracking code. Once you have an Analytics account, you can track multiple websites, with resolution as fine as the city in which the traffic originated. Every time a visit occurs from a new city, it will be added to the top of the list that now appears at the bottom of the blog.


Anyone who sees that list, is highly likely to see if their city is already named. If they come back, they will see new cities at the top. While this is a low-tech version of the "hits across the world" maps that feature pins or flags, I like it better for the following reasons.

1. I don't need another map of the English speaking world
2. 200 pixels is too small for a reasonable map anyway
3. the list is in order, most recent first, honoring those that came before
4. I can turn text into hyperlinks, and could get paid to do so
5. It's much more personal that a number on a counter
6. It probably loads faster than a graphic that needs a database of points.
7. It's trivial to update frequently.
8. It's only on the website.

This is February's twist on the marketing campaign. It also reveals that other people are interested in the blog, since the list is currently more than will fit on any reasonable screen size, but not so long that it prints on more than a single page. Being the beginning of the month, it is a good time to make such a change. I'll let you know how thing go with the marketing and the quest for readership. In the mean time, please rest assured that I am nowhere near done with Pizza.