Return From Underground Seminar
I am fresh back from the Underground Seminar 6, hosted by Yanik Silver in Washington DC. As usual, I have some observations from the event that I thought I’d share.
One might ask… “David, you’re a blogger. Why are you at an internet marketing event and not at SXSW where all the other bloggers are?”
The fast answer is because the two events conflicted and I had to make a choice. The slightly longer answer is that I made that choice because I realize what is important for business. I could be in Austin chugging beers, or I could be in Washington strategizing to expand my business and my brand. It is obvious which I chose.
I hope everybody at SXSW had a lot of fun. I’ve actually never been to that event and I know it is a big annual event for my industry. Perhaps I’ll make it in 2011.
What is Underground Seminar?
Simply put, it is an internet marketing conference. Yanik hosts it every year as a themed event. The theme always revolves around spying, and this year the theme was 007, James Bond. They had one hell of a set on the stage, too, to back it up. I’ve never been to any conference where the opening was full of music, fog and lasers. Yes, lasers.
This event isn’t cheap. I paid $2K to attend. The truth of the matter, though, is that this means only serious players bother coming. It weeds out people who aren’t serious, and that is reflected in the crowd. I haven’t hung out with such a brilliant, more successful group of folks in a long time.
Changing Face of Internet Marketing
I am detecting a definite sea shift in this field of internet marketing.
In my opinion, the words “internet marketing” have been tainted by those douchebags who are doing it all wrong. Obviously, there are always those who try to pull a fast one for a quick buck. They’ll try to manipulate people into buying shit, and it has created a bad taste in the mouth of some with regard to internet marketing.
Things are changing. 2009 saw some major regulatory changes with the FTC rule changes and then Visa/MC cracking down on shady marketing practices. A lot of the dishonest marketers are falling away.
At the same time, many of the traditional “gurus” of internet marketing are shifting their emphasis. Frank Kern has gone more into the background role of helping clients orchestrate huge launches. He still does launches (as seen with the recent List Control launch), but not as much. John Reese and Mike Filsaime are both shifting into the software market, so my understanding is they’ll be working on software services as opposed to the usual “make money” stuff.
As I noticed at Underground, there is a very definite vibe toward both personal development as well as philanthropy. I’m seeing a lot more emphasis on being better people, on helping the world and giving back. We’re talking about a very real balance between successful business, fun, and giving back.
All in all, these are some of the best, most brilliant people I’ve hung out with in a long time. What it also shows me is that it is MINDSET which is most important to success.
There is nothing better than surrounding yourself with smart, successful, driven people who also like to have fun and give back to the world.
This is what is so great about conferences. And why I bother to hop on planes and travel to these things.
Thoughts on Attending Conferences
My guess is that many in my audience look at this and think something like “Must be nice to be able to attend a conference.” As if it is just luck on my part that I was fortunate to be able to make it.
No, it was just a decision.
In my opinion, people who say they’re going to have to wait to attend conferences like this until they can afford it are making a mistake. You’re saying that you’ll stay in the trap until the trap lets you out. Well, it won’t happen. Not unless you make it happen. You’ve got to open the door to that trap, walk outside, then look back at the cage and realize what a load of bullshit it was. Surround yourself with people who are doing what you want to accomplish.
It makes all the difference.
Perhaps a $2K conference like Underground is too much for you. Well, try to make it to BlogWorld in October perhaps. There are great people at that event as well.
Some High-Level Take-Away’s From Underground
As I wrap up this post, I thought I would leave you with some avenues of focus that I took away from this event. These are things I’ll be working on.
- More Outsourcing. I’m realizing more and more what a bottleneck I’m allowing myself to be. Sure, I’ve got people working for me, but I should not only utilize them more, but bring on new people with skills that I don’t have. One of the speakers described his own 95/5 rule. In other words, pick the 5% of tasks that you’re good at and do those, then hire people to do the other 95%. It is a sound principle. One of the most common things among the most successful people at Underground was the efficient use of others as well as attracting the right people to work with.
- I’m going to be doing more webinars. More on this later.
- Live a more balanced life. I was really happy to see such a strong emphasis at this conference of life balance. I was inspired not only to purposely inject more non-work stuff into my life, but also to find more ways to give back. Life is not about the big bank accounts. It is about constant giving, constant personal growth, and keeping focus on what really matters. Underground served as a good reminder for me on this, and I think it also hit me at a good moment seeing as I just had my second child a few weeks ago.
- We’re all in the customer service business. This was a message from Gary Vaynerchuk and one I’ve heard him make before. Sell things to your audience, and treat your customers like gold.
I have a bunch of notes on various marketing strategies and resources, but that’s all much more than will fit in a blog post.
Overall, great event. And, yes, I do plan to attend again next year.
Bloggers, if you are serious about living the internet lifestyle, then you need to branch out. This business means nothing if you only focus on blogging and social media. If you can’t utilize those things for selling, you’ll be broke. So, I think bloggers should attend both social media conferences, but also marketing conferences. I saw very few bloggers at Underground, and I hope to see more next year.
The information is out there. Lots of people are showing the way (including me, quite frankly). It serves you no good to look the other way just because it might be offered on a long-form sales letter. Those kinds of knee-jerk reactions can rob you of some golden opportunities.
And those are my thoughts.
What Would Happen To The World Without Your Blog?
This is a guest post by Jason Ulsrud, at Forty2Fifty.
I have found myself asking this question a lot lately. Am I providing purpose to the world?
Your blog can effect humanity in one of three ways:
- Make the world better
- Not change the world at all
- Make the world worse
How your blog can make the world a better place
Simply put, provide solutions. Every single person who comes to your blog is there for a reason, even your most avid readers, mom and dad. If you can provide even one person with a solution to their problem, then you’re making the world a better place. However, providing solutions without making money is not good business for a Problogger.
Capitalizing on the solutions you are providing to readers with products and services that will support your purpose or add to your readers lives can take you from hobby blogger to Problogger.
How your blog will not change the world
Ineffective blogging will likely never change the world. I read a lot of blogs and come across several that are just ineffective. Everything from poor design and layout, making it harder for your readers to navigate, to bad customer service will kill the entire purpose of your blog.
Designing the blog for your readers and using every social networking platform available, such as Twitter and Facebook, to communicate with your readers will take your blog from blah to world changing.
How your blog can make the world worse
I’m going to assume none of you fit into this category so I’ll speak freely here. If you’ve set up a blog as a personal platform to get attention or only make money from scammy products, then you’re making the world worse. You’re not providing any value to the blogoshpere or humanity.
Stop right now and find a career path where you can provide value to the world. It’s not all about money. I’m a firm believer if you offer real solutions and care about your readers the money will follow and you’ll have fun in the process.
So, What Would Happen To The World Without Your Blog?
Leave a comment and let me know, and what you can change to add even more value to your readers.
Jason Ulsrud blogs at forty2fifty, which covers life’s journey into mid-life. Jason’s also putting together his next blog at guyknowledgy.com to talk about “everyday guy” things from chicks and chrome to wine and love.
If I Were To Start All Over Again…
Today, my blogging efforts enjoy a certain bit of inertia. It is easier for me to do things because I have an audience and I have traffic.
What if I didn’t have it? If you take all that I’ve learned over my last 12 years of blogging and told me to start over again from scratch, how would I go about it?
Let me walk you through what I’d do. In fact, this is very similar to what I did when I launched this very blog a couple of years ago.
Establish Your Platform
In order to begin reaching out in your market, you need to have a home base – your blog. So, set up some hosting and install Wordpress. Then, I would look around the available themes and pick one I like. It is OK to get a pre-designed theme, but I’d recommend getting one that is close to what you want – with plans to have some modifications done to it.
Don’t get too bogged down in theme selection. This is something you can always change at any time, so there is no need to get paralyzed at this step.
I would also plan to cheaply hire somebody to get a few things done design-wise:
- Set up a contest for logo design on 99Designs.com. Get a logo designed for your blog.
- Hire somebody on Elance.com or 99Designs.com to perform whatever theme customizations you may want. Be as specific as you can when posting your project.
The costs of doing the above are pretty minimal and, quite frankly, you shouldn’t try to avoid those costs if you are at all serious about your blog. It beats the hell out of spinning your wheels and trying to perform technical feats on your blog when you have no idea what you’re doing. Too many bloggers bog down on the technical stuff and it is completely unnecessary – especially when you have an army of designers and developers around the world who can do this stuff for you for peanuts.
Create Your Pillar Content
Even while your blog’s design is being worked on, create your blog’s pillar content. This is 5-10 really good posts on your topic. Don’t hold back. This content is going to show people you’re worth reading when they arrive on your blog. Make it really good.
While you’re at it, create your idea file so that you have a BUNCH of post ideas waiting in the wings. You want to make sure you won’t run out of things to talk about.
Connect Your Blog
Set up your mailing list (preferably with a quality company like Aweber). Get that opt-in form onto the blog from Day 1.
Also, be sure to connect your blog up to social media so that your readers can share your stuff across the net. Make it extremely easy and attractive to do so.
Branch Out
Now is the time to begin establishing yourself. Spend some time and track down the major players in your market. The top blogs and authority sites. Then, get in touch.
Contact these bloggers and quickly introduce yourself. Be personable, comment on their blog, be a member of their community, join their list. When you contact them, comment on their stuff and offer any services you can provide (for free).
Then, offer to guest post. You want to begin guest posting on authority blogs in your market as much as you can. Combine this with active commenting and active social media participation.
Find Out What Is Needed & Wanted
Through survey of whatever audience you are developing as well as active observation and participation in the community, find out what they need and want. What are the goals of the market? What are they missing? Frustrations? Fears?
Once you find this information out, you deliver. Provide content which helps the market with what they need and want. And develop potential product ideas along the same line for future monetization.
In addition to blog posts, explore delivery in other mediums. Video? Webinars?
When To Monetize
In the beginning, it is more important to build an audience than to try to squeeze juice from a turnip. Putting banners on a low-traffic blog doesn’t earn you much at all, and if you’ve chosen your market properly, you’ll have better monetization options available to you than banners anyway (affiliate promos and your own product offerings).
What I would do is have plans for the first product. Work toward it. You may even explore offering a consulting option on your blog for personal assistance in your market. Even if nobody buys, it still establishes with your growing audience that you are a person who is engaged in business. Combine this with your mailing list and you should be well setting the stage for a future ramp up.
As you build the list, stay in steady contact. Don’t let the list go cold. Maintain your personal brand and, as much as possible, a 2-way interaction with your growing tribe. Use the list to bring people back into your blog and ask them to post comments.
Pitfalls
Some traps I see bloggers fall into that you should avoid are:
- Not connecting with other bloggers. The key to growth in any niche is forming connections with the people already in that niche. If you just start blogging and hope people notice, you’ll probably get frustrated.
- Not starting the mailing list. I can’t overstate the importance of this. A mailing list is going to prove invaluable in your future monetization plans, but it is also going to help you immensely in growing your traffic and keeping your tribe intact as they come by. Without the list, you have no ability to mobilize your audience in any particular direction.
- Getting bogged down in technical crap. When your car breaks, chances are you don’t try to fix it yourself unless you know what you’re doing. So, why do it with your blog? Why is it that most people attempt to set up their own blogs and designs when they have no earthly idea what they’re doing? Just hire somebody! It is so cheap! And if you’re not willing to fork over a couple hundred bucks or so on this, perhaps you need to question how serious you really are about this whole thing to begin with. Blogs are a commodity, and the people setting them up are, too. So, don’t approach this any different than you would other things in your life. If you want it and don’t know how to do it, outsource.
- Not Thinking Ahead. What’s your plan to monetize? Do you have a general strategy on how you plan to grow the blog? There isn’t anything complicated about this stuff. It mostly comes down to just doing it. Everything you’d ever want to know how to do can be found online, so don’t let little things bog you down.
Honestly, I don’t think getting a blog off the ground is that difficult. I think the reason people get mired down with it is because they get distracted by shiny objects and all the info overload out there, drawing in different directions. At the same time, they try to do everything by themselves.
It is important to think with the goal in mind. The most successful people out there are goal-oriented and will just do what is necessary to get there. Things like blog setup are just little hurdles to the larger picture, and they treat it as such. When you realize that there are a myriad of ways to get those things done FOR YOU, you’ll never let it be a stop. As time goes on, you’ll gain more experience and you’ll become more self-sufficient.
Does it take time to do this? Yeah, but not necessarily as long as you might think. It doesn’t have to take a long time to get a blog off the ground with respectable traffic. It can actually be done pretty quickly. The key lies in quality content and lots of outreach into the existing marketplace in your niche. Reach out and draw them in.
Happy blogging.
The Blogging Ninja Guide To Strategic Positioning
What I’m about to share with you is a bit meaty, but it can have a huge impact on your blogging income. I want to address questions like:
- How accessible should you be with your readers?
- How do you deal with the issue of pricing of your products and avoid “sticker shock”?
I’m aware that some bloggers (those who aren’t making much money, mind you) may potentially take issue with what I’m about to share. However, this blog is all about being REAL with you and help you guys make as much money as possible from your blogging.
What Is Strategic Positioning?
Honestly, I just came up with that term off the top of my head. But, here’s what I mean…
It is the purposeful positioning of your personal/online brand in order to foster the MINDSET that you want inside the heads of your audience.
In other words, you can custom tailor how you want your readers to perceive you and your perceived value.
This can have a direct impact on the prices you are able to charge as well as the overall level of authority your readers grant you on your subject.
Have you ever thought about what you want your readers to think of you? Obviously, you probably want them to like you and like what you have to say. But, when we start taking this into the realm of business, it doesn’t always translate into income. Being liked doesn’t mean anybody is going to take out their wallet for you.
Likability is a key factor in the art of persuasion, however. You want to be a likable person and accessible, but with some thought put into how you do it. Let’s go deeper.
Make Them Reach A Little
There is a balancing act in life of reach and withdraw. The best way to illustrate this is the world of dating. Yes, dating. 
We’re all familiar with this. You deal with a member of the opposite sex who is too “clingy”, who is always there, who is calling you all the time. What happens? You recoil. You need your space. It is just too much! On the other hand, playing “hard to get” stereotypically makes the other person reach more. They want you because you don’t overly want them.
Now, am I saying you need to play “hard to get” with your blog audience? Well, not really. However, this concept does still play a role in strategic positioning.
Let’s take two bloggers with an equal amount of knowledge on a subject. Blogger A is very accessible. He answers every email, replies to every comment, every tweet. He is a social animal. Then we take Blogger B. This guy is responsive to his audience, but not to the degree where everybody gets a reply. He has systems in place to handle communication. Perhaps he uses a VA to handle his emails. Most of his audience’s interaction with him is via the mediums he controls – the list and the blog.
When it comes time for Blogger A to sell something, he is much more likely to run into resistance because he is already insanely accessible. It leaves no room for added value. See, the truth is that in many cases, increased access to the authority is a major selling point. People want to have more one-on-one interaction with the person who knows. Blogger B is in a better position here. He is accessible enough to be in good communication with his audience, but he leaves enough of a gap there to provide an offer of increased access in the form of a paid program.
Having your audience be a little hungry is a good thing. It keeps them coming back and it makes them more open to potentially buying the right offer from you.
Admittedly, this is a difficult concept to communicate in words and hopefully I’ve done it. This is a balancing act. It is important to be accessible and to be REAL to your audience, however it is also possible to be TOO accessible. Having a slight level of authority and elevation within your crowd is good for your bottom line.
The Pricing Position
Now, you have a slightly hungry audience. What about selling them something?
Well, a common issue is the fear of charging too much. The audience may not place value in your offer, so you end up low-balling the price. You think you’ll sell more because of the lower price, but often the opposite ends up being true.
This is where price positioning comes in. If you’re practicing what I talked about above, then you have authority and elevation with your tribe. Next is to position yourself so that you can charge adequate amounts of money for your offers without them freaking out.
What you need to do is “train” your audience what to expect in terms of pricing. Give them a point of comparison.
This is why you need a high-end product for your market. Many people will include a one-on-one coaching option at a fairly high price tag on their blog. It isn’t expected that many (if any) will take the offer, but having it there provides a point of comparison. The high price tag serves to position you as a person who charges what you’re worth. It also positions you as an authority in your market, since most people equate higher prices with increased quality. Lastly, it provides a point of comparison so that future products you release at lower prices look much more attractive.
The Important Follow-Through
In this post, I’ve provided two important marketing concepts. Both serve to affect your perceived value in the mind of your audience.
There is one VERY important item that has to be included, though.
MAKE SURE YOU DELIVER LOTS OF VALUE.
Simply put, if you do the things above and you don’t follow up with delivering major value and be a straight-up honest person, then it only makes you a manipulative dirtbag.
Engineering authority and elevation in your marketplace when it isn’t deserved is not a good thing. Putting a slight separation in place between you and your audience and not using that to create and deliver truly awesome value to them is not a good thing. And charging higher prices for crappy products is obviously not a good thing.
All of the most successful entrepreneurs out there do what I’m talking about in this post (whether intentional or not). But, it can easily backfire on you if you’re not doing it with your readers in mind. Focus on value. Over-deliver. Treat your customers like gold. Then, all of this jives like a well-oiled machine.
Your Next Move Is…
I’m curious what you think of this material. In marketing circles, this information isn’t really new. For a lot of bloggers, this is probably not something you’ve seen anybody talk about before when it comes to positioning on a blog.
It works, however. And my job is to show people how to use a blog as the face of a successful online business.
What are your thoughts? Do you see how this works? Do you see it in practice?
Post a comment and do your thing!
Project Update: Conferences & The Blogger Bubble
This is my weekly project update, where I tell you what I’ve been up to this week in my business and share what’s on my mind.
I’m fresh back from Continuity Summit, an event hosted by Ryan Lee up in Stamford, CT.
All in all, great event. Ryan did a great job in delivering a lot of content. In many conferences, I’ll be in and out of the room. A lot of networking happens out in the hallways, after all. However, I attended almost every speaker this time because they were all good. I have a lot of notes sitting in Evernote to go over and process.
Continuity Summit is an internet marketing event. I’ve been to several of them and they are always different than a blogging event. The crowds are very different. The people in attendance are generally running internet businesses – real businesses like the kind I talk about on this blog. They weren’t so much interested in blogging. They weren’t that active on Twitter. They were just making money.
At blogging events, the level of Twitter activity is usually quite high. Everybody is blogging (obviously). But, most of them are trying to figure out even the most basic business strategies, and often don’t think much beyond banner ads.
It is interesting being in the middle, with one foot in each world. The power really is in the middle ground. In fact, this is pretty much the very definition of the Third Tribe, as those guys have defined it.
The power of this business lies in creating a relationship with your crowd and providing tons of value – and charging money for some of it. But, the relationship is key. Proof of that is the fact that Ryan Lee himself filled this event with over 1,000 attendees and did it using only his own blog and his email list. No JVs. He got 1,000 people to hop on planes and fly to Stamford. That’s the power of a relationship. It’ll KILL PPC advertising anytime, as far as I’m concerned.
I would love to see more bloggers showing up at events like this. I met a few. In fact, I met up with several readers of this blog there in Stamford (nice meeting you guys!). But, bloggers who are interested in monetizing need to get out of the blogger bubble.
What do I mean by the blogger bubble?
The word “blogger” usually denotes a person who writes a lot, shares their thoughts. When it comes to making money, most bloggers never leave the paradigm of “writing a lot”. They look for indirect ways of making money from their work – banner ads. It leads to this self-contained little bubble of limited thinking. Because they think their product is blog posts.
This bubble even extends outward. In this crowd of internet marketers, when I told them what I did, many of them asked me how I make money and automatically assumed I did it by way of banner advertising. So, even THESE guys think banner ads are the only way to go.
What a bubble!
We have to burst that bubble, guys. Blogging is just a medium. It isn’t a business.
When it comes to monetizing a blog, blogging is not a unique business model. Instead, it is just another promotional medium where all the same stuff internet marketers talk about apply. In other words, there shouldn’t be two different camps here. There’s only one, really.
I’ll be flying to Washington DC on Thursday to attend Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar. This is another internet marketing event. As usual, I expect I’ll find very few bloggers there. But, you know what? I probably will find several marketers with blogs – they just don’t define themselves by the medium.
And they’re banking.
Think about it.
A Conversation Can Make You More Money
This is a guest post by Sean Smith of Powerofmore.net.
Recently I took a trip to visit a close friend. The purpose of my trip was not necessarily for business, but some how I always manage to meet someone during my conversations and interactions with others who wants to do business with me. After meeting probably the tenth person during my travels who was interested in my services, it donned on me that the questions I typically ask during my conversations with others whom I’m meeting for the first time create an infections environment where they become excited about what I have to offer them. This realization is my inspiration for todays blog post.
The Philosophy
Here is the philosophy behind my (mad scientist) methods, muuahahaha!!!
Seriously, the idea behind these methods is nothing new. It is all about becoming a social person and learning how to simply network with and communicate with others. Running an Internet business isn’t strictly done online. Remember, you are still dealing with people and your website is simply a tool to convey your message to them. Learn to meet and greet others, and make a valid effort to meet someone new every day, whether online or off. Get to know them, ask them questions and be a good listener. This can be done most effectively over the Internet, as well as in the real-world.
Everywhere I go, online or not, I always make it a point to talk to at least 10 new people a day. During my conversations with them, I ask certain questions that allow me to better understand who they are and what they’re all about. These questions will not only help you gain a better understanding of who you are talking too, but also allows you to effectively build a strong relationship with them, which ultimately leads to trust. And trust eventually leads to a sale! I’ll discuss these questions in a little bit.
It’s a Conversation
To do this right, you must learn to have conversations with others. I never engage in any interaction with others with the intention to gain new business or to sell them something. I’m genuinely interested in what they have to say. If any business comes out of the conversation, then it is the result of my gaining their trust and nothing more.
As the conversation progresses, the other person will inevitably become more curious about you and ask you to share what you do for a living. And man do I love it when people ask me what I do for a living. Partly because I’m very passionate about it, and partly because I know that almost everyone wants to know more about how to make money online! On the internet, they may ask you directly, or more than likely, they’ll visit your website to get all the dirty details.
Have a Genuine Interest
Having a genuine interest in what the other person is tell you is a must! Listen to them, hear what they are saying. On the Internet, or in any business for that matter, this allows you to clearly identify what your target audience wants and how you can fill that need. Simply trying to sell your products or services to them without listening to what your audience wants is a sure way to set yourself up for dismal sales and potential failure. Know and respect your audience, and they will take you far!
An Example Illustrated
Asking the right questions will open up the conversation for further discussion and allow you to identify whether or not you can provide a solution to the other person, or audience’s problem.
For example, while traveling on a plane to my recent destination, I met an ink salesman. I had asked the salesman, what he did and how he got started in his business, which is how I learned he was an ink salesman. I was able to quickly establish a rapport with the salesman after asking 4 simple questions about what he did for a living. What’s even better, is because I had established a rapport with him, he in turn asked me what I did for a living. I quickly answered:
“I own an internet marketing and online business development consulting business where I help individuals and small to mid-sized businesses create a strong internet presence allowing them to succeed online.”
The conversation progressed which led me to expand upon my business further at his request. This was important to him, because he immediately realized I could help him expand his sales operations online where he could gain greater reach and increased exposure, thus allowing him to sell more product. He even asked me if I could teach his entire sales organization how to better utilize the internet to increase brand awareness and sales, thus resulting in the sale of a $10,000 consulting services package for me and an ongoing business relationship with his company.
What’s crazy is, I ONLY ASKED HIM FOUR SIMPLE QUESTIONS!!!
Questions, Questions, Questions
The questions I ask are simple and nothing new. Really the key to a successful sale is in starting the conversation and treating it like a conversation rather than a sale. So what are the questions I typically ask when having a conversation with others? Well, I’m glad you asked! See, your getting the hang of this already!
I always ask these questions when meeting new people whether in the real-world or through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any other social networking or internet based community I’m hanging out in.
- What do you do for a living?
- How long have you been doing that?
- Do you enjoy it?
- How did you get started?
On the Internet, you could also pose a more direct approach to the questions through your marketing efforts such as landing pages and email campaigns. Here are some examples as they relate to my business:
- Are you struggling to monetize your blog?
- How long are you going settle for dismal sales and lack of income?
- Are you enjoying that much sought after success online?
- Did the hope of success online not work out for you?
The point is, to ask questions that are primarily open ended and not simply yes or no questions. This allows for expansion of the conversation into other areas enabling you to build the rapport and trust needed to ultimately make a sale. Getting other people to talk about their passions, family or what they do for a living will go a long way to opening up the conversation and will eventually lead to some sort of mutual relationship that may make you money!
Set yourself a goal to meet 10 new people a day, whether online or offline. And always remember, it’s just a conversation!
Sean Smith is that crazy guy over at Powerofmore.net who shares a ridiculous amount of knowledge and expertise about the hottest internet marketing & social media trends of today and tomorrow. And yes, he believes that Johnny B. Truant invented post-it notes!
Talking About Making Money Online In Order To Make Money Online
One of the most common confusions any new blogger asks themselves is… What should I blog about in order to make money?
Many of the times, the conclusion ends up as follows: The people making good money online are the ones who talk about making money online.
It leads to a huge catch-22. It leads to skepticism. But, is it true?
Why Its A Myth
In my opinion, it is a myth. My own experience tells me it is. I was making a six figure income as a blogger in the technology market – WELL before I ever uttered the first word about blogging for money.
The problem is that people looking to make money often have tunnel vision. Because they’re interested in making money, they read other blogs about making money. And who is going to talk about how much money they make? Yes, people trying to gain credibility in the market. It just makes sense.
I never talked about my income as a blogger until I decided to enter this market. Bloggers in other markets don’t go around talking about their incomes, so it never crosses anybody’s radar.
The whole thing leads to a false impression that only “make money” blogs have the potential to make money. It looks like circular logic, but it is only because those are the blogs you’re paying attention to – not because those are the only blogs making an income.
If you were interested in making money as a blogger, chances are you would never read PCMech.com. And that just proves my point.
The Reason The Market Works
The “make money online” market is just one market of many. It happens to be a good one, however.
In the Six Figure Blogger Blueprint, I go into more detail about what makes a good market. In short, the criteria are:
- An emotional push/pull toward increased pleasure in life.
- An emotional pull away from a fear.
Any market with financial viability has to have core emotional drivers that will drive the prospect into action when it comes time to sell them something.
For all of us, making more money translates into freedom, power, ability to increase pleasure in our lives. It goes right to the heart of the matter in terms of a viable market. Same with markets like health (a pull away from the fear of having health issues), dating (the push toward a life partner, which is an emotional need), etc.
Many times, hobby markets can work well, too. Sometimes, the audience is smaller, but for people who practice the same hobby, there is an emotional desire to fulfill those goals.
News blogs don’t work because there isn’t an emotional need to help with them. Blogs on news, politics, celebrities – these types of things are inherently hard to monetize because they lack core emotional drivers into any item you can help them with.
Remember, a MARKET is any collective group of people, united by similar goals, who are looking for solutions, and are willing to pay for it.
So, it just so happens that “make money” is a good market for the same exact reasons any other market with core emotional drivers is a good market. But, it certainly isn’t exclusive.
Finding YOUR Market
Let’s look at that definition for a market one more time…
A MARKET is any collective group of people, united by similar goals, who are looking for solutions, and are willing to pay for it.
So, start out with a list of your passions, interests, areas of expertise. If you aren’t an expert in something, you can still enter the market if you are indeed highly interested in it. You will need the high level of interest to drive yourself to learning more as you go.
Now, with a prospective subject in mind, ask yourself:
- What are the goals/fears of this market?
- How can I help them with that?
- Are they looking for solutions?
- Are people buying solutions in this market?
The answers to these questions will be based on gut feelings mixed with your own research into the market.
The most common mistakes I see bloggers make is:
- Blogging about whatever is interesting to them and then looking to magically make money from it after the fact.
- Entering a market where there is some interest, but they’ve never evaluated whether the audience is looking for any kind of solution that they can provide.
- Looking for a market where there is nobody doing it. In reality, if there is nobody in the market, there is probably a reason for that. Having “competition” is a good thing.
Lastly, I’ll end off with this comment…
Do not get into a paralysis over this. Market selection is not an exact science. I’ve had people email me asking my opinion of a market, as if they think its going to result in a magic payday just because I say it would be a good idea. No!
You can enter a good market and still screw it up if you don’t do the right things to get off the ground. It is also very possible that you could enter a market and not totally know if it’ll work when you start out. The trick is to do SOMETHING. You judge the market with some of the above criteria, do some basic research, and if you think it might work, give it a try. You can always change your mind. It isn’t as if you’re stuck with any blog you start for the rest of your life!
But, if you are interested in making money as a blogger, begin to think of your topic selection as a MARKET. Judge it accordingly. You’ll get better results.
Applying the 80/20 Rule To Get More Done With Less
The last week or so, I’ve been having to balance out work and family even more so than usual. For obvious reasons. And family has mostly won. But, it really brings to mind the whole balancing act.
Over at TheInfoPreneur.net, I talked about the 80/20 rule briefly in a post and I thought I would expand upon it somewhat today. It is otherwise known as the Pareto principle. Simply put, it says:
80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
Now, the exact 80/20 ratio is immaterial here and it may not hold exactly true in all cases. However, I think you will find, across the board, that most of the benefits in your life come from roughly 20% of your work.
The “trick” is simply to focus on the 20% and not get so worked up over the 80%. When you do that, you’ll find that you can work less, but make either the same amount of effect or more.
Let’s look at some examples.
- Answering Email. In almost all cases, dealing with email has no direct impact on your bottom line. Obviously, it can’t be ignored, but chances are email falls within the 80%.
- Social Media. Social media most definitely falls within the 80%. There were plenty of people making money on the Internet before Twitter and Facebook existed. These things are tools. They are good tools. But, they are not direct contributors to the bottom line.
- Writing An Ebook. There is a good chance that this would fall within the 20% for you. An ebook helps you increase your brand. It can help you grow your list. These are clear benefits.
So, the first thing you need to do is define exactly what your targets are. Are you looking to make money? Then money is a target. Perhaps traffic. Brand growth. On the flip side, lots of Twitter followers or high comment numbers probably aren’t end goals as much as they are mere indicators of whether your end goals are progressing.
With your end goals clearly defined, you have a guidepost by which to judge the things you do all day and determine if they are direct contributors to those end goals or not.
You’ll find you might have to be fairly brutal in your evaluations. You might think that answering every blog comment is very important, for example, but is it really? Exactly HOW is that contributing to your end goal? Same with using Twitter. Answering email. Even writing posts!
Realize that just because something might fall within the 80% doesn’t mean you’re not going to do it. It does, however, put some perspective onto its relative importance.
So, if my primary goal is an established blog-based business with a full-time income, let’s run through a sample categorization of some of the routine tasks involved…
| 80% Tasks | 20% Tasks |
|
|
* Note that I put blog posting into both categories. Obviously, writing posts is important, however I think many bloggers think that posts are the final product of blogging as a business. They’re not! Most times, blog posts do not DIRECTLY impact income, which is why I put it in the 80% category. At the same time, you’re not going to achieve much reach if you don’t do it, which is why it is in the 20%. So, my point here is to not limit your thinking. You cannot write posts all day and expect to get paid. In fact, your posts won’t make you a dime unless you’re doing the other 20% tasks.
So, how do you apply the 80/20 rule to your own blogging? Try this:
- Make a list of every type of tasks you do as a blogger.
- Make a separate list of your end goals.
- Now, go over the list you made in #1 and categorize them based on whether they have a direct impact on your end goal.
Now, with this information in hand, you can do the following:
- Readjust your emphasis on the 80% tasks and focus more on the 20% tasks. Sometimes you may find that some things that you do serve no real purpose at all, in which case you can simply eliminate it. Sometimes, the 80% task is important, but doesn’t directly lend itself to the end goal (i.e. email). In this case, you might want to adjust the emphasis on it to allow more time for more important things. For example, instead of having email open all day, keep it closed and only check/reply to email twice per day.
- Evaluate your 20% tasks and ask yourself this question: Are you even doing those things which will help you achieve the end goals? You might find that you need to add some 20% tasks to your routine and that you were just spinning your wheels beforehand. For example, if your goal is to generate income from your blog and yet you spend all day writing posts and tweeting, then you probably don’t have any 20% tasks because you’re not really doing anything to help you achieve that end goal.
Taking some time to evaluate this for yourself is one of the most important lessons there is in being a successful blogger.
Blogging can be quite overwhelming without a system of evaluation of importances. All tasks are NOT equal. You need to learn to determine which are important and which are not as important, then learn to divide your available time accordingly.
Master this and you’ll be a HUGE step ahead of other bloggers who aren’t doing it.
Project Update: Kids, Poop, A Dash of Blogging
Well, I think that post title pretty much sums up this week’s project update.
Little Nathan was born on Monday. So far, so good. The little guy is doing quite well and we’re already getting into some semblance of a normal schedule around here. At least where sleep is concerned.
My business schedule was shot all to hell this week, though. Obviously, it was for a good reason. I am playing Mr. Mom to my 2-year old, taking care of almost everything around the house – all while trying to keep a few projects rolling down the road in the business.
I love my daughter to death, but she can’t help it if she’s two! The capers she pulls off around our house are nothing short of creative. She is constantly on a mission to make a mess, mess with me, or kill herself. My job is to get her through the day in once piece.
On the business side of things, I have things rolling on a home-study version of Blog Masters Club. The entire course will be put onto DVD/CD and made available with all transcripts, etc. I’ve had a LOT of people express interest in this, so I’m going to get it done. More on that when the time comes to launch it.
On the guest posting side of things, here’s what has come out this week:
- I did an interview with Robb Sutton. We talked about everything from blogging to what my favorite drink is. You can listen to the interview or read the transcript right here.
- I wrote a guest post for James over at TheInfoPreneur.net. In that post, I talk about my typical day and the balance of tasks and life as a pro blogger. Check it out. Pretty pertinent considering what I’m up to this week.
Next week, I’ll be getting as much as I can done. On Thursday, I am flying up to Stamford, CT to attend Continuity Summit, organized by Ryan Lee. Should be a great event with a lot of great networking opportunities. It would have to be to get me to leave my family right now, but business must go on.
And just as I finish writing this post, little Nathan is starting to squirm. So, off to feed him.
Top 5 Mistakes People Make On Twitter
Out in the wild world of Twitter, there are people playing the game well and people who are not.
Now, I’ll be the first to say that Twitter is just a platform and it is up to YOU how you use it. It isn’t as if there is one way and every other way is wrong. That said, this is my blog, so therefore my opinion is going to be proudly published as stated fact. Deal with it.
So, here is a short list of things I see on Twitter that I think are stupid…
- Using a logo and not a real picture. Unless your Twitter account is for a corporate brand, I think not using a real picture of yourself is stupid. To me, it comes off as trying to hide. If your Twitter account is a brand, then do whatever you want. But, if it is your name, then use a picture of YOU.
- Scheduling tweets in advance. Why does anybody do this? If you’re not available to tweet, don’t tweet. Nobody really cares. I know that some don’t want their account to appear stale even though they have no time, but for me, the moment I know somebody is scheduling their tweets, it feels less personal and I write them off.
- Automated tweeting from your blog archives. I know of one blogger who continues to auto-tweet stuff from his blog archives every 10 minutes. This is essentially Twitter spam. I’ve been on the verge of unfollowing this person several times. The only reason I haven’t is because we’ve dealt with each other outside of Twitter. The trickle of traffic coming in from these tweets isn’t worth harming the ACTUAL relationships that can be gotten on Twitter. Essentially, auto-tweeting turns Twitter into little more than trolling for traffic and kills the real value of the medium.
- Auto-Following. Auto-following results in grossly untargeted Twitter followings. It is a tactic used only for the high numbers, but it results in an audience who isn’t listening to a word you tweet because they only followed you to get THEIR follower count up. It is a shell game. Remember, there is no rule that says you have to follow back everybody who follows you.
- Auto-DM. I think this is one of those things that seems like a good idea, but isn’t. I have NEVER gotten an auto-DM from somebody and cared. The timing of it tells me right away it wasn’t personal. You can tell. And my opinion of that person immediately drops unless I knew them already. Auto-DM is no different than stuffing your business card into somebody’s hand the moment they try to meet you at a party.
- So, what do you think? Got any you want to add? Do you disagree with any of mine?
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
