Course-Correction and Your Half-Year Resolutions
Course-Correct We are half way through the year. How are your new-years resolutions working out? Are you closer to achieving your goals? A lot of my coaching clients feel bad when I ask this but I want to encourage you to not feel like a failure if you have not achieved all that you had planned to do by now! Course Correct You will have heard the phrase “a pilot is off-course 90{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} of the time“. I’m not sure if that is strictly true but it helps illustrate that you can …
How to Solve the “Creativity Problem” and Stand Out in a Crowd
I think everyone has the capacity to be creative, but if you listen to some pundits it seems creativity is something only bestowed on an elite few. The fact is, the word “creativity” itself can cause a lot of creative resistance, and make people feel that the bar has been set too high for them. Relax. Being creative does not mean you have to be the next Shakespeare or Leonardo Da Vinci! In fact, I imagine you don’t have a creativity problem at all. Creativity is not scarce What does creativity mean to us in this context? For most people the goal would…
4 Pieces of Advice to Help Your Small Business
You might have noticed a bit of a gap in posting here. Well, I have still been writing, just over at the BMO Bank’s Small Business site: I am writing about how online tools and techniques can grow your business. Check out my most recent articles and let me know what you think! 4 Key Lessons All Sales People Can Learn From Grandma What Google’s Changes Mean To Your Business (And What To Do About Them) How To Grow And Maintain Strong Business Networking Relationships – Part 1 How To Grow And Maintain Strong Business Networking Relationships – Part 2 29 Blogging Business Survival Tips5 Essential Skills for Today’s Online MarketerYour Best Foundation for a Sustainable BusinessThe Simple Route to Generating Sales Leads with Your…How to Make…
How to Get Paid for Free
How do you convert browsers to buyers? One of the key ideas behind being an Authority Blogger, or “Content Marketing”, is that you put out lots of educational material that ordinarily people would be willing to pay for. How do you turn that free stuff into profit? The thing is, while we KNOW this works, a lot of people get stuck on the HOW. They put out tons and tons of free material and never quite reach the “getting paid” part. I was toying calling this post “Thriving…
Your Best Foundation for a Sustainable Business
Would your business survive burning down? What would you do if your business burned to the ground? If you had to literally start over, would you be able to cope? What would your approach be? I have been falling behind with my workload lately. You just have to look at my posting frequency to see that I have been dropping as many plates as I manage to keep spinning. I’m busy. That’s a great problem to have, …
How to Avoid Cold-Feet Killing Your Progress
Cold Feet Can Kill Your Productivity Today, I want to talk about what happens when you give in to your fears. I want you to learn from my mistakes so you can have the courage to do what you need to. I have a lot of fears. That’s just part of who I am. I’m risk-averse, and I tend to focus on mitigating the risks I perceive as a priority, rather than focus on potential gains. (I’ve written about fear before, check out this post in particular where I tell the story of nearly drowning. It’s a fan-favourite). My dumb cold-feet mistakes Sadly, …
The Secret Element of Successful Marketing Campaigns
Remove friction from your marketing Why can Brian send one email from the Copyblogger email list and make 6 figures? Is it list size? Yes, scale obviously comes into it, but if someone else had Copyblogger’s list they wouldn’t necessarily get the same result. So what is the crucial factor that makes the difference? Is it Authority? Yes, of course that’s a factor, but there is more to it. More than seven years went …
Is it Just Business? How to be Professionally Human
Have you ever worked with someone who uses the phrase “It’s just business“? Or played a game with someone who, after cheating, back-stabbing, lying or just being a jerk, said “It’s only a game“? How did that make you feel? Did you respect the person more, or less? Did you trust them more afterwards? When someone is an aggressive, shouting, mean bully, do you say “Well, that’s just how they are. A straight-talker!“. Last night I…
5 Essential Skills for Today’s Online Marketer
Skillz. I haz em. What are the most important skills for an online marketer, blogger or professional? I am going to list my response to that, but I would be interested in hearing your thoughts in the comments. I’m intentionally keeping this one short so you can dive in and tell me where I am wrong! This post came about because I was just asked this question in email, and after responding briefly, I couldn’t get the question out of my head. After pondering on it, I realised it’s not quite as simple as it first seems. I realised that some of these are traits you are born with, but can develop, and others you can simply learn…
29 Blogging Business Survival Tips
What does it take to be successful in blogging as or for a business? My friend Al from Coolest Gadgets contacted me for some quotes to use in a presentation he has coming up, and as usual, I gave him way more material than he could use. Rather than let it go to waste, I have written it up here as an article. These aren’t the only lessons, but they are a start. If you like them, check out my article from 2008 that has 41 tips about the blogging side of things. Revenue generation Don’t put off the revenue side of your business…
Want to Know What Makes Content Truly Successful?
What is the secret to getting your content read, shared and acted on? Is your content really useful versus just well-written? Why do some writers get real results from their articles, while other writers work just as hard, or harder, and don’t seem to get noticed? Of course there are many reasons, but a key reason that I see over and over again is what I call the “Hot Potato” effect. Before we get into what that is, let’s talk a little bit about what good content is, and what kind of content you might want to…
Why Even a Big List Won’t Save You from Bad Strategy
A big question I get asked all the time here and on Copyblogger webinars (right after how to generate traffic or build a list), is “How can I get more people to respond/buy/subscribe?” In my previous post, I talked about what makes content truly successful, and I gave a big answer, but for this particular issue, great content is only part of the solution. What more do you need? I will tell you now, it’s not just a big list. In fact, a lot of seemingly successful people are not doing that great and only look like they do because of the size of their list. Smaller businesses are …
Join Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett in Portland Oregon: Thursday 10 July 2014
This post is left for archive purposes, the event was July 2014 Want to join Darren Rowse and me for a day of blogging talk? Or maybe going to World Domination Summit and getting in a day early? I’m thrilled to be able to share that Darren Rowse and Chris Guillebeau have arranged a ProBlogger training day in Portland Oregon on Thursday 10 July. They invited me along because I guess Darren would be lonely or something? The …
How to Go from Author to Successful Online Business
Since I let slip that I was a wannabe fiction writer, a few people have asked me questions about the modern author/publishing business: “Can you make a full time living as a writer, without being freelance?” “What should a modern indie author do to maximise their business?” “For successful self-publishers, what would we do differently?” I’ve answered these questions and more in various comment areas, forums, and social media. In fact, I am going to be …
The “Simple” Secret Behind Copyblogger’s 8 Figure Business
What is the secret behind Copyblogger’s 9 straight years of growth? How has it been achieved without any outside investment, without sales people, and with close to zero advertising? Join Chris Garrett and Tony Clark as they talk about: The simple secret to success (and why it is not easy) What you need before you create your product The truth about real Minimum Viable Products, and the fatal trap too many people fall into How you can use this…
Why New Products Fail
What is the difference between new products that take off in popularity and those that essentially get ignored? How do you know when your new product is ready to sell? Today I would like to share with you the key strategy that will allow you to not only sell more of your products and services to more people, but will also reduce refunds and improve your audience’s relationship with you. In The Mainframe podcast, Tony and I have been covering the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) process for creating products and moving into how to simply and successfully launch those …
How to Grow Your Long-Term Authority
Why do some people manage to stick around forever, while other people and brands seem to be here one day and gone the next? What is it about some people that makes you warm to them, while others give off a dodgy vibe that repels even the most tactile extroverts? As mentioned earlier, Tony and I have been creating this new podcast called The Mainframe, and so far we have focused on launches. If you listen carefully, though, there are some themes …
Grow Your Authority With Your Geekiness
How do people really connect and build friendly relationships? What is it that causes people to want to hear from you more than anything else? In marketing we talk about “value” a lot. Value is important, but I feel value often speaks to need more often than it does want. Serving needs is a minimum requirement. We want to stand out and be seen as more than that. We have to attract people who want to read our content, who are happy to work with us. While you can certainly attract a lot of people…
3 Essential (But Often Missed) Elements to Growing Your List
Why do some people with so-so content seem to easily grow their community, while other much better writers seem to struggle to get a few opt-ins? I believe there are three factors that set a growing list apart from a struggling one, and many people either overlook the necessity or are unaware of it. When we talk about list building and growing your audience, two topics always seem to dominate. Those are traffic and conversion. Yes, they are important. If you only focus on those two elements, and ignore these three others, then you are going to be in for a very hard time. What are those elements? Let’s find out … See that photograph …
How to get 80{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} of the results with 20{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} of the content
When should you write? How often? How long should your blog posts be? Should you have a schedule? I get asked these questions and similar every week, between emails, Q&A calls/webinars, and clients. Content is becoming super important. We used to talk about if content was king or not. Now, I see a shift. The content creator is now king. (click to tweet) Keeping the crown is getting tougher than ever, though. The problem is, people get caught up in thinking they don’t have time, are not good enough, not …