 |  ProBlogger Blog TipsMake Money Blogging http://www.problogger.net рекомендовать друзьям >> |
- The Secret Ingredient to a Successful Blog
This guest post is written by Ava Jae of Writability.
If you've been blogging for any amount of time, you've heard that content is king. You've been told that everything else—design, SEO, in and outbound links—those things are a bonus, but the real thing you need to focus on is your content.
And it's true, content is king, because even an SEO-optimized blog with a beautiful, user-friendly design and a parade of in and outbound links will fail without great content.
But although content is important, there's something more—something that only you can bring to the table, something that only you have to offer that will really make your blog shine. A secret ingredient that will make your blog unforgettable.
You.
Your voice matters
The fact is, if you're looking to build your blog on completely unique content, you're going to run out of ideas very quickly. Chances are anything you want to talk about has already been covered by at least a dozen other bloggers, and it's not because you're unoriginal or a terribly unimaginative person—it's just because there are only so many things to talk about.
The question you need to ask yourself is: what keeps readers coming back to your blog, when they could go elsewhere for the same information?
Can you guess what the answer is? I'm talking about that secret ingredient again. Your voice, your take, your worldview—those are the things that make you memorable. Those are the things that make you stand out in an ocean of blogs.
You have a gift
You have something priceless, a gift that you were born with, a gift often taken for granted: no one can think or speak or write the way you do. The way you put words on the page, how you interpret the world—those are treasures that can't be taken away from you, treasures you should cherish.
Maybe you're like me and you write about writing. Guess what?—there are hundreds of writing blogs out there. But there's only one you.
Maybe you blog about technology, or education, or sports—it doesn't matter what niche you're in or what you're writing about, what matters is you.
Take a look at the last few blog posts you wrote and read them aloud. Do they sound and feel like you, or could anyone have written them? If the answer is the latter, then you're missing out on a huge opportunity—you're forgetting to be you.
Yes, content is king. Without something interesting to talk about, your readers won't come—but without inserting yourself in your content, without weaving in your thoughts, your opinions, your voice into your blog, your readers won't remember you. They'll go to another blog with the same content and a better voice.
Don't be just another blogger. You have something incredible and special and entirely unique because you are the secret ingredient. Isn't it time your readers see it, too?
Ava Jae is a writer, artist and X-men geek. You can find her weekly musings on her blog Writability, follow her on Twitter, or check out her Facebook page.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
The Secret Ingredient to a Successful Blog
Переслать - Act Like a Pro
This guest post is by Jean Compton of jeancompton.com.
What would you do if you knew you were going to get paid a large chunk of cash—up front, without any pre-conditions—to do something?
What would you do? How would you act? If it was something totally in the realm of your capabilities you'd get to work on it right away, right? You'd put in your best effort showcasing your greatest skills knowing that you were fluent in the information being asked for and sure that you would deliver a top notch product.
In other words, you would act like a pro.
So, what's stopping you?
What's stopping you, right now, from acting like an expert in your field? Everyone has something they can talk about naturally and authoritatively. Your gifts that only you possess is your uniqueness. Since you're not like any other and no one else can be you; you have singular talents that you can share with the world that other people can benefit from.
If you're an authority in an area you can start acting like one now. Your knowledge is desired by your community—or your tribe—even if you haven't been acknowledged or paid for it yet.
I'm not talking of going around acting all cocky like a know-it-all. I'm telling you to hone in on what it is about you that, for instance, makes your friends be your friends. What keeps them coming back? What is it about you that makes you stand out?
That is your mojo—your gift that is golden. Tap into that, work it, develop it, and it can be your lifeblood, your golden ticket. That's your genius spot, not like any one else's, and you're crazily selfish not to use it to your advantage to help yourself and, in turn, to help others.
Because I guarantee you, there are people out there that would kill for your particular gift. They’re waiting to hear from you. Oh, and they will also pay you for it.
So, let's re-cap:
- Act like a pro now.
- Ask your friends what it is about you that brings them back for more.
- Develop that and market that in yourself.
- Help yourself.
- And by helping yourself, help others as well.
- Become a PAID expert in your field.
So … what is your unique gift that you've been hiding under a bushel basket? Have you dug deep to find it out? Ask your friends. They may have a surprising answer for you. And, leave me a comment below to tell me what it is!
Jean Compton is a writer and blogger who specializes in articles on meditation, de-stressing and changing your life. She has appeared on Problogger and Feelgooder, among other sites. You can find more of her inspiring posts on her blog at the above link.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Переслать - Everything You Need to Know About Creating a Jaw-Dropping Movie Trailer on the Cheap
This guest post is by Jon Morrow of boostblogtraffic.com.
Ever look at those snazzy movie trailers Hollywood puts out for their latest blockbusters and wonder how you could make one of your own?
Maybe you’re starting a new blog, and you want to launch with a bang. Or maybe you’re coming out with a new book, and you want to create some prelaunch buzz. Or maybe you’re even launching a new online course, and you want to build anticipation up to a fevered pitch in preparation for launch day.
Whatever the case, creating a trailer seems like a good way to do it. There’s only one problem:
You can’t possibly afford it, right?
Image copyright Deklofenak - Fotolia.com
Hollywood routinely spends $50,000 or more putting together their movie trailers. They assemble crackerjack teams of animators, story borders, musicians, video editors, and directors, all of whom work for weeks on the trailer alone.
These aren’t folks aren’t exactly begging for work, either. If you want a great trailer, you have to hire the best, and the best comes at a premium price.
So, you’re screwed, right? I mean, maybe you could scrounge around in the couch cushions to find a few bucks, but that’s not going to get you very far, now is it?
Actually … you might be surprised.
How I created a jaw-dropping movie trailer for under $50
Yep, it’s true. The movie trailer I created for my blog launch only cost me a grand total of … wait for it…
$34 US.
Granted, I already had a copy of Adobe After Effects, which saved a few thousand bucks. I’m also an exceptionally geeky dude, so I figured out how to do all the necessary work on my own.
But it’s easier than you might think.
You see, I bought this template from VideoHive for $20. It’s basically a ready-made movie trailer, where all you have to do is fill in the text.
From there, I bought this music for $14, which was actually recommended by the designer who created the After Effects template. So I bought a license, added it to the trailer, and then exported the whole thing to a movie file.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Don’t believe me?
Well then, let’s take a step-by-step walk-through of how to do it for yourself.
Step one: choose your Adobe After Effects template
Before you do anything else, head on over to VideoHive and browse through the trailers. There are several ways to do it:
- Just type “trailer” in the search box, and then look through everything that comes up.
- Browse category by category, starting with “After Effects Project Files,” and then drilling down to exactly what you want.
- Click “After Effects Project Files,” and then sort by “Sales,” showing you all the most popular templates on the site.
The third option is my personal preference, because it allows you to familiarize yourself with all the different types of templates and start thinking about what might work for you. When I first started working on my trailer, I spent hours and hours looking through them, dreaming about what I could do, and it took me weeks to finally settle on one.
The reason I finally chose Ivory is because it has an epic feel, but it’s not an overly complicated trailer, so it was really easy to modify. All I had to do was change the text, slip in my own videos, and it was ready to go.
That’s important, because if you’re doing it yourself, you should know Adobe After Affects is one of the most complicated pieces of consumer software in existence. I’m a technical dude, and it still took me hours to figure out how to change the text. If I’d used anything more complicated, I probably would have been tinkering with it for weeks.
That’s not to say you can’t use a more complicated template, of course. If you do, you probably just want to hire a professional to edit it for you, which we’ll get to in a minute.
But if you do want to do it yourself, stick to the ones with quotes. You can find them by searching for “quotes” or “text.”
Whatever you decide though, you’ll soon discover that none of the templates come with music. They often provide recommendations, but you have to license and integrate it on your own.
Let’s talk about that next…
Step two: license the music for your trailer
There are lots of different places you can license music online, but most or all of the templates on VideoHive use music from another site in the Envato network, AudioJungle. You can use any music you want, of course, but the selection at AudioJungle really is quite awesome, and the licenses allow for trailers (I’m not a lawyer, so consult one, if there’s any doubt).
You can search it the same ways you searched VideoHive, and if you’re looking for a few hours to kill, it’s a good way to do it, but you could also argue it’s a waste of time. Here’s why:
Changing the music will skyrocket the cost.
The majority of the templates are created with a certain piece of music in mind. The animation changes with music, and key ideas pop up at just the right time to create a dramatic effect. If you change the music, everything will be out of sync, and so you will have to redo the timing of the animation.
Unless you’re an Adobe After Effects guru, that means hiring a pro to do it for you, and I would guess the change of music, along with the necessary changes to the animation, would cost you anywhere between $500-$1,000. If you’re working on a big product launch, it might be worth it, but for a blog or book or any other project where you’re not making lots of money, you probably want to keep it cheap.
It’s up to you, but my advice: stick with the music the template creator recommends.
From there, all you have to do is…
Step three: assemble and render your movie trailer
Here, you have to make a decision, and it will dramatically affect the cost of your trailer, as well as the time it takes you to create. You can either:
- Assemble and render your movie trailer all by yourself.
- Pay a professional to render and assemble it for you.
As I mentioned earlier, I decided to do myself, but … well … I’m a weirdo. I actually enjoy learning new software and tinkering with it days on end, and so the 20+ hours it took me was, in a word, fun, where most normal people would’ve already turned their computer into a flying projectile.
Maybe you’re a weirdo too, though. If you are, you can absolutely do it. Buy or borrow a copy of Adobe After Affects, pray your computer is powerful enough to run it (hint: 4 GB of RAM, bare minimum), Google up some After Effects tutorials, and start working.
On the other hand, maybe you would rather be water boarded than try to do it yourself. If that’s the case, cough up a few more bucks, and hire a pro.
It’s not as expensive as you might think.
Most of the uber-talented designers on VideoHive will put everything together for you for $250-$500. You don’t get any changes to the template, and they are probably not going to do multiple revisions, but if you hand over your text, music, and any photos or videos, they’ll put them in and send you a completed trailer.
If that’s too much money, you can also go the cheapskate route and post the job on a freelance site like oDesk. You can probably get it done by somebody in India, China, or Eastern Europe for $100 or less.
And if you think about it, that’s still pretty cheap. Sure, it’s a lot more at than the skimpy $34 I shelled out, but it’s also a lot cheaper than the $50,000 or more Hollywood movie studios spend.
It also makes you look like a rockstar. So if that’s all that’s standing in your way, don’t cheap out, here. Save up a few hundred bucks, and get yourself a nice trailer for your launch.
It’s totally worth it
No, you probably won’t pick up 1740 subscribers in a week like I did, because that takes some killer connections, but what if you get a couple hundred? Or what if it convinces a major TV or radio show to interview you? Or what if it sells just one more copy of your $500 course?
You don’t have to blow the doors off for your trailer to pay for itself. Truth be told, you can probably screw about 90% of it up, and it will still beat any other type of launch lead in you could do.
Next week, I’ll have another post here on ProBlogger giving you some strategies on how to get the most out of your trailer. In the meantime, start digging through VideoHive, get some different ideas rattling around in your head, and let your subconscious do its work.
All the technical tomfoolery in the world is no substitute for creativity. And really, that’s what we’re doing here. We’re packaging up our ideas into a 30-180 second trailer, but the strength of that trailer isn’t the animation or the music or even the video itself. It’s the ideas.
So get thinking.
Be creative.
And more than anything, believe in yourself. Yes, you might be an upstart blogger, scrounging around the couch cushions to pay for your trailer, but you can do this.
And you know what I think?
It’s gonna be huge.
Jon Morrow is also on a mission to help good writers get traffic they deserve. If you're one of them, check out his upcoming blog about (surprise!) blogging.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Everything You Need to Know About Creating a Jaw-Dropping Movie Trailer on the Cheap
Переслать - 3 Secrets to Not Getting Discouraged as a Blogger
This is a guest post by Jeff Goins of Goinswriter.com.
The other night, I was catching up with a writer friend who is taking his first steps towards becoming a professional blogger.
He was frustrated and upset, wanting to quit.
Listening to him, I realized something: writing is discouraging work. It’s a time-consuming, underpaid, solitary activity. No wonder so many authors turn into drunks and most bloggers don’t receive their due appreciation.
If you’re feeling discouraged, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Relax. This is normal.
For most of the time I’ve been blogging, I’ve felt like my friend. Frustrated and discouraged, I’ve often wanted to quit. But recently, things have started turning around. And it’s all because of three very important secrets.
1. Automation is key
Step away from Twitter, Facebook, and any other online distractions long enough to actually get something done. You need time to concentrate and create.
If you spend all your time on maintaining your community, you’ll never able to grow it. You have to create margin in your schedule to do things like write guest posts.
I do this by writing weeks in advance for my blog and scheduling posts well ahead of time. I also use tools like Timely.is and Bufferapp.com to schedule tweets without having to think much about it. And lastly, I turn off most email notifications and alerts (including Twitter follows and unfollows and Facebook messages).
Don’t get me wrong. I still spend time on social media, but I don’t allow myself to be interrupted every minute of the day. Automating these practices helps me focus on what I need to spend most of my time doing: writing.
2. A bias towards creating keeps you focused
There are a hundred ways you could make money online. Why blogging? Probably because you enjoy creating.
This may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but you should not be spending most of your time promoting your blog.
You should spend most of your time creating.
Writing comes first. Everything else (including marketing and promotion) comes second. If I’m not delivering the very best content I can every time I hit “Publish,” I don’t have any reason to promote my work. Similarly, if you’re not finding ways to add value to your readers, customers, etc., then you have no business trying to sell anything.
In this world of tweets and texts and blog comments, it’s easy to get distracted. To focus merely on the platform you’ve built, instead of on expanding its reach. The way that you do this is by creating compelling content, day after day.
You only have a limited number of hours in the day. Make them count.
Doing this will also keep you busy enough to ignore the jabs of critics, keeping you caught up in what you love.
3. Stop checking stats
In my experience, checking blog stats is a pointless exercise. These numbers can be a subtle form of procrastination, tempting you to “check in” multiple times per day, without actually doing any real work.
Of course, analytics are helpful. They allow you to identify overall growth trends of your blog, as well as keywords readers are interested in. But on a regular basis (i.e. hourly or even daily), they can be discouraging.
If someone doesn’t immediately read your writing, it may lead you to false conclusions. You may convince yourself that no one cares about what you have to say. Your inner critic might take over before you give your work time to make an impact.
Remember: if you’re writing posts that are optimized for search engines, then you’re not writing for today. You’re writing for the long haul. Constantly checking stats can undermine that purpose.
When someone asked Seth Godin how many blog subscribers he had, he responded, “I don’t know.” And neither should you.
Of course, you need to be available to your audience and to know how your blog is performing. But before any of that, you need to just write.
There are forces out there that would discourage you. I hope you don’t let them.
Because we need your voice.
We need your words.
Jeff Goins is a writer and marketing consultant. On his blog, he shares writing tips for new and aspiring writers. For a limited time, you can download his free e-book The Writer’s Manifesto. You can also follow him on Twitter @jeffgoins.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
3 Secrets to Not Getting Discouraged as a Blogger
Переслать - Questions My Dad Would Ask Before You Started that Ebook
This guest post is by Barb Sawyers of Sticky Communication.
The pitches go like this: turn your archived content into an ebook that will rake in bucks while you sleep. Invest a weekend, maybe a few weeks, and you'll have a book that will establish you as a thought leader and open the flood gates to new revenue streams.
But as my 85-year-old Dad asked when I told him I was writing an ebook: "Why would you write a book, now that everyone with a computer can?"
You've got to admit, that's a good point from my 85-year-old Dad, who still makes money on his investments but sometimes can't find his slippers.
Because everyone can now publish a book, lots more will. So your book has to be great. Make that spectacular. And don’t forget that you’re not only the source of the expertise and probably the writing. You will also be responsible for editing, page formatting, cover design, sales and much more.
Depending on your skill set and budget, you can pay for help from Createspace and other self-publishers, people you stumble across on the Internet or a marble-lobby public relations firm.
But for more of the work and most of the decisions, you are on your own.
Don’t get me wrong. I am tickled pink that more people can share their wisdom or art through ebooks and on-demand print. I’m simply advising you to go in with your eyes wide open, avoid the sleazier pitches, and think about some of these questions my Dad would ask.
- Are your goals achievable? If you want a book that makes money, it has to be good enough to compete with traditional publishers and the coming flood of self-published ebooks. If you are only interested in raising your prestige among a smaller group of people, you may set the bar a little, but not much, lower.
- Are you an expert? Ideally, you've been accumulating knowledge for years and updating your wisdom daily. If you’re not already passionate about a specific topic, don’t charge in.
- Do you have a unique approach? Like a product, your book has to offer something people can't get anywhere else. In a world of countless niches, that might be relatively easy for you.
- Are you willing to invest time? If you are smart enough to have the expertise that makes a book worthwhile, likely you are not going to fall for the get-rich-quick charlatans.
- Can you write well? If you want to sharpen your skills, you can learn from many blogs, courses and books, including mine, Write Like You Talk—Only Better. If you're a blogger, figure at least 30 to 50 quality posts on your theme that will then need to be edited, packaged, and sold.
- If your writing doesn’t measure up, are you prepared to spend the money and time on someone whose does? Most successful nonfiction authors who don’t eat, sleep, and breath writing pay big bucks to professional ghost writers, not a stranger whose site trumpets their rock-bottom prices. You get what you pay for, as my Dad would say. Unless you can find a 24/7 psychic ghost writer, you'll also spend lots of time thinking about the theme and feeding your ghost writer your knowledge and revisions.
- Can you design the pages, cover and marketing collateral? Again, be prepared to pay for the kind of quality that will compete or at least spend the time to find the right online sources. Yes, templates are available, but much of what I viewed were woodlands or other looks that do not work for my cover. Right again, Dad. People do judge a book by its cover.
- Do you have a content marketing machine? You'll need to spend lots more time feeding and building your social networks, courting legacy media and pursuing other strategies for marketing your book. Competition is stiff and getting stiffer. You have to do a lot more than sneeze in an elevator to go viral.
If there's an ebook in your soul, go for it. I'm thrilled that the doors have opened. Just be prepared to pour in years of learning, months of prep time and days of fretting.
It has to be your best, not something you knocked off over a rainy weekend.
That’s how real money is made. Just ask my Dad.
Barb Sawyers, who blogs at Sticky Communication, is almost ready to publish in print and for ereaders the second edition of Write Like You Talk—Only Better. Preview it here.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Questions My Dad Would Ask Before You Started that Ebook
Переслать - Why Bloggers Should Self-Publish
By James Altucher of jamesaltucher.com.
I’ve published seven books in the past seven years, five with traditional publishers (Wiley, Penguin, HarperCollins), and the last two I’ve self-published.
In this post I give the specific details of all of my sales numbers and advances with the traditional publishers.
Although the jury is still out on my self-published books, How to be the Luckiest Man Alive and I Was Blind But Now I See (the latter was just published last month and is #2 for Motivation on Amazon’s Kindle store as I write this), I can tell you these two have already sold more than my five books published with traditional publishers, combined.
The rest of this article is really three discussions:
Image copyright photogl - Fotolia.com
- Why self-publish, rather than use a traditional publisher?
- Why bloggers should self-publish.
- How to go about self-publishing.
Why self-publish?
- Advances are going to zero: Book publishers are getting more and more squeezed by declining booksellers so they, in turn, have to squeeze the writers. Because there’s so much free content on the Internet, the value per unit of content is going to zero unless you are already an established name-brand author.
- Lag time: When you self-publish, you can have your book up and running on Amazon, paperback, and Kindle within days. When you publish with a traditional publisher, it’s a grueling process—book proposal, agents, lawyers, meetings, edits, packaging, catalogs—that ensures that your book doesn’t actually get published until a year later. Literally, as I write this, a friend of mine IMed me the details of his book deal he just got with a mainstream publisher. Publication date: 2014.
- Marketing: Publishers claim they do a lot of marketing for you. That’s laughable. I’ll give you a very specific example. After I published with Penguin, they met with a friend of mine whose book they wanted to publish. They didn’t realize she was my friend. She asked them, “what marketing did you do for James Altucher’s book?” They said, “Well, we got him a review in The Financial Times and we got a segment about his book on CNBC and an excerpt in thestreet.com.” Here’s what’s so funny. I had a weekly column in The Financial Times. I wrote my own review. As a joke. I also had a weekly segment on CNBC. So naturally I spoke about my book during my regular segment. And I had just sold my last company to thestreet.com. So instead of doing my usual article for them, I did an excerpt from the book. In other words, I felt the publisher did nothing, but took credit for eveything. Ultimately, authors (unless you are, for example, Stephen King) have to do their own marketing for books. The first question publishers ask, even before they look at your proposal, is, “How big is your platform?” They want to know how you can market the book and if they can make money on just your own marketing efforts.
- Better royalties: When I self-publish I make about a 70% royalty instead of the 15% royalty I made with a traditional publisher. I also own 100% of the foreign rights, instead of 50%. I hired someone to sell the foreign rights to my work, and they get 20% (and no upfront fee).
- More control over content and design: Look at this cover, designed by a traditional publisher for me (this was my third book). It’s hideous. Now look at the cover for my last book. You may or may not like it, but it’s exactly what I wanted. Publishers even include in the contract that they have final say over the cover, and this is one detail they will not negotiate. Also, when you self-publish, you don’t have any teenage interns sending back editorial comments that you completely disagree with. You control your own content.
Why should bloggers self-publish?
- You have content: I have enough material in my blog right now (including my “Drafts” folder, which has 47 unpublished posts in it) to publish five more books over the next year. And I’m sure that number will increase over the next year as I write more posts.
- You have more to say. If you just take the posts (mentioned in the point above) and publish them, people will say, “he’s just publishing a collection of posts”. A couple of comments on that.
- So what? It’s okay if you are curating what you feel your best posts are. And for a small price, people can get that curation and read it in a different format. There’s value there.
- Don’t just take a collection of your posts. A blog post is typically 500-2000 words, but usually closer to 500. Do a bit more research for each post. Do intros and outros for each post. Make the chapters 3000-4000 words long. Make a bigger arc to the book by using original material to explain why this book, with these chapters, presented in this manner is a different read than the blog. Have a chapter specifically explaining how the book is different from the blog. With my last book, I had original material in each chapter, and several chapters that were completely original. Instead of it being a collection of posts, the overall book was about how we have been brainwashed in society, and how uncovering the brainwashing and using the techniques I describe can bring happiness. This was covered in a much more detailed fashion than the blog ever could, even though the material was inspired by several of my posts.
- Amazon is an extra platform for you to market your blog: Or vice versa. You won’t make a million dollars on your book (well, maybe you will—never say never) but just being able to say, “I’m a published author” extends your credibility as a writer when you go out there now to syndicate your blog elsewhere, or to get speaking engagements. And when you do a speaking engagement, you can now hand something out—your book! So Amazon and publishing become a powerful marketing platform for your overall writing/speaking/consulting career.
- Nobody cares: Some people want the credibility of saying “Penguin published me”. I can tell you from experience—nobody ever asked me who was my publisher.
- How will I get in bookstores? I don’t know. How will you? Traditional publishers can’t get you there either. Often bookstores will look at what’s hot on Amazon and then order the books wholesale from the publishers. In many cases, traditional publishers will take their most-known writers (so if you are in that category, congrats!) and pay to have them featured at a bookstore. As for my experience, my traditional publishers would get a few copies of my books in the bookstores of major cities (i.e. NYC and that’s it), but nothing more.
Okay, I’m convinced. How do I self-publish?
There’s lots of ways to do it, but I’ll tell you my experience.
First, write the book
For my last two self-published books, as I mentioned above, I took some blog posts, rewrote parts of them, added original material, added new chapters, and provided an overall arc as to what the book was about, as opposed to it just being a random collection of posts.
But, that said, you probably already have the basic material already.
Use Createspace.com
I used Createspace because it’s owned by Amazon and has excellent customer service. The team at Creatspace let you pick the size of your book and then have Microsoft Word templates that you download to format your book within.
For my first book I did this by myself. For my second book, for a small fee, I hired Alexanderbecker.net to format the book, create the book design, and create the final PDF that I uploaded. He also checked grammar, made proactive suggestions on fonts (sans serif instead of serif), and was extremely helpful.
Upload the PDF
Createspace approves it, picks an ISBN number, sends you a proof, and then you approve the proof.
Within days your book is available on Amazon
All of the above (from Createspace) was free. If I didn’t hire Alex to make the cover I could’ve used one of Createspace’s possible covers (I did that for my first book) and the entire publishing in paperback would be free.
Go to Kindle
With Kindle, Createspace charges $70—and they take care of everything until it’s uploaded to the Kindle store. Now your book is available in paperback and Kindle versions!
Marketing
- Readers of my blog who asked for it got the first 20 copies or so for free from me. Many of them then posted good reviews on Amazon to get the ball rolling.
- I’ve been handing out the books at speaking engagements. Altogether, I’ll do around ten speaking engagements, handing my latest book out.
- I write a blog post about how the bo0k is different from the blog and why I chose to go this route.
- Writing guests posts for blogs like ProBlogger helps, too, and I’m very grateful.
- Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Google+ are also very helpful.
Promotions
You’re in charge of your own promotions (as opposed to having a book publisher handling them for you). For instance, n a recent blog post I discussed the differences between my latest book and my blog, and I also offered a promotion that lets readers get my next self-published book (Bad Behavior, expected in Q1 2012) free.
Over the next year, I have five different books planned, all on different topics. I’m super-excited about them because I’m allowed to push the barrier in every area I’m interested in, and there’s nobody to stop me.
You can do this also. And you should do it. There are no more excuses in this environment. Do you have questions about self-publishing? Let us know in the comments!
James Altucher has written 7 books, has started and sold 3 businesses, and has blogged successfully this past year at jamesaltucher.com. He also writes for the WSJ and other media outlets. He exposes himself way too much on his blog.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Why Bloggers Should Self-Publish
Переслать - Make it Easy for Your Readers to Participate
At Blog World Expo this year, I was in a great session on using Facebook pages by Amy Porterfield. The session was very helpful on many levels, but one thing that Amy said that I immediately put into action—within a few seconds of her saying it, in fact—was to ask simple questions of readers to generate discussion.
Amy had been working with a client on their Facebook page and the client had suggested a discussion starter that was quite open ended and which required a long answer from readers. Amy switched the question into this format:
“What’s one word to describe…?”
This question lowered the barrier of entry for anyone considering responding to the question. Instead of having to write a few paragraphs in response, all that was required to participate was a single word. Amy reported a much higher than normal level of comments.
I immediately asked my own photography community a “one word to describe” question on my photography Facebook page.
367 comments later…
The same principle applies to generating comments on your blog … or any other attempt at reader engagement, for that matter. Make it simple to participate!
Another example of this was recently when a sponsor ran a competition on my photography blog. Initially, the sponsor wanted our readers to fulfill four requirements to enter the giveaway. They had to follow the sponsor and our site on Facebook, tweet something, and then leave a comment of 500 words explaining why they wanted to win the prize.
I pushed back—four hoops was more than I suspected most of our readers would jump through. The sponsor decided not to run the competition with us and I later saw them do it on another blog. The result? Three entries!
The same lesson again: make it simple for your readers to participate on your blog!
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Make it Easy for Your Readers to Participate
Переслать - Get Your 2nd Edition Copy of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Today (for 25% Off)
- Does your blog need a boost?
- Are you looking for inspiration to kick start it again after some time off?
- Do you need a little inspiration to help you get things rolling again?
If so – you’re not alone. Most bloggers go through periods where they either lack motivation, get distracted or suffer from blogger disillusionment.
This is why I created 31 Days to Build a Better Blog – and why today we’re launching the 2nd edition version of it – freshly updated and revised for 2012!
What is 31DBBB?
Since starting ProBlogger in 2004 this eBook is the most significant way I’ve seen ProBlogger readers improve their blogs.
Why is that?
The answer is simple – most teaching about blogging centres on theory. Theory is good but but by itself it is useless.
This eBook is designed to not only teach but propel you to DO.
31 Days to Build a Better blog is a 31 day challenge where you’re given a daily piece of teaching and an achievable activity to go away and implement – all of which is designed to rejuvenate your blog.
You can take the challenge at your own pace – some do it daily over a month, others tackle it in a more intense way over a week or others dip into it over a number of months – the key is to learn the key strategies for successful blogging and more importantly to DO something with what you learn.
By the end of the 31 steps you'll have:
- published a variety of different types and styles of posts
- learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
- promoted your blog in a variety of ways and found new readers
- deepened reader engagement with current readers
- reached out to and developed working relationships with other bloggers
- developed an editorial calendar for your blog going forward
- discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
- designed a plan for the next month of your blogging
… and much more.
Check out full details of what it includes here
Updated for 2012
Many thousands of ProBlogger readers have invested in edition 1 of 31DBBB but as it was written back in 2009 I felt it was time for an update. So much has changed since then both here on ProBlogger and in the blogosphere that I wanted to create something that built upon and enhanced version 1.
In this freshly designed and layed out 2nd edition you’ll get
- all 31 tasks that were in the first edition – but they’ve all been updated and refreshed for 2012.
- 7 brand new days (so now you’re really getting 38 days – we’re including 7 in a new bonus week PDF)
- Case studies of blogs, big and small, who are doing it right. Get insights into blogs you may not have heard of, and learn from their expertise
- Every task includes links to further information, reading and intelligence on the topic
- integration with social media – each day has its own hashtag so you can connect with others doing the challenge to learn from and support one another
This 140 page workbook is all about action – follow the daily tasks and we guarantee you’ll see your blog improve. Quite literally we’re happy to give your money back if you go through it and don’t notice the changes!
25% Launch Discount
For the next two weeks we’re offering 25% off the 2nd edition of this best selling eBook. Instead of the normal $29.99 USD you can secure your copy today for just $22.49. That’s around 73 cents per day for a month full of teaching and activities.
Learn more about 31 Days to Build a Better Blog here or purchase your copy by hitting the ‘download it now’ button below.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Get Your 2nd Edition Copy of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Today (for 25% Off)
Переслать - Why Similar Blogs Sell for Different Prices
This guest post is by Jock Purtle of brokercorp.com.
If you are selling your blog, the first thing you will want to know is how much it is worth. You type into Google is something like "what is my website worth?" What you will get is a whole lot of free website valuation tools. If you use something like www.mywebsiteworth.com and type in “google.com” you get an arbitrary value of 1 billion dollars.
Now we all know these tools are can't be right. So we might then type into Google "what factors determine a website’s value?" and when we collate all the information. we are going to get a long list of different things to look for when valuing a website. Things like domain age, PageRank, Google rankings, and so on.
But what these articles fail to identify is the single most important factor in valuing a website, and that is the future maintainable earnings of the site.
What needs to be understood is that the assets of the business are only indicators of future maintainable earnings, and do not add any extra value to the site. Value is determined by whether the site will make money in the future, and what level of risk the potential buyer is willing to take.
Let's take the example of company A and company B. Each company has the same income and same net profit for the year. However, as we will find, their value differs completely.
How values can differ
Company A Company B Business Type Advertising Advertising Annual Sales $200,000 $200,000 Annual Profit $100,000 $100,000 Trends Flat Room for growth High Margins No Yes Recurring Clients No No Largest Customer List No Yes Traffic Heavily reliant on SEO Multiple Source Income Source 1 Source 3 Sources Complex To Operate Yes No Low Barrier To Entry Yes No Business Level Mature Growth Stage Staff High Turnover Stable Accounts Messy Neat Owner Help after Sale No Yes Owner Financing No Yes Owner Non-compete No Yes Brandable Domain No Yes Old Site with unbroken Whois No Yes Quality and diverse Links No Yes Repeat & Direct Traffic No Yes Solid Page Rank No Yes High Levels of Traffic No Yes Commercial Target Audience No Yes Quality Content No Yes Partnerships and JV's No Yes Solid Sales Presentation No Yes Directories (Yahoo and DMOZ) No Yes Strong Alexa and Compete rank No Yes Easily Transferable No Yes Press Coverage No Yes Affiliate Program No Yes Synergistic Purchase No Yes FINAL SALE PRICE: $100,000 $400,0000 How value differs
The market has a strong opinion on what a site is worth. Buyers are looking for a good return on investment and the value is based on what they are willing to pay. That is why valuation is really only educated guess-work about what a site will sell for.
From the above example you may think that your blog meets all the criteria of company B, but that doesn't mean that you are going to sell it for that amount.
The reason company B is deemed more valuable is because, from the information available, the site looks like it will continue to increase in revenue every year and there is a lower risk that the site will fail. Thus there is less risk for a potential buyer, and they would be willing to pay more to acquire it.
The table represents a rule of thumb that you can apply to any website. The factors listed represent the variables that should be considered in any valuation. There may be some outlying factors that skew the data if either site were to be purchased and that is why true valuation is only represented by the final sale price and the money has been exchanged.
An explanation of valuation: How to determine risk
The risk a buyer is willing to take in purchasing a website will determine the multiple of earnings that they’re willing to pay.
The general rule you will find in valuation follows something like this:
Net Income x Some Multiplier = Your Website Value
Here is a breakdown of those two factors.
Net Income
Net income is represented by a company's total profit for the year and is calculated by taking revenues and adjusting for the cost of doing business, depreciation, interest, taxes and other expenses, or in accounting speak, EBITDA (earning before interest tax, depreciation, and amortization).
A web business normally doesn't have the usual expenses that an offline business has, like rent, office space, and so on, and this is reflected in the financials.
A multiplier
A simple multiplier will be based on an expected Rate of Return. This is used to calculate the final sale price and is reflective of the risk that the purchaser is willing to take.
Consider these multipliers:
- 12 times Monthly Multiple = 100% return (your money back in one year)
- 24 time Monthly Multiple = 50% return (your money back in two years)
- 36 times Monthly Multiple = 33% return (your money back in three years).
You are beginning to see why Internet businesses are a good investment. With low staff and expenses and less hassle than a traditional business, they can offer much better value than putting your money in the bank and getting 1-5% interest.
What doesn't count as value?
“But what about the value of my domain, and the rankings in Google, and the cost of the web development? Why isn't that included in the site?” you may be thinking.
Unfortunately, the market doesn't look at your site as a sum of all its parts. So even if you site cost you $15k to develop, and the domain cost $12k, if it only makes $10k per year, you are only likely to get $10k—$30k for the site, even though it cost you $27k to develop.
The assets of the business (content, rankings, domain, and so on) add no more value than what has already been calculated. The assets of the business simply form the structure for its revenue-generating capabilities.
It is important to understand this principle when valuing your site. Even though it might have cost you $27k to get the site up and running, your blog is no more valuable than the income a potential buyer can see the site making in the future.
Have you had your blog valued? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.
Jock Purtle is a Senior Broker at Brokercorp.com. They are a full-service website brokerage specializing in website sales and acquisitions. Jock is currently offering a free website valuation at http://brokercorp.com/sell/.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Why Similar Blogs Sell for Different Prices
Переслать - Four Tips for Bloggers Who Want to Work with the Travel Industry
This guest post is by Matt Long of LandLopers.com.
People are attracted to travel blogging for a lot of reasons.
For some, they are doing a year-long trip and simply want an easy way to keep in touch with friends and family. Still others are attracted to the niche travel blogoshpere for the sheer love of travel, and any partnerships with the travel industry are a bonus.
Image is author's own
While it is possible for a successful travel blogger to participate in media trips, the way we interact with the travel industry is key to our long-term success. After all, many of us operate our travel blog just like any other blog: it's a business and the relationships we make with industry are not just important, they're vital.
Before seeking out opportunities though, bloggers should keep in mind the following key points.
1. Don't take advantage
There is a fairly low barrier to entry to become a blogger. For little or no money, just about anyone can hang out their blog shingle and announce to the world that they are now A Blogger.
Yet for many people, particularly those in the travel PR and marketing worlds, this is a new and slightly frightening universe. Visions of bad TripAdvisor reviews fill their thoughts and they fear any bad press on web sites that can spread virally.
The blogger’s ability to write online and share information with people around the planet gives us power, and we must be mindful of that and not take advantage.
Don't bully people into giving you things for free. Most destinations and large PR companies will see through this, but not so local sites of interest. For example, let’s imagine Sally Smith has a travel blog that attracts ten unique readers a month, mostly her family members. But she is a travel blogger! She has power!
With this power she decides that when she visits Bangkok, she will ask museums and tourist sites around the city to give her free access in exchange for a review on her blog.These organizations have no idea that she only has ten readers a month and would never think to ask. Instead they see the title Travel Blogger and get scared. The result is that Sally saves a lot of money and the destination gets nothing in return.
It's easy to be attracted to the bright lights of travel blogging, but just like any other niche blog, it takes a lot of work and perseverance to be successful. Part of that success lies in not taking advantage of current and future partners. Ultimately, it's all about providing great content for our readers, but first you need to make sure you have enough readers to make it worthwhile for others to work with you.
2. It's not me, me, me—it's them, them, them
Whether a country-specific tourism board, or a PR firm representing a client, wants to work with you, your must remember that these organizations have one goal in mind: to promote their destination or property and get more people to visit. Period. The End. Fin. This fact has to be kept in mind from pitch to post-trip blog posts, or mistakes will happen.
It's up to the blogger to make sure that the trips or products make sense to their readers. The PR people pitching to you may not always have a strong grasp on what your site is all about, but you certainly do.
Similarly, bloggers must not lose sight of the focus of the trip, because there always is one. If a hotel invites you to visit their property in a fantastic locale, it may be tempting to write heavily about the locale, but that wasn't the point of your trip. The hotel invited you down to write about them. It's of course possible to marry the two, to describe the great activities found in the area if you stay at John Doe's Hotel.
But at no point during your partnership can you forget that this is a business relationship with specific returns on investment expected.
3. Understand expectations
Before agreeing to anything, whether it be a travel product review or a trip to New Zealand, both parties must ensure that they understand each other's expectations.
This is the time to be frank and honest. Let them know that you aren't interested in running advertorials and will be fair and honest in your blog writing. Most destinations love this; it adds credibility to the coverage. However, some who are new to the social media world may be surprised at first, so it's better to make it clear from the beginning.
Also be sure to ask if they expect Twitter, Google+ and Facebook coverage in addition to blog posts, and how many posts they are expecting. It's equally important to ask about anything in particular they want to have highlighted. On a trip to a specific country, the tourist board asked that I investigate the culinary side to the destination, as it sometimes gets overlooked. Doing so didn't threaten my integrity as a writer, it just gave me better focus and made sure I covered the areas my sponsor wanted me to cover.
4. Be honest
Honesty is important with any relationship, but especially so when it comes to travel PR. If you are a budget travel blogger and are approached by a high-end resort property, don't say yes to their invitation to visit! Kindly let them know that you probably aren't the best match for them.
Travel bloggers of course need to take care of themselves first, but we also have to safeguard the integrity of the community as a whole. If you promise something you can't deliver, it makes every travel blogger look bad.
Similarly, be honest with your readers. Don't hide the fact that you're going on a press trip, highlight it—promote it! You'll find that readers really enjoy the concept of traveling along with you as you travel, so don't shy away from it. Weave into your narrative the fact that you're going on a sponsored trip and explain why. Tell your readers how it will benefit them and you'll not only keep readers, you'll gain many new ones.
Travel blogging is a niche market that is still learning the nuances of the mainstream travel industry, and vice versa. But through smart and productive relationships, both blogger and PR pros can only flourish in this brave new world of travel promotion.
Matt Long, travel writer, blogger, photographer and world traveler is the Editor-in-Chief of LandLopers.com, a top travel blogthat caters to the “normal” traveler who wants to get out there and experience the best the world has to offer.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Four Tips for Bloggers Who Want to Work with the Travel Industry
Переслать - 6 Laws Every Blogger Needs to Obey so they Don't Get Sued
This guest post is by Neil Patel of KISSmetrics.
If you're a blogger, do you know how to stay on the right side of the law? Do you know what you need to do to keep the FTC from knocking on your door or to keep from getting a dreaded cease and desist letter?
Fortunately you don't have to be a lawyer or law scholar to understand the laws that govern blogging, particularly in the U.S. In fact, you really only have to understand six basic laws. Let me explain…
note: I'm not a lawyer, so do consult one if you are unsure about any blogging-related laws.
Law #1: Do you have to disclose paid endorsements?
One of the most important developments in the blogosphere when it comes to U.S. law is that bloggers must be open with the fact that they are being paid to use, promote, or review a product.
This all started back in 2006, when the Federal Trade Commission, recognizing that bloggers were displacing traditional ways of advertising that could open up dishonest business practices and conflicts of interest, issued a letter that recommended all bloggers need to be open and honest with their endorsements and reviews.
How open and honest do you have to be? It's really pretty straightforward if you think about a few things:
- Label information clearly: Wherever you have content, make it perfectly clear which information is editorial and which is advertising.
- Come clean with affiliate relationships: This could mean labeling links that drive to your Amazon affiliates, or building a page that explains all of your affiliates and relationships (see Chris Brogan's About page for an example).
- Do not claim to be an objective third-party when you are not: You also should explain your relationship with a company when you are talking about them. For example, "Company B, whom I work for, is about to roll out product X."
To date not one single blogger has been sued over the issue that I know of. But, nonetheless, here is the FTC's FAQ on the topic.
Law #2: What should I do when someone steals my content?
If you are creating compelling content, it's bound that somebody will take it and uses it on their site. Sometimes they do it without knowing that they are breaking the law. They may even give you credit and link to your website.
What should you do? Well, it depends.
If you want to protect your work, you should simply send them an email and let them know that what they are doing is called copyright infringement. If you are dealing with an understanding person, then they'll probably apologize and take the copy down.
If you're dealing with somebody who doesn't care what you think, then you'll need to weigh the cost of pursuing legal action. Typically it's a very difficult thing to do and will be very expensive.
You can usually discourage people from taking your content by putting a copyright symbol on the footer of your website so it appears on every page.
So when is your work considered to fall under copyright law? Interestingly enough, according to the U.S. laws, it occurs the moment you publish it. So even if you don't have a copyright symbol, you are still protected.
What exactly is protected on the Internet? Just about everything, including:
- original copy
- links
- images
- podcasts
- videos
- code (HTML, VRML, and other unique markup language sequences)
Still, should you care if someone steals your content? Some bloggers like Leo Babauta do not. He actually encourages people to take his copy as long as they give him credit for it. He calls it his uncopyrighted policy.
Why would he do something like that? He considers the value of spreading his work through this method to be worth more than protecting and defending his rights.
Law #3: Is deep linking legal?
It may come as a surprise to you that there are some doubts to whether deep linking is even legal.
Deep linking is where you write a blog post and then link to another website in that post. However, you don't link directly to the homepage: you link to a page buried on the site.
For example, one of the sources I used while researching this topic was from a Canadian lawyer who explored some U.S. court decisions on the topic. That link that I just provided does not go to the lawyer's home page, but to an interior page.
From the perspective of a blogger, it makes more sense to link directly to the page that you are referring to than it does to link to the home page, and then hope the reader can find the information you are referring to.
What's interesting is that some people have claimed that deep linking is a form of trespassing. One of the most famous U.S. cases was between Ticketmaster and Ticket.com back in 2000.
Ticketmaster's argument was two-fold: Ticket.com tried to pass off one of their pages as their own when they didn't link to the home page but an interior page, making it a copyright infringement.
The other argument was that deep linking bypassed the prescribed path a website owner wants its users to go, amounting to trespassing.
It's not surprising that Ticketmaster lost on both claims.
No other case on this topic has been brought to the court since so it seems safe to say deep linking is a legal practice.
Furthermore, it's such an accepted SEO practice that there is no reason you should worry that someone might sue you if you deep link to their site. In fact, most people encourage the practice since it brings exposure to their site.
Law #4: Can I use any image on my blog?
The short answer is “no,” because you do not have permission to use just any image. The concern here is that you might use an image that's not your own, and inadvertently pass it off on your own.
How should you legally use images? Here are four approaches:
- Link to the owner: One practice is to simply put a link below the picture to the owner of the image. This will not be sufficient in many cases, though.
- Buy royalty-free images: You can also simply buy royalty-free images and not have to worry about copyright.
- Use Creative Common images: Another great source to look for free images is to visit the Creative Commons photos on Flickr. These photos do not have copyright restrictions, but are usually based upon a few Creative Common attributes, like "share," "modify," or "non-commercial use." No matter the attribution type you use, it's still a polite to link to the original Flickr page. This way, people who visit your site know who owns the image and they can easily find more of their work.
- Ask for permission: Of course if you find an image you like on someone else's website, you can always ask them for permission to use it.
Law #5: Who owns user-developed content?
When it comes to reviews, comments or copy on message boards, you do not own the content: the original author owns it.
How could that be? The same law that protects the copy on your blog is the same law that protects people who write something on your site.
A great way to deal with this issue is to have very clear terms on how you will manage user-developed content. In your site’s terms of use, you should spell out a few things:
- You are at liberty to do with the comments as you please.
- You will not manipulate them or delete them without having a good reason to.
- You will remove them if someone requests (this is really up to you).
- You will require a minimum amount of information so you can avoid anonymous comments.
- You will delete all comments if and when you expire your blog.
If these terms are stated clearly and openly, you shouldn't have much of a problem when it comes to the law and user-developed content.
Law #6: How do I have to protect people's private information?
Privacy on the internet is a huge issue. People are worried that their identities will be stolen, their bank accounts will be drained, and the government will watch their every move if they don't protect their privacy. Naturally, people want to feel comfortable when they are on your blog.
People online are also worried about spam. For example, they don't want to share their email address with an email newsletter provider because they're afraid it will be sold to a handful of marketers.
What is your responsibility when it comes to your user's information? Of course if you run an ecommerce site, you need to protect their information with secure pages.
But what if you are simply collecting an email address?
A good guideline is to have a clear privacy policy on your website. It could be as simple as "We promise never to rent, sell or share your email address." Or it could be more elaborate, with an entire page dedicated to it. It just depends on how much information you collect.
Conclusion
As you can see, the law is pretty straightforward when it comes to blogging so if you familiarize yourself with the above situations, you shouldn't have to worry about getting into trouble.
What other laws do you think are important for bloggers to know about?
PS: as I said, I'm not a lawyer, so do consult one if you are unsure about any blogging-related laws.
Neil Patel is the co-founder of KISSmetrics and blogs at Quick Sprout.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
6 Laws Every Blogger Needs to Obey so they Don’t Get Sued
Переслать - The Best Blog Growth Strategy is to Say Thank You … a Lot!
This guest post is by Danny Iny of firepolemarketing.com.
Everyone is looking for the best strategy for growing a blog. Is it SEO? PPC? CPV? Guest posting? Twitter? Facebook? CommentLuv? Networking? Attending conferences? Writing great content?
The list goes on—I could fill a page if I had to, and I'll bet that you could, too.
Every one of these strategies will work for some people, and some of these strategies will work for most people.
But there's only one strategy that I know of that will work for everyone, and unlike all the other strategies, I didn't learn it from other bloggers or internet marketing gurus.
I learned it from my parents.
The "strategy" to which I'm referring is just the common courtesy that we all know and expect. When someone does something nice for you, say two simple words: "thank you."
Image copyright TrudiDesign - Fotolia.com
Why "thank you" is such an effective strategy
There are actually two reasons why it is very smart strategy to say "thank you" as frequently and creatively as you can.
You see, when you thank someone in a meaningful, heart-felt way, you are communicating that their words and actions have had a positive impact on your life. In their own way, they have helped you to achieve what you have achieved, and become what you have become.
This does two very important things:
- It makes them feel useful. We all long to feel useful, whether we have five followers or 500,000. We want to know that our work and actions have meaning and value to others, and this is even more true for people who have been successful, and for whom money no longer needs to be the primary or sole driver. By saying "thank you," you are telling someone that they have made a difference to you, and that will make them feel good.
- It makes them feel invested. When we contribute to something, we care more about how things turn out. By thanking someone for the positive influence and impact that they have had on your life and career, you will make them feel a little more invested in the outcome of your endeavors—and more likely to want to support you as you work towards your goals in the future.
So in short, by thanking people, you make them feel good, and make them want to help you a little bit more in the future. Plus, it's just basic courtesy.
So … what should you thank people for?
Don't wait for the grand gestures
Don't pester people for big favors, and wait for grand gestures that will never arrive. Instead, look at where you are today, and take careful stock of the people who have helped you to get to where you are.
Their help could be big, like the teachers and mentors that have guided you along the way, or it could be smaller, like the blogger whose example you are following, or the author of an article that gave you an insight into what you should be doing in order to succeed.
Here are just a few of the things that you could thank people for:
- reading your blog, and leaving a comment
- subscribing to your list
- linking to your content
- tweeting about something you wrote
- writing something that inspired you
- teaching you how to do something that you didn't know before
- making time to answer your question when they didn't have to
- being courteous and helpful in their interactions with you
- introducing you to someone or something of value.
This is just a start, but I think it gets the point across. The masters of social media are experts at thanking people for all of these things, and lots more—in fact, for many of them, it is the cornerstone of their strategy for building an engaged audience!
Say it in a way that counts
The way you actually go about expressing your gratitude matters. Remember, you want to communicate that a positive impact has been made in your life, and if that's the case, then don't you owe it to them to put some thought and heart into it?
For starters, the worst way to say thank you is with a generic comment to the effect of "Great post!" A comment like that doesn't communicate why you thought it was great. What impact did it actually have on you? What did you learn?
If you want to convey authentic gratitude, then these are important things to express.
The other reason why a "great post" comment doesn't cut it is that your "great post" comment will probably be added to several dozen others that are almost exactly the same. If you want to make an impression, you have to do it in a way that stands out from the crowd. For example, you could:
- send the person an email saying that you appreciate their work (without asking for anything)
- mention their work in your own writing, and link to it (try to always link to a post, rather than the homepage of a blog, so that they get a pingback and see it)
- send them a small gift when appropriate (like a book that you think they'd enjoy, relating to something that they've written about)
- introduce them to someone who can help them
- praise them publicly, for example on your blog, or on Twitter (make sure to @mention them!)
- send them a handwritten note expressing why you are grateful.
These are just a few ideas, and I'm sure that if you take a few minutes to brainstorm (or search on Google), you'll find a lot more. The key is to stand out, and communicate in a noticeable way that you are genuinely grateful.
Of course all of this has to be genuine, and not just a manipulation…
The right thing and the smart thing are the same thing
The world of social media can sometimes be touchy about actions that are seen as self-serving, and things get even more complicated when there is an up-side to doing the right things.
I mean, shouldn't you be thanking people just because it's the right thing to do? Isn't it just manipulation if you thank them because you're trying to get something in return?
The answer to those questions, of course, is yes—you should be thanking people because it's the right thing to do, and if you're just thanking people when you don't mean it, and you're simply trying to get something out of them, then you're a manipulative jerk.
That's not what I'm suggesting at all.
On the contrary. I'm saying that you have genuine reason to grateful to a lot of people, and that thanking them is the right thing to do.
The funny thing about business, though, is that often the right thing and smart thing are the same thing!
So make a list of the people to whom you have genuine reason to be grateful, and say thank you.
Who can you thank today?
So who has helped you recently? And how can you make them feel good about the special thing that they've done for you?
My list would be pretty long, but here is just a starting example, to get you going:
- I'm grateful to Brian Clark, who gave me a shot with my first guest post.
- I'm grateful to Jon Morrow and Corbett Barr for all of the help and advice that they have given me.
- I'm grateful to all of the people who responded to our Semi-Local Business Survey.
- I'm grateful to more bloggers than I can list here for their friendship and support.
- Of course, I'm grateful to Guy Kawasaki, Brian Clark, Mitch Joel, and the 27 other superstars who contributed to my book, Engagement from Scratch! How Super-Community Builders Create A Loyal Audience and How You Can Do the Same!
- And most importantly, I'm grateful to you for time and attention in reading this post.
What about you? Who can you thank today? And how are you going to do it?
Danny Iny (@DannyIny) is an author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, expert marketer, and the Freddy Krueger of Blogging. Together with Guy Kawasaki, Brian Clark, Mitch Joel, he wrote the book on how to build an engaged audience from scratch.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
The Best Blog Growth Strategy is to Say Thank You … a Lot!
Переслать - What Blog Platform Do You Use Most? [POLL]
It’s been a couple of years since we ran a poll here on ProBlogger about the blogging platform that readers are using, so I’m keen to see the results on this one.
n
What Blog Platform Do You Use Most?Please answer for the platform you use most if you have multiple blogs (one selection per person). I’d also love to hear some of your “why?” responses below in the comments, along with mentions of any other platforms not listed here.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
What Blog Platform Do You Use Most? [POLL]
Переслать - Why Submit Your Best Posts as Guest Posts?
This guest post is by Aman Basanti of ageofmarketing.com.
If you have been in the blogging game for any number of months, you already know about the power of guest blogging in generating traffic and exposure to your blog. Yet there are new bloggers out there who hear about the power of guest posting, but still do not understand why it is so effective.
Image copyright Franz Pfluegl - Fotolia.com
As one reader commented on my recent piece on guest posting, "You people are always advocating guest posting. But I am not convinced about guest posting. Can you help me in this case? Why should we submit our best work to someone else?"
It is a valid question and as there are always new people entering the world of blogging, one that is worth answering for the blogging community at large.
Accordingly, here are three reasons why you should submit some of your best posts as guest posts.
1. It increases the chance of your guest post being accepted
Here is what a lot of new bloggers don't know. A-list blogs get a lot of guest post submissions every week. On average, an a-list blog like ProBlogger might get around 30 guest post submissions. In comparison, most blogs only post five or ten posts a week, which means 20 posts get rejected.
If you are sending in your weak posts, chances are your post will get rejected. By sending in your top posts, you increase your chances of getting published on an A-list blog.
2. You’ll get quality “do follow” backlinks
Guest posting on A-list blogs gets you high quality backlinks that help you improve your rankings in the search engines.
Now, you might say, "But I’m getting backlinks through the comments section. Why would I go to all that effort of writing and submitting guest posts when I can easily get those backlinks through the comments section?"
The answer is that links in the comments sections of the major blogs are “no-follow,” which means that they count for a lot less (some say not at all) than the “do follow” links that you get in your by line or author box alongside a guest post.
Also, links higher up on the page carry more SEO benefit. As SEOMoz wrote in a post on SEO, "We find that links higher up in the HTML code of a page seem to pass more ranking ability/value than those lower down." As most guest posts include a back link at the start and at the end of the post, it further magnifies the power of the backlinks.
Combine these two factors and it is easy to see that the backlinks from guest posting are far more valuable than those in the comments section.
3. Attract high-converting traffic
Traffic from guest posts is some of the highest converting traffic you can get. Here are the subscriber opt-in rates for my free ebook page:
- Google Adwords (Banner ads on the content network): 5% opt-in rate (I know I have some work to do on this, but still)
- StumbleUpon: 0.5% opt-in rate
- Guest posting: 40% opt-in rate.
Traffic from guest posting is, hands down, the highest converting traffic you can get. Also, on a big site, the chance of your post going viral is high. It is simple maths. More readers equal more people sharing the post. The more people sharing your post the higher the chance it will be seen by an influencer, further increasing its chances of going viral.
My post on The Warren Buffett Method for Building a Successful Blog, for example, went viral because it was posted on ProBlogger. That post earned me 50 subscribers, showed that I was a good writer, and put me on the map of other bloggers in my niche.
In other words, I got a lot more value from posting it on ProBlogger than I would have had I posted it on my own blog.
Conclusion
Unless you already have a popular blog, there is no reason why you should not submit your best posts as guest posts on major sites. More traffic, better search engine rankings, and brand exposure are some of the key benefits.
Plus, it gives you a bit of kick to get so many comments on a piece you wrote, which can motivate you to keep blogging so that one day you too will get that many comments on your own blog.
Aman Basanti writes about the psychology of buying and teaches you how you can use the principles of consumer psychology to boost your sales. Visit www.Ageofmarketing.com/free-ebook to get his new e-book – Marketing to the Pre-Historic Mind: How the Hot New Science of Behavioural Economics Can Help You Boost Your Sales – for FREE.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Why Submit Your Best Posts as Guest Posts?
Переслать
 | Как сделать своё рабочее место уютным  Корпоративный блог ЮНИТЕКС – «Офисная мебель и все вокруг нее» делится опытом и дает рекомендации, рассказывает о новинках, тенденциях и всем интересном, что происходит в области обустройства офисов, информирует об акциях компании. Присоединиться → |
| rss2email.ru |
| rss2email.ru | отписаться: http://www.rss2email.ru/unsubscribe.asp?c=12354&u=1052515&r=672244627 управление подпиской: http://www.rss2email.ru/manage.asp партнерская программа: http://partner.rss2email.ru/?pid=1 |
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий