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How to Unlame Your Business Blog: 10 New Tricks for Old Dogs

March 11th, 2008 by Easton

two-legged-dog-walking.jpgLet me ask you three questions.

1. How interesting is your business blog?

2. What's the noise level of your blog?

3. How do you unlame a business blog?

Metaphorically speaking, how do you get a two-legged lame old dog to get up and bound out the door, barking up a storm through the whole neighborhood?

Hang on, let me fetch my soapbox and megaphone.

Ahem.

Here are 10 new tricks for old dogs - er, blogs - to finally grow a pair of legs and become totally unlame.

1. Sit. Pay attention to what your customers are saying. Get some ego feeds. Listen.

2. Bow. Treat everyone as a customer and every customer as a dignitary.

3. Beg. Ask for things. Don't be afraid. Ask your customers questions. Ask them to subscribe. Ask them to buy stuff.

4. Dig. Research things and publish the results. Find the bone in the backyard and bring it home, head held high. Make people want to learn from you.

5. Growl. Get guttural. Put some chomp in your bite. Defend your stance on volatile issues. Don't back down.

6. Roll over. So you screwed up before. So own it and learn from it. Start over. Roll over.

7. Shake hands. Be friendly. A dog is a person's best … exactly. Welcome visitors (but no sniffing, please). Linger. Let people enter your blog as guests and leave as friends.

8. Wag your tail. Talk about stuff that excites you. Let your audience share your joys.

9. Fetch slippers. Pamper your blog visitor. Offer a free product or service. Thank and praise and encourage commenters and backlinkers and Diggers and Stumblers and Deliciousers.

10. Dance. Do something unique, fun, memorable. Make people laugh. Get stuck in their head so tight their kids hear all about you at the dinner table.

… and one more:

11.  Learn names. A great dog knows its masters by name and treats them as - gasp - inidividuals, even though they all form one pack. Find your pack. Find out who else is blogging in your niche and get to know them personally. Spend time in each other's doghouse.

All right - what have you learned? (These are so simple - but you know what they say about old dogs …)

Please, please unlame your business dog blog. The world needs your bark. It needs your bite. It needs your loyalty, fleas and all.

As you sit, bow, beg, dig, growl, roll over, shake hands, wag your tail, fetch slippers, dance and learn names, you will unlame your blog and someday become a top dog.

So, how do you plan to unlame your business or professional blog?

Photo: BBC

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3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 CV Aug 28, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    This post is such a great example of a mash-up between a common template (the 10 things list) and a clever metaphor! Just for that alone it’s inspiring.
    One other thought to add– Dogs rarely need to be reminded that people (will) like them. They are confident that they will be liked, and they just act like they expect to be liked— not in a condescending way (as some would argue that cats expect to be liked), but in a self-confident way.
    What if bloggers acted like they were confident that they/we too, would be liked? Even a mongrel, or a two legged dog, has something likable about it. …

  • 2 Easton Sep 6, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    CV, I really appreciate your comment. Love the thought about acting confident. Sorry my dog image is busted - the migration to WordPress a few weeks ago did that. :) I’ll try to fix it.

    I like the thought of “unlaming” things.

  • 3 82 Essential Blogging Tips, Tricks and Resources | Hi, I’m Grace Smith Apr 3, 2009 at 11:57 am

    [...] How to Unlame Your Business Blog: 10 New Tricks for Old Dogs [...]