Blogger forced me to new blogger today. And of course I did not schedule any extra time to deal with "special stuff" like this so I post later than usual. And I have heard of other bloggers having challenges with new blogger so really did not want to switch.
I have noticed that blog traffic continually increases over time and at the same time blog traffic continually decreases over time. Where I notice the difference is when I blog on a topic that people may be searching for. For example, when I mention Stephen Harper, I get a lot of people looking at the blog (no I don’t publish their political comments because I don’t do politics on this blog), or when I mention the “Great Influenza”, I get people who have that in their search alerts.
I am a big advocate of Google Alerts. This allows you to enter any word or phrase and have google send you an email either daily or weekly, or immediately whenever that word is mentioned on the Internet. I am sure that is how a number of people find the blog.
Blog traffic also increases every time I get press in another media or if I do a speaking event etc.
At the same time regular readership tends to drop off over time which is why bloggers need to try to keep the content interesting and edgy.
This can be similar to customers if we are not careful. We go out and do a bunch of promotions that attract a few customers and at the same time, existing customers tend to drop off if they are not looked after.
I read that most customers leave a company simply from a difference, not because the company does anything wrong. Finding new customers costs a lot more than treating the ones you have right in the first place. Appreciation can go a long way.
Funny, I was just having this conversation with a co-worker the other day. There are so many promotions from the phone / mobile / cable / internet / satellite companies for 'new customers' and yet their existing base is forgotten. As a consumer, service is the most important thing to me and price is secondary. However, when I see that I am paying twice what is being offered to newcomers, or 'new customers only' specified in promotions... There should be benefit programs aimed at keeping customers, otherwise the grass gets increasingly greener elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteThe same goes for company employees as well.
ReplyDeleteThousands and thousands of dollars are spent every year in my industry but very little (if at all) effort is made in keeping existing clients happy. Any person can run an ad for new business but it takes leadership and good management skills to keep existing clients happy....motivation for managers would help too. It takes very little motivation and effort to run a newspaper ad....what I don’t understand is why a manger/business owner would want to spend so much money for running ads knowing full well that hardly any new business is gained...my guess is laziness
ReplyDeleteGerhard