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Health & Fitness

A Website That's Got It Goin' On... Or, How to Get People to Click Into Your Site

What makes some websites soar and others sink like they're wearing cement boots? These guys have figured it out. Here's their secret...

With last week’s most recent climatic episode of “The End of the State of Connecticut As We Know It,” it became so much of a challenge to get actual work done that at one point I packed it in and dove deep into my collection of bookmarked cool blog sites that I’ve been meaning to get to one of these days and pulled out one of the best sites out there: 12Most.com. Check it out and you’ll see — I think I’m addicted.

Once in it’s hard to come up for air, the writing is so good. Fun, occasionally hilarious, clever, instructional, and other times just dang good writing. Writers submitting here all take their best shots at filling in the blank with something so interesting and creative that the one-upmanship really raises the blogger bar. Topics range from light lifestyle pieces (‘12 Most Common Misconceptions About Raising Twins’ by Jerry Mahoney), to arts and entertainment (’12 Most Nostalgic Reasons We Miss the Grateful Dead’ by Joyn Boyle), to business leadership (’12 Most Inspiring Rules For Career Success…From Steve Jobs’ by Dave Ellis), to online marketing (’12 Most Self Serving reasons to Post Blog Comments’ by Bruce Sallan), to sales (’12 Most Awesomely Spectacular Ways to Lose Customers’ by Jeannie Walters), to one near and dear to my heart, in the tech and online media section…now, pay attention: ’12 Most Annoying Things Driving Traffic Away from Your Website’ by Tonya R.Taylor.

If you read the About 12 Most, you'll see that it was started pretty much on a whim in May of this year. 12 Most is still in its infancy but as you’ll see when you go to the site, it's just exploding with so much traffic I had trouble getting on it all morning because — I think — they are still playing Server Catch-Up trying to accommodate the swift rise in readership, contributions, categories and organization. What’s the point here, you might be asking. Why do we care, Suzen?Well there are a few good reasons:

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  • Why is this website, which is just beginning to be monetized after the fact, so dang popular and attracting such a huge throng of writers and readers? My theory? A) It hits a nerve. Who amongst us doesn’t have that bucket list of complaints… for proof of that check out the number of posts in the ‘12 Most Annoying…’ category. (Oow wait, there is none. Yet. I’m sure there will be soon, right at the top, above Arts and Entertainment), or of places they want to visit, or of things they wish they’d known when they started their business, or had their children, or buried their dog... and on and on. B) It’s so much fun!! Who doesn’t want to play? It’s participatory. Key marketing strategy. Ding! Ding! Ding-a-ling! and, C) It’s simple. Nothing complicated here, just a really great idea, great content, executed well and inviting participation.
  • All you small business folks out there. Read B and C again. Go ahead, I’ll wait. The innovating, savvy folks at 12 Most have figured out, perhaps accidentally although I highly doubt it, that a successful online business is a participatory, permission based one, not an interruptive one. Seth Godin explains it perfectly in his Permission Marketing when he say’s “…because the messages were anticipated, personal and relevant, people paid attention.” This line is repeated all throughout this (great) book, which was my other reading assignment this past down week, and anyone looking to really expand their market and gain new customers/patients/clients in the upcoming years needs to pay attention to this concept and heed it when developing their business and marketing plan. We’ll talk more about this in another blog because I'm all over it.

For now though, I’m so fired up about this ‘12 Most' that I’m challenging myself to create me a 12 Most List, write it up smart, sexy and savvy, submit it and hope for acceptance. And if they don’t accept my first one I’ll keep writing them until they’re so sick of me that they’ll just post it out of pity. A pity post. I’ll take it!

Here’s the thing… I need help!… what should my list be?? Suggestions wanted!! Throw your suggestions in the comments box below and help Suzen get her outstanding ’12 Most’ blog accepted by the esteemed editors at 12 Most.com. The winner with the best (appropriate, a-hem...) topic (that gets me accepted!!) will win my undying love and adoration. I'm accepting submissions through November, as my mission is to have this awesome blog completed and submitted by the end of the year. 

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Suzen Pettit, a longtime Brookfield resident, is principal at Omaginarium and Omagine Health, a marketing firm specializing in growing small businesses and medical practices by creating search engine optimized websites, internet marketing, social media marketing, affordable SEO and email marketing.

Contact Suzen at 203-733-8578 or email her at Suzen@omaginarium.com.

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