“There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
I’m sure that all of you can think of someone right now who subscribes to the philosophy that any press is good press.
But there is something to be said about exposure. Almost every company on the planet wants it. They pay for it. They fight for it. It’s the lifeblood of business. If nobody knows who you are and what you do, you’re dead.
In my view, one of the best ways to gain exposure today is content marketing. Marketing sometimes has negative connotations, but content marketing is probably the least offensive varietal. It’s a soft, rather than hard, approach. It invites you in and tries to earn your trust, instead of hitting you over the head with an ask.
But at the same time, it’s a more difficult form of marketing. You have to be insightful. You have to be useful. And you have to try and create value for people on a regular basis. That’s easier said than done. I try and do that every day, but I don’t always succeed.
I say all this because we live in a content-driven world. In fact, this blog – despite it being a personal one – is a form of content marketing. I like how Fred Wilson responded on his blog
“There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
I’m sure that all of you can think of someone right now who subscribes to the philosophy that any press is good press.
But there is something to be said about exposure. Almost every company on the planet wants it. They pay for it. They fight for it. It’s the lifeblood of business. If nobody knows who you are and what you do, you’re dead.
In my view, one of the best ways to gain exposure today is content marketing. Marketing sometimes has negative connotations, but content marketing is probably the least offensive varietal. It’s a soft, rather than hard, approach. It invites you in and tries to earn your trust, instead of hitting you over the head with an ask.
But at the same time, it’s a more difficult form of marketing. You have to be insightful. You have to be useful. And you have to try and create value for people on a regular basis. That’s easier said than done. I try and do that every day, but I don’t always succeed.
I say all this because we live in a content-driven world. In fact, this blog – despite it being a personal one – is a form of content marketing. I like how Fred Wilson responded on his blog
to the criticism that too many entrepreneurs treat venture capital blogs as scripture:
“So how should entrepreneurs use this knowledge that is being imparted by VCs on a regular basis? Well first and foremost, you should see it as content marketing. That is what it is. That doesn’t mean it isn’t useful or insightful. It may well be. But you should understand the business model supporting all of this free content. It is being generated to get you to come visit that VC and offer them to participate in your Seed or Series A round. That blog post that Joe claimed is not scripture in his tweet is actually an advertisement. Kind of the opposite of scripture, right?”
Again, that doesn’t make the content necessarily bad. It’s just the truth. It’s content marketing.
I was walking by a tight construction site last night and it got me thinking. Besides the obvious environmental benefits of building up, as opposed to out, compact urban sites can force something else: intent.
One of the ways I think about good design is that it is intentional. It is about seeing problems and/or opportunities and then being deliberate in how you respond. Every creative decision needs a reason why. I like how John R. Moran talks about design in this blog post from 2014:
“The opposite of design, then, is the failure to develop and employ intent in making creative decisions. This doesn’t sound hard, but, astonishingly, no other leading tech company makes intentional design choices like Apple. Instead, they all commit at least one of what I term the Three Design Evasions.”
The three design evasions he goes on to talk about are (1) preserving, (2) copying, and (3) delegating.
The thing about compact and constrained urban sites is that they can force you away from the three design evasions that Moran lists in his post. You can’t just repeat what was done in the past or copy what someone else has done, because that precedent probably didn’t have the same challenges you face.
Of course, if this were enough to promote great design, our cities would look a hell of a lot different. Still, it’s one of the reasons why I’m attracted to compact forms of development such as laneway housing and other urban infill.
to the criticism that too many entrepreneurs treat venture capital blogs as scripture:
“So how should entrepreneurs use this knowledge that is being imparted by VCs on a regular basis? Well first and foremost, you should see it as content marketing. That is what it is. That doesn’t mean it isn’t useful or insightful. It may well be. But you should understand the business model supporting all of this free content. It is being generated to get you to come visit that VC and offer them to participate in your Seed or Series A round. That blog post that Joe claimed is not scripture in his tweet is actually an advertisement. Kind of the opposite of scripture, right?”
Again, that doesn’t make the content necessarily bad. It’s just the truth. It’s content marketing.
I was walking by a tight construction site last night and it got me thinking. Besides the obvious environmental benefits of building up, as opposed to out, compact urban sites can force something else: intent.
One of the ways I think about good design is that it is intentional. It is about seeing problems and/or opportunities and then being deliberate in how you respond. Every creative decision needs a reason why. I like how John R. Moran talks about design in this blog post from 2014:
“The opposite of design, then, is the failure to develop and employ intent in making creative decisions. This doesn’t sound hard, but, astonishingly, no other leading tech company makes intentional design choices like Apple. Instead, they all commit at least one of what I term the Three Design Evasions.”
The three design evasions he goes on to talk about are (1) preserving, (2) copying, and (3) delegating.
The thing about compact and constrained urban sites is that they can force you away from the three design evasions that Moran lists in his post. You can’t just repeat what was done in the past or copy what someone else has done, because that precedent probably didn’t have the same challenges you face.
Of course, if this were enough to promote great design, our cities would look a hell of a lot different. Still, it’s one of the reasons why I’m attracted to compact forms of development such as laneway housing and other urban infill.
This past Sunday was the 3rd anniversary of this blog. That is 3 years of me writing something here every day (I think I’ve only missed 2 days in the past 3 years). So I have now written almost 1,100 blog posts.
Admittedly, they weren’t all masterpieces. But that doesn’t really matter. To do good work, I think you have to be prolific and show up every day.
The big change this year was that I “unbranded” this blog and started writing just under my personal name, as opposed to Architect This City. I got some initial pushback when I did that, but I continue to believe it was the right decision for what I am trying to achieve here.
I recently had someone ask me if there was any change in traffic after the switch. And the answer is no. If anything, traffic increased.
Over the last year, this blog received about 225,000 page views. Of course, this doesn’t include the 14,000 or so people who read via email subscription and Tumblr, and never actually land on this site.
But honestly, I don’t care about the numbers anymore. I used to. But not anymore. I blog because it:
- Forces me to stay current on the topics that matter to me
- Allows me to clarify my thoughts in a way that thinking alone can’t do
- Holds me publicly accountable for the things I say and the stances I take
- Connects me with people I would never otherwise meet
- Exposes me to new business opportunities
- Gives me a distribution channel for discussion and sharing
- Allows me to learn from readers who know more than I do
- Allows me to exert my personal independence (I write what I want here)
- Promotes greater transparency and, hopefully, better city building
I could go on, but those are some of the most salient points.
At the same time, the world of blogging and social media is all about giving first. So I do try to curate content and posts that I think would be valuable to the readership of this blog. If there’s something else you’d like to see on here, I am always open to suggestions.
Thanks for reading! Regular scheduled programming will resume tomorrow. And yes, those are my old skateboard decks hanging on the wall behind my desk.
This past Sunday was the 3rd anniversary of this blog. That is 3 years of me writing something here every day (I think I’ve only missed 2 days in the past 3 years). So I have now written almost 1,100 blog posts.
Admittedly, they weren’t all masterpieces. But that doesn’t really matter. To do good work, I think you have to be prolific and show up every day.
The big change this year was that I “unbranded” this blog and started writing just under my personal name, as opposed to Architect This City. I got some initial pushback when I did that, but I continue to believe it was the right decision for what I am trying to achieve here.
I recently had someone ask me if there was any change in traffic after the switch. And the answer is no. If anything, traffic increased.
Over the last year, this blog received about 225,000 page views. Of course, this doesn’t include the 14,000 or so people who read via email subscription and Tumblr, and never actually land on this site.
But honestly, I don’t care about the numbers anymore. I used to. But not anymore. I blog because it:
- Forces me to stay current on the topics that matter to me
- Allows me to clarify my thoughts in a way that thinking alone can’t do
- Holds me publicly accountable for the things I say and the stances I take
- Connects me with people I would never otherwise meet
- Exposes me to new business opportunities
- Gives me a distribution channel for discussion and sharing
- Allows me to learn from readers who know more than I do
- Allows me to exert my personal independence (I write what I want here)
- Promotes greater transparency and, hopefully, better city building
I could go on, but those are some of the most salient points.
At the same time, the world of blogging and social media is all about giving first. So I do try to curate content and posts that I think would be valuable to the readership of this blog. If there’s something else you’d like to see on here, I am always open to suggestions.
Thanks for reading! Regular scheduled programming will resume tomorrow. And yes, those are my old skateboard decks hanging on the wall behind my desk.
