by Skellie
Photo from the Four-Hour Work Week Blog.
Everything you’ll learn about blogging or running a successful website, you’ll learn from someone else: either by reading how-to articles, observing the mistakes and successes of others, or by observing your readers and how they react to your blog.
The second element — learning by example — has the potential to impart more knowledge and important lessons than (potentially) any other source. In this post, I want to share seven lessons I’ve learned from best-selling author Tim Ferriss (author of The Four-Hour Work Week) and his blog, and how you can use them to your own benefit.
Whether you’re a fan of the blog’s author or not doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it’s a blog which has grown entirely through a strategy of content that’s value-packed for its target audience. It’s also a good opportunity to see The Matrix model in practice.
Lesson 1
Reverse-engineer your blog from central goals. While I don’t claim the ability to read the author’s mind, the central goals of the blog appear to be 1) convert blog readers into book buyers and 2) raise the author’s profile.
Every part of the blog contributes to one of those key goals. The content functions as a taster for the book’s contents. The advertisement for the book takes up prime real-estate on the page and nothing else is advertised. The book is also regularly mentioned within posts, to remind readers that the product and blog are inextricably linked.
In terms of raising profile, each headline and post is written to maximize social media and link appeal.
This is a really important lesson: work out what you want from your blog, and make sure there is not one word, image or widget devoted to anything that doesn’t support what you want to achieve. It’s the quickest way to actually reach your goals.
Lesson 2
Practice The Matrix model and let readers assume. I’ve previously written on why the assumptions readers make about your site matter more than the reality. The blog doesn’t display its subscriber count — probably because the average number of comments on each post is high (usually between 30 - 150).
It’s possible that the comments section is simply made up of sycophants and the subscriber count is quite low. I highly doubt it, but we can’t see the statistics below the surface, so how can we know for sure? Regardless of the reality (whatever it may be), the assumptions are likely to be favorable.
The high comment count alone lets us assume that the blog is incredibly popular, which then makes us think: maybe the posts here are worth reading?
The lesson to take away is this: show-off the elements which make your blog look popular and hide those that don’t. Let readers make assumptions about the reality.
Lesson 3
Post less to be (and get) more. One thing you’ll notice about the blog is that every post is a feature article. Asides, news and requests — usually worthy of their own post on most blogs — are tacked-on to the end of feature articles. The rationale behind the practice is this: asides will never get as many comments as feature articles. They’ll also push feature articles further down the page. The comment count can be kept high (and attention diverted to what’s important) by adding the information to feature articles.
Something else you’ll notice is that the blog only updates once or twice a week. This gives each post more time to gather comments and propagate via social media. It also allows for plenty of value to be concentrated in single posts.
Lesson 4
Audience + value-packed content = links and social media votes. Once you have a loyal readership, content matters more than any other variable. If you can create value-packed and well-targeted content, social media success and links are only one step away. Each post is long and full of lessons and detail which (mostly) support the central theme of the blog: you can live and work better. This means that social media visitors who like the post are good candidates to become readers rather than just a hollow surge of traffic.
Take away this lesson: once you have an audience, they’ll spread the word on your behalf. You just need to give them something worth talking about. In the beginning, you have to do a lot of the talking about yourself.
Lesson 5
Put your best content on a pedestal. The ten most popular posts on the blog are held high in the sidebar. The heading ‘Popular Posts’ is visible above the fold. Your popular posts are those that really clicked with your target audience. They’ve been tested by the masses and proven to work. When someone you’re trying to reach visits your blog for the first time, it’s essential that you serve up a menu of your best posts, all relevant to them.
I suspect that blogs which do this have a much higher conversion rate of new visitors to loyal readers (and a lower bounce-rate), but it’s one of those things that’s statistically difficult to measure.
Lesson 6
Create a comment-culture on your blog. We all want more comments. If you want something, sometimes the route which seems too obvious to work is actually the answer.
One of the reasons the Four-Hour Work Week blog consistently gets a lot of comments is because the author actively encourages them. Asking readers what they think, responding to their input, holding comment-competitions and using comments as case studies (or answering questions in posts) are all simple things you can do to create a comment-culture on your blog: where readers feel as if it’s not only OK to comment, but that it will be worth their time and that you’re interested in what they’ve got to say. Participating in comments at your own blog is another highly effective way to build a comment culture.
Lesson 7
Emphasize what’s important. Key points and sub-headings are bolded. Tim’s book is advertised in what’s probably the most prominent location on the site. Popular Posts are almost right at the top of the sidebar.
The core of simplicity is about highlighting what’s important and removing or de-emphasizing the rest. You can make every post you write better by emphasizing key points in bold. You can make your blog design more effective by emphasizing the elements which most contribute to your goals.
Related links:
- Reverse engineering your blog from goals: see 4 Tips for Making 2008 Your Blog’s Best Year Yet.
- Learn more about The Matrix model.
- A metablogging post by Tim: The Top 5 Uncommon Timesavers for Bloggers/Writers.
- Darren Rowse interviews Tim on blogging (some great quotes here).
Depending on how useful this post proves to be I may do the same thing for Seth Godin next week. Stay tuned!
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30 Comments, Comment or Ping
Patrick
Great analysis, Skellie. Tim’s blog is in my reader as well. I would love to see you do the same with Seth’s blog, although his is almost too easy (so clean and simple and he cuts right to the chase). Maybe you could make a challenge out of it and do “10 things Seth Godin should do differently on his blog”….
Jan 2nd, 2008
Mary Jaksch of GoodlifeZen
I had a look at Tim’s lastest post, ‘The Endless Summer: How to “Winter” Like Old Money.’ I was actually a bit disappointed. It just so happens that I know Buenos Aires really well. I thought that the article was not really value packed; it just skimmed the surface.
I’m wondering whether there is a contradiction between offering value, and, at the same time, focusing on selling a book? After all, to get people to buy the book ,each post has to skim the surface - otherwise no one would buy the in-depth information in the book.
I prefer a true blog like this one that focuses on offering best information.
Jan 2nd, 2008
skellie
@ Patrick: You’re right — maybe Seth’s blog is a little too obvious. I’ll have a think about it. Whether I do another in the series will depend whether people find this as useful as I hoped.
@ Mary: Not every post is stellar, but I do find most posts to be value packed (you might see more in the list of ‘Popular Posts’). You might not also be part of the target audience — though maybe you are?
I suppose the main aim of this exercise is to emphasize the lessons rather than the blog. I’m not trying to advertise the blog itself — it’s almost an after-note to the seven principles. But that might just be something I need to work on.
Jan 2nd, 2008
pete
Lesson 3 is incredibly important and often overlooked. I just redesigned my blog using the magazine-style “Mimbo” template, which makes use of many feature areas. Switching to this format really got me thinking more about what I post and the potential value it has to the reader. Before the redesign, I wasn’t thinking in terms of featured posts or value. Every post was the same. With features, I am forced to think more and this has helped immensely with my overall quality. Great post.
Jan 2nd, 2008
skellie
@ Pete: Great to see that you’re starting to think in terms of value. The Mimbo theme is a nice one!
Jan 2nd, 2008
Allen Johnson
Tim Feriss is a world class author and now blogger I wish I could do that but I am glad he gave me steps now I am going to be number 1 in the blogsphere of course with the help f the communiy
Jan 2nd, 2008
Joanna Young
Hi Skellie, nice analysis and I liked the way you linked it back to your Matrix post.
One thing I wanted to pick up on: “We all want more comments.” I’m not sure this is true - if it is I’d have to say a lot of bloggers don’t act as if it is! Generating, supporting, encouraging, responding to a lot of comments takes a lot of time and effort. I think it’s worth it - it’s what makes blogging fun for me. But I don’t think it’s automatic that every blogger will think that way. It’s certainly something that people should consider carefully - how important is this dimension of blogging to them and how much effort are they going to put into that compared to other elements.
Joanna
Jan 2nd, 2008
daniel
hi, Skellie, happy new year.
This is fantastic - I love the post itself & the idea behind it.
I would guess another couple of goals of the blog might be:
3. turn book readers into evangelists of the author himself
4. turn “book 1″ readers into “book 2″ readers
Thanks for another great post, Skellie,
daniel
Jan 2nd, 2008
Heather
A thought provoking post as usual, Skellie, and one that resonated with me. My own book is promoted on my blog simply as a link, and my content, although wholly related to the book, rarely mentions it. I will take a new look at the blog and re-evaluate my focus and goals. While I am not sure yet if promoting the book should be central to the purpose of the blog, it should perhaps play a more central role.
Daniel’s points 3 & 4 are also food for thought particularly the goal of turning ‘book readers into evangelists’. Anyone setting themselves up to be an ‘expert’ in the field should be seeking this, and I now see that having my content and book as entities connected so loosely is not helping to achieve that goal.
Jan 2nd, 2008
Karen (Karooch from Scraps of Mind)
Great insight , as always Skellie. I love your approach to reviews.
Jan 2nd, 2008
skellie
@ Allen: Number 1 in the blogosphere is a pretty big goal, but I think Mr. Ferriss would be proud of you for aiming big :).
@ Joanna: I agree — I think every blogger would like more comments but that doesn’t mean they do what’s required to get them. I’m always surprised by the amount of bloggers who don’t participate in comments on their own blog. It’s a shame, really.
@ Daniel: Great points — I suppose in a way this post itself is evangelizing the author (though I haven’t told anyone to buy the book — mainly because I myself haven’t read it yet). The blog did turn me into a book buyer, though — it’s traveling somewhere in the world, on its way to Australia.
@ Heather: I’m really glad you found it helpful. I know when I write and publish my eBook I’ll be looking to the 4HWW blog for lessons on how to market it in a way that makes readers interested, rather than turning them off.
@ Karen: Thanks — I appreciate it!
Jan 2nd, 2008
James Chartrand - Web Content Writer Tips
Lacking enough coffee this early, all I can comment is “great post!”.
But I can subscribe to comments and stay updated, which makes me a very happy boy this morning. Thanks, Skellie!
Jan 2nd, 2008
skellie
Yep, as per James’ comment above, we now have a nifty subscribe to comments feature (finally got it to work!). Thanks to everyone who nagged me about it — I hope it works well.
Jan 2nd, 2008
Adnan
Great post Skellie - I agree with you in that Tim’s posts always seem to offer some sort of value - and it helps that the topics he writes about sort of promotes the 4 Hour Workweek Book anyway.
I think there are disadvantages to tacking on “Unrelated News” to the end of the longer posts though, for example, he might not get as much search engine love, and it might take away from the main subject of the post - but I suppose if he’s having success with that style now - then it can’t be such a bad thing!
Btw, I never congratulated you on reaching such amazing RSS numbers - well done!
Jan 3rd, 2008
Ritu
very well written and well analyzed. The fact that the blogger doesn’t use a separate posts just for news and to provide information is worthy of noting.
Most of the times we bloggers end up writing something just for the sake of updating. Somedays it’s something like ” Merry Christmas” and other days ” Happy New Year “, Instead of doing that if we leave messages and news at the bottom of the post you readers get value out of the post anyway and also get news and information at the end. Its a dual purpose served deal. I shud start doing this as well, instead of writing about stuff on a separate post just for the sake of creating one.
Thanks for the analysis Skellie! It gives me a lot more to work and learn
Jan 3rd, 2008
Alfa King
Very insightful analysis. Every ingredient for a successful blogging. A very commendable approach.
Jan 3rd, 2008
cool dad
Thanks Skellie. We’re working on Lesson 1. I think our goal is to just build an audience and community
Lesson 3 - Sometimes I just want to share something with the readers. Maybe I need to hold back a little and throw those little things at the end of better posts.
Lessson 6 - It’s a VERY big turn-off when you comment on a blog that’s not huge and you know the author can respond, but they don’t bother to acknowledge you.
Jan 3rd, 2008
Conrad Hees
Great post Skellie!
I am a big Tim fan as well, and I also have been paying attention to the way that he markets his blog because I think that it is pretty self-evident that he is one of the savviest marketers we’ve seen in recent years.
If I had to pick one point that you made here as being most important, it would have to be to work from a set of central goals. I believe that working from a set of goals gives you a starting point from which to work, and makes other decisions (such as topics, titles, post frequency, content development) become much clearer and easier to make.
I think that you have executed this principle well, especially with not having any advertising on your site. I think that I speak for all of your readers when I say that my respect for you is considerably higher because of that. Besides, who wants to look at a site full of ugly Adsense ads? I think that your ebook and other plans will prosper because of your integrity in this department.
I’ve been a fan for months now, and the content continues to get better. Thanks for another great post!
Jan 3rd, 2008
Scott Magdalein
So useful. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Godin. He’s got a very different style than a lot of professional bloggers, but he still keeps up the astronomically high rating. Incredible. Anyway, this post prompted me to write a post about Ferriss and the crush that I have on his lifestyle.
Jan 3rd, 2008
Mark
Hi Skellie - as someone who sort of blogs in a similar niche as Tim, I must say your breakdown of his site is really great!!
Can you shoot me an email and let me know how you got the ‘Subscribe to comments’ plugin to work…? For some reason it does not work on my site
All the best for 2008,
Mark
Jan 3rd, 2008
Ruchir
The “post less” advice doesn’t really apply to everyone actually. Yes, you can do many more feature articles if you post length. But many of us blog part time and only have 3 hours at most on weekdays. So we really can’t produce feature 3 feature posts, at least I can’t. I try to write one feature post for me blog but I even fail to do that, sometimes. #5, #6, and #7 are really important though. Your best content should be highlighted, it’s an absolute must. As a visitor will sure want to subscribe if he sees all that quality content…
Jan 3rd, 2008
Bente Lilja Bye
I enjoyed this analysis. I think you succeeded in making this a post about principles and not a promotion of one blog.
To begin with I thought not posting every day would be a negative thing, but I now tend to think you are right. Ensuring high quality in each of your post make up for the lesser frequency. Any kind of news sites doesn’t count of course.
I’d love to read more of your analysis from various part of the blogosphere.
How about doing one of the bigger science blogs?
Jan 3rd, 2008
skellie
@ Adnan: Good point about the disadvantages. I don’t get much search traffic anyway so it’s not an issue for me, but maybe it will be hurting Tim’s blog somewhat. That being said, the disadvantages might be outweighed by the benefits.
@ Ritu: I agree — that’s the philosophy behind why I’ve started to do it on Skelliewag. It means every post has a good chance of getting a lot of comments, wheras those lower involvement posts always seem to get less.
@ Alfa King: Thank you, I’m glad you found it useful.
@ Cool Dad: I agree about the comments thing, particularly when you ask a question and it’s not answered. I know I’ve missed a question or two in my time, but not for lack of trying. But I do see some bloggers who, for whatever reason, just don’t see the merit in engaging with commenters. It’s silly.
@ Conrad: I agree — it’s an example in great marketing. As you’ve said, the goals point is incredibly important. You could say it’s number one for a reason ;). I’m glad you’ve been enjoying the ad-free environment. I do think it works really well for this blog.
@ Scott: Yep, Godin is a bit of an enigma, so I think that would be fun to explore. Reading your post now :).
@ Mark: OK, I’ll email you.
@ Ruchir: I agree, the advice isn’t for everyone. It’s one lesson I think is really important, but ultimately, it comes down to the individual blogger. I do think you could probably writer 1/2 feature posts a week (and maybe cut out some of the shorter posts in exchange), and I think your blog might do well out of that, but you’ve got to go with whatever you feel most comfortable with.
@ Bente: I’m glad you got the overall emphasis on the lessons, rather than the source blog — I didn’t want this to be a promo piece for Mr. Ferriss ;). I do want to do some more case studies in future so I will think about some options.
Jan 3rd, 2008
Daniel Sutoyo
Aside from aiming high, maybe we need to outsource our blogging responsibilities
Jokes aside, I do have a question. It seems like Tim has great success with his blog because he got popular after his debut presentation (The 4-Hour Workweek at the world-famous SXSW Interactive conference on March 12, 2007). I checked the Alexa ranking on fourhourworkweek.com/blog and you’ll notice the huge ramp up shortly after march in 2007.
I know there isn’t any magic formula to make a blog popular, but it seems like Tim had a good X factor to help jumpstart his huge blog success. Not all of us will have opportunities to speak at a conference. Should we just rely on social media networks then? How important is it for us to identify the X factor that will work for us?
Jan 4th, 2008
Nathan Ketsdever
Great post. I think launching at the SXSW interactive conference was huge too. It enabled him to network with bloggers who would not only give his blog lots of google juice via links and traffic via buzz (reviews, etc), but also promote his content on digg.
The title and being a contrarian who is against the tide was helpful for his relative buzz success.
Jan 12th, 2008
Tammy
Hey there, Skellie -
You may well have seen the trackback already, but in case not, I quoted you in a post on one of my blogs.
Cheers,
Tammy
Feb 2nd, 2008
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