How to make blogger more responsive

This blog is hosted on Blogger.com - primarily for expediency.

• I don’t like the HTML it generates
• And I don’t like the templates (i.e. how it looks)

But other than that, it is fine.
For a while I’ve been wanting to make the blog more ‘responsive’.

• I don’t particularly like the fixed sizing
• and I don’t like the small screen formatting

I had a quick look around are responsive templates for blogger.
But:

• I didn’t really trust them
• I thought I would have to reconstruct my sidebar etc.
• It all seemed too much work

I tried using the Advanced editing on the template to add some CSS but:

• The custom CSS is added into the HTML before the Template CSS
• So the template CSS overrides your custom CSS

So, I bit the bullet:

• visit the site
• use dev tools to find the ‘key’ areas to influence
• hack around with the CSS

And I came up with this:

---

/* Minimal Hack to make blogger more responsive
     Added in the Template HTML Template Skin Section
     At the bottom
     20160902
*/

.content-outer{
     min-width:none;
     max-width:1400px;
     margin: auto;
}

img#Header1_headerimg{
     margin:auto;
}

/* push sidebar to the bottom - content break, not device break*/
@media only screen and (max-width: 900px){

.content-outer{
     min-width:0;
     max-width:auto;
     margin: auto;
}

.column-center-outer{
     width:100%;
}
.main-inner .column-right-outer{
     width:100%;
     margin-right:0px;
}
.main-inner .fauxcolumn-right-outer{
     width:100%;
}
.main-inner .fauxcolumn-center-outer{
     width:100%;
}
.main-inner .columns{
     padding-right:0;
}

img#Header1_headerimg{
     max-width:100%;
     height:auto;  
}
body{
     min-width:0;
}
}

/* End of minimal hack to make blogger more responsive
    20160902
*/

---

It isn’t pretty.
But it basically says. If the screen is bigger than 900 pixels then allow it to resize.
If it is below 900 pixels then move the side bar to the bottom of the screen and make everything fit the width.
Oh, and resize the header image to fit the screen (if I add one to this blog).
Why 900? Because.
I chose a content break, rather than a device break. And on some of my other blogs, choosing 900 seemed like the right choice.
In blogger I have to:

• go to the blog dashboard
• choose ‘Template’
• Edit HTML
• Expand <b:template-skin> ...</b:template-skin> in the editor
• and right at the bottom of this section, above the ]]> I add my ‘hack’ CSS

Just in case anyone else is still on Blogger, and wants to make their blog a little more responsive.
Feel free to adjust the max-width in the media query for your own personal preferences.

Does LinkedIn Advertising and Sponsored Update work?

I have never clicked on an advert on LinkedIn, or knowingly clicked or shared a sponsored update.

But I have taken advantage of the LinkedIn promotions wehre they give you £20 or £30 to try running ads or sponsored updates.

I tried advertising & sponsored updates.

Sponsored Updates burn through cash

I burned through the ‘free’ cash on the sponsored update in a day or so. Suspecting that this might be successful, I paid to increase the ad budget.

A few days later the cap was reached.

Result.

• A few shares. A few clicks.
• But no upsell.

Perhaps I picked the wrong update to sponsor?

Certainly it got in front of people, but I had less interaction with the sponsored update, than I do on a normal update.

So I probably will not try this again.

Text Ads

I created two text ads.

I thought two might give me an A/B test, and feel kind of scientific.

One of my ads has achieved 49 impressions over 30 days, with no clicks, at a cost of $0.00

The other ad has achieved 9576 impressions, with 1 click, at a cost of $2, over 32 days.

I chose “Cost per Click” model.

LinkedIn suggests that other advertisers are paying $6 - $10 per click. Whereas I decided to target the long tail and see how long the budget would last, so I went for the minimum $2 per click.

I have just increased the cost Per Click to $4 and will see what happens.

At the moment Ads seem like a way of putting text on people’s screen that they don’t click on. But it doesn’t cost much.

And you can cap the daily spend - so provided you remember to check the ads section of LinkedIn periodically you might not end up too much out of pocket.

Does this work?

Again, I’m not convinced of the efficacy of this advertising approach.

I suspect that quality updates and posts might have a better impact.

Are Linkedin Groups Still Useful for Marketing?

Are Linkedin Groups Useful?

I still read in posts from Linkedin ‘experts’ and various social media sites that LinkedIn Groups are one of the best ways to get in front of prospects and demonstrate your expertise.

Unfortunately LinkedIn groups seem dead to me.

I dropped out of LinkedIn groups a few years ago because, while they were active with discussion the discussion was:

• of very poor quality
• highly opinionated without justification
• incredibly argumentative without ‘listening’ to the other side

And I just became tired of reading it, and being on the receiving end of “that won’t work” opinions’ despite posting factual success experiences.
But, since I’m trying to figure out how to use LinkedIn for marketing I’ve gone back through the groups I subscribe to.

I evaluated my groups for value

I adopted the following strategy to evaluate linkedin groups:

• for each group I am in:
  • does it give value to me? i.e. looking over the last 50 or so posts, did they add value?
  • are my prospects in this group?

If they answer to either is “No” then leave the group.

Most were full of spam posts and no discussion

Most of the groups were filled with ‘peers’ rather than ‘prospects’ and so many of the groups were actually filled with the same ‘posts’. I went from group to group seeing the same promotional posts from people in each group.
Perhaps that marketing strategy works - publish the same post in each group, regardless of its relevance to the group. But to me it seems like spam.

• I could find no group that had any real discussion.
• I could find no group that had ‘prospects’ in it.
• I left many of the groups I was subscribed to.

How to find new groups?

I’m going to start searching for ‘prospects’ and seeing what groups they have joined.
And then, once I gain access to the groups, I can evaluate them using the ‘value’ strategy I listed above.
I remain to be convinced if LinkedIn groups will add value to my marketing strategy.

Linkedin Marketing Strategy - The Reciprocal Visit - Who’s Viewed Your Profile

One LinkedIn marketing strategy that I’ve seen mentioned on a variety of blogs is “The Reciprocal Visit” (or at least that is what I call it). How do we use that for marketing?

What is the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” feature?

LinkedIn has the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile" feature. You can see it on the ‘Profile’ drop down. And it shows you who has recently viewed your profile.

• if you have a free plan you will see the last few people who have visited
• if you have a paid plan you will see the last few weeks (or months)

If the person has made their profile public, or not viewed in private mode then you’ll be able to see information about them.

Why?

• you could send them a connection request, after all they visited your profile, they might be interested in what you sell
• they might be a potential client waiting to happen, you could research them and build a tailored ‘hi there’ approach
• it might give you an idea of the current target market your profile is written towards
• it might help you build a set of ‘personnas’ that your profile is drawn to, to create custom marketing approaches for each profile
• you might want to join some of the groups for that person, posting there might get you in front of that person organically without a connect
• there might be a shared connection who can introduce you

What is the “Reciprocal Visit” strategy?

If you visit someone’s profile then YOU will appear in their list of “Who’s viewed your profile”.
They might visit you back.
That might mean they are interested in what you have to sell if:

• your ‘professional headline’ description accurately reflects what you want to sell

Now your ‘Professional Headline’ is actually acting as a headline. And you want to use it as a ‘click through’ and read the article.
And the article now, is your “Summary”, and your “Summary” now becomes a sales page.
If you include your connection details on your sales page (sorry, “Summary”) , then they might actually find it easier to connect with you, and initiate a sales conversation.

Automating This

There are tools to help with the “Reciprocal Visit” strategy.
But be careful.
You can have your account locked for this.

• if you are on a free plan then this will be viewed as commercial use, and you’ll have to very quickly upgrade your plan (after about 50 or so views)
• if you misuse this, then your account might be locked (if you’re lucky then it will reset the next day)
• if you are on a paid linkedin plan then it advertises itself as “Unlimited Profile Views”, but it doesn’t mean that. I think you get about 800 or so before you see the “Linked in is momentarily unavailable” message

I’m still experimenting with this strategy. And to be honest, I’m technical enough that I can automate it myself, so I’ll never know what the tools are like.
I can’t say for sure that the strategy does work yet, as I’ve only just started using it.

Initial results:

I’ve only been using this strategy for 2 days, so it is really too early to say. But…
Started experimenting with it on 27th - 28th August, which was a Weekend, then 29th August (which was a bank holiday) - so not the best of days to try it. But in 2 days I have 18 profile views and my Wednesday email was busier with connection requests and emails from recruiters.
I managed to lock my account on Tuesday by clicking on too many profiles!
But my access came back on Wednesday. Phew.
I take this to mean that it is:

• worth experimenting with.
• And I need to amend my profile to reduce the number of recruiters that contact me.

Note:

• Update: And for the 2nd time. I've had my linkedin search functionality downgraded on linkedin. This time. After performing one search, and clicking 'next page' about 30 - 40 times.
• I'm not sure this is a viable strategy in any automated way.
• I'm not quite sure how recruiters are able to rely on LinkedIn because if I was a recruiter I'd be doing a lot of searching and paging, and my account would get locked.
• Currently I'm on an evaluation of the Business Plus plan which would set me back £29.99 a month. IT seems to have the same limits on searches (i.e. none - unlimited) as the executive plan at £49.99 a month. 
• And given that it is possible to avoid some linkedin search limits by using tools such as http://recruitmentgeek.com/tools/linkedin/ 
• I need to find a compelling reason to pay the cash in the next 3 weeks.
• I'll see if the 'post cool stuff to groups your prospects' are on strategy works out next

Related Links:

• Who’s Viewed Your Profile FAQ
• Difference Between Basic and Premium
• How to use the WVMP Feature
• Utilizing WVMP Feature

Marketing in Moderation for Maximum Impact

You'll want to compete. You'll want to improve.

But as with everything, you have to work in moderation:

• You have a finite amount of time
• You have a finite monetary budget for advertising

The parteo principle is a useful thing to keep in mind, they 80/20 rule:

80% of the success comes from 20% of the effort

i.e.

• get biggest bang for the buck
• repurpose your content
• get your content in front of more people

Some of this comes from skill:

• learn to write fast
• learn to plan fast
• learn to automate some processes

Some of this comes from courage:

• your first draft is good enough, don't edit, hit publish
• if you learned something its good enough, it will help someone else, hit publish
• if it reminded you of something important, even if it was obvious, its important enough, hit publish

You'll only see benefits when you go live, and you implement.

Danger zone of competitor analysis

The danger of doing competitor analysis is that you could become complacent.

If your website ever becomes 'good' and 'better than' your competitors, you might stop improving.

If your social media strategy ever becomes 'better than' your competitors, then you might stop improving.

To avoid this, also add into your 'competitor' list some big hitters. Identify and add individuals who are so high profile you could never hope to compete. Add companies with an advertising budget that you could never hope to match.

Keep improving, so that you edge towards competing with them.

If you'll never reach their level that is fine, you'll keep improving.

Use Ongoing Competitor Analysis to improve your marketing

One way I improve my marketing and web sites is by analyzing what my competitors do.

And by competitor I mean:

• direct competitors who do exactly the same
• direct competitors who sell similar products as I do
• small consultancy companies who do a similar thing to me
• consultants, who look successful, even if they do different things to me
• small consultancies and agencies who look successful

I prioritize direct competitors and consultancies, but I will analyse the work that anyone does and see what strategies and approaches I see that I'm not using.

After all, we want to be seen as 'bigger than we are' and the easiest way of doing that is by looking to see what people 'bigger than you' actually do.