Successful Blog

What Keeps @BeckyMcCray coming back to #SOBCon?

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Over the coming weeks, we’re featuring some of our alumni talking about why they keep coming back to SOBCon. These are people that have been to SOBCon multiple times, and they continue to invest their resources in your community. This week we feature small business expert and co-author of Small Town Rules Becky McCray sharing why she keeps coming back to SOBCon.

I’m skeptical of most conferences, because too many are all talk. Presenters get up and lecture, while we all listen patiently. I seldom feel like I learned anything I couldn’t have learned from just reading an article or book from the speaker.

SOBCon is different. There are presentations, but they come with variety. Some are single presenters taking us through a theme, some are panels or Q&A. But every time, we come back to small groups around the table.

The magic is in those small groups. It’s usually 6 people, all working together on the theme or model that we just heard about. I get to pick how much and how intensively I share about my own business. The more I share, the better ideas I get from my table team. Everyone in the room is there because they have committed to work.

In the two and a half days, I always gain new insights on my own business, and I always feel like I’ve done good in helping others.

Joe Sorge and I talked about SOBCon in this interview, starting at: 18:09:
http://tpn.thepulsenetwork.com/Business/kitchen-table-talks/ktc-of-the-week-becky-mccray/

Thank you Becky.

For small business insights from Becky McCray, visit Small Biz Survival or check out her book Small Town Rules, co-authored with fellow SOBCon alum Barry Moltz.

How to Build Interest (Part 1 in a series): Coattails

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By James Ellis

You want to know a poorly kept secret? I met my wife on Craigslist. Missed Connections, in fact. I know! Crazy, right?

Anyway, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy a dirty little peek at the Missed Connection page in their particular city. Quickly scanning to see if they recognize a person or place is really just cover to see if anyone left an MC about you.

Lots of people do it. And even more single people do it.

If I was a business owner, let’s say of a coffee shop, I’d have to wonder if there was a way to leverage the popularity of Missed Connections to help build my own audience.

Single people drink coffee. They sit for a bit, read a book or surf while enjoying their tea, and then they leave. How do I get more people to come in and drink?

Hypothetically, you could start posting a MC listing every day, talking about how you really liked someone’s glasses, or ask about the book they were reading. Nice shoes!

Do that for two weeks. Stay innocent. Pretend you have no idea where these are coming from. Then, after two weeks, post something on your Facebook page and Twitter account about how amusing it is that all these people are posting to MC from your shop. Keep posting. You should start to see posts that aren’t from you. Good. Keep posting. After three more weeks, start posting your favorite MC from your store of the day on your web site and social networks.

Go crazy. Have an MC day, where the whole store knows what’s going on. Everyone will be drinking coffee to see and be seen, to meet someone, to know that their MC post will at least be read, likely by the person it was for.

This is an example of building interest in your business by riding the coattails of some other popular idea. I’m not saying your nut company needs to do a Gangnam video (yeah, I’m talking to you, pistachio growers), but find your audience, learn what they do, what they like, and slowly and slyly become a part of it. Never let it appear that that’s what you’re doing, because that ruins it. Spur the connection and foster it. Never force it.

Author’s Bio: James Ellis is a digital strategist, mad scientist, lover, fighter, drummer and blogger living in Chicago. You can reach out to him or just argue with his premise at saltlab.com.

How to Become a Psychic Blogger

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By Nathalie Lussier

How To Write The Blog Post Your Reader Really Needs From You Now

Are you a psychic bloggerIdeas. We all have them. Ideas for blog posts, new projects, and things we need to remember to buy at the grocery store.

Sometimes you get a flash of inspiration for a blog post, and if you have the time to sit down and write it, that blog post can turn out to be the exact thing your reader needed at that moment. Other times, you find yourself re-reading your piece and asking yourself what you were thinking when you penned that jumble of words.

It happens to all of us. In today’s post I’m going to talk about the tricks I’ve learned in my 10 years of blogging, that have allowed me to read the minds of my readers. I regularly get emails and comments from my audience telling me that my post came at just the right time for them, or that I must be psychic because that’s exactly what they were wondering about.

Do your blog posts currently hit the “psychic spot” for your reader? If not, keep reading to find out how you can hone your idea generating and selecting process, to deliver the best content on a consistent basis.

TRICK #1: Know Who You’re Talking To

When brainstorming for a blog or video post, can you think of a specific person, reader or client of yours who would benefit from what you’re writing about? Who is this reader? Whether you are writing for industry leaders or newbies, knowing exactly who you’re talking to and how they’re going to take action based on the information, stories, or advice you share with them is key.

For example, when I first started my blogging career as the Raw Foods Witch, I used to write to my peers. I just didn’t know any better, I thought that the world was full of raw foodists.

Silly? Absolutely.

It was only when I shifted my attention towards the everyday person who wanted to eat healthy but didn’t really know how, that I was able to capture my readers’ attention.

Today, at Nathalie Lussier Media, I talk a lot about technology, and I need to remember what my audiences’ burning questions are so I can share the most relevant new tech tools.

I would never do a video about a complex programming solution, because I know that my audience is not filled with not software engineers like myself and this information just won’t resonate with them. Instead, I talk about ‘done for you plug-ins’ and solutions that solve their problems easily with no coding required. By focusing on what my readers need to know, I can connect directly to them.

TRICK #2: Ask For Feedback

I often hear these statements. ‘I know there are people out there, but no one is reading my blog’ or ‘I’m not really sure who reads my blog.’ Does this sound familiar?

If you don’t have a large readership on your blog, simply asking your current readers to leave a comment should get the ball rolling. Alternatively, you can send out a survey and ask people what they need help with and what they wish they knew how to do better.

Beyond just asking, you also need to connect with people more than you might currently be doing.

TRICK #3: Connect With Your Current Readers

Before you build your castle in the sky, I highly recommend that you get in touch with your audience, the real people who are actually reading the words that you write and find out what they need from you the most.

Send the people who comment on your blog a quick e-mail asking them what you can do for them and what kind of content would really change their lives.

TRICK #4: Answer The Burning Qs

The benefit of blogging and creating great content is that you only have to do it once, and it lives on the Internet forever. If you find yourself getting the same question from your readers all the time, share the answer in a blog post.

Not only will this save you the time of answering this question over and over, you will actually attract more people who need that particular problem solved just like your original audience.

So here’s your filter question for the next time you sit down to write a blog post or create a video: Do I know a specific person in my audience who will benefit from me answering this question?

Follow these 4 tricks and get ready to have people showing up and telling you how amazing you are, because you’ve actually tapped into what they need from you the most.

Are you ready to join in the exclusive club of psychic bloggers who comes up with the best content all the time? Leave a comment below with any tips or tricks you’ve found for getting great blog post ideas.

Author’s Bio: Nathalie Lussier is a digital strategist for the ambitious business owner. She’s the creator of the Website Checkup Tool, a free tool that gives you specific steps to improve your site’s traffic and conversions, no matter stage of business you’re at right now.

Image via CC by Thomas Hawk

Beach Notes: Bleach Festival

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By Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

Suzie and Board

Today we visited the local Bleach festival, a celebration of the visual and performing arts and beach culture.

We saw that one of the stands was for the ABC Open service, provided by our national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

ABC Open is dedicated to providing a way for people in “regional Australia”, i.e. those of us who live outside the big cities, to produce and publish photos, stories, videos, and sound, via the ABC.

At the ABC Open stand for the festival they had a surfboard, lots of colored markers and an invitation to write a message on the board. The format of the message was to be:

(beach name) is the best beach
because……………………………….

Clearly a job for Suzie the artist.

Suzie leapt at the chance to celebrate our favorite local beach at Rainbow Bay.

As you can see from the picture, she wrote “Rainbow is the best beach because it is peaceful and full of spirit.”

– Des Walsh & Suzie Cheel

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Are You Selling Your Content Enough?

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By Reese Jones

A lot of creative people often suffer from the problem of failing to market themselves efficiently, and by extension, the work they create. This is especially true when it comes to any content that makes its home on the internet, as quite frequently people are not fully aware of the options available to them.

Sure, there’s the more obvious choices – linking your WordPress account to Twitter or Facebook to ensure that all your content is appearing on the relevant social media platforms. But are you reaching out and actually offering your content to people in subtle or more proactive ways? Do you engage with other bloggers, network at events, reach out for interviews and go on blog tours? If not, you’re not doing your hard work enough justice.

It’s also arguable you might not be working hard enough, either, but that’s only the case about half of the time – some people simply aren’t aware of other techniques and assume that just writing posts and hitting “publish” will do the job. So here’s five ideas to get you started when it comes to getting your work out there and ensuring it receives the attention it deserves.

Blogger outreach.

It’s not often that people blog about a specific topic on a regular basis without being aware of the community that surrounds that topic. Social media, mental health, videogames – there are no niches devoid of discussion on the internet, so take advantage of this, and get involved with debates and conversations. Try commenting on blogs with similar topics and engaging with their writers – even offering them a guest post on your blog, should they be interested.

Engaging with the community.

Following on from the previous point, it’s also worth thinking about what you could be doing to better engage with the community. Connect with those who enjoy the topic and are deeply involved in and/or knowledgeable about it, but who don’t write about it themselves. These are your readers, and in order to appeal to them, there are many simple steps you can take. These include getting involved in your own comments threads, in forums, and also taking on suggestions for topics from readers who’d like to read your take on something.

Mix up your media.

Don’t just stick to writing unless you’re really not keen on doing anything else. These days, successful blogs are a balanced mix of text, images, video, and even audio. No one says you have to become a jack of all trades, but even using images to bolster a blog post with a little visual aid isn’t going to hurt – neither is looking up relevant YouTube videos and embedding them into the post. After all, it’s content for both you and the video producer, so your blog looks more enticing, and they receive more plays.

Go on tour!

If you’re not sure what a “blog tour” is, it’s pretty simple to get the hang of. You simply do a series of guest posts on various other blogs, in essence, touring the blogosphere and offering people your hard work – ie content – usually for free. Why for free? Because it’s an incredible way of making the audiences of ten sites aware of you in one big tour, and if you’ve got an article going up every weekday at a different site with a by-line that points them over to your blog, things will get busy for you, in a good way.

Keep improving.

Don’t just assume that you’re at the top of your game – there is no point in your career where that should be your mindset, and even if you’re blogging casually, it’s a bad attitude to have. Think about how you can improve your writing, your variety of content, the blog’s overall aesthetic – don’t give it 50%. People will always enjoy what you’ve got going on already, but by never evolving you’re damaging your chances of growing your audience.

Blogging isn’t easy. It requires hard work, commitment, scheduling, imagination, talent and intelligence. But after all that, if you’re not receiving any attention, something is wrong. Don’t be afraid to self-analyse and use these tips to improve things – you can only get better if you’ve got the right attitude. Happy blogging!

Author’s Bio: Reese Jones is a tech and gadget lover, a die-hard fan of iOS and console games. She started her writing venture recently and writes about everything from quick tech tips, to mobile-specific news from the likes of O2, to tech-related DIY. Find more about her and her work at Reese+ and tweet her @r_am_jones.

How Love Inspires Us to Write

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By Tiffany Matthews

I had come to write about truth, beauty, freedom and that which I believed above all things, love. But there was only one problem…..I’ve never been in love!

This opening monologue in the movie Moulin Rouge, follows young writer Christian, who is faced with a serious dilemma. How can he write about love without even experiencing what it feels like to fall in love?

Love Acts Like a Muse…

For writers and artists, love is a muse that inspires them in their craft, be it through literary works or through masterpieces in art. Have you ever noticed how the words seem to flow easier when you’re in love? Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a fine example of how love can inspire us to write. She immortalized her love for her husband, Robert Browning in How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways, one of the most famous love sonnets of all time.

Lack of Love or Heartbreak…

Love, or lack of it, inspires us to write about our free flowing emotions that lift us up to cloud nine or bring us crashing down to reality when our illusions of love are shattered. Some writers thrive in loving relationships while others relish the angst of unrequited love. Yes, we need angst to write. Some writers, however, would choose not to fall in love because they don’t want to be brokenhearted. But even a broken heart can be a dark muse, as proven by some of musicians whose albums were inspired by their heartbreak.

After breaking up with her boyfriend, Adele penned her best selling album, 21, which earned her six Grammy Awards last year, including Album of the year. Taylor Swift is another example of how heartbreak can be transformed into words or in her case, songs.

Falling in Love…

Some writers may not be part of the talkative lot, but when they fall in love, expect pages or letters filled with sweet nothings and lovely verse–the only way they know how to articulate their feelings. When you are in a relationship with a writer, expect to be immortalized in poems, stories and songs.

David Levithan’s book, Every Day, has this quote that perfectly describes what love does to us writers, “This is what love does: It makes you want to rewrite the world.”

Stephen King contributes his own thoughts on love in his profession as an author. “Writing is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don’t have to makes speeches. Just believing is usually enough.” This line of course, speaks of his wife Tabitha, the loving constant throughout the ups and downs of his writing career.

Even with our increasingly digital and mobile world, writers will still take the time to write you a letter or dedicate a poem to you. Neil Gaiman is one of the more vocal authors, who is not ashamed to speak about his love for his wife, Amanda Palmer, on Twitter. The more bashful wordsmiths will send you notes coming from a supposed secret admirer. The more courageous ones will wear their hearts on their sleeve and declare their love on every social media around. In fact, writers can use online tools, to help them update their social networks and emails simultaneously in one place.

Love in any form–not just the romantic kind–will always inspire us to write. Open your heart and don’t be afraid to fall love. If you do get your heart broken, cry and let your written words speak for you. But don’t ever be afraid of finding love again. Just as Christian in Moulin Rouge learned, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”

Author’s Bio: Based in San Diego, California, Tiffany Matthews writes about travel, fashion and anything under sun at wordbaristas.com. You can find her on Twitter as
@TiffyCat87.