Chris Garrett on New Media

I have two exciting announcements for you today!

As some of you will have seen on Twitter, I have been bursting to tell you about these pieces of news but I had to wait until everything was ready. It’s such a relief to be able to share with you now as these are two things I am both looking forward to and very proud of.

First, Melani Ward and I have put together something very cool for anyone who would like to launch a business, product, service or program without all the icky stuff. Of course there are freebies to whet your appetite for the full program. We are kicking off with three free classes recorded in MP3 format for your computer or iPod:

• What authority and mojo have to do with success,
• The two most important factors that influence your brand and positioning in the market,
• How not to blunder through your next launch …

To find out more and to get the three free audio classes, go ahead right now and sign up at Mojo Marketing Action Plan.

The second is something that was a huge success last year and I am sure you will love even more this time around. Yup, the Social Media Success Summit is back, and Mike, Denise, Mari and I have been conspiring to make it bigger and better!

Social Media Success Summit 2010 is the web’s largest live online conference that will empower you to use social media to gain more exposure, better engage customers and grow your business. The world’s leading social media gurus will show you how. Join 24 experts, including Guy Kawasaki (author, Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (author, Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (author, ProBlogger), Mari Smith (author, Facebook Marketing), Greg Jarboe (author, YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (author, Mobile Marketing Handbook); experts from Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, Foursquare and Groupon; Steve Rubel (Edelman), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Jason Falls (Social Media Explorer), Jay Baer (Convince & Convert) and Ramon De Leon (Chicago Domino’s Pizza)—just to mention a few

Those links again:

• Mojo Marketing Action Plan
• Social Media Success Summit 2010

SXSW is a fixture on many a geeks calendar. It’s the biggest and wildest conference on the scene, encompassing “interactive”, film and music. My coolest friends in the UK thought it was the music festival I was attending, I didn’t have the guts to tell them I was only going to the nerdy bits, ha.

On the face of it, the attraction is lots and lots of panels and presentations about all kinds of diverse topics, plus a trade show where you can get to talk to exhibitors. What SXSW is really famous for, though, is the parties and the get-togethers. Austin is a party city at the best of times apparently, SXSW just even more so.

Many people go to conferences on a “mission”. To get a job, land a contract, meet a-listers, get JV partners, date or just party. I was always in two minds about going until I was offered a place on a panel, but that fell through so in the end I booked with the intention of going to meet existing friends and make some new ones.

At one point I was supposed to give two talks, in fact. Neither happened. Really, once I found out I wasn’t speaking I should have cancelled. The whole time I was there I was worried about what was happening at home. My daughter had just come out of hospital and my head wasn’t in the right place anyway, being thousands of miles away just exacerbated that.

This is all background and gives a few insights into why I sucked so bad at SXSW, but here are some points on how I sucked and the tips I learned in the process …

1. Know Why You Are Going

Like any ‘project’, you need to know what you hope to get out of it. You need a ‘head’ reason as well as a ‘heart’ one because you are going to be spending money, potentially a lot of money. Originally I knew exactly why I was going, it was to speak. Then I wasn’t going to speak but I figured I would just hang out and maybe could still do some things to help the impending launch of the second edition of our book. Without the speaking I was essentially going to be spending a couple of thou for a meeting or two, to catch up with friends, and a whole bunch of parties, which meant my business brain is worrying where the ROI is. Luckily my friends are totally worth it and all the new people I met were awesome, completely worth their weight in gold. [Strangely the words 'Totally' and 'Awesome' seemed to keep coming out of my mouth a lot while in Austin]

Don’t suck = Know exactly why you are going and make sure you achieve it.

2. Get Your Head in the Game

I am not the most outgoing of people at the best of times and, as I said earlier, my head was a bit of a mess. This meant that if Deb (shown above) had not encouraged me to be sociable I would have likely missed out on meeting all the cool people I did meet. Yes I wanted to see new people, but thinking about doing something and actually doing it are two entirely different things. Really I knew my daughter would be just fine and my feelings of guilt were just me indulging in self-pity, I should have put my mind to what I should have been doing instead.

Don’t suck = Do what you set out to do, and get a friend to help you.

3. Enjoy Yourself, But Not to Excess

Thankfully, this one was more observed than something I did myself. As many of the SXSW writeups show, there were a few well known folks getting absolutely wrecked in pitifully hilarious and public ways. There is no “what happens in vegas” rule in Austin. It’s full of smart phone equipped social media types. The risk of your antics staying with you are great. Not only that, with a hangover you are not going to enjoy the next day. I did have a couple of drinks, and not being hardened to alcohol and jet lagged it is possible I got a little tipsy, but I am happy to say I remember most of the parties in detail, heh.

Don’t suck = Eat, drink and be merry. But don’t make an arse of yourself.

4. Socialize, Don’t Stalk

When I am nervous in social situations I either gabble or shut down and hide. Most of the time at SXSW I was either in gabble mode or worrying what I had said while in that mode. There are probably dozens of folks now saying “what the heck did he say THAT for??”. That sucks, but not as bad as some of the things I saw or heard about other folks doing.

One of the harsh lessons we learn at high school is that there are social cliques and most of those cliques appear cooler than the one you are in. It can be tempting to do anything it takes to break into or gain acceptance from these social circles, without realizing that in the process your desperation is self defeating. There are various symptoms of this, from one guy asking a social media guru to help you get to the front of the Mashable party line, through to a lady attempting to bump and grind against another guru so she could get … um, more friendly. Meeting new people is a good thing, and by all means introduce yourself to people who you want to meet, they will be glad to get to know you. But if people walk away, are deep in conversation, were trying to use the rest room, or start asking how to get a quickie restraining order … well, it might be time to find another target.

There were also the business psychos who were attacking any likely victims with their sales pitch with a religious fervor. By all means get a return on investment, but it is pretty crazy to beat people over the head with your agenda and kill your brand in the process. While I am not a big fan of business cards, and there were a few occasions where people asked me for one and I had to write my contact details down, the only business card I actively promoted was Jonny B Truant’s just because it rocked so hard.

Don’t suck = There are plenty of cool people to meet, if someone doesn’t walk to talk to you, don’t do something desperate to get their attention, instead find someone more friendly and talk to them.

5. Be Where the Action Is

I was at a pretty decent hotel, but it was too far out of the action. Luckily the R&R Hotel Shuttles were friendly and efficient, so I did manage to get in and out of the conference ok without spending more than I needed to on taxis (which were also fair and friendly it must be said). Where normally I would be able to escape to recharge my social battery and take disco naps, I found the one hour round trip meant every time I nipped off to escape, I missed something important. This actually turned out to be a good thing because it forced me out of my comfort zone and to mix in the bloggers lounge where I met lots of new people, people who I knew from Twitter but not in person, and lovely people who I had met before but not caught up with in a while. Lucky I did make it to the bloggers lounge as the only session I managed to see at the convention center was Darren’s about the Problogger Book, and I knew what he was going to say

Don’t suck = Rather than being a coward like me, get stuck in. Try to get a hotel right in the thick of things so you can take up every opportunity. Leave your comfort zone at home, you won’t be needing it.

Over to You

I have (un)intentionally missed out many of the ways I sucked at SXSW, I am sure you can remind me. Plus I am sure you have tips for making the whole convention experience much better. Go ahead and share your thoughts in the comments right now …

My first experiences online came before the web, and before most of the modern “nettiquette” was written. It was the days of ultra nerdy folks (like me), librarians, and academic PHD types in lab coats.

When people were not doing serious science type stuff there was a lot of socializing going on. There were hippy hangouts like “The Well”, where big brains were going to change the world, and hacker communities who were going to change the world in a different way. I was a teenager who didn’t fit into either class, I just wanted to chat about science fiction and download demo programs. When I discovered the internet I did the same things, and again when I discovered the World Wide Web.

Back then most people used a nickname when interacting online. I went through a few in the BBS years, and in my early dabbling in Usenet Newsgroups. I made my best online friends back then in the Red Dwarf newsgroup, and by that time I had abandoned using cool-sounding nicknames and just used “chrisg” or my full name. One friend who stands out in my mind from then is still a friend now over 15 years later, even though we interact now via Twitter. I only knew him by his nickname for over a year. In fact I think we might have met in person before discovering his actual name.

In all that time I stupidly didn’t really take any care over my online privacy. My online friends were much more cautious, but just because they used fake names does not mean they were faking anything else.

Psuedonym does not mean fake

Here is the distinction. I made real friendships with people who were being real, just without using their own names. Their intention was not to mislead. For some they wanted a cool name, for others it was just seen as the “done thing”.

If anything they were more “real” than a lot of people I am coming into contact with now.

I have been doing a lot of research about introverts for my forthcoming product, “Shy Networking”. One of the things I want to show and prove is that introverts can and do perform just fine online and in business networking without trying to be something they are not. As anyone who has met me knows, this is drawn from personal experience

The issue of people feeling they have to be something they are not in order to succeed troubles me, hence this post.

It’s not just the familiar story that Darren and I tell a lot, about people coming to us wanting to create “Make Money Online” blogs before they have earned their first dollar, though that is bad enough. It could apply to people creating fake personas for their online presence, but as I say above, I have no problem with that (though that is not my own preference), and I understand there are underlying reasons why people do that.

There are a few points I would like to make:

1. You are good enough – Never feel like you are not “good enough”, “worth enough” or any of that self diminishing stuff.
2. People want to connect with the real you – The real you is what is interesting and approachable, masks are just another barrier to people connecting with you. The more fake the mask, the more inhibited you will be.
3. Get out of your own head – By focusing on the other people you will find that a) you can be really useful and b) lots of people have stuff in common with you.

Most of all, being yourself does not mean exposing everything personal and revealing any deep dark secrets.

You draw the line at what you do or do not share.

After I had been playing around online for a while, and had started to get serious with my side business of building websites for organisations, my wife and I decided some ground rules. Later when our daughter was born, more rules were added. In fact, from my daughters birth, I pretty much dropped offline for around a year, apart from work and small appearances here and there. When I have broken those rules it has been for good reason, and with full consultation and consideration from the both of us.

There have been only a tiny number of people who have not respected these specific areas of privacy, and those people were never the kind of people I would want to know or deal with anyway.

Share part of what makes you you

The fact is you do have to share something, but it does not need to be intimate or potentially damaging. It is these divulgences that form bridges between people. Things like your favourite author, team, band, movie, stage show, artist, are all things that people can make small talk with you about.

By being an authentic you there is much more potential for creating real connections with people, and through these connections opportunities and friendships. If you are faking it then you will either be found out at worst, or at best be unable to have great face to face meetings and successful joint projects.

Real people rock. If anything, I would always rather meet an imperfect human being than a fake robot. Be proud to be you, mistakes and all.

What do you think? Do you feel you have to hold back on your personality? Are people being fake around you? Does comparing yourself to others or expectations hold you back? Please share your thoughts in the comments …

Steven Aitchison has a strong blog. Most people would regard his site as a success (in fact he claims it as the “biggest personal development blog in the UK) ..

• It looks good (using a slightly customized Thesis install)
• Steven is a good writer therefore the articles are excellent (in fact freelance writing is one of the services Steven offers)
• He has a large blog and email audience, with nearly 7k RSS subscribers alone (dwarfing some blogging and internet marketing blogs)
• Traffic is very healthy, and growing (again, dwarfing some blogs that provide traffic advice)
• Comments are plentiful
• His books are selling on Amazon

So why would he ask for a blog critique when he is doing so many things right? With stats like these, Steven could be giving advice rather than asking for it.

Fact is, all of us can use a set of fresh eyes. There is always something that could be improved.

In Steven’s case, he wants to take his blog to the next level, and crucially wants to earn more money from it.

Making More Money from Your Blog

As regular readers will know, one of the things I teach is the “ARC System” which stands for

• Attraction – Getting people to come to you
• Retention – Getting people to stay
• Conversion – Getting people to take an action, usually a purchase

Steven is doing well with the first two, and wants to boost the last one significantly. The great news is, making sales is a very much easier prospect when you already have traffic and audience. Traffic means you have sufficient page views to test and tweak things without having to wait a year for results. Audience means that Steven has built up some trust, which means he will not have to try quite as hard to get his sales copy absolutely perfect.

Tell People About Your Products

Here is where we get to the “do as I say, not as I do” advice

You see, I have a similar failing to Steven that hurts my sales but is likely hurting Steven’s more. We are both too “shy” about promoting our own products and services. (My issue is out of complacency – when I am already too busy I am less incentivised to go seeking new opportunties, in fact I am considering not taking on any more consulting work). Again though Steven is doing a lot of things right:

• Book button for Amazon in sidebar
• Mentions of freelancing in author bio
• Banner for Amazon book after articles
• Pages for life coaching and freelance writing

So what should Steven do differently?

In terms of the blog itself there are only minor tweaks I could find. A blog designer would be my suggestion if there is budget, just to give it a more unique look and to “warm” it up (very cold and blue right now). Also, remove Tweetmeme from pages, only have it on single articles.

Monetization options abound for this site, due to the traffic and email list strength, from advertising through to affiliate sales, but I do think the coaching and products should be the main focus. Affiliate sales would make a nice supplimentary income, help teach you about better product launches, and provide networking opportunities.

The main pressing issues are more around marketing:

Audience Targeting

The first issue I see is, who exactly is your audience and target customer?

You must understand the pressing needs of your audience before you can sell them something they really want. In my Authority Blogger Course I know some people have become frustrate with all the planning they must do, until they realize that if they go headlong into promoting and writing they ultimately fail. If you can not identify your clear audience and what you can do for them, how will the audience? Plus, if you do not know who your audience should be, then how can you attract more of them from the right places?

This is where having a lot of traffic can be a bad thing – it can cloud you to the fact that your traffic source is not providing buyers, just readers. If you want to make money then you need more people in the market for what you offer, and to be able to clearly articulate that offer to them in a way that they connect with.

Right now for example Steven is telling people to hire him as a freelance writer and addiction worker in the same sentence. He is selling a “make money with clickbank” product (confusingly not sold through ClickBank) beside an ebook on how to make friends. When you look in Google, one of the most popular articles recently was one on improving your eyesight … what is your site’s clear purpose?

You must give your products visibility

People need to know about your products and services if they are going to buy them. Steven has links to his products and services, but not always in context and not always in the most visible places.

Here is a little challenge for you. Steven has written 4 ebooks, go see if you can find them.

I will give you a hint, they are not on his “Store” page

• Mention products and services in articles
• Have a page listing your products and services in one place
• Put product mentions into blog emails, newsletter emails, guest post bio, and in your forum, email signatures

You will sell a lot more product from email than you will your sidebar due to banner blindness and also the fact that you can guide people over time to more detailed information.

Launch your products

As well as giving your existing products visibility, you must warm up your audience and give them repeat mentions so that people have an opportunity to hear about your product and all the ways it matches their needs.

Take a hint from Hollywood and their marketing, and movie trailers in particular. Film and comic geeks have been going crazy over every little snippet about Iron Man 2. Pieces of news dripped out over time, such as cast, possible plot points, and so on. Then there was the poster, then a teaser trailer, then a full trailer, then a more complete trailer … this goes on for months. I’m not suggesting you go on for months, a week or so can be sufficient.

• Mention you have a product coming
• Inform your audience about the product
• Give firm details about the product features and benefits
• Tell your readers why they need to act (eg. price increase, bonuses going away)
• Answer questions and objections

Pre-Sell Products

Sometimes it is not enough to put a product on sale or even launch a product. Customers do not always know that they need whatever it is you are supplying. In cases like these you need to put your product in context to something that interests them. You can see an example of my pre-sell content here. The key thing is it must be a valuable article that happens to warm people up to what you are selling, it is not a sales letter.

Sell Your Products

A table of contents and a buy button is not enough to sell a product. Heck, it is not enough to give a product away. So you must explain your offer:

• Who is the product for?
• What problem does the product solve?
• What does the product contain?
• Why would this product benefit them?
• What proof do you have that your product delivers and you are credible to sell it?
• Why should someone buy this from you and not someone else?
• How is this product better or different? What advantages does this product have?
• In what format is the product delivered?
• Why is the product good value?
• Anything else you would need to know to buy or consume the product?
• Why buy now rather than go away and think about it?
• … and so on (This explains why sales pages tend to be long, the more complex the offer the more needs to be explained!)

Keep Your Customers

Once you have sold a customer a product or service once they are much more likely to buy than someone brand new to your site. There is a lot of long term benefit to encouraging people to become a repeat customer.

The problem with Amazon and any other physical product sold through a third party merchant is you do not know who is buying from you. Darren and I have the same problem with the Problogger book. You need to put something into the book so that customers can identify with you that they have bought so that you can keep in touch. So supply a bonus that they have to register for, etc.

When people raise their hands as customers, tell them what their next logical step is, and sell it to them.

Bottom Line

Steven has an excellent foundation for a great business. He just needs to decide which business he is in exactly.

Once you have a definite and unique positioning then you will not only sell more directly, but also be able to bring in JV partners to help you in your launches, selling even more product and also generating more traffic and visibility for yourself.

Actions to Make More Money:

1. Who is your target audience?
2. What do they want/need right now that you can supply?
3. Where can you reach more of these people?
4. How can you communicate your offer to them in a way they take up?
5. What more can you offer the ones who do take your offer?

I was reminded on Twitter by a quote how life coaches and gurus often talk about how sports people visualize victory.

They say if you use positive visualization, then your outcome will improve.

Then there are the people who tell you that if you use the “Law of Attraction”, that is if you ask the universe for something, and you believe, then what you ask for will come to you.

The problem is, for most people, experience does not match what they are taught. And that sucks.

In the headline I make a promise that you can make positive thinking work. How?

Let’s look at this pragmatically. Being upbeat and happy has to be better than being pessimistic and miserable, just out of pure quality of life benefit. So even if positive thinking had no other impact but to make you live life a little happier, then it has to be a good thing.

From a medical science point of view too, how you think has a profound impact on your body. Just look up the word “Placebo” then keep digging, if you want your mind blown.

What about those “big” material outcomes, like manifesting huge Cribs-style mansions, your dream date, or a Bugatti Veyron (in deep red please, with chrome trim)?

I actually do think you can convince the universe, reality, or the deity of your choice to give you a break on this stuff. Many successful people have claimed visualization or affirmations have brought them a great deal of that success. Some of the stuff I have experienced has lead me to think there is something to it.

This does not, however, mean that there has to be anything magical about it.

In fact, being a lapsed programmer, I think a lot of it has to do with the squidgy grey computer we have between our ears, and the coding we supply it.

Computer programmers have a term that I think applies well:

Garbage in; Garbage out

That is, if you shovel in bad code or data, don’t expect the results to be brilliant.

Think about what you are saying to yourself about the things you want. If you are constantly sending your bio computer the instruction to fail then that is what you will do.

Are you telling yourself things like …

“I am going to fail.

I don’t deserve this.

Why do I even bother.

This person hates me, they are just being polite.

Don’t look up, if nobody notices me I can just slip out.

Stupid stupid stupid.

What is the point, it won’t work.

What if everyone hates it?”

… because if you are, then you are putting garbage in and all you can expect to get out is garbage.

If instead you code your autopilot to be expecting success, and looking out for ways that your on-board computron can help you achieve that, then your results are likely to be much better. That’s not woo-woo, it’s actually one of your brain’s jobs!

It’s not just brain programming that makes all the difference though.

Think about those much-discussed visualizing athletes. As well as visualizing, what do they also do? (Ignoring those who sit around eating cookie dough ice cream instead of training, but through the power of visualization still miraculously win gold at the Olympics).

Pick out any winning athlete and I can guarantee they train very hard. Sorry to the folks who wanted to rely just on visualization, but it ain’t gonna happen. Nobody gives out gold medals just because the universe thinks you are awesome (if that did happen I wouldn’t be able to move for gold, right? right?).

So, what do you need, if not just thinking real hard?

• Mindset (as mentioned above)
• Training (daily learning and practice)
• Action (because theory is not enough, you have to take steps rather than just think about it)

Pretty simple really, and I am positive that if you follow that you will get more of the results that you are wanting

What say you? Please share your thoughts (positive or negative) in the comments ….

Analysis paralysis is just one of my procrastination challenges. A couple of other things have caused me to have to make an effort with my productivity. See if they are familiar to you and your own productivity issues:

1. I have a compulsion to fix things
2. I never think I have done enough

Do you have the same problems?

The mission here is to go from someone who is never happy with their work, never quite complete, to being someone who finishes and moves on.

I have managed it (with a great deal of effort on occasion), and so can you.

My big ah-ha moment came when I realized what I was seeing when I looked at my work, and how I felt about what I produced. Listen to your inner voice, what do you hear?

• That could be better
• Something is still missing
• This should really be HD and better lit
• I could polish that a bit more
• My design skills are lame
• Ebooks should have more pages than this
• Will anyone understand my accent?
• If I had that software I could add a neat effect there
• Graphics would really spice up this page

… and on and on …

Essentially I would only see what was missing, think about the problems I have with it, or tell myself it is still not good enough … all excuses, and not really thinking about if the end customer/reader/viewer would get value.

I know I will never be Shakespeare. My customers do not expect Hollywood-style wizz-bang special effects. You just want some useful content. Why beat yourself up when you know perfection is not just impossible, but unneccessary?

Rather than see faults, look at what is there.

Perhaps it is because I started out as an IT-geek, a Mr Fixit of the computer world, I see the world as broken systems that I have to fix. My brain is wired to see the problems rather than the good. Instead of feeling pleasure in accomplishments, my neurons get tangled over what I perceive as missing.

This can be a good thing of course, we all know people who are the other way round and who deliver too early, bodge and fudge, and who really ought to take more care. But that doesn’t help us “perfection seekers” so we need some coping mechanishms

The key is focusing on delivery rather than endlessly polishing. Get version one done and delivered. You can always release a version 2, 3, or whatever. But your priority should be to get the first complete and out of the door.

How to Become a Finisher

1. Set yourself achievable goals – Some people are motivated by stretch goals, but if you are the sort of person who would take the instruction to “reach for the stars” literally and start planning your trip to NASA, perhaps a more realistic goal is in order. Also, remember, don’t try to eat the whole elephant in one gulp. Break the project or challenge down into chewable bite sized pieces.
2. Decide what the finished end product will look like before you start – If your tasks are presented as “get better at sports”, “get fitter” or “learn to cook”, how on earth will you know when you are done? You can always get better, learn more, be more. Decide how you will know when you are done. Make tasks that are “done or not done”, a tick in a box. When your tasks are complete … stop.
3. Focus on delivering – What is the basic feature set your product MUST have? Just do that. How can you complete the project in the most simple, pragmatic way? Do that. My last project was to release a new product. I decided it was not complete until someone had bought it because otherwise I could have written a whole ebook and not released it. By saying someone had to have bought it that meant I knew I needed a buy button, a sales page, and needed to let people know it was there. I also put a deadline on it to stop me endlessly polishing. This meant in the end I launched it without a logo or any of the other aesthetic niceities that I would have endlessly fussed over. So far a couple of hundred people have bought it and enjoyed it. Nobody has complained about the lack of logo
4. Make progress and celebrate it – We often get into a gold medal mentality where there is only a winner and a whole bunch of losers. Sorry but that is just rubbish. So what if your product launch didn’t raise a million dollars? So what if so-and-so has a gajillion RSS subscribers and you don’t. Celebrate the one customer you have. Celebrate the 100 people who want to hear from you. Then set your next goal. Be proud of the achievments you do create rather than sad that you are not living up to some fake ideal.
5. Fail. A lot. – Someone once said something along the lines of “show me someone who has made no mistakes and I will show you someone who has never achieved much”. Getting things done owes a lot to being prepared to fail, making progress every day. Rather than aiming to achieve perfection one time, decide to learn so you can make steady improvements. This is why I have avoided any new years resolutions. Instead I am setting daily goals and ticking them off. Each time I do something I am aiming to do it better than the last time. Not perfect, better. Make mistakes. Improve, learn from your mistakes. Make more mistakes.

Got any more tips for becoming a finisher? Please share in the comments …

You might have already seen some of my fellow bloggers talking about this product. So much that I actually avoided posting about it because I felt with my Authority Blogger launch you might have gotten sick of hearing me toot my horn, until Michelle gave me an email bottom-kicking …

So here I am telling you about it.

beyond-blogging is an ebook by two friends from the blogosphere, Mike and Nathan. Both very cool guys, and judging from the names they managed to get to agree to interviews, very persuasive.

What they have done is grilled a whole bunch of successful bloggers to find out why they are successful and what makes them tick, then they distilled what they learned in a way that you can be inspired and model for your own success.

Very cool, and nicely done.

Now it is not for everyone, for example it is not a step by step guide to blogging, and it is very much aimed at people who want to build a business. Neither is it cheap, at $47 (I think, I believe the price is going up). I’d have liked the multimedia from the interviews too. There are other books on the market if you want something more for getting started (*cough* ProBlogger book *cough*), or lower cost.

If however you want to get inside the head of some people who have been there and done that, at a fraction of the price of sitting down with them 1:1 then this is for you. Just check them out …

I’m happy to say I am featured along with some of my fellow blogging buddies. It’s a great book and I am sure anyone who reads it will be inspired and informed a whole bunch of times. When someone buys it through my link you get a great ebook and also I get a little something for my efforts (about enough to keep me in Chicken Tikka Masala or something) but I would suggest any blogger check it out even if I had nothing to do with it and nothing to gain.

Check out the full details here … and if you buy, thanks for the curry

Win Free SEO Consulting

If you want lots of free traffic then you are going to need to get your Search Engine Optimization sorted.

Most of us are not SEO gurus so we try our best and see what happens. That can never compare with the advice of a true “battle hardened” SEO veteran.

Good news everyone!

DynamoAsh is offering chrisg.com readers a great set of SEO consulting prizes

One grand prize winner will get a full Advanced SEO Audit where Ash will analyze your site and then give you all the advice you need to get your Google on!

Two randomly selected blog commenters or Twitter followers will get SEO Competitor Analysis valued at $120.

UPDATE: Competition Over – Here Are the Winners!

Winner: Darya from SummerTomato.com

Runner Up: @MissGDK from MissOmnimedia.com

Runner Up: John from comments: CommandoConditioning.com

What is holding you back?

Are you afraid of what people will think of you?

I bet you have skills, knowledge, experience or time that you could share with others, that you could offer to people to help them, but something is holding you back.

For most people the first stumbling block is fear of putting yourself “out there”. Feeling exposed and vulnerable.

The fact is though that most people would LOVE for you to help them!

If you have a problem and you know someone has a solution, who would you like more – the person who offers their solution or the person who keeps it locked up and secret?

When you have a water leak or an electical problem do you condemn the plumber or electrician for having the audacity to charge for fixing it?

You should share yourself with the world. The nice people will appreciate it and we don’t care what the crazies and nasties think anyway!

• Write blog posts that help other people fix their problems, achieve their goals, or just entertain them with your stories
• Interact in social media and share good stuff
• Answer questions and have good conversations in forums
• Create your own products and sell them for a fair price
• Offer services that solve real problems, things you do really well, or do stuff that other people can’t do or have not got time for

If all that is holding you back is just knowing how to go about it, well I can show you how to create and sell products and services that people will actually want to buy.

One of the frustrating myths about internet marketing is that it is easy, takes no work, and can turn the web into your “personal ATM machine dispensing cash on demand”.

There is another myth though that comes up every so often that is related, but subtly different, and so attractive that people really really want to believe it.

We know the rewards are there but really you have to put in some effort. Preferably you would also stick to one proven system rather than dodge between each new, shiny, flavor of the month.

Some would have you believe though that all your effort needs to go into creating your offering. Create your product, course, service, or tool and the rest almost happens magically.

1. Create your product
2. Product Launch
3. ???
4. Profit!

It’s the product launch equivalent of “build it and they will come”.

“Create a good enough product and people will promote for you as an affiliate!” they say.

The truth is without a vital element, nobody will promote for you and you will get zero affiliates.

What is this vital element?

Put yourself in the affiliates shoes. Or even your friends, contacts, peers. You have choices for what to blog about or email today. Unless someone is calling in a favor you are going to go with the sure thing, right? The proven, credible, converting and valuable offer.

That missing element is, of course, Authority.

Establish your credibility so you are not some random person off the internet with something to sell, but the go-to person in your niche!

• Grow your own audience so you can do an internal launch and not need launch partners.
• Get killer testimonials and case studies so your offering is proven.
• With the results of that internal launch you can go to promotion partners and affiliates with proof, hard numbers.
• Affiliates will see the buzz being generated and come to you and want in!

If all you have is a product, even a really good product, then you are going to be shopping it around looking desperate. People do not want to risk their own trust, respect and credibility on your unproven, unknown offer, even if the commission is really good. They want to promote HOT products.

Build Your Own Platform

When you have a hot product that has shown it is a proven seller then you can get no end of people wanting to be an affiliate. Try to do that when no-one has heard of you or your offer and you will struggle and have the door slammed in your face and the phone hung up on you.

It’s a strange fact that people who do not need any help are the people who get the most offers. Consider it like bank loans and credit, when you don’t need them your mail box fills with offers, when you really need a loan nobody will speak to you! The more desperate you are, the less likely you are to get one.

One of my friends and mentors in the business, Sean D’Souza does very well without anyone promoting for him at all. His courses are constantly sold out, and are not cheap either. With no affiliates he can launch and sell out a product or course with ease. He is self-reliant, with no advertising, no JVs, no forum marketing, he doesn’t rely even on Google. He keeps all the profits he makes.

The last time I launched the Authority Blogger course it sold out after just four emails from me with no affiliates involved. We are getting towards the end of the current launch, it closes on Tuesday 1st December, and other than a couple of re-tweets (thanks!) all the traffic has come from my blog posts and emails. As I write this there are 9 spots open and judging from the people asking questions in my inbox, I have no doubt they will go before the doors close and could actually sell more if I wanted to.

Start building your platform today. Promote yourself, establish your profile, and build offerings people really want. If you do that, not only do you answer to only yourself, but you can pick and choose who you want to promote for you.

Want to build your audience, brand and trust? Want to create and launch your own product, course or service? Get in to the Authority Blogger Course now and get my help and guidance all the way.