I started a business. It made me want to drink copious quantities, smoke myself into oblivion and hit my head against a brick wall. Instead I wrote a blog.
Site Launch Day: 3
User Count: 35 , then 34 again
Going right: Brilliant celebrity panel interview blog arrives...
Going wrong: New user I got all excited about turned out to be a spambot.
Comment: WTF?
I have many brothers and sisters - a combination of steps and halves that I guess is relatively normal for a family which has seen 5 divorces, 1 death and 9 marriages. My siblings are Russian, English & Greek. And they are all fantastically unique - as is my relationship with each of them. From highly interactive to non-existent. One brother is aka Dreamweaver, the author and editor of the blog (not this one obviously - the much better one on the consultancy site).
Dreamweaver and I have a mighty similar anal retentiveness about us and are both - most bizarrely - fascinated by kitchen utensils. A couple of weeks ago, I walked into his flat in London and congratulated him most sincerely on his spice racks. They were wonderfully neat, beautifully labeled and - although I didn't check - most probably alphabetically organized. As I would have liked mine to be. Unfortunately having a child, meant that nothing in my house was organized the way I liked it anymore.
"Ok" he said, starting our conversation in the middle, "have thought of the most puntastic title. I can work on it a bit more this weekend. Am down in Kent which is great, but I always seem to be at the mercy of the list of jobs that can't be entrusted to Dad. The current thing is fixing the roof."
Refusing to be drawn on any temptation to criticize his father - because he was not my father, I said - "Brilliant. I was thinking for the next one a kind of interview with some famous people's opinions on how the internet is changing society?"
"Okay... like real people? Or made up with famous people like Richard Branson?"
"No more like, Elvis Presley...Audrey Hepburn, Anne Frank, JFK and Winston Churchill."
"Ha. This one writes itself." He said.
Of course it did not. He wrote it - brilliantly as usual - and the accompanying email said:
"Sorry this one's longer, but with 5 celebrities all having their say, the words just kept on coming."
(You can read it here - it opens in a different window).
So you might be wondering, what on earth does Elvis Presley have to do with Investment Impact. Honestly? Bugger all. But - my brother is a great writer and as my networking contact from Real Eyes Marketing says,
"The Blogosphere and the Twittersphere are all about pre-sales. The goal being to attract people to your website through interesting Tweets (remember what's in it for them), get them reading your blog. Does it demonstrate your knowledge of your subject matter? Can it regularly hold their attention? If so you have created awareness. If they find it interesting enough they may retweet (RT) it. Once people are aware of your site, you'll be at the top of their list if they have a need for you."
So whilst Elvis may have bugger all to do with Investment Impact, I think he remains interesting enough for people still to read a about him. Tell me - did you click and read the blog?