Successful Blog

Mind if I Ask Your Network to Help Me Beat Your Car with a Sledgehammer?

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Social Media Is Connecting People with People

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Would you stop connecting people to people for one small second?

Put down that shiny object and consider these statements.

Mind if I ask your network to help me beat your car with a sledgehammer?

I’m hoping you’ll personally help me throw a puppy off a high building.

I’m about to shamelessly self-promote my new money-making seminar.

Repeat after me.

Just because you say you’re going to do it,
doesn’t make it right and it doesn’t make it any more appealing.

Social media is about connecting people to people, not people to products.
The joke about shameless self-promotion isn’t funny, because it’s meant to be promotion, not a joke.

And when someone follows it with . . .

If you help me run over this puppy now, I’ll help you when you want to run over a puppy in the future.

Get my point?

Don’t ask folks to be shameless with you. Ew.

I value the people in my network and hope they trust me.
False jokes about shameless self-promotion devalue that.

If you want help promoting your product . . .

Give me a reason to feel proud to pass it on.

It takes more effort to offer a reason to show off what you do, but I’ll love you for it.

The real question is: Why would anyone have to joke about shameless self-promotion if the product is worth talking about?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

10 Advantages of Being A Beginner in a Blogger’s World

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I Feel So Lucky!

Girl watching

We’ve all had the experience of not knowing how to do something. From the first day of school to the first day of work to our first try at almost anything, the experience of a new challenge can be joyful, exciting, and intimidating.

We like to know things. We like to learn things, but we don’t always like folks watching us learning.

That’s the special appeal of blogging.

The Advantages of Being a Beginner in a Blogger’s World

When I came to my first blog as a beginner, I found an realm of amazing people who made the way easier and more meaningful. They offered their shoulders to stand on as they shared their experience. I can’t help but recognize all I’ve learned in this Blogger’s World.

Some folks want to be an expert blogger. Me? The longer I’m here, the more I want to stay a beginner, for these and a bunch more reasons.

  1. Bloggers love beginners. We all remember our first blog post.

  2. Bloggers are connectors — link love is the culture. Beginners meet a friend and find a community.

  3. Bloggers are explorers or we wouldn’t be here. Beginners can find help to explore anything.

  4. Bloggers are generous and helpful people. Bloggers love to share their discoveries with beginners.

  5. As a beginner, I can try to blog about almost anything.

  6. The beginner in me can talk to bloggers who are as passionate as I am — even what I’m just trying.

  7. Every blogger knows something I don’t — it’s an endless opportunity for a beginner’s mind.

  8. Blogging is more fun when it’s about what I’m learning, not about what I know.

  9. Beginners get comments from people who see and know more. Every comment connects us and offers a new way to see the world.

  10. Beginners don’t look to be the best of all — today I want to be better than yesterday.

Thinking, writing, having ideas and talking about them has been a wonder. Making relationships and connections has made my life richer. I’m a better writer, listener and marketer. Most of all being here has made me a better person. I want to stay a beginner. New beginnings are exciting.

Have you thought about staying a beginner?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

Internet Fame, Leaps of Faith, and the Truth from Guy

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Famous? Dirt Poor?

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In a recent conversation, a client made the following observation.

So many businesses seem confused about how to use the Internet. They appear to know their own product or service, but they don’t have clients or customers. They built it, and no one came. Has no one found the right model?

Some folks think the answer is to get famous. . . .

A strong personal brand and passion for your niche teamed is what makes a blog a powerful New Media marketing tool. That’s what will build trust, rapport, and reputation equity. Once you have those things, it’s a relatively straight forward process to turn those assets into profit. — Tribal Seduction

I’m with Tim Bourquin’s observations about that.

Twitter, blogs, podcasts and new media in general have created a wave of “famous” people – people with a “wealth” of attention and inbound links, but can’t pay their bills at the end of the month. Worse yet, some seem to think that if you do find a way to make your living successfuly, you’ve “sold out” and are no longer true to your audience. That’s a shame and it needs to change.

The “link” and “attention” may be the currency of the Internet, but until someone can show me how to pay my mortgage by linking to my bank once a month, that just doesn’t fly with me.

Internet famous isn’t “Oprah famous” . . . not even close . . . and the Internet forgets quickly.

When I asked Internet Rockstar, Guy Kawasaki, about what bloggers should know about blogging as business, he said.

The truth is that it’s very difficult to monetize a blog. I have a fairly popular one and sell less than $100,000 of advertising per year on it. It serves other purposes though for my activities as a venture capitalist, author, and speaker.

So to some extent, a blog can help with the overall branding and marketing of a company, but it’s a leap of faith.

A blog by itself isn’t a business. A product without customers won’t sell.

What do you see when you look at online businesses?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

A True Lesson in Affiliate Selling

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It’s Not a Trick

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I had to think about about this post before I wrote it. It’s a bit out of my usual niche. When I talk about business and making money, I don’t know much about affiliate selling or “make money online blogging.”

Last night I read an in-depth report that Patricia Mayo did on information products that proclaim they’ll teach you how to make money online. Near the end, she gave a link to a price-controlled viral product that offers a tool, not information, for free.

I followed the link. What I found was what she described. I thought hard about whether I should blog it. Obviously, I’ve decided to pass it on to you.

A True Lesson in Affiliate Selling

My reason for sharing this information tool is the mastery with which it is put together. I keep thinking about how, step-by-step, this offer does everything to make it easy to buy. It’s state of the art online selling — done so seamlessly that the solid principles behind it would be easy to miss. It’s not a trick. It provides a true lesson in affiliate selling. Here’s why I say that.

A great selling model has these parts: the product and the offer.

A Great Product has low development costs, yet offers high value in many ways.

  • The product has critical mass.
  • It saves time.
  • It’s compelling.
  • It makes life easier.
  • It offers something immediately actionable.
  • It fits my life.

A Great Offer is about customers, has high barrier to competition, and high chance of going viral.

  • The language is conversational.
  • The sales model is transparent.
  • You know the product before you buy.
  • It’s fast and easy to buy.
  • No one asks for your email information.
  • You keep your profits.
  • The sense of the model is easy to see.

You might find it a bit complicated to go from one hyperlink to another. However, I think you’ll also find that the offer itself lives up to what I describe. It’s an effective model. I’d love to see the figures on it.

I’ll never be the consummate affiliate marketer, I don’t have the discipline for that sort of selling. I’ll never be an engineer, a ballerina, or live on a submarine either. Still, I recognize state of the art work when I see it.

I’d be interested in whether you agree.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Be the best at what you do! Work with Liz!! SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Have a plan!! Register now!

Get Unambiguous and Get More Customers

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“Give Me Ambiguity or Give Me Something Else!!”

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A client comes to you with a problem. The person you meet is your perfect “work soulmate,” but for some reason you don’t get the job. Why is that?

Could it be that you’re ambiguous?

When it comes to hiring people, we want to know exactly who they and what they promise unequivocally. We also want to know what they won’t do.

That’s why it’s critical when someone says, “What do you do?” You have a strong and interesting answer that invites them in to ask you more.

I say, “I help companies and individuals develop irresistible offers (products/services) that attract customers.”

Shama Heyder says, “I help service professionals built a long-term plan to get more clients.”
Chris Brogan says, “I use social media and technology to show businesses, organizations, and individuals how to build authentic conversations between coworkers, customers, and even competitors.”

Do we all do more than that? Of course we do, but we’re umambiguous about where our focus is. People know who to go to for which thing.

Get Unambiguous and Get More Customers

Here are some ways to get you closer to unambiguous.

  • Choose the client you want to work with most. We can’t work with everyone. Not everyone is a good fit with our skill set or our personalities. The time we spend trying to make a bad match work good be better invested in finding a great client. choose group that talks to each other and can afford to pay you.
  • Think about what you do well and why you like doing it. What skills do people often ask you to help them with? What have people already paid you for? Those are a place to start.
  • Make a list of what exactly you can do. Assign that list a monetary value.
  • Prepare a story to explain how what you do takes a continuing problem off the desk of your chosen client group. Explain how you can do the work easier, more efficiently, in less time, and still make them look like a hero.
  • Stick to the list for a month or two. Talk to the folks who can use the service you’ve outlined about their goals. When you hear a way you might help, tell them what you offer.

Do the above steps and suddenly, you’ll not only know what you do. But you’ll also know what you don’t do too. You’ll feel unambiguous.

It’s much more fun to know who we are and sitting across the table with something to offer.

How might you get on the road to unambiguous today?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

10 Compelling Reasons People Read YOUR Blog

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You’re a HUGE Part

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Information is everywhere. My younger, older brother said once,

“Our parents we lucky. They had less information. Information is the curse of this new era. We have so much information. We can’t move for sorting it out.”

He was right in so many ways.
My answer is to ignore most of it, only take what I need now.

I’ve talked to a few readers about why they read blogs and about how they choose the ones they go back to every day. Information isn’t the key ingredient. With so many blogs out there and so much information, we gotta wonder. Here are ten reasons people read YOUR blog.

10 Compelling Reasons People Read YOUR Blog

  1. You have ideas not just information. You look at what’s happening and add a thought about it. You’re there in the text giving the information context.

  2. You have thoughts, not just ideas. You look at your ideas from a variety of views giving them a “once over” with possibilities.

  3. You have experience. You may not have a resume from here to Mars on the subject, but you’ve tried what you’re talking about and you’re willing to say how it was for you. That’s key. Like listening to my favorite movie critic, I may not like what you like, but I know where we agree and disagree so I can tell how what you’re saying applies to me.

  4. You don’t try to teach me. You don’t write so complete that I’m not left with nothing to say, but “good job.” You show me what you’ve learned and how you learned it. That’s a big difference. I like learning with you. Being taught isn’t quite so appealing.

  5. You don’t try to be someone else. You know what you bring is of value. It’s attractive to be with people who know who they are.

  6. You interested in me too. Every question you ask is thoughtfully posed to find out more about me as a person who reads your blog. You don’t expect me to answer question that are too big or too personal for the comment box.

  7. You make me feel welcome. I get the feeling that everyone who stops by is a friend, even if he or she just arrived. That’s very appealing.

  8. You don’t apologize for what you write or take people down in public. It’s nice to know that folks who come by your blog get great information and get treated well too.

  9. You do what you can to make it easy to comment. Other than a small fence for spammers, you take the load of keeping a “clean yard” on yourself so that folks will find it easy to be part.

  10. You don’t write other people’s blog posts. You know you can only be a bad copy of who they are, but that you make a really good you.

More than anything, you know that you are the only you on the Internet. You’re the one we come for.

As I said, information is everywhere.

What are you doing to put more of YOU into your blog?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!! SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!