Posts Tagged ‘Blogging’
The Blog Equation
I have been doing far too much reading lately, I mean I’m always reading someones work, how else will I ever learn how things work, and why. I spent two hours pouring over Darren Rowse – 31 Days to Build A Better Blog, my head was so full I had to step away and watch a movie.
After that I poked my nose into another great book by David Risley, Six Figure Blogger BluePrint, getting insight and guidence from David Risley. I have been studying this whole Blogging thing and how to monetize it for a long time now. The hardest part was and is getting focused, figuring out which direction I should be going, what do I know best and is there a need out there. 
One thing jumps out at you after reading alot of material on the topic, almost every book or whitepaper seems to have a common denominator. The table of contents in all of these has some version of what you should do first, the best way to describe the first item would be, First Things First.
In almost every case, the very first exercise is to start writing good content. I’m a firm believer in doing just that, but I don’t spend a lot of time fussing over it, write, spellcheck and post is my style. Now depending on the kind of blog or what your going to sell will determine if you should get professional writing help.
There is a blog equation as well, Sound Blogging (Content) + Marketing + Traffic (List) = Money!
That may be over simplifying things but that’s the very lowest you can take Blogging for Money. Don’t get me wrong, this is hard work and there really isn’t a shortcut, you will work, and work hard you will for every reader, page view and dollar your site earns.
There’s only one way to go down this road, you need a healthy attitude, because if you don’t, the journey will be painful. My recommendation is to have a good plan, a healthy attitude and enjoy the journey. More importantly, have a good understanding of the WHY, otherwise you will not see it through. I can’t stress enough the importance of a plan, without it, The Blog Equation won’t be enough.
What do you think?
When You're Not Prepared
I mentioned I have been reading alot over the holidays on building a successful blog, a successful business, or whatever else you might be building. I love to learn, but I hate the details. That means I need to build a team of solid people that can ensure the details are getting looked after, it’s in my plan. In my last rant I suggested to you that sitting still is not an option when you are building a business, a following, or even a Blog. But before you can get all wound up with busy, you have to have some sense of preparedness, or have a plan to work from. Because winging it, is really planning to fail.
I would also suggest to you that in my 52 years, I have failed (learned) more than not, from my perspective anyway. Other’s would say I’m a huge success and have my bleep together. Ya right. I’m actually very insecure and tend to over analyze, I am very calculating to the point of doing nothing sometimes. There, I feel better now, you now know my biggest weakness.
Getting back to being prepared, do you prepare for meetings, do you prepare before going outside in sub-zero temperatures, do you prepare and plan your vacation well in advance of leaving? I think you are getting my point here. The truth is, we only really prepare if its important to us, it doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s important, we prepare for it. In fact, studies have been done proving that we plan our two week vacations more than we plan any other event in our lives! That can’t be good, Gary Vaynerchuk once said, if you are working for the weekends and holidays, your crap is broken.
I play on a Worship team in my church, I handle the lead vocals, we try to practice every Friday night, when we do, Sunday goes very, very well. When we don’t practice on Friday’s, like this past week, Sunday morning looks, sounds and feels like we were under prepared. That’s what it’s like when you’re not prepared, it falls apart quickly and comes off bus league, don’t do that. A bad performance is what you get when you’re not prepared. Worse yet, embarrassment. You can’t do most things without being ready, without being prepared, so why do we try to get by without being prepared? The question is perplexing at times.
The same principle applies to Blogging, business or anything else you hope to realize a positive result. Success is not an accident, it takes time, effort, planning, and being prepared. Oh you might get lucky once, but I doubt you will be able to wing it and realize the success you want. Why is it that all the Internet Marketers sell you their plan on how to do what they did? To sell you their success system, their new Book or eBook. They went through the long process of being prepared, they had a plan long before they did anything, they prepared by doing the research, all the writing, the video’s and they worked out a system from start to finish before they launched. Those who do the work, most likely see the results they prepared for.
Do you want success or do you want the result from when you’re not prepared?
Review of The New E-Book “Beyond Blogging”
I rarely ever review Books and or eBooks, in fact, this is probably 1st one I have ever taken the time to write about that I can remember. At my age I wouldn’t be surprised if I reviewed a book a week ago. <grin> Now, I’m not saying books or ebooks are good, bad or otherwise, but lets face it, books are not what they used to be due to the Internet and the digital movement. I do like to having something in my hands I can use a highlighter on, so many times I’ll print the ebook off just to put chicken scratches all over it, but not usually. Enough about my stuff, let’s talk about this new ebook by Nathan Hangen & Mike Cliffe Jones called, Beyond Blogging – The Secrets to Blogging Success! (Affiliate Link)
I have to admit I was hesitant to spend $47 bones on this digital effort, but sometimes your gut talks to you and you just have to invest in your future based on that alone. I bought the ebook, afterall I have some serious goals set for 2010 so invest I did. I started going through it and for some reason I felt kinda weird and deja vu-ish. Maybe it’s because I have been following those interviewed in this ebook and knew alot of their content based on videos, interviews and reading their Blogs. I’ll even admit I didn’t know some of these successful bloggers even existed.
You’ve probably heard already that this ebook is not a step-by-step how to ebook on Blogging. Its actually written more like Think and Grow Rich, you have to actually dig in and figure out what your passion is and what track you should be on. Oh, these guys even include a worksheet to help you work through the exercise. The layout & presentation of this ebook is actually pleasing and easy to read, color choices are pretty good too. After reading through the table of contents I felt like this ebook was more about name dropping and leveraging relationships. But I moved on and to my surprise I found myself enjoying the stories and struggles behind some of these successful bloggers.
There is actually some solid content and advice given throughout the ebook, some smart interesting ways to monetize a blog or website. You will read much of what you may have already learned in Social Media circles. One thing you will get from this ebook, blogging is hard work and requires patience. Blogging is not for everyone, much like driving a forklift, you have to have a passion for what you do.
I recommend you use the shopping cart method when it comes to reading this ebook, some things you buy into and some things you won’t. The things you don’t buy into, just leave them on the shelf and keep the things you do agree with in your cart.
Like Norman Vincent Peale’s Think & Grow Rich, you have to study the book and read between the lines alot to figure out why your stomach has a nervous feeling. That feeling is the not knowing whats coming, it’s ambiguity, it’s knowing there’s something there but you just can’t put your finger on it. You will feel something similar when you read Beyond Blogging, I think there is value in this ebook and what it’s trying to show, tell and lead you through. You will also see a common denominator throughout this ebook, there is a system, a plan needs to be developed, a road map if you will, you need to know what the end will look like to make the principles in this ebook work for you. Keep the end in mind.
You will invest in something, it should be you, it should be books or ebooks, systems,and strategies that provide knowledge you don’t have already. Don’t get stuck on price, approach your journey with a positive attitude and humility, you will go much further than a bad attitude will ever take you.
So, I recommend this ebook as I do Chris Brogan’s Trust Agents and Gary Vaynerchuk’s CRUSH IT! (both affiliate links) I even make them all available for you here on my Blog. Enjoy Beyond Blogging – The Secrets To Blogging Success, I’m certain you will earn, learn and make more than the amount you pay for this 202 paged ebook.
I hope you like the ebook, I would like to hear what you think of the ebook as well.
Happy Learning and Happy Blogging.
Do You Attend Blog Events?
I attended a Blogger event here in my community at a pub / restaurant / night club called The Duke of Dublin, we tried to talk but the live entertainment meant we had to yell. It’s a nice facility but probably not the best place to sit and talk quietly, get to know each other and cover items like blogging. Having said that, it was still great fun to catch up with a few people I already new and of course its always fun to meet new faces to match the names on Twitter.
The two primary question’s were, do you have a Blog and do you monetize your blog? Interestingly enough everyone had a blog but not all have monetized their blog because that wasn’t the reason why they started the blog in the first place. My primary goal is to help businesses with I.T. Strategy and how to use Social Media and Social Media Networks in their businesses. I’ll admit I didn’t start out with the intent of monetizing but over time I have put up some low level ways of monetizing my blog.
Once there was a break in the music we were able to share some stories and swap business cards. If you haven’t attended a Tweet-up or a Blogging Event you should, you meet the coolest people. These aren’t the most flattering pictures but I’m posting them anyway, enjoy!
A Few of the Gang
Who Are You and What Are You Doing?
Every Sunday afternoon I play soccer with a great bunch of guys, we’ve been getting together at the same field now for over ten years, trying to stay in shape of course. In July of this year I took a tumble at warp speed and broke, no shattered my left shoulder at the clavicle joint. Here it is now late September and I still have not been cleared to play, do you have any idea how frustrating that is? To know you can’t be out there with your buddies, knowing you can help your team mates win. Half the fun is the strategy, who plays what position and who has the touch up front and finish the play by putting in the net. As this is just drop in soccer we get people at various levels of ability, from 17 to 56 years of age and every once and awhile someone comes out that doesn’t have clue what you can and can’t do, they don’t know the rules. So they run around all over the place not knowing what to do and never really ask for help, and when they do, they forget what you said almost as fast as you said it. Given enough time and they come out more often, eventually, they find there way and start to contribute in a meaningful way.
You are probably wondering where I’m going with this, the question is, are you one of those soccer players running around trying to accomplish something meaningful in the game? Are you playing with the Internet and Social Media the same way? You’ve setup your Blog and you’re telling everyone to come to your site but you haven’t taken the time to learn how or what to do with all those visitors. There are a great many people out there you would consider successful, but there is a far greater number that haven’t realized their 15 minutes of fame yet. You have two ways to approach the Internet & Social Media, you can learn from those who have gone ahead of you or you can try to figure it out yourself.
I can tell you from personal experience, learning from those who have gone before you and succeeded is much easier, that is the choice I would make if you’re just getting started. In fact, if you’ve been Blogging for awhile you should study the leaders anyway, learn the guidelines and then figure out how to make them work for you. Pay attention to what they do, but don’t try to act like they do…why? In Social Media circles you will hear the mantra, be real, be yourself and be honest. So trying to act like someone else won’t let the uniquely designed you to come out, and you will be known as someone who is not authentic and phony.
Everyone loves guy’s like Gary Vaynerchuck, Chris Brogan and Scott Stratten but you will never be able to duplicate how they deliver the message and do what they do. You can however, learn what they do and then learn to make it yours, learn to make it unique by being who you were meant to be. Gary wrote a book soon to be released in October called, ” CRUSH IT ” and Chris’s book which is already out and amply titled, ” TRUST AGENTS “, tell you what I just shared, be sure to order a copy and learn from them first hand.
As you can see, help is closer than you think. No matter what your niche or area of expertise happens to be, study what Gary & Chris do but also pay attention to others like Amber Naslund, David Armano, Mack Collier, Olivier Blanchard, Trey Pennington and Kris Colvin. Spend some time in the Silicon Valley circle to by watching Robert Scoble and Louis Gray. Most of the above have sites with video’s you can view so you get an idea of who they are, and what they are doing with Social Media Networks. As you can see there many to follow and learn from, but they all cover their interests and passions in their own unique way. Also keep in mind some of these people are paid to do what they do in Social Media Networks, but that’s what makes them great case studies.
– Amber Naslund works for Radian6, they provide tools for real-time social media monitoring and analysis designed primarily for PR and Ad agencies.
– David Armano, is the Senior Partner at Dachis Group, was created to unlock the value of social technologies for large corporate enterprises through its Social Business Design global advisory practice, and technology implementation program. David talks about the 5 B’s:
1.) Be Ubiquitous
2.) Be Social
3.) Be Interesting
4.) Be Remarkable
5.) Be Yourself
– Mack Collier, Helping companies understand the ” Social ” part of Social Media.
– Olivier Blanchard, trains company executives and project teams in all matters of social media management and measurement, then help them build and integrate effective programs into every facet of their business, from Public Relations, business development and market research to Human Resources and Customer Support. Oh and Olivier is working on a book that will educate you on the proper way to realize and calculate the true ROI (Return On Investment) in Social Media.
– Trey Pennington, Interviews leaders in Business & Social Media on BlogTalkRadio and uses almost every Social Media Network out there.
– Kris Colvin, is the designer of Twitterface.com and a Social Media Maven with passion and desire, Twitterface is a great tool so be sure to use it.
Whether you already have a business or a Blog, you will never stick with it and see it through unless you’re passionate about it. Gary Vaynerchuck’s war cry is to do your passion and you’ll give yourself the best chance to win. Remember, the Internet is the Platform, Social Media is the Tool you can master on the Internet. Do your homework, study how to use the tools and pay attention to your passion. In another article I wrote, called ” Your Passion Is In Front of You, You’re Just Not Paying Attention” its so simple it’s almost embarrassing, I triple dog dare you to read it.
Each person who is a success online can only teach you how they did it, not how someone else did it. Now pay attention to what I just said, they may have duplicate someone else’s system but they made that system there’s through their personality and how they think. They couldn’t ever act or be like the person they learned from, so study by taking notes, watching videos and then find your passion. The final step is to make it your own, only you can be you and only you can do it. So who are you and what are you doing?