Christian

Essential First Steps for a New Business Blog

By Christian

I put out a video series for beginning business bloggers recently that has received a lot of great feedback from readers. This was originally put out on my last blog “Next Level Blogger”, but since a lot of my clients and readers are new to blogging, I want to share some of the key videos from this series with you here.

If you like this video and want to see the entire series, please subscribe, and I’ll make sure you get all 12 videos. It’s several hours of video training, and I’m not charging for it, because before you hire me to help you take your business marketing to the next level, I want you to be able to judge for yourself if I have valuable ideas to share with you.

If you have any questions, let me know!

[jwplayer config=”large” file=”https://vids.rworldproperties.com/pick-a-niche.flv”]

Why I’ve never read Seth Godin’s blog

By Christian

I spent years not reading Seth Godin’s blog, and there were good reasons for that. At least they were reasons I thought were good at the time.

His design is horrible.
His posts are all short, with no pictures. No attempt to be professional.
He doesn’t interact with his audience there.

I could go on, but you get the point. He breaks rules. He even breaks his own rules. And that all added up to show me he just had this massively popular blog…only because he was already popular anyway. It wasn’t because it was an awesome blog. It’s popularity was simply a byproduct of his success in other areas, namely speaking and publishing.

I recently started reading Seth’s blog very often, because I’ve found his insights very helpful and realized he’s actually one of the few bloggers out there who can post almost daily and maintain high quality at the same time. There really is no filler on his blog that I’ve seen so far. He’s a really authentic dude. Not just in his books but on his blog also. Day in and day out. He’s just a guy who’s doing this for the right reasons. He just doesn’t happen to care whether or not I like his blog or not.

Seth seems to have learned some things a long time ago that I just learned very recently. Namely:

It’s not your job to get people to like you.
It’s not your job to always put your best foot forward.
It’s your job to innovate and provide value, in whatever capacity that is consistent with your competencies.
Innovation does not require optimization. Innovation is often quite raw.
Even if your true audience doesn’t get you at first (and if you’re a real leader they probably won’t), they will get you eventually. But you have to stick around. You have to still be there when they’re ready, or it’s all for nothing.
Breaking rules is necessary, but it also has a cost.

Seth just published a post today which proves my thoughts on this. The non-optimized life shows that he’s been operating on these principles for a long time now.
I wasn’t going to make this blog live for a little while longer, because it’s not complete. It’s not ready yet. But I’m going to publish this post anyway, because actions are key. When is your blog complete anyway? What matters is doing what matters.

The biggest myth of “making money online”

By Christian

disappointed — I don't mean to disappoint, but there are some "internet marketing" myths that really need to be cleared up 🙂

Do you want to “make money online”? Do you want to “make money blogging”? Do you want to “build an internet business”? Well, forget about it. This article describes why the whole “make money online” thing is completely misunderstood by most business owners!

I’ve spent some time thinking about the whole “internet business” thing lately, and this is part of what originally caused me to start this Dangerous Tactics blog. I’ve read articles recently like this one from David Risley, where he talks about his feelings on why some people make money online…and why most people don’t. Derek Jensen unloads on us here on why people need to stop talking about how to make money online. Sonia Simone has also shared some awesome thoughts with us about why you can’t make money blogging…ironically enough, her post appears on one of the most profitable blogs in existence. Bottom line, the internet is a misunderstood place. It’s a new frontier, and there’s a lot of opportunity here, but let’s not lose track of what the internet is…and what it is not.

The biggest myth of “making money online” is that the internet has somehow changed how business works. It hasn’t. Here’s the truth:

The internet is a place, not a tactic. The internet has changed HOW people buy, not WHY they buy.

On the surface, this may seem like a minor difference, but the difference has massive ramifications. If you take some time to absorb this truth, it will affect how you approach your business on many levels. It will make you more profitable, because you’ll realize all the flash-bang, snazzy products and courses on “how to make money online” are built on a false premise. They are built on the premise that the internet is some magical place that YOU don’t understand. And of course once you “get it”, you’ll be able to “leverage the internet” and make millions.

How to really make money online

To be completely fair, there ARE some things you need to learn about marketing online. There’s some jargon and some moderately techy stuff that you need to learn, but once you “get it”, you’ll realize the internet is just another place where people hang out. You’ll realize that technology has changed…quite a bit. But people…haven’t changed a bit. Most of us are a bit crazy, mixed up, emotional, awesome, a lot of fun…and we buy LOTS of stuff, spend TONS of money on things, and we buy things for the EXACT same reasons as we did a million years ago.

This is what we need to learn how to do: we need to learn dangerous ninja selling tactics, so we can be highly effective and sell lots of our stuff. And yes, we’re going to do it online. We’re going to run blogs and squeeze pages, and we’re going to build email lists and sell things on the internet, and I’m going to show you how to do it. But we’re NOT building an “internet business”. We’re building a “real” business. Does that make sense?

Real Tactics for Selling to Real People

On this blog I share with you many of the ways I’ve made money…both online and offline for the past decade or so. The tactics are solid. They work on the internet. They work off the internet too. How could it be the case that these tactics are so powerful? One reason: people buy for the same reasons, both online and offline. At the end of the day, you’re either running a real business or you’re not.

If you’re running a real business, you will make money. If you’re not, you can use all the blog formulas, make money online formulas, launch formulas or any other type of formulas, and it won’t matter. Formulas don’t make money. Businesses make money.

Now you can choose to market your business online, and that would be a smart decision, seeing as how so many people are here. But don’t think of your business as an “internet business”, and don’t think of your marketing as “internet marketing”. It’s business. And it’s marketing. Just plain old business and marketing.

Screw the internet

The internet could implode tomorrow, and I’d still be rockin, because I don’t run an internet business. I run a business that I happen to market exclusively online right now. If something happened to the interwebz, I would just change my marketing plan. Problem solved. I bet the chances are good that you want that type of flexibility and security in your business as well, no?

If you think of yourself as an “internet entrepreneur” or a “social media marketer” or whatever, then go visit your local shopping mall and try to find a business that considers itself a “mall business”. Try to find a “how to launch a mall business” ebook somewhere. Yeah. Just because a business is located at the mall doesn’t mean it’s a “mall business”, and just because your business is engaged primarily in marketing online shouldn’t define you either. Most internet-based businesses have a LOT more in common with their brick and mortar counterparts than they realize. Figure out your business, and I bet you will see you’re not an “internet entrepreneur” after all. You’re simply an entrepreneur. That’s pretty liberating, no?

Why your email list isn’t growing as fast as you want

By Christian

question — Why aren't people signing up for your email list? Why aren't they buying what you're selling? The answer is a lot simpler than you may realize...

Building a solid email list of people who want to hear from you regularly is the single most important thing you can do as a small business owner. A targeted, responsive email list makes everything else so much easier. Wouldn’t you agree? Yet many of us struggle with how to get this done, so I want to give you a specific example from my own business.

What People Want to Hear vs What They Need to Hear

As a sales trainer, I’ve always had to tell people what they NEED to hear. If I spent all my time with clients telling them what they WANT to hear, we’d never make any progress. When it comes to getting results you simply have to do what it takes. Short cuts don’t work. We all know this, right?

I’ve spent the last few months sharing on this blog what I’ve learned about how to produce results for real. I know how to sell…been doing it online and offline for over 10 years. But importantly, the fact that I know this topic isn’t what causes people to sign up for my list. They only sign up when I tell them what they WANT to hear first. That’s how we get started. I can only tell people what they need to hear after I first tell them what they want to hear.

Here’s an interesting tidbit…I changed my opt-in forms a while back and promised a quick, simple solution to starting a profitable business blog (the most common request from my paying consulting clients so far)…my opt in rates immediately rose between 200%-1000%. Overall, an average 400% increase across the site. Consider the impact of this. I changed NOTHING about the blog or myself. I’m selling the exact same stuff I was before. All I changed was the packaging! Here are some questions to consider:

Can you see the value in this?
Would you be willing to repackage yourself as well?
Do you feel this would somehow diminish the value you offer people?
Do you believe telling people what they want to hear is dishonest?

Current Perception (NOT actual value) = Value

Would you like to see a 400% increase in your results as well? Then carefully criticize your marketing message, your headlines, your tweets, etc. Are you simply “giving valuable information”? Or are you “telling people what they want to hear”? Go back and look at what you’ve done so far, and you might be surprised at how often you’re failing to CONNECT with your audience. It’s an honest mistake. We all do it.

See…information is only valuable if it’s acted upon. And no one acts on information just because YOU know it to be effective. This is really important: they have to PERCEIVE it to be effective. Put another way…you can’t sell what’s actually going to be helpful to people. It’s silly, but it’s true. People only buy what they PERCEIVE to be valuable. See the difference? It’s huge.

So, the buyer’s CURRENT PERCEPTION is what you need to connect with. That’s why people keep buying crappy get-rich-quick products. They promise to deliver what the buyer PERCEIVES is a solution for them. But you are different. YOU are going to sell them something that actually helps them, right? But first you need to realize that your headlines and sales messages should not attempt to communicate the ACTUAL VALUE of what you’re selling! Your sales process, in order to be effective, must actually engage the buyer’s current perceptions of value.

…as a marketer you need to realize that purchases (or opt-ins to your email list) are made at the point of intersection between perceived value and communicated value…

What do your buyers want?

They want a quick fix. You don’t even need to research this. Trust me; every market is the same in this regard. They want to make more money…NOW. They want six pack abs…NOW. They want to find their dream home…NOW. And they don’t want to have to come up with a down payment (of course). You get the idea.

In other words, they want something completely ridiculous, and it’s your job to engage that desire. Notice I didn’t say it’s your job to give them what they want. This is a very important distinction. It’s simply your job to ENGAGE their current perceptions of value. You’re not selling them a piece of junk, because you’re not a scam artist, but as a marketer you need to realize that purchases (or opt-ins to your email list) are made at the point of intersection between perceived value and communicated value. In other words, your message must intersect with what they’re looking for…which is a quick fix. Unless that occurs, the buyer is not engaged, and no sale…no opt-in takes place.

Conversely, if your message DOES engage their perceived value, they can hardly help themselves. Your offer becomes so much more compelling, because you’re speaking to them directly. You’re meeting them on their turf. You’re making the extra effort to communicate to them that you actually understand what they want.

Questions

How does your marketing hold up to this criteria so far?
Are you going to go back and figure out a way to increase your conversions by 400%?
Does this “repackaging” concept not sit well with you; do you feel it’s dishonest?
Can you think of an example where you really felt you had a great offer, but it failed to connect or get the result you had hoped for?
Is there anything I can do to clarify or help you implement this concept in your business?

I honestly feel this one single concept can completely change the course of your business. I’ve seen it happen again and again. One tweak, and everything changes. I hope this article gives you some fuel for improving your marketing dramatically. As always, comment or email with your questions or concerns:-)

7L: The Seven Levels of Communication (Book Review)

By Christian

You know I don’t do reviews often. Hardly ever. However, a new book has come along that has real merit. It deserves all the exposure it can get, and YOU deserve to know about it.

A good friend Michael Maher has worked hard on The Seven Levels of Communication for over a year. Candidly, it’s a serious asset to the world of small business. I call em like I see em.

Since I had the pleasure of talking with Michael several times as he went through the process of writing this, I can give you my direct, personal impression of where this book is coming from:

Unlike many books in this genre, 7L was not written for the purpose of acquiring money or fame. It was not written to upsell something else. It was not written to fulfill a contract. Michael Maher wrote this book with passion. He wrote it as a means of contribution. He wrote it for the purpose of giving back. It’s a book of substance, written from a place of genuine authority.

The Seven Levels of Communication shares directly from Michael’s personal success in small business, and if you’re a small business owner, he’s someone you’d do well to emulate. This is a guy who walks the walk, and the reason he’s able to teach the concepts in this book with such conviction is because he knows from personal experience that they work.

This book is awesome if you want an engaging, informative read on how to grow your business in a human, social and effective way. It’s not just informative, it gives you a SYSTEM that you can put to work in your business immediately.

I originally had received an advanced copy of this book, and after I read it, I was positive it would do well. He’s released the book since then, and it’s currently climbing in Amazon. It’s #22 in it’s category right now, and I expect to see it continue to thrive.

In my conversations with some of you on Twitter and elsewhere, I’ve compared this book to Emyth, which is a classic in the small business genre. I think that comparison stands. It’s that good. The Seven Levels of Communication gives small business owners a concrete way of looking at sales and marketing from a socially-focused point of view, in a way that transcends Twitter…or whatever the “cool” social platform of the day happens to be.

You may not be familiar with Michael, because he’s a first time author. If you’re a regular reader here, you may know that my primary internet marketing niche has been real estate for the past three years, and that’s how I’ve come to know him.

Michael is an accomplished sales professional, business owner, speaker, real estate broker and team leader. This book is written from the point of view of a real estate broker, so any of my clients who are in real estate should get this book without hesitation. If you want to take your real estate business to the next level right now, this book gives specific and proven tactics for making it happen.

However, don’t let the real estate background of the author make you think this book is only applicable to real estate professionals. Nothing could be further from the truth. The principles here are valuable and can be applied directly to any business that works with people…which of course is EVERY business. In other words, if you sell stuff you should read this book. It will change the way you look at your business, and it sheds some much-needed light on how to achieve growth whether the market is up, down or sideways.

Is the economy down? Are people just not buying? Are your clients or customers full of excuses? I hear ya. 7L shows you exactly how to power through these obstacles.

There’s a lot of talk about relationship marketing, the value of relationships, the power of social media, blah, blah, blah. Michael Maher gives you a clear roadmap in this book; he shows you how to approach relationship marketing deliberately and effectively. I can tell you one thing I’ve seen first hand, Michael knows how to take action and get crazygood (that’s my word now) results, and this book is a clear example of that.

I hope you check this out; I’d love to hear what you think. Get it.