Traffic and Twitter – Ways to Integrate Into Site
I’ve noticed that many of the writers I admire are developing quite a nice healthy flow of information on Twitter. As such, I don’t feel the need to check out their websites. I wonder if this is a really bad thing or if I’m just one of the rare exceptions. They do post links but with no information, and so many other tweets from other people, who is going to take the time to click on them?
I am no SEO expert, which is why you don’t see well placed google ads here. Perhaps it’s time to slap a few up. With my stead flow of 10 readers a day I really should start cashing in. So this post about Twitter is just going to be general comments and observations.
Twitter is the best PR tool ever invented. It is the best way to sell yourself in clever little bits on a daily basis. I have noticed from my tiny corner of the world, it works best as a news delivery device (“tobacco is a nicotine delivery device”- The Insider). It works best as a way to give snippets of info to your followers that they can use to either retweet or report on their own blog. But if you give it all away you are going to lose revenue at some point. True, you have your personality and your thousands of followers to think about, but if you’re trying to draw traffic to your site – you have to rethink your Twitter persona.
I can think of about five people who use Twitter to effectively bring people back to either their own website or their mother ship. If you work for, say, the New York Times or USA Today or any other major publications or company, you don’t have to bring people to your site unless you want to. Your job is to up your own pedigree as either a clever observer or a news deliverer. But if you are like me and you ARE your site (not this little satellite but my main site, awardsdaily.com), then your Twitter has to act as a way to both engage your followers while also making sure they WANT to click those links to bring them back to your own backyard.
The top two people who use it don’t even need to use it, really. What they do is use Twitter as an extension to what they do on their sites, not as a replacement. By commenting on what they have been involved in and what they are doing and how their real time activities fit into their daily workload they bring their followers and readers into the process.
It goes without saying that it’s a useful tool for celebrities because they haven’t ever had a way to communicate with their fans directly. And it can be surreal to communicate directly with famous people. But Twitter, and the internet in general, has leveled the playing field between “normal people” and those who have been lifted to a higher level. Egads, I’ve completely lost track of my point. Where is the coffee already.
Okay, so the bottom line is this. If your aim is to bring people back to your site, entertain them on Twitter, give them hints about what you’ve been working on but do not make it easy for them by giving them all of your news all day long. Why on earth would they ever feel the need to visit your site?
But if you don’t need them for traffic, by all means, let the news flow. Be mindful of what you need Twitter for. It is a useful tool. It is less useful for just shooting the shit. Facebook is for that. Twitter will help you sell yourself. Okay, I guess that sort of counts as a point.
My Friend Rain
Pic above from a story in the Ojai Post about Rain
I’ve known Rain Perry since high school. We were in French class together! And in the drama club. We used to hang out in Upper Ojai, wandering the streets that threaded through the hills of the mostly redneck community. Rain wasn’t from there – had an educated and artsy father. Most of the folks who lived in Upper Ojai back then were either hippies or country folk, with an oddball or two here or there. But Rain was very different. She’d come from Colorado but you could really say she was also a city girl. Rain knew about things other people didn’t, which was what attracted people to her back then. It also made her a bit of an outsider among those folk. But she found her way – and remains, to this day, the most popular friend I have – meaning – she has more friends than anyone else I know. She is kind and thoughtful, bright and talented. Rain lost her mother when she was a small child. And she was raised by her father — who was a force of nature. He traveled all over California in search of some kind of fame — he had girlfriends that Rain became attached to, and then the girlfriends would go away. He was a great guy. I knew him well and believe me, he is not a guy you forget.
He died a while back — and before he died he threw himself a funeral.
I spent a lot of time with Rain and her father — I probably overstayed my welcome. I was kind of like a stray cat growing up. I sort of lived with other people, other families. Looking back on it now, as an adult with my own kid – those families were so kind to feed me and let me sleep at their houses. I was hardly ever home.
Anyway, Rain and I had many adventures together — to detail them now would be, well, embarrassing! But I will say that Rain once patiently tried to teach me how to sing. It didn’t work, but she tried. Rain has been a singer/songwriter ever since I’ve known her. She started out as a girl with a guitar at an alternative high school in Colorado. She kept singing and playing – and continues to sing and play.
But the reason I’m writing this is because, after many concerts, after marriage and kids, after a long life of kind of working steadily as a musician – one of Rain’s songs was chosen for the CW’s show Life Unexpected. It is a big deal when something like this happens. Rain is now going to have so many fans. It could not happen to a nicer girl or a more talented artist.
Brad and Angie More Breakup Rumors
This came from Howard Stern’s radio show, posted by someone over at ONTD:
While listening to Rosie Radio this morning Howard Stern popped in for a little surprise talk and they got on the subject of Brad and Angelina. Howard said that they are no longer together and Rosie asked Howard if he actually knew that or was just going off of the tabloids and Howard said the he knows that. Rosie asked how and he said that he knows people and knows things and that he can pretty much say for sure that they are no longer together.
Howard said that even though Angelina Jolie is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen that Brad should have known better since Billy Bob Thorton, a man who has a fear of antiques and only eats orange food, said that she had too many problems for him.
So there ya go. Howard Stern is a pretty honest guy and I believe pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth.
I hope it isn’t true. Maybe they’re just taking a break from each other. But all those kids – relationships have a hard time staying healthy when just one kid comes along, but that many kids in that many years?
Their relationship, as lived through our eyes, moment by moment, picture by picture, detail by details, seemed like a fantasy. The births in Africa, the flying lessons, the international adoptions, the twins, the animal-noises sex, the big house in France, the sexy photos for W magazines, the red carpet displays of affection – that yellow dress at Cannes. It was a moment for our time – and why is it poor old Brad Pitt is always the guy who has the girl and they become the couple that defines our time?
A trip down memory lane:
Dairy Farmer Kills 51 Cows Then Himself
This story has to be one of the saddest ever:
COPAKE, N.Y. – State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.
State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police.
State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues.
The Columbia County hamlet of Copake is about 115 miles north of New York City.
Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.
iSlate First Look
The Apple Insider has a pretty picture of what the iSlate will look like.
Nestled in an aluminum shell that leverages the Apple’s expertise in unibody construction but thinner proportionality than the original iPhone, the tablet reportedly sports all of the same buttons found on the handset, right down to its iconic home button — which, like the volume toggle, is missing from the rendering.
Similarly, the tablet is said to sport all the same in/out connectivity as the current iPhone 3GS, including a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speaker grills, a microphone, GPS, 3G connectivity and a 30-pin dock connector. Like the rendering, its 10-inch display is framed by a black border that bleeds into its wrap-around aluminum enclosure.
This is exciting because that damned iphone is almost enough to be able to use remotely — just a tad small. So this little bugger is perfect to take anywhere and have laptop connectivity. It would be perfect, for instance, for covering the DGA Awards, which I’ll be doing at the end of the month. As it is, I’ll have to use my iPhone or else perhaps my wireless card, if I can find a good one.
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About Me
I spend way too much thinking about me.
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