Greetings and Salutations -

My hectic string of days is now behind me :). I had a graduation party on Saturday which was enormously fun. I had friends visiting which meant my hurricane of a house needed intense cleaning. Then Bob and I celebrated our 18 year anniversary on Tuesday with a delightful walk out on Plum Island nature preserve.

I definitely recommend that each of us take time out to celebrate those we love. Time slips by so quickly. Find even little ways to spend time with those you care for, and to send notes to special people in your world.

Now, though, I can get back to answering emails and such :). That's important too!

Once I get through all the chat-time responses I'll send out a note with the day / time for our Google+ chat. I definitely recommend either attending or reading the log afterward. Google+ is critical for all of our web projects, be they with BellaOnline or elsewhere. Google has its tendrils in everything :).


BLOGS

Many of us have blogs on our personal sites. I have five WordPress blogs myself. A friend of mine just forwarded me results from a fascinating study. Imagine you're a user going to google to look for "how to fold an origami crane". You are presented with a list of results. If one of those results says "blog" in it - either in the title or description - you would statistically be 71% **LESS** likely to click on it.

That word "blog" - for many people - is a deterrent. They are less likely to click on blog entries. They have a bias in their brain that a blog will provide lower quality results than the other alternatives shown to them.

This is definitely good to ponder. You want people to click on your links and to read your content! If you are currently using the word "blog" in your titles or descriptions, it might be worth considering trimming that out.

Here at BellaOnline we never use the term "blog". Our material we provide is content, and then we have forums to discuss that content. So while we sometimes have a personal angle on the content, we are different from a traditional "blog" which is more of a "diary" style presentation. It seems to be that "blog = diary" bias that a large number of web readers still have burned into their brains. Whether we agree or disagree with that being a valid connection in 2013, it's definitely good to know it exists. It's good to structure your writing efforts to take advantage of that kind of knowledge.

I admit that my five WordPress blogs are indeed called "blogs" and have the word "blog" all over them :). So this is going on my to-do list, to change that! In my case I use my blogs more as press release engines, to send out notes of new content I've added to the site. Even so, I would want everything I post to get the maximum traffic possible.

If you'd like brainstorming help for any blogs you might run, swing by our Blogs forum! We'll offer a variety of ideas.

Sincerely,

Lisa Shea, owner
BellaOnline.com

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