Marketing Studies

Rok: You claim that switching from e-mail publishing to direct-to-desktop publishing had a direct effect on your search engine rankings.

Wouldn't you have achieved the same result if you simply used direct-to-desktop as an addition content delivery medium in addition to e-mail?

John: Possibly. BUT the switch to direct-to desktop publishing WITHOUT email added on has eliminated a lot of the bullshit busy work that email publishers have to deal with, like list maintenance, bounces, scam complaints, etc.

I don't have those headaches to take up my time. And those headaches would be there even if I just sent a weekly notice to my list telling them to go read the channel. Since I post to my channel almost every day, if I sent an email notice about every new post, I'd only aggravate the situation. Even with an automated list maintenance system, which I had, I still got all kinds of inappropriate solicitations plus a few misguided scam complaints. There was also the filter issue. Were my messages getting through? I got coaffirmation from some of my best subscribers that their filters were preventing my messages from get through, even though they were nothing more than a "Ho read this" notice. But the main reason I stopped sending just notices was that was pushy and I was tired of being pushy. I let my readers decide for themselves to go read my channel. If they have QuikView, the browser-based reader from Quikonnex, they get notification direct to their desktops that a channel they are subscribed to has posted an update. There is no need for me to send them an email, so why do the extra busy work? Having eliminated all the busy work of email, plus not having to worry about offending any filters by what words I used, I know had more time to concentrate on writing the kind of content I've always wanted to write and to write a lot more of it.

I consider myself first and foremost a writer, then a publisher and third a marketer. I market in order to write, not write in order to market.

The search engines now are geared to focus on those sites that produce lots of quality content. That is their primary concern. That is what I concentrate on, not only because this is what the SEs want, but because it is what I do best.

The less bullshit busy work I have to deal with, the more time I have for writing. Eliminating hours of that bullshit from my day gave me the time to write the kind of content that gets me those high rankings. Plus I do not have to worry about using silly text tricks to get certain words through filters. I control my own content, not the filters! I get to say what I please when I please.

Being free to do that is a direct result of switching from email publishing to direct-to-desktop publishing. That is why I made that statement and why I still feel that way!

If I were still doing email, I doubt I would have the the time to do this interview!