David Risley dot com

Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Marketing

How To Pause The Aweber Autoresponder

My readers know that I am a big proponent of Aweber for mailing list management. Out of the many things that you can do with Aweber, one of them is an autoresponder.

If you’re not already familiar, an autoresponder is simply a pre-scheduled series of emails that get sent out to a new subscriber on automatic after they subscribe to your list.

For many months, I was using an autoresponder sequence. I still am a supporter of the idea, however I’m currently in the process of re-evaluating the idea. That said, there is certainly an issue with an autoresponder when you’re engaging in a structured marketing campaign.

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How To Psychologically Evaluate Any Blog Niche

I have a new video for you today.

This video shows a simple way of evaluating any potential blogging niche from a psychological standpoint. I’m getting down to the emotional core of the reader here.

In this video, I mention two particular (big) markets and how they measure up. But, the power comes in getting into the minds of YOUR reader, in YOUR market, and seeing how you can apply this test. And, if you’re finding a shortcoming, usually you can shift your approach and stay within the same market… but, all of a sudden you’re gaining a lot more traction with your audience.

You may have heard before that people buy based on emotion and they justify with logic. Your key, as a blogger, is to tap into that emotional motivator.

The material in this video represents one of the many principles I teach my students in the Blog Masters Club. This concept is covered in Module 2 – Market Research.

Click Here To Watch This Video.

After you’ve watched the video (about 8 minutes long), let me know what you thought about it by posting below.

How A Blogger Makes Money Without Being a Slimeball

OK, well perhaps the topic is a little bit misleading. In reality, it is not any kind of requirement that you have to be a slimeball to make a buck in this business.

The reality is, though, that there is a segment of the blogger population who thinks this is the case.

Are you adverse to the idea of marketing on your blog? Do you feel as if you have to become one of “those people” to make a buck?

Shooting Yourself In The Foot Sucks

… and if you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, that’s exactly what you’re doing. Shooting yourself in the foot.

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Never Underestimate The Value of Free

This is a guest post from Sharron Field from KKomp.com.

Do you get the feeling that internet marketing is becoming difficult? These days, unless people know and like you, it’s harder and harder every day to get started.

If an unknown internet marketer offers a product that guarantees to make the customer a millionaire overnight, without any effort on the customer’s part; everyone, probably quite rightly, shouts “SCAM!” and walks away. If that same unknown person offers a product where the customer needs to do something themselves in addition to leaving it all to the product to do for them, everyone shouts “CRAP PRODUCT”, moans that they have to get off their arse, and they walk away. Result = no sales in either case.

If the product claims to do everything for the customer with no effort on the customer’s part, the customer sees it as a scam and doesn’t buy it. Yet when a product turns up that asks the customer to do something more than sitting on their arse waiting for results, the customer complains because they have to do something rather than having the product do it all for them.

Sometimes you just can’t win. It’s heads they win or tails you lose. But, if you’re already known, it’s a different matter.

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$2,918 In 55 hours With A Blog – How It Was Done

Yes, this last Black Friday weekend, I ran a special (as pretty much everybody does) and I brought in almost 3-grand in a little over 48 hours. I thought I would give you the scoop on how it was done. It is so insanely easy, and the marketing behind it is just about as simple as it gets.

The special began on Friday at a little after 1PM EST when I sent out my first email to the mailing list. On Sunday at 3AM EST, I sent a “final notice” to let them know the deal was coming to a close. The deadline was 8PM EST on Sunday. Why 8PM? Because it would be easy to pop onto the computer after dinner and turn the special off. And why did I send the last notice at 3AM? So that the people on the west coast would be after midnight and I could tell them that the special was ending on the same day (more urgency).

So, in total, the entire promo consisted of 2 emails to the list, and about 15 minutes of work on the site itself. I think I had about 45 minutes of my time in this promotion – total.

Here’s how it was done… Click Here To Continue Reading »

Why The New FTC Guidelines Are A HUGE Opportunity For Bloggers

While so many people are getting their tighties in a bunch over the new FTC guidelines and how it affects our industry, my opinion is that you should not be concerned.

In fact, you should be THRILLED.

Better yet, you should be using it as a huge kick in the ass to put on your A-game, get into gear, and start creating a real business.

I’ll go more into this in an upcoming report I plan to write (stay tuned for it), however let me give you the long-and-short of it.

Blogging as a business is RELATIONSHIP MARKETING. If you want to make money as a blogger, this is the short version of what you do:

1. Create a product line.
2. Attract people to you through quality content.
3. Get people into your sales funnel. In other words, capture them as a lead. Get ‘em on your list.
4. Build the RELATIONSHIP. Get them to know, like and trust you. Be a real person. You want them to trust your expertise, but also view you as a friend.
5. Sell them things by providing quality recommendations they can trust.

Now, traditional internet marketers are all consulting their lawyers over the new FTC regulations. One of the biggest things that will affect the industry is the use of testimonials to sell. To make a long story short, you will not be able to throw out a bunch of glowing testimonials, throw in a “results not typical” footnote in tiny print at the bottom of the page, and move on with your life.

In fact, in a recent report put out by John Reese, he said to forget using testimonials! That’s right. No testimonials. By not using testimonials, you just avoid that whole FTC mess.

Why is this a huge piece of good news for smart bloggers? Click Here To Continue Reading »

The Secret To A Huge Mailing List – EXPOSED

This is the secret to list building that they don’t want you to know.

1. Find or create something which people in your market will find valuable or helpful,
2. Give it to them in exchange for their email address.
3. Do this a lot.

Now you know. If you tell anybody else this secret, be sure to whisper.

P.S. Oh, just one more thing. It also helps to have a mailing list solution worthy of building a big list with. and for that, I recommend Aweber. That one isn’t any secret because most people worth their salt like Aweber, too.

9 Simple Tips For Personal Branding

“Personal branding” is a bit of a buzzword these days. Many claim to be experts on it even though the subject isn’t really that complicated at all.

It is simply the art of creating a recognizable brand around yourself. The goals are:

1. Be recognized whenever the brand is seen.
2. Have that brand represent certain ideas in the minds of the viewer.

Here are 9 quick tips to help you build up your personal brand.

1. Decide between using your name or a made-up name. If you build a brand around your name, then do so for the purpose of raising your reputation. On the flip side, any brand built around you is not sellable. When you decide to quit, the brand dies. If you build a brand which is separate from you, then you can sell it. For example, this blog is branded around myself. However, PCMech is a separate brand and could be operated completely independently of myself.
2. Own your domain. Whatever brand you use, you need to own the dot-com. If your name is available as a dot-com, go buy it. I also specifically recommend the dot-com as opposed to other domain extensions like dot-net or dot-org because dot-com is assumed by all. It is easiest to remember.
3. Invest in a professional blog design. One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is trying to design their own blogs when they have no idea how to do it. Saying that you’re not going to invest in a professional design until you make some money is to put the cart before the horse. Realize that you need to treat your blog like a business if you want it to be a business, and sometimes that means investing in it at the beginning.
4. Use professional photo of yourself. You are going to use a photo of yourself in various places on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. You want that photo to be professional and attractive. You also want it to convey the mood expressed by your brand. If your brand is about fun, then look happy and fun in your photo. You can pay somebody to take very professional photos of you. It isn’t necessary, but you’ll get better results.
5. Go for visual consistency. Preferably, you want your Twitter background, your blog, your Youtube channel layout – all of it – to have the same overall design and color scheme. It maintains visual consistency for the brand. Also, I recommend you use the same photo of yourself in all online profiles.
6. Get a logo. You need a professional logo for your brand. Don’t use your photo as the logo. Also, make sure the logo would work equally in color and black-and-white. In other words, it should translate well into print.
7. Invest in swag. Ever thought about building out your brand into the offline world? Perhaps shirts, cups, hats, mousepads, USB sticks, business cards, etc. If you give away some swag at a conference, you’ll be easily remembered.
8. Nail down your brand keywords. This was something that Ted Murphy talked about recently. In the same fashion you might add tags to your blog post, sit down and tag your brand. What words describe the brand you want to create? Then, see if you can further nail down the brand description to a single phrase.
9. Be Everywhere. I know, easier said than done, right? But, this is part of being a pro blogger. You need to be out there on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc. And it all needs to lead into your blog where you are posting quality, helpful content designed to bolster your brand. You can build your brand visually all you want, but it isn’t a brand if it is not out there in front of people.

As with everything, the basics are easy. It just requires follow-through. It is one thing to read this post and ultimately do nothing different. Or you could come up with some steps to actually DO IT.

Now, go build your brand. And share in comments what you’re going to do next when it comes to building up your brand.

What a Vegas Pimp Can Teach You About Sales

So, you’re walking down the Strip in Vegas. You’re minding your own business. You’ve already dodged a couple sets of Mexicans handing out hooker business cards. Then, you find somebody with a more aggressive sales process.

Two women intercept you and ask you if you want a good time. No, you’re happily married and that would be a mistake of biblical proportions. You politely say no. You smile. You don’t want to be rude, but you most definitely don’t want those services.

Out of the darkness comes a guy. He says, “What are you, a f-g?”. I’m sure you know what he said. He wants you to say no. Of course, that opens up a communication with him which will inevitably lead to being asked to defend yourself. It is a classic play on the idea of commitment and consistency. Get a person to make a small commitment then just keep playing on his sense of needing to follow through.

His job is to make a sale. And, to do that, he is being very aggressive (he thinks). And the two women launched immediately into a sales pitch. The “sales letter” consisted of her body and the call to action was, “Buy this!”.

Another evening, I’m on my way to a club. A guy comes out of nowhere and shoves tickets in my hand. The tickets are for a reduced rate to the club. I tell him, “I don’t need this.”. He says, “Listen, stud, this will get you in at a reduced rate”. He is walking with me, almost yelling. I like getting called a stud and everything, but I’m not enjoying him trying to force crap I don’t need onto me. This is interruption marketing at it’s finest.

Don’t be that guy.

So, one day, you’re traveling the banks of the Twitter river. Minding your own business. All of a sudden, this dude tweets you and says, “Make 300 followers in a day! Get this now! [link]”.

You don’t like this. You don’t even know his name yet. Get the name before you jump in bed, right?

Don’t be that guy.

Another day, you’re browsing the halls of BlogWorld Expo. A bald man walks up, grabs the conference badge, and sticks his damn sticker logo onto it. Not cool. Later, in a session where they are taking questions, he never hesitates to promote his company, give his URL, and ask some dumb question related to his product. Yep, I call this conference spam. I’ll leave the company name out of this to protect the stupid, but plenty of people probably know who I’m talking about at Blogworld.

Don’t be that guy.

Don’t be the dude who runs up to you and spams you with their business card. A business card is not a sales lead. Just because you put a card in my hand doesn’t mean you have a chance to get my money some day. Unless I reached for the card, I didn’t want it. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.

Don’t be that guy.

Spam exists in the real world. Whether we’re talking about my email box, Twitter, or the Vegas Strip, it exists.

And that feeling of annoyance you get when people do that should be proof enough that it doesn’t work . It doesn’t make sales. It is a brute force approach to marketing. Any money you do make pales in proportion to the wake of bad vibes you leave behind you.

Get to know me before hitting on me. Kthxbye.

5 Important Tips For Your Blogger Business Card

Are you a blogger? Do you do any networking? Have a business card?

You should.

It is part of your personal branding. Even if you have business cards for your day-job, you should have one for the purpose of promoting yourself in your online market.

I just ordered new business cards because I have a few conferences coming up. I designed them myself (even though I am certainly no graphics artist). But, it brought to mind a few thoughts that I considered when designing my card. And I wanted to pass them on to you.

1. Consistent Branding. If your blog has a logo, use it on your card.
2. Use a photo. Some people may disagree with me on this one, but I like to include my photo on my card. Why? A lot of people are visual and might not remember my name when they get back home. By putting my photo on the card, they have a much higher likelihood of remembering me when they are going through a stack of business cards later on. You might also notice that I used the same exact photo that I use here on my blog, on my Twitter profile, Facebook, etc. Why? Consistent branding. Visual continuity.
3. Move the old-school contact info to the back. My snail mail address and phone number are found on the BACK of my business card. Why clutter the front of the card with stuff most people won’t use? My target audience is primarily people who are also into blogging and social media. They are a lot more likely to email or tweet me than send me something in the mail.
4. Social Media. Along those same lines, I highly recommend you include your Twitter URL, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. You want people to connect with you and interact with you after meeting you, and that is done with social media.
5. Use the Back. Don’t forget all that real estate on the back of your business card. Why not use it? In my case, I used the logos and URLs to my major web sites. Some people also put in a benefit-oriented call to action on the back. Do something with it.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that blogging isn’t important enough to warrant a business card. As I’ve said a million times, if you want to make a business-level income with your blog, you have to treat your blog like a business. Well, a tiny little part of that is having something to offer when somebody asks “Do you have a card?”