The Idealist’s Guide to Raking in Tons of Cash

I know what you’re thinking. You see the title of this post and you see who wrote it and you just might assume that I’m going to ask everyone to join hands and sing Kumbaya. Again. Maybe you figure that idealism is all well and good for pink-haired bleeding hearts, but it doesn’t pay the bills. Sure, it’s great to donate and volunteer and do pro bono work … later. Right now, you’re trying to make the cashflow work. Right now, you need to take...

125 Tips for Building an Irresistible Brand

There are countless blogs and articles on the web that proclaim the importance of building a unique brand. But how, exactly, do you create a brand that’s irresistible to your audience and positions you as an authority? And how do you do it if you’ve never built one before? In the comments of my last post, The Rockstar Guide to Getting More Traffic, Fame, and Success, many of you said you were having trouble finding your unique style and turning...

Blogging with a Learner’s Mind

“¿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...

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

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...

Why Getting Attention Won’t Make You Rich

Be remarkable. Be the purple cow. Get yourself noticed. Just be your own beautiful and unique snowflake self, and your allotment of raving fans will come find you and buy everything you make. Ever heard that advice? It’s a social media truism that as long as you’re authentic, you can’t go wrong. Fame, fortune, and the latest Apple products will all be yours. Let’s face it — authenticity can be a great way to draw a crowd. Especially if you have...

The Responsible Blogger’s Guide to Dealing with Big Brother

“What should I be doing better with my blog?” That’s one helluva question, isn’t it? As someone who blogs to support a thriving business, I think about that question every day. There are a lot of answers, many of which involve sexy topics like traffic, subscribers, and getting one zillion followers on Twitter. But when’s the last time you sat down and answered the question above with: “I should be paying more attention to blogging ethics.” Not...

Why Your Blog Doesn’t Make Money

Darren Rowse doesn’t make his money from Problogger. Brian Clark doesn’t make his money from Copyblogger. Chris Brogan doesn’t make his money from his blog, either. Neither does Sonia Simone. Not a single founding member of Third Tribe earns the bulk of their income from the blogs that are practically (or in Chris’ case, literally) synonymous with their names. Yes, they make some money directly from those blogs. But revenue directly from the...