"The greatest fertilizer is the shadow of the gardener."
I've been a passionate gardener for many years. I heard that quote a long time ago, and
it's the mantra I live by for my garden. The more attention I put into it, the better
results I get. It's not a question of hovering--the seeds germinate and the plants
develop at their own pace. But daily attention lets me capture small problems before they
get big, notice my successes so I can create more of them, and create the right environment
for my garden to flourish.
Can you sense a metaphor coming on? (Gardening is one of those great uber-metaphors--it
works for everything.) The same daily attention that lets my garden flourish also helps my
Web presence to grow organically.
(OK, metaphor veering into bad pun territory, sorry.)
Start with the soil
You won't be able to grow anything more interesting than dandelions if you don't understand
your soil. Know (and fix) its deficiencies whenever you can. Understand what it's going to
grow well and what it will probably never be able to support.
To translate this to your Web presence, your "soil" is probably your understanding of
your market. This doesn't have to be commercial--your market could be your
customers, your nonprofit donors, your church, your PTA--whoever it is that you want to
influence and create a relationship with. Notice that it's your understanding of
those folks that matters. You need to know what they want, what they worry about, what they
value. If you don't have that, any other work you do will be hit-or-miss, with more misses
than hits.
That said, there's not a gardener worth his salt who will wait until the soil is perfect
before he starts planting. Soil is never perfect, and neither is understanding. Know when
to get them to "good enough" to get started, and then keep amending.
Remember, too, that different soil is good for different plants. If you have alkaline
clay and brutal sun, like we do here in most of Colorado, your desire for rhododendrons is
going to be a painful and labor-intensive one. Try and communicate with folks you already
have a feeling for. I'm never going to excel at the mass market or the ultra technical. That's completely fine. I can reach millions of people with the messages that come most
naturally to me.
Don't plant a monocrop
Creating different Web points of contact is like planting different plants. There are
dozens if not hundreds of options now. Blogs, e-newsletters, static Web pages, Squidoo
lenses, HubPages, ezine articles, Gather articles, Facebook, Tumblelogs. Create a nice
assortment to get the cross-pollination you need.
Remember not to create more sites or touchpoints than you can take care of. Each little
content corner you create should be visited regularly, spruced up as needed, tested for
broken links, and generally given some love and attention.
Different content types have different needs. Once your ezine (or Gather, or any of the
other similar sites) article is written and published, you need to check it for errors that
were introduced in the process, and then it will pretty much live on its own. You might
check it every six months or so for broken links, but that should do it. On the other hand,
to stay effective, you need to keep feeding your favorite article sites with new content, to
build and maintain a reputation as a worthy authority on your subject.
(On that subject, I don't recommend submitting the same article to multiple sites.
Google discounts duplicated content. You can write dozens of articles on the same
subject---just develop new examples and new metaphors. You can borrow the gardening
analogy any time you like.)
Squidoo lenses do best with a fertilize-and-prune every couple of weeks. Add a content
module, consider removing one that's not performing, or update some of your links with
fresher, more exciting stuff.
Contributing to social sites like Facebook or forums depends on developing trust with
your friends--you probably want to check in at least once or twice a day. And opinions
differ about how often one should post on a blog, but twice a week is probably the bare
minimum, and most successful bloggers post at least once daily.
Always have a flat of seedlings to plant
I got this particular method from Ed Dale over at Thirty Day Challenge: create Google News,
Google Blogs, and Technorati watches on the subjects you like to write about. Subscribe to
all of these in an RSS reader. When an interesting story comes up, clip the most relevant
points into a product like Backpack or Google Notes. I like to create a text file with 3-5
possible points I want to cover, and any juicy quotes or connections.
You're a lot less
likely to get shut down by writer's block if you have plenty of irresistible idea seeds just
waiting to be grown into solid content. Dale uses these to create tiny articles--just a
few paragraphs--but the idea works just as well if you're long-winded like I am.
For another source of ideas to develop, make a habit of tucking a few blank 3x5 cards
into every book you read, whether for work or for pleasure. Copy down quotes (and identify
them as such with very clear quote marks and a page number--you don't want to become an
accidental plagiarist). Scribble ideas, especially any connection you can make to
something else. Every day, take your 3x5 cards for the day and transcribe
them into your online tool. Paper is magnificent, but bytes win this one hands down.
And always credit the book where you originally found the idea--it's just good
manners, and it enhances your credibility. No one expects you, especially in the 21st
century, to grow all your own ideas from the ground up.
Related viewing:
Darren Rowse's nice video post on how blogging is like growing a lawn.