Back to the Basics: Word of Mouth Marketing

 

Welcome, welcome! If you’re here for the first time and are looking for the low-down on No Mom Talk Monday and what it’s all about, you can read that here! If you’re a seasoned pro and have been participating in No Mom Talk, then you know what to do. You can grab the button in the sidebar and the linkup is at the end. We had TWELVE linkups last week! Woo! The word is spreading, ladies!

NOTE: If you are linking up to No Mom Talk, please, please, please mention it in your post and/or include a button to link back here. There were several participants last week who joined but didn’t include any kind of link-up information. We’re working to spread the word about this meme, and I can’t do that without your help. So leave some love so other’s know where to find us. 🙂

I was amazed by the response I received from my post about plagiarism last week. I knew this was an issue, but I was amazed by how many of you have been affected by this directly. It’s a serious issue and one that is having an impact on bloggers everywhere. My question to you guys is: what do you do when you encounter it? How do you handle it? Do you address the issue or let it go, pretending you never saw it?

I’ve continued to do a lot of thinking about my blog—where I want to take it, how I want to go about getting there, sponsorship [which is OPEN right now…and I’m looking for great, quality women and businesses to feature…click for info], and what really matters to me.

Now that I’m in the world of blogging, I probably won’t ever leave. Blogging has become a habit, an outlet, a sanctuary for some of my deepest thoughts & biggest frustrations, as well as a gathering place where I can meet up with some of the most genuine people I’ve ever known and talk about things that actually matter to me. But in this fast paced, networking world we live in, I’ve had to stop and step back a little bit.

Liz wrote about this a few weeks ago, and there have been many who have begun to follow in her footsteps. And I’m right there with her. I made mental notes the other day on how I spent my internet time. Turns out that about 85% of my time online was spent “networking” and spreading word about my blog instead of actually reading other blogs or writing my own. Granted, I was off my schedule a little bit with the husband home all week [I always tend to break off a little when he’s around a lot…I enjoy “our” time].

The conclusion I came to is this: back before Twitter, Linked In, Tumblr, etc…there was just blogging. There were just the words; just the content. The bloggers who have achieved monumental success in the past year or two, achieved that success by blogging. They got to where they are by creating quality content and interacting with the people who showed up to read that content. They didn’t sit and stumble or tweet or Facebook to get their stuff out there. They relied on the most powerful form of marketing: word of mouth. They entrusted their readers with the responsibility to spread their name, their content, the voice across the blogosphere.

And that’s what I’m going to get back to. I have no intentions of deleting my Twitter or Facebook account. I may have intentions of not utilizing it as heavily for blog purposes, but I do enjoy the conversation with other readers. And I love finding new blogs to read and follow via tweets. But I am stepping back from some of the other networks. Linked In, for example. I’ve yet to figure out the real purpose behind this site and what exactly it’s supposed to “do” for me and my blog.

I’ll be spending my blog time writing quality content for you guys, because writing is ultimately the reason behind this blog…the passion behind my purpose. And I’m looking to find lots and lots of new blogs to read. I used to have hundreds of blogs in my Google Friend Connect stream. And when I moved to WordPress, I lost a lot of those. So I’m looking forward to getting back out there and finding new blogs to read, and hopefully in turn, new readers.

But my question for you is what do you enjoy reading about the most here on my blog? Which posts do you enjoy the most? Are there some things you prefer to read over others? I have stat measuring plugins and whatnot that is supposed to give me an idea about what you guys seem to prefer based on page hits…but my readers are so loyal that read every day…no matter what I post. And that’s a GOOD thing. It overwhelms me with joy to know that you guys continue to come back. I’m just looking to hear what it is you like the best. 🙂 Share your insight with me, please.

Hope you guys have a wonderful, wonderful Monday! Make sure you come back tomorrow for another fantastic interview with my absolute favorite Graphic Designer! And don’t forget to check out this past weeks Feature Friday Sunday. I was late in posting it so it when up yesterday and I’m not sure everyone saw it.