Imaginif...the spirit of Christmas lasted.

Thank you. The new web 2.0 phase? I hope so. Thank you.

There’s a great article about the power of saying saying thank you over at Famous Bloggers, Content is not King, Relationship is.

Content IS NOT king

Contrary to popular belief, blogging isn’t a newspaper or encyclopedia and content IS NOT king anymore. At least not the content most people are describing when they use this phrase. What is king now?

Relationship.

If you want to build a sustainable blog, no matter the niche, you’ve got to build relationship. This throws people off because relationship, just like in the real world, takes time.

Given that Web 2.0 is about social interaction and participation, it would make sense that people concentrate on relationship marketing. But, so many people are merely interested in traffic and forget about the importance of relationships to keep people coming back to check on you and your movements. Specifically, they forget about the conversion from traffic to sales when relationships and mutual respect are formed.

Many years ago when I first started blogging, I developed a relationship with Nicole from It’s all about writing. A lovely woman, we clicked. Why? Because she followed up on the developing relationship by engaging in a two way discussion. She cared past traffic; she cared about me as a person. It made a HUGE difference to my introduction to a professional blogging life…and I became her fan for life.

Another woman who has held a blogging relationship well is Opal from Celebrate Life. She had a two year blogging hiatus but I often thought of her and wondered what she was doing, was all well for her and her child and was her business doing okay. That is the type of relationship we all need to create for loyal following and lasting impression.

Are you all aware of the marvellous Jackie and Sparkplug from People You Need to Know? There’s a couple who understand relationship marketing and have made a business out of it. Jackie consistently follows up comments, tweets and enters beyond the written into the social and personal. I have throughly enjoyed getting to know how Jackie and Sparkplug work and if I was in Atlanta I would employ them to be on my marketing team.

To those bloggers mentioned, people I have never met, THANK YOU for making the world a better place merely by recognising the importance of relationships and using them as your blogging platform. I stumble you all regularly, my little secret Santa gift to you to say thank you for being in my online life.