Getting Found – Even By Accident – is Good For Business Bloggers!

A tiny chapter in the Book of General Ignorance illustrates a big idea for business bloggers – posting content with an eye for "getting found" by online searchers. Answering the question "How did Nome, Alaska get its name?", authors John Lloyd and John Michenson explain it was by mistake!

As a professional ghost blogger and blogging trainer, I found the first thing that resonated with me about that little chapter is that it's a myth-buster.  Myth-busting is a great way to generate content for your business blog – it's fun, it's informational, it's engaging, and it gives you a chance to showcase your own expertise in your field.

As with any other business strategy, myth-busting works best when done with a certain degree of finesse.  Remember, the idea is never to showcase the readers' ignorance or to "make them wrong" (so that they'll know they need your expert services).  Quite the contrary – you want a reader that feels "in the know", armed and ready to make intelligent choices.

There's a second reason, though, that I love the Nome story – it's a prime example of what I've nicknamed an "accidental organic donor". See, the story of Nome goes back to the 1850's, when an officer on a British ship noted the existence of a prominent point of land in Alaska.  In his notes on the manuscript map, the officer scribbled "Name?" (a reminder to look up the name later).  But when the document was being copied and the map of Alaska was being updated, a cartographer misread the note and wrote it in as Cape Nome (instead of "name"), and Nome it's been ever since!

In other words, sometimes there's a disconnect between what the online searcher originally  wanted and what he or she accidentally finds.  When that "accident" turns out to bring a new reader to your blog, (and if your content engages that reader's interest, the mistake can result in your converting a mistake into a customer!