I have written a few blogs in my time, both personal and corporate, the most successful being Project 183. Blogs are a great platform to put your ideas and thoughts on whatever you want into a public arena. And can be very rewarding for the mind.

This particular blog you are reading, I have only just started.

And I made a fatal error before I started – I didn’t decide why I needed this blog.

The key to any great blog is to have a central theme, that you are passionate about not just today, but tomorrow as well.

Many blogs start out in a blaze of glory, posting every day for a couple of weeks, before that initial enthusiasm dies out, and the continual effort to find something to write about, then actually writing about it, becomes more than can be bared.

On top of that, lots of bloggers lose interest because they don’t receive any/many comments on their posts.

So, before starting a blog, ask yourself these questions:

1. What is the ONE central theme behind this blog?
Don’t try to cover everything. Focus on one thing, and one thing only.

2. Are you passionate enough to write about this topic to write about it for more than a year?
Blogs are long-term investments. If you don’t think you can give yourself at least a year at it, don’t bother. Stick to joining forums or Facebook groups where you can discuss your topic of interest with similarily-minded people.

3. How often will you post?
Great blogs are consistent in their quantities of blog posts. If you only post once a week, or twice an hour, or once a day, that’s fine. Just be consistent. Your readers will thank you for it.

4. Do you care whether anyone reads your blog?
Are you writing this blog for you, or for others? Getting a comment from a reader is like a little bit of validation to you that the post was not only worth reading, but worth talking about.

But remember, there are hundreds of millions of blogs out there already. So decide if you would abandon the blog if you didn’t immediately get comments on your posts. If you would, then probably don’t bother starting.

5. Would you market your blog?
If you answered yes to question 4, and you do care if people read your blog or not, then you need to be willing to promote your blog.

How?

Visit other blogs with similar interests, and comment on their posts. Write a blog post about another blog you like, and link to them. Add other blogs to your blogroll.

Links and comments are the currency of bloggers. The more you give out, the more you get back. And eventually, but not straight away, more people will start coming to your blog.

Of course, if you are not fussed if anyone ever reads your blog, you can skip this. But if you want people to hear what you have to say, you have to get out into the blogosphere and make yourself known.

For me, I did not ask myself these five questions properly before I started this blog. And until I do, this is the last post you will read here.

Until the next posting,
Heath

Although it sounds funny in my head, it is more than likely quite unfunny to most people.

So, from time to time I will put up a sketch I have thought of, so that I can look back on it in time, and see whether it is still funny, or was a ‘funny today, awful tomorrow’ type sketch.

Today’s sketch:

Following from the success of Drew Carey’s Whose line is it anyway? comes a brand-new show, What time is it anyway?

The show consists of the host asking the contestant, at random intervals over the hour, what time is it right now. The contestant can either guess the time, phone a friend, or ask the audience, Millionaire-style.

I feel like with the right level of tension, and acting skills, this idea could become funny.

Accordingly to you, surely having a good product is enough to get sales.

Well that is utter crap.

Watch this wicked sick (and frankly, fantastic) video and see whether you still think that (any marketers who want to prove that it takes good marketing to sell a product, this video is great proof).

It takes about 25 minutes, and I enjoy it immensely, especially now that it is summer in London.

While cycling in today I encountered a great example of targeted marketing.

At most intersections with traffic lights there is an area in front of waiting cars, for cycles to park in while waiting for the green light.

While stopped in one of these areas today while waiting for the green light, a man who was standing on the footpath wandered over to me.

In his hand (and which he proceeded to hand to me) was the following:

It was a free newsletter for the Tower Hamlets Wheelers organisation.

What a fantastic way to spread awareness of your organisation to a targeted, relevant market.

It would have been easy to just stand in the street and hand a newsletter to anyone who walked past. But not everyone of them will be a cyclist, so most will be binned without being read.

A little bit of extra thought was all it took to ensure that every newsletter ended up in the hand of a cyclist who cycles through the East London region, and is likely interested to read what the newsletter contains.

Probably sounds like what they did was common sense, but the thing about common sense is that, sometimes, it just isn’t that common.

“I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

This quote from Voltaire has a connection to Ryanair, in my eyes.

Here’s how.

To start with, let me just say that I hate Ryanair.

They fly from, and to, obscure airports, their customer service is horrendous, they charge ridiculous prices for things like paying online with a debit card (unless you are one of the three people with a Visa Electron card), and frankly, their website is an eyesore.

Despite all of this, I can’t help but admire one thing about Ryanair – their strategy.

Not so much the actual strategy, but the fact that they have one. A clearly defined one. Because without a clearly defined strategy and vision, it is like sailing around the world without a compass.

Their strategy is low cost, no frills flights – and everything they do shows evidence of this strategy. All standard costs are stripped out, and made to be ‘extras’ that you can avoid paying (i.e. getting a Visa Electron card). They regularly do £5 flight deals. They don’t do refunds – ever.

They show no evidence of spending money on big flashy TV campaigns, or a nice website, thus giving the impression that every spare penny they make goes into continuing to fund cheap flights.

And it is a strategy that must be working, with customer numbers expected to increase by nearly 20% in 2009 compared to 2008. It is like we are all masochists, willing to go through Ryanair hell to save a few pounds.

To connect this back to the quote at the top of the page, here is my Voltaire-esque quote:

“I don’t agree with your strategy, but I will defend to the death your right to have one.”

Well, maybe not to the death – but I will blog positively about it at the very least!

If you want to read more into the Ryanair strategy, check out this interview with their CEO, Michael O’Leary.

Probably doesn’t sound funny now, but some of the emails posted have had me in stitches.

Most involve one crazy person, and one sane person, with the crazy person becoming crazier with each email reply.

Check it out. Emails From Crazy People.

p.s. It is not just emails either – this note was left by a crazy landlord, which has resulted in a long string of return notes and emails, and a court summons. Hilarious.

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”

- Sir Winston Churchill

If you haven’t already, check out Bumptop.

Especially if you are sick of your 2D desktop.

Because they have created the first ever 3D desktop, where you have walls for putting up pictures, notes and icons, you can group piles of documents together, and loads more.

Great for anyone with a messy desktop, who is looking for a fun and practical solution.

Above is my desktop, after being Bumptop-ified. Very funky.

Check them out. Bumptop.

Some of the ideas in here are really nice, and it is always good to see people work together to make something brilliant.

My favourite bit happens between the 0:58 to 1:30 mark. Enjoy!

Something else cool to note is that the people in the video were picked from the fan base of this band – great way to engage and reward your most loyal followers.

Oh, and with over 400,000 views of the video in the nine days since the video went up, not a bad way to get your name out to a lot more people too.