feed hat blog

I know you’re used to getting your recap on Fridays, but tomorrow’s our Halloween party! That translates to the entire BCI crew in spirited costumes having wicked good fun. What can I say? We love to dress up!

So there’s a good chance tomorrow will be a pretty hectic day, and since I plan to be among the undead, I can’t really count on much brain capacity. I figured why not serve up some recap while I’ve got the necessary presence of mind?

The Internet commemorates its 40th birthday today. Kind of. There are lots of milestones that could be counted as the “birth” of the Internet but the one that happened forty years ago today is the connection of to nodes of ARPANET. It’s like a big deal or something. Yay, Internet! [Officially Over the Hill. --Susan]

Turns out spending a couple hours a day online may actually be good for your mental health. A study suggests that the onset of dementia may be prevented or slowed by the brain stimulation caused by surfing the Web. If that’s the case, in sixty years there will be a whole bunch of sharp, old SEOs out there still doing their thing!

Or course, every tool that can be used for good can be just as easily used for trickery. This week a slew of celebrity robberies were blamed in part on the Internet.

A group of teens (who went to school in my home town, actually — go Chargers!) are suspected of burglarizing a slew of homes belonging to young Hollywood stars. Police say the thieves used celebrity Web sites to track the celebrities’ whereabouts, providing the burglars easy access to empty homes and all the cool stuff therein. Spooooky! [Dear horrible people on the Internet. I never leave home and I have a shotgun. Love and kisses, Susan]

One of the suspects blamed her criminal activity on bad friends. Now that Google’s testing out the social space, it may be a little easier to stay connected with friends — hopefully just the good ones. Social Search launched in Google Labs this week and a bald-headed Matt Cutts has the honor of the intros.

News around Yahoo! was slightly less celebratory as Geocities said its goodbyes, taking a slew of personal, free Web sites with it. Bing, meanwhile, got into the holiday spirit with Halloween-themed ads. Together, the pair postponed their self-imposed search deal deadline citing the “complex nature of the transaction”.

Members of the search industry obviously keep up with the big three engines, but have you ever considered your alternatives? Over at Search Engine Watch Carrie Hill rounds up and categorizes AdWords alternatives, including PPC, cost-per-impression and cost-per-lead ad programs.

Directories have been touted as a potential source for inbound links. But one of the oldest and most authoritative directories, DMOZ, is notoriously difficult to get into. Seeking to uncover this thorn in the SEO industry’s side, Debra Mastaler talked to the Open Directory Project’s editor in chief in a revealing interview posted on Search Engine Land.

Finally, as October rolls to a close, so does National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But the need for care and giving carries on. The search and social media marketers are supporting the cause through TwakeUp, a social media campaign in which all money raised will be given to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. You can make donations to this campaign through November.

Things I learned from Boing Boing this week:

• One pro photographer has shared his tips for taking incredible pics with nothing more than a li’l ol’ iPhone 3GS.
• The White House went open source this week.
• Bees may have developed a taste for human tears. [AUGH! --Susan]
• Disney’s Haunted Mansion has real-world roots!

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Friday Recap - Thursday Edition

Some writers don’t seem to know when to shut up. They ramble and pontificate and theorize, seemingly oblivious to the agony it’s causing everyone else.

To avoid this awful fate, you probably try to keep your posts short, chopping up longer ideas into a series of posts. No need to scare away readers by dumping too much information on them all at once, right?

Makes sense, but what’s weird is it doesn’t work that way.

Many popular posts here at Copyblogger are over 1,000 words. But other times, short posts pack the most punch. It’s almost as if the length of a post has no impact whatsoever on how successful a post becomes.

How could that be?

We’ve already given you the copywriting theory behind why this is, but I’m the first one to admit that it’s a little . . . abstract. Maybe an analogy would help bridge the gap.

Examining Post Length — Hollywood Style

Ever watched a long movie that was totally awesome?

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, which clocks in at over 10 hours, comes to mind. There is also Titanic — still the highest grossing movie of all time despite running over three hours. In fact, we could make a pretty long list of award-winning movies that approach or cross the three hour mark.

What about short movies? Those can be awesome too, right?

Pixar’s latest movie, Up, was only 96 minutes long. Then there is Bubba Ho-tep (a personal favorite), clocking in at 92 minutes. And let’s not forget some of the classic Disney movies: Lady and the Tramp (73 minutes), Bambi (70 minutes), Dumbo (64 minutes).

How could it be that the length of movies could be so unimportant?

If you’re much of a movie buff, the answer is obvious: it depends on the story. Some stories like Lord of the Rings take 10 hours to tell. Others, like a really cracking Wallace and Gromit episode, can be told in 30 minutes or less. The key is figuring out how long it’ll take to tell your story, and then editing it mercilessly so that the film is as tight as possible.

Hmm . . . maybe the same is true for blogging.

The Truth about Post Length

A long post isn’t wrong. A short post isn’t wrong. In fact, the length of a post has nothing to do with how good or bad it is.

Here’s what matters:

1. Writing something that’s interesting
2. Taking out everything that’s not interesting

That’s it.

Sometimes, it takes 3,700 words to make an idea stand out. Other times, all you need is a few sentences. What’s important is that you do your idea justice in as few words as possible.

Professionals call it writing “tight.” Long or short, the piece couldn’t possibly be any shorter and create the same effect.

Blogger and recent Copyblogger contributor Michelle Russell calls it “writing with a knife” — perhaps the best metaphor I’ve heard to describe the process. Tomorrow, she’s going to explain what she means, as well as give you some easy-to-implement tips for cutting away all the fat from your prose.

Until then, let me make this one final point:

Why Tight Writing Is a Matter of Survival

Long blog posts don’t scare away readers; sloppy writing does. Once upon a time, readers tolerated it because the blogosphere was a new and informal place with few professional writers, but that’s quickly changing. Now, blogs are being placed on the same pedestal as magazines and newspapers, and readers expect us to deliver content that’s just as polished.

All of us have to be ready to meet those expectations. Tight writing isn’t just another one of those things that you should do. It’s becoming a matter of survival.

If you want to see your blog grow and flourish over the coming years, you’ll need to come to the blank page not with a mouse and keyboard, but also with a knife . . . and the courage to use it.

More on how to do this tomorrow.

About the Author: Jon Morrow is Associate Editor of Copyblogger and Cofounder of Partnering Profits. Get more from Jon on twitter.

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Do Long Blog Posts Scare Away Readers?

Photo from freeparking via Creative Commons

In any society there are rules that govern the citizens. Many of the rules we follow in our communities today are explicit, spelled out in the form of laws or regulations. Others are implicit, coming out of necessity and an understanding of social norms, such as etiquette. Explicit rules are often formed as a reaction to events that have already taken place. For instance, a new law may prohibit acts that, through the hindsight of past events, are recognized as potentially harmful or damaging.

It’s long been believed that the Web is a land of lawlessness, notoriously hard to police, and comprised of communities inclined to do what they want without concern for rules. Over the last 20 years the Web has evolved from a small, undeveloped infant to a rebellious youth testing his limits. In many cases, the Web is governed by implicit rules, such as netiquette, while explicit rules are slowly finding their way onto the books. A parallel has been drawn between the Web and the American Wild West of the 1800s — a time when citizens knew better than to rely on those in uniform to protect them from corrupt and the codeless. I’ve heard the Web referred to as the realm of cowboys and bandits on blogs, in articles and at search conferences, and it’s been a pretty reliable analogy in that time. Even the common “white hat”, “black hat” terminology has its roots in the Hollywood heyday of Western films. But is it possible that the Web has reached a new era of liability and law?

Photo from anyjazz65 via Creative Commons

At Search Engine Watch, online marketing expert Frank Watson wrote a thought-provoking piece last week called The Web’s Wild West Days Are Gone. Frank points to evidence that the Internet is moving toward a more explicit model of governance. Close to home, we’ve seen legislation on behaviorally targeted ads, appointment of the U.S.’s first tech czar, and antitrust filings against search engine monopolies, to name a few examples. Abroad, we’ve watched the U.K. publish an action plan, South Korea pass legislation regulating comments on YouTube, and the Iranian and Chinese governments today control content via state-run ISPs.

Certainly there have been many earnest attempts to regulate what is made available online and what is accessible online, but I’m not convinced we’ve reached a time of law, enforcement and personal responsibility. Despite the best efforts of lawmakers at home and abroad, I see at least a few more obstacles that will need to be overcome before the Web transcends the Wild West. One significant challenge is that the Web is a global phenomenon, hard to subject to local or even national laws. One significant challenge is pointed out by commenter ProfJonathan on Frank’s article:

The challenges have been figuring out which law(s) apply, and how to enforce them. [...] the biggest challenge remains the borderless nature of the Internet and the conflicting legal regimes it crosses; a true international “Law of the Net” is clearly needed.

Additionally, lawmakers face a challenge in their lack of understanding. Remember when the National Association of Realtors (NAR) tried to convince their members that Google was a scraper site? Due to a technical misunderstanding and some convoluted assumptions, the NAR almost took their members’ sites out of the search game entirely. If the organization had followed through and established the guideline, real estate professionals would likely be hurting more than they already are.

In the end, we find that laws which aren’t grounded in understanding end up to be poorly written and ineffectively enforced. Any judgments that come out of such rules or legislation can hold no weight. Furthermore, laws that reach beyond their jurisdiction can hold no sway, and it’s a global Web we’re working in today. Until understanding and global enforcement are attained, I expect to see a familiar and untamed Web in the immediate future.

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Has the Wild West Web Reached the End of the Line?