Authority Blogging

  • Search, Segmentation and Silos

    Knowing who and what your site is for is key.

    As important, is knowing who and what your site is NOT for.

    Consider this site, there are lots of things I can and do talk about, but in most cases I try to bring it always back to the main themes of boosting your authority and business via new media.

    Pictures of my cat are more likely to appear on my personal site. Photography stuff goes on my photography blog.

    What about when a topic does have relevance to your audience, but only a small subset?

    That is when segmentation comes in. This is where you get people to opt-in to a more focused site, list or feed, so that the rest of your audience are not bothered by it and where you can comfortably lavish the full package on just those people.

    Sub-lists though are not the only way to do it. You can create off-shoot websites, as I did with Authority Blogger. These satellite sites can attract their own search traffic through creating highly targeted content and some kick-start links from your main site.

    This traffic will also be funneled to join your niche email list or feed, and will not be distracted by your broader content outside of that silo because they will not get to see it unless you intentionally link it up.

    Yes, creating new sites is additional work, but often a highly focused site does well both with audience and search, much more easily than a broad, cumbersome and disorganized monolithic site. A domain and ten pages of killer flagship content might be all you need.

    Worth a try?

  • To Trust or to Test?

    You might have seen, if you are visiting my site and not reading in email or feed, that I have one of those pop-over email sign up forms appearing right now.

    Yes, it’s because of Darren. Blame him, heh.

    Thing is, I don’t actually like these pop-overs much. While I think the way I am doing it with only showing it once per person is not as bad as every visit, I still believe people have popup blockers for a reason, and that reason is people don’t like popups, no matter what the technology used to deliver them.

    So why on earth would I inflict on my own readers something I don’t like myself?

    The good news it will only be a couple of days and I will be replacing it with an alternative approach. My reason is simple, I try to not make statements about tactics unless I have tried and tested them to my own satisfaction, and if I am going to offer an alternative I will need data to back up my arguments.

    Another reason, and the title of this post, is “should you trust or should you test?”.

    There is a lot of advice out there, some good, some bad. Some of this advice is based on experience, some is based on gut-feel, some of it pulled out of … thin air.

    As I was just saying on my blogging forum, have you spotted how many “make money online” tips blogs there are now started by people with no money? I don’t think the “my diary of trying to make money” type are bad, it’s the “here is how to make a fortune … just ignore the fact I haven’t got one” style that make me cross. Why would someone take money making advice from someone who is broke?

    Don’t ever just take someone’s word. Test.

    It’s one thing to take the advice of Darren Rowse, problogger and monetization guru to the stars, it’s quite another when advice comes from random folks off the internet. But even so, Darren can and does only give you the benefit of his own experience, and that is all anyone can do. Your own experience will be unique because you attract your own unique audience, for your own unique niche and in your own way.

    I talk a lot about authority from the publisher or business-owner point of view, but on the recieving end, as you learn and experiment authority can only go so far, you have to use judgement and your own testing to tell you what works for you.

  • Good Questions Make Great Content

    It’s OK to not have all the answers. Let’s face it, everything changes so fast, it’s hard to keep up with absolutely everything. Sometimes though we have burning questions that Google can’t solve. What should we do?

    Well, as bloggers, a great thing to do is to ask the question and publish the answers.

    If you don’t know the answer, it could well be lots of people want to know too. Plus, if you can’t find the answer in Google then you just might have an idea that will bring you regular search traffic if you implement it right. It’s always a good thing to get your audience thinking and involved. Even if their response is “I don’t know, but good question!” :)

    Sometimes there is no right or wrong answer, but opinions can create valuable discussions which are still attractive content, thought provoking, community building and good for entertainment and engagement. Just look at Liz’ Open Mike discussions.

    The question does not always have to be asked on your blog either. It might be that you know a forum or discussion list with topical experts on board, or it might be that you need to cast your net wide and get the biggest possible response by asking in multiple places.

    Here are five ways to get answers outside of comments that jump to mind: 

    1. Twitter – For my post about getting the most out of LinkedIn I asked for suggestions on Twitter. Twitter, after my blog, is my go-to place for getting quick answers as I know I will get a response. Of course you need a few followers first!
    2. LinkedIn – I have only asked one question on LinkedIn and just got the one response, but it was a good one. Others have far more success. LinkedIn is chock full of business people, and is probably more appropriate for those kinds of issues, but also those people have lives outside of business so might be worth a try.
    3. Yahoo! Answers – Same kind of deal as LinkedIn answers but wider in audience and more general purpose and more consumer oriented.
    4. A survey/poll – Rather than just ask a question and get responses in comments, surveys and polls can be useful for narrowing the answers for quantitative results as I have done in my blogging survey (still a chance to win a book or blog critique!)
    5. Email – If you know certain people will have the answers you need then email them. If you make it easy and quick to answer you might be surprised at the responses you get. I did this with my Cluetrain Social Media article and is something Jonathan Fields does routinely to great effect.

    Make sure you always credit the people who provide answers. Also try to give people credit even if you disagree with what they say, show all sides.

    Got any tips to share? Do you ask questions in your blogging? How? Or do you prefer blogs to be about answers? Please share in the comments …

  • Ethics in Social Media and Online Marketing

    Recently I have been asked by a few people my opinion on a certain “link bait” event that happened. To save myself repeating the same answer, here it is.

    The story goes something like this. Writer creates fictitious story, gets it to the front page of Digg, which leads to mentions in tabloid newspapers and Fox News.

    Apart from the “fictitious” aspect, this would be considered by anyone a major victory. One count puts it at 1500 fresh inbound links. Unfortunately it is the truth/fiction aspect that has people up in arms. Variously the story is being called “fraud”, “hoax” and “satire”. People are getting emotive which is often dangerous.

    I am not going to pass judgment because I do not know the intentions or brief behind the campaign and I do not want to know. The writer still has my respect, after all these are the sorts of link bait results we dream of if you ignore the story itself and the backlash for a moment!

    Would I create a false story to gain attention? No. Do I think it is wrong to plant a false story? Yes and no. Yes because as I said, I wouldn’t do it myself, and no because, well, tabloids and Fox News are also partly to blame (hello, fact-check anyone?) and are not exactly well known for being pristine purveyors of the absolute truth are they?

    Clients should have been fully aware of what was planned and they ought to be thrilled at the links they have garnered, which in many cases will have lasting benefits (regardless of what Google are saying right now), much longer than the fallout will last.

    If this had been put out by a PR company nobody would bat an eyelid. Stunts, fakes and spoofs are seeded into the media all the time. Richard Branson is a master, he once landed a fake UFO to media acclaim. April 1st sees the news made useless as you do not know what to believe. As on April 2nd, this story now has a message saying the story was made up.

    I have watched and read highly serious and untrue things said with a straight face by politicians that were far more damaging and longer lasting. I’m sure you can think of a few. Who cares really in the scheme of things about this, really?

    So to answer the questions, I would not have played it the same way but at the same time I don’t think there has been any real harm done. If people are questioning what they read a little more now, then good I say.

    That’s my opinion, what is yours?

  • Attracting Customers Without Selling

    I just realized that even though I have made my living from customers buying my services for a while, I have never actually had to sell. This seems to me quite an achievement.

    What got me thinking about this was I was just interviewed for an article for WordTracker by Rachelle Money. She asked how I got into this blogging lark, and during me waffling on I told her about how customers would come to me with their problems.

    Back when I started out, the problems people would come to me with were programming related, now they are more likely to be online marketing or blogging issues, but still people come to me rather than me calling them. I think this is a nice place to be!

    Cold calling has never been something I even wanted to try. Some people can do it very well, but all through my career I have avoided it. I am not the most forward person, especially on the telephone with someone who doesn’t want to hear from me. For me making a cold-call would be more a punishment than a useful sales tactic.

    How to Attract Customers

    The secret to attracting customers so you don’t need to approach them is based on the following factors:

    1. Awareness – People need to know you exist, and remember you in the correct context as someone who might be useful
    2. Belief, Credibility and Trust – You might be the best expert in the world but people need to know they can rely on you
    3. Evidence – Why should someone believe that you can do the things you say you can?
    4. Solutions – Have you got appropriate services and answers for their problems?
    5. Approachability/Personality – Very often the sale comes down to you being the right person as much on personality as skills. We want to work with people we like and feel we can talk to.

    Of course now I call the solution Authority Blogging and I teach people how to grow their profile and engage audiences, but these factors worked in my favor long before I had a name for it or was even doing this consciously.

    Creating the Opportunity for Opportunities

    What I started out doing was answering programming questions on email discussion lists. People got to know me through my answers and discussions. To avoid repeating myself, and so I could write more in detail, I would write articles. After a while I wrote for the top ASP site, ASPAlliance, which made me more visible, brought me programming contracts, and eventually led to me doing speaking, teaching .NET programming, which led to me being awarded Microsoft’s “MVP” award, and book deals.

    This same pattern has repeated in all the phases of my career, from programmer to project management, to webmaster, SEO, online marketing to blogging. Each stage I joined the niche community and got stuck in which led to opportunities.

    It comes down to making yourself useful, creating the environment for opportunities and taking the opportunities that further your cause.

    Making Sales

    Many times I would go pitch some work with the marketing agencies I worked for and I would get a sense the winner had already been all but selected, the customer just wanted reassurance they had made the right choice.  The same happens now, I talk through what I can help with, the options, and I leave it to the customer to decide to go with me.

    When people do approach you with work, you could say that you have to “close” the sale, but personally I see it more as answering any questions and explaining how you can help. If you have done your content  right then the customer will already be “sold”, you just have to clear up any missing information and take the order.

    Improve Your Process

    Every time you get approached, ask

    • where the customer heard about you,
    • what attracted them,
    • do they have any preconceptions
    • if they have any questions that are not answered in the content,
    • and if anything worries them or puts them off.

    … then next time your job will be even easier. Knowing why you don’t get this sale and fixing your approach will make it more likely you get the next one.
    In fact, being aware and listening really is half the battle. For example, for ages I didn’t have my service for creating flagship content as I assumed my ebook would tell people what they needed to know.  Then I found out companies were hiring others to do the writing but using my ebook as part of the spec. By accident I had been creating work for others that I could do myself!

    Summary

    I hope that I have shown that you do not need to be a pushy sales type to get work, your blog can do most of the work for you. If you get out, get known and show your expertise through helping people, then customers will be more inclined to approach you. Most of the effort is in showing you are the right person for the job, this means writing content that solves problems and having your services on display.

    Is this something you do? Have you got any tips? Are you planning to take this approach or one like it? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments …

  • How Can Bloggers Sell Services?

    You might already have seen these videos from Michael Stelzner, maybe on another blog or you might have seen me tweet (about four times, heh) how good they are. If not, go take a look now.

    Why am I pushing you to go look at videos on White Papers?

    Very simple reason really. It’s because this approach to attracting business is exactly in line with what I have been telling people with Authority Blogging. You give away unique and useful information, you set out a compelling argument or approach, this builds trust and credibility. What I call flagship content could easily be a white paper.

    The trick is, of course, to give away ideas and tactics, and sell the specific step by step and implementation. “If you would like advice on implementing everything you learned about here contact 800-…”. No hard sell, no cold-calls. You build your list and create sales leads purely through people being drawn to what you offer, not through pushing for deals.

    This is a perfect approach for bloggers. We give valuable information away all the time.

    Of course Mike is hoping that through his videos you will become intrigued enough to sign up to his list so you can receive them all. You really should. There is some great stuff there, especially if you have never written a white paper.

    How do I know to trust Michael? You might remember back when I was writing over at Copyblogger, he was writing there too. He certainly impressed me with his depth of knowledge and most importantly his results.

    White papers do bring in business. I know because they have worked for me when working for marketing agencies, and my free ebook has brought back leads from people I didn’t even know had seen it. I might call it a report, an ebook, a briefing or an article, but the ideas and approaches are always similar. Give info, get them hooked, reel them in.

    Go watch the free videos, then if you already have a free ebook, take a look at the closing pages. Do you have a call to action there? If not, get one. If you don’t have a free ebook, consider writing one. You can achieve a lot with only 8 or so pages.

    Of course if you are really stuck you could always hire me to create your flagship content for you ;) (see what I did there?)

  • Drawing More Readers with Inspiring Aspirations

    Drawing More Readers with Inspiring Aspirations

    One of the big struggles when you are launching a business blog, is how to write content that will both appeal to your audience and have some connection to what you have to offer.

    I have been helping a couple of clients pull their blog topics together, they both were frustrated that there was apparently very little to talk about the widgets they sell. The solution for both was the same, even though they are in starkly different industries. You might find the same solution works for you also, even if you have nothing to sell.

    What motivates your audience? Not just “interests” but really motivates?

    How does this connect with what you do and how you do it?

    This is why it is helpful to create a very detailed Mind Map, talk to potential or existing customers, get into your audience head space. Otherwise there are opportunities you can miss.

    Without giving away my clients niches before they even launch, both sold something seemingly straightforward and practical, but there was something for each that connected with the audiences self-identity and aspirations. One was in the way the product ingredients were sourced and manufactured, the other in the customers overall life goal.

    Rather than creating a “widget blog”, talk to topics that will make your audience really take notice. We often talk about addressing needs and problems, but when you are talking about products and services you can also address your readers sense of purpose, hopes and dreams.

    Goals, Inspiration and Aspirations

    What is the ultimate benefit you are the solution or part of the solution for?

    • Make more money
    • Freedom and free time
    • Be famous, Prestige
    • Safety and security
    • Adventure and excitement

    World View and Activism

    Are your potential customers facing a challenge, are they of a particular moral/political/advocate group? Do they share beliefs with you?

    • Fair Trade
    • Environment
    • Organic
    • Alternative Energy

    Successful Inspiring Blogs

    Consider the following successful blogs, what are the aspirations behind them?

    Some are obvious, some not immediately obvious, but all have a promise that they deliver on. Everything from “make more money” to “look good without spending a fortune”.

    This blog you are reading has a promise connected to my services (build more business through new media), but the promise with real crystal clarity I spun off into Authority Blogger.

    Where do you fit Into your readers world?

    Rather than just focusing on your widgets or services, think how you can fit into your customers world. What can you talk about that is inspiring, fills a need but also connects authentically to what you do and offer.

    For any blog you need to go beyond merely supplying information or being “kinda useful”, if you do not connect in some way to what really matters to your audience, then you will get lost amongst the sea of alternatives and the many distractions of modern life.

    Can you think of any other brands or blogs that are attracting readers through inspiration and aspiration?

  • Where Blogs fit into your online marketing strategy

    Blogs and online marketing. To even separate the two phrases in my mind feels weird. Bloggers are online marketers. You can’t blog successfully without online marketing. Online marketers who ignore blogging are entering a marathon with their shoelaces tied together. A similar (and just as confused) debate is about Blogs versus Websites. The question makes…