Blogging has opened the doors for millions of people to start writing about what they are passionate about, while meeting others with the same interests. One of my good friends Neil Patel has a side passion of his own, and it’s playing poker. Like everyone else, Neil wasn’t a master at Poker in the beginning and had actually lost over $13,000 in the process of learning how to be a great player. With all that said, it was definitely time for Neil to create a blog about his passion, and how to help others learn how to play poker without having to lose thousands of dollars.
You can visit Neil’s blog at OnlinePokerLowDown.com, which offers it’s readers a free download on how to win heads up poker, along with many articles covering everything from the basics of playing poker, to what hands you should always go in on and when to fold’em. Neil also created a free guide which goes through his story on how he lost over $13,000 playing poker and gives you the tips and advice Neil wishes he had when he first started.
The bottom line is, Niel has taken a niche that he has a huge interest in, while still being very knowledgeable and making a real blog and business out of it. Take a good look at how Niel has built his poker blog, consistently adds very targeted content and builds his following over the next several months, as I’m sure it will quickly rank as one of the top poker resources around. Find what your passion is and try to replicate the process.
In October I was involved in a Keynote at BlogWorld Expo, where I told the story in this video of my son who reminded me of a powerful principle of successful blogging.
So many people have since told me how much they enjoyed and were impacted by the story that I thought I should capture it on video and share it here on the blog.
I hope you enjoy the wisdom of my four-year-old son.
Transcription of “Tell the World Something Important”
About three months ago now, I was sitting here at my desk, typing away, blogging, and it was in the afternoon—about three-thirty, four o’clock.
Now, in my house around three-thirty, four o’clock, things get a little bit crazy. I have a four-and-a-half-year-old boy and a two-and-half-year-old boy. And in the afternoon, after sleeps and after a long day, they can get a little bit silly. So around this time of the day I would normally hear, you know, a bit of shouting, a bit of screaming. And sometimes I’d hear the footsteps racing down the hall towards my roo,m and I’d see the door burst open and all manner of strife would happen in my offices. Cords get pulled out and my kids demand that I make videos of them, and all kinds of stuff and it’s kind of a fun but also a bit of a crazy time of the afternoon.
On this particular day, things happened a little bit differently, though. I did hear some footsteps walking down the hall towards my room but there was no accompanying shouting or shrieking or laughter or giggling. It was just these quiet little footsteps padding down the hallway.
And then I heard the door handle creak and the door slowly open. And out of the corner of my eye I saw my four-year-old son Xavier standing at the door. I didn’t look around: I wanted to see what he would do. He very quietly and gently got down onto his knees and then he got down on his tummy and he began to commando-crawl into my room.
Now Xavier has this perception that if he can’t see you, you can’t see him. And so he had his head buried down low so that he couldn’t see me and he began to crawl into the room. And he crawled up my right hand side and then he crawled in front of my desk in plain sight for me, but he thought he wouldn’t be seen. Then he crawled down on my either side and then he stood up very quietly and gingerly behind me.
Again, I could kind of see him out of the corner of my eye and I could feel his presence there at my left shoulder, and he just stood there for 30 or 40 seconds as I continued to type. I was trying to finish a blog post before whatever happened was going to happen.
And as I was sitting there writing, he just watched. And after a moment or two I felt him lean into me, and I felt him begin to breathe on my neck and on my ear. And as he leaned in he just whispered in my ear “Daddy, what are you doing?”, and then he leaned back again.
Now I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to describe blogging to a four-year-old. It’s not something that I really know how to do, so I just said “I’m writing a message to the world.” And he seemed to accept that.
Again there was silence for a moment or two and again he leaned in close to me and he said “Daddy, make sure you tell the world something important.”
And then he leaned back and he got back down on his knees again and he commando-crawled back in front of me and out the door and shut the door behind him.
And it was kind of a bizarre little moment. For one, I wasn’t quite sure why he wasn’t in his normal hyper mood, but as I began to think about what he’d actually said to me, it kind of, it was a moment that I found actually quite challenging as I began to think about the type of blogs that I was writing and the information that I was putting out there.
I’ve been blogging now for eight years, and I’ve always wanted to tell the world something important. I’ve always had a motivation of trying to help people. But as someone who makes a living from it also, there are these other motivations. You want to make money out of it. You want to build some credibility and you want to build your profile. And so all these other motivations creep into it.
And so for me, that little moment where he whispered, “Tell the world something important”—for me it was kind of a challenging moment as I began to think “Yeah, that’s so true”.
That was the reason that I got into blogging in the first place but it’s also the secret to any success that I think I … success that I have had. The times where I’ve actually told the world something important rather than something that I think might be profitable, they’re the times where things begin to take off for me. The times where you’re actually are solving people’s problems, when you’re actually doing and saying things that matter. They’re the times that people seem to respond the most, and they’re the times where the profits actually do come down the track—for me, in my experience, at least.
And so I guess my message to you as I tell the world a message today is to keep that in the back of your mind. For one, it’s much more satisfying to be a blogger who’s actually saying something important, who’s making a difference. But two, a successful blog is actually built on that. If you’re actually doing something that matters to people, if you’re doing something that’s real and that is actually impacting people’s lives in some way, you’re much more likely to build a blog that people are going to take notice of, and that people will trust, and that people will keep coming back to.
So from the mouths of babes, from the mouth of my little guy Xavier who’s coming up to four and a half now, I’d encourage you to keep that in your focus. Tell the world something important.
Here at Marketing Pilgrim we have carved out a very specific niche in the Internet marketing blog space. We are not here to break stories. Why? Because that takes a different skill set than we have and, honestly, it’s a lot of work. Instead we help our readers see some of what we consider to be top stories that are of interest and we put our spin on it. Some things you like some you don’t and that’s what makes it fun.
In other parts of the blogging world there is a lot of discord these days. On once such stage the main players are AOL, TechCrunch, Engadget and The Business Insider. The first three are part of a blended family whose parent (AOL) brought together two warring tech blog giants in TechCrunch and Engadget. They live under the same roof like the Brady Bunch did but rather than goofy family hijinks that end up in a group hug, these two ½ siblings co-exist with each other with an undercurrent of vitriol and loathing that is usually reserved for extremists in the political sphere. The leader of TechCrunch is Michael Arrington, who is well known for controversy in the tech world, and the Engadget crowd is led by Editor-in-chief, Joshua Topolsky.
Enter The Business Insider. The Business Insider is hugely successful and covers all things business. The site’s founder, Henry Blodget, was barred from the securities industry following a conviction of securities fraud. As evidenced by a post yesterday on its Silicon Alley Insider blog it is not afraid of stirring a rather volatile pot over at the AOL offices.
When AOL bought TechCrunch last September, the first question on everyone’s lips was, “How long could Mike Arrington possibly last as an AOL employee?”
Yesterday, four months after the deal, we may have begun to learn the answer to that question.
On Tuesday evening, for no apparent reason, Arrington threw public punches at AOL’s crown-jewel technology blog, Engadget, and Engadget’s editor, Joshua Topolsky.
Specifically, Arrington called Engadget “a plasticized caricature of a real blog” and blasted it for buying traffic through Google Adwords (which Engadget actually hadn’t even done).
Then, today in a tweet, Arrington appeared to call AOL itself “pathetic.”
The tweet heard round the tech blogging world read as follows according to the Business Insider.
The tweet in which Mike Arrington appeared to call AOL “pathetic” came at 2:14 eastern time this afternoon:
My guess is AOL rolls over on this whole salescrunch bullshit. Back in the day, though, I wouldn’t have. pathetic.
Couple that opening salvo with a picture of Arrington flipping the bird as the centerpiece of the post and you can pretty much figure out where this is headed.
Well, it looks like it’s ‘go time’ for these tech blogging monsters and it’s shaping up to be quite a fight. The post itself is looking at Arrington’s motives (could he be maneuvering for an earlier release and payout than the 3 year earnout he signed with with AOL las year?). The resulting comments section of the blog plays out like a late celebration of Festivus and its ‘airing of grievances’. Arrington, Blodget and Topolsky all have something to say to and about each other.
Arrington claims that his use of the term pathetic was directed at salescrunch (which TechCrunch is unhappy with obvious naming issues) and not AOL. The beauty and tragedy of the English language, especially in the online age, is that things are read and interpreted differently by different people. In this case, one man’s descriptor pointed in one direction could also look like it was pointed in the other. We’ll let you decide which is which in this case.
What happens in the comment section though is REALLY interesting as the main players go public with their fight. It’s kinda like a bar brawl that spills out into the street. Since it went so public more people have joined in and are willing to take a few swings. If you want the gory details you should check it out for yourself because there is more than we can cover here.
So back to my original question. Is this genuine dysfunction or just theater that is designed to get attention and traffic? Is it even anything at all other than political maneuvering to get a desired result?
In the online space we have to determine how we are to go about attracting people and getting them interested in our brand whether it’s personal or corporate. We always talk about how content is the most important thing but a harsh lesson learned in ‘solid’ content marketing strategy and delivery is that there is considerable time and effort needed over a very long period of time to see that content have a real impact.
Controversy and general ‘bad boy’ behaviors get attention in the online space and lots of it (The online industry would be a great venue for a very weird reality show that would have everyone scratching their heads about what goes on). Most brand marketers, however, don’t have the luxury of controversy creating interest because brands don’t like controversy or surprises. Oh and it can get you arrested!
So should we care at all about the behaviors of the Internet industry glitterati? Should there be any more attention like the Business Insider’s post and posts like this to examine it or is this just a spectacular waste of regular people’s time? Can we at least see how this space can be worked then apply it to our businesses?
It’s likely I have given this too much attention as it is but it’s a question that Internet marketers are faced with every day. Where should I be putting my attention and what is it that will grab the attention of my target audience? Am I willing to be controversial even if I can’t map out all of the possible ways such controversy can work for the good and the bad?
And what about the online behavior of very prominent industry heavyweights like Arrington, Blodget and Topolsky? Is this how we are to conduct ourselves in the Internet age by taking the fight to the general public? Is this a positive outgrowth of our ‘know everything about everyone’ age or is this just the latest indicator that there are plenty of things that don’t need to be done or said in public?
Have you ever thought about what it actually takes to become a successful blogger? Well, there are certainly a lot of successes out there and we can all learn from the best of the best. So I got to thinking about what it actually takes to run a successful blog and here is a list that I came up with.
1. Loves to write
You must admit that in order to blog successfully then loving to write must be #1. You really shouldn’t be blogging if writing to you is a chore. Your own writing style is what endears you to your readers.
2. Knows his grammar
Maybe you didn’t expect to see this one on the list but it is very difficult for me to read anyone’s blog who isn’t very particular about proper grammar. A case in point is Daniel Scocco, the owner of this extremely successful blog. If you didn’t know, he also runs a blog called DailyWritingTips. It is my guess that Daniel also feels that writing properly is very important to a successful blogger.
3. Hard Worker
If you’ve run a blog for a while, as I have, you certainly know that you must work hard. If you don’t, then it will show in your writing and your blog will not be well read. You can’t fool people and put your blog on auto-pilot. If you do then you will lose readership.
4. Entrepreneurial
After a while you will want to make some money from the online presence and brand that you have established with your blog. A lot of people get into blogging for this sole reason. Whatever your situation entails, chances are you want to supplement your income. I plead guilty to this as well. It’s hard to be in the blogging world and hear about how others are making money online and not want to have a piece of the pie.
5. Creative
You can make a blog anything you want it to be. You have the choice of a myriad of themes and plugins that you can tweak to make your blog site unique. This is what makes the world of blogging great. No blog is the same and it’s simply up to the creativity of the blogger to make it that way.
6. Life Lover
This is one of the most positive aspects of the blogging world. Have you run across a blogger who doesn’t love life? This is why I added this attribute to my list. And since I started my blog I have come across the most engaging, pleasant, and helpful people I have ever met.
7. Personal Developer
Personal Development is a huge niche when it comes to the blogging world. Well, I’m here to say that all bloggers want to develop personally. We all have this in common. Without this trait would we really be doing what we are doing? I don’t think so. I try to learn and grow as a person every day but I don’t think I’m unique.
8. Communicator
This one is no big surprise is it? A blog is basically a means by which we can communicate with our readers. Communication is not only good for the blogger but also hopefully for the reader. A successful blogger wants to connect the audience. Replying to comments is very important and that is why I respond to every comment on my blog.
9. Helps Others
This was one attribute that blew me away. When I started blogging I emailed some fairly high profile blog owners and they actually responded to my email. I wanted an opinion on the design of my blog and I also asked to interview them for my blog. They helped me out and it got me off on a very positive note when it came to blogging. It showed me how compassionate and helpful even high profile bloggers can be.
10. Efficient
We all have a certain amount of time in our lives. And unless you are blogging full-time, you are trying to squeeze in the time to create new blog posts or to guest post on other blogs. Successful bloggers are very efficient with their time because they know that their time is limited. A successful blogger will work in high quality guest posts at certain times which allow them to maintain content but not at the expense of publishing subpar posts.
I think that this is a pretty comprehensive list of the top attributes of a successful blogger. Please feel free to share any more traits or characteristics that you think I left out.
About the Author: Bob Bessette writes a blog called TotallyUniqueLife which is geared toward practical solutions, tips, and advice for your life.
Have you ever thought about what it takes to build your blog above the norm and make it the envy of everybody? What it takes is being a remarkable blogger.
There are many debates in the blogosphere; some agree that content is king while others believe marketing is king. But the truth is that neither content nor marketing is king but the blogger himself. The blogger has to put the right balance between content and marketing which brings the need for being remarkable.
Be Unique and Personal
It is no doubt that John Chow and Darren Rowse are highly successful bloggers and their results are enviable but the truth is, trying to be John Chow or Darren Rowse won’t take you anywhere. Things would even be worse because a lot of people are already reading John Chow’s blog and your content will look boring to them should they come across your blog.
You are yourself and you won’t go far trying to be someone else. While there is nothing bad in looking up to a particular successful blogger and trying to be as successful as he is there is no point in copying everything that particular blogger is doing. The world already has one Darren Rowse and they don’t need another one but the world is yet to have YOU and they need YOU so try to be the master of your own ship. Let your unique traits and personality come through anything you do on your blog and it will be easier for you to achieve success.
Another thing worth noting is that there are countless regurgitated content on the web so make sure your blog posts are as unique as possible. Even though it is almost impossible to come up with a totally unique post you can give what has been said several times a new and unique spin and people will be happy to read it.
Be a Product of What You Teach
Just take a look at the blogosphere and you will notice that this is very common among bloggers. A lot of people are teaching you what they have no experience doing; someone who’s never made money online is teaching you how to make thousands of dollars online and someone who finds it difficult to get traffic is writing an ultimate guide on getting traffic to a blog. Things like this won’t take you far and people will easily see through you if all you do is preach what you aren’t.
You don’t necessarily need to start a blog in the make money online or blogging tips niche because those are not the only niches you can succeed in as a blogger but try to start a blog on what you are passionate and highly successful at. For example, if you are very good at football but you’ve never made any money online you will find it easier to be successful at blogging about football than blogging about making money online.
To many, the world of blogging for income seems like a fantasy world. Internet marketing “gurus” are a dime a dozen and it seems like everywhere you look online, there’s a website claiming they can teach you the secrets to creating financial freedom. It all look so easy…but it’s not. Not even close!
The profession of blogging is often misunderstood and gets far less credit that it deserves. People assume that all we do is sit at home in our underwear, surf the Internet, and write an article now and then.
Now, this may be true for recreational bloggers, but for those who are trying to earn a living from it, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Blogging is a process, a very long process, and if you don’t agree then you are obviously NOT a blogger.
On the surface, blogging may seem like a laid back, easy way to make some money online. In actuality, it’s ultra competitive, especially in the Internet marketing space, requires a massive time commitment, and for most bloggers, offers little or no monetary reward.
The upside is that you get to write about what you love (hopefully), work from anywhere you want, build a huge social network, and have the possibility of earning more in a month that you ever did in a year at your day job.
The Internet Lifestyle
The lure of the “Internet lifestyle” brings millions of new bloggers out of the woodwork and into the blogosphere every month. Getting paid to write about something you love while sitting on a white sandy beach is what most new bloggers probably envision their life will be like.
Unfortunately, that rarely happens, and if it does, then consider yourself blessed. Blogging is a grind and while there is nothing wrong with having to spend countless hours working on building your blog, it’s still a long, often tedious process.
One problem is that people get so wrapped up in the idea of being a superstar blogger and living the good life that they miss the bigger picture. And that’s creating a valuable resource for their readers, writing entertaining and/or educational content, and properly marketing their blog.
Statistically, very few bloggers will earn more than $500 from their blogs and the main reasons are
They don’t treat it like a business
They write infrequent and/or random posts
They have no idea who their target audience is
They have no clue how to effectively market their services
They have no strategy for their business
These things all need to be considered before you even think about trying to build a business from your blog. Fail to understand any one of these and you may find yourself in a place that you don’t want to be. And that place is frustration.
Blogging For Income Isn’t Easy
The path to success for a blogger is not a straight line. What works great for one person may not work at all for another. There are many different ways you can achieve online success, and even more ways you can achieve failure.
When a new blogger starts out, everything seems great. We have a seemingly infinite number of ideas, are writing tons of great content, are getting involved with multiple social networks, are creating a buzz for our blogs, but it eventually wears off.
This is when frustration rears its ugly head. When you have just thrown your absolute best out into the blogosphere and you see very little being returned, it’s disheartening. This is why it’s vital that you have a strategy for your blog. Just trying to figure out your business plan or marketing strategy as you go does not work!
It’s very important to figure out exactly how you plan to earn income from your blog before you try to do it. If you don’t, you may end up being one of the blogging casualties we hear about all the time. These are the people who have a great blog, are doing exciting things, and then one day they are gone. They forgot one important thing-planning.
When we eventually realize that making money online is not easy, it can be a shock. Many bloggers think that building a list, putting a few Google AdSense ads up, and adding affiliate links to their site will make them a bunch of money.
While these are all techniques that actually do work, they do not work for those without a clear plan.
So before you decide that you are going to be the next Darren Rowse or Brian Clark, do some research first. Make sure you fully understand everything that goes into blogging for a full-time income before you set off to do it.
Otherwise, you may end up like millions of other “wannabe” pro bloggers, disappointed and broke.
About the Author: Steve Roy is the owner of EndingTheGrind.com, a blog dedicated to helping people get out of their miserable jobs, build an online business, and live with passion!
Think back five to ten years ago… if you wanted to play some poker you had two options; call over a few friends, or head over to your nearest casino. Now, through the power of the internet, you can play poker and win/lose money from the comfort of your own home! Poker is now bigger than ever and everyone wants to get in on the action!
My good friend Neil Patel is about to take the online poker world by storm with his new blog, Online Poker Lowdown, where he covers everything from learning how to play poker, to mastering the arts of bluffing, and teaching others how to master the game without having to lose their wallets.
Being a close friend of Neil for many years now, I already know that everything he touches turns to gold, so I’m very excited to see what Neil has in store for his readers at OnlinePokerLowDown.com.
Are You the Next Poker Rockstar in the Making?
Just like building a business, learning how to win at poker takes a lot of time and effort. That is why Neil created Online Poker LowDown, to help you learn the game and become a poker pro! Whether you’ve won or lost thousands of dollars playing poker, or just play for fun, you need to download Neil’s free guide to learning how to play poker like a rockstar.
The best way to get good at poker is by playing it, alot!… but Neil sums it up best in the following…
At first I tried to read as much information online about poker, but I couldn’t find one good website that could help you go from not knowing anything about poker to becoming an expert.
After a while I just gave in and decided that I would get good at it by playing in countless tournaments and games. And I have to say it worked really well. The problem was I lost over $13,000 before I started to get good at the game.
For that reason, I decided to start Online Poker Lowdown. And as I mentioned earlier, although I can’t guarantee that you’ll win the next WSOP, if you decide to join the Online Poker Lowdown community I can promise you 3 things:
1. You’ll become a poker rockstar – if you are willing to put the time and effort into getting good at poker, I promise that I’ll do everything in my power to make you a poker rockstar. From teaching you about the basics to helping you with advanced poker strategy.
2. I’ll save you money – I can’t guarantee that you won’t lose money, but I’ll help you avoid the dumb mistakes I made so you won’t have to spend $13,000 to get good at poker.
3. I’ll never brag – a lot of people like talking about how much money they make playing poker. You’ll never have to worry about that with me because it does no good for me to brag. Just think of it this way, if I told you how I made thousands dollars playing poker will it help you make thousands of dollars? No! So there is no point in me bragging.
Don’t have $13,000 to blow on playing poker? Download Neil’s free guide “How to Win Heads Up” and subscribe to his RSS blog feed for all future posts and poker updates. Let me know what you think!
Blogging has opened the doors for millions of people to start writing about what they are passionate about, while meeting others with the same interests. One of my good friends Neil Patel has a side passion of his own, and it’s playing poker. Like everyone else, Neil wasn’t a master at Poker in the beginning and had actually lost over $13,000 in the process of learning how to be a great player. With all that said, it was definitely time for Neil to create a blog about his passion, and how to help others learn how to play poker without having to lose thousands of dollars.
Think back five to ten years ago… if you wanted to play some poker you had two options; call over a few friends, or head over to your nearest casino. Now, through the power of the internet, you can play poker and win/lose money from the comfort of your own home! Poker is now bigger than ever and everyone wants to get in on the action!
At first I tried to read as much information online about poker, but I couldn’t find one good website that could help you go from not knowing anything about poker to becoming an expert.
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