Wednesday, October 20, 2010

BlogWorld Expo 2010 – Done and Gone, Still Reeling from the Feeling

Having some Fruit Loops with Human Cereal Bowl Ted Murphy at BlogWorld Expo 2010

I just got home yesterday morning 5:45am and then did my full time job before I even got a chance to get home and visit the family. I’m running all my travel plans by my wife in the future so I don’t go and do a red eye before a day of work ever again. I was destroyed that day. But why? Because of BlogWorld & New Media Expo. It kicked my butt up and down the Vegas strip. But in a good way.

I’ve attended every BlogWorld convention that has been held. Each one elevates the attendee experience to great levels of awesome. This year started off with a fantastic keynote by Scott Stratten. I was pumped from that moment on and never stopped running from session to session throughout the weekend. I was even running around like crazy up to the moment that I got to my own session called Content You Care About. Here is the presentation with the links to all of the resources that I talked about in my session.

If you ‘d rather download that you can do so by downloading my session as an ebook. Through this session and speaking again at a conference I learned a few cool things.

1. Always have your presentation on a spare flash drive in case it is not pre-loaded on the laptop as it was supposed to be.

2. Google Presentations is decent for making presentations, ebooks and slideshows. Very simple interface. It can also save your session as a powerpoint set.

3. Practice your session, things will go smoother if you do.

4. Smile when you present, you are there to have a great time and give people great information on things that you enjoy so smile about that.

5. Attend as much as you can, push yourself. I totally spaced on a few sessions where I should have attended.

6. Participate in PhotoWalks, if there isn’t one already then organize one because it is a great way to meet more people and also to get into photos yourself.

7. The greatest thing is being there. Get to an industry event, they are a must. Make sure you get photographed while there too.

TechKaraoke at The Pearl with Murray Newlands!

Me with Murray Newlands

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Does Sex Matter When Scoring Online?

image of man and woman arm wrestling

During one of our recent Third Tribe Q & A sessions, Chris Brogan made a comment about sex that really got my attention.

I should probably clarify that I don’t mean sex as in “Are you getting any?”

I mean sex as in male vs. female, and how that influences our behavior, our thinking, and the potential of our blogs.

Assuming we all have equal opportunity from the start, is one sex more likely to succeed in blogging than the other?

Do men have a natural advantage over women — or women over men?

In other words, does sex matter?

Chris was responding to a woman about to launch a service business but hesitant to do so because she had no formal “qualifications.” Personal experience, yes. The ability to help her clients, yes. But not the kind of “qualifications” worthy of quotation marks.

This was Chris’s response, in a nutshell:

There’s a really fascinating gender thing where women worry that they’re not qualified. And men [on the other hand] always just blatantly rush in and say ‘yeah sure I could do that’ — even if they have no real related skill. If they think they have a sense of the skill, they’ll do it.

The reason Chris’s answer about sex got my attention is that I recently wrote an ebook on reinventing yourself.

I had no reservations whatsoever about writing as an authority on the subject — even though I do not have a psychology degree or any similarly validating credentials. I have successfully reinvented myself on several occasions, so I assumed my real life results would be experience enough.

Apparently the fact that I had no reservations about publishing the book despite my lack of third-party validation makes me more like a man than a woman.

I just double-checked … I am definitely a woman

It’s not the first time I’ve heard something like “you’re more like a dude than a girl.” Most of the people who have said this to me are men, so I’m going to assume it was meant as a compliment.

The point is there is a difference in male and female characteristics. Some traits are much more likely to be found in women, and some in men.

Which brings me back to my original question:

When it comes to blogging and the potential for success, does sex matter?

I’m going to say yes.

And no.

Girls will be boys and boys will be girls

According to Annabel Candy, one of the 8 habits of highly effective bloggers is being analytical, typically thought of as a “male” trait.
Sonia Simone says one of the ways to make more sales online is problem-solving, also often described as a male trait.

Interesting that both these articles highlighting male traits are written by women. On the other hand …

Brian Clark writes that being a good listener will lead to “supernatural success.” I’m going to put “listening” in the feminine column.
Jon Morrow teaches you need to make friends. Women are good at that.
And Chris Garrett promotes longterm relationships and empathy. I’m not even gonna touch that.

Study the smartest advice coming from both sexes and you’ll see that both “masculine” and “feminine” traits are vital to your success as a blogger, writer, marketer, and businessperson.

Obviously, you don’t need to change any of your plumbing. And you don’t need a personality transplant.

When I met them recently at Blogworld, I noticed that Sonia can be an assertive, analytical businesswoman and still wear pink shoes. And despite his tendency to listen more than he talks, Brian strikes me as a logical, problem-solving guy who doesn’t second-guess his own authority.

Success doesn’t belong to one sex

The bottom line is this: Sure, sex matters.

It matters in the sense that, generally speaking, some skills tend to come more naturally to men and others tend come more naturally to women.

The best of the best seem to suggest that success as a blogger doesn’t depend on your sex. (Good thing, because that’s pretty complicated to change.) It depends on your ability to cross over and develop a balanced skill set — one that includes both the typical masculine strengths and feminine sensibilities.

You just need to be willing to learn from the other team.

Which makes me feel a whole lot better about being a “girl who’s more like a dude.”

And saves me tons of money on therapy.

How to Create a Memorable Business Card

After you leave a conference or meet with anyone that might lead to future business, your business card is the gateway for future contact and how you will be remembered. It’s important to have an exciting, professional and creative business card. The majority of business cards that are collected after a conference are thrown into a box and never looked at again. However, if you make a killer business card, you and your business are that much more likely to be remembered. Here are a few ideas and notes to remember for your next business card design.

1.) Use Your Real Picture or Memorable Logo
Personally, I have the big Zac Johnson cartoon guy on all of my business cards. It’s actually become quite a recognizable logo/symbol over the years. For anyone that doesn’t have a memorable mascot or logo, I would highly recommend adding your picture to your business card. I know when I come back from a conference and look over my business cards, I will see a few and remember the name, but not the face to go with it. Having your face on your business card makes it impossible for anyone to forget who you are!

2.) Add Social Networking Links
No longer is it about adding your full company mailing address, but instead what your social networking links and tags are. It’s becoming a must to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn urls. My favorite method of online contact is through AIM and EMAIL, so don’t forget those as well.

3.) What’s On Your Back?
Having a solid white background on your business card is just plain and lazy. Why pass up on the opportunity to grab even more attention and creativity to your business. Over the years I’ve used the back of my business cards to show different site properties that I own. I’ve also seen other business cards have calendars, fun designs, funny athlete stats and note pad lines. Add anything you like, and don’t be scared to get creative… do something original and get even more attention for yourself and your brand.

4.) Size Matters
When you are collecting business cards at a conference, you may find that your little stack of business cards aren’t stacking so perfectly. This is because people are getting more creative with their business cards and making them in a wide variation of sizes. Sure, it’s plenty annoying when you are trying to stack all of your collected cards, but they definitely stand out from the rest and grab your attention.

5.) Paper, Plastic… Metal!
You can simple, creative or very plan with your card design, but one of the best ways to get noticed is to have high quality business cards made out of metal or plastic. These cards can run a few dollars each, but will leave a lasting impression that will make others want to show your cards to their friends. If cost is an issue for you, only hand out these premium type of cards to your best potential contacts, and hand out your regular cards to everyone else.

Whether you are designing your next business cards, brochures, company flyers or anything, make sure that you take the time to make your work stand out and be more than just another business card tossed into a box after an event.

Feel free to share your business card design in the comments section, or talk about some of the coolest business card designs you’ve received over the years.

Monday, October 18, 2010

There’s No Room for Spin On Good Content

I just finished reading an article by Aaron Schoenberger that makes a convincing case against article spinning. I couldn’t agree with him more that spinning articles is what’s been called the ‘easier softer way’ in other arenas and there are several reasons why you can’t replace spun articles with original fresh content. Following is a list of just a few of them.

Spinning old articles is a cheap way out and sooner or later your readers will catch on and lose respect. If you’re just going for seo mileage, then you might be able to get away with it for awhile but remember the old argument that seo is only part of what you need for a complete package. Try as people might by replacing and alternating words in the text, there’s no real way to replace the kind of new ideas that appeal to readers and prospective clients alike. Article spinning gets by copyscape but the same ideas are still reused.
Mistakes happen. Remember that no one wants to get penalized for duplicate or plagiarized content even if it’s an honest mistake. When you consider all the energy it takes to write fresh content and then compare it to the amount needed for spinning and the care needed to do that correctly, the best way is clearly writing the fresh stuff. Of course, there are those who don’t have time for either so the ROI that comes with hiring a good content writer (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) is well worth it.

A further article I just finished reading by Peggy Tee brings up another interesting point. Namely, good writers are hard to find. She writes many writing services rely on fast turnaround and that leads to low quality. You need to be especially wary of writing services that use templates. You want nothing to do with those as originality isn’t about tweaking the information on a template to suit your business. Individual content writers with their own websites are the ones that can put a little personal touch into what they do so you get the best results.

In one big way, using an article spinning service falls under the same category as using a writing service in that you’ve detached yourself from the personal touch a content writer can provide.

It’s important to remember when you’re looking for any kind of web content that you don’t rush into things and buy something as a quick fix for your seo needs. Getting an individual content writer is the way to go because you’ll be able to discuss the terms and even the tone and content on a personal level. When you find one of these writers who also knows a little bit about seo and what kind of Internet marketing campaign will get you the best results for your content, you’ll be affording your readers a pleasurable and informative experience when they read the content that’s been designed specifically for your business, and getting the seo boost you need.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Blog Monetization Tips at Blog World

We just finished our 60 Question in 60 Minutes Blog Monetization Panel at Blog World. It was a really fun and great panel… and not to toot my own horn, but it was definitely the best session at BlogWorld because we focused all of our efforts at the audience, and had so much audience participation. Go into any other session and you will get a few questions if you are lucky, our session had a ton of user submitted questions, which the panel then answered. I don’t think we ended up getting anywhere near 60 questions answered, but it was a great session full of quality content.

The Blog Monetization panel was made up of John Chow, Ryan Gray, Jonathan Volk, DK and myself. We covered a wide variety of questions such as how to find advertisers for a blog, how much a blog should make vs. the amount of traffic it has, how to monetize non-US traffic and outside methods for revenue generation besides on site advertising and through ebooks, to name a few.

This session was excellent not only because of the awesome collection of speakers we had on the panel, but also because of how the audience always reminds us that it’s never too late to start blogging or start a new business online. How many attendees at BlogWorld this year will have just started their blog or business, and come back next year with a killer success story, or the results they were only dreaming of. The best way to reach these goals is to get out their, put your thoughts into action and network with some of the best people in the game.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Autoresponders on ‘Roids

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!

Darren has written a lot about how he has evolved his autoresponder sequences on his blogs. But I want to take this a step further and describe how you can turn a good auto responder into a great one.

Step 1: Segment your subscribers when they give you their email addresses

When you ask users to give you their email addresses, you should keep the process as frictionless as possible. If you can, just ask for the address itself. If you really need to, ask for their name so you can personalize messages—but that’s it.

Given you’ve only got one piece of information, how can you segment your audience?

Segment A: Existing Customer: match the email address to your list of orders and see if the person is an existing customer or not.
Segment B: Blog Commenter: if you’re requesting people include their email addresses when they post comments, match against that to determine how connected they are to your blog.
Segment C: Community Member: if your blog includes a forum, chances are you’ll have a record of user email addresses from your forum signup process. Use this to determine if they’re already part of your community.
Segment D: New Subscriber: this is the bucket for anyone who doesn’t fit into the above segments. These are fresh faces to your blog.

Step 2: Tailor an autoresponder for each segment

You’ll probably follow a similar process to the one Darren created here. However, you should create a sequence that’s specific for each segment. For example, you might welcome a new subscriber by sharing with them some of your most popular posts first. Then, you might send them a copy of your latest newsletter. Finally, you might send them an offer on one of your products. Alternatively, you might simply send an existing customer the content they gave you their email for, as they’re already in your sales cross-sell and up-sell cycle.

As a starting point, try to put yourself in the segment’s shoes, and create a process you’d like to see if you were them.

Step 3: Test and refine each segment’s autoresponder

This is where it gets a little harder and, sometimes, a little confusing. It’s time to refine your autoresponder sequence to find that optimal conversion rate for each segment. Some of the considerations you need to take into your testing could include:

Sequence of events: e.g. free ebook –> links to popular blog posts –> latest newsletter –> paid ebook
Email delivery time: during business hours/outside business hours/weekday/weekend
Delay between emails: one month, one week, one day, one hour
Email format: HTML, rich text, or plain text
Email copy: long or short, informational or sales-focused

Warning: when you’re testing, you can easily get out of control creating variations. For example, if you had three different test cases for each of four segments, you’d have 12 tests running simulations. And if they have four emails each, that would be 48 emails you need to write! I’d start with what you think is right, and over time evolve your approach—just like Darren has.

Now unfortunately I’m not sure of any email services offering this level of depth when it comes to allocating people to certain lists based on their customer profiles (if someone knows of one, let me know). So you might need to have something custom-created for you to take an email address, decide what segment the user fits into, and assign that person to the appropriate list. However, a little investment up front can pay huge dividends in ongoing reader-to-customer conversions.

Even if you’re only getting a handful or subscribers each day, putting them through a focused autoresponder program that’s been tailored to them will, without doubt, increase your conversions.

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.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Blog World Paradox: a Blog Action Day Case Study

Today, Darren and thousands of other bloggers are congregating in Las Vegas for Blog World. It’s fitting that Blog Action Day should coincide with the world’s largest blogging conference. Particularly this Blog Action Day, which focuses on water.

When we think about water issues, we don’t need to close our eyes and conjure up the African desert or the Australian outback: we need only think as far as Blog World, Las Vegas.

"Watershow", Las Vegas, by pgl

Las Vegas is a modern, developed city that’s built in a desert. As you might expect, it’s facing serious water problems. Like many communities around the world, Nevada’s currently experiencing a drought, and Las Vegas is struggling to source water from elsewhere in the state to meet the needs of both its rising permanent population and its booming tourism industry.

A tourism industry supported, in large part, by the thousands of conferences held in the city each year. Including Blog World.

Of course, we need a place to hold conferences, and Vegas is built for such events. But it is paradoxical that, while I’m blogging about water issues for Blog Action Day, thousands of bloggers are further stressing a perilously dry city’s water supply in the name of blogging.

It does remind us—whether we’re in Vegas enjoying Blog World or following it from afar—that we all have some responsibility for water availability and quality, and we need to accept that responsibility. These are global issues. They’re not restricted by national borders, coastlines, professions, or socio-economic boundaries.

The impacts of water-preservation efforts are also global. Whatever you can do to preserve water, and preserve water quality, will make a difference far beyond your own backyard. Whatever you can do to raise awareness will also have a valuable impact. Among developed nations, there’s a startling ignorance of water-related issues.

"Las Vegas" by chuckb

When I began researching this post, my search for vegas, nevada + water turned up more results for gross water consumers like water parks, water gardens, and water features than it did water authorities or articles on water issues. Nothing in that first page of results suggested there was any problem with water in Las Vegas—quite the contrary. Without information on the realities of water issues, communities have trouble recognizing the problem, let alone taking action on it.

It’s not just Vegas: there are water scarcity and quality issues in your town, your state, and your country. Perhaps today’s the day to think about what you can do to take action on those issues in your own way. As a blogger in a rural area that’s just experienced a debilitating, decade-long drought, I’m curious: what water issues are you and your local communities currently facing?

Blogging World

Blogger Insight - blogging world

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

BlogWorld Expo 2010 – Done and Gone, Still Reeling from the Feeling

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010