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November 4, 2005

Watch What You’re Doing

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 11:14 am

Quick Hit

I don’t expect I ever will be chosen for a focus group. For better or worse, my answers skew the curve . Even so, one skill that fast tracked me through publishing was my ability to watch myself. I don’t mean to behave. I mean literally to watch how I behave. I pay attention when I do things and analyze how I do them. I may not be focus group material, but I still do lots of things that normal people do.

Knowing how I do normal things is a cache of valuable data. I gather the data about how I do things. Then I talk to my friends. They help me sort what I find out into two sets–weird things (things that only Liz does) and everybody things. I use that second set to improve my readers’ experiences. Here is one very specific example of how I might go about this.

One thing I watched for: How do I use archives? Do I read them in a certain way or a certain order?

  • First, I realized that it depends. I prefer to browse archives from old to new. I stop to think about my reason–many times ideas build on each other over time. Other times I read for certain topics.
  • Next, I consider other ways to read. Some folks might want to read only the newest information. New readers might want to know about the best ones they missed.
  • At this point its time to get input from readers. I can write a post or have informal conversations. If the issue is small, I use what I already know.
  • Then, I devise a way to organize my archives to meet all of those needs–an index by date and by topic and a listing of Golden Oldies.

The day I did that my page views were three times higher.

When I watch myself as an unbiased observer and test what I see, I get a solid answer to What would my readers want me to do?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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7 Comments to “Watch What You’re Doing”

  1. November 5th, 2005 at 5:52 am
    Wai said

    I think I am doing exactly like that on my blog. But making an index on blogspot is not easy. It takes time. Do you have any easy way? Thanks. :smile:

  2. November 5th, 2005 at 8:10 am
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    Hello Wai,
    As a matter of fact I do. Try using Blogrolling to make your indexes (boy was I relieved that Webster said I could use that plural–I hate the other one :) ). You will have to make one line of code for the heading and then lay in the code for the blogroll that you build. If you visit my personal blog, you’ll see that I’ve got 5 Blogrolls going. I’ve also got a word document in which I keep all of the code in case Blogroll goes down and I need to quickly paste it back into my template. If you need me to walk you through it, e-mail me at successfulblog@aol.com. I’d be happy to show you how.
    Liz

  3. November 6th, 2005 at 12:14 am
    Wai said

    Hi Liz,

    I am okay with your blogrolling technique. It really helps and thanks a lot :smile:

  4. November 6th, 2005 at 8:19 am
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    Hi Wai,
    Glad to hear that its working for you. You wwre just what I needed to get me to do that last bit of re-indexing I needed to get done for my personal blog. So that’s for the push. You did me a favor. :)

  5. November 7th, 2005 at 2:32 am
    Done These Lately? » Successful Blog said

    […] Organize your archives as your readers would want them. Showing your readers where to find things is advertising. For more on how to think like your readers see Watch What You’re Doing. […]

  6. April 22nd, 2006 at 10:15 am
    Successful Blog - A Timely Reminder said

    […] organized your archives as your readers would want them? Great archives are super blog promotion. For more on how to think like your readers see Watch What You’re Doing. […]

  7. March 29th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
    What New Friends Have You Met and How Have You Made Life Easy for Them? - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    […] Related For more on how to think like your readers see Customer Think on the Successful Series page. Watch What You’re Doing. […]

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