Monday, June 01, 2009

Changes

Hopefully you've noticed, but posts have been a bit lax here at The Viral Garden for the last couple of weeks. The reason why is because I've been working on getting my new site, MackCollier.com set up.

I've been wanting to launch this site for a while now for two reasons:

1 - I needed a better way to promote my blogging, social media consulting and speaking services. And I have never felt completely comfortable having that information here, yet at the same time, I am constantly being contacted by people that want to know IF I do consulting. So I needed a better way to let everyone know what I do, and launching a new site with this information seemed like a great way to kill two birds with one stone. Feel free to check out my prices and services for blogging and social media consulting.

2 - Over the last 4 years I have literally written well over 1,000 posts and articles about social media. I wanted a place to aggregate much of that content, instead of having it spread out over The Viral Garden, Daily Fix, Marketing Profs, and Search Engine Guide. So I've collected some of my best posts and articles and collected them in a Social Media Library on MackCollier.com.


So please check out MackCollier.com if you have a minute. It's not perfect now and there's some issues that I'll still be tinkering with in the next couple of weeks. But it's officially open for business! Please let me know what you think!

Now that brings us to The Viral Garden. As much as I have wanted to launch MackCollier.com for a while, I've also been wanting to move The Viral Garden to Wordpress, and I'll be doing that soon. But this move also got me thinking about the focus of this blog moving forward. I have always viewed the content here as being co-created between you and I. I write the posts, you leave the great comments, and the end result is content that we both created together.

So when I relaunch The Viral Garden, I am going to approach it not so much as a blog anymore, but as a community site. Because that's what I think of it as being. So with the move to Wordpress, I'll be able to add some elements/plugins (Comment Luv!!!) that will give you more of a say here, and will better promote your contributions. And I have some other ideas that will highlight readers and commenters on a regular basis. I also have some ideas for new features that will be here that will hopefully increase this site's value and keep you on the cutting edge of what's happening in the blogging and social media space.

So moving forward, MackCollier.com will be more about me, The Viral Garden will be about us. I'll be removing the tabs/pages about my consulting/speaking that are here when I switch over the Wordpress, and will be replacing that with other materials.

And BTW it can never be said enough, but I really do appreciate each and every one of you that read The Viral Garden, whether you've been reading since the first post in 2006, or if you just found the blog today, thank you. I will try my best to never take your attention for granted.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I think this is a great idea, Mack, one I have been toying around with quite a bit myself. Love the idea of making the blog about community - but then that IS what you do so well!

This rocks, Mack!

Michelle Kostya said...

The site looks great! As always I enjoy your posts.

David Mullen said...

Congrats on kicking off MC.com and good luck with the upcoming move to WP. I love WP!

Thanks to you for sharing your insights freely with us and kicking off great discussions with your posts.

Luc Debaisieux said...

Congratulations for your new launch Mack! : )

Nancy Harris said...

Hi Mack, your new website looks great. Nice layouts and colors. I loved the header banner, its cool.