Heritage Stories and The 12 Gifts
by Amy Stevens Adams
The Holidays are a time for family. John and I are pleased to share with you the story of Mary Eble, a social worker in California, who is pursuing her passion for bringing families together.
When I first spoke with Mary, she told me about her vision for Heritage Stories, and how helping families connect is her driving motivation. Mary’s story is perfectly suited for Christmas. She has just released an E-book entitled The 12 Gifts, and it is her gift to all of us. The 12 Gifts is a treasure trove of suggestions for strengthening the bond between family and friends. It offers ideas for thoughtful gifts and mementos that can be shared among family, and passed down to future generations.
Mary told me that we all have a basic human need to connect and be social. She feels that for her, personally, understanding her history helps to ground her.
Her insightful blog, www.Heritage-Stories.com is dedicated to helping families re-connect, and keeping that connection strong. She offers advice, links to beneficial sites and stories that others have shared. It’s a fun and informative site, whether you’re just starting your journey of tracking your family’s history, or you’re already well on your way to a fully filled-in family tree.
As we celebrate with our loved-ones, remember this should be a holiday season of “connection not consumption”.
Mary’s complimentary E-book, The 12 Gifts may be found here.
Happy Holidays from CCB!
-Amy Stevens Adams of Cape Cod Branding
How Do I Increase Web Traffic?
by John R. Sedivy
Introduction
As our regular readers may recall last week was an extraordinary week for us here at Cape Cod Branding – a week of many firsts. To name a few it marked the highest number of visitors to our blog – CCB Buzz, the highest amount of web traffic in a given day, and above all the first time we hit over 1,000 in a single day, and over the course of the week we maintained over 1,000 visitors a day for the whole week. Although this week has really just begun, it has been phenomenal. First, we reached over 2,600 visitors in a single day. To top it all off we reached a total number of 10,000 visitors to CCB Buzz, all within 21 days of launching the site!
A former classmate from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Carey Business School had contacted me and asked how we ramped up so quickly. Since there was interest on his part, I thought others might be interested as well so I am providing the top three items that we here at Cape Cod Branding believe attributed to this. My plan is to touch briefly on each of these points for today’s discussion and then follow up at a later time and discuss each in greater detail.
Driving Web Traffic
When we launched CCB Buzz in early December I recall our traffic was in the single digits for about the first week. After a short time we ramped up quickly, double digits, and then triple. In my mind I had a goal of attempting to drive towards doubling web traffic every day. Initially this equated to something as simple as increasing web traffic from two hits to four hits, which of course does not sound very exciting and was the equivalent of watching paint dry. However over time as the numbers grew, so did our excitement.
That being said I thought about the top three things that got us to where we are today and they are the following:
- Partnering – Two are better than one.
- Content – Offer value to your readership.
- Frequency – Post often.
Please keep in mind the following when reading this article and reviewing the accompanying WordPress screen captures:
- The three items identified in this article are in addition to the Five Keys to Success that I identified in my previous articles titled the The Five Keys to Success Parts I and II and serve as a foundation for the more blog specific topical items of partnering, content, and frequency
- The CCB Buzz blog was launched on 12/1/08
- The screen captures were taken at approximately 1:30 PM EST on 12/23/08
Above all, keep in mind that there is not one set method of generating traffic – this is simply our view on the world. My thought is that there is a certain magic that takes place based on a convergence of factors; for me it was a mixture of partnering, content, and frequency but for you it may be different. Experiment a bit – try an approach, monitor the results, and then adjust if needed. Stick with it and enjoy yourself.
For today I just wanted to introduce the topic and identify the three items which I believe were instrumental to our success in such a short time. After the Christmas holiday I will delve deeper in each area providing a separate blog article for partnering, content, and frequency respectively. In the meantime, Amy will be providing a feature of our first client at Cape Cod Branding which will be similar in scope to the first feature from Amy on Why We Started Our Business Cape Cod Branding.
Partnering, content, and frequency have been the formula to our success!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
Snow and The Snowball Part III
by John R. Sedivy
Introduction
As we are easing out of the weekend, and the snow was first being replaced by freezing rain and now by bright and sunny weather here on The Cape, it seems like an appropriate time to wrap up the Snow & The Snowball series. This article will conclude our discussion on The Snowball which is the biography of Warren Buffett. As a refresher three pertinent points were identified from this book:
- Accumulating wealth may be likened to building a snowball
- Zig when everyone else zags
- Marry up, not down
In Part I we discussed how building anything of quality, whether it is wealth, a business, an individual or company brand may be likened to building a snowball, by adding to it a little over time it gradually accumulates significant value. In Part II we discussed why following the crowd is often not desirable. Finally, today I will wrap things up and discuss the concept of marrying up.
Marry Up, Not Down
This may seem like silly advice, especially from the biography of one of the greatest financial minds and richest men in the world. At first reading you may find this to be a cold statement and akin to using someone for gain. However, Warren Buffett, and other successful people I had heard this advice from, are not talking about money, fame, or success. In a time when everyone seems to be discarding the old for the next best thing, what can possibly be more important than money or social standing?
Although he does not flat out say it; my interpretation of this statement is to marry someone with class. I will not get into the concept of class, because I will delve into that much deeper this week in future posts, however I will say that it has little to nothing to do with money, fame, or success and it is really an intangible. I am willing to bet that he meant that whomever you marry should bring something to the table and the couple as a whole team should be greater than the sum of its individual parts. In my opinion, the true test is whether you feel better with the other half of the relationship than without, does the other person make you a better person and improve your overall situation just by their very essence of being there.
The purpose of this blog is not to provide marriage or couple advice, but rather to introduce a concept I found interesting, located in an unlikely place, which allows for further elaboration. Let’s take this a step further and expand it to all relationships, whether we are talking personal or professional relationships or just life experience in general.
In a previous post titled the Power of Positive Part III I referenced a quote from John F. Kennedy, specifically – “A rising tide lifts all boats.” Marrying up is the same fundamental concept. When a person marries up they join a partnership where they realize that “A rising tide lifts all boats” and that in order for another candle to be lit, the original does not need to be extinguished, meaning that the success of another does not extinguish their success, but quite the opposite – it enhances it. In my opinion this concept should be applied to all relationships.
A true test, is how you feel before and after when you are interacting with a person, group, or organization . If you are like me you may tend to procrastinate and not enjoy starting anything, regardless of the task, but once into it excel, and then at completion be completely energized and feel better for having a particular experience. Ask yourself this simple question after each life experience – Do I feel better after said experience then when I started? If the answer is yes you are all set, if the answer is no, there is some fine tuning to be done.
“Marry Up” and surround yourself with others who lift you up and propel you to success!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
