contentious.com

I’ve been listening to an interesting series of short audio posts called The Business Blogging Field Guide, by Christopher Carfi over at his weblog The Social Customer Manifesto. In this series he defines several common types of weblogs offered by organizations or independent professionals in order to directly or indirectly market themselves or influence their field.

I just finished listening to the fourth installment in this series, The Maven. When Carfi started discussing the maven blog (a term borrowed from Malcolm Gladwell’s classic book The Tipping Point), I recognized CONTENTIOUS. Yes, I guess that’s mostly what I’m doing here, mavening.

And although Carfi didn’t discuss it directly, I realized that I’m probably not the only independent professional who’s not getting optimum marketing mileage from an otherwise-successful maven blog…

I’ve been struggling with marketing issues quite a lot lately.

Here’s the deal: I’m a self-employed consultant, writer, editor, and trainer. It’s up to me to drum up business. My weblog CONTENTIOUS has been a key aspect of how I market my services so far – and it has been useful for that. Most of my clients have found me via CONTENTIOUS or through recommendations from my readers. The basic strategy is that I use CONTENTIOUS to demonstrate my value (knowledge, skills, perspective) and attract a loyal following. I’ve accomplished that, and often it’s led to work.

However, it’s led to a rather haphazard collection of assignments. Over the years I’ve worked on a wide range of projects – everything from writing newsletter articles, to writing and editorial coaching, to e-learning, to strategic content consulting. These projects have been for individuals, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 firms – and everything in between. My breadth of experience has been useful and interesting. However, I’m at the point where I feel too scattered. I would like my business to be more focused.

When I listened to Carfi’s description of maven blogs, almost every time he gave an example he mentioned that the blog included little self-promotion, and most of that was oblique and subtle.

I’d say that’s true of CONTENTIOUS as well. I don’t want this blog to sound like a commercial for Amy Gahran, I want it to be intrinsically interesting and useful. I figure, if my content had no intrinsic value, no one would read this blog much.

While that works well in terms of not annoying or bludgeoning my readers, it doesn’t work so well in terms of marketing. I don’t think CONTENTIOUS effectively and consistently puts out the message about the types of services I offer, and the types of projects, clients, and alliances I’m seeking. Too much of that message is buried in my postings.

I want to change that. I want to make CONTENTIOUS more effective for marketing my services – for attracting a more coherent retinue of clients, projects, and alliances that will help me focus and build my business in ways that meet my goals. I’ve worked hard to create a strong publication with a large and loyal audience, and a good reputation. I guess now I’m looking for a different, bigger return on that investment than I used to expect.

Of course, I’m not willing to sacrifice quality or credibility to do this. Anything I’d do to leverage CONTENTIOUS for my marketing must increase the appeal of this weblog to its readers – or at least not make it less appealing.

I’m not sure how to accomplish that. But listening to Carfi’s audio post, I know I’m probably not alone in this struggle.

Anyway, I’m mulling this one over. But I figure my readers are probably my best resource here, so I thought I’d reach out to you and ask for reactions, ideas, and perspectives. I’ll be experimenting with various strategies for improving the marketing value of CONTENTIOUS, and I wanted to be clear and honest about that, and my intentions.

I write this blog first and foremost because I am a writer by nature, intellectually omnivorous, incorrigibly curious, gregarious to a fault, and driven by an intense need to be helpful. That said, I am also a practical businessperson. This weblog is in no danger of being shut down because it energizes me – I get a direct, tangible benefit from creating it. However, the practical aspect of my psyche demands that I more effectively leverage all this effort for non-personal tangible benefits.

I do have long-term goals, and I know CONTENTIOUS can help me achieve them. The trick is figuring out how to make that happen more reliably.

So stay tuned…