content development (&) management

I’m a fan of the Mexican popsicles called paletas. My friend Summer lives in North Carolina and owns Locopops, where she makes and sells the best paletas on the planet. I’m not biased. I AM sad that I don’t live within 15 minutes of one of her stores!

Alas, I do not; but I DO live within 30 minutes of wonderful Las Paletas, a great paleteria in Nashville, and every so often I’ll stop in and grab a dozen couple.

The sun came out today, and I decided it was time for a visit. So I swung by after work, practically whistling as I pulled into their parking. I skipped up to the door, pulled it open…

And there were two women lifting weights in a very large open space where the counter and chalkboard used to be. Exercise equipment. Mats. Advertisements for spinning classes. And yoga… I caught my breath and just rushed out a quiet “noooo…!”

And that’s how my week has been. I keep opening doors and finding… not quite what I expected to find on the other side. In some cases the difference felt Earth-shattering; in others, I’ve just been mildly, and usually pleasantly, surprised. 2009 was an excellent year, but it was kind of like that too. Really getting the business rolling and branching into many different areas was a bit of a roller coaster, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Doing what you love, and not being afraid to open doors… that’s living. And I can already tell that 2010 is going to be more alive than 2009 was, and it’s only March!

My friend Stephanie Pierce recently posted a great quote: “We don’t know how this is all going to turn out. But the risky thing is to do nothing, to keep on going the way we’ve been going. No matter how dark the times, it’s still worthwhile to do good work.” ~Wes Jackson via TheYearnling

Standing in the doorway of this fitness center, gym, spa… thinking, “wait… this is like the OPPOSITE of yummy desserts…” I’m certain the blood had drained from my face.

But one of the women smiled and said, “They’re up around the corner in that brown building. Just go up to the sidewalk and it’s the 6th door on the left. They moved a few months ago.”

[Apologies for the use of the "tw" lingo. I really didn't have a chance to use it before it became gauche!]

I got turned on to Tr.im the other day. It, and other sites like http://bit.ly are useful for shortening really long web addresses, which is almost a necessity if you plan to post the address on Twitter, or Tumblr, or Facebook, etc.

For example, my last blog title resulted in a URL that looked like this: http://writingbench.com/2009/05/22/why-twitter-is-great-for-busy-people-despite-what-you-might-think/, but with Tr.im I was able to tweet it as http://tr.im/mkCF…

Exactly. The first one would have only left me 39 characters. Have you met me? You know that I can’t write (or say) anything in 39 characters. Though “writing tight” is something I really should work on on a daily basis often practice.

Shortening addresses isn’t the best part, however. Often overlooked, Tr.im and Bit.ly have another feature that is even more powerful – they track clicks. And after posting a few shortened addresses, I found the trends interesting. Here are my latest shortened addresses:

Meaningless without the associated URLs (though you could paste the 4 characters shown into a browser window after http://tr.im and see for yourself, but really, that’s a lot of work for very little guaranteed payoff), but here’s what I found interesting – my top three visit counts? Posts about jobs. Job finding resources, freelance myths, and a local Tennessean article about former colleagues starting new businesses.

#1 http://heatherkrasna.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/fun-career-sites-ive-found-lately/

#2 http://www.elance.com/p/blog/2009/04/the_10_myths_of_freelancing_and_what_its_really_like.html?rid=1HN95

#3 http://tennessean.com/article/20090517/BUSINESS01/905170349

Looking at the way those display, you can see other benefits besides Twitter postings!

Now, it should be noted that some of these URLs were cross-posted to Linkedin or my personal Facebook account, which would increase the potential audience, thereby increasing the odds of a click. But interestingly, the cross-posting doesn’t seem to have affected the trend (except perhaps in th case of #3). Another potential “muddying” of the pool could be that some of these were RTs – retweets – the original link was previously posted on Twitter. Depending on the credibility of the resource, it may have already been read. Or avoided. I may have also written more excitedly about some links than others… but overall, the averages play out about the same in this sample.

This is consistent with what Jeremy Scott of Keystone Business Solutions teaches in his Internet Marketing 101 class. Keystone sends out an email blast to subscribers – a newsletter for customers, friends, and SEO types – and Mr. Scott has consistently found that the links that generate the most traffic are ones that point to tips for finding jobs, best jobs on the internet, top 10 most applied for jobs, local employment trends, etc.

Not trying to drive traffic this morning – just observing things that appear to be of interest to other web denizens.

Be free,

Jeff