Get Offline To Find Your Online Audience

Nine Lives Media Inc.’s management team has been on the road in recent weeks, attending events in New York, Orlando, New Orleans, Portland (Oregon) and Pittsburgh. As an online media company why do we spend so much time offline — attending events? The answer is rather simple.

You can’t sit behind your keyboard and LCD screen interacting with your readers. At some point, you have to go meet them. You need to read their body language as you ask why they visit — and return — to your sites. And you need to ask them where your work needs improvement.

Frankly, we were overwhelmed by upbeat feedback about our three media sites — MSPmentor, The VAR Guy and Works With U — during recent trips to CompTIA Breakaway and LinuxWorld Expo. (And yes, we also received some healthy constructive criticism.)

Launched in January, MSPmentor and The VAR Guy are now ranked among the top 3 percent and 1 percent of all blogs on the Web, respectively, according to Technorati.com. We’ve built readership not only through search engine optimization (SEO), but also through word of mouth at conferences. We’ll continue that effort later this week, when I visit Ingram Micro’s Seismic conference in Chicago.

We also use conferences for new business development. During the recent LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco, we held closed-door meetings with several open source gurus. Their thoughts helped us write the next chapter for our Works With U business plan. Launched in May, Works With U is the independent guide to Ubuntu Linux.

Thanks to our offline meetings, we have big online plans for the site.

Not sure where you should take your online business next? Close your web browser and get out on the road. It’s great out here.