Posts Tagged ‘Chris Brogan’
The Thank You Economy – Gary Vaynerchuk
I can’t get enough of Gary’s passion and his message no matter how hyped he gets or how direct he is, I love Chris Brogan’s more laid back approach too. They both work for me, I’m pretty hyper myself when I speak in front of crowds, they juice me up. I love getting a response from people and large audiences, but more than that I love listening to people like Gary & Chris for their passion and commitment to service and hard work. They are a good example of getting out there and hustling as Gary put’s it.
Gary just released this message on his Blog “The Thank You Economy” and yes I’m posting it.
My 100th Blog Post!
It seemed like it’s taken forever to reach the century mark on my Blog, maybe it’s because writing is labor to me. I love to write but I didn’t master the English language like so many others that have gone before me here on the Internet. I set a goal this month to write an article or post everyday, so how am I doing? Let’s see, it’s October 21st so that means I should have 21 posts this month right? This post would make #20 for the month of October so I should say something deep and important so that it matters. 🙂
I will say this, if you haven’t started a Blog or are thinking about it, talk to a few veteran Blogger’s who have been doing it for awhile before embarking. I don’t mean that in a negative way, I didn’t ask and just jumped in, so I’ve made a ton of mistakes. The good news is, I overcame the blunders for the most part and things seem to be moving in the right direction.
The #1 best thing I did was to adopt Social Media Networks, all my reader’s have come from Twitter, FriendFeed, FaceBook & Google. Now I haven’t paid for traffic in any way, it’s all organic in nature, so I’m not lighting it up.
The secret to Social Media is service, help people, provide good information and resources and you will build credibility and trust over time. I’m still in the infancy stages of my Blog, afterall, 100 Blog posts isn’t much in the grand scheme of things. In the end you must keep your word and care for each and every person you come into contact with, do whatever it takes to keep those relationships healthy. In the end, that’s all that matters…the relationship.
A couple great books on this topic belong to two people I would consider Mentor’s, Chris Brogan & Julien Smith’s TRUST AGENTS and Gary Vaynerchuk’s CRUSH IT! (Amazon links) They are as solid as you get on building relationship’s online and working insane hours on your passion.
So, THANK YOU all who have clicked the RSS button my Blog, those who keep coming back to see what I’m yakking about now and especially those who follow me on all the Social Media Networks on the Internet, without you I would have no reason to write and be here. Thank you and Many Blessings to you from every part of my heart!
Always ask yourself this question when you wake up everyday:
How Many People Are Better Off Because You Lived?
Social Media won't be called Social in the near Future
I was unable to attend BlogWorld EXPO 2009 in Las Vegas this week but it was streamed on a site called Mycontent.com, the service worked very well yesterday but day two was not smooth at all, but the audio was rock solid. So I watched from a far, the real stuff happens after and in between the sessions and of course all the after parties. The meetings after the meeting so to speak. I would love to have been a fly on the wall at many but technology hasn’t made it possible to be in two or three places at once just yet.
This event was chalked full of amazing people sharing and encouraging all of us, but also to help one another, to work together, and build each other up rather than put down and tear down. Chris Brogan as usual brings it with such authority and conviction, he works hard to relate all that he has learned, not from books, from his experiences. Chris doesn’t just preach, he has done or has walked through the experience of what he shares, either himself or a client he was helping. One of my favorite quotes from Chris’s Keynote was, ” Equip the people you want to do business with and they will want to do business with you “. Most people are always thinking about what they can get out of a given relationship or interaction, what I take from Chris is the opposite, help without getting first, then in time you will be rewarded at some level. This does not mean you will get money every time you get something back, it may be in the form of recognition, praise and or being referred to as a trust agent.
I struggle with these major events because there are so many of them and I can’t afford to attend all of them, not always because of cost but because of location and time. I also recognize that you don’t get as much out of the speakers and sessions unless you are actually attending, watching on the Internet doesn’t do any of these events justice in my humble opinion.
An announcement made today on the first panel of day two; State of the Blogosphere Address: Richard Jalichandra & Opening Keynote Address: The Death and Rebirth of Journalism, The announcement was this, Everytime you tweet #beatcancer in the next 24 hours a donation is made by BWE09 (Blogworld EXPO 2009), Tweet’s like this one are choking the Twitter fire-hose:
@scottmonty The organizers of #bwe09 are trying for a world record. RT #beatcancer to raise $ to beat cancer.
There is another shift taking place and it’s the new name of Social Media, it won’t be called Social in the near future or from this event forward, the new name will be….The New Media! This name will represent all types of media, not just the online world but traditional media as well. We’ll see how it takes. Until next time.
How I Monetize My Blog Part 1
Lately I have been getting asked (what feels like a million times), the question of how I make money with my blog. Or, can you (I) monetize my blog? Ironically, I attended a local Blogger’s Event this week and two questions were the focus, do you have a blog and do you monetize it? I’ll cover what I do on this Blog.
First a disclaimer….This post is NOT a get rich, a how to make a million in 30 days and it’s not the only way to make money with a blog. I am not claiming or promising you a thing! I am merely going to answer these questions by sharing with you how I generate revenue on this blog.
I’ve been blogging for a few years now, not many years, just a few. I started blogging on the topic of nanotechnology, I even wrote a short eBook on the topic. I also write about I.T. Strategic Planning, some personal thoughts and now I focus primarily on Social Media because that is what most of the readers here want from me. Then every now then, it comes in spurts, I get asked how I make money with my blog. OK, I get asked a lot 🙂 Keep in mind, I didn’t start blogging for the purposes of monetizing, I had a website long before I had a Blog, it’s easier to manage and it gives me a place to share my knowledge and help people.
I’ll bet the answer to this question is like finding the holy grail, I decided to do a little research and this is what I found out. I did a Google search for the phrase “Make Money With Blogs”, I noticed that there are 202,000,000 references to that phrase. Next I did a search for “How Bloggers Make Money From Blogging”, that showed a result of 136,000,000 references. Then I tried “How To Monetize My Blog” which brought a result of 522,000 references. I even setup a couple Google Alerts and monitored what was being posted for a few days, it’s a mess out there when it comes to this topic. As you can see this is a hot topic and considering the economic times we are in, I’m not surprised people are trying to find ways to make money. I actually hate the fact that we need money to survive but that’s another story.
Let’s move to what I do here on owengreaves.com, if you look around you’ll find I do very little, on the sidebar you will see a couple books I promote, they are affiliate links to Amazon.com. If you go to Amazon you can learn how to do the same thing, they cover the how to very well. I wrote a short eBook that I sell and that’s about it. The real dollars come from consulting on this topic, Social Media and I.T Strategic Planning. The truth be told, I just love to help people figure things out here on the Internet.
There are many ways to generate cash through your blog but you have to decide what your passion is and do people want what you have to sell. There is a process to follow, you don’t find a product first…you find a problem to solve before you start investing in a product.
Recently I Tweeted on Twitter a link to an article by Chris Brogan called, Make Some Money, and people thought I was spamming when I was merely promoting what Chris wrote. Money is a sensitive topic and anything that sniff’s of SPAM is an even touchier topic. Gary Vaynerchuck believes anyone can monetize whatever their passion might be, someone is going to buy what you’re doing, eventually. The trick is finding enough people to buy what you’re selling.
That’s it for now…stay tuned for more : )
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?