Blogging Is Like The Wild West: Here Are Some Rules To Live By

Admin — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 14:38:51 +0000

Today Mara Rogers the Founder of http://www.SecretsForMoney.info takes you to the Wild West. Subscribe for the free Secrets for Money blog at http://www.SecretsForMoney.info where you get inspirational tips for more money, more time, and more fun! “A man’s got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job.” — John Wayne Picture your favorite western and you have the idea—blogging is like the adventurous times of the Wild West. If you are a seasoned blogger then you probably already know some of these rules and face them on a daily basis. If you are a beginning blogger, here are some rules to live by in this era of transformation as we cowboys and cowgirls step out onto the range.

(1) Are you feeling like the Lone Ranger?

Often blogging creates a solitary work environment which can luckily be combated with Social media and networking with other bloggers as you sit at your computer desk. The pioneers knew that to survive they would have to be kind, honest, accept responsibility, and lend a helping hand. I would add that not just to survive, but actually thrive as bloggers, we must all do the same. This is proven time and time again, as we read the track records of some of the most financially successful bloggers, even if they are running a one-man or one-woman blog, they certainly help others and get support from fellow bloggers.

(2) What Do You Need In Your Saddlebags?

There are many great articles at Problogger.net to give you the resources you need to start and maintain a blog. Some of the tools that I found to be essential to carry in your ’saddlebags’ are certain features like a “site map.” After all you don’t want your blog to be a ghost town! So you need to work the Search Engine Optimization. One way early on is to help your blog/site to get indexed by the major Search Engines is by building a site map. At http://www.SecretsForMoney.info I used a plugin called “Google XML Sitemap“. I also used the plugin called “SEO Title Tag” at Secrets for Money to search engine optimize my blog’s title tags by creating a customized title tag for any post, static page or category page.

(3) Know Your Brand Or The Cattle Rustlers May Use Theirs

It is important that you have a written business plan for your blog if you want your blog to be monetized. And create a blueprint of strategies for developing your blog “brand” so you have clarity at all times and a forward-looking vision. Just like the ranchers had to have a brand for their cattle and had to always have someone on watch so the cattle rustlers didn’t put their mark on the rancher’s cattle overnight while they slept. How does this Old West wisdom apply to your blog? Know your plan and brand for your blog, and stick to it. This position will help you make confident decisions when you are faced with all the temptations of the “latest this or that” promising to make your blog better. Be discerning; there are a lot of great gadgets, but you will be overwhelmed very quickly and you will get off track in the technological world of blogging if you lift your head up from your work at hand every time a new item pops on to your computer screen or into your email inbox. If it is applicable to your business plan and blog brand then research it, otherwise just make note of it if you have to, but mosey on along and get back to your blogging. And above all, as all cowboys and cowgirls know “Never ask a Barber if he thinks you need a haircut.”

(4) Stake Your Claim And Avoid Outlaws

It was essential in the vast frontier that you stake your claim for a plot of land quickly. As depicted often in television westerns, pioneers had to hold to their belief in the land they chose, because if they doubted it for one moment then they were susceptible to hustlers who talked them out of their acreage by saying there was something wrong with the land. The same is true for your Blog, you will run into “croakers’ as they used to call them back then (pessimists or doomsayers). These croakers turn up a lot as your blog becomes more popular.

(5) The Gold Rush: “There’s Gold In Them Thar Hills!”

Just as with a Gold Rush, there has been a flurry of fortune-seekers in the world of blogging too. And also similar to a gold rush, there is the feverish implication of bloggers striking it rich instantly. Sure some strike it rich, some don’t. But remember, it is a process, a process that requires commitment. Your chances to make an income are directly proportional to how you work smarter—more strategic, just like some gold prospectors—they worked hard, but some knew to not just use pans to find gold, in time, they developed other tools and methods to mine gold. And let’s not forget the Old West saying “Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.”

(6) Keep the Code

Much like the Old West, we bloggers are modern-day cowboys and cowgirls bound by these unwritten rules—a code of behavior—that centers on hospitality, fair play, loyalty, and respect for the land. The Code of the West didn’t need to be written down because the best of the west lived by it through their integrity, self-reliance, and accountability. And in conclusion fellow bloggers, never pass anyone on the trail without saying “Howdy.” Copyright © 2008 by Mara Rogers of Secrets for Money.info Mara Rogers is the Founder of http://www.SecretsForMoney.info where she and her team work to empower you to freedom by helping you increase your capacity for all the wealth currencies: money, time, health, and love. Subscribe to the free Secrets For Money blog And if you want to give her a “Howdy” email her through the Contact Page.

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5 Valuable Lessons You Can Learn From Blogging

Admin — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 14:47:33 +0000

This is a guest post by full-time blogger and internet marketer, Justin Wright. In my quest to become a full-time blogger, I have had many ups and downs along the way. I have tried things that worked and things that have failed miserably. Along the way, I have learned some valuable lessons. Here are the 5 most valuable lessons I have learned from blogging: 1. The Journey Is Everything Having a successful blog is something I always wanted to have, but early on I lacked the patience to wait around for it to happen. I had the common mindset of wanting it all now. I wanted to go to sleep one night and wake up with a popular blog the next morning. I wanted money to be rolling in while I slept. I wanted to have a following of a few thousand people and traffic stats beyond my wildest dreams. Of course that would have been great, but what I did not realize at that time was that I would miss the most important part of all, the journey itself. Just like in life, the beginning and end are nowhere near as important as what we experience and accomplish in between. The experience of starting a blog and watching yourself progress is something money cannot buy. It is amazing to see yourself become more knowledgeable and proficient as time moves on. You start to learn more and more and progress as a both a writer and a marketer. Just looking back at what my blog looked like 10 months ago compared to now gives me a great sense of accomplishment. My posts have been taken to a whole new level. They are longer, formatted better, and best of all, more useful and entertaining. So never forget, that the journey of becoming a blogger is more important than the end product. 2. Hard Work Does Pay Off When it comes to blogging, time is something you need a lot of. Starting a new blog takes a lot of time, commitment, and persistence. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that you are spending all your time and effort working on something that might not take off for 6 months to a year down the road. Before starting my current blog, I had previously started more than 10 different blogs that never took off. Why? Because I abandoned them way before they ever made any progress. However, now that I have committed myself to a blog and worked hard on a day to day basis, I have seen some great results. These results have reassured me that that hard work really does pay off, you just have to stick with it long enough to see results. 3. Relationships Are Everything When I started on my blogging journey, the last thing on my mind was making friends and creating relationships with other bloggers. It’s not that I didn’t want to make friends, it just wasn’t something I had thought of when starting out. I failed to realize early on that besides making money and sharing your voice through blogging, you can also network with people from around the world. Almost a year later, my mindset has shifted to the point where making friends and networking is one of the most important aspects of my blog. Instead of spending every second working on my own blog, I make sure to go out and leave feedback on other blogs. Not only does it help fellow bloggers out by increasing their comments, it keeps them motivated to keep writing. It helps you meet new people and create a network of friends that all share a similar hobby. These friends and contacts can help you when you need blog advice, marketing, or a place to stay while traveling (it’s been done). 4. Doing What You Love Isn’t Work Over the last 10 months, I have spent way more time on my blog than I would have expected. It has basically become a full-time job since I spend my time working on the design, writing content, and promoting it. However, this type of work feels different to me than any past job I have ever had. Why? Because doing what you love isn’t work. It’s a passion. It’s a hobby you enjoy doing regardless of the time or effort it takes. No wonder so many people tell you to do something you love growing up. The reason so many people are disappointed with their jobs is because it isn’t their ideal career. This important lesson has taught me that regardless of how much money I can make blogging, it is what I am passionate about and enjoy doing. As long as I can make the bare minimum to survive, I will be happy with this choice. 5. Provide First, Reap The Rewards Later I’ll admit that when I first started blogging two years ago, my main focus was making money as fast as possible. That’s it. I was looking for a easy formula to make money without having a job. The problem with that logic was the fact that I was trying to reap the rewards before providing a service. The lesson I learned from that mistake is that blogging is like any other business. You need to provide value before you can expect to make any money. When it comes to adding value to your blog, providing valuable content to your readers on a consistent basis is key. Provide useful information that will make them want to come back time and time again. Offer free advice and reports instead of trying to sell them things early on. Create a relationship with your readers and respond to them when they send you emails or leave comments. By focusing on providing value first, you will no doubt be rewarded for your time and efforts. It takes time, but pays off in the end. Have you learned any valuable lessons from blogging? What are they? Justin Wright is a full-time blogger and internet marketer that has a blog about life, travel, and blogging. He also enjoys photography and runs a photoblog.

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The Secret to Using a “Refer a Friend” Script

Admin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:07:55 +0000

Andy’s Note: On a recent post, I was amazed at a lengthy and informative comment that was left by Lance Jepsen, author of Internet Marketing: Profits That Lie Hidden in Your Website. With his permission, I thought you might be interested to read his advice on getting the most out of your “Refer/Tell/Recommend a Friend” efforts. == By Lance Jepsen I’m always asked by clients how does viral marketing apply to my business? I think the great marketer Dean Hunt said it best, “Here is the secret that no other viral marketers seem to understand… getting 10,000 visitors of which 20% are targeted is BETTER than getting 100 visitors where 100% are targeted.” Internet history is filled with stories of great products that conquered the world solely on word-of-mouth. Think Hotmail – the free email service that spread like wildfire and was eventually acquired by Microsoft for $300 million. Hotmail spread by a process called viral marketing. Hotmail offered free email accounts for everyone. Anytime someone would send an email from their Hotmail account this marketing message would appear at the bottom: “This email was sent from a FREE Hotmail account. To signup for your own FREE Hotmail account visit http://www.hotmail.com” We can adapt Hotmail’s viral marketing technique by using the “recommend a friend” or “tell a friend” PHP script. The idea behind viral marketing is that you use a service you like, discover to your delight that it is free and tell your friends about it. Your friends tell their friends and soon the idea or product gains publicity like wildfire as its user base spreads like a virus. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to offer something free on your website in exchange for a prospect entering their email address. A tell a friend form is the most commonly used form of viral marketing. It is also very easy to implement. You need to have a web host provider that provides PHP. Most do. Next you need to upload the PHP file that instructs your web server to send an email and you need to modify your webpage to include the html form code. There are many free tell a friend PHP scripts on the web. You can pick whichever tell a friend script is the easiest to drop into your web page. Just keep in mind that you want a tell a friend script that can accept at least 3 email addresses of your customers friends. I see many websites that have the tell a friend form in the wrong place. Remember, you are using the KISS principle of web design where only one option is presented to your prospect at any time. That single option is THE option that you want them to take. Adding a tell a friend form on any webpage that displays before you close the sale violates the KISS principle of web design. Most marketers will tell you to place your refer a friend form: 1. On the subscription confirmation page. 2. On any page where you offer a free lesson, free audio or downloadable software. This is simply not correct. Think about it. If you place the tell a friend form on the same webpage as your sign up for a free subscription, they have not actually signed up yet. This means they do not know the quality of your subscription and so they certainly are not in a mood to refer you blindly to their friends. If you place the refer a friend form on your free download page, that is even worse. Your prospect wants to download your software as quickly as possible and start using it to see if it meets her need. She has not even tried your software yet so why are you asking her to refer it to a friend? The best web page to place the refer a friend form on is the thank you for purchasing web page. If you are using Paypal to accept online payments, then it is the web page that you tell Paypal to return your customer to on successful completion of their order. The refer a friend form should be displayed to your customers only, never your prospects. For example, let us say that you are selling a software program. Your landing page from your Google ads should have on it a free trial version of your software offer if they enter their email address into your autoresponder form. Your prospect receives his download URL from your autoresponder in which case he downloads and uses your software for 3 days after which it expires. Your prospect clicks on the order button within your software which takes him to an order webpage. Your prospect fills out the order form and buys your software. He is taken to the thank you for purchasing web page that explains he will receive a serial key for his software program in about 30 minutes and a refer a friend form is displayed. He has to wait to receive his serial key which he is told will take about 30 minutes. He can go out and take a smoke break while he waits to receive his email. He can also put in friends email addresses in your refer a friend form. My own statistics show that 20% - 30% of your customers will put in at least two email addresses of a friend when presented with the refer a friend form at the precise moment I described above. Why is the conversion rate on a refer a friend form so much more successful when placed here than anywhere else? Because if he bought your software, it means he actually tried the trial version and likes it. He is much more likely to refer a friend after he uses your free trial version than before. Further, he is not trying to do something else when you present him with the refer a friend form. In fact, he has been told that there is nothing more for him to do but wait 30 minutes for his serial key to arrive by email. This timeout that you force on him after using the trial version and buying, and before actually receiving a serial key to unlock his software via email, is the perfect time to display to him the refer a friend form. Pilgrim’s Partners: SpeakToMe Expert Services is guaranteeing a $50 CPM to websites using the SpeakToMe widget. This offer is limited to the first 15k unique viewers of the widget on your website ($750 limit per website to the guarantee). Learn more at the SpeakToMe website, or email Ted Murphy at ted@speak-tome.com and mention Marketing Pilgrim.

Become a Blogger Premium Training Program has Launched

Admin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:13:53 +0000

After releasing a great free report earlier in the week - Roadmap to Become a Blogger - Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick have today released the premium section of their program. This is for those who want to go beyond the 10 free videos and free report and goes a lot deeper (although the report and videos will give you a great insight into the style and content of this course). The training is video based and is centered around a series of 9 modules over six months (each month you get 8 videos):

Get Your Blog Up And Running Fast And FREE
How To Optimize Your Blog For Maximum Search Engine Performance
How To Use Images On Your Blog To Make You Stand Out From The Crowd
How To Create A Different Dimension To Your Blog By Adding Audio
How To Breathe Life Into Your Blog Using Online Video
How To Create Powerful Content For Your Blog, Consistently and Without Fail
How To Create Multiple Streams of High Quality Traffic To Your Blog
How To Use The “X-Factor” Strategies To Put Your Blog Into Super Drive!
How To Make Money From Your Blog

This course is probably not going to rock the world of advanced bloggers - but if you’re about to start a blog or are in your early days of doing so then this is an investment in your blogging education that you’ll want to consider. Yaro and Gideon are great teachers, the content is solid, they’ve been successful in building their own blogs (particularly Yaro) and the course covers a great spectrum of useful topics.

Bonuses

There are also a series of bonus - some of which expire in the next 24 hours after the initial launch of the program. The non time specific ones are:

a 10 part audio series called ‘master the mindset’
forum membership to a members only area
members only teleconferences

The 24 hour bonuses are:

“How To Use The Power Of Video To Market On The World Wide Web” - training and extra videos on this topic (this is the one I’m interested in - Gideon makes beautiful videos)
“How To Boost Critical Conversion Points In Your Blog Business” - a teleconference with Will Swayne

What does this Investment Cost?

The cost is a lot cheaper than other blogging courses going around (including Yaro’s own BlogMastermind) and is currently $27 a month for the six months that the course runs. This price is set to go up to $47 a month after the first week (on 11 December) so if you’re going to sign up you’ll save yourself $120 by doing it this week. As with all Yaro’s products - this one has a money back guarantee. If you’re not satisfied you can get your money back within 60 days. Check out this link For more information and to Sign Up for Become a Blogger Premium.

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My favorite trade show booth ever

Admin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Each year Avery sets up a booth at the eBay Live! convention where you can print your own business cards for free. This is astonishingly clever. 1. There's a reason to visit the booth. Folks at this event don't usually have business cards, so they make it their first stop each year. 2. There's a reason to tell your friends. They need cards too. 3. It has passive word of mouth. Each time you use a card, people see where you got it. You're making recommendations, even when you're not actively recommending. 4. It demonstrates the product. Too many exhibitors waste time on a stupid gimmick. This gets hundreds of people active in a true product demo. Watch this video interview from the booth:

Marketing is Everyone’s Job

Admin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:28:54 +0000

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing is Everyone’s Job Far too often businesses of all sizes leave the official job of marketing to, well, the marketing department, which can also be known as the owner of the business or top sales person turned into the marketing person. But, here’s a little flash - anyone associated with your business that comes into contact with a prospect or customer is performing a marketing function. So the question is - are they prepared to carry out that function well? I believe that one of the smartest things any business can do is create and perform official marketing training for everyone in the business. This goes for delivery people, administrative people and finance related people (especially finance related people) Here’s an example of a marketing training program: Once a quarter at a minimum (and with every new hire) conduct an all hands brand meeting. This internal seminar can and should include training and examples on things like

Why you named your company what we did - attach this to your personal story
What colors, images, fonts are official and why - create a simple style manual of standards
Your core marketing message - and why - help everyone connect their position to the message
The way you want the brand to be thought of in the market - your goal, your one word of association
Benefits of your products and services - demo them and present them just like you would to a customer
Description of your ideal customer - use photos and success stories of real customers
Your current lead generation activities - show off ads, run radio spots - sell them on the campaign
Your lead conversion process - everyone should know the next step when a prospect calls
Key marketing metrics - sales generated, leads generated, referrals generated, PR generated
Your marketing calendar - show everyone you have a plan for the future

In addition, I would help everyone write or rewrite some aspect of their position to include a direct relationship to the marketing function they perform. An administrative person who primarily answers the phone might have the directive to answer the phone and route calls to the proper person, but in a marketing world that person’s directive is to answer the phone and act as the very first impression and representation of the brand. Now, could that change that person’s role in a powerful way, I’ve seen it happen. Then take it up a notch and create marketing scorecards for everyone. Simply list all the marketing related ways that every position in your organization can score marketing points throughout the day and turn it into a game. ie - asking for and getting a referral, turning a customer complaint into a win, writing a blog post, participating in a social network, sending a hand-written thank you note, giving a referral, making a contact at a Chamber event. Challenge everyone to score X amount of marketing points each week and create an award program as part of your marketing workshops. Getting marketing understanding and buy in from your entire team makes them feel more empowered to act on behalf of the brand and better ambassadors wherever they encounter prospects and customers.

40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content

Admin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:15:14 +0000

You’ve got a chance right now. While everyone else has their eyes on celebrating the holidays and doing all their year end rituals, you can make a commitment. You can make your New Year’s resolution almost a full month early. Here’s what you can commit to for 2009: you’re going to have a killer blog. You’re going to write the kind of blog people post, tweet, link, and even print to stick up on their office wall. Your blog in 2009 is going to be the kind of blog that people use to power their own change. This is your chance to get out there and kick ass. You can do this. You can deliver with the impact you want, and build on the work you’ve already done. I don’t claim that I know every little secret, but I tell you this: I get a lot of decent results with what I’m doing so far. You want some ideas from my side of the page? Here: take 40 of them. And if you want, add to them in your own blog post (pointing back to here). Ready?

40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content

The Basics

Brevity rules. Can you say it briefly?
Start at the main point, then work the story up. (Make the main point in the first paragraph.)
Use small words. You don’t have to impress people. You have to be clear.
Analogies help people understand things better.
So do stories.
You don’t have to write complete sentences, even though your teacher taught you to do that. But treat it sparingly. Like this. Like a condiment.
Keep paragraphs small, if possible. We balk at large blocks of text.
Make your point from the reader’s side of the fence. Who is your audience?
Depending on how you write, go back and see if you can cut out more. Reduce. Reduce. Reduce.
Use the word you’re thinking about, not a fancier, or more polite word.

Concepts and the Bigger Picture

Set up series of posts, even if you don’t call them a series. Make a post that brings up follow-on points from a previous post, and link back to that post to reinforce the original content.
Get your inspiration from reading. #1 source for my ideas comes from other blogs not in my space. Not sure what to read that’s NOT in your space? Alltop, my friend. ( see also).
Think strategically, if this is for business or a cause. Ask yourself what you want your reader to do next. Try to write from that point of view.
Theme-wise, writing very helpful things that people can use is way better than writing thoughtful things that make people think and just walk away. You can have thoughtful but not helpful, but you’re striving for helpful and thoughtful in the same piece.
Never write the me-too blog. Look to be ahead of the wave and feeding backwards, not behind the wave and eating someone’s wake.
Look for ways to think forward, but that tie to your business interests. When I write about the future, I’m also inviting someone to make that future with me.
Mix it up. Keep an editorial calendar and note what kinds of posts you’ve written lately. Thought posts? Lists? Interviews? Make sure you’re mixing up the type of post you’ve written lately.
Consider the occasional dip into Google Trends to write a story that might draw new audience to your conversation. Don’t do this all the time, because the gimmick can wear off quick. Again, think condiments, not meals.
If you don’t have anything interesting to blog, skip a day. Don’t skip many days.
And never never never (raise your hand and repeat this with me) “I” (state your name) “solemnly swear never never never never ever to post another ‘I’m sorry I haven’t blogged lately’ posts ever again. Ever.”

Overdrive

Consider your audience but write from your passion.
Don’t mince words. If it’s a “pissing match,” it’s not a disagreement.
Ask questions. Blogs are conversations starting and flowing. Ask. Questions.
Link to people. If you write about Steve Garfield, link to Steve Garfield.
It’s not all about your blog. Get out and comment on other people’s blogs. Often.
Leave a few ideas unfinished. Ask for input. It always improves a piece. Blogs are great for that.
Use tags. Lots of tags. Make sure you claim your blog with Technorati, and submit it with Alltop.
Make sure your blog’s URL is everywhere: in your email signature, in Facebook, in Flickr, in Twitter, in every outpost you can think about.
Don’t email, DM, and otherwise push every blog post you write to other people. Share the best ones. Let the others be found on their own merits.
Always know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Question yourself often. Look for ways to improve the game.

Encore

Comment back to the people who have left comments.
Follow those people’s links sometimes and go explore their blog.
Look for ways to empower the community you inspire.
If you haven’t found your community yet, keep looking, searching, and connecting.
Learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). It’s no longer okay not to know even the most basic things.
Find great Creative Commons photos and use them for your post (with attribution).
Deconstruct what your favorite writers do, and try it your own way.
Occasionally, try something completely different.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid of not being interesting enough.
Write as if someone believes in you, because someone does. (me!)

And if that’s not enough, here’s my best advice about blogging. What do you think? Any questions? Anything I left out? Photo credit, motorpsykhos

Want a Popular Blog? Put Your Ego Aside

Admin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:01:44 +0000

In this post Daniel Scocco examines personal branding vs blog branding. When creating a blog, you need to decide if you want to build the brand around the blog itself or around your person. While doing both things at the same time is possible, it will make achieving either of the goals a harder task. Additionally, if you want to maximize the traffic and growth potential of the blog (for making money directly with it), I think that you should opt for building a brand around the website itself, and putting your personal brand as the second priority. There are two main factors that come into play in this decision: the domain name and the layout of the homepage.

The Brand Around The Author

Blogs that have the goal of promoting the personal brand of the author (not exclusively, but to a large extent) will usually have a domain name that is equal to the name of the author, and will feature a section on the homepage with a small bio and picture of the author. Such blogs can grow and become popular too, but usually this happens when the author was already a known figure on his industry before he started blogging. Examples include Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin. Notice that most of those bloggers also have another profession, and they don’t need to earn money directly from their blogs.

The Brand Around The Blog

Blogs that have a brand around themselves, on the other hand, usually have generic domains and don’t display personal information about the authors on the homepage. Examples include Mashable and Gizmodo. Now the founders of those two blogs (Pete Cashmore and Peter Rojas) also have strong personal brands, but that is a consequence of the huge popularity of the blogs they founded in the first place. Should they have started their blogs on petecashmore.com and peterrojas.com, publishing the same content, I doubt that they would have had the same success.

Why Personal Branded Blogs Are A Tough Sell?

So why do I think that it is harder to make a personal branded blog popular (excluded the case where you already have a celebrity status on a certain niche)? For two main reasons. First of all because when people visit a personal branded blog, they will inevitably face both the content and your person, and both of those factors will need to convince the visitor if he is to return a second time. In other words, he will need to like both the content AND the person. The inevitable reaction some people will have is the following: “Hmm, who is this guy anyway?” The second reason is connected with how we are used to consume our information. Mainstream media used to be the source of all credible and reliable content until some time ago, and those sites were never branded around their authors. Having a blog that mimics that style, therefore, can lend you credibility.

Facts and Figures

Want some evidence? Take a look at the 30 most popular blogs in the world according to Technorati. Out of 30, only 2 use the name of the author on their domains and display a picture of the author on the homepage (Seth Godin and Perez Hilton). All the other blogs have a brand around the website itself and not around the authors. Some of those bloggers have a strong personal brand nonetheless (e.g., Michael Arrington), but as I mentioned before, this is a result of the huge popularity of the blogs they created. Other authors are not as popular on a personal level, but their blogs fly high all the same. For instance, could you name the founders of Smashing Magazine or Ars Technica from the top of your head? I bet most of you couldn’t, and those are among the 10 largest blogs in the world.

Conclusion

Now there is nothing wrong with using your name as the domain for your blog or placing your picture and bio on the sidebar. Perhaps you are a web designer or an affiliate marketer, and the purpose of your blog will not be to generate direct revenues but rather to strengthen your personal brand. This is a sound strategy. If you want to create a blog for web publishing purposes (i.e., to generate a lot of traffic and revenues from advertising or from selling products), however, I would focus on branding the blog itself and not you as the author of it. Daniel Scocco is the author of Daily Blog Tips, and recently he launched his Internet Marketing newsletter. Make sure to subscribe if you want to receive his latest tips, tricks, and analysis of the industry.

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If I Started Today

Admin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:23:53 +0000

Okay, so you’ve heard from someone that this social media and social networking stuff is great and you should get involved, and it’s really going to help you out. Maybe it will help you in the economic downturn. Maybe you have heard how you can use Twitter for business. But there’s a lot to it all. Where would you start? What would come first? How might you think about getting out there and joining in on the experience?

If I Started Today

Here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll build three different scenarios out, and give you the starting points for what I’d do with social media if I were in these steps. Try to extrapolate them out to your profession or your need. If you really want to have fun with this post, take what I’ve started here, and write your own post for your vertical or condition, and then be sure to share the ideas with us here, so we can go to your site and check it out. (We’ll even be able to visit via trackbacks, if you link back to the original post).

Before it All: Listening

(Note: this was updated after Lucretia pointed out that I probably inadvertently forgot to mention it.) Listening is my first move in starting to understand social media. That means this: go and read the blogs that are out there. Read from different genres. Go visit Twitter.com and more importantly search.twitter.com, and see what people are saying. Read comments on people’s blogs and see which ones seem to get any response. Search using Google and Technorati.com, and start listening to conversations that are out there. And then, start here.

First Platform: A Blog

No matter what, the very first piece of social media real estate I’d start with is a blog. It’s a website, with lots of built in features that make it useful from a search perspective, and simple from a content creation perspective. That alone is worth the price of admission. Don’t worry as much about the features, although certain companies make blogging platforms that go above and beyond simple content publishing. Don’t focus hard on the add-ons and whizbangs, but do know that a bare bones, out of the box blog is about as appealing as two slices of bread with a piece of bologna on it. Now, let’s break that into three potential scenarios. Personal branding: I’d buy my own domain name, and host it somewhere inexpensive, but with good service. Company communications: I’d use an off-brand domain, with a “powered by” mindset, similar to Digital Nomads by Dell. Meaning, I wouldn’t necessarily do a “product blog” or a “corporate voice” blog as much as I’d want to do a “something useful to people” blog. Exceptions: really big corporations with lots of bloggers, like Sun, IBM, Cisco, etc. Nonprofit: I’d start a storytelling and pictures blog about the causes I was tasked with supporting. No question about it: stories and pictures are powerful contributors to nonprofit experiences. For blog topics and other ideas, I’ve collected my best advice, and that should get you started there.

Second Step: Outposts

In all cases, I’d build outposts which help me reach into lots of different places and communicate with people where they might be. Depending on my needs, I might use different tools. At the very minimum, I’d start accounts on:

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook

I might or might not then pick one or two more specialized networks. Let’s look at how this works for our three examples. Personal: use Twitter to build relationships and share interests. Use Facebook to learn about groups and events of interest. Keep LinkedIn active and updated, and stay involved in the answering of questions part of the site. Goal here: keep your name out there, far ahead of when you might need anything from anyone. Company: use Twitter as a way to show that you’re humans in there. I like how Dell has several namesatDELL type accounts like RichardATDell and LionelATDell, etc. You could also just be yourself, like ScottMonty from Ford, or astrout(Aaron Strout) from Powered. Use Facebook as individuals and LinkedIn as individuals, but with a group purpose. You might participate in other people’s groups. You might find friends with like interests or similar demographics and reach out to them that way. Be human. That’s the main goal here. Nonprofit: depending on the cause, you could either use Twitter as the cause name, or you can reach out as an individual. There are both in the field, and I’ve yet to see which is more productive. Maybe a nonprofit can comment on their experiences here. On Facebook and LinkedIn, be the individual, but form groups around your causes, and invite people who might be like minded into the groups. With all three groups, the specific networks I mentioned at the beginning of these segments would obviously vary. One note: don’t use those tools that push your status across multiple platforms. I understand that it’s simpler to update things that way, but it also means that you don’t respect your individual audiences at those outposts. In all cases, use your picture for the avatar, not a logo. Try to get a candid shot that’s not a stuffy professional photo, but one that isn’t a cropped picture of you next to some ex relation. In all cases, put enough information in your profile to connote that you’re at once a business person as well as a human being. In Facebook, consider which applications you add to your profile. Yes, being a pirate or a vampire might be fun, but it might also make someone question your professional intent. But do feel free to share your interests in books or movies or sports, and make sure your status messages aren’t always and forever about your business interests, or people might be less engaged after a very short amount of time. I also have my best advice about social networking to help you there, too.

Third Step: Audience

Once you have a primary place to express yourself (your blog), and a few outposts where you can communicate in a less structured, more real time way (outposts), the next then I would do is find like minds. It depends on your business goals what you might do with this audience, and for some people, this might not apply as much. For the three examples I gave, it would be an important thing to build a level of followership and interaction across your platforms, so we’ll cover this all as one group, not as separate goals. My best advice about building community and audience is this: be helpful. Write blog posts that others can use (like this one, for instance). The more you can help others, the more they’ll come back. Avoid writing “me too” blog posts about the latest news in your vertical. Chances are, someone else is doing it better, and your “me too” is just a throat-clearing proof that you’re not creating original content. Work harder on doing something original instead of just pumping out “I read this article about” types of posts, unless you’re going to expand on the ideas, and/or recast them for your particular audience. If you’re writing for a company, maybe these blog topics will spark some ideas. If you’re writing a personal blog, here are 100 blog topics to get you started. More important in growing a community: comment. Go out to other people’s blogs and start getting involved. Use a service like BackType to learn what other people are saying and where they’re commenting. The more you make your voice heard in the general space where you want to do business, the better you’ll be. Note something important: you might want to think about commenting in two places. First, where your peers are writing their stuff makes sense as a place to comment, but that will only bring you into a better relationship with your peers in a space. If you want to start building business, start learning to comment on your customers’ blogs, in your customers’ verticals, where your customers are spending their online time.

Fourth Step: Experiment

If something’s not working, try something else. If you’re not using analytics and stats packages to learn more about your web visitors, you’re missing out. If you aren’t learning how these social media elements tie to your business, and you’re just using them as another isolated thing, then you’re missing the whole reason to start (for businesses, at least). Experiment. Try new things. I try something new every day. It might be a blog post. It might be a strategy about how I can get more people to do X instead of Y. It might be something as simple as reaching out to other people in new ways. But experiment. If you just sit around doing the same things you did to start out, you might as well turn in now. I just gave myself another idea even writing this post. That’s the power of experimenting. You learn by doing, not reading. So, read all this, but then do something.

Your Turn

What would you tell people about starting out? If you want to adapt this to your specific blogging or media making interest, what would you tell people differently? How else might you serve your community? Or, what do you have further questions about? This would be a great post to encourage people to ask questions, and share with the rest of the larger community. What do you need to start today? Photo credit, a super long name I don’t remember, but just click this, okay?

Word of Mouth using Twitter

Admin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Here's a simple example of how easy it is to get bloggers to talk about you: 1. Make something interesting 2. Ask a few people to share it Paolo Tosolini put a short, fun video on YouTube. He decided to test the power of Twitter to get the word out. He sent a message to major twitterers Chris Brogan (15,000 followers) and Laura Fitton (6,000 followers). Within 16 hours he had 1,250 views on the video. It's really that easy (if your stuff is worth taking about). Here's the video

Here's Paolo's case study:

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: wordoftwitter twitter)

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