Home Based Business

Top Myths About Business Blogging

By Christian

Writing a business blog is a great way to promote your products or services. There’s no doubt about it. There are a large number of professionals and business owners from all different fields who are entering the blogging world, and understandably…they want to get results!

A big part of getting good results from your blog is simply writing consistently and creating content that is valuable to your readers over time. Truth be told, it’s not rocket science. Building a successful blog can give your business some very significant results. It just takes work. Like anything you build from scratch…it starts off very small and builds up over time. Eventually it will truly become a force to be reckoned with. It just takes time and diligence.

One of the biggest reasons many blogs are not successful is not because making them work is all that difficult. The reason is because most blog authors simply don’t stick with it and do the necessary work to get the results they want.

One thing that can help you stick with it over time is simply having a realistic perspective on what to expect when you launch your blog. I’ve come across a ton of misconceptions over time, and these seem to me to be the most prevalent. I hope that reviewing these Myths About Business Blogging will help readers know a bit more about what to expect.

Myths About Business Blogging

You can always make money from advertising. This really isn’t true. Unless by “money” you mean a few bucks a month. You need a lot of traffic to make any meaningful amount of money from advertising. A LOT of traffic. Most adveristing methods will pay out somewhere in the range of $1-3 per thousand visitors. I’ve tweaked Adsense modules to average $5 per thousand visitors, so if you’re getting 50,000 visitors per month…you’re making $250. If your blog is getting 50,000 visitors a month, you’re not going to be excited about $250 🙂
Blogging is easy. Blogging is simple, not easy. Many people approach blogging, unfortunately, with a traditional media mindset. In other words, they want to set something up and watch it grow, but they don’t want to tend to it much. The fact is that blogging is simple, and it doesn’t have to take all your time. But if you want significant results, you need to work on it a bit every day. It is that consistent effort and hustle that will make the difference. Think of all the millions of other websites out there. You have to stand out. The process is simple, but it requires consistent effort over time.
I can automate this sucker! We’ve all heard this before, and there are more tools out there now than ever before. Search engines and humans alike reward original and valuable content. Trust me, I’ve explored em all…automation is definitely doable. I could show you tools that will fill your blog up with awesome articles every day without you having to lift a finger. You will have an awesome looking blog that takes almost no time at all…and it will never go anywhere, because at the end of the day there are no short cuts. Tread lightly with any sales copy that claims to be able to make your blog or blog marketing automatic. Nothing replaces diligence and hard work.
This sounds like too much work. I don’t really need a business blog. One of the biggest mistakes is to assume that because you’ve not had a blog before, you don’t need one now. Your customers are online…you need to be here. Yes, it will take work, and you’ll have to learn some new things. But the alternative is not being here…where your customers are. The alternative is losing business more and more. There are no good alternatives to having a good blog for your business. You need one.
I should be able to have a thousand visitors a day or so within a few months…or any other completely arbitrary number you’ve pulled out of the air. Everyone wants a lot of traffic. It’s only natural. But the fact is that not every niche is a high traffic niche. That’s first off. Second of all, if you’re running a blog for a small business, especially a very small business like a home based operation, you likely don’t NEED a lot of traffic to meet your goals. Don’t get wrapped up in arbitrary numbers. Yes, Yahoo! gets 300 million visitors a month or so…you don’t need that much. I’ve had more than one very profitable site that gets less than 3,000 a month. It’s not always about high traffic. As more and more people get involved in internet marketing, and as it becomes essentially mandatory for all small businesses to have a strong internet presence, it’s less about volume and much more about high quality and creating value for your readers.

Trust me, you can do some serious damage with your small business blog over time. ROI is difficult to measure if not impossible, which is another hurdle we need to get over as business owners. We’re used to getting a fixed or predictable result with each marketing piece we put out. Blogging is marketing, but it’s more like networking. You’re contacting and communicating with your readers and customers through the use of this medium. This work, when you do it well, leads to more business coming your way.

As a business owner, you don’t demand a specific ROI from a social event in order for you to attend. You understand that getting out there and shaking hands, meeting people and talking about what you do is essential. You do it because it’s a good, necessary business practice. Blogging, likewise, is a necessary business practice.

Everyone is an Entrepreneur

By Christian

The following is a post I wrote recently about business in general. It does not specifically address blogging or internet marketing. I’m publishing it here, because I hope it gives you an idea as to where I’m coming from and why I’m involved in internet marketing to begin with. Knowing the “why” is a powerful thing! Let me know what you think!

Everyone is an Entrepreneur

Something just occurred to me. I naturally think of myself as an entrepreneur. Mostly because I own businesses; that’s kind of always been the way I operate. Even when I’ve had jobs, I’ve always had a business in the works. It’s how I think…it’s always about “how do I build something out of this idea I have?” or “would this be something of value to others?” But not everyone thinks that way, do they? Perhaps you don’t think of yourself as an entrepreneur. Maybe you don’t own a business and you don’t WANT to own a business.

I want to communicate that I believe this is a dangerous way to think. You ARE a business owner, whether you think you are or not. Whether you run a very small home based business, a large publicly traded company, or whether you work for someone else, it doesn’t matter. You have expenses, taxes, income, assets, a balance sheet…you are a business, my friend!

The Power of Learning Basic Business Skills

Now just because you are a business does not mean you are an efficient and profitable one. But the point is, you can be! By learning about business, you can take control of certain things in your life that can make a great deal of difference for you. Everyone can benefit greatly from learning basic business principles like cash flow management, the definition of assets and liabilities, how to write up a balance sheet and profit and loss statement, etc. This really is basic stuff, and it’s amazing how many people (even business owners!) do not know how to do these things. Trust me; it’s not overly complicated, and a little discipline goes a long way. If I can learn to read a financial statement, you can too! And something amazing happens when you learn these business basics…you begin to make different, more profitable and sustainable decisions about your money!

The World is Changing

Why do I care to write about this? It’s compelling to me right now, because I see so many things changing around us. Few would disagree that we’re in a time of significant change. Technology and a major financial crisis are working in tandem, reshaping our world daily. As these things unfold, this is some of what I’ve seen…and I’m sure you’ve seen it too:

1. Job security no longer exists
2. Instead of working for one company for 30 years, most people have dozens of different jobs throughout their careers.
3. Recently, millions of people have lost their jobs. Millions more have lost half of their nest egg in the stock market, if not more.
4. Entrepreneurship is on the rise.

More and more, fending for yourself seems to be the order of the day. Employers don’t take care of us anymore. Neither does Uncle Sam. It’s no secret that social security does not offer any substantive retirement benefit, and as the years pass, most of us are learning that we shouldn’t even count on that as part of our retirement plan. So what are we to do?

Here’s what we do: we become financially competent. We learn to take care of business ourselves, because it’s obvious that no one else is going to do it for us. We need start to think of the lives we run as businesses, because that’s what they are. Financial competence is mandatory now. This didn’t used to be the case. In today’s world, you need to know how to manage your cash flow. You need to keep a close eye on your balance sheet. You need to know how to invest. Throwing your money blindly into a 401(k) isn’t going to cut it. We need to learn what we’re doing. You, me…we’re all entrepreneurs. We’re all investors. It’s not really a choice. And the sooner we wake up to that and start taking the reigns of our financial lives, the better off we’ll be.

Does this scare you? Do you disagree? I honestly think the days of employeers taking care of us are over permanently. Financial competence and personal accountability are mandatory. What do you think?

Are You Wasting Time on SEO?

By Christian

Search engine optimization. It’s a huge concern for anyone involved in internet marketing. Perhaps you want to sell products online. Maybe you’re an affiliate marketer. Maybe you run a home based business of some sort. Maybe you’re in real estate. Maybe you’re a lawyer. Any number of businesses are well-served to have a strong online presence. Some of us sell products; some of us sell services, but we all have something in common…we want to show up in the search engines! So how do we do it?

Perhaps it has not escaped your attention that search engine optimization (SEO) is a significant concern for nearly every business these days. And perhaps, if you’ve looked into it at all, you’ve witness that sheer magnitude of information on this topic. Perhaps you’ve become intimidated a bit? How can you possibly become an expert on SEO as well as everything else necessary to be successful and make money online?

Here’s the answer…and it’s an answer you might not like. The answer is, you can’t. You don’t have time to become an SEO expert. Don’t waste your time. Hire an expert. This is a fundamental principle of success in business…

Don’t try and do every single thing yourself!

So many of us are still wrapped up in the the idea that the internet should be free and easy. Truth be told, there is a LOT of free content. Take this site for example. I post all these articles for free, just like bloggers do. And I will eventually charge money for the information products I’m developing, and I do charge for consultation. But 99% of this site is free. That’s the way the internet works, but it has taken me years of reading, trial and error, many many late nights and working through a lot of frustration to learn what I’ve learned.

Do you have a business you want to promote online? Do you want to set up a social networking strategy? Do you want to set up a blog? Do you want to get rockin results from your internet marketing? No doubt you’ve said yes to at least one of these things…or else why are you reading this blog? 🙂

If you have years to learn the ropes, then get started and do it that way. It is the most comprehensive and economical way to solve your internet marketing problems. But if you have a business to run, and you want to concentrate on selling stuff and living your life, don’t try to become an SEO expert on top of everything else. Just don’t go there. You honestly have better things to do with your time!

A Fundamental Business Principle

Should you hire an SEO expert for an hour to solve a problem? The hour will probably cost you $100-200, which is a good amount of money. The question should not be answered by deciding whether or not you think $200 is a “good deal” or not. Look at your options.

Solve the problem by paying a professional ($200).
Solve the problem yourself (investment of your time…how much time?).
Don’t solve the problem.

First, of all let’s look at the last one. Don’t skip over it. Maybe your problem just isn’t important and you can do without addressing it. Trying to handle every single little thing that comes across your desk is business suicide. You have to pick and choose. But if your internet marketing solution is something you’ve decided really needs to be addressed, you have to solve the problem.

Second, consider what solving the problem yourself entails. Do you have the time? How much is your time worth? How much time do you think it will take for you to solve this problem yourself? If you estimate you can do as good a job in an acceptable time frame, then you should solve the problem yourself. If not, you should hire someone to handle it for you.

If you want to run your business like a real business, the last thing you want to do is to try and do every single thing yourself.

Is Internet Marketing too Techy for You?

By Christian

I network primarily with home based business and other small business owners who want to use blogging, internet marketing and social networking tools to promote and grow their business. One of the biggest concerns I hear is that this “internet stuff” is just too technical. With terms like “seo”, “image alt tags”, “robots.txt”, and so on and so forth, internet marketing is surely filled with jargon and a lot of things to learn. But so what? My argument is that the learning curve is NOT something that should scare you away. You’re looking at tools that can literally transform your business. And they cost almost nothing to use them! If you’re in the camp that has delayed getting online in a big way because you’re intimidated by technology, I get it, but I hope this article gets you off the fence. That’s my goal anyway.

What’s Your Competition Doing?

Consider this: your competition IS going after the internet space in your niche, so if you don’t you’re putting yourself at a huge disadvantage. Besides, with even a cursory glance, you can see that people are looking for what you sell online, and if you’re not in that space in a big way, then you’re basically begging your customers to go somewhere else. That’s not you!

It’s Time to Be Smart, not Safe

This is not a time to not be smart in business. I see business owners canceling their print advertising left and right. And many have reported to me that they see little to no negative effect. What does that tell you about the power of traditional advertising on today’s consumer?

You need to market yourself in some manner. Would you not agree? I think there’s something essential to consider here. I’m not going to pretend there is not a learning curve to internet marketing. I’ve spent years doing this, making a lot of money for clients, and I’m just now starting to turn the tables to make real money for myself. It takes time to learn the ropes of ANY system. This is no different. Let me tell you that if you take on internet marketing for your small business, you will not only learn a lot about technology, but you will be tapping into a global market…it will likely transform your business in a very real, positive way. It will change the way you think about your business, and you’ll see a whole new set of ways to grow it in the future. This ought to both thrill you AND scare the crap out of you. If not, you can stop reading now 🙂

Success Takes Work, Period

I can’t make the learning curve disappear for you. Anyone who claims to do that is full of BS. One of the top things I concentrate on at Next Level Blogger is how to make money online using blogging, social networking and internet marketing. This field is filled with content on “how to get results fast”, “how to make money fast”, etc. I’m trying to keep my foot off the gas in that department. It takes work, and I don’t want to give any false impressions. Even Frank Kern, the king of laziness in the internet marketing world, openly admits that he has to work hard to make his millions. Deep down, we all know success takes hard work, and as a business owner I have no doubt you understand that. So why should internet marketing be any different? The question is not whether you should do the work necessary…the question is whether or not you can get huge results with it. I’m telling you the answer is “yes, you can get HUGE results with it! It’s worth the work!” My goal is not to make the work disappear, but I do want to put it into perspective.

To Put it into Perspective…

One field I know well is real estate. I’ve had a lot of success generating leads online and helping my real estate team sell a lot of houses. When making the transition from traditional advertising to internet marketing, I often confront (and still confront) the concern of internet marketing being too techy. I explain a new marketing idea I have, and some people just don’t “get it”. And because it’s an uncomfortable concept, they just want to keep doing it old school. Well, if old school still worked, I’d be out of business. The whole point of this is that old school doesn’t work anymore, not when it comes to marketing. To remain competitive, we NEED to try new things.This means we simply have to dive in, get our hands dirty and learn new stuff. Period.

This is what I try to explain to my clients, and this is what I’ll try to explain to you today: to become an expert in your field, to become good in your business, you needed to learn a lot of things. In real estate for example, Realtors NEVER used to use cell phones or laptops. They never used to use contact management databases. They didn’t know how to typeset their own print ads or design brochures…none of this. Now, a real estate agent without these tools and skills is out of business, period. Stuff changes, doesn’t it?

And this is all I’m saying in this article. Soon, a Realtor without a Twitter account and a strong social networking plan is going to be uncompetitive. And this applies to YOUR business 100%. Whether you’re in a home based business, network marketing, whether you sell ebooks or affiliate products, whether your main business is online or offline…no matter what you’re selling, this applies, because what the consumer wants is changing, and the way they’re searching for information is changing. Is internet marketing too techy for you? At this point, yes it probably is. So it’s time to start learning! Embrace change, because it’s here to stay.

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.