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Gary Vaynerchuk Rocks Chicago

By Christian

As I’ve said before on Next Level Blogger, investing in your business is key. One of the biggest returns I get is when I take the time to hit the road for a minute and physically go meet people. Internet business is people business. Period. No substitute. You have to rock, and the best way to rock is in person.

I met Gary Vaynerchuk last night at his #crushitchicago event, and I’m damn tired today, but it’s all good…for one reason. Even though I’m tired, I’m energized.

Take aways from last night:

I heard some great ideas that I’m already applying to take my new business to the next level.
I met great people, drank great wine, had a blast.
Gary said his number 1 goal is to make sure his daughter knows she is the greatest person alive, which shows me it’s 100% possible to “crush it” and remain grounded at the same time.
I was reminded that hard work is something we’ve literally gotten away from. We think we work hard, but we have no idea what hard work is. Hard work is coming back in a big way. It’s time to put a seatbelt on and get to it.
There are massive rewards and fortunes to be built over the next decade…truly massive. But that doesn’t mean everyone is going to get their fair share. Some of us WILL be left behind. Make sure it’s not you.
Got a copy of Crush It. If you don’t have it…I highly recommend.

Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Success in Social Media?

By Christian

social-media-strategy-for-business-success — What does it take to be successful in social media? I hope to offer you some helpful thoughts in this post. Let me know what you think!

I’ve spent time with a number of you by now. I’ve had a great chance to learn a lot about my own business and how to grow, but I’ve hopefully learned a bit about how I might be able to help as well. One thing I’ve encountered more than anything else is insecurity. A lot of people out there feel social media marketing for their business is not something that’s going to work for them. Sure it works for Gary Vaynerchuk, and it works for Brian Clark, and it works for Michael Martine, and it works for thousands of other business owners, but it’s not going to work for YOU.

If this sounds like you…if you feel you may not have what it takes to be successful using social media to grow your business, I’d encourage you to look at the facts.

Social Media For Business: Fact #1

A lot of my clients shy away from social media for business marketing, because they fear an exorbitant time commitment, but this is a huge misconception. Yes, you can waste time with social media…you can waste time doing ANYTHING. Fear of wasting time is not a reason to avoid a valuable tactic for growing your business…it’s simply a reason to make sure you do it effectively. Does this makes sense?

Social Media For Business: Fact #2

Social media is a constant learning experience. That’s what this is…a constant learning experience. It’s true for you and me, and it’s true for everyone out there. There is no such thing as a “social media expert”, and if you come across someone claiming to be one, run in the other direction. Someone who actually knows everything there is to know about social media…are you kidding me? Twitter has only been around for a very short time…there not been enough time for anyone to become an actual expert. Find people who’ve had success, people you want to model. Learn from them and find your own path.
One thing I’ve seen holding people back is the idea that they want to get everything figured out, and then they’ll dive in. It’s unlikely that will happen, because the platforms and rules are always changing. The way to get results is to just get started.

Social Media For Business: Fact #3

Social media is a magic bullet. A really slow bullet…

Can social media change your business inside out? Yes
Can social media open up new revenue streams you never even thought of? Yes
Can social media make you more effective, in less time than ever before? Yes
Can you accomplish all this in a short amount of time by paying someone else to “take care of it”? Nope.

If there is one concept that many people need but don’t like, it’s accountability. The success of Chris Brogan’s Trust Agents is a perfect testament to this phenomenon. Fact is, building a social media network means building trust. And trust is a funny little bugger. It simply cannot be manufactured. Can’t be done. It has to be built. One tweet at a time. One post at a time. One comment at a time.
I get asked to “do social media” for clients somewhat regularly. Yes, some clerical tasks can be delegated, but social engagement cannot be diverted to someone else. You’re either accessible to your community or you’re not. If you’re not, you’re missing out on huge opportunities, and social media tools allow you to leverage your time considerably, so you CAN be helpful and accessible to your audience. It’s a win-win.

Social Media For Business: Fact #4

You have what it takes! Can you do it? The answer is “yes” 🙂

It doesn’t require a high degree of techiness or nerdiness.
It doesn’t require knowledge of html, or any of that web programming crap. They have tools now that take care of all that.
It doesn’t require that you even know what Twitter is. Just a willingness to learn.
It doesn’t require that you have any expensive equipment. If you’re reading this article (unless someone printed it out for you, lol), you already have what it takes to get started and go quite far.

And here’s a bit of what it WILL require:

Paradigm shift, plus go ahead and put your seatbelt on, because you’ll have another total paradigm shift real soon. I experience one at least once a week.
A realistic budget. I really struggled with putting this on the list. If I’m being honest with you though, approaching a totally new and very dynamic marketing strategy and expecting to do it for free (as many do for some odd reason…go ask your local newspaper for a free ad, and see how far that gets you) is not a strategy I advise. Many of these tools are free to acquire. Acquisition is one thing. Effective implementation over the long term is an entirely different thing. Social media highly effective? Yes. Free? Not usually, unless you’re a veteran and highly, highly competent. And even the vets in this industry get help and use premium tools daily.
Time. Yes that’s right! Social media is not a space ad. You can’t slap something up and get results. It’s about networking, building relationships. Results will come, and they can blow your mind, but they will not come overnight.
Willingness to learn new skills, consistently.
Help. This relates to “realistic budget”, but not all help needs to come from an outside consultant. Much help can be obtained through free sources like online forums and reading other blogs. Looking to others for solutions…people outside your immediate organization, will need to become a regular event.

Can you afford to ignore the fact that almost all your customers are online looking for you already…talking about you? Stepping into the conversation is welcome and encouraged, and that’s all social media is in a nutshell. It’s just people talking.
Do you have what it takes? The answer lies in your social competency. Have you ever shook hands or had a nice conversation with someone? If the answer is “yes”, then yes…you too can be successful at social media marketing!
Does social media marketing scare you? Have you implemented it in your business yet? How is it working? Are you getting the results you want? Post questions or comments…in the comments! I’m happy to respond and will even cover questions in future posts if called for 😉

Get Harder Rocking Results from Twitter

By Christian

Twitter remains a mystery to a lot of business owners unfortunately. It’s a pithy and convenient communication tool, and it’s a great way to get traffic to your site as well. But a lot of people have reported that they do not get the results they want, so I wanted to take a stab at offering you some potential solutions.

Clearly without looking at your specific feed and attempts to get results from Twitter, I need to generalize a bit, but there are two most common mistakes I see out there in my own feed, so I will address those two.

If you have any specific questions, I recommend you comment the post or fire me an email with a specific question, and I’ll be happy to address in a future post.

Two Biggest Mistakes Using Twitter

Failure to Stand Out
Blatant Promotion Over Communication

Let me cover each in a bit of detail:

Failure to Stand Out

Bottom line, if you don’t stand out, your results in business (on Twitter and elsewhere also) will be zilch. Look at your own twitter feed…all the tweets coming in from the people you follow. Which ones stand out to you? Which are you compelled to click on? What traits do these tweets share? Use this information.

Fact is, there is ALWAYS a reason you’re not getting the results you want from any particular technique, and there is ALWAYS a way to fix it. It might require that you do something different. As a matter of fact, it most likely WILL require to change what you’re doing.

It’s not just a matter of getting more followers. If you’re not getting the results you want with 500 followers, you’re not going to get much better results with 5,000 followers or 50,000 followers. As always, it’s about quality, not quantity, especially if you’re operating in a niche market.

So after you’ve analyzed your own feed for a minute…what makes YOU want to click through on a tweet? It probably covers a topic that personally interests you, and it probably has done something to stand out. Put simply, you need to model this. Firstly, are you covering content that specifically interests your followers? Hint: if they’re not clicking through…maybe they’re not interested 😉 Secondly, are you using verbiage that commands attention? Hint: if you’re not getting traffic from Twitter…the cause for this is likely in here somewhere.

This may sound simplistic, but Twitter is a very simple tool.

There are certain words like “free” or “make money” that many people are just gonna gloss over. But still, the words you use matter. Pay attention to your verbiage. Certain words are going to stand out and perform better in tweets. Copywriters know this, and if you want to get better results and more traffic to your site using Twitter you need to pay attention to this also. Which tweet would you be more likely to follow?

Get 10,000 followers on Twitter in 30 Days! Check it doode!

-or-

2 Beautiful Things You Should Be Doing on Twitter That You’re Probably NOT…are you doing this?

The first uses overused, spammy language. The second offers a personal challenge to the reader on a targeted topic that is important to them, and it specifically asks for a response. Remember what I’ve said about asking for what you want? If your follower cares to respond, they pretty much have to click the link. Right?

How do your tweets measure up to this? Comment, and let me know what you think!

Blatant Promotion Over Communication

Amped up blog titles will get you a little distance. Titles like “746,000 Ways to Make Huge Money Starting NOW!!!”…they’re going to garner some attention from people in a general sense. However interruption marketing like this, while it has it’s place, will only get you so far.

Especially if a title like this is not backed up by considerable amount of substance, it will go nowhere. It’s also something to keep in mind that the more ridiculous your titles get, the more impossible it is to live up to expectations.

It’s important to understand that when you’re looking to get results from other people, it’s best to engage them, not yell at them.

A title like the example earlier is the web’s equivalent to yelling at someone. Yeah, it’ll get attention, but people are also experts at glossing over and ignoring anything vying for their attention. So being attention-getting is only one element. Don’t just get their attention, engage them.

A Lesson in Direct Sales

Coming from a sales background, I can tell you one fundamental way of engaging a buyer…ask questions. Personally engaging and thoughtful, earnest questions. Almost any question will do…people want to speak their mind and to interact with someone who understands them, especially on topics that are important to them.

More on the value of questions and how specifically to execute the use of questions in your tweets, blog posts and sales copy is the topic of another post…for today just keep in mind that engaging people and asking them to respond is key. Asking a genuine question is always more engaging than making a statement, no matter how kick ass the statement is or how much CAPS LOCK you implement.

Are you getting the results you want from Twitter? Do you have other or better ideas on how to get more traffic using Twitter?

How My Friends Handle Twitter Spam

By Christian

I get a lot of spam on Twitter. Maybe you do too? Ha. If I get one more “ray of sunshine” or “high five” from you guys, I’m gonna puke, alright?

If you spend any time on Twitter you know what I’m talking about. Not sure what the actual appeal is here or why ANYONE thinks I’m actually going to click on their link “How to Get 10,000 Followers on Twitter in 5 Days”, but nonetheless, spam is here to stay 🙂

That said, deciding how to deal with Twitter spam is a concern I wanted to put to rest for a bit. So I did something crazy…I asked all my friends on Twitter what they do, and I got some great feedback!

Since a lot of us use Twitter daily, I thought it would be worthwhile to share the results of my little quiz with you and let you in on how I plan to handle the spam I get on Twitter.

Options of How to Deal With Twitter Spam

There are really only a few options, and I was surprised to hear that many people don’t seem to realize how they work, so I wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page. Here are your options:

Report the spam to @spam. This is highly recommended, and I was surprised that not one single person mentioned this. Are you aware of this option? I thought it was common knowledge 🙂 It takes just a second, and if you use Tweetdeck, it takes just two clicks.
Unfollow them. If you’re following the person, it’s simple to just quietly unfollow them. This doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility of receiving spam from the offender again, but it decreases the chances of it. If you’re not following them, at least they cannot send you a direct message. They can still send you replies though.
Block them. This actually may not accomplish what you think it will. I think blocking is not presented clearly on Twitter, because when you block someone, all that really happens is that they can no longer follow you. But of course, if someone wants to see your tweets, all they have to do is go to your profile, so blocking doesn’t really do much other than put a tally on the offenders profile. I don’t know what the parameter is, but word on the street is…if a spammer gets enough blocks, their account gets deleted. That’s how you sometimes end up seeing that cool page with an owl on it that says “nothing to see here…”.
Verbally assault them. Try to scare the crap out of them, so they’ll learn the error of their ways and never spam again. This is actually a great idea, and it usually works *sarcasm*. Some choose to engage in this pointless fun though. Hey, if it lets you blow off some steam… 😉

When Friends Spam You

There were mentions of a distinction when an actual friend (or just about anyone you talk with who you feel really ought to know better) sends you something that is technically spam. Like being a little tactless or overzealous about promoting their new landing page or MLM opportunity, etc. Most people including myself, tend to shrug this off. Between friends, what’s a little spam, right? Just as long as it doesn’t get too crazy. Even friends deserve a smack down from time to time though…am I right, or am I right?

How I’ve Chosen to Deal With Twitter Spam

When it comes in, and I don’t know the person…and it’s clearly spam. I report it to @spam…every time. This clears it from my timeline and gives Twitter a heads up.
Many of the stupid DM’s I get from friends I just ignore and laugh them off. Being light hearted as often as possible in life pays big dividends. It’s like when a coworker forwards me some stupid cat picture. Am I going to report them to their ISP? Probably not. As long as it doesn’t happen too often 😉
I’ve only ever blocked one person, and it was a situation where this user was actually being persistently obnoxious and almost scary. Screw that noise. If someone is actually making you physically uncomfortable…that’s block-worthy.

A Final Word

Don’t let spam get you down. It’s a minor inconvenience in my opinion when placed up against the huge advantages of using Twitter as a communication tool. If you have any questions about Twitter, place em in the comments. I’ll help however I can!

Basic Tips to Monetize Your Blog Without Ads

By Christian

One of the biggest concerns people have about their blogs is how to make money. That’s fair. It’s reasonable to want to get paid for your time!

Yet this is one of the biggest challenges for most bloggers. You may have noticed, I spend time focusing on sales strategy, because that’s my foundation. The thing I like about sales is the simplicity of it. If you follow the rules and work hard, you get paid. Period.

Making Money from Your Blog is Not Black and White

Many people are convinced there are only two types of blogs out there:

Low traffic blogs that live out their days in obscurity, making no money.
High traffic blogs that enjoy high income, tons of comments, etc.

It’s not black and white. Yes, there are these two kinds of blogs. No doubt. But there are also many types in between, including my favorite…low to mid-traffic blogs that make a high income. They quietly make a killing. To me, this is ideal.

If you want to be a well-known blogger, get several hundred thousand visitors a month, etc…go for it. I’ll be honest with you…that’s not my forte. If you were to look at the back end of my sites, you’d not find a single one that gets more than 10-20k page views a month. But they are profitable. And they are duplicable. They offer a range of valuable services to highly targeted customers. To me, traffic is over rated. It’s all about quality. That’s my focus.

Success Hides a Multitude of Sins

It’s easy to make money with a blog that gets a ton of traffic. Sort of. As the saying goes, “Success hides a multitude of sins”. In other words, if you have traffic pouring in every day, it’s hard to not make some money. Unfortunately most bloggers are not in the “more traffic than I know what to do with” club.

This isn’t to say that even high traffic sites don’t need to optimize and carefully watch what they’re doing. They do. And please don’t assume, as we’re so often tempted, that a site that’s getting a lot of traffic is doing well financially. It’s just not a safe assumption to make.

Running a business on any level is a lot of work. But many A-list bloggers out there are still giving the old stand-by advice when it comes to making money with you blog. And it all boils down to putting ads on your site. This just isn’t a good solution for most bloggers.

There are various types of ad services and various techniques to optimize them, and I won’t argue that advertising isn’t a good way to make money, but unless you’re getting mad traffic, you can optimize your ads all day long, and you’re still going to be making $5 a day.

Sales Basics are Where to Start!

If you want to monetize your blog, and you don’t have a ton of traffic, here are a few very simple ideas to keep in mind that will help you monetize your blog. After implementing these basics, there are many ways to tweak and optimize what you do, and I will be going over these principles in later posts, so make sure to bookmark this page or subscribe, so you can get the following posts on this topic as well!

Make sure your visitors know what you do! This may seem like a complete no-brainer, but when I’m working, I come across blogs left and right that offer great, helpful information, but I don’t see any products or services offered in any clear way.

If you want to make money with your blog, make sure you’re following these basics to start:

Do you have a clearly visible services page?
Where is your “products” or “shopping” page?
Do you tell your buyers about what you do on occasion and why they should buy from you?
Do your blog posts occasionally mention your services, products, etc?
Do you email your list with offers from time to time?
Have you asked your visitors point blank if they are interested in what you’re selling? This is easy to do with a simple survey from Survey Monkey, and it accomplishes two very valuable things. One, it tells your visitors what you’re selling. Two, it helps you gauge whether you’re offering something people want to buy or if you need to make changes to what you’re selling.

I’m just sayin…there are a ton of bloggers saying they want to make money…and there are also a ton of blogs that have no clear offerings. I believe this is because many, many bloggers are still trying to figure out a way to get more traffic and make money with advertising.

Forget SEO, forget page rank, forget traffic…learn how to sell, and address these sales basics! More tips in more detail will follow in future post… but don’t forget the basics will always work! Remember, if you’re making no money with 1k visitors, you’re going to easily make 100 times that much when you get 100k visitors. Do the math 🙂

If you want to get your blog kicked into the next gear, I encourage you to hire me for a consult. In one hour, we can erase months of the learning curve and get down to business, so you can do what you love and start actually getting paid to do it!

Are you struggling to make money with your blog or website? Tell me what you’re struggling with, and I’ll make sure answers are included in future posts!