I’ve been blogging since early 2007 and have made money and gotten recognition from it, but not in the way that most aspirants think of it. The fact of the matter is that making money directly from blogging is nearly impossible. I’ve run AdSense, participated in affiliate campaigns, been paid for my writing, and more, and the money I can attribute to directly to my blogging is easily less than $200 per year on average.
At the same time, my income has quadrupled, I’ve spoken at conferences and events like the DMA and Social Slam, and I’ve secured a position as a knowledgable and dependable marketer and analyst. Those results easily outweigh the direct financial benefits of blogging, but I would never have realized them if all I had been focused on was making money from blogging.
via Maria Reyes-McDavis
How can you make money blogging?
As trite as it sounds, don’t focus on the money. The thing is that you can afford to not focus on the money is you don’t delude yourself into thinking that your blog is your business. It’s not. It is a vehicle for you and your business.
Do great work. Create a great product. Make your customers so happy that they blog about you.
Then and only then, when your business is so good that you can afford to spend time on blogging, write about what you know best. If you’re a web startup CEO, don’t blog about marketing and social media unless that’s where you really add value. Stick to leadership, company building, or leadership. If you’re a market analyst, stick to that. How do you add value by blogging about tools, or engagement, or management?
via cowbite
Yeah, I don’t know either.
Stick to what you know, and don’t focus on the money.
The best bloggers create crap content now and then, and they’re writing about their areas of expertise, so how can you or I compete if we don’t stick to what we know best?
Simple answer – we can’t, and it gets even worse if trying to market yourself or your company or, worse, make money from blogging comes at the expense of actually doing great work.
By this time, the question of whether or not you should be using social media to grow your online business has been answered definitively, and it was a yes. The question that remains in most people’s mind though is How. How do you actually use social media to grow your online business?
Customer Communication Platform
Some people don’t like the phone. Others don’t like email. Others don’t like face-to-face communication, and on, and on, and on. Social media introduces a whole new set of channels through which you have the opportunity to communicate with your customers, and while some people do not like using social media, 950 million people using Facebook, hundreds of millions using Twitter, and millions more using other channels confirm that there is a large potential audience there for you.
The thing to look for when using social media to grow your online business is not how easy can you make it or how many possible places can you spread your message to, but rather what does each audience in each different channel want to communicate about. Tailor your content and your communication style to each audience and each channel in order to make your message as relevant and meaningful as possible.
Monitor the Competition
Social media is one of the best platforms to help in monitoring competitors without going out into the field to carry out a market research analysis of them. Your competitors will tell their customers what they are doing and, in turn, those customers will possibly say something about your competitors over social media. Such information is important as it will help you know what you competitors are up to and how other people are reacting to any new developments they have. From there, you can then adjust your business accordingly to keep abreast with the competition.
Use tools like Topsy, Social Mention, Twitter searches, IFTTT, and others to monitor what your competition is saying, what people are saying about them, and what people are saying about you.
Increase Search Engine Ranking
Prior to social media being widely accepted, search engines primarily used factors like inbound links and textual analysis in order to determine which pages should rank highest in search results. The problem with this is that very few people manage websites, so if you’re counting how many links a website has pointing at it as a sign of how popular it is, you’re missing all of the votes of people that don’t run websites.
Now that so many people use social media, social signals like tweets and Facebook likes act as votes of popularity and value. The more social signals search can see your website has, the better it will rank in search results.
Build Credibility
The key to building credibility in social media is to first build a trusting relationship with your customers. Once rapport is established, then your customers can feel comfortable including you in the constant information and feedback stream that is a Facebook, Twitter, or other social media feed. There are several ways that will help you be able to build your reputation and credibility for your customers to totally trust in you. These include:
Making sure that people are aware that you know what you are doing and that you are an expert in your area. In so doing, they can trust that you are aware of their specific needs. This means, if you’re a designer, talk about design. Sure, the odd football comment or random joke can pop in there now and then to show your personality, but if you’re a designer with a Facebook page and you want to use it to grow your business, talk about things related to your business that people will care about.
The information that you give to your customers should add value for them in some way. This information should be aimed at promoting shared interest. This means don’t talk about yourself all the time and don’t share something unless it’s really valuable to your audience. Something that isn’t valuable is just an annoyance, and every time you annoy someone, you make it easier for them to stop paying attention to you.
You should be dynamic enough to give each customer what they want by tailoring your products and services to be able to meet their specific needs. This means you should do your best to tailor your content to each channel and audience. Pay attention to whether your Twitter followers respond to the same language, content, and posting times as your Facebook fans or your Pinterest followers. There’s a good chance they like different things, so customize your content, as well as the products and services you talk about, to them.
Blog post and webpage headlines can make or break a visitor’s time on your website. A bad blog post headline is like an uninteresting email subject line, a boring book title, or a poorly written newspaper or magazine article headline. When those are boring, you don’t want to open the email, read the book, or look at the article, do you?
The same goes for your blog post and webpage headlines, but we have to add to this the fact that writing on the web isn’t just how humans. You also have to write with an eye for what people search for so that search engines know to match up your webpages with a searchers search results. You make this possible by using the language your customers use rather than industry jargon. If your customers say CD, you write CD and not album. If your customers say tennis shoes, you write tennis shoes and not sneakers.
Why? Because when I search for tennis shoes in Seattle, Google will show me the results that talk about tennis shoes and not sneakers.
How to Properly Write Headlines for SEO
How you write the headlines for your site has a significant influence on the amount of traffic that you’ll get. They have to be written in a way to attract traffic to your site now and must be versatile enough to attract traffic to your site in the future as well. Here are a few steps you can employ to be successful:
Include the primary interest you are looking to satisfy with your page. Do not keyword stuff by including everything and the kitchen sink. The more targeted you are, the better chance you stand of ranking well and also at converting website visitors.
Stick to the point by staying within a limit of 70 characters. After 65-70 characters, research has shown that keywords in headlines tend to have less of an effet on rankings. Long headlines can also appear to be keyword stuffing, which can have a negative effect on your rankings.
Write unique headlines for every page on your website. The choice of words for your headline is extremely important, so use words that will explain to your visitors what your site is about.
Use relevant words. Be sure that you understand your audience and create headlines that will convey a complete message about what your site offers.
Keys to Writing Solid Headlines
The headline (also known as the title tag) tells the search engines and readers what your website is about, so it must contain some elements that are related to your business and subject matter. The title tag will help readers decide whether to visit your website or not when it shows up in their search results. For a title tag to be effective, you should consider the following when writing it:
The length which should not exceed 70 characters, including spaces.
The most relevant keywords should be forwardly placed in the title tag, with less significant words at the end.
Keep the important phrases short and simple– do not make them read a full sentence.
Place the company or website name near the front of the title tag if it is related to your keywords; otherwise, place it near the end of the tag.
Create a different title tag for every page, of your website. Make sure that you do not duplicate, that each title tag is relevant, and briefly describes the content in the page.
Research from SEOmoz and several other companies has shown a strong correlation between optimized headlines and increased traffic from search engines, social media, email, and other channels. The reasons for this are that optimized headlines are easier for search engines to relate to a searcher’s intent, and they are more attractive for people in any channel to click on.
Last year at TED, Eli Pariser gave a talk on how Google, Facebook, and other internet-based services are increasingly filtering the web to only show up things that we generally agree with and are interested in.
In a world increasingly concerned with happiness and relevancy and speed, how do you learn something new if information is constantly being filtered for you?
You look like the sum of your actions.
I’m a married, middle class, liberal, educated, white guy, marketer that runs, rides bikes, and plays guitar now and then, so what types of things do you think I Google? Here are a few examples from the last few months:
Change a rear derailleur cable
New Balance Minimus
Stratocaster history
Obama’s staff
Average MBA age
Twitter press releases
etc etc etc
And, what kind of people do you think I friend on Facebook and what type of statuses do I tend to like, share, or comment on more than others?
So, you can see that, even if I wanted information outside of my comfort zone, Google and Facebook would be unlikely to give it to me because they want to keep me happy with their services and therefore try to keep them as relevant as possible by showing me what they think makes me happy. Let’s say that my colleague implores me to learn more about the Republican presidential candidates because he believes I should be more open minded, so I google them. More than likely, Daily Kos will outrank Fox News in my search results even if Fox News has the overall better page for my search. Why? Because, Google thinks I’d be happier with their service if I get a search result that suits my interests.
So, maybe I avoid Google and post a Facebook status, “Can someone please tell me about some good ideas the Republican presidential candidates have?” Which of my friends are more likely to see my status and even be able to respond? The ones that have the most in common with me, which Facebook judges based on whom I interact with most frequently, and if my conservative friends aren’t as likely to see my question, I’m not likely to get the best possible answer, but I’ll never know that because I don’t know what I don’t know. I can’t see the missing information. I only know that, when I get an answer, I get an answer – not whether or not it is THE BEST answer.
via paul-simpson.org
Let your thoughts be your actions.
Most of us spend 8+ hours every day in front of a computer screen. If we sleep an average of 8 hours every night, that leaves at most 8 hours for commuting, eating, exercising, spending time with family, and everything else, so if we’re really lucky, we might get one or two hours every day where our information sources are not being actively filtered – one or two hours every day when we can see billboards, commercials, magazine articles, friends, and more that bring us new or conflicting ideas. But, do we go out of our way to find competing opinions and ideas, to introduce ourselves to something outside of our comfort zone? No.
Yet, we ask ourselves questions about other’s politics, their religious beliefs, their sexuality, their cultures, and more. We’re just too busy and not really interested enough in spending the time to learn about them, and this leads our information gateways – Google and Facebook – to increasingly believe that we are what we do and not what we think, but we can change that.
Try this exercise for one day – just one day.
Whenever you think about anything around which you have an opinion, write in a notebook, make an evernote, send yourself a text, or somehow otherwise make note of it. Later in the day, do both of these things. Go to a search engine you never use – Bing, DuckDuckGo, Blekko, etc – and learn about an opposing opinion AND ask the most informed person you know for a 2 minute CliffsNotes version of the other side of the story.
That day won’t be too extremely shocking. It’s the next day or week that really starts to open your eyes.
The next day, skip reading your normal news or listening to your normal radio station and go back to those websites and friends that gave you answers and now read about and ask about more and different topics. Even if you don’t agree with the viewpoints you’re given, you’ll find yourself more informed and less filtered by what a machine thinks you want.
I tried this while living overseas in 2004 – though I’ll admit that personalization at that point was very minimal – and I’ve never gone back. Sure, I use Google while logged in without being too concerned, and I have largely friends like me on Facebook, but I no longer rely on the filters to bring me the best information. I now have a habit of going to websites I don’t agree with to get their point of view and asking friends I might have otherwise just dismissed or argued with to help me understand the full picture better.
via denn
Be deliberate and diligent.
In Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, both authors discuss that deliberate practice – and lots of it – is often one of the largest contributing factors to world class achievement. Much the same, the development of your mind and life – such that you are not a filtered, sheltered, and biased human being – depends on you taking the approach above and applying it every day.
Don’t like bleeding heart liberals? Fine, but how will you ever know why if you don’t stay informed (outside of your bubble) about them. Hate the Defense of Marriage movement? Fine, but have you gone outside your liberal village to find out what really drives those people? If you don’t ever do that, how can you make an informed decision about why and whether or not to hate?
This goes beyond politics.
Politics is obviously an easy example, but progressing in music, sports, your career, and other things hinges on two things:
Your ability to go outside your comfort zone.
Your ability to stick to it when everyone else gives up.
Nothing more and nothing less will ensure that you learn something new better, faster, and more effectively than anyone else around.
People managers and anyone interested in interpersonal communication.
When?
Put it in your queue.
Why?
Drive is a fascinating book.
Best Quote
The monkeys solved the puzzle simply because they found it gratifying to solve puzzles. They enjoyed it. The joy of the task was its own reward.
Review
I loved this book in part because it gave me such an interesting look into what motivates me, my colleagues, my family members, and even my clients and customers. Having worked in marketing in several different verticals, I found some of Daniel Pink’s analysis and stories matched perfectly with what I have experienced. For example, let’s say that my employee is doing something they enjoy, and I want to reward them for it, so I give them a little bonus. They’re super happy and start working even harder, and I see that, so I resolve to give them a bonus every time they do that one thing.
After a while, they come to expect the bonus and therefore think of they activity in terms the money it results in and not the pleasure that it previously produced. So, what happens? At some point, they get decreasing marginal returns and decide that it’s not worth doing that activity instead of other things unless they get paid more. In this case, paying someone for doing something they enjoyed actually results in worse performance because, as soon as you introduce money into the equation, they start to think of things only in terms of money.
Of course, this is a greatly oversimplified example of one aspect of Daniel Pink’s Drive, but it really stuck out to me, and as I do work in a business that frequently deals with rewards, I found it highly relevant.
Last Word
Drive is a great book about what really motivates and demotivates people. Buy it.
You should read this book if you’re interested in people, power, and politics.
When?
I would be interested to find out what a high schooler thinks of this book, but in reality, it’s probably best for someone early in their career.
Why?
Read this book if you want lots of historical examples of failed and successful power games.
Best Quote
Playing with appearances and mastering the arts of deception are among the aesthetic pleasures of life. They are also key components in the acquisition of power.
Review
The 48 Laws of Power sits best with readers that view life and relationships as more about power than about goodwill, karma, or doing what is right. That being said, the examples that Robert Greene gives are really interesting and educational for anyone looking to improve their standing in personal or professional relationships. You can easily take the stories from ancient China, or Italy, or other places and apply them to your every day life.
I caution readers of this book though that a lot of it comes across as heartless and honestly not a good fit for how I see the world. Nonetheless, there is a lot to learn…especially when you recognize that Robert Greene even states in the book that a leader is doing the best for himself and others when he uses all of his skills to his advantage because he can improve not only his own standing, but theirs as well.
Last Word
Read The 48 Laws of Power if you are interested in power games and how to improve your standing with power, attention, deception, and any other talents, but if you can’t handle a heartless read or an amoral examination of relationships, skip the book. It will be too hard to get through.
There was a point early in my career, where I built a Twitter presence that (at the time) was on the Top 100 Most Followed list and a blog that was one of the more respected social media and marketing outlets in Washington state. For the bean counters, that was somewhere around 7,500 Twitter followers and over 2,000 daily unique visitors all without advertising and no guest blogging.
I learned a lot from that experience, but maybe more importantly, what I got from it was a lot of connections and two jobs at agencies that increased my income, visibility, responsibility, and opportunities to learn. Once I was on the path to success though, I did not see the need to continue investing in my blog because I was busy enough that I had to make a choice – keep investing in the blog in the hope that I get more and bigger opportunities while potentially squandering the new opportunities I had just gotten or let the blog languish and focus on making the most of the new opportunities. I chose the latter. That was 2008.
Since then, blogging has acquired this image of being a magic pill.
There are bloggers like Rand, or Fred, or Mark, or Seth that write prolifically and seem to soar above the rest of us as a result, and what do you do when you want success for yourself? You model success. The problem that so many people run into is that it’s not the blogging that makes these guys successful. They all have their own businesses, and those take up the majority of their time. They just also happen to blog, and let us not forget perhaps the most important thing here.
They happen to run great businesses, and running a great business is what makes them popular and successful. Their blogs are simply vehicles for sharing their businesses and their greatness. A blog is almost never a business itself.
via Nina Matthews Photography
“I’m going to start blogging to market myself.”
And, that is the thing that really baffles me. Blogging can be great, but it’s a business tool. It’s almost never a business in and of itself, so why start investing your time in blogging before you know that either you are producing great work or your business is really worth promoting?
My recommendation is this. Build a great business. Do great work. Produce something that is so valuable that other people blog about you or it first. Then maybe, start your own blog to market yourself or your business.
Although many businesses struggle to use social media to their benefit, the ones that effectively harness it make huge gains in at least awareness and retention, if not also revenue. With Pinterest being the latest large social media tool, there is again an opportunity for you to gain ground in social media before your competitors learn how to use it.
To best ways to use Pinterest for your business are:
Offer Important Information -You can be a source of helpful information to prospective customers who are researching on the Internet. Pinterest is the best of both worlds, because you can use it share advice while spreading the word about your business, all at the same time. Pin data that can solve a common problem and people will want to follow your boards, and share or repin your pins, making your Pinterest viral in a good way.
Register Your Business Properly -Register a Pinterest account using the same email address you input on other social network registration forms. Include your business name as your username, so that people will easily remember and recognize you. Post new content or a comment in multiple social networking sites. Add your business website link to every pin to increase website traffic. Most visitors prefer to click on a presented link rather than having to search around for your website.
Consider Contests-The best way to make your website popular is to run frequent contests. Websites generally give small prizes, while others give high priced items, such as iPads. Require entrants to share the link to the contest in order to enter. The more friends a contestant brings in, the higher the chances of winning.
Showcase Your Personality-Funny or interesting pins get more attention than boring pins. People often follow others who have interesting things to share. Topics that interest you are a good source of material, because there will surely be users who have the same interest. Having a profile photo can also help you gain followers.
Follow Big Names on Pinterest-Just because you follow a celebrity or big brand doesn’t mean that they will pay attention to you, but interacting with their content can expose you to their audiences and potentially draw people to your account and then your website.
Pin Daily-Pin regularly to establish an online presence. Most people prefer to see something fresh and interesting. They are hungry for updates and gossips. So maintain your Pinterest account and post regularly to attract new followers.
Take Your Time -Making a new account on Pinterest does not automatically give you thousands of friends. You have to devote time to adding and retaining your Pinterest friends. Relationships do not happen overnight so you have to invest in time for them to grow.
The best thing about Pinterest is that it is new and exciting, gaining the attention of many Internet users by taking advantage of the concept that people like to look at images rather then read large blocks of text. Once you create an account and start pinning, you’ll find adding and maintaining your Pinterest boards to be quite addictive and lots of fun. Imagine taking such an enjoyable activity and being able to increase your sales with it; it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
In September, Seth Godin wrote about Talker’s Block and how no one gets it – unlike Writer’s Block – because we’re so accustomed to speaking and having our words mean little. They rarely get recorded and come back to bite us so we don’t have to get over fears of talking and therefore never get Talker’s Block.
As a little FYI, I’m not one of those do-something-every-day-that-scares-the-shit-out-of-you guys. Those people annoy the crap out of me, but some of them don’t simply do things that scare themselves just to satisfy the edict. They actually think about the outcomes of their efforts, and for that, I won’t go so far as to say that movement is stupid.
You are a fearful thing
Whether it’s spiders, or snakes, or tigers, or something else, you are afraid of it. Yet, when was the last time you were in a situation where one of those could have actually harmed you? Similarly, if you are one of the great majority, you fear speaking in front of people more than death.
Both of these two types of fears are born into every human being. Our ancestors didn’t have guns or armor or vehicles or houses. They huddle under lean-tos for shelter and ran at the first sight or sound of danger. What else could they do? They were weak compared to the true predators surrounding them. At the same time, many cultures promoted homogenization of thought and character, so stepping out of line by saying or doing something different caused you to be shunned and socially punished, which could result in less food, attention, mating opportunities, wealth, and more.
And, these fears stay with us. Society and our own nature promote them.
How do you get over fears?
Number one – There is nothing to fear.
I spend a lot of time teaching others – speaking, training, presenting, developing my team, coaching teens, and more – and I’ve been very fortunate to not only only be skilled at a few things, but to also have had a life thus far that provides me with opportunities to try lots of things. I hope that’s not bragging. I’ve been very fortunate. I:
moved overseas by myself with no job and found myself working on a goat milk farm.
literally almost caused my own death skydiving.
have been hit by a car
impaled my abdomen on a tree branch when falling from a tree.
fell over 50 feet from a tree a different time and walked away with only a broken wrist.
and more.
I say all that to put into perspective that I have fears, but I get over them, and when things go wrong, I survive, and you will too. What’s to fear about approaching a celebrity or hot chick (which I don’t do because I’m married) or speaking in front of a crowd when I nearly plunged to my death from 750 feet? Why not support someone that dreams to move overseas when I’ve done it with no plan and no experience and know what it’s like? How about helping people get over fears of speaking in front of others? The people in the audience are more afraid than they are.
Your fears of almost everything are born into you. You fear speaking up for yourself in a meeting because your conditioning tells you not to. You fear approaching the A-lister because you’re worried about being judged. You shrink from the spider in your apartment, but can’t explain why. But, the consequences of those things are nothing nowadays. What happens if you speak up for yourself? Your case is heard. What happens if the A-lister rejects you? Nothing. They’re not in your circle and they don’t influence your friends. What’s that spider going to do? Bite you? You can squish it.
via vancouverfilmschool
Number two – Act on your fears.
If you’ve ever worked with kids, you know what it’s like to say, “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Yet, you still fear. Heck, I still fear, but one big difference between the winners and the losers is that winners don’t let fear hold them back. Losers do. You don’t have to “do something that scares the shit out of you every day,” but you have to train yourself to recognize the reality of your fear.
Irrational or inconsequential fear should be acted upon immediately. The longer you let yourself not talk to that person because you’re afraid, the harder it becomes, but the sooner you say something to them, the sooner you know whether or not it was a good idea. And, if you’re successful, you gain more confidence for the next time. If you’re not successful, you have more information to improve the next time.
What do you get if you don’t act? NOTHING.
Above, I listed a number of the bad things that have happened to me, but seriously, am I still here? Am a smart and confident person? Yes, and you are too when you act on your fears.
via Richawriter
What do you have to lose if you try to get over your fears?
Neither of us are stupid. We’re not going to put ourselves in harm’s way without being reasonably certain that the likelihood of something going terribly wrong is miniscule.
People that like economics, sociology, psychology, politics, or being brainy.
When?
Whenever you get to it. There’s no rush.
Why?
The Black Swan is at the very least interesting for purely intellectual reasons.
Best Quote
When you develop your opinions on the basis of weak evidence, you will have difficulty interpreting subsequent information that contradicts these opinions, even if this new information is obviously more accurate.
Review
I tried to read this book once, but gave up not because it wasn’t interesting. It was. But rather, because I could not see how I would apply it to my work, and honestly, my time comes at enough of a premium that I don’t choose to make time for things that I’m not going to make use of in my career. A month or two after giving it up, Kim Alfreds strongly recommended that I go back to it, which I did. I’m glad that I finished reading it because it was a good book, and I can definitely apply what I learned to things in my personal life, but strictly within my career, I’m at a loss for how I’m really going to use this information.
The Black Swan is all about the idea that some things, and increasingly more things, are simply unpredictable. The name itself stems from the fact that Europeans believed that a defining characteristic of a swan was that it is white until they saw a black swan in Australia. They had no way to predict that swans could be black because it simply wasn’t in their model that that could be a possibility. Similarly, Taleb argues that many things in life are unpredictable because we do not possess the faculties to take every potential event into account.
Last Word
I found Taleb’s argument fascinating, if at times a little over my head honestly, but in the time since I have read this book (now twice), I still have not encountered any situation in which I have used the information outside of a normal intellectual debate. As such, you should read The Black Swan is a worthwhile read if it sounds interesting to you and you don’t already have something that will more directly impact you to read.
