Small Business Blog Tips

The Number One Reason Blogs Fail

By Christian

Most of the readers of this article are people who are actively involved in blogging, internet marketing or social networking for business…or people who are looking for a good way to GET involved in these activities. One of my biggest goals is to communicate the fact that there really isn’t a hardcore secret to making it work. You need to be purpose-driven and work hard at it.

I suppose I could sell you a book on how to make a million dollars in your first year while only working a few hours a day, or I could charge you $97 for a “proven, guaranteed program” on how to get 10,000 followers on Twitter in the next 90 days. But I’d rather just tell you the truth.

Here’s the motivation for me: if I tell you what really works, then some of you will turn away and not come back, because I’m not telling you what you want to hear. To me, that’s a good thing. The reason it’s good for me to run some people off, is because I sell stuff. I sell sales training and consultation, and I sell information products. If you’re looking for a fast fix or a get rich quick deal, you either won’t buy what I’m selling, or you’ll complain when you get it, so me just giving it to you straight really is better for all of us!

The Reason Blogs Fail

That said, what IS the reason most blogs fail? This is my honest assessment: the reason most blogs fail is because they were improperly researched to start. Probably very little or NO research was put in at the beginning, and as a result the blogger failed to get any meaningful results. Then they quit.

I would quit too if I got no results! If you’re getting no results, it’s smart to move on to something else. It’s important to know the difference that a failed blog doesn’t mean you’re a failed blogger! I hope these bloggers are not giving up on blogging altogether. I hope they are picking up the pieces and learning from their mistakes…and moving on to more successful projects in the future.

But the idea stands: if you want a successful blog or internet marketing plan of any kind, you need a fully detailed plan to start off. As you know, I consult with sales people all the time, and you’d be amazed at how many people have no business plan of any kind. No written goals at all. I’m sorry, but you cannot run a meaningful business and achieve meaningful results without a plan.

The Magic of a Business Plan

The magic of writing up a business plan is NOT in the finished project. You can throw the business plan in the trash for all I care (figuratively speaking; it’s best to keep it, refer back to it and continue to revise it at least quarterly). The real power in writing a business plan comes from the writing process.

What is your target audience?
How will you target them?
What will be your main source of traffic?
What steps do you plan to take to ensure you get the traffic you need?
How do you know these steps will be effective?
How will you measure the success of your blog?
How do you know that getting those results will create a meaningful impact on your business?

Answering questions like this put you in the hot seat. Will your idea for a blog work? I don’t know, but don’t you think it’s better to find out before you spend the next several months working on it?

Failure to plan properly is not the ONLY reason a blog can fail of course, but it’s the number one reason. It’s amazing how many businesses are out there operating with no plan whatsoever. If you take your success seriously (why wouldn’t you?), do the necessary work to write a proper business plan. You’ll be doing yourself a serious disservice if you choose to skip it!

Is Selling on Your Blog Sleazy?

By Christian

I just wrote recently about how we’re all salespeople, whether we think so or not. This begs the question: if embracing the fact that we need to sell things in order to really make money online is necessary, why are so many of us wary of asking for money from our readers?

This is an essential issue to address, for the simple fact that if you DON’T ask for what you want, you will not likely get what you want. We all understand this concept, but many of us are still bashful about asking for people to buy things from us. Asking someone for money is tough, it feels to us as if we’re violating or somehow cheapening the relationship we have with our readers.

Are You Ashamed to Ask for Money?

Sometimes we feel ashamed of asking for money, because deep down we feel that salesmen are sleazy. Is selling on your blog sleazy? I hope to answer this in this post, but ultimately this is going to be a personal decision. But know this: if you don’t sell stuff, you’re not likely to ever make much money in anything you do. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing…money isn’t everything. Believe me, I understand this. I’ve turned down several high paying jobs that would have required way too much of my time.

Turning down a job that pays well over a hundred thousand a year is not something a young me would have done. But you learn eventually that money isn’t everything…so I get it.

But this doesn’t mean selling is sleazy! Being sleazy is sleazy. But to say that all salesmanship is sleazy is a blanket statement that we all know is not true. Not if we’re being honest. So, that’s the answer I have for you:

Is selling on your blog sleazy? Yes, if you’re a sleaze. For the rest of us, it’s an honest and absolutely essential business practice.

How to Get What You Want

What does this mean for those of us who really want to make money online? How do we take our business and really promote it effectively through internet marketing, social networking and blogging? Here’s how:

We have to know with absolute clarity what we want. Then we need to ask our readers to give it to us.

This is all there is. Blogging is simple! It’s just work. If we create a LOT of value for our readers, we have every right to ask for money. Not all will. It’s cool. You’ll never have a 100% closing ratio, but you don’t need one. Many internet marketers make good money from a closing ratio hovering around 5%. Personally, I think you should expect way better results than that. But I digress…the point is that you don’t need EVERYONE to give you money, you just need some people to give you money. But if you don’t ask you don’t get.

Lesson from the Trenches

How to create huge value for your readers? This is a great topic for future posts, but let me give you a quick story from my direct sales years for now. I used to sell Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door. You learn a lot about building value by selling door to door. I’m asking people who haven’t met me 15 minutes ago to spend $1500 on a vacuum cleaner that didn’t think they needed before I walked in.

After my demonstration, I always asked people what they thought the price tag was, and most of them told me they were expecting a price tag of over $3000. So when I told them it was $1500, they were visibly relieved. You could actually seem them relax into their seat when I gave them the order form.

How do you do this? I will get into the fine details as I continue to develop this blog, but for now I just wanted to give you the basic concept…if you want to ask someone for $1500, you better give them $3000 in value. If you want to have someone buy your ebook for $47, you better be able to show them definitively, in terms they understand, why it’s worth a lot more…that’s the concept.

Give people a deal. It’s more work for you, but it’s a better deal for your customers, and that’s how you make money. You make money by creating value for others.

Don’t Compare Your Blog to Others

By Christian

You have a unique value proposition to offer your readers. Get in tune with it! What do you do better than anyone? Competition is fierce. That’s not news, and it shouldn’t surprise you. I’ve written about how to research keywords and find little pockets of opportunity here and there, and that’s good stuff. It’s important to be able to do that, but it’s MORE important to simply know who you are and work really hard at being better than anyone else in something.

There is SO much content out there right now about niche marketing. I get it. People want to make money online. They want to connect with a lot of people really quickly, easily and very inexpensively. And there are a ton of people out there talking about how to do it…how to find “your niche”. There is certainly such a thing as niche marketing, and learning how to write for search engines is important, but there is way more value in just going out every day and creating huge value for your readers. This is what’s going to create long term success for your business, nothing else.

Niche marketing is the equivalent of writing a great ad. It will pull in sales, and that’s a good thing. But it doesn’t last forever. It’s not substantive. If you want to be successful in business, you’re going to need to get in touch with what real value you can offer your customers. Nothing short of this will do.

Niche Marketing is not a Magical Cure

Please keep your magical thinking in check. We’re all subject to falling into this trap. God knows I’ve done it…but magical niches that provide you with huge traffic, tons of sales and easy money cannot be counted on. Can you make millions in internet marketing? Of course, but please don’t waste your days on trying to find some magical niche…in other words, don’t shy away from competition. Competition is a good thing; it means there is strong demand, and strong demand means you can make money in that area.

But what we see is not opportunity, we see competition. We see all the other guys and gals out there competing in a certain niche, and we think that because there are so many others that there is no room for us. Not true. Stop comparing yourself to others! And definitely don’t compare your blog to the others out there in your niche. You are unique. You are an expert in your field. You bring a new and fresh perspective.

Why I Write This Make Money Online Blog

Look at what I’m doing…a blog about making money online. This has been done before! But I bring a unique perspective. I come from direct sales; I’ve had a lot of success in that area, and over the last few years, I’ve been applying everything I know about sales…to online business. I look at making money online in a unique way because of the experiences and successes I’ve had, and I can offer value in that area. People who want to purely do internet marketing from a technical perspective and who are only interested in making money are not likely to find a ton of value in this blog, but people who understand the value of connecting with their customers on a human level and who want to build a real business will be able to see that I actually know something about that.

By not comparing your blog to others and focusing intently on the value you can provide, you can get in touch with what you really want to do. This is huge! It’s absolutely essential for you to like what you’re doing and to have a LOT to say in whatever niche you decide to target. Don’t pick something just because you think it’s a good market. Bad idea. Do what you love. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for failure…forever seeking some magical niche that will solve your problems. Not gonna happen! Answer these questions:

What niche do you WANT to work…regardless of competition?
What unique value can you add to it?
What experiences and unique successes have you had that can lend to your expertise in this area?
Why should people listen to you?
Is this a topic that you talk about a lot anyway?
Would you do it for free? (the answer should be “yes”)

If you can answer these questions, it will help you get in tune with what you ought to be blogging. Regardless of what others are doing…you need to develop the conviction necessary to market in the area where you really feel the most competent and where you can really provide the most value to other people. That’s what a real business is built on…it’s built on you, not a niche.

How Should Business Owners Approach Blogging?

By Christian

Most business owners I talk with will tell me something like this, “I’d like to start a blog, but how can I know I’m going to get an immediate return on my investment?” OK, maybe they don’t say it exactly like that, but that’s the idea. And as a business owner myself, I understand that mindset. But we have to get past the idea that starting a blog is the same thing as placing an ad in the local newspaper. That’s what we WANT blogging to be, but that’s not what it is. We want to fire it up, put in very little work, and proceed to watch the phone ring off the hook and our inbox fill up with orders, right? If you want to place an ad, place an ad 🙂 Blogging works differently. It requires an ongoing effort.

Is Blogging a Good Marketing Investment or Just a Waste of Time?

So if blogging requires an ongoing effort and does not produce any immediate benefit, how could it possibly be perceived as a good investment for a business? Good question! Here’s the thing: marketing works differently now, in case you haven’t noticed! Consumers respond to things differently, and we need to learn to engage them in entirely new ways. Placing ads in print media has become one of the biggest wastes of money you can imagine. Yes, you can see an immediate result, but that result is getting smaller and smaller. Immediate, yes. But significant? No. Not anymore.

Yet as business owners, we’re hooked on that immediate result. We want to know that every dollar we spend on marketing is producing a result. It makes sense. But continuing to spend more and more money for less and less of a result doesn’t make sense, does it? And that’s exactly what’s happening with traditional advertising. Traditional advertising has become SO ineffective, that I know many small business owners all over the world who have discontinued ALL print and television advertising, and many of them report that it has had little or no negative effect on their business. That’s how ineffective it has become!

Blogging is the New, Cost-Effective Alternative

So what is the alternative? The alternative is to embrace the rules of blog marketing and learn to engage your market in new and creative ways. Yes, it will require that you learn new things and learn to think about your marketing differently and measure your results in new ways. But doing this will enable you to engage a larger number of people than ever before, for less money than ever before. You’ll be able to engage prospects in new places you’ve never thought of before and make money in ways that you’ve never considered before.

Many business owners feel they don’t have time to blog. That’s very understandable, but I’d encourage you to not think of it as an extra effort. You’re likely already producing all the content you need for your blog. You’re already an expert in your field, right? You just need to channel your expertise in new ways. The memos you write to your team, the content you cover at sales meetings, the questions you answer for customers every day, the conferences you attend, the employees you hire, the new products or services you release…you’re doing ALL of these things already, and they are all AWESOME content for your blog. It just needs to be channeled in an efficient manner.

Yes, it WILL take time. It’s not completely free, and I’d be the last one to say blogging can be set on auto-pilot. The point is that it’s a simple extension of what you’re already doing as a business owner. The more engaged you are with your blog, the more engaging you’ll be with your readers, and of course that’s the whole point. Why would you ever want a blog that didn’t take any of your time? The POINT is to take some time…connect with your people. If you do it consistently, you’ll be rewarded.

Should You Blog?

By Christian

My network is mostly composed of people in a small business of one sort or another. People in home based business, real estate, network marketing or some other small sales-based business. I often get questions about blogging, and much of the time it’s not about any technical aspect of blogging. As much as the “how-to” part of blogging, people seem to be interested in the “why”. For those of you who do not currently write a blog, I’d like to take a quick stab at answering the questions of whether or not you should start a blog.

Blogging is Not for Everyone…

I’m going to say you should start a blog, but FIRST I’d like to give you a disclaimer. I am certainly a believer in the power of blogging for small business. I do it myself, and it’s become a cornerstone of what I do to market my business. I DON’T however think everyone is necessarily cut out for this. Anyone who tells you that blogging is easy or that anyone can do it is full of it. It’s a lot of work. That said, there can be a significant benefit to you and your business through blogging. Truth be told, it has transformed my business from the inside out, in a very good way. I’ve had to work really hard at it. I’ve had to learn a lot of things like HTML, CSS, PHP and such that I never would have thought to learn otherwise, but for me it’s completely been worth it.

The skills I’ve learned through blogging have enabled me to make money from anywhere, on my own schedule, and that is very important to me. So can it benefit you to this degree, and should you start a blog yourself?

Do it Anyway!

Here’s my advice: I would highly encourage you to at least give it a shot. That’s really all there is to it. It’s really the best way to know if you like something. Don’t expect immediate results. You get out what you put in. Of course, if you’re going to do it half-assed, just wait til you’re willing to do it right. If you want to make full time income doing it, you’ll probably need to do it full time…just like anything else. But blogging to me is not about directly making money so much as it is about building my network, building a community of like-minded people and then proceeding to sell from there.

If you’re in a business and want tot sell more products or services, chances are good that a properly built and executed blog can be a highly effective, cost-efficient, powerful way to expand your business. So give it a try! Dive in, and give it an honest effort. See what results you can get. Blog for a year…that’s my advice to anyone in a small business who really wants to harness the power of this media. By that time, you ‘ll be intimately aware of your competencies and lack thereof.

I could of course write a detailed analysis of the pros and cons…but the fact is that blogging is the most powerful way I know to connect with a large number of people, in a personal, interactive way, for very little money. Will you be awesome at it? I don’t know, but it’s such a highly leveraged and powerful tool to anyone in a small business, that I feel overlooking it or writing it off simply because it will require you to learn some new things is foolish. So should you blog? Yes, at least for a little while 🙂

It’s not the only way to promote your business of course, but it is a very powerful one. Coming from direct sales, I know that I can go out and make money any time I need to…even if the internet died tomorrow, I’d be OK. Blogging is not the end all and be all of success in business, but if you want to put all the odds possible in your favor, starting a business blog as an extension of your business is just about the smartest thing you can do.