How to get Darren Rowse to read your blog
David Ogilvy, the writer of Confessions of an Advertising Man. Wrote about a bet between George Dyer and Max Hart.
Dyer bet Hart he could write a newspaper page of solid type and Hart would read every word of it. The bet stemmed from an arguement over long copy vs short copy.
The bet was accepted and Dyer told Hart he didn’t even have to write one word to prove his point. He only has to say the headline. Which was.
“THIS PAGE IS ALL ABOUT MAX HART”
So how would you get Darren Rowse, Godfather of Blog to read your blog? Write about Darren Rowse.
The point being, we read what we are interested in. It’s not always egocentric to read what people write about you, when you are a solo blogger you become your brand. Not your website, YOU.
If you do your job properly, people will recognise your name before they recognise your url.
The branding of one.
I would argue that Darren Rowse has become a brand and you need to know what people are saying about your brands.
I have noticed that when you blog about someone they pop in. Which is kind of nice. It makes the industry seem like a village where people visit for cups of tea and cake to discuss the latest goings on.
January 26th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Nice Tip - but does it work????
hmmmm :-)
January 26th, 2007 at 11:24 am
It appears that way.
Unless you’re an imposter ;)
January 26th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Yeah it works… but who is Ian? Is that David Ogilvy’s little brother? ;)
January 26th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Brian it’s weird. I grew up when the Saint was on TV and the star of the show was Ian Ogilvy and I can never get it out of my brain.
And I wrote that with the book in front of me. I don’t expect to be hired as a proof reader soon. Thanks for the pointer.
Of course for another generation you will know the Saint as Val Kilmer, which didn’t do it for me.
January 26th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Interesting post… with some very strong arguments. It seemed to work for you (so congratulations), but my question is “how many times will it work?” Darren has over 10000 readers daily so if every one one of them would do a post like this, I highly doubt that all them will get noticed. Probably just the first few… so hurry up guys!
Leaving the joke aside, I believe that this is one of those ideas that couldn’t work more than once (or probably a few times)… unless maybe we change the subject ;) (Steve Pavlina, Techcrunch, etc, anyone?)
Congratulations again for this! I suspect that you are already enjoying a spike in traffic, since Darren not only read your blog, but also linked to you.
Regards,
WMA
January 26th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
I’d love to hang around and chat about your theory, but I need to go and write posts about the top 20 bloggers in the blogosphere.
January 27th, 2007 at 12:00 am
WMA, thanks for the comment.
But it’s not really the point of the post. My point is not to blog about people to get them to come to your blog. It’s the fact that as bloggers we become a brand and that brand must be monitored.
So when the brand is mentioned, ie your name, you need to go and see what people are saying.
It’s also about the fact that we read what we are interested in. One of the things is ourselves and that long copy would be read.
It would be a bit daft to simply blog about people you want to link to you, but maybe someone more talented than me could make it work. ;)
January 27th, 2007 at 12:28 am
I totally understand the ?inner message? of your post, and you have made it even more clear with this last comment.
However, I must congratulate you again for the ?marketing hook? that you used. You have been able to catch more attention this way than you could have probably did with a more general approach.
Regards,
WMA
January 27th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Hey, it worked! I discovered your blog because it was mentioned by Darren Rowse, and probably a lot of people followed the dame trait. But if we don’t find anything at the end of the hook, you can make sure nobody would come back again. Plus, if one has a lousy blog and does that, big guy’s won’t mention him, because they don’t want to send people away to lousy pages, do they?
Anyway, I’ll be reading your blog over the next days, as it seems interesting.
January 27th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Now, the question is, can you get Darren Rowse to keep coming back?
January 27th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Simonne, totally agree with you. You can write the best hook, or linkbait as you like, but if there is nothing there but fluff people will not return and people certainly wont link to you.
My tactics are to make the headline juicy enough to get attention, but the body of the post must provide the meat.
David Ogilivy, the best copywriter in the business said 80% of your message is in the headline.
Michael, I hope everyone comes back. It’s very gratifying to know people like reading your stuff.
I hope my thoughts and insights attract a continuing readership.
January 27th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
I know it’s true for me. Whenever someone mentions me or my site, I go check out their blog. I even have Google Alerts set up to monitor for this.
January 28th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Now you can use some of Darren’s own tips to keep him coming back!
January 28th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Very clever, you made me smile. Thanks! And yes, I found your blog via Darren’s blog :)
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August 4th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
How about a follow up post called “How to get Darren Rowse to link to your blog”? ;)
August 4th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
@Mike, interesting challenge, although this post did get the link. I like the challange. Watch this space.