Entries Tagged 'Blog' ↓

Every IM’er should read this.

Internet Marketers Can Change The World

And then, check out Roger Carr’s blog, Everyday Giving

It gives real meaning to the phrase:

Follow Your PASSION

New here? Please pick up your three FREE gifts - click here. Hope you like them. And drop by often!

This post could have been titled: “Twitter Influence”

But I thought it looked more ‘interesting’ with this instead:

The story is as fascinating as the heading suggests. It’s a blogger’s dream. Imagine typing a few words into a box, clicking a button - and as a result, having access to 82,000 readers.Well, that’s what happened.

The first part was in late December 2007. I had just noticed Darren ‘Problogger’ Rowse had joined Twitter, the micro-blogging service that’s oh-so-much more. And ‘followed’ him.

We had a few exchanges of messages on Twitter - and not really hoping for much, I showed him a short draft I had written about ‘The Influence of Death’. He liked it, and asked if I could modify it a bit to fit the theme of his blog. The result was:

It was a thrill being featured on the busy Problogger blog’s homepage for close to a week, and getting 45 comments from the thousands of readers who saw the post.

And again, this week, I had a ‘repeat performance’ - almost identical to the first one.

I wrote a short list of “10 Reasons For Bloggers To Get Involved With a Non-Profit” - and showed it to Darren through a Twitter ‘direct message’. As you well know, Twitter limits each message to 140 characters (my message was even shorter!)

This time, Darren liked it and asked if I was happy to have him publish it ‘as is’.

I was. And yesterday the post was on Problogger’s homepage!

10 Reasons For Bloggers To Get Involved With a Non-Profit

Again, instant exposure to Problogger’s 41,000+ readers!

Better still, the context of the message is PERFECT to mention my own upcoming non-profit awareness building event, A DAY FOR HEARTS - Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Day!

Why blog about this?

Because anyone can do what I did - without much work or stress. And not just with Problogger - there are many more bloggers, with busy blogs followed by thousands of readers, who will gladly post your guest content - if it is relevant, useful and fits the theme of their blogs.

How to do it?

* Get on Twitter.

* Type 140 characters into a box.

* Click on the UPDATE button.

And if the planets are in the right alignment, you too may get instant exposure to 82,000 readers - or more!

That’s Twitter Influence - and still many people will miss this opportunity and go:

“Oh, Twitter!“

If you are a blogger who endorses a worthy charity, there are many ways you can integrate your support for your favorite non-profit into your blogging. Here are 11 ideas you may want to start using:

1. Theme. You could use a ‘theme’ for your blog that reflects the cause or mission of the non-profit you support.

2. Link. By prominently placing a link pointing to your favorite non-profit’s website, you could send some of your blog’s visitors there - and some of them may become donors or supporters.

3. Banner or Button. You could display a graphic with a message supporting your charity’s work and purpose.

4. Post. From time to time, you may blog about the work your non-profit is engaged upon, giving the reasons you are so passionately supportive of it, and telling your readers why they should consider helping too.

5. Donations. You could host a ‘Donate Now’ button for your charity. Or a volunteer sign up form. Or create a more elaborate process to collect contributions from your blog visitors who share your support for the cause.

6. RSS Feeds. You could display an RSS feed from your non-profit’s own website or blog, displaying the latest news about their activities on your blog where your audience can see it and keep up to date.

7. Events. You could run seasonal or annual events to support your charity. Every year I hold a 24-hour blogging marathon, the ‘Heart Kids Blogathon’, to raise funds for my non-profit.

8. Photos. A picture is worth a thousand words. A captivating or emotion-kindling photograph related to your non-profit’s activities, with a caption including a call to action can work wonders.

9. Video. If photos work well, videos can work even better! By embedding a video about your non-profit, you can deliver a powerful message and evangelize the cause you are supporting.

10. Widgets. Many neat tools can be included in your blog’s sidebar or structure which promote audience engagement. If the widget ties in with your non-profit’s work, it can serve a dual purpose - educate while entertaining.

11. Games. Online games also involve visitors and hold their attention. If the game itself delivers a subtle message about your non-profit, you win big time.

Do you know of any others? Please share them by leaving a comment.

And if you’d like to support “A DAY FOR HEARTS : Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Day”, you could use any of these ideas to spread awareness about heart birth defects - on your blog!

In 2003, I wrote on of the first ebook about blogging for profits. Blog Profit Ideas Exposed went on to sell over 750 copies.

Since 2005, I have stopped teaching my power-blogging techniques. Yet, I’m still known as a top expert on blog marketing.

I distilled my best blogging practices into a short primer for beginners and created the “10 Day Blog Profits” challenge in 2006. Over 1,400 have taken it.

Of those who finished the 10-day challenge, 86% had made some money from their blogs - and most of them were absolute newbies!

More than half of the participants said this convinced them to keep blogging for profits and grow their blogs into bigger, more profitable assets.

NO ONE has had access to this 10-day program since last year… but now you can be one of the 100 people who can experience the revised version on February 1st.

Why am I doing it?

To help spread Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) Awareness on ‘A DAY FOR HEARTS : CHD Awareness Day’ , February 14th, 2008.

All I ask in return for giving you this powerful blog training is that you follow the instructions and link back to the CHD Awareness homepage.

Nothing else. You’ll be helping a humane cause - and save a child’s life.

Hope you’ll participate in the “10 Day Blog Profits” Challenge.

Register here

1. Chris Brogan - he has incredible insights about the exciting new arena of social media marketing.

2. Guy Kawasaki - he inspires me to keep trying to change the world.

3. Seth Godin - he called me a ‘Purple Cow’ and sparked off a chain of events, then channeled my marketing thinking in the right direction.

4. Yaro Starak - he showed me by example how persistence and steadily providing top-notch content can make you an authority - fast.

5. Hugh MacLeod - he draws cartoons, has fun, and explains powerful concepts like ‘global microbrands’ in easy to follow style.

6. Tim Ferris - he writes about ‘Karmic Capitalism’ among other mind-expanding things.

7. Glenda Watson Hyatt - she’s the ‘left thumb blogger’ and one of the most inspiring people I came across online last year.

Which ones are your favorites?

I created this series of posts about launching a new blog some months back.

During the site redesign, somehow the links to it got knocked off the homepage and I’ve had a few questions from readers asking where it went.

Well, it’s still here - so this post is primarily to link to the different sections.

The multi-part guide covers topics like:

• Blog STRATEGY
• Blog STRUCTURE
• Blog CONTENT
• Blog PROFIT
• Blogging PROCESS
• Blog MARKETING

If you find the series helpful, please spread the word. And add your feedback and suggestions to the mix so others will benefit from your wisdom. Thanks.

With some time to spare, I’m looking to write some guest blogs - would you like me to write for your blog too?

The post will be 200 to 350 words, completely unique content, and on a topic I know enough about, but one you can select to fit the theme of your blog.

I’ll promise to write at least 10 - maybe more. So if you’d like me to be your ‘guest blogger’, leave
a comment on the blog here.

Edited  14th December, 2007:

Price = Value

I made an elementary mistake in posting an offer to write guest posts for your blog for free… and the response was predictable. No one wants a free article, right?!
So, I’m changing my offer (Lynda and Tom, you’re excepted )

I normally get paid $300 or more to write a 15 page report, $35 for an original 500+ word article and around $12.50 for non-exclusive rights to a 350 to 500 word article.  That’s when I even consider doing freelance writing.

The last time I got bitten by the ‘writing bug’, I released a pack of 50 infopreneuring articles at $97.00 each - and sold out the limited packs in the first 3 days.

Now I’m feeling the itch to write again.  Not full-length articles, but shorter pieces best suited to be blog posts.  I’ll write at least 10 for other blogs, maybe more - and you can PAY ME just $10 to write one completely original, exclusive blog post for you.

Send in your payment via PayPal to info (at) ezinemarketingcenter.com

Please mention that it is for a guest blog post - and if I get more requests than I can handle comfortably, I’ll refund your payment.

Sorry.  This is just to scratch that itch to write - not a money-making attempt!

The digital world as viewed through the eyes of software developers, programmers and architects has always seemed too abstract, remote and unreal to me, as compared with ‘real world’ interactions we all experience as humans on Planet Earth.

That’s why when I read this article on personal publishing, the analogy that struck me was very different from the author’s.

I look on the 3 categories - blogging, social networks and micro-blogging - from a different viewpoint… one that’s more easily ‘relatable to’ from my offline existence.

Blogging is the publishing equivalent of your main ‘job’ or ‘work’. As a heart surgeon, for me it would be performing an operation. It is intense, skilled, pain-staking work, done primarily by an individual or small team, and directed towards a particular end (in my case, fixing a child’s heart).

Social Networking is the personal publishing equivalent of ‘meetings’. Some are small, like a weekly audit of our unit’s work where fellow consultants and resident trainees discuss problems and solutions. Others are large, like annual industry conferences or tradeshows where hundreds, or even thousands of people meet and network. The focus is on learning, supporting and improving performance.

Micro-blogging, as I already once wrote, is the e-publishing equivalent of coffee-room conversation. A stress reliever, a quick connector, a ‘What’s New’ updater, or just a place to meet someone and say ‘Hi, there’… before getting back to the other bits of one’s professional life.

And that’s why I disagree partly with the conclusion that:

“Each form of personal publishing is different and each has its niche and audience.”

None of these are mutually exclusive. Not many people spend all day in the coffee-room. And all but the most workaholic surgeons find time to relax outside the O.R.

Each form of online socializing - and that’s all these different vehicles are - has a role to play in every Web user’s life… at different stages of growth, at varying times and phases.

But can they be inter-changed?

That’s the interesting question. I’ve seen people offended by being told dogmatically that

“Twitter should be used for…”

and asking

“Sez who?!”

Exactly.

Sometimes, the critical break needed to solve a complex diagnostic problem comes not from intense debate in a conference hall or deep thought and brainstorming in an operation theater or office/clinic - but in casual conversation in the coffee-room or around the water cooler!

And inane chatter is often a feature of a stress-loaded O.R. during periods of relatively less critical work. Ditto for meeting rooms.

So stepping back and looking at the panaroma of digital publishing solutions online, it is apparent that (regardless of the excited, enthusiastic developers’ claim of ‘discovery’) what we see on the Web is just another manifestation of systems we as a human race have evolved over eons of existence - to work, network and relax.

No matter how digitized and ‘virtual’ our world may apparently seem, at its core we are still human.

And I love that!

How about you?

How To Measure ‘Blogger Influence’?

Photo credit sxc.hu

Ever since I became interested in the subject of ‘influence’ in blogging, I’ve wondered how best to measure influence.

I’ve always disliked ‘leaderboards‘ which rank influence by using an algorithmic approach - based on inbound links, or ‘reach’, or RSS count or some other metric.

But is that really ‘influence’?

Should a ‘make money’ blog be ranked based on the amount of money it makes a blogger? Or alternatively, by the amount of money the blogger makes?

Would a ‘change the world’ blog be better judged on the impact it has on readers or the change it helps bring about?

How about a ‘technology’ blog? Do we ‘rank’ it based on how effectively it implements technology? Or talks about it? Or influences the use and development of technological innovations?

And what metrics can measure influence in the multiple other niches?

Harder still, how would you COMPARE influence between bloggers and blogs in different categories?

Is a ‘John Chow‘ more influential than a ‘Guy Kawasaki‘? Is a ‘Dave Winer‘ more influential than a ‘Chris Brogan‘ or a ‘Steve Pavlina‘?

Of course, you could say: Does it really matter?

Let’s assume it does. How would you measure influence across niches - or even within one?

Andy Beard wrote (in a comment):

“I really want blogs to become something more than a marketing platform for product launches, but that isn’t going to happen unless it can be shown that blogs and RSS subscribers are something worth striving for.”

Seth Godin wrote:

“Every time you read something I write here, you’re giving me a gift… attention. It’s getting more precious all the time, you have more choices every day, and it’s harder and harder to find the time. I know. I’m grateful. I’m doing my best to make your attention worth it.”

And reading between the lines of both of these masters, there’s WISDOM that needs to be recognized, distilled, analyzed and internalized by every blogger and marketer.

Can blogging become something more than a marketing platform?

Good question. Blogs are indeed personal diaries for some, ‘closed network’ communication tools for others, and platforms for marketing for another group. Seth, in ‘Small is the New Big’ calls them ‘cat blogs’, ‘boss blogs’ and ‘viral blogs’.

But rather than calling ‘viral blogs’ a ‘marketing platform’, Seth explains: “… they’re viral blogs because the goal of the blog is to spread ideas.”

Spreading IDEAS. “What a novel concept,” say many ‘marketers’… because ideas are the last thing on their minds.

Sales are higher. Opt-ins, maybe next. Response rates, conversion rates, killer copy, all rank higher. Ideas, if they even make it on to the list, come straggling in towards the end.

Rich Schefren’s ‘Attention Age Doctrine‘ could potentially have been a barrier breaking document. It could have positioned him to the wider world across the blogosphere as a ‘thought leader’. Instead, outside the Internet marketing clique, the wider audience views him as ‘yet another hype-ridden marketer’.

This despite STRONG endorsements from people with reputation and influence, like Andy Beard. Indeed, that’s what Andy’s blog was originally about… he asked “Do You Trust My Advice?”

One of the people who commented on that post was Jay Neely, who pointed out what’s glaringly obvious to a general audience, yet dances with abandon in the blind spot of a marketing-centric crowd…

Snippets from Jay’s comment:

-The most prominent text on the page insults me.

-If the author can’t distill the most important parts of his own product into five key points, or even a top ten list, why should I trust him to be able to distill the complexities of online marketing into a readable, comprehensible format?

-The target audience for this product is marketers, correct? And you’re using hard-sell scare tactics… against the people most experienced with hard-sell scare tactics? No thanks.

All valid points. Especially considering that this is a document decrying the lack of time, conflicting interests clamoring for our limited attention, and suggesting a way to avoid and overcome it.

What if…

• the document came with TWO landing pages, one for an in-house list of marketers and the other for a general audience?
• the document itself was written in TWO different tones, one for the hype-addict, the other for a more ‘mature’ readership?
• the promotion for it was segregated between the two groups, each getting to see what is better tailored to their tastes?

Then, blogs could have been more than ‘marketing platforms’. They could have been ‘media to spread ideas’. The ideas would spread wider, further, more effectively.

At the core of it all is that vague, uncertain, hard to define, yet determining thing inside each blogger/marketer called ATTITUDE.

Seth impressed me more impactfully than with all of his writing and speaking by making this defining statement incredibly clear and powerful with one short sentence:

“Every time you read something I write here, you’re giving me a gift… attention.”

With a blinding flash of insight, I realized what needed to be changed in my attitude IMMEDIATELY.

It didn’t take hype or marketing speak or joint ventures to do it… just a quiet, heartfelt post to his blog.

And I believe it rings with such startling clarity and effectiveness because it is true and sincere, because it is what Seth Godin builds his brand and actions around, and because it carries the conviction of CONGRUENCY.

A reader with skills of analytical criticism looking at it (like Jay Neely looked at the Attention Age landing page) would find it hard to point out to incongruent behavior. For that reason, the simple blog post would carry more power and impact than a 3-ring circus style roll-out.

‘RSS subscribers’, in and of themselves, are probably not worth ’striving for’.

Attention is worth striving for.

Congruency is worth striving for.

Blogs with both are worth striving for.

What do you feel is worth striving for in your blogging? Share your thoughts.