I'm new to blogging and although I have seen consistent and significant growth in unique visitors, I have been keen to find tips to grow my blog quickly. I've spent my spare time over the last few weeks researching and what I have found scares me. There are lots of ways to grow visitor numbers and one of the most heavily promoted is back-links. The benefit of back links is that search engines give greater ranking to sites that have lots of back links as these links are seen as votes (endorsements) from other sites. Of course this makes sense and like everyone I will be doing my best to develop back links of my own. My concern however is how some bloggers are going about this. What I have seen is the setting up of fake websites, commercial organizations doing the same and arrangements where a group of bloggers agree to swap "Digg nominations", "Technorati Favs", "Stumbleupon Recommendations" etc. I understand the desire to build web traffic quickly, but if you use this method, at what cost?

My belief is this ...

- If you make a recommendation without knowing what you are recommending you loose credibility and risk linking yourself to people who reflect badly on you. - Quick traffic volumes don't necessarily translate to longer term volumes. - This is not building a network of friends that can support and help you. - Most of these people don't even visit your website, do you really want a recommendation from someone that doesn't know you? - To other bloggers and your readers you risk looking like a fake!

What time horizon are you working too?

If you are in this for the long term, isn't it better to put the work in and build a network of reliable links and develop your reputation as someone to be respected and listened to? In the long term I am certain this will yield dividends, especially if you hope to have your readers take advantage of recommendations you make. Please don't get me wrong, I am not saying you're a bad person or dishonest ... I also have tried this myself before I thought through what I was doing and stopped. I am just asking you to think carefully before you give away your valuable recomendations, favs and links. Good luck and enjoy your time on line. UPDATE : Here is a great post that offers lots of options for blog promotion

Did you know many people have decided what they think of a web page before it's even finished loading?  I'm convinced that when people review their own website they aren't very good at it for two reasons: 1, They're emotionally involved. It's their baby and no one wants to think they have an ugly baby. Even more so when they paid a lot of money for it. 2. They have no idea what web surfers want. Even worse, they don't really know much about their own web browsing behavior. That's because, like everyone else, we mainly tend to surf on auto-pilot. If this could be you, here's my challenge. (If you don't think you have a problem, go challenge a friend.) To get an idea of what a good website is, and to see how you “behave” as a web surfer I suggest you join Stumbleupon. You'll get a tool bar to install in your web browser which has a “stumble” button. When you click this button you will be sent to a random website. If you like it, give it a thumbs up, or a thumbs down if you don’t. You can refine your stumbles to things you're interested in. The amazing thing is web surfers give a website about 20 secs before they make that decision. Often they've left before the page has finished loading. I think you'll find that good image content and design will be a familiar theme in the sites you like. A side benefit is that Stumbleupon brings fun back to web surfing and can be highly addictive :-) NOW for the hard part of the challenge ... Apply what you learned about your own behavior, including your likes and dislikes, to a review of your own site. Be critical, be honest, and try to define what you want your site to be in the future. Finally I don't say any of this to manipulate Stumbleupon, but good design that interests a Stumbleupon visitor will appeal to all visitors, have a look at this post by Patick at piggybankpie.com and this post from socialmediatraders.com. There are some great ideas here for starters.

Why oh why do people find providing good customer service so hard? I guess probably for the same reason so many people struggle with relationships, that is that they co-exist, rather than truly throw themselves into the situation in the effort to find a real connection. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that the customer is always right, they often aren't but in that moment they do deserve to feel significant and cared for... Often that just takes a little empathy and a smile. Why is it that when people talk about great business they can rattle of a list of companies specializing in various business functions, but when you ask who gives great service they scratch their head? When you say best at innovation, Apple ... Best at supply chain management, Walmart ... Best at lean manufacturing, Dell. Ok I know in the USA people will often say Nordstrom for great customer service, but you often get a sense that there is a pause and people have to think about it. I was at a seminar last month with Keith Cunningham (brilliant by the way) and, when talking about staffing and how to get people to be effective, he had a simple set of rules which he expected his staff to follow. Although he spoke in a more general way I think they relate perfectly to how to deliver good customer service. They are ... Do The Right Thing! What that means will vary, but basically people expect you to be trained to do the job you are employed to do, and of course there a basic rules in society that also dictate the "Right Thing". If you can't do the right thing, because maybe you don't have the experience, then Do The Best You Can. Simple, put a little effort and common sense into doing your "Best". And finally if all else fails, and this is probably where many people let themselves down, Show Them You Care. We can't always give people what they came for and sometimes we will let people down. But in that moment, show a little love, and let them know you care that they have been disappointed. It doesn't take much, and with a little education, or creative thought to find an alternative, that bad situation might just turn into the foundation for a great relationship for life.

Without a doubt the currency of the Fire Service is Trust. Without it all emergency services, and especially the Fire Service, would struggle to operate. I am sure it's true in all countries that the Fire Service almost always tops the chart of "Most Trusted Occupations", and I'm very proud to be a part of an organisation with that quality. This is important, not just between us and the public but also amongst members of a crew. Our job can be dangerous and you need to be able to rely on the people you respond with, and your ability to trust their integrity and courage is essential ... If not, "Who's got your back?" Stephen Covey in his book "The Speed of Trust" says that transactions that occur where trust is high happen faster and cheaper. We rely on this when on calls to allow us to take control and get the job done quickly and effectively. This point can be demonstrated by contrasting two stories: Scenario #1: One day I responded to a call directly from home to a young woman having a serious asthma attack. I arrived about 6 minutes before the rest of my crew and therefore only had myself, my uniform and conversation to make a difference. She was Status 2, which basically means "really sick", but on arrival you could see a definite sense of relief from the family along with a look of desperation from her for me to do something quickly. The important thing here was that my uniform, which clearly displayed Fire Rescue, gave me immediate credibility with her and her family. If I had turned up in a pair of shorts and a tee shirt, time would have been wasted explaining who I was and building that trust. All I could do was build on that trust by showing empathy, confidence and gaining her focus and talking her towards a more controlled mode of breathing and relaxation. This was an extremely dangerous situation for her, but as trust was established immediately I could be effective without wasting time. Of course when I saw the uniforms of the Ambulance Paramedics, I was relieved myself because I knew I could trust them, and because they had the necessary drugs the woman so urgently required. Fast forward a couple of months to Scenario #2. I was again responding directly to a call from home. On arrival I found a man in cardiac arrest, but after a very short period of CPR his heart beat returned. So short a time in fact that I thought I must have made a mistake. Again I was awaiting my crew and without monitoring equipment. My instinct however was that the situation was cardiac, despite his wife's insistence that he had too had had an asthma attack and collapsed. A short while later a Paramedic arrived and my uniform, combined with my uncertainty, worked against me. I wasn't the expert, the Paramedic was, and as a result I lost some of his trust. He disregarded my diagnosis and focused on the asthma with little effect. I don't blame him for this, I was a little uncertain; but still, the ambulance crew didn't take my advice seriously because I was "just a fire fighter", as opposed to being a "fully trained paramedic". Later that day, while on another job with that crew, they told me I'd been correct and the man had in fact had a heart attack. To me, the business learning is this... Trust does speed up transactions and reduce their cost, so don't under estimate its power. But you can't just demand Trust, or talk about it to get it. It must be earned and nurtured. It will not occur in your organization because you ask for it, or because you talk about it at meetings... Trust is subjective... Trust is based on gestures, symbols and behaviour, not just words.

Do you live and work with integrity?

Does trust ease your transactions or do you abuse relationships by talking about values you don't live up to?

Where you give trust to people or organizations, is it deserved and are you clear what to "be trusted" means?

In the following video, you'll see fire crews working together as teams in extremely challenging and dangerous situations ... It only works where trust exists... What will you do today to improve the level of organisational trust you have so that you can go to the extreme together tomorrow? UPDATE 11th July 2009 Just read this great post by Justin French on Trust

The presentation by Merlin Man and John Gruber was called 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility. In reality it was a discussion about authenticity and how you blog. It brought into focus what I've been thinking about for the last couple of months and made me realise what I have been trying to deny for a while now. That is that blogging is probably the most difficult thing I have ever done.

I'm used to being successful, but blogging hurts

I've had a blessed life. By blessed I mean we worked like crap to provide a great product, have awesome experiences and try like hell to add value to other people's lives and help them be successful. We've worked hard to make our "good luck", and with my blog I'd like to think I'm doing the same. I'd be the first to admit that I'm not a brilliant writer, but I do share what's deep inside and allow myself to be vulnerable so people know I'm being real in the hope that they might also benefit from my experience. The reward so far has been an analytics graph that makes my heart sink. I swear visiting analytics is like a crack habit. You go from a high of seeing a post get 10k+ page views one day to the low of watching the graph dwindle over the next week because you haven't found time for another post, or because the next story doesn't get as much traction. LOL it's like going from Rooster to Feather Duster.

It scares the shit out of me as I am used to seeing the whites of people's eyes

What I find hardest, is that I can't see how people react. I know from analytics that people do read what I write, but I don't know who those people are and, when they finish, I still haven't made the site focused or sticky enough and most don't come back. Face to face, I can see you laugh or cry, and when you walk away I can call you back, even tackle you to the ground. Online though, that's not an option, and I struggle with the fact that you are anonymous and I haven't got you to subscribe or participate through comments yet.

Being a leader means finding your voice, but what about being humble?

Seth talks about developing a Tribe, being a leader, and the fact that the world needs leaders. I work with a group of people who are leaders. They develop Lovemarks and care passionately about the clients they work for and the treasures they create. But we were taught to be humble, to be soft spoken, even self deprecating. We were taught that it's not our role to toot our own trumpet, but in a world where companies treble their story and consumers halve what they believe, does that work anymore? We think so ... but we will need to lead our tribe, not merely participate in a community. The old rule needs refining. I am their leader, or a least one of our leaders, but have struggled to find my voice. I believe however that what the industry will see over the next few months and the coming year, is that we are finding our voice and are passionate about the industry we work in. We are passionate about working with the best photographers in the world to tell stories together, to document the coming together of families and to help people remember forever.

So, what is my priority ... what do I love?

My realisation is that my passion is human connection, love, community and people interacting with people. Even the technology I love and use is all about enabling connecting. My community is not the 1000 odd families that live with me here in my suburb of Laingholm, but the global village I have been a part of now for over 20 years. I love and admire photographers, their craft and the challenge they face weekly as story tellers as they capture the beauty of each family, individual and wedding. I love the business, both mine and helping them with theirs. I love the brides and grooms who value what we do, those that care enough about their own story to have it captured by an artist like Brett and then have that story told in a Queensberry for 'their future' to enjoy and treasure.

And I love blogging too

Maybe it's the crack high, maybe it's the challenge, maybe it's some narcissistic need to make it work, but I love blogging too. It's really about the connection, it's about talking with people, it's about's getting outside of yourself. I love it ... so much it hurts :-)