A few weeks ago, I was called by a consultant who was prospecting for business. He was a friend of a friend, so I felt duty-bound to give him thirty minutes to tell me about his company and the services he provides. Sadly, it was a complete waste of time.

For starters, the guy talked non-stop. I probably didn’t say more than three sentences in the entire call. Worse, he made all kinds of assumptions about me and my business. Most of them were wrong.

Ten days ago, I launched my 2011 Reader Survey. This is the third consecutive year I have done this exercise. I have benefited enormously each time. Ultimately, I think it also benefits you, because it helps me improve my blog and my writing.

In my original post, I promised to summarize my results. I also want to share the conclusions I have come to as a result of the data. As a point of reference, more than 1,200 people have completed the survey so far.

Following my own advice on “How to Keep Your Blog Posts from Dying in Your Archives”, I am listing my top ten posts for August 2010. Interestingly, although I wrote three of these posts more than a year ago, they continue to be topic traffic generators.

In case you missed them, here are my top 10 posts for August 2010 in order of descending page views:

So you’ve spent more time than you should designing and tweaking your blog. (Don’t ask me how I know this.) You’ve got it just like you want it. For now. But what about your Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube pages? Are you content to upload your photo and be done with it? Or do you want a more consistent brand image, one that ties it all together?

A few weeks ago, I uploaded a new profile photo to Twitter. However, that didn’t change my profile background. It still included my old headshot and a design done a few years ago by Matt Clark at TweetPages.com. I decided to visit his page again, and see what his company had to offer. Boy, was I surprised.

Following my own advice from yesterday’s post on How to Keep Your Blog Posts from Dying in Your Archives, I decided to post a list of my top posts for July 2010. Interestingly, although I wrote three of these posts more than a year ago, they continue to be topic traffic generators.

In case you missed them, here are my top 10 posts for July 2010 in order of descending page views:

I often hear authors complain about how “frontlist driven” the book publishing business has become. Frontlist is the term used to describe new book releases—those in the last twelve months or even the current season. In contrast, backlist is the term used to refer to books that are older than that—basically, anything that is not new.

While backlist sales account for 50–60 percent of all the books sold, they typically don’t get a lot of attention. The reading public and the book-selling industry tend to focus on what is “new and notable,” rather than what is “tried and true.”

This morning as I was running, I listened to Episode 99 of the Catalyst Podcast. It was an interview that Brad Lomenick did with Charlene Li, author of the new book, Open Leadership.

One thing in particular grabbed my attention. Brad asked her what has changed in the last two to three years in terms of social media. She said,

There comes a point in every story when you are ready to quit. It could be a relationship, a project, or your job. Regardless, you’ve had enough, and you are ready to “throw in the towel.”

My friend, Donald Miller, discusses the temptation to quit in his book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. In a chapter called “The Thing About a Crossing,” he describes something called a “story arc” or trajectory. This is the dramatic outline that nearly every great story—including yours—follows.

I am not a big fan of computer mice. Every time I have to take my hand off the keyboard, it costs me a few seconds. This may not sound like much, but it adds up over the course of a day.

You don’t have to go far to hear someone criticize BP for the catastrophic impact of their oil spoil. The news media have chronicled every misstep. Psychologists, environmentalists, and social media experts have all weighed in on what BP should have done or should be doing.