blogfyre
What a silly name for a blog.
This is nothing #1
Welcome to This Is Nothing, a special series on Blogfyre devoted to examining content marketing opportunities and solutions. If you’d like to submit something that you think might be Nothing, email it to us with the subject line “Is this Nothing?” and we may feature it here!
In my many years marketing on the internet, I’ve seen a myriad of tactics that are Nothing. So what does it mean to be Nothing? Well, I’m glad you asked. I deem things as Nothing when they:
Welcome to This Is Nothing, a special series on Blogfyre devoted to examining content marketing opportunities and solutions. If you’d like to submit something that you think might be Nothing, email it to us with the subject line “Is this Nothing?” and we may feature it here! Matt@bahnfyrepr.com
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In my many years marketing on the internet, I’ve seen a myriad of tactics that are Nothing. So what does it mean to be Nothing? Well, I’m glad you asked. I deem things as Nothing when they:
Cost more than they’re worth, either in time or money
Promise great impact with no infrastructure to produce results
Generally have no benefit to a marketing strategy.
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The Subject
So, for the first edition of This Is Nothing, I’d like to examine an email I received this weekend. It was an invitation to be interviewed for a magazine. Initially, I was pretty stoked! This email wasn’t just for me; it was sent to the inbox of a podcast that I cohost. We’ve literally spent the weekend tabling at a local convention and I was really jazzed that we were seeing immediate pay off. But, as I do with all things, I did a cursory Google search. And what I discovered was that this invitation was, in fact, Nothing.
First thing’s first, let me show you the email. I’ve blacked out last names, emails and physical addresses. While I think at least one of those three is fake, no one needs to get doxxed for hustling schlock.
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The Investigation
Right off the bat, what human being addresses an email like this? Could have used a cohost name, could have just used the podcast name, hell, you could’ve just swapped “Cast” for “Team” and I would have let it slide. But, our email address is “DebateThisCast@...” and clearly that’s as far as they got.
Next, let’s talk about my cursory Google Search. When I typed in “CanvasRebel Magazine,” Google auto-filled “is scam?” So we’re off to a bad start. Anyway, I denied the auto-fill and Googled on. Within the first five hits, I found this reddit thread and this article from Ease Up Consulting. Read through both at your leisure, but to sum them up, CanvasRebel Magazine feels like spam.
I tend to trust the opinions of Reddit and I have to give a second shout out to Ashley from Ease Up because her article did a lot of the heavy lifting for me. Both of those things aside, I still wanted to check out CanvasRebel’s website. You can check it out for yourself, what you’ll find is a field of links just begging to be clicked and about as many pop-up ads as a local news affiliate. You’ll also find ZERO information about the magazine itself, their interview process, their team, or their strategy. I consider all of these must-haves for the website of any journalistic venture.
While we’re at it, let’s talk about the “journalism” of this “magazine.” Their homepage features links to 29 articles all of which have been posted in the last 9 hours. Hey, genuine question, could you write 29 feature length articles in 9 hours? Didn’t think so. The 6 or so of these 29 articles that I opened read as though they were written by the article’s subject through some fill-in-the-blank style form. Last time I’ll reference Ashley’s article on Ease Up’s website, but that article leads me to believe this was exactly how these articles were produced.
Ok. We’ve dissected the email and it sucks, we’ve done a google search and it sucks, we’ve checked the website and it sucks, let’s do our due diligence and check the social media. CanvasRebel’s Instagram, which is linked and featured on their website, has made one post in 2024. I’ll say that again. This digital magazine has made one, singular post on social media this year.
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Is this nothing?
You bet your sweet ass this is Nothing. Minimal internet presence, minimal effort, minimal benefit. It’s as simple as that. To assess by the three metrics I laid out earlier:
I don’t know how much time an interview will take, but anytime at all would be an overinvestment for the perceived outcome.
To CanvasRebels credit, they don’t seem to make any egregious promises about impact upfront, so they get a pass on this one.
I see no benefit here to a larger marketing strategy.
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Why would they do this?
This is a question I hear from clients on the daily. “If this is Nothing, why does it exist?” Quick answer: to make money. Websites like CanvasRebel sell ad space for their websites and guarantee advertiser return based on their clickthrough rate. This means the more time someone spends on their site and the more links they click, either the more money CanvasRebel receives from advertisers directly, or the higher they can price their ad space. Once you’ve created a link-dense website, you can hire a click farm (yes, that’s real) to run up your clickthrough numbers. In conclusion, they’re using you to harvest content.
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Should I do it anyway?
Here’s the M. Night Shyamalan-ian twist to this blog: maybe! Citation in a digital publication can be a good way to validate or legitimize your business. In fact, you can’t start a wikipedia page without having third-party digital sources to reference. If you need a free and easy digital footprint, a CanvasRebel interview may be worth your time! That said, if you expect to gain any more than that, in reach or sales, pass on this opportunity.
Oh, and if they try to make you pay for anything, tell them no.
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In conclusion
Congratulations CanvasRebel, we here at Bahnfyre PR have determined that you are Nothing! I do not feel bad about saying this. The time I spent on your website to write this blog probably made you a nickel.
This Is Nothing is an ongoing feature produced and written by Bahnfyre PR. If you’d like to submit something that you think might be Nothing, email it to us with the subject line “Is this Nothing?”Want more things like this in your inbox?
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Building a one-match fire
I was a camp counselor for years. Here’s the thing about being a camp counselor: you build a lot of fires. You build so many fires that you start to differentiate between their types.
I was a camp counselor for years.
Here’s the thing about being a camp counselor: you build a lot of fires. You build so many fires that you start to differentiate between their types.
You’ve got your standard teepee fires for your long, all-night campfires.
You’ve got your standard log cabin fires for cooking mountain pies or banana boats.
You’ve got your standard pile-of-logs-and-quart-of-gasoline fires for satiating a hoard of screaming ten-year-olds who only have s’mores to look forward to after a day of rain.
I’ve built all these fires dozens of times, but none of them are the type I actually like to build. Teepees, log cabins, even the under-appreciated lean-to, none of them compare to the power, the satisfaction, of a one-match fire.
As the name suggests, a one-match fire is a fire that you light with only one match. One single match to light a fire that burns and burns until it has to be extinguished. That’s the real accomplishment; a full evening of warmth and revelry born from a single spark. That’s a one-match fire.
That’s also a gross misrepresentation of what it takes to build a one-match fire See, one-match fires don’t come from a single spark. Sure, they’re lit with one match, but they’re built through careful planning, diligent preparation, and applied effort. Taking the time to build a good base, create tinder, gather kindling, taking the time to assemble it all carefully, that’s how a one-match fire is born.
So hear I am once again relating business to building fires. Currently, I feel like I’m in the “assemble it carefully” phase. I set up a business email this week (matt@bahnfyrepr.com), I’m sending Monday’s newsletter (subscribe here) via actual newsletter software, and I’ve spent a lot of time working on a marketing plan. Soon, I’ll be ready to strike the match, and it will only grow from there.
Something that would REALLY help me build this one-match fire is a full calendar! I’ve got some open time for consultation calls and I would love to help you with your messaging. Book a call with me here or shoot me an email if you have any questions!
give me an hour of your time
One hour, that’s all I ask. One hour and I will recontextualize EVERYTHING about how you market your business, event or offering. I promise.
One hour, that’s all I ask. One hour and I will recontextualize EVERYTHING about how you market your business, event or offering. I promise.
I did my first consultation call under the Bahnfyre banner last week and it went incredibly well! The Butler AM Rotary reached out to me because they were struggling to sell tickets for their annual event, Ghosts and Giggles. When we had our consult, they were 3 weeks out from the event and something to the tune of 70% undersold. That’s a scary place to be, but they won’t be there for long!
While they were ~70% undersold, they were also leaving ~80% of their marketing possibilities on the table. In less than 60 minutes we:
Established a social media strategy
Identified a plethora of local businesses to partner with
Changed their ticket-sale URL
And reworked some of their print marketing.
That’s a broad overview; we tinkered with our fair share of specifics as well.
My point here is this: It’s hard to see what you’re missing. When you’re creating a business or leading an event, marketing tends to be low on your list of priorities. That’s understandable! But with low priority comes low effort, and with low effort comes missed opportunity, or whatever Uncle Ben said.
So give me an hour of your time. Let me see what you’re missing. Every single suggestion I had for The Butler AM Rotary cost exactly $0, so I promise not to sticker shock you. This is what I’m great at. Please, let me help you.
Bahnfyre Day 1: Clear a Spot
7:30a - Crunch on website to be ready for 11a launch
10:30a - Acknowledge that I could tinker with website forever
10:55a - Create “Coming Soon” graphics
10:59a - HIT PUBLISH
11:00a - Host first master class on content marketing
11:55a - Change sweaty shirt
12:00p - Social/Email announcement blast
12:03p - Silence notifications
12:05p - Breath and eat
1:30p - Check notifications
1:31p - Tear up a little bit.
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If you want to build a fire, the first thing you have to do is find a spot. Make sure it’s free of debris and contained, then let everyone know where the fire will be so they can be mindful of it too.
Here’s to more good days and thank you all for the love and support!
-MC
you’ve got to start somewhere, right?
It all begins with an idea.
“It all begins with an idea.”
Every time you insert a new textbox on Squarespace, that’s the first filler sentence. Now, I love “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet” as much as the next guy, but I’ve been particularly inspired by this new placeholder. Because it does all begin with an idea, and, if you’ve got a few moments, I’d like to tell you mine.
In late 2022, I finally landed my dream job, albeit my third dream job. For the first time since I graduated college, I was able to add something that felt “professional” to my resume. I got to go home for the holidays and tell my family that I was “an Account Manager at a marketing firm.” Not particularly flashy, I know, but it was what I set my mind on after flaming out at my two previous dream jobs.
Fast forward to early 2024 and I was about to flame out again, but this time for a different (re: better) reason. I spent over a year at a firm that wasn’t providing results. We peddled a content marketing service that myself, as well as a number of my coworkers, knew wouldn’t work. Don’t get me wrong, my coworkers and I tried our best, but blood, sweat and tears can’t grow success out of thin air. I loved my clients, I loved the content we made, but leadership was so adamant we stay the course that I was forced to watch many of those beloved clients file for bankruptcy. I wouldn’t do it anymore, and that was my idea.
I finally developed the courage and resolve to put my foot down. To puff my chest out and say, “No. I know what I’m talking about. I know how I can help people. And it’s time for me to do it.” So I quit, and I’ve spent the last three months building on that idea. Building Bahnfyre.
Bahnfyre is my way to share my knowledge, skills, and experience, sure. But it’s really my way to help people. To balance the cosmic scales of digital hucksters promising virality for double the price of rent. To show people that social media, and by extension content marketing, doesn’t have to live behind a shroud of overwhelm and special skills. To do what I’m good at: starting fires.
-MC