PostRank Blog

Blogger Profile Series: Tom Wark’s Fermentation

Melanie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:16:42 +0000

The PostRank system is pushing towards 1.3 million feeds these days, which is WAY more interesting blogs and bloggers than even we can personally keep track of. But we still wanted to share our blogger community with you, so we’re starting a series where we feature some of the bloggers in our various topic communities.

We think they’re pretty engaging folks, and we think you’ll think so, too. And hey, if you think you’d make a great featured blogger, drop us a line and let us know!

To kick things off, we’re starting with one of our most lively engaged communities — the wine bloggers. These folks are active, supportive, knowledgeable, and really friendly. We selected Tom Wark and his Fermentation blog, which won the Biggest Mover & Shaker honours in the Wine category in our 2009 Top Blogs. Tom thoughtfully and astutely answered a few questions for us, and so, on with the show!

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PostRank: You cover a wide variety of topics, from profiles/interviews to legal issues in the industry. Do you have a specific map or strategy of what you want to write about, or is it more a case of what you’re currently finding interesting and relevant (or somewhere in between)?

TW: I don’t create a schedule for what will be published on FERMENTATION and I never have. In general, my readers see what is interesting to me at the moment. That said, the common thread is always wine and, because I’m in the wine business, there is generally a connection to the business of wine. There are, however, areas that I do like to cover on a fairly regular basis. I want to introduce my audience to really good wine bloggers so I try to do at least one interview a week with a wine blogger whose voice I find compelling. Beyond that, what gets written about is what’s on my mind.

PostRank: Your blog has been around since November 2004. What would you say is the most significant way it’s evolved or changed in the succeeding years?

TW: Structurally my blog has changed in order to accommodate advertising on it. That’s mean providing room “above the fold” for companies that want FERMENTATION readers to take note of them. Beyond that little about the actual blog has changed other than its increase in readers that have led to more robust conversations in the comments area.

PostRank: Do you think your professional expertise in public relations gives you an edge in building and promoting your blog and audience?

TW: At the very least I think my time working in PR has honed my ability to spot a promotional opportunity. More importantly, having something of a presence in the wine industry already gave me the kind of initial credibility that would lead someone else in the wine industry to look at my blog a first time. I’ve used the occasional press release to draw attention to the blog, too. Finally, I think my visibility with professional wine writers has led to me having more opportunities to be a source for stories about wine blogs and alternative wine media. This, in turn, has led to more promotional opportunities coming my way.

PostRank: The folks whose blogs are in our Wine topic are some of the most engaged, supportive, and active communities we have. Any insights into what makes wine bloggers a tight-knit group?

TW: Interestingly, the wine industry itself has been a very collegial one since I’ve been a part of it. It’s almost clubby. The Wine Blogging community has evolved to have a very similar quality to it. In addition, I think things like the Wine Bloggers Conference and the American Wine Blog Awards have inspired wine bloggers to watch each other more closely and to interact. This translates into support. Finally, what’s at stake in what gets written about is rarely controversial. Bloggers talk a lot about whether rating scales are good, whether there’s too much alcohol in wine, which wines they like and don’t, what events are worth attending, how social media affects the world of wine. It’s not like we are debating affirmative action or the merits of a bank bailout. I think the subject matter you find on blogs is such that it encourages support among bloggers.

PostRank: Do you find it easy to balance writing about your own experiences and interests with topics that are trendy or current in the wine world in general, or do you find that there’s a lot more fodder in one area or the other?

TW: Everything I write about is opinion. I rarely attempt to educate. And if it’s not opinion you’ll be reading on my blog, then you’ll be reading my personal account of my interaction with my own interests and life in general and how wine intersects with it. In the end, most bloggers will get to the “trendy” stories. Some are so juicy you can’t resist. When the Wine & Spirit Wholesalers of America announced that Sarah Palin will keynote their convention, well, it’s hard to resist blogging about that. But in general, what is on my mind in the morning is what gets written about on the blog, whether the subject is trendy or obscure. And I really don’t mind “obscure”.

PostRank: Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV won the other two Special Mention honours in the Wine topic for our Top Blogs of 2009, yet he’s not consistently #1 in the topic. Do you think that’s because readers of wine blogs look for a fair bit of variety in their reading?

TW: Gary is a busy guy. New baby. New company. Books… and of course WinelibraryTV.com. If he isn’t #1 over at PostRank it’s because he has his focus on one of the many areas where he has interests. I think it’s pretty clear that Gary is the most watched, listened to and interesting member of the wine blog/alternative wine media world.

PostRank: Your blog, Fermentation, won the Mover & Shaker award, which means you had the highest growth in audience engagement in 2009. Did you start the year with an intentional strategy to grow your audience and engagement, or was it just a matter of working hard and writing well?

TW: I like to think it’s the latter, working hard and writing well. I take seriously the “Daily” in “Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog“. I’m also blessed with the ability to write fast and organize my thoughts fairly quickly, so keeping up the “Daily” part isn’t has hard for me as it might be for others. I’m guessing the prolific quality of my blog had a lot to do with receiving the “Mover & Shaker” award.

PostRank: Any advice or encouragement to wine bloggers who are starting out or working on finding their voice or niche?

TW: Yes. If you want to start a blog to reach an audience beyond your friends and co-workers you likely will fail — unless you actively market and promote your blog and unless you write on a very regular schedule — numerous times per week. Also, it’s important for potential bloggers to answer the question: “Can I say something original that isn’t just my opinion and that has likely already been expressed by someone else?” If you can’t, then my advise is to stay a reader and not get into blogging.

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And there you have it. Many thanks from the PostRank team to Tom for taking the time to engage with us. Head on over to Fermentation and let us know what the most interesting thing is that you learn!

PostRank Analytics: Announcing Custom Pages

Melanie — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:11:09 +0000

One of our biggest goals since launching PostRank Analytics is to offer customers as much flexibility as possible in their monitoring and engagement efforts. We want you to be able to track whatever you like. Personal blog? News feed? Company homepage? White paper PDF? No problem.

Today we’re making that a reality with the launch of our Custom Pages functionality. Previously, for PostRank to be able to gather content and engagement metrics, URLs added to Analytics had to have associated RSS feeds. Unfortunately, that excluded a number of types of sites and pages that people wanted to track. (Some company websites being a good example.)

You’ve been able to add up to five sites to your Analytics account for a while now, and with the addition of Custom Pages you can add up to 20 individual pages to each site. (So you can track up to 100 URLs.)

You add Custom Pages the same way you add RSS-enabled sites. When you sign up or login to Analytics, from the My Sites page, either start adding details right away (if you don’t have any saved sites yet) or click the Add Another Site button.

You can choose to add a Site (RSS-enabled), a Custom Page, or both. Customize the new content if you like by tagging it with topic keywords, select your time zone and Twitter account username if you have one, click Add This Site and you’re done!

If the site is new to our system, it’ll take a few minutes for PostRank to gather all the content and metrics. If there’s any problem with the site added, the system will alert us and we can get right to work investigating. For step by step help on adding a new Site or Page: Adding a Site or Custom Page to Your PostRank Analytics Account.

The number of places online — traditional and social — where your audience chooses to be active with your content continues to expand, and we want to help you keep up. More tracking options means a clearer view of how your content, relationship building, and engagement efforts are going, and gives you more information to make excellent decisions about how to Discover, Track, and Engage even better.

From our friends at Flowtown: How Social Engagement is Changing infographic

Melanie — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:13:08 +0000

We’ve done a lot of research on the changing landscape of when, where, and how people interact with content online. Ilya’s post on Measuring Engagement of the Social Web: ‘07-’09 particularly got a lot of engagement.

So when our friends at Flowtown needed data to build a visual story of how the online social world has been changing, they knew exactly who to ask.

We think the resulting infographic for How Social Engagement is Changing looks great, and more importantly shows and tells a compelling story about the web’s changing patterns. Can’t wait to see what folks think, and what kinds of magic we can make with the Flowtown folks in the future.

PostRank Blog

Blogger Profile Series: Tom Wark’s Fermentation

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PostRank Analytics: Announcing Custom Pages

From our friends at Flowtown: How Social Engagement is Changing infographic

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