A frank and earnest question from a respected colleague challenges us to create a new online document
Introducing the Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines, soon available to all Mequoda Summit 2009 attendees, Mequoda Pro Members and Mequoda Consulting Clients
There was nothing subtle about his question, and it made me wince.
I’m on my June 2009 Mequoda System Consulting Tour, going from city to city — L.A., Loveland, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco and Alameda — and meeting with some of the smartest, most innovative Mequoda System Publishers in the land. I am considering Navy & Gold “Mequoda Live 2009” t-shirts for the folks I see on each tour that lasts 10 days or more. 😉
One visit brought me to Loveland, Colorado where my colleague T.J. Harty is CTO for Aspire Media, publishers of top performing Mequoda Systems like Beading Daily, Knitting Daily and Quilting Arts.
T.J.’s simple question challenged me and caught me off guard, “Don, are all of the Mequoda System Best Practices written down somewhere?”
That’s an honest, seemingly simple question, but I was a little defensive. Documenting every Mequoda online publishing and marketing best practice translates into documenting our current best practices for search engine optimization, link building, open website architecture, website conversion architecture, email newsletter publishing, email marketing digital product development, key metric analysis and media company management…and keeping those evolving best practices up-to-date as they are being practiced and tested by the several hundred Mequoda System Publishers that our research and engineering teams track and support.
I looked rather blankly at T.J. as I admitted that, “No, all the Mequoda System Best Practices are not written down — anywhere.”
T.J. was rightfully incredulous.
He made me realize that we have discovered hundreds — possibly thousands of Mequoda System “best practices” for online publishing and marketing. These are the standard conventions and habits proven to be the most useful to publishers and marketers who aim for critical and financial success.
“There are just so many,” I explained to T.J. and his Aspire colleagues, “and they change and evolve all the time.”
It was a reasonable explanation, but not an acceptable excuse. And it gnawed at me.
Mequoda’s Chief Technology Officer, Aimee Graeber, recently did an audit of T.J.’s Quilting Arts Mequoda System, and discovered several areas where the site was out of compliance with her current Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines. This list is stored inside Aimee’s considerable brain and shared with her team and clients in an on demand fashion, kinda’ like a Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines Vending Machine.
There are several hundred best practices in which T.J.’s Mequoda System is totally in compliance. And during my visit, T.J. showed me two of his team’s own innovations that we admired so much, we immediately adopted them as new Mequoda System Best Practices at Mequoda Daily. These are great ideas for improving system performance and making more money – and every Mequoda System Publisher should embrace them.
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One of our other consulting clients, with whom I met on this road trip, kept telling her staff, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
She means that as Mequoda System Publishers, if we don’t launch our initial Mequoda System until it is perfect, compliant with every Mequoda Best Practice Guideline, no Mequoda System would ever launch.
No Mequoda System is ever compliant with every Mequoda Best Practice, as those best practices are a moving target being advanced by hundreds of Mequoda System Publishers.
The Mequoda System is an open set of guidelines, business processes and key metric standards that any publisher can modify, adapt and evolve to the needs of their audience, their market and their unique business model.
Another of her favorite aphorisms is “Perfection doesn’t exist. Excellence does.”
At Mequoda, we always strive for excellence, and in response to T.J.’s challenge, Kim Mateus, who leads the Mequoda Research Team, has already documented 70 Mequoda Best Practices in three major areas. They are important, but they are only the beginning.
So here is our commitment to you, as our loyal Mequoda Daily Subscriber.
At the Mequoda Summit, we will introduce a number of new resources for you, including the Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines, available to all Mequoda Summit attendees.
After the Mequoda Summit, the entire list of Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines will be available as a benefit of Mequoda Pro membership.
Hundreds are there in the 11 Mequoda Pro Online Seminars. Kim and her team are hard at work pulling them out of the seminar transcripts and converting them into a reference checklist that can drive a Mequoda Best Practice Benchmark Audit that you can use to optimize the performance of your Mequoda Publishing System. You’ll be able to measure your system against hundreds of best practice standards.
Many of the existing Mequoda System Best Practices have been published at Mequoda Daily as articles, tips, and comments. These are organized under 21 topics, and are searchable by keyword.
Plus, we are publishing transcripts of the 11 Mequoda Pro Online Seminars, which are also searchable by Mequoda Pro members. The Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines will build on that foundation.
So, our course is set and we have begun compiling and organizing the entire list of Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines.
You can help us build this valuable database. If you have a question about a Mequoda System Best Practice, please contact us via email.
We’ll make every effort to reply with a useful answer and include it in the soon-to-be-published Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines.
Join us October 6-8, 2009 at the Sixth Annual Mequoda Summit and Internet Marketing Conference to network with your fellow publishing colleagues. Plus, get your copy of the inaugural edition of the Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines.
