Blurts

In 2019 we took a Spring trip to the Amish greenhouses near St. Charles, MN, to purchase flowers and vegetable plants for our gardens. I wrote a blog post about this trip. While the lifestyle of the Amish people is intriguing, their ventures into raising plants for those of us from the big city was what caused us to drive south.

This is more than a post about raising plants for home gardeners. This is a post about online popularity. I have maintained at least one blog since 2002, and this story about Amish greenhouses has been my most popular post of all time. This will likely still be the case this year even though I wrote the story in 2019.

I have tried to figure out just what about the post has made it so popular. I think I am capable of writing tech content for a national and sometimes international audience. These efforts generate nothing like the popularity of the Amish story. Here is what I have decided. The Amish probably have relied on word of mouth to attract customers to their farms on the gravel roads of southern Minnesota. There are many greenhouses so where they are located and how to get there is useful information. What do people do when they need information? They try Google. What would you find if you enter Minnesota Amish Greenhouses because you wanted to drive down from “the cities” on a nice Spring day? Not much, but there was my post. What happens when more and more people visit the same web site? It becomes more and more attractive and ranks higher in the Google ranking. In 2020, my post on the Amish Greenhouses was the top link. I see it has fallen a few rungs this year. It would seem this is because the Amish or at least those from the region have decided to market the greenhouses, but my post is still near the top.

The message – find something that is useful and unique and you will attract attention. Attention online brings more attention.

We visited the greenhouses again yesterday and I could not help providing a new set of images. You might think one greenhouse is pretty much like any other greenhouse until you notice the wood-fired heating system and the unusual way of watering the plants.

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I did take some photos outside the greenhouses. I know the Amish do not appreciate being photographed so my photos concentrate on other interesting opportunities.

The Amish farms are mixed in with huge farms using very modern equipment and methods. The contrast in farming practices is stark.

This is an interesting discussion by those who want to understand and improve social media. As I understand the position of the guest on this podcast, two things are important for improving social media. First, we need more options with focused agenda rather than big sites that confuse many different purposes. Second, the smaller, more focused sites require more obvious norms, rules, and moderation supported by onboarding for new members so they understand this guidance.

The guest describes his research with gobo.social (which does not seem to be up at the time I wrote this post. Maybe later.)