This is the last of the catch-up reviews I promised several weeks ago. With great pride–because she’s a friend of mine and she thanks me in the ackknowledgments–I present to you the inimitable Margaret Andrews, known to all and then some as
Nanny Goats In Panties
Actually, since this is a review proper, I’m presenting not NGIP, as we affectionately call her, but the book she has written, published this summer:
Let’s deal with the title first: Sticky Readers? What the hell does that mean? As Margaret tells us, quoting Wikipedia actually, sticky content is stuff posted on a web site with the intent of getting readers to return. And the Flypaper thingie? That’s just me, imagining those long rolls of unfurled tape that are death traps for flying objects. Bottom line, then, what Margaret’s book is about is:
how to write blog posts that make readers return to your site.
She does it in some sixteen chapters, plus a conclusion and an epilogue (?), that are not only funny, as one would expect (nay, demand) from NGIP, but flippin’ informative as well. The chapter headings don’t begin to tell the whole story (well, Chapter 13, “Writer’s Block: or How To Pull a Blog Post Out of Your Ass” does) so I feel compelled to quote from one of the chapters more typical to writing manuals, the one on active and passive voice:
“Using the active voice over the passive voice makes your blog posts whiz by faster. The passive voice slows your story down and feels like a total drag, man….You see it all the time in work correspondence or in press conferences when nobody wants to take responsibility for anything….This is why press conferences are so boring.”
And then Margaret tells you, specifically and with examples, what the passive voice is and how to avoid it.
So why should you fork over your sheckels to buy this book? What background does Miss NGIP have that makes her such an expert?
She has done it, dear reader. She has walked this road in borrowed moccasins and barefoot, from fledging blog that “nobody ever reads” (a direct NGIP quote circa 2007) to Best Local Blogger on KCRA’s A-list and Most Valuable Blogger on the Sacramento’s CBS affiliate. She has, in short, gone from 0 to 75 mph in a very short time, amassed legions of loyal readers and cemented her position in the pantheon of NoCal bloggers.
The full title of her book is Sticky Readers: How to Attract a Loyal Blog Audience by Writing More Better. I urge you to hie yourself to the site and see if you, too, don’t stick around.
Jane Gassner
