Recently in Blog Writing Category

No, it's not The Muppet Show - it's the brand new, all singing, all dancing, all marketing Atomik Soapbox.

Y'see the old blog at CopyWrite had become unfoccused and unsure what it was - a blog about being a writer that mentioned marketing, or a marketing blog impersonating a writing one. So the time came to split it down the middle, repot the cuttings, add some fertiliser (there's an obvious joke there) and...

Remember the school yard? Remember how whenever there was a fight, every child from miles around would crowd in a circle, joining in one massive spectator sport? No other playground activity could attract as much attention, except maybe streaking naked past the staff room window with the headmaster's snapped-off car aerial in your hands.

In this new online world of social media, the fight rule also seems to apply. Controversy wins.

Is your company blog doomed to failure? The web is littered with the graveyards of failed corporate blogs that faded after a handful of poorly received posts. Others limp along as part of an approved marketing campaign, chewing resources but never quite returning the glowing response originally promised.

A short message from freezing Paris just to remind you all I'm still out here. Obviously, blogging comes a distant second when in the company of my new wife in the City of Love, so i know you'll forgive me.

Some fantastic news to finish 2008 came in the form of the inaugural Moggie Awards over at Media Hunter. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that one of my posts had been shortlisted for the award for the best Australian marketing post for 2008.

What a wonderful way to finish off a great year. One of my posts - Linkbait at any cost - has been nominated in the Moggies. Rewarding the best Australian marketing post for 2008,The Moggies are being run over at Media Hunter and are supported by Marketing Magazine. Kudos indeed to be included in the final ten nominees.

Bloggers love exploiting hot topics, because they know they draw traffic. Stick the right words in a headline and you are almost guaranteed a boost. Add a dose of titillation as well, by slipping sex and/or scandal into the subject, and you’ve got an instant headline classic that people can’t resist clicking!

Sex, religion and politics. Yup, today’s blog post has it all. A free-for-all grab-bag smorgasbord of controversy. So why would I risk poking the three most sensitive topics with my razor sharp intellect and ‘I am right’ opinions?

Well, apart from the fact that I am right – see above – the real theme of today’s post is controversy. Is it worth using controversy to create buzz? Can it backfire? I explore those ideas through the filter of the traditional triumvirate of controversy.

Would you Adam and Eve it. 'B and T' magazine, one of the premier marketing and advertising magazines in Australia, recently listed the Top 50 Australian Marketing Blogs as determined by Julian Cole at AdSpace Pioneers.

The cover version has always been a popular musical trend, yet covering someone else’s song is not unique to music. Bloggers frequently ‘cover’ another blog post, presenting the same thoughts and conclusions as a way of entering or continuing the online conversation.

It might seem odd to talk about blogging in these terms, but the analogy is sound.

Well, who’da thunk it?

My plea for Sphinns resulted in a huge outpouring of support. Once the post gained some momentum (at first, people seemed to be nervous about jumping on board) the Sphinns rolled in so fast that the post not only went hot but became the hottest post of the day!

For most of the day, though, it was narrowly being beaten by Jeff Quips submission announcing the arrival of a little Wiep. This has led me to thinking that I should start pressuring my girlfriend so that I can have another white-hot post in nine months.

But finally my post crept forward, taking the lead and going on to reach a staggering 51 Sphins! This is actually more Sphinns than all my other submissions added together and is deserving of a huge amount of thanks to all of you.

So what can be learned from this experiment?