Stocking Up
Paul has finally convinced me it’s time to make a more substantial appearance on this wonderful blog than in just the occasional comment.
Just as Santa reveals his mythical self at this time of year, I’m stepping from behind the admin dashboard to spread some festive cheer and thank you for your support over the past nine months – Paul and I are constantly bowled over by the generosity of spirit in our little community.
This is our first Christmas on SBO, and we thought we’d get into the mood by offering our loyal readers the chance to win a swish Christmas hamper full of lovely Yuletide delights, thanks to Glenda from Hobby Hampers (read her fab client gift ideas in Gift Rap).
All we ask in return is that you spread the SBO gospel as far and wide as you can.
To be in the running for Glenda’s hamper, we’re looking for you to sign up as many new email subscribers as possible between now and 11.59 pm on Tuesday 8 Dec (we originally said midnight, but there was too much debate over whether midnight is the beginning or end of the day 
)
Here’s how it works:
- The aim is to grow our email subscriber list (not RSS, because we can’t qualify them). Please don’t hold people at gunpoint – it makes Christmas dinner very awkward and we’d prefer it if you only sign up people who are genuinely interested in SBO and our subject matter.
- When you send your recruitment emails, make sure you put my email address megan.wilson@myob.com in the CC field – I’ll use this to match against new email subscribers.
- The person who successfully signs up the most new email subscriptions will win the prize
- In the event of a draw, the prize will be awarded on count-back to the person who signed up the new members first. For example, if two people each convert three subscribers, whoever’s third subscriber signed up first will win the prize.
We’ll announce the lucky winner in our regular post on 10 December.
We’d love to start 2010 with a flock of new readers to contribute to our growing community – Paul assures me that next year is going to be bigger and funnier than ever.
Hope you enjoyed my maiden post…Paul, you might’ve let the genie out of the bottle!
Megan from myBRC
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Nice one, Megan; well said!
I’ve been reading a lot about subscriber bases lately; here are a few salient points.
The first 500 is the hardest. After that, the next 500 subscribers come relatively easily. And then, critical mass takes over and takes us to 2000, 10000 and beyond.
Most people like to be where other people are. So as we rocket up the search rankings, those cats who see how much fun we’re having will want to come along for the ride.
This isn’t just good for myBRC and The Feisty Empire. It’s also very good for YOU. For when you comment on one of our posts, the link to your site will be seen and clicked my hundreds of people, instead of a few. And the things you can do with this priceless traffic are limited only by your imagination.
So, like a bundle of arrows, we can be very much stronger together than we are alone. If we all just find one more subscriber, we double our reach.
I therefore reckon we should give it a red-hot go, for I have studied our future and I firmly believe this blog will be a VERY important part.
Hi Megan,
Great idea and well done on your support for this brilliant Blog throughout the year and I continue to enjoy the quality and variety provided by Paul and the high quality comments from his band of merry followers.
This is now the only Blog I follow and thank you and myBRC for the feeling of community and support it provides.
I go on walkabout & 2 days later what happens? Our beloved Deep Ocean of Mystery appears from the Mysts! That’d be right!…:-P
Well, as I was the other day, in no uncertain terms, duly informed that I’m part of this great little community too (which I’m both proud & honoured to be I might add), I’m certainly not about to let a mere gathering of crayon-waving omnipotent non-corporeals prevent me from heralding Megan’s inaugural post…actually they encouraged it…you’re a damn good egg in their books too Megan
…so they’ve left the key under the mat at the front door of the Never Nevers for me 
.
Good onya Megan…and good onya Paul for persevering with your lobbying efforts…well worth it I’d say
Gr8 to see you Malcolm
. The family is just not complete without you 
…Ooh! I think I’m getting all clucky 
Anyway, and ironically, now I must return to the Mysts. Gratefully, I shall return…and if the ‘Special FX’ so far pouring from the waving-crayons of my gathered guides are any indication, I’m hopeful of bearing songs a tad more inspiring than and heartily remedial to battling blinded bungling bureaucracies and systematic slaughters of stalwart souls sedulously soldiering the Small Business Spirit.
As I used to say to some so certain and safe in their ‘dominion’ – “Do you have any idea how big Nature actually is?”
“Aaarl be baaarck”!
Stephen G
Greetings Megan!
I am still in your debt re: your help with the MYOB training. Big thanks!
I already spread the word, and to be honest, a gift hamper is unlikely to change that for me one way or another. However, it is good to know you value the email subscription more than the RSS feed.
I do get a lot of value out of the discussions here, and often share them with co-workers, colleagues and clients.
I have one question of a technical nature (something Paul said in his comment above made me think of it): are you using the ‘nofollow’ attribute for comments? No dramas either way, I’m just curious.
Thanks Megan, and Paul, and all the other commenters – all these different perspectives aired in a courteous manner are really great!
Hi everyone and thanks for the kind words
Good points re the reciprocal benefits of commenting on our blog, Paul. There’s definitely a science to taming the SEO beast, and I think we’re getting better at it every day.
Thanks for stopping by, Malcolm! I know how packed your days are so it’s very flattering that of all the blogs in all the world, you happen to stroll on over to ours. We really appreciate your wisdom
Stephen G, glad you’re back! Something would have been amiss if my first post wasn’t adorned with one of your famous comments
And Stephen H, happy I could help out with the training stuff. Anytime!
To be honest we don’t mind whether subscriptions are email or RSS, but for the purposes of this exercise we couldn’t track RSS subscriptions gained as a result of WOM, so we’ve stuck to email subscribers to be fair.
Re the nofollow, we did look into this, and we’re still contemplating it. I’ve had conflicting advice as to whether Google approves…and neither Paul or I want to mess with Google! So any tips are welcome…