What can Charlie Sheen teach us about SEO?

I’m assuming everyone is at least marginally aware of the whole Charlie Sheen fiasco but if not, here’s a quick primer and here’s his craziness set to music.  He has definitely been in the news lately and there is a lot we can learn about this tragic trajectory he is on but I want to focus on what we can glean about SEO from him.

 

Crazy brings the eyeballs

No doubt about it, controversy sells.  In our Post-Modern culture, everybody’s opinion is valid and has weight and the biggest sin anyone can commit is having a strong, inflexible opinion or saying someone is wrong.  Fortunately, we all know deep down that this is wrong, not every idea is a good one and some people shouldn’t be listened to.  Do you want to make your blog post stand out?  Have a strong, controversial opinion about something in your niche and back it up with a well-reasoned argument.  What are the things in your niche that are so universally accepted that no one even thinks about them anymore, are they still true?  There’s an old story of a man who was newly married and noticed that every time she cooked a ham, she would slice a few inches off the top making it flat on top.  When he asked her why she did that she said she didn’t know it was just something her mother always did.  So he went to her mother and asked her the same question and got the same response.  Next he went to the grandmother and asked her why she always sliced a few inches off the tops of her hams and she replied, “so it would fit in my oven!”  Because the women never knew the reason behind something, they just kept doing what they had always done even when there was no longer a need for it.  Take a look at your niche, what are the things that everyone is doing for outdated reasons?  What is a stance you can take that is so far from the norm that people will be compelled to discuss and argue?  (And link back, and repost, etc…)  Take a stand, have an opinion, and be prepared to defend it.

Content makes them stay

Once you have built a little trust and gotten a short-term boost to your traffic numbers, you have to continue teaching and providing content or the people will eventually go away.  Charlie Sheen is learning this right now as the arc of how much the public cares about him is in its inevitable decline.  You can’t always be crazy, eventually there has to be some substance.  If you are an actor, you have to entertain and if you are a blog, you have to inform.  (You can entertain also, but you can’t just entertain)  Not every blog post has to be a home run with tons of backlinks and comments, you can make a very good living at this just hitting solid singles, you just have to hit a lot of them.  Give the people good content and you will see your numbers rise.

Relationships are key

The relationship between Sheen and his co-workers has gotten so toxic that even if all the issues were resolved it would be very difficult for these people to work together.  In the online world, relationships are crucial.  Very few blogs are an island unto themselves and most of us rely on the goodwill of our community to help us grow.  Not only do you need to foster a good relationship with your readers but it often helps to have a good working relationship with others in the same niche.  For your readers, are you answering questions quickly? Responding to email? Keeping them informed through social media?  For the other writers in your niche, are you working with them?  Involved in guest posts or button swapping?  Commenting on their sites?  Promoting them on your blog?  Keeping our online relationships solid can be tricky at times but the rewards are worth it.

I hope that we all have enough tiger’s blood in us to improve our sites and keep winning!

 

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Do Emergents confuse Natural and Special revelation?

I’m reading Gabe Lyons’ new book The Next Christians and while I will do a full review later, one theme in particular keeps popping up that I think is indicative of some of the problems I have with the Emergent movement as a whole.  One of the points the author makes is that the next generation of Christians care less about the open evangelism that marked his religious forefathers and more about impacting the world around him (or her) in a positive way.  He brings up the TWLOHA movement that had its shirts in Hot Topic stores but decided to remove any mention of Christ from its in-store materials so as not to offend any potential customers.  He also mentions a movement called “Fringe” that has concerts and art shows to promote, not God, but beauty.  One quote in particular caught my attention. “When the next Christians create culture that promotes beauty, they give people a glimpse of the beauty of God.  There’s no need for a logo [of a church or ministry], because the beauty itself belongs to God and is a pronouncement for His existence, love, and desire for the world.” (pg 98-99)

Are we to exalt God…or Christ?

At its core, this type of thinking confuses natural and special revelation about the character and nature of God.  Natural revelation is found in the first half of Psalm 19.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. – Psalm 19:1-6

The psalmist is pointing to the heavens and stars as proclaiming the glory of God and I think we can safely include other types of beauty in this list.  I concede that art, music, sculpture, and a host of other pursuits are beautiful and the ability to experience and enjoy beauty is a gift from God but the Psalm doesn’t end there.

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. –Psalm 19:7-14

Now we have special revelation, or the Word of God that tells us exactly who God is and how we should respond to Him.  It simply isn’t enough to use art or beauty and expect people to be able to make the jump from “That’s beautiful” to “I should love God”.  The chasm between those two statements is simply too large for anyone to make.  Beauty alone is not enough, it must be coupled with the Word of God and instruction on how to have a relationship with the God that made that beauty possible.  If an organization fails on this point, it has no right to call itself Christian because it does not point anyone to Christ.  At best it could call itself Deistic because all it’s doing is pointing to a formless, definitionless God that makes no demands on His followers and offers no real grace.

If you are involved in this type of organization, I implore you to realize that if you are a Christian (or a Christ-follower or whatever hipster term you are using this week) you are not called to point people to “God” but to the very specific “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”.  Beauty and art alone will not cut it, it must be joined with instruction on what to do next.

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