Christian

Why Simple Blogs are Better for Business

By Christian

simple-blogs-rock — When it comes to business blogging, simple rules. Keep it simple. You'll have more fun, and your success will come as a result of that 🙂

When it comes to so many things in life, we over-complicate. Wouldn’t you agree? Don’t you think we do this with blogging as well? We make it way too hard.

We run too many plugins
We push ourselves to post more often than we really want to
We spend too much time on our blog
We concentrate too much on our design
We spend too much time trying to “get traffic” than in just “talking to people”

Look if your blog isn’t fun, you’re not going to stick with it. And that means you’re not going to be successful. Pick a simple topic that you love, and stick with it for the long haul. Here are some principles that will help you simplify and love every minute you spend building your blog.

Plugins are a beautiful thing. That said, run a handful of them. After 10-15 plugins, give serious consideration to simply cutting yourself off. You don’t need more. You really, really don’t.
Blogging should not take all day. In fact, it shouldn’t take too long at all. If you’re new, and you’re spending more than a couple hours a WEEK on your blog, you’re spending too much time on it.
Design matters. It does. But it doesn’t make or break your site. If you think your blog needs to be snazzy to be successful…if you think the perfect layout matters to the point that it will affect the success of your blog…if you think readers really give a damn about ANYTHING other than content, take a look at this very successful blog and get back to me with your thoughts.
Traffic matters. That said, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as you may think. I haven’t checked my analytics in weeks. I’m growing. That’s what matters. It may seem odd that I’ll spout the gospel of traffic not mattering and then later on launch a tutorial on how to get more traffic. Is this hypocrisy? I don’t think so. I just like to put things in perspective. You need traffic, but should you spend more than a few hours here and there on “traffic generating” techniques? I really don’t think so.

If all you want is traffic, just buy a bunch of pop-under hits for $100. Done. You’ll have a hundred thousand visitors a month overnight, and it will translate ZERO to your bottom line of course. Traffic matters, but we spend WAY too much time on SEO and traffic generation. We don’t need more traffic, we need GOOD traffic, and that comes via social networking. Just talk to people. Talk to people, and the traffic will come.

If you’re looking for your blog to blow your business up over night, you’re barking up the wrong tree. If you want to build a powerful community that supports you through thick and thin, that grows your base slow and steady over time, that opens up new income streams and gives you a considerable creative outlet, then blogging is your man. Do it, but take it for what it is. It’s really very simple. Let it be fun, and it will pay you handsomely in the long run 🙂

Why Unsubscriptions are Good for Business

By Christian

email-unsubscriptions-are-cool — Email unsubscriptions...I'm cool with em!

Pay attention to who unsubscribes from your list and why. One of the many advantages of using a system like Aweber is that it gives people an option to comment on why they’re unsubscribing. This is valuable feedback, but unsubscriptions should not be viewed as a loss.

In fact, they are good for business in every way. Here’s why:

They’re clearly not someone who wants to be on your list, so why should you want them anyway?
Your list shouldn’t be padded with people who aren’t into what you’re doing anyway. Whoever said you need a big list in order for it to be valuable? It’s not true. You don’t need a big list. You need a quality list. Big numbers can be nice. But only if the quality is there.
If the unsubscriber offers feedback, you can use that to improve your business. It’s a win for you either way when someone unsubscribes.

It’s important not to look at losing people as a negative thing. Did you really think 100% of the people would stick around forever? Besides, a lot of the comments you’ll likely get will be like the one I just received. It must have been in response to a sales message I sent out. It went something like this:

“I’m only interested in bloggers who appreciate me for just being a subscriber.”

Ok, then. Clearly the fact that I share new content 2-3 times a week on this site for free isn’t enough. You know, there will always be people who complain no matter what you do. Put up an ad, they will complain. Change your design, they will complain. Do something (god forbid!) to monetize what you’re doing in any way, they will complain.

I remember when Darren Rowse changed the design on Twitip he got a load of comments saying they would unsubscribe because they didn’t like the background he’d selected for his new layout. I laughed out loud when I read those comments. To me it was proof that there is no limit to what some people will choose to complain about. To internalize this is madness. You have to learn all you can from every interaction and realize this stuff is just part of doing business! Make up your mind now that it won’t affect you negatively in the least. It WILL happen. And it’s good for business when it does.

A New Tool for Disclosing Affiliate Links on Twitter

By Christian

As I’m a follower of @unmarketing and @copyblogger on Twitter, I was lucky enough to see a cool discussion just now regarding the disclosure of affiliate links on Twitter. It’s an important topic. Are you revisiting how you disclose your compensation as a blogger? If not, it’s time to do so. The new FTC guidelines are old news by now, but it’s easy to let certain things slip to the back of our minds. This just isn’t an area where I’d recommend slacking. Make sure your disclosures measure up.

I want to thank Scott Stratten for sending out a link to https://discl.us/. With new FTC guidelines looming with regards to how we disclose affiliate links and such on Twitter and other social media platforms, this is a great tool to consider using.

How exactly are you to disclose to your followers on Twitter that you’re sending out an affiliate link in a tweet? Since you’re limited to 140 characters…some form of shorthand simply must be invented. As @copyblogger pointed out in this conversation, the FTC does not differentiate on their policy from one platform to the next. Bottom line, if you’re use social media for business, there’s a good chance you use affiliate marketing as a part of your income strategy, and if you’re linking to an affiliate, or if you’ve received compensation of any type, it must be disclosed.

Scott made a great point that maybe the best solution is to simply link to a post on our blog, which in turn links to an affiliate. This way, we have ample space for disclosure. Another tool for disclosure is https://discl.us/. It provides a way of disclosing right within the tweet itself.

Will it stand up in court? Ha. Don’t even ask me. But it’s a nice tool. I will consider using it, and I wanted you to be aware of it as an option.

For more information on this important topic, I recommend reading Brian Clark’s article “How to Turn Affiliate Marketing Disclosure Into a Selling Point“.

How to Turn WordPress into Your Unfair Advantage (a primer on business blogging)

By Christian

blogging-to-do-list — It's no secret blogging should be on your "to do" list for 2010!

If you run a business, it’s no longer a secret that you should also be running a business blog. When it comes to social media for business, your blog is most often the most valuable component of your marketing strategy. The most favored platform for a business blog is WordPress. There are a number of reasons for that, but for today, I want to help you turn your WordPress blog into a marketing tool that literally gives you an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE, one that will utterly destroy the competition. Sound good? 😉

Why Most Blogs Fail

First, let me preface this article with an explanation as to why most blogs fail. It’s important, because it’s true. Most blogs do fail to get results. There is a great reason for this, and the reason is because most bloggers spend the majority of their time doing the wrong things…things that don’t grow their blog.

They tweak their design.
They try out a million different themes.
They try out a million different plugins.
They constantly tweak their SEO (search engine optimization).
They spend too many hours writing content.

Candidly, all these things SOUND important, but they’re not. Design, SEO and content certainly have their place. Don’t get me wrong; they’re important, and they shouldn’t be ignored. But they should represent the SMALLEST investment of your time.

Most bloggers do the opposite. They spend the majority of their time on things that don’t grow their blog.

Then what happens? They give up out of desperation. They work for months and get no results. They wonder why blogging is so difficult. They wonder why other bloggers get tons of traffic and make money with their site, while they languish in obscurity.

A Blogging Success Secret

Here’s a blogging success secret for you. Setting up your design and SEO are just Step 1! Yet ironically, most bloggers spend a TON of time on this. The idea is that if your blog is so beautiful, so awesome, so optimized…then people will be drawn to it. Unfortunately this doesn’t work! Most bloggers never get past step 1. The spin their wheels endlessly here. It’s no wonder they never get the results they want!

Time is Your Greatest Asset

time-for-blogging — If we had all the time in the world, we could afford to do everything. It's not the case. As it stands, to get we results...we have to DECIDE we're only going to do what gets RESULTS. Not just what makes sense or what's fun 🙂

Would you agree that time is your greatest asset? If so, then we need to make the best use of it we possibly can, correct? So let’s do that. Let’s make a COMMITMENT that we’re going to spend the majority of our time on things that actually build our blog and make it successful. How does that sound? You with me? If so, then take these 3 steps to turn your WordPress blog into an unfair advantage for your business!

Build Your Blog: Step 1

OK, so Step 1 is getting the design out of the way. You need a great looking, highly optimized, very customizable design right out of the gate. Get the sucker set up, so you never have to think about it again! Get it set up right in the first place, and you’ll never have to spend tons of time on your design. It will always look sweet, so you don’t have the “I have an ugly blog” baggage weighing on your shoulders. Your burden will be light, because your blog will look great, just as you want it. This way you’ll have all the time in the world to focus on building your blog and bringing traffic in.

How to get an awesome looking blog quickly

There are a few ways to do it. One, you can bite the bullet and simply hire a designer. Many may try to advise against this when you’re first getting started. For a personal blog, I would agree. But if this is a business, I think it’s a fair option. Custom blog designs aren’t as expensive as you may think. If you’re looking for something very professional and simple, no one should charge you more than a thousand bucks, and you will likely be able to get a fantastic, custom blog set up for just a few hundred bucks.

I offer these services for clients, and there are also a number of other professionals who do this. A couple I like are:

Kinetic Knowledge
G2WebMedia

This is a way to get a great design right out of the gate. It’s fast, easy and inexpensive.

If you’re comfortable doing a little work yourself, another way to get a fantastic design right out of the gate is to install the Headway theme. Honestly, I’ve road tested a bazillion (yes that’s right, I counted!) free WordPress themes, and here’s the bottom line…you get what you pay for. Even most professional themes require a good amount of coding and expertise to truly personalize them.

The Headway theme for WordPress is the most flexible, optimized and powerful theme on the planet right now, and I don’t say that lightly. If you’re 100% comfortable with coding and web design, then you should probably just put your own design together. But if you’re not a coder, then Headway will give you total control over the look and feel of your site. Headway is a search-optimized monster, and it gives you total control in that regard as well. As far as the design of your site, you have complete control via a point and click interface. A monkey can work this thing!

Install Headway, and you’ll be up and running in just a few minutes. Spend an afternoon with it, and your blog will be decked to the nines.

If you have any doubts as to why I am an affiliate for Headway, I encourage you to take notice of the theme I’m running on this very website (and several others) at this very moment. That’s right. It’s Headway. I don’t sell anything to you that I wouldn’t use myself!

Build Your Blog: Step 2

Use your blog well, and it will pay you handsomely! Now that we’re no longer stuck on Step 1, we can move on two Step 2, where we can actually start targeting what will make your blog grow!

Make a list of keywords that apply to your business. For simple, fast results, I recommend going to adwords.google.com. Click on “get keyword ideas”. There are a number of tools you can use for keyword research. This is simply the most common. It’s powerful, and it’s free! The market where I personally started in business was real estate, so let’s use that as an example.

On the Get Keyword Ideas page, type in “Miami Florida real estate”. You’ll get a screen like this one:

Grab a list of keywords that you feel are particularly relevant for your business. Don’t just go with the highest traffic keywords. That’s tempting. Instead, focus on keywords that are the most relevant for what you actually do. Make a list of 5-10. Then, do a Google search for those keywords. Find forums and blogs that are already in existence, catering to these niches. Set up profiles and start reading and talking to the people there.

Additionally, set up profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Spend time there, meet people. Join in the conversation. There are already a lot of groups and ongoing discussions that are relevant to your business. Jump in and talk to people! Don’t be overly promotional. Just talk. Real talk is what wins here.

What the heck does this have to do with building my blog?

You may wonder what this has to do with building your blog. After all, how can spending time on OTHER PEOPLE’S sites help out YOUR SITE? The answer is, it does a TON to help your site. That leads me into Step 3. This is the good stuff!

Build Your Blog: Step 3

Don’t overlook the power of Step 3 because of its simplicity! This is where you can truly obtain the unfair advantage, because you’ll be doing the work that most everyone else wants to skip. Remember, just because it’s SIMPLE, doesn’t mean it’s EASY! Building anything of consequence…something that truly wins over your market, is hard work. But is it worth it? You bet. Does it pay well? Oh, yes!

So, what is the BEST use of your time when it comes to building a fantastically profitable blog? The answer to this question, as I’ve mentioned, is deceptively simple. It all comes down to using the tool skillfully, for its intended purpose. And what is a blog’s intended purpose? A blog is made for talking to people. So, talk to people! Sounds simple, right? Yet when we look at the facts, few bloggers do actually this. They tweak, they tool around, they try out new plugins, they buy expensive “systems” to “drive traffic” to their blog, they do everything under the sun to try to find a quick and easy way to make their blog successful. It’s such a shame, really!

Is social networking (i.e. “talking to people”) really the key to making your blog successful? Well, yes actually! How so, you ask? Well, the cool, convenient thing about social media is that nearly everything you do easily links back to your blog. Your profile, your forum signature, your blog comments…they all link back to your site. So when people check you out and want more information, it’s easy for them to stop by. It’s important to understand you can’t MAKE someone stop by, but if they like you and want more information about you, they will!

As you connect with more and more people on their home turf, more and more people will come out to your blog. If you’re engaging people in legitimate conversation and actually have something to talk about (you do, trust me), then they will almost always want to know more about you. It’s a natural part of human interaction. How many times have you met someone new and they’ve NOT asked “so what do you do?” If people meet you and like you, they will want to know more about you. And they will come to your blog.

Blogging Success is Counter-intuitive

It’s a little counter-intuitive, isn’t it? You’d think to build a successful blog that you should spend a lot of time on your blog. But that’s not the case. You should in fact spend very little time on your blog! Hard to believe? You can spend all the time you want on your blog, but until there’s a large readership, there’s not a lot to do there! You want readers, right? Well, then go talk to them!

When you’re first starting your blog, you should not have to spend more than a couple hours a WEEK on your blog. And that should be spent on writing content. All the rest of your time should be spent networking and talking to people. See, there are already thousands of people out there who should be reading your blog. Don’t wait for them to find you…go find them 😉

The principles of building a successful online operation are fairly simple wouldn’t you agree? I suppose I could make it a lot more complicated if you want, but the bottom line is that it all comes down to work. Spend time on the right things, and you will get the result. We all have the same amount of time in the day. Where you get the unfair advantage is when you decide you’re not going to look for shortcuts. While everyone else is spinning their wheels, you will be busy spending time on leveraged and effective things that actually get results. Tools like Headway make it possible to put the stupid busy work behind you, so you can concentrate on building your business. Get the ball rolling now!

I hope this basic primer on blogging helps you build your business this year. If you have any questions, I am at your service!

The Biggest Problem with Customers (and how to fix it)

By Christian

key-customer-brain — This Simple Technique will Help You Unlock Your Customer's Brain:)

All these dang customers. So many people wanting to BUY stuff from me! If they’d just leave me alone, maybe I could actually get some WORK done, you know?

Do you ever feel that way?

The Problem with Customers

Of course we all know that customers are kind of necessary. But nonetheless, they are challenging. See, if working with people was so easy, everyone would be rich. And that’s what running a successful small business is about. It’s about effectively working with people.

If you can’t be effective with people, you won’t be effective in your business.

This is a big hang up with the internet crowd, because so many of us are focused on click-throughs and impressions and other non-human lingo that we easily get out of touch with the fact that it’s PEOPLE we’re selling to. This is the salesman in me talking of course, but I think it’s a valid point.

The internet business is a people business. You have to understand people…how they work, how they think, what they want. If you don’t dig into this, your blog, your landing page, etc…will all fall short of the effectiveness it could have. Bottom line, you won’t reach your potential until you get good at engaging with people on a human level.

If you pay attention to the underlying message of a lot of the content on Next Level Blogger, it speaks to this very thing. Next Level Blogger is sales training, disguised as blogging tips and such. Get it? I’m pulling a fast one on you 😉

That said I want to mention the biggest problem with customers that I’ve found. If you can get over this hurdle, your business will run more smoothly. Here is the biggest problem:

Customers don’t know what they want, but they desperately want YOU to give it to them.

See how that might be a problem?

People Don’t Know What They Want

kids-know-what-they-want — Kids Know What They Want and Have No Problem Telling You. Your Customers Will Need a Little More Coaxing.

Seriously, people don’t know what they want. Look at a group of people trying to decide even the most mundane thing like where to go for dinner. It takes 15 minutes to decide. No one can make up their mind. It’s a restaurant for god’s sake! You’ve done this a million times. Still, our minds cannot be made up 😉

And then when we get there, what happens? We stare at the menu, like we’ve never seen this stuff before! Some of you are decisive and know what you want, yes. You represent 5% of the population. Everyone else is not in touch with what they want. It’s the human condition. Most of us know we want SOMETHING, and we assume we know what it is, but we don’t. Why? Because there is an immense amount of emotional baggage we carry with us into every situation. It clouds our every judgment.

When we’re kids, we know what we want. Where do you want to eat? MCDONALDS! What do you want to eat? CHICKEN NUGGETS! There is no hesitation. We know what we want, and it fills us with joy just thinking about it! Fast forward 20 years, decisions are a lot more complex, aren’t they? Why? Is the selection of restaurants a lot more complex? No. It’s the same as it’s ever been. And it’s not because we like so many more things. It’s because we have accumulated emotional baggage we didn’t used to have when we were kids.

When you ask a kid where they want to go, they don’t think about things like:

Is it too expensive?
Is it in a convenient location?
How was the service last time?
What will everyone else think of me if I want to eat at McDonalds?
Do they have food that will work with my diet?

Of course, the list goes on. Kids don’t think about this stuff. They know what they want, and they give you a straight answer. As adults, getting a straight and helpful answer is not so easy. But it’s doable. It requires a little digging. And that’s what we need to do as business owners. We need to dig. There is another word for this. The word is “sales”.

Digging is Essential

questions-are-essential — Asking Questions is a Lost Art and the Most Powerful Tool for Being More Effective With Your Customers

Learning to dig is one of the most powerful things you can do to improve your bottom line and help your customers in a much more personal way. How do you dig? You ask questions. Questions are powerful. There is a concept called “going three deep” that I learned from a great sales trainer Howard Brinton. It’s a great concept that I recommend to everyone involved in selling a product or service.

The basic idea is to never take anyone’s answer at face value. Why? Because they don’t really know what they want, remember? But they DO have needs, wants and desires. It’s our job to uncover them. We do that by asking questions. Not just one, but three or more.

How to Dig

Here is an example of “going three deep”:

Home buyer: I definitely want the home I buy to have a basement.
Real estate agent: No problem. Why is that?
Home buyer: I use the basement in my current home for storage. I have a lot of crap. A basement is essential.
Real estate agent: That makes sense. Do you use a basement for anything other than storage?
Home buyer: No that’s pretty much the point of a basement.
Real estate agent: So if there’s a home with no basement but that DOES have all the storage space you need and then some, do you want me to exclude it, or would you like to check it out?
Home buyer: Well if it really has all the storage space we need, then yes we should look at it.

What happened here? Most real estate agents would simply take an order from a client and only show them homes that have basements. By going three deep, we find out that the client doesn’t care about basements at all! They want storage space. Surely, a basement is a terrific way to accomplish this, but it is by no means the ONLY way. It’s also in many cases one of the most EXPENSIVE ways to get more storage space. So we’ve made a lot more homes available, a lot more opportunities to make a sale, and we might even save the client a lot of money.

Do you see the power in asking questions? When we take people’s answers at face value, we make powerful assumptions…assumptions that are often wrong. By being willing to dig a bit, we can uncover some real gold and learn what our customers REALLY want. It’s not like they’re hiding it from us intentionally. It is our duty to be diligent.

Your customer is not the professional. You are the professional.

By applying this single technique to your interactions with your clients, customers and colleagues, you will find your interactions a lot more clear, a lot less hazy. You will be able to get more targeted results in a lot less time. You will become more effective at working with people.

Applying this to Blogging and Internet Marketing

It’s one thing to be able to “go three deep” when you’re face to face with a customer. It’s entirely different when you’re running a blog or otherwise selling online, correct? I’d argue not so much. One of the reasons I’m in this space talking about building a business online is because I’ve successfully built up several websites using these principles. There’s a certain amount of translation when it comes to moving your sales strategy online, but the principles on human interaction remain the same. Social media makes all this possible.

Conversing takes place on different platforms when you’re marketing online. Etiquette may be a bit different, but the differences are not as acute as they may seem from the outside. I interact with my readers and clients pretty closely. We email, IM, leave comments on each other’s blogs, etc. Just because we’re using new platforms to communicate does not change the nature of communication. The same principles apply.

If you’re NOT interacting with your audience on this level, then I suggest you start. Can you maintain an intimate dialog with every single person? It depends on what level you’re at and the size of your community of course. I don’t have a huge audience like a Chris Brogan or Gary Vaynerchuk. When your community grows to such a size, the rules change. But then again, so does the very nature of the opportunities at your disposal. But even when your reach is that far, the basics always still apply. Look at how those guys hustle. If they have to hustle, so do all of us.

Yes, your success may eventually take you to the point where you cannot personally connect with every single person. One important point about that:

That type of success is optional in most cases. Unless you are a complete freak of nature, growing an audience to that size is simply not done on accident. It’s done deliberately. And importantly, it is only one model of business. Don’t assume you have to be “huge” to be successful. I don’t have any one email list larger than 11k, but they are highly targeted, powerful lists. Trust me, even a very small list can produce a lot of revenue for your company, if it’s comprised of responsive, engaged and highly relevant subscribers.

I personally like small, powerful sites and small, powerful businesses. It’s my thing. I understand it’s not the only way of doing things, but I urge you to consider your options. The A-listers of the world are always easy to see, and it’s understandable to want to model them. However, don’t make the assumption it’s the only way to go. In fact, there are many low key, highly effective, highly powerful ways to build a business.

To me, human interaction and being personally engaged with your audience puts you in a position to truly care about who you’re working for, and that’s the best way to go. I find a lot of value in not being huge. Is that just sour grapes? If you’re creating massive value for your audience and getting paid well to do it, isn’t that what matters? Does it really matter how BIG your audience is? What do you think?