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On Friday The Marketing Spot blog turned 1 year old. Nobody sent me a card. Heck my wife didn’t even remember. So if for no reason other than narcissism, let’s take a look at the first year of The Marketing Spot.
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| Flickr photo by Lee Coursey |
On April 25, 2007 I wrote my first post: iChange, Apple’s Glimpse of the Future. As of today there are now 144 entries. I strained pretty hard to write that first post. It’s ironic that the ideas for posts were slow and labored during those first few months. I now have 20 unpublished drafts in my Blogger dashboard, plus a planned 8-part series in June.
I only blogged occasionally and not seriously until late July when I decided I needed a purpose and a regular posting schedule. Around that time I was listening to the audio version of Seth Godin’s Small is the New Big (Seth reads pretty good!). The book gave me the idea of posting my first series, a week-long look at the best small business marketing chapters from that book. I tracked down Seth’s email address to let him know what I was doing. He wrote back with a polite thanks and that was cool. I got an email from Seth Godin! That email pumped me up and I was off to the blogging races.
Here are the highlights of The Marketing Spot, Volume One:
THE PEOPLE
My first thank you is to John Moore, who has blessed me in so many ways. Brand Autopsy is the blog that got me interested in blogging, and John is the person who encouraged me to go for it.
Thanks also to Bob Bly and his book Blog Schmog. It’s the only book I read prior to firing up the blog. Bob has since shared his direct mail copywriting advice as a guest on the Power to the Small Business podcast.
Jerad Kaliher of Bust a Change was the first blogging friend I made. I can’t even remember how we started talking. He probably commented on one of my posts. One time he asked me for some feedback on his blog but I quickly realized that I should have been the one asking him for advice. Jerad has contributed a guest post that received quite a bit of traffic.
In February I met Becky Carroll of Customers Rock! and we decided to team up for our year-long reExperience Starbucks project. Her positive outlook is an inspiration to me and her timely advice gives me the feeling of having a big sister (but I’m pretty sure I’m older).
THE MILESTONES
Some pretty cool things have happened Since April 07.
First Link Love: Balloon Payments on Brand Autopsy from my What’s Your Sky King? post. As a result, I learned that I needed to get better at blog titles. Thanks John (again)!
First Direct Business because of the blog: Speaking at the 2009 National Golf Course Owners Association Conference in New Orleans. The organizer of the event landed on The Marketing Spot through a link from another blog and a couple of months later we had an agreement. Thanks Anne!
First Blog Award: Named one of the Top 100 Business Blogs by John Crickett of Business Opportunities and Ideas in October ’07. Thanks John C!
First Podcast: Premier Blogcast: 4 Things You Need To Know About Getting a Website with Larry Bailin of Single Throw. I met Larry at BlogWorld in November where he was promoting his book: Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From?. Larry was a personable guy full of encouraging advice. At the time I was pondering the start of my podcast and Larry seemed like a logical first guest. Thanks Larry!
First Collaborative Book: Age of Conversation: Why Don’t People Get It? I will be contributing a chapter in the Manifestos section of the book. Thanks Drew & Gavin! (Yes, I’m working on my chapter)
THE TOP BLOG POSTS
Top Ranked Posts (non Starbucks)
(According to Lijit and based on traffic, links, Delicious, and Diggs)
You Are Part Of The Conversation. Guaranteed! – The call to everyone to participate in round two of Age of Conversation.
A Remarkable Customer Experience: Power to The Small Business Blogcast – John Moore as guest. He’s everywhere!
Accidental Branding – Review of David Vinjamuri’s popular book.
Premier Blogcast: 4 Things You Need To Know About Getting a Website – Larry Bailin about his book and setting up a website that works for you.
spotlight…ON MARKETING: Writing Customer Stories – A slidecast of a piece of one of my workshops. This one was a featured slidecast on SlideShare.
Top Clicked Posts
(According to Feedburner)
Everything Will Go Mobile featuring HP Chair/CEO/President Mark Hurd. Far and away my most-clicked post with more than double the traffic of any other post.
A Remarkable Customer Experience: Power to The Small Business Blogcast – John Moore keeps popping up.
Advertising on Local Websites – Not a great post in my opinion, but a lot of people seemed to be interested in it.
Premier Blogcast: 4 Things You Need To Know About Getting a Website – Interview with Larry Bailin about the basics of setting up an effective website.
Websites 101 for Small Businesses – Short review of Larry Bailin’s book (mentioned above). Readers seem to like website stuff.
Top Starbucks Posts
reExperiencing Starbucks: A Double Shot – A combination podcast with Becky Carroll and a video blog I did from a local Starbucks.
Starbucks: Not Any More – My late night revelation that Starbucks had lost its experience.
Get Your Free Coffee and Word of Mouth Idea Today – Posts don’t necessarily have to be long to get a lot of traffic.
I Spent 10 Days Without Starbucks and Lived to Tell About It – I took a trip to Brazil; where there are no Starbucks. This is my story.
What Starbucks Wishes It Could Be Again – A comparison of Starbucks to my favorite local coffee house.
My Favorite Posts (not on any previous lists and in no particular order)
The Psychology of Brand Leadership – You can learn a lot about marketing by studying a little psychology.
How To Get The Customer Relationships You’ve Always Wanted – Yep, more psychology, this time applied to the customer experience.
The Art of Naming Your Business: The Restaurant Technique – I just had a lot of fun writing this one.
Lowe’s vs. Keith’s Hardware – I love it when local businesses excel and find ways to beat the big boys.
Pancakes and The Art of Brand Leadership – If you really want to see a car dealership that knows how to do it differently, see this post. It’s a combination video and slidecast.
Writing a blog has not only opened my mind, it has opened my world. Because of The Marketing Spot blog, I have met, and become acquainted with, a lot of engaging people. I get to attend some cool events. Authors send me free books! Blogging has been a mind-altering experience.
If you’ve been thinking about blogging but haven’t yet, go for it! It’s a blast. And send me a link to your blog when you do. Thanks to everyone who subscribed, read and commented during year one. I can only imagine what year two will bring.
And if you haven’t subscribed yet, do it now: 
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