How Blogging Has Changed Over The Last 3 Years (Stats) Reader engagement with blogs has changed dramatically over the last three years, primarily because of the rise of online social networks, according to new numbers released by analytics firm Postrank today.
Postrank published an analysis based on metrics for signals like comments, trackbacks, shared links and online bookmarks for the top 1000 most-engaging feeds online and for 100,000 randomly selected blog posts in each year since 2007. The numbers paint a stark picture: blogging has changed, but the blogging scene is in some ways in better shape than it was three years ago.
The big picture is that total engagement with online content is growing while on-site engagement is declining in significance as off-site engagement like link sharing on social networks grows. Surprisingly, this off-site link sharing has also extended the lifespan of content. Highlights from the report include the following: How not to get a response to your cold pitch (part 1 of many) « Cold pitching is a tough job.
I’m terrible at it myself, and I respect people who can do it well. I acknowledge that sales people have to start somewhere, and I don’t mind receiving well-thought-out, inbound pitches (via email) from time to time. I receive many inbound pitches for all kinds of marketing services. It’s rare that I’m in immediate need of the exact service somebody’s pitching me when I’m first contacted. But if it’s a well-conceived proposition for a service I could imagine using someday, I file the pitch and often come back to it. On occasion I’ll send a quick email back to acknowledge a cold pitch, but more often than not I don’t. In browsing through my archived emails tagged ‘pitches’ the other day, I was struck by some common elements that made many of them either very strong or incredibly weak. Here’s the first one. This is not how to win friends and influence people.
How to get your cold pitch noticed: treat it like a handshake « A few weeks ago I blogged about one of many ways to ensure that your cold pitch doesn’t get noticed.
Today I’ll include a couple of examples of just the opposite. Keep the pitch simple, keep it short, keep it humble, and make a reference to show that you’ve taken at least 30 seconds to look at the site or business of the company you’re pitching. (a little bit of flattery doesn’t hurt, either.) This person did all those things, and I’ve kept her pitch on file: Short and to the point Reference in the first sentence or two why you should be relevant to the company you’re pitching. Quickly get to the point about why you're relevant The objective in a cold pitch should be similar to that of a handshake: you’re establishing rapport, conveying interest in the other person while expressing confidence in yourself, and ultimately hoping to get the other person to be interested in you as well. By pretty much following the handshake principal, the pitches above were short, effective, and persuasive. Paul Graham on fundraising.
I have found no better primer on the current realities of starting a new technology company in a startup hub like Silicon Valley than Paul Graham's essays.
Alas, they aren't published in a dead-tree medium yet, so I can't say something like "they are the essential reference on my bookcase... " but rest assured they would be. A Fundraising Survival Guide Raising money has a mysterious capacity to suck up all your attention. Even if you only have one meeting a day with investors, somehow that one meeting will burn up your whole day. It costs not just the time of the actual meeting, but the time getting there and back, and the time preparing for it beforehand and thinking about it afterward.What I tell most startups we fund is that if someone reputable offers you funding on reasonable terms, take it.
The Hacker's Guide to Investors Whatever help investors give a startup tends to be underestimated.