Bernie Anderson

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This Blog Is Not About Coffee

People find this blog by searching for coffee.

Which is weird, because this blog isn’t really about coffee. This blog is the exploration of the intersection of leadership, creativity, and spirituality.

But according to analytics, people find this blog because they’re searching for coffee. (I have several posts about places where I’ve had great coffee in various parts of the world).

For those who land in the space searching for coffee, I can’t help but wonder about their disappointment. This blog isn’t about coffee - only a few particular posts are.

I’m disappointed because the people I want people to search “Creative leadership” and find this place.

But, at the end of the day, is it really about the ever-shifting algorithms of search engines?

I’d like to think it’s not - but It is actually. You can’t ignore the omniscient power of Google on the Internet.

So my options for increased traffic are:

  1. Make this blog about coffee - which doesn’t work. I don’t want to write about coffee. If it’s just a matter of mere traffic I could write about anything that’s currently popular or seductive. Flying monster trucks or a celebrity “nip-slip”. I don’t want to write about any of those things.
  2. Spam and advertising - You can pay for attention. Paid ads and spam will get clicks. But this will also lead to more disappointed people looking for coffee. This time they’ll click on an add expecting one thing and finding this blog. I don’t want clicks. I want community around issues that are important.
  3. Increase value to a few, who will invite a few more: This makes sense to me.

My job is to answer the questions people are asking and to solve the problems people need solving.

Value in a space is answering the right questions.

The hard work is figuring out what those questions are.

And I clearly have a lot of work to do.