Saturday, October 9, 2010

Blog Karma: How Good Blogging Deeds Can Spike Your Traffic

This is a guest post by Joshua Noerr of JoshuaNoerr.com.

Since I was very young, I was told, and shown, the importance of giving back and doing things for other people. I’ve always felt that the highest measure of a person’s character is the degree of service they are willing to provide for others. In fact, your service to others will be the cornerstone of your legacy long after you are gone.

I also believe that as an individual of able body and mind, I have a certain level of obligation to help others. Not everyone has the abilities that I do, or that most of you do. My way of saying, “Thanks” for being blessed with all of these things is by giving back.

When I started blogging earlier this year, I knew that I had to carry that spirit into what I do, I just didn’t really know how.

A decision to share the love

One day, I was getting ready to write a post when I had an idea. I said to myself, “How about you share all the great blogs you read with your readers?” That seemed like a pretty good idea.

So I scrapped my original post, and shared five blogs I had read that month, with a featured post and some commentary on just what I felt made those blogs so awesome. Almost immediately, my traffic jumped. The bloggers themselves stopped by to say “Thanks” and read what I wrote about them, and my regular readers loved that I was exposing them to new content.

I have since made this a regular monthly feature on my blog, and it’s always extremely popular. I get a traffic spike, an increase in subscribers, and—best of all—I start new relationships with other really cool bloggers. Seems like a pretty good way to go to me.

A decision to share the load

A blogger whose work I read regularly, and for whom I have the utmost respect, published a post asking her readers for help.

She had a goal of making it to Blog World, and was inviting donations to help her get there. I thought that was great! I loved the fact that she’d built such a strong community at her blog that she felt comfortable enough to ask them to help her reach her goal.

This blogger was actually the very first person to post a comment to my blog (other than my mom!), and as I was reading her call for donations, I remembered how I felt that day. She made me feel like a blogging rock star, even though it was just one little comment! Remembering that feeling, I decided I wanted to help her get to Vegas.

So I posted a call to action to my readers. I told them all about what was happening, linked to the post asking for donations, and hit the publish button with a huge smile on my face.

The response was very nearly immediate—and overwhelming! People loved the idea just as much as I did, and wanted to help. There were so many wonderful comments from outstanding people. After all was said and done, the blogger reached her goal and booked her trip to Blog World.

Now I can’t take the credit for her goal being reached—I’m pretty sure her talent had something to do with it! Nevertheless, I felt like I was part of something, and that my blog had a small hand in making someone’s life better.

That day was also, to date, my blog’s highest traffic day. People Tweeted the post, Stumbled it, shared it, and Dugg it. I got some new subscribers, and met some new people. That wasn’t my goal in doing what I did, but it was a pretty nice side-effect!

What can you do?

It’s your turn! Have you ever done something like this before? What kind of results did you see? Do you have something planned for the future? I’d love to hear how good deeds have benefited you and your blog.

Just remember, your blog is a wonderful platform for making someone’s day, or helping other people in a positive way. I think that’s a great thing, and who knows, a simple act of kindness could lead more people to your door. Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

Joshua Noerr is a former MMA fighter and powerlifter turned blogger. He owns or is partnered in several blogs on different topics, including personal development, and health and fitness.

To Use or Not To Use Video

So, you’ve been thinking you’d like to add video posts or messages to your website. Is this idea feasible? Will it go over well with your readers? Will you get the desired results you’re looking for?

Well, only trial and error will determine the answers to the above questions, but before you get to that point you need to know a few pros and cons of using or adding video to your site.

One of the first things you need to ask yourself is, will you do the videos yourself or do you have a partner that will do them? It is very crucial that you or whoever does the video feels comfortable in front of the camera. You will want to be enthusiastic but not to the point of annoyance.

What can video do for your blog? The Pros

It can effectively grab a viewer’s attention and get them excited. This works especially well if you show excitement and enthusiasm in your message.

It can offer something new to your viewers other than a mundane written post.

It can help your viewers get to know you a little better if you decide to get in front of the camera yourself. People feel more comfortable doing business with someone they can see. You become more real by showing them the person behind the blog.

What’s the downside of doing video? The Cons

Some people are annoyed by video, so make sure that your video doesn’t start automatically. If you do set it to start automatically, make sure it’s easy for the viewer to find the stop button.

Video takes time. You may record several hours of video to get a good 30 second segment.

If you don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera, the viewers will notice it.

If you aren’t genuine in your video, your viewers will notice that too.

Tips for video

Practice…a lot. Spend as much time playing around in front of the camera as you can. This will help you get more comfortable being recorded. It will also show you little quirks about yourself that you weren’t aware of. By practicing and watching yourself you will probably discover that you look away from the camera. It looks easy on television, but it isn’t.

A good way to practice is to make a video to send family. It will help you get comfortable, family will be so happy to “see” you that they won’t judge your mistakes, and it will make them feel good to get a video of you.

You may also discover that watching yourself on the screen is not where you should focus your point of view; especially if you use a laptop with a build-in webcam. You can’t watch yourself and the camera at the same time.

Be silly. Get it out of the way. No matter how serious you try to be when recording yourself, you will make mistakes and have silly moments. Just get those out of the way. Make faces at yourself if you have to. The point is to get comfortable seeing yourself on screen and learning which side is your good side, discovering facial expressions you may want to avoid if possible, or facial expressions that viewers may find amusing.

Start with using free programs for recording and editing. These may not be as nice as programs you’d pay for, but if you’re just starting out with video, practice with the free stuff to make sure this is something you can utilize into your blog before purchasing an expensive program.

Remember, adding video to your site can be a great benefit, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. People will enjoy seeing you as a real person instead of a rehearsed news reporter.

Does anyone else have tips for adding video to a website? Any other pros and cons, suggestions, or stories to share?

Friday, October 8, 2010

Blogging with a Learner’s Mind

image of laptop with spanish words

“¿Qué quiere para su desayuno?” she asked, inches from my face.

I thought as quickly as I could, and managed to haltingly request a piece of toast. “Pan tostado, por favor.” It was the only breakfast food that I could remember from Spanish class. It ended up being all I ate for breakfast for the next week.

Clearly, I hadn’t yet found my learner’s mind.

Each of the first few nights I spent in Bogotá I curled beneath the covers with a pounding headache. Trying to think and speak in another language was physically painful. Of the six Americans going through exchange student orientation that year, my Spanish was the worst of the bunch.

Those first weeks I spoke like a four-year-old. It was excruciating, especially for someone who took pride in her communication skills.

Despite the painful beginning, I learned a valuable lesson that year. It didn’t have anything to do with the Spanish language. It had to do with losing my fear of looking like a fool.

Public humiliation

If you’ve ever tried to make yourself understood in a language you’re just learning, you’ll know what I mean. You’re proficient in your native language, but to learn a new one you need to start from the beginning. You have to be willing to speak like a toddler for a while.

Once you’ve learned some basic vocabulary, you might begin to speak like a young child. All the while, you mangle words and raise eyebrows and send people into fits of laughter several times a day.

It’s the public humiliation aspect to learning a new language that no one ever mentions. You’ve mastered your own language, but to master a new one you have to be willing to look like a fool for a while.

A fool with a tool

Fast forward … let’s say “many years.” As a blogger, I find it’s great to feel comfortable making a fool of myself.

Blogging is a decidedly public venue to make beginner’s mistakes in, but the only way to become an experienced blogger is to be a beginning blogger for a while.

You publish a draft post by mistake. You send out a link that doesn’t work. You discover — too late — that you’ve left out a crucial piece of information.

The only way to get past blogging mistakes is to make them in the first place.

When it comes to developing products to sell, we go through the same thing. Our first sales pages suck. The first products we develop may not sell. We cast about, trying to get a bite on our lines. Often we head home empty-handed.

And it all happens in public. But each failure gets us closer to success, even if the only thing we learn is what doesn’t work.

Baby chicks are easy to spot

Twitter is another space where it’s easy to see who the beginners are. I know, because I was one of them not long ago.

People start out talking about their breakfast. They check into Foursquare incessantly. They try to direct message someone, but post it publicly instead.

After a while though, they observe how the power users make the most of Twitter. They figure out a way to fit it into their workflow so it doesn’t consume all their time. They master the language.

Here’s the thing: if you want to master a new skill, you have to start somewhere. As uncomfortable as it is, you have to submit yourself to looking like a fool while you master the tool.

There’s no use standing on the sidelines analyzing. You can’t study your way through the beginner’s phase. You can’t strategize yourself into mastery of a new skill.

At some point, you have to dive in, make your mistakes, get them out of the way and move on from them. That’s where having a learner’s mind will help.

A learner’s mind is fearless

Children are wired to learn, which is why they make such huge developmental strides in their first years of life. In the space of a year, they go from unable to hold themselves upright to running; from crying to expressing their needs quite clearly.

They fall, shed a few tears, pick themselves up, and keep going. They don’t worry about what people will think: they don’t give it a thought. All the while, they’re learning and making great progress.

We can apply this attitude to the new skills we’re learning, too. We can expect mistakes and embrace them when they happen. We can pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, put our chins up and keep going.

Plan to fall

Blogging, Internet marketing, Twitter and all the rest of these newer technologies present great opportunities. You can learn a lot by studying them before you start to use them. You might be able to avoid some mistakes by doing that.

But you can’t vault yourself from beginner to expert just by reading about it. You have to take the first steps, and prepare for the inevitable bumps and bruises that come with making real progress.

It’s the only way to learn, really. And it’s the only way to get past plain toast for breakfast every day.

Worth it, though, don’t you think?

5 More Things Haunting Taught Me About Blogging

Around my home, it is definitely that time of year again. Halloween is just a few weeks away, the outside decorations are already up and work inside our small charity haunt is moving at a fever pitch.

It was at about this time last year that I wrote a post entitled “5 Things Haunting Taught Me About Blogging“, which was a look at some of the lessons I got about life and blogging through running a haunted house.

With another year down and more time to reflect, it seems there are still more lessons to share. With that in mind, here are 5 more lessons haunting has taught me about blogging and how you can apply them yourselves.

1. Your Visitors != You

Though your visitors are probably a great deal like you, they are not the same as or identical to you and will have critical differences both between them and you as well as among themselves. You have to factor in these differences when doing everything from picking topics to write about to your theme.

I got a reminder of this in last year’s haunt when a new “collapsing” ceiling worked exceptionally well on myself, my wife and our crew but failed to get a reaction from most of the visitors. The reason, my wife and I are about 6 feet tall and most of our visitors were a good six inches to a foot shorter, as a result, they didn’t get the full effect. We’re making modifications to it this year to make sure that everyone, regardless of height, gets the desired effect.

So talk with and poll your readers, find out ways they are not like you and figure out how you can meet their needs better, even if you don’t necessarily see the point of the changes.

2. People Don’t React Predictably, At Least Not Consistently

Much of haunting is trying to predict how people will react and then manipulating the environment to get the desired effect. However, for all of the predictions and trials you do, it is impossible to be right 100% of the time.

Two years ago, our first with that particular layout, we thought we had predicted where people would go naturally only to find that a high percentage of visitors got lost and many wound up in actor areas of the haunt. We had to adjust the layout of a room in order to prevent that from happening and make the path more clear.

Likewise, bloggers should spend more of their time looking at what is actually happening on their site, not what they think should be happening. Services like Clicktale can be a real help in trying to find out what visitors are actually doing and where things might be breaking down.

3. The People Show Up All at Once

You know this one already if you have run a site for any length of time, or even if you’ve just been a cashier at a large store, people have a tendency to arrive in waves.

Though it would be nice if the flow of traffic was a steady stream, it rarely is. At the huant, we did over 1/2 of our foot traffic during 2 hours on one night. The rest of the open time was torn between putting small groups through and waiting for the next one.

Site traffic isn’t much different, though there is a baseline level of that a site can expect on any given day, traffic spikes caused by everything from social news to a jump in relevant Google queries drive an inordinately large percentage of visitors. As such, you need to make sure your capacity is not geared toward your day-to-day operations, but geared to handle the busy times too.

4. Advertising is Good But Word of Mouth is Best

It is always important to remember that your best form of advertising is your current visitors.

I get a lesson in this every year as comments from visitors always show that well over half of all the people who came by did so because their friend or family member told them about us. This is in spite of thousands of fliers put out, articles in the newspaper and prominent listings in local event calendars.

Though the percentage won’t be nearly that great for a website, it’s likely that it is for visitors who stick around and become regulars. After all, most search engine traffic simply “bounces” away, indicated by the fact that bounce rates are usually well north of 50%.

If you want a strong core readership, you have to encourage your existing readers to go to bat for you, it’s the best way to build a good audience.

5. You Have to Constantly Adjust

Finally, with blogging, as with most things in life, the only thing that is certain is change.

Last year we were open three nights and it felt as if we ran three very different haunts. Though most of the changes would have been subtle to visitors, they radically changed how the haunt worked. From rearranging furniture in one room to redirect visitors (mentioned above) to moving mats to adjust timing, we never stopped tweaking, even after opening night. This was regardless of whether or not there was an obvious problem, so long as there could be a slight improvement.

Likewise, though you should resist large, sudden changes to your blog, small and subtle ones can make a great deal of different and might not even be spotted by your visitors, even as they are affecting them.

Always be looking for ways to improve and make the changes that you need. If a change doesn’t work, undo it and try something else. Blogging is all about refinement over time, as so to avoid growing dull.

Bottom Line

All in all, building a haunted house is no different than any other large scale project one can undertake. However, all projects and experiences have lessons that can be carried over into other objectives.

Because of this, it’s worth taking time after any big project concludes or before it ramps up and see what lessons you can take from it. I usually do this by sitting down with the people I worked with and drawing up a list of things that worked well and things that needed improvement.

This type of honest evaluation is crucial in improving your work and avoiding stagnation. Best of all, it can be a very fun way to relive some great memories along the way.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

The Easy-to-Use Tool that Helps You Build a Breakthrough Blog

image of swiss army knife

As a digital branding and marketing agency, our company has encouraged, coached, and cajoled clients over the years on the importance of blogging for building traffic, buzz, and organic search.

We watched some clients grow by leaps and bounds, attracting hundreds of thousands of blog visitors per month.

And we watched others clients stumble along without ever gaining the momentum we were working for.

Of course there are a lot of factors that drive success or failure. But among the blogs that succeeded on a huge scale, we noticed two common factors.

First, the breakthrough blogs had a strong editorial calendar. And second, they used a thoughtful, strategic approach to managing editorial content.

What is an editorial calendar, and why do you need one?

An editorial calendar is just a fancy term for a publishing schedule.

If you blog regularly, you should look ahead at least one month and make some decisions about which posts you want to publish on what dates.

It’s really that simple.

An editorial calendar is the foundation of strategic blogging. That little bit of planning goes a surprisingly long way toward getting the most audience reach from your blog content.

1. An editorial calendar lets you plan ahead

By planning your posts ahead of time, you drive perseverance.

An editorial calendar encourages blogging as a habit, wards off writer’s block, and ensures that you never miss another deadline.

It’s a small, subtle thing, but you’ll be surprised at the difference it makes in your mindset.

2. An editorial calendar adds structure to your creativity

Many bloggers worry that an editorial calendar will straitjacket their creativity. Actually, the opposite is true.

Writing comes to many of us in waves. Struck by a bolt of inspiration, a blogger can write two or three posts in an afternoon.

That’s fine — keep writing about what inspires you. Then use your editorial calendar to publish each post according to a plan that keeps your target audience in mind.

Staring at that blank screen and trying to come up with a topic can be one of the most stressful aspects of blogging.

But you’ll find that when you make those decisions weeks in advance, you actually come up with more and better ideas. You’ll be more creative, not less.

3. You can take a great concept further

An editorial calendar is a powerful tool for maximizing the reach of your content, while removing the pressure of having to generate new concepts for each post.

Say you’ve got a great topic in mind, one you know your readers care a lot about. There’s no reason to blow it all in one day.

Would it make a valuable series, parceled out over a period of time and then gathered into a content landing page? Could you run some interviews or line up some guest posts on the topic? Or go multimedia and round up a few engaging videos or cartoons on the subject?

Whether you write everything yourself or use guest writers, planning ahead lets you group your content more effectively. Once you start looking at your blog a month at a time, you can develop patterns and make sure your content is well-balanced among all the readers you serve.

4. You can be proactive and capitalize on search trends

When you pair planning with a strong foundation in SEO, you start to build your audience highly efficiently.

An editorial calendar helps you pay better attention to key outreach strategies, such as blog post titles and link building. At a more advanced level, you can use it to plan and time posts related to your target audience’s search behaviors.

Capitalizing on search activity can be as simple as timing posts and topics to synch with public holidays or product launches. Or it can be as complex as doing deep keyword analysis and planning content around trending search terms that will deliver maximum traffic to your blog.

Why Stresslimit developed the WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin

After years of hacking together editorial calendars for our clients, using Excel spreadsheets and Google Docs, we wound up in a long discussion with our close friend (and brilliant engineer) Zack Grossbart.

Beyond our mutual excitement about blogging and the power of editorial calendar strategy, we shared a passion for open source projects and wanted to give back to the WordPress community. We also wanted to develop a tool that would make our lives and coaching our clients more efficient, easier, and simply cooler.

Our clients were excited about the idea of using an editorial calendar. But there was no single tool that enabled us to eliminate “busy work” and free up more time for strategizing and creativity.

We were also in synch with Zack on our love for creating simple, intuitive interfaces that help people manage complex behaviors.

An eight-month collaborative project was born: co-developing, co-designing and re-iterating the WordPress Editorial Calendar.

We’re excited to announce the launch of version 1.0 of our editorial calendar plugin, which is (in our humble opinion) the killer tool for managing and driving the success of any blog — from the small and personal to the large and corporate.

We invite you to take the WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin for a spin at this link. It’s free, and we think you’re going to get a lot out of it.

Here are some of the things you can do with the plugin

See a month’s worth of posts at a glance.
Juggle your calendar by simply dragging and dropping posts from day to day.
Quickly edit your posts’ titles, contents, and publishing times.
Publish posts or manage drafts.
Instantly see the status of your posts.
More easily manage posts from multiple authors.

And you can do all of that right from the calendar interface itself. It’s simple and intuitive.

No plugin alone can make you a brilliant strategist. But the WordPress Editorial Calendar is a tool that will encourage more strategic habits, thinking, and behavior. Check it out here.

What Makes Real Blogging Success?

What makes a successful blog?

What makes a successful blogger?

I have been reflecting on these questions as I start planning out the next stage of my Authority Blogger course. It’s important to me that people get real results, and honestly the only way I can do that is by basing my advice on what has worked for me and other clients, and my getting people to take action.

It Takes a Long Time to Be an Overnight Success

Most of the bloggers you know who write about blogging didn’t start off with that. I recall Chris Brogan saying it took him 11 years to be an overnight success. Darren blogged for a while about spirituality. Brian was a lawyer until he took a blow to his noggin. My experience has not been all high-fives either. In fact, most of it was pretty unglamorous. It did, however, teach me a lot.

My first “blog” was around the mid-90′s. It was a science fiction website, where I would write fanboy postings about Star Trek and Doctor Who. I know, sexy, right?

After that I moved on to writing about another ultra-sexy topic. Programming. Oh yeah! This was where I started getting financial rewards in terms of selling services, paid writing gigs, books, the whole deal. As well as the benefits increasing, that was also where I went through my toughening up process. Developers might look like meek nerds but believe me they can craft a cutting remark

IT Geek, to Programming Geek, to New Media Geek

Lesson: Nobody is delivered into the world fully equipped, and it is not always a smooth path. It is hard work and like most things, most people will fail.

Success is Great, Failing is Good

Of course fast-forward a bit and I did a whole bunch of marketing consulting, copywriting and freelance blogging. Some highs and lows, like anybody. Everything from writing about drug-rehab and having friends and family concerned about my health (they were a client! never touched the stuff!) through to a couple of imploded SaS startups. There were many prideful moments, and also many that were followed by a fall.

Not every blogger is going to make a full time income. Of course not. Most people do not intend to, and of those that do, only a minority will put in the effort. Even with best intentions and lots of energy exhausted we can still fail. This is no different to starting a business, launching a career, or higher education. Failure rates are high everywhere.

Lesson: Put in the effort and don’t expect plain sailing. We learn a great deal from our mistakes, especially if we work out how to prevent them in future. Our successes can be educational, providing we learn how we achieved them and why what we did worked.

The Difference Between Successful Blogs and Obscurity

This might be a tough message to hear. We want to create. Craft compelling writing. And it is about that, but we also need people to do stuff or think differently because of our content.

We have to encourage people to subscribe, share, and maybe buy.

Lesson: Successful blogs are about persuasion. You might not have a financial outcome, but you do want to create a result. Leave the reader with an idea, an action, a next-step, and so on.

Content Follows Purpose

Therefore it might sound strange to read me say this but I don’t consider myself a blogger. Not in the way most people would describe it.

Do I blog? Yes, but as a means to an end. I am a marketer and a teacher. Do I call myself a “whiteboard artist” or “telephone user”?

When I am writing for a client blog, I am a freelance writer. If I am building awareness of my product, I am marketing. To get people to be interested in buying, I am a salesman.

This is my website where I encourage people to opt-in to have my content delivered via email and RSS. Of course I like helping people with my free advice, but I also have to put food on the table by people paying me. Therefore this is not just a blog, but a relationship and reputation builder.

My goals with all of this stuff have always been greater freedom and security for my family and myself. This is at the back of my mind as I work. My means to that end is helping and advising the maximum number of people to get closer to their own goals. It is fulfilling and rewarding to see people make progress without the financial benefits, but being paid to achieve that is wonderful.

You have to put your audience first. This stops outside criticism hurting so much, and means you will always be on the right track. Intentions count for a lot. Think long term, rather than aiming for a quick win. The reason I think what I do continues to be valuable and worthwhile over this period of time is because I want people to succeed with my stuff. I’ll only recommend stuff I have full faith in because of a personal experience or relationship, and the stuff I create myself I try my best to make it as good as it can be.

Lesson: What is the purpose behind your blogging?

You must answer this, then build your approach around that outcome.

Turn Your Blog Around With These 10 Quick Tips

Start with your end-goal in mind, what change/action/outcome do you want to bring about?
Craft your content to work towards a satisfying conclusion.
You must answer WIIFM (“What’s In It For Me?”) on behalf of the audience. Avoid “So What?”.
What is the big point you want to deliver?
Headlines matter - 80% will read headline, but only 20% will read the rest.
Compelling headlines are Specific. Beneficial. Intriguing. Unusual.
Add emotion and urgency to get more clicks.
Openings should Tease, Question, Shock, or otherwise pull the reader in.
Anecdotes and stories deliver information subconsciously, but must stay on point.
Your reader is King. Focus on them, what can you do for your audience?

Summary

I guess bottom line is this. We get obsessed with the activity of blogging, and we look at the surface of others who blog. Success comes from digging under the hood and working towards an intention and a purpose.

What have I missed? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments ….

Are We Developing Young Bloggers?

Many of us want to be an entrepreneur, be our own boss, and make money online with a blog. For adults it can be scary and take a long time because we can’t give up the weekly paycheck to follow an endeavor full time. On the other hand there are many people who are already making a full time living online and have the luxury of being at home with the family.

For those who have children, are you missing the opportunity to develop entrepreneurship in your kids? Are you encouraging them to learn the basics of making money online and building their own income?

Most kids are already on the Internet listening to music, playing games and interacting with their friends and other people their age. Wouldn’t it be great if they spent more of that online time building their future and learning how to create their own business?

I found several websites that are ran by or were created by teens. These young people saw a need for catering to their peers and have built very successful websites by doing so. You can find links to those sites at the end of this post.

Benefits of encouraging entrepreneurship in your children:

* Learn to be self-sufficient – They can be their own boss and not depend on others for their livelihood.

* Build effective leadership qualities – It will teach them leadership skills so if they later decide to enter the job force they already have experience in leading a team.

* Decision making – Running their own website or blog will help them to learn how to make smart decisions in the business world.

* Build confidence – Running their own successful website will give them the confidence they need to go for bigger and better things in life.

* Success mindset – They will develop the mindset of being successful and taking risks that other people their age might not take.

The average parent teaches their children to make good grades in school and to attend college so they can secure a good job. As successful bloggers we know this is not the only way to secure our future. In fact the educational system usually leaves a young person pretty deep in debt by the time they graduate college. It doesn’t have to be that way. There is nothing wrong with a higher education, but wouldn’t it be better if they were running a successful business of their own to help cover the costs of college?

As bloggers, we also know the startup costs of a website are extremely low compared to a traditional business. The potential to make money can also be greater than that of a traditional business.

Lessons to teach your child about business and entrepreneurship:

* Any idea can be a good business idea.

* Research all ideas to see if the market is in need.

* Follow through with the idea before giving up too soon.

* Failure is a learning experience; not the end of the world.

* A profitable business requires work and testing results.

* Creativity goes a long way with a great idea.

* Being innovative will push you ahead of competition.

Remind your child that some business ideas can lead to great success, while others provide an incredible learning experience. Some ventures will prove to be highly profitable, while others may only produce a few dollars. The key is to teach your children to be resilient and keep moving forward toward their dreams.

If your child’s business ideas succeed, continue to encourage them to seek greater levels of success. Along the way, continue to promote self-sufficiency, independent thinking, and confidence. With these three traits, young bloggers have a better chance at success than other people their age.

Websites started or ran by young bloggers:

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Use WP Spire to Power Sales Pages

The great thing about WordPress is that it is such a robust content management system and while it is fantastic for blogging, it is a platform that can also be used for other purposes. You just need to add the right tools and modifications to make it work.

From an Internet marketing perspective, one of the more interesting products is WordPress Spire. Available as a WordPress plugin or as a WordPress theme, this product can effectively let you create multiple WordPress sales pages, landing pages, and squeeze pages.

Multiple Designs for Multiple Purposes

You may have encountered some other products that allow you to use WordPress to power your sales page, but WordPress Spire goes a little further than that by offering a huge range of design options.

The sales page design is easily configurable to include custom backgrounds, different page widths, different headers, footers, image boxes, and other features. You can also use it to generate landing pages, squeeze pages, and even mini-sites.

Going further, the same domain can be used for multiple sales pages, each with a different design. This is particularly powerful if you have a single brand to promote multiple products. Each WordPress post can be its own sales page, looking totally different from the other posts on your single WordPress installation.

A Simplified User Interface

Dealing with messy HTML and PHP code is a thing of the past. Yes, the coders still have to deal with that kind of thing, but the “end user” webmaster can get a lot going on with much easier to understand menus.

This is the case with WordPress Spire too. The various theme options and features can all be accessed through the WordPress dashboard. Click on the appropriate menu item, access the right section, and you can change just about everything you want.

It is here that you can add and remove things like opt-in boxes, testimonial boxes, and header images. To add these to your posts, for instance, all you have to do is make use of the numerous shortcodes that are included with the themes.

Combine with Split-Testing for Optimal Results

Want to see which designs work the best for your purposes? Since all you need is a single WordPress installation with WordPress Spire, you can make use of some great split-testing to see what design elements result in the best conversion rates.

The options and features in WordPress Spire are easy enough to change, so you really can try a range of different designs without dabbling too deeply into the raw code. If you’re an Internet marketer looking for an easier way to develop sales pages and squeeze pages, WordPress Spire looks like a good bet.

The theme version is currently on sale for $77, representing a $50 savings from the regular price of $127. This grants you a license for unlimited installations on your own personally-owned sites.

Link: WordPress Spire

Color Psychology – How To Use It In Your Blog?

- Makes people impulsive and want to click. Use red on "click here" buttons or text. The reason red makes people impulsive is because it is a very bright color that stimulates the mind and increases circulation.

Green - Makes people think of money. So if you have an affiliate site or a money making site green will be a great color to use. Use it in your banners, small amounts of text and images.

Blue - Helps people relax and be calm. It will help people stay longer on your site. So make sure to mostly use blue in your site. But use a shade that is not bright and is easy on the eyes. Use a light or medium blue in your background, in banners and images. This is a great color to use if you have a moneymaking blog. I have noticed allot of moneymaking blogs are using blue in their site.

Silver - Using this color in your website will make people feel your site has value and is worth more. Silver makes people think of expensive, modern, smooth and technical things. Don't use silver too much because it can hurt the eyes. Use a small bit in your blog. You can use it in your decorations and some of your text. But don't over do it.

Purple - Helps people trust you more. Use the colors purple, blue and white together. I learned these 3 colors work very well together. Purple will make people feel you are loyal, trust worthy; creative and you have cutting edge products!

Pink - People will feel your products are trendy and sophisticated by using this color in your site. It also means love, sweet, youth and is feminine. So if you want guys going to your website, don't use too much of it. Use a little bit through out your website instead.

Orange - Using a small amount of orange in your site will let people know your fun and they can enjoy talking to you. It's an inviting color. Have you noticed how most of the RSS feed colors are orange? I believe they chose that color for a specific reason. So people feel invited to be added to your feed! So don't stop using orange for your RSS feed buttons. I think it’s an excellent choice of color.

Yellow - This is a great color to highlight a small amount of text in your sales page. But don't over use it because some people can get angry or anxious with this color. I would suggest only using this color once or twice in your website and sales page.

Brown - Using a little bit of brown in your website will let people know your dependable and friendly. United Parcel Service uses this color so people feel they can depend on them for fast deliveries. You should definitely use this color in your website.

White - Is great to attract attention to your website and have a clean feel for your site. People will feel there is fresh things on your website with this simple but popular color.

Black - Try using less black in your site and more blue and white. Too much black text can hurt people's eyes. I enjoy dark gray text in my articles. It's easier on my eyes. Black is good to use in titles, banners and a small amount of text. I want my readers to read all of my articles and not have trouble when reading them.

I hope you enjoyed learning about color psychology and how to use colors in your blog the right way. If you enjoyed reading this article and feel you learned valuable information please stop by and read more articles from my site. I hope to meet you there. My website is KateKutny.com.

[Image credit: Tiger Color]

The One Thing Keeping You from Being a Blogging Master

Ahh, grasshopper.

Blogging master, you already are.

You just need to release your inner truth.

Have you noticed that most big time bloggers aren’t much better writers than you are?

The difference between you and them is not how they string words together, but it’s in their ability to connect to your emotional side. They know what they want to say and how to connect to their people’s hearts. They do this so well because of their intrapersonal relationship.

They’ve taken time to reflect on what excites them, so when they write, their readers are excited.

I know that I look forward to a new Daily Blog Tips article in my RSS feed.

How do they do it?

Most people will tell you that they love to write, share, build a business, etc. But that’s just a part of it.

Fear

Probloggers such as Daniel aren’t afraid to let their true selves out. They embrace the fear of writing something that people might disagree with. They put themselves in uncomfortable positions because they want to stand out from the crowd.

Many of you hold back from saying what is truly in your heart. You’re afraid of the reaction that might occur. This is completely understandable, but the only way you will break through and create a blog that people keep coming back to is to create something that people can’t get anywhere else.

You have to create connections with people that allow for deep connections.

Building Relationships

The only way your blog will be read by a stadium sized tribe is if you build great relationships.

If you want to influence, you must have people who believe in you.

I teach people how to build better relationships because it’s the best way to increase happiness in a career. When you work with happy people, it’s easier to be happy yourself. When you have an audience who loves what you create, it’s easier to create great content.

It’s hard to create these emotional connections, whether you are a blogger or just trying to build your career. Daniel is good at it. Leo is good at it. Brian is good at it.

Their people trust them and keep coming back for more.

Get Good at Pulling on the Heart Strings

You have to connect with your audience through their emotions. That means being so well connected with yourself that you believe and love every word you type, talk, and sing.

If you don’t know what you believe, no one will follow and share with their friends what you have to say. You say you believe in yourself, but do you really?

That’s the key to creating your tribe: believing so intensely in what you write that people listen. That means knowing yourself so well that it sometimes hurts. You have to ask yourself the tough questions. You know you do this when you ask yourself questions that push you outside of your comfort zone.

By pushing past your limits, you’ll discover the best way to create that emotional connection.

5 Whys

The “5 Whys” method to help them get to the heart of a problem. There was an inclination for their workers to solve the symptoms instead of getting to the root cause of a problem. If you want to be a blogger who has a lot of influence then you must dig deep.

I like to think of this as a chance to do a little meditation. My “5 Whys Meditation” has been instrumental in my happiness and success.

Give it a try. Kick up your feet, close your laptop and just calmly breathe in and out as you go through the 5 whys. You’ll love the results.

For example, if I’m having trouble writing an article about sex in the workplace I ask myself “why” 5 times.

Why: Because I’m not in the mood.
Why: Because I’m not sure that people would be interested.
Why: Because it’s a delicate topic.
Why: Because I would have to interview people about this sensitive topic.
Why: Because it’s not easy to write about something I’ve never done.

It’s at this point that I need to either pick a new topic that I know about or interview people who have had intimate relationships with co-workers.

Then grasshopper you are ready…

Only when you have solid intrapersonal skills can you develop interpersonal skills that keep people wanting more.

If you want to build these skills, remember these three letters: S, H and V.

Story

You must tell a story every time you write. I don’t care if you are writing about human genetics. Tell a gripping story and people will want more.

Heart

Before you press post, make sure that you believe with all your being in what you wrote. If it doesn’t feel 100% to you, it sure as heck won’t feel 100% to your readers.

Value

Are you giving your readers something they can use when they are done reading? If you make them laugh, you did your job. If you make them want more, you did your job. If you open their eyes to a new perspective, you did your job.

Now grasshopper, you don’t need me any longer.

You actually never needed me. You just need to listen to that little voice in your heart that knows what the world needs to hear.

You know that you have what it takes. Let go of that fear and build the relationships so your tribe sings your praises to all their friends.

About the Author: Karl Staib of Work Happy Now created an e-course called Fear to Fuel to help people face their arch nemesis and do work that they love.

Join the 2010 More Buyers Mastermind

The make money online segment of the blogosphere has had its fair share of dubious characters selling their wares over the last few years.

However one guy that has consistently produced both valuable and helpful content as well as being a true gentleman and ethical business person is Dave Navaro.

Dave has produced some great resources of late to help people monetize their blogs by launching products and today has launched a new program – the 2010 More Buyers Mastermind.

Dave’s been so helpful to many ProBlogger readers in their journey that when he asked me to be interviewed for his Mastermind course I leapt at the opportunity.

We recorded a hour long call on the topic of ‘Attracting the Right Readers to Your Blog’.

My call is just one of 14 that you get – others include Brian Clark, Naomi Dunford, Laura Roeder, Chris Brogan, Johnny B. Truant and Lynn Terry.

Topics are varied but all revolve around making your online business more profitable including:

Becoming the Dominant Site in Your Niche
Getting People to Buy Every Thing You Make
Selling with Social Media (without being Spammy)
Creating a Mindset that Grows Your Business
Becoming the Recognized Leader in Your Field
Becoming the Trusted Authority in Your Niche
Selling High Ticket Products
Building a Personality Based Brand
Making Every Promotion More Profitable
Growing Your Business with a Team
Promoting as an Affiliate (without being Cheesey)

Dave’s also doing 14 followup Q&A/Coaching sessions and has created some great ‘action plans’ that you get as well.

Until this Friday the 2010 More Buyers Mastermind course is $197. After Friday it goes up to $397 so if you think it is for you – you should sign up today. It’s fully guaranteed for 60 days so if you find it isn’t for you you can get your money back – no questions asked.

Grab Your Copy Today.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo is Coming, Are You Going?

This time of year is one of my favorite times because I get so excited to see all of my blogging friends at BlogWorld & New Media Expo. I have been lucky enough to have attended every single BlogWorld that there has been. I went to my first on in 2007 and am going to be speaking at this one on Friday October 15, at 2:45pm. My session is called Content You Care About. I happen to be on at the very same time as the owner of this blog, Zac Johnson, is on the Make Money Super Panel. I really would have liked to have seen him speak especially since he came and saw my panel at Affiliate Summit and has let me ramble on here on this blog offering help where I can.

In one of my earliest posts on Blogging Tips.com I asked the question Should you Attend a Social Media Conference? At that time I mentioned that I had put in proposals to a number of conferences that I planned to attend. Well, my proposals were accepted at all of them and the response has been incredible. Blogging and Social Media conferences are amazing ways to make contacts, friendships and business ventures. But you have to do a lot of work to make it happen for you, so here are my essential tips for having a successful conference attendance.

Talk to Everybody – Seriously, you never know who you are going to meet and if you don’t talk to everyone you are going to miss out on so many opportunities. MY most recent conference was at Modern Media Man in Atlanta. I was tired and figured that I would head back to the hotel when I saw one of my friends talking to a representative from Mattel. At the time I hadn’t been doing very much with my Dad blog, Read to Me, Dad. and wondered if I had much to offer in the way of working with Mattel, but I do love toys and so I got introduced and struck up a great conversation. This leads me to my next tip.

Ask for What You Want – I don’t mean that you have to be a swag whore and try to get something for nothing but you do need to put yourself and your intentions out there. I knew that I wanted to work with a major brand like Mattel and so I asked if they were looking for Dad bloggers who did reviews. I also asked if I could be one of those bloggers. A relationship started right then and there.

Give it Your Best – While at Modern Media Man I spent a lot of time with major sponsor Chevrolet. They had cars on hand to take on test drives. I saw people taking the test drives and collecting their iTunes gift cards, essentially taking but not giving anything back tot he advertiser. I quickly got out my camera and snapped a ton of photos of the staff and the cars and then took one of my video cameras and gave it to the company rep who took me on test drives of the Silverado, Camaro and Convertible Corvette. I asked them to interview me about my thoughts on their cars at the same time as they showed me the great features of each car. I was able to give them content from my experiences in their vehicles. I then put the videos together and posted them so that as an advertiser they got something for all the money they spent to support the show.

Follow Up – It is so essential to follow up on your connections right away. I really wish that GMail had a feature where you could schedule when you send your e-mails because I would have written every follow up message that same night that I met someone and they were fresh in my mind, but send it a couple of days after the conference so that they had time to catch up on the work they missed while at the conferences. Either way, follow up is so crucial because it means that you are serious and should be taken seriously.

Have Fun – Conferences aren’t all about work, going out and having a great time is also key. Go out to the parties, have meals with your new friends, don’t eat alone, or spend all your time working in your room, there is time for that but the one on one time that you get with other conference attendees is priceless. Have fun and who knows you might meet your next business partner, friend or more.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Temporary Blogs: Blogs as Stepping Stones

Lately I’ve been chatting to a number of bloggers whose blogs have dropped off the radar. I’d been disappointed (as a reader) that they’d stopped blogging and I’d secretly been thinking of it as a “failure” of sorts. But I was reminded by those bloggers that in many ways that they’d actually succeeded with their blogs and that stopping blogging was a sign of that success.

In this video I explain more.

Notes

View this video full size (in HD) here
Video shot on a Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1 (aff) – here’s why I use that camera to shoot my videos.

Transcription of “The Five C’s of Blogging: Reflections on Eight Years of Blogging”

I’ve had this video transcribed below for those who prefer to get it that way. The transcription provided by The Transcription People.

I was having a chat to a blogger that I really admired and was writing some incredible content a couple of years ago. I was chatting to her a couple of weeks ago now, and she kind of dropped out of the blogosphere and wasn’t really writing any more—just the occasional post.

I used to really love her content, and it was almost like a daily experience of wonderment and learning just logging in to see what she was writing. And then she kind of disappeared; one of her posts said that she’d just got a new job, and the posts kind of disappeared after that.

And I was always disappointed in that; and I said to her, when we caught up for a coffee recently, “What happened to your blog? It was so great; it had so much potential.” And as we were chatting she said, “Well, I got a job. And the reason I started a blog was that, you know, I wanted to land a job, I was out of work, and the blog was never really going to be anything beyond an online résumé, a place for me to build my profile and build some credibility, and potentially meet some employers.”

And it kind of was interesting to me, because I’d always sort of seen it as a bit of a failure—as a disappointment—that she’d stopped blogging; but, the more I chatted to her, the more I realised that a temporary blog, a blog that just had the goal of landing her a job, is really an okay thing. And whilst it was disappointing for me as a reader that she disappeared, she actually had landed her dream job as a result of her blog.

It reminded me of another interaction that I had with a blogger who, off the back of his blog, launched just a very small piece of software. And it was a piece of software that really took off and got used a lot; and as a result of that software, he then went and launched another piece of software and another piece of software, and then ended up with a software company which employs ten to 15 people.

And I remember having this similar sort of conversation with him: “Why don’t you blog any more? Your blog was great; I loved it; I really found your ideas interesting.” And he reflected back to me that again, his blog was a means to another end—he was never going to be a professional blogger, that wasn’t his model; his model was to launch a software company, and he used his blog to do that.

And again, there’s a whole heap of stories I could probably tell along similar lines. And I guess these sort of conversations are reminding me that there’s not just one model for blogging and for making a living from blogging. And your blog doesn’t have to go for many, many years to be successful. If success for you is landing a job, or launching another company, your blog can actually be a stepping stone for you.

And whilst I’m disappointed that these people aren’t blogging anymore, I’m really excited that blogging is a medium that can be used to help people achieve their goals beyond having a successful blog.

This is just something I’ve been thinking about the last few days, and I’m interested to hear your comments. What’s the goal of your blog? Are you blogging for blogging to be the end, or is it a stepping stone to something else for you?

Love to hear your comments.

Building Credibility – The Value Shift

Blogging Credibility

It’s Blogworld coming up in a few days. Another big conference with busy halls, packed sessions, and loud parties.

That might sound like heaven or hell to you, and believe me I understand both perspectives.

I am doing up to six sessions this year. Around six more than my nerves are built to take. You can see my schedule here. That nifty calendar shows where I will be as far as talks and panels are concerned, either on stage or heckling from the audience

When people hear that I have my name down for these kinds of things, they tend toward incredulity. “You??“. Yes. Me.

You might already know I am shy and introverted, and I don’t actually see that as a bad thing. For a while I was lead to believe it was a “fault” that needed “fixing”. After thought (and trying to “cure” myself with no success), I came to realize it is just a difference of personality and style. It’s part of who I am, and clearly it doesn’t hold me back that much.

As well as developing my Shy Networking approaches that help me mix and connect effectively without losing my sanity, I decided to embrace my quirks, constraints and all.

The fact is, if you need to be known, and establish credibility, there is a lot that can be done from your desk. I wrote a whole course about growing your audience, boosting your authority, and offering products and services around that. But even though you can have a big list and thousands of people know, like and trust you, even then there are limits. Even with the best online system, things are accelerated when they can hear and see you in person.

Essentially, uncomfortable as it is, if I want to do the things I want to do, I have to be seen on stage and I need to network at these events.

In my view there has been a big shift in how credibility is perceived over the last ten or so years. The era of the internet has changed society to the extent the old rules do not apply with as much persuasive force as before.

Old school credibility could be gained from things like …

Heredity
Professional organisations
Qualifications and Certifications
Society membership
Committees
Management positions
Traditional PR mentions

Don’t get me wrong, all of these things do help, especially appearing in traditional press.

But we are becoming increasingly cynical about these kinds of things. We no longer trust the media, the old boys club, or even professional accreditation to provide enough credibility to work with.

There are three main ways we can generate more credibility with an audience once we have a spotlight:

Expertise proof.
Results proof.
Social proof.

Look back over the old-school credibility builders. Notice anything?

None of those old ways of achieving credibility offer evidence of real value. There is no “What’s in it for me?”.

Even qualifications and certifications are no longer evidence that a person has relevant and demonstrable expertise because the pool has been tainted by unscrupulous certificate factories and fraudsters. You can be a doctor or a Lord now just by paying enough.

More and more we are turning to people who have something useful to share, who our friends trust, and who can prove they get results. If you want credibility that is what you need to start doing. Share your best tips, your case studies, and interact with people in a live setting.

Of course do not wait for an annual conference, be visible online and locally too. But when you have a platform where you can really deliver, swallow the fear and do it.

Bottom line: Shy as I am, this is how appearing at Blogworld helps me towards my goals and I recommend you consider something like it for your own.

Do you see people in your niche turning away from traditional credibility indicators? How are you growing your credibility? Attending Blogworld? Please share in the comments …

Monday, October 4, 2010

4 Simple Ways to Get More High-Paying Clients with Your Blog

image of golden egg

How many new high-paying clients do you get for every hour you spend blogging?

What’s that? You have no idea?

We need to talk.

Building a client-based business isn’t easy. But if you’re spending hours every week on an activity that’s not generating qualified leads, you’re making it harder than it has to be. You’re keeping yourself from making money by wasting the most valuable resource you have: your time.

Wouldn’t you rather spend your time as efficiently as possible, so you can have that “life” you thought you were going to have when you went into business for yourself?

Of course you would. Here’s how.

Strategy #1: Solve one problem per post

High-paying clients tend to be busy. They’re willing to pay more to get things done because (1) they don’t have time to do everything themselves; and/or (2) their time is worth a lot to them.

Which means that they aren’t just browsing around the Internet, looking for interesting blog posts to peruse. If they’ve made it to your blog, they’re probably looking for something specific.

Give them what they’re looking for, and make it easy for them to find.

If you solve one — and only one — problem per post, your readers will be able to do a quick search, find the relevant post, and find the answer they needed in the first place. You want to be the person they turn to when they need something, so when they need something bigger than a blog post, your name is the first to come to mind.

When your prospects think of you, you want words like these to pop into their minds:

Quick
Smart
Helpful
Knowledgeable
To the point

Most of all, you want your prospects to see how highly you value their time. Treat their time like the precious resource they believe it to be, and you’ll become a precious resource to them.

Strategy #2: Speak your clients’ language

Your ideal clients don’t know as much as you do about your area of expertise. That’s why they need you.

If you’re talking about their needs in technical terms, instead of in the terms your clients actually use, you’re missing an opportunity to connect with the people who need you.

Say your ideal clients are local businesses who want to use the Internet to expand their client base. How do they describe their needs?

“I need to learn how to install WordPress.”
“I need to get a web designer, an SEO expert, and a social media consultant.”
“I need to figure out this whole Internet thing.”

It could be any of these, of course. The trick is to figure out how your ideal clients actually speak, so you can relate to them on their terms.

Strategy #3: Tell your readers what to do next (and make it easy)

Your ideal client shows up at your blog. She reads your post, loves your work, just generally thinks you’re awesome.

Now what?

Are you telling your reader what to do next, or are you just letting her wander around your blog, looking at all the things she might do:

Go to your “Contact” page, fill out the form, and wait for you to call her back.
Sign up for your e-mail list.
Go to your “Services” page, find the relevant service, and pay for it using a Paypal button you conveniently placed at the bottom.
Call the phone number on your “Contact” page.
Set up a free consultation.
Download a free resource.
Check out your “links you love” page.
Read other posts on your blog.
Leave a comment on your blog.
Subscribe to your RSS feed.
Sign up for your free webinar.
Etc.

How much time do you think your prospect will spend trying to figure this out?

Probably about as much time as you spent reading that list (not much).

Instead of letting them stumble around, become your prospects’ guide. At the end of every post, tell your reader exactly what to do next. Make it a simple, low-risk task that requires next to no thought. For example:

Click here and enter your e-mail to learn more about how [your great service] can help you with [their pressing problem].

Then follow up with some useful information about your services and an invitation to talk by phone for a few minutes. Keep it simple.

Strategy #4: Stop writing about yourself (or stop blogging)

Your business blog shouldn’t be about you. It should be about your clients.

That doesn’t mean you can never write about yourself — only that you should write about yourself in a way that’s relevant to your prospects.

Telling a personal story that helps potential clients understand your commitment to quality? Good.

Telling a personal story that helps potential clients understand how big a crush you have on the hot new boy at Starbucks but your roommate thinks he’s really not that cute but your mom wants to know whether or not he’s Armenian or just looks Armenian but how can you ask that without sounding like a total weirdo and by the way you’re thinking of switching to decaf?

Not so good.

Sharing some details of your personal life can help potential clients know, like and trust you. And that can be useful.

But oversharing is not interesting to your clients. (It’s not interesting to your friends either, but that’s a post for another blog.)

The thing that interests your prospective clients is how you can help them, and what you would be like to work with. Give them what they want.

If you can’t give potential clients what they want, stop blogging.

Yes, this is a radical solution to propose on a website called Copyblogger. But the truth is, if you’re spending several hours every week on a blog that doesn’t interest your potential clients, you’re not marketing. You’re either wasting your time, or writing what should be a personal blog.

And one more thing …

If you’re spending a lot of time wracking your brain trying to figure out what to write about, you should probably be blogging less and talking with your prospects more.

Seriously. Just talk to them.

Offer a free consultation, spend some time helping them with their current issue, and then ask a few questions. See what comes up.

Talking (and listening) to people in your target market is the best way to generate ideas for your blog, because it’s the best way to find out your prospects’ problems, concerns, and the language they use to talk about those things.

Wondering how your blog stacks up?

If you’d like your blog to generate more leads for your business (or higher quality leads), leave a comment below with your URL and whatever questions you’d like us to answer.

Traci and Rudy will provide in-depth feedback for 3 of the blogs listed in the comments, and will respond to as many people as we can for those who comment within the next 24 hours.

We may not get to everyone, but we’ll respond to as many people as we can.

10 Ways to Reduce Friction in Your Purchase Process

This post was written by the Web Marketing Ninja—a professional online marketer for a major web brand, who’s sharing his tips undercover here at ProBlogger. Curious? So are we!

The harder you make people work to order your products, the less people will buy. This basic knowledge has been proven both on and offline. Unfortunately, we’re all not blessed with same level of brand loyalty and scary desire for our customers to line up for our latest ithingy like Apple is, so we need to take a serious look at how much friction we’re causing our customers—and find ways to eliminate it.

There are lots of different ways to go about fixing friction. Here are some easy wins to get you started.

1. Capturing information that’s only necessary for the sale

You might want to know everything you can about your customer so you can help service their needs. But the checkout is not the place to ask for that information. Until the money has cleared, don’t ask them for anything more than you need to make the sale. After the sale has been made, quiz them all you like. The same goes for setting up accounts and passwords: think very carefully before you ask someone to create an account and password—even if your intentions are good.

2. Including direct order links from your emails or blog posts

This might not work for all products, but it’s worth a try. When you’re promoting a product or offer in a communication (such as an email or blog post), don’t send readers to a sales page—send them directly to your checkout page, with the product already in the cart. You don’t need to re-sell to them in a sales page if you’ve done a good job in your communication piece.

3. Recalling the information you know about the customer

If you’re running your own checkout process and you’re (securely) storing customer information, when it comes time for a customer to purchase their second product, fill out as many details as you can for them. You need to allow for them to update the information if required, but many will just sail straight through.

4. Minimizing cross-sell and up-sell messages

In the past, I’ve been guilty of creating friction by attempting to increase my average order value with up-sells or cross-sells. There’s a very fine line to tread when it comes to balancing these two needs. Personally, I limit myself to one up-sell message of one product in an entire checkout process. Any more, and you might risk reaching the friction tipping point.

5. Avoiding bouncing customers to unknown third parties

For some, this might be something you can’t avoid, as you don’t have an internal checkout process. But if possible, keeping the checkout process consistent in terms domain, aesthetics, and style will reduce the shock associated with bouncing to a third party. If you do need to ship your customer somewhere else, make sure the customer knows what’s about to happen. My only exception to this rule is PayPal. It’s such a recognizable brand, the effect can actually be positive rather than negative.

6. Making your process usable, accessible, and cross-browser compatible

For me, this one’s a bit of a given: the lower the number of people who can access your checkout process, the fewer sales you’ll make. It’s a pretty easy calculation, yet so many people fail to make their checkout processes consistent for everyone. Google Analytics, when configured properly, will make it easy to identify whether people with specific browsers are converting a lower rate than everyone else. This will help you quickly identify any problem areas.

7. Using smart and intuitive data validation

Even after you’ve reduced the number of fields you’re asking your customers to complete, people will still make mistakes. If you’re not giving people a clear message about what they’ve done wrong—and what they need to do to resolve it—the sale is going to very quickly be thrown in the too-hard basket. Make sure your error handling is smart and intuitive.

8. Doing what the big guys do

The reality is that the big guys, with the big budgets, are going to be better informed in terms of what constitutes the ideal checkout process. If you want to see a seamless checkout processes in action, be sure to buy something from the likes of Amazon so you know where the benchmark is.

9. Tracking checkout drop-offs

This is all about being as informed as you can about what’s actually happening though your checkout process. My favorite piece of free web software, Google Analytics, is the best place to start. You can thoroughly integrate your ecommerce pages with Analytics—some of the insights you’ll gain might even scare you a little. How you do that is another post in itself, so if you want me to step you through the process, be sure to let me know.

10. Asking people why they’re leaving

Another obvious but seldom-used method to gain insight into why people don’t order your products is to ask them. On-exit pop-ups and light boxes are a great method to quickly ask your customers why they’re leaving. This detailed information will show you very quickly where your friction points are.

When you think about it, if someone abandons your checkout process without completing it, you’ve only got yourself to blame. You’ve done all the hard work to convince the customer that they want to buy your product, then managed to talk them out of it with a poor checkout experience. Reducing the friction in your checkout process is one of the easiest ways to maximize your revenue.

Stay tuned from most posts by the secretive Web Marketing Ninja—a professional online marketer for a major web brand, who’s sharing more of his tips undercover here at ProBlogger over the coming weeks.

Blogger Insight - blogging world

Saturday, October 9, 2010

A decision to share the love

A decision to share the load

What can you do?

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Friday, October 8, 2010

Public humiliation

A fool with a tool

Baby chicks are easy to spot

A learner’s mind is fearless

Plan to fall

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1. Your Visitors != You

2. People Don’t React Predictably, At Least Not Consistently

3. The People Show Up All at Once

4. Advertising is Good But Word of Mouth is Best

5. You Have to Constantly Adjust

Bottom Line

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Thursday, October 7, 2010

What is an editorial calendar, and why do you need one?

1. An editorial calendar lets you plan ahead

2. An editorial calendar adds structure to your creativity

3. You can take a great concept further

4. You can be proactive and capitalize on search trends

Why Stresslimit developed the WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin

Here are some of the things you can do with the plugin

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It Takes a Long Time to Be an Overnight Success

Success is Great, Failing is Good

The Difference Between Successful Blogs and Obscurity

Content Follows Purpose

Turn Your Blog Around With These 10 Quick Tips

Summary

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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

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Fear

Building Relationships

Get Good at Pulling on the Heart Strings

5 Whys

Story

Heart

Value

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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Transcription of “The Five C’s of Blogging: Reflections on Eight Years of Blogging”

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Monday, October 4, 2010

Strategy #1: Solve one problem per post

Strategy #2: Speak your clients’ language

Strategy #3: Tell your readers what to do next (and make it easy)

Strategy #4: Stop writing about yourself (or stop blogging)

And one more thing …

Wondering how your blog stacks up?

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1. Capturing information that’s only necessary for the sale

2. Including direct order links from your emails or blog posts

3. Recalling the information you know about the customer

4. Minimizing cross-sell and up-sell messages

5. Avoiding bouncing customers to unknown third parties

6. Making your process usable, accessible, and cross-browser compatible

7. Using smart and intuitive data validation

8. Doing what the big guys do

9. Tracking checkout drop-offs

10. Asking people why they’re leaving

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